See, most days I would totally disagree with this, other days, I'm kinda unsure. I mean, these characters have been through hell and back. There's no way of telling how they would react given a certain set of circumstances. A lot of people complain about how different Rattrap is, but really I think his character flux is the most realistic of anyone's. He really is given the shortest of short straws in Beast Machines, and his resolve and spirit just finally gives out.
Besides, we don't really know how much of an effect the reformatting had on the Maximals, aside from just their physical appearance.

For me, the character development (yes, I'm confident in using this term to describe their changes) is not as black and white as some people interpret it.

I just wish there was a teensy bit more lightness and/or comedy in the show from time to time, as it does get darkly relentless at times what with all the chasing and running and hiding and chasing.

Still, one thing you can say about this series is that it has the most twisted and threatening villains ever in Transformers. Megatron comes to about 30 seconds from realising his plan when Primal delivers him the ultimate irony through self sacrifice. Regardless of your thoughts on a techno-organic Cybertron, you can't deny the impact of the ending.

 

As far as the characterizations go, I used to be one of the ones bitching the loudest when BM first aired. I could rant on for pages about how all the Maximals and everyone from BW were completely destroyed and their personalities were warped beyond all recognition. But the 2nd time rewatching it (after a few years had gone by), I was able to see it all with a more level head.

Optimus Primal- Consider his situation. He just met the TF equivalent of God. And God said let their be balance. While his journey is spiritual, I noticed that his communions with the Oracle weren't nearly as prevalent as everyone had always made them out to be. I counted something like 6 times in the entire show that he talked with the actual Oracle.

Cheetor- Wonderful progression for this guy, and I don't think anyone would argue. The true blue hero of the team.

Rattrap- Everyone always points out "The Weakest Component" as the epitome of Rattrap acting out of character. To an extent I agree, but also consider that he had just been dumped on by all his Maximal friends too. The guy was just sorting things out in his head. His relationship with Botanica came out of left field, but I'm glad that RT was shown as being someone that *could* fall in love and not just the lecherous bot checking out topless robot girls.

Blackarachnia- Right. She was a Predacon badass in BW and now she's a weepy Maximal in BM. First, we never got to see how much the lack of a Predacon shell program really affected her before BW was over. Second, she wasn't really all that weepy. She strove very hard to rescue Silverbolt, and if that's so contrary to her character, then I dare say her detractors have never truly been in love and just wouldn't understand. Also, there were times when she blew off 'bolt and had enough of *HIS* whiny attitude. And on top of all that, I think it's a nice role reversal. In BW Bolt was the one trying to always rescue BA from the Predacons. Now in BM she's doing the same for him.

Rhinox- Simply put, there's no way this guy would ever turn traitor or believe in the ideals of Megatron. His mind and spark were warped by Megatron's reprogramming and this much is explained in the show itself. The real Rhinox doesn't appear until after Tankor dies. Rhinox repents his evil ways in a Matrix vision to Primal before passing on. If it were me doing the writing, then Rhinox would've lived, so that's always bugged me. At the very least, having him rejoin the Maximals would've shown that his actions as Tankor were not his own.

Megatron- Found a sense of honor. For one episode. The rest of the time this guy was just straight up the most evil Megatron in the history of the franchise. More evil than Unicron even. The most awesome, most evil guy ever. And I love him for it!  

Loved all the Vehicons. Iffy about Botanica, but she's alright. Nightscream is still annoying as hell, but he gets beat up a lot. And there you go.

 

If there is a Hastings near you, try them. They were able to order all 3 seasons on BW for em even though it's out of print. They couldn't find BM though.

 

BM is a good series, one to respect for it's dark turn.

The Maximals are mostly all garvage but the Vehicons are the ones worth to buy.

 

I love the Vehicon characters in BM. Obsidian and Tankor are my favorites.

 

Like is ad before numerous times...

Beast Machines is pretty darn epic.


It makes up for pseudo-Looney Tunes Season 3 of Beast Wars and has the same characters in a more mature and darker scenario.

 

Blackarachnia lost her Predacon programing when she went Transmetal 2.

Yes and no. They were reformatted into Cybertron, which is how the Cybertronians came back.

There's really not much I dislike about BM, and what there is is just technical or semantics. Except Nightscream. I hate him so much. I also didn't care for Techno-organic Cybertron. Not the concept, the concept is great, but due to CGI limits and budget it was really just a retextured regular Cybertron. When I think techno-organic I think something closer to how Cybertron was reformatted in the Cybertron cartoon. Also, while most of the designs are fucking excellent, some are forgettable, like Nightscream. (again)

The characters were not destroyed from Beast Wars. Rattrap is the same character, but without the bravado dude to lack of weapons, even odds or traditional robot mode. The shit he went through made me wonder if the Oracle was just cruel, or if it was just a fluke.

 

I don't know if there's a Hastings near me, but I do know that I can find Beast Wars and Beast Machines on Amazon.

Of course, with Shout! Factory re-releasing the Beast Wars series onto DVD, I'm going to get that. For Beast Machines, if that series doesn't get re-released soon, then I'll buy it off of Amazon.

 

I thought it was great. And MAN, was it dark. Megatron was definitely a force to be reckoned with - both physically and psychologically powerful.

Looking back, I kinda wish their designs resembled their Beast Wars designs a little more (though Blackarachnia's multiple pairs of eyes was pretty bad ass). And Rhinox becoming Tankor (what a tweest!) is a pretty big shocker, be it good or bad. You could say his Spark was corrupted, or Rhinox really did fall victim to Megatron's psychological power (I think it sorta leans towards the former because his last line in the series is along the lines of accepting his fate within the Matrix).

 

Ahh that I can accept.

 

Vehicons are great. Incoming murky group shot

 

I simply love Vehicons!




The series was awesome too. My wife and my son were also shocked at first, but then as the plot began to develop they became fans.

 

My opinion on Beast Machines goes like this: Good concept, bad execution. I hated the changes made to most of the characters. They were just too different from what we saw in Beast Wars. Rattrap is a sniveling coward, bullshit; Primal a zealot, not happening; Cheetor, awesome, but I missed his calling Primal bigbot; Black Arachnia, also great, but too whiny about Silverbolt; Rhinox, don't even get me started; Silverbolt, awesome as both Jetstorm and his dark self; Thrust/Waspinator, utterly great; Megatron, awesome, but what the hell? He never hated his beast-form.

I also hated both Primal and Rattrap's new forms. No legs for RT, come on.

The Maximal toys sucked except Stealth Cheetor and BA, although the Vehicon toys I still mostly love to this day (Ultra Jetstorm aside, it sucked).

 

Bravo!

One of the best critiques of Beast machines I have actually read. You nailed a lot of stuff there.  

What a lot of people need to remember is that the writing wasn't meant to necessarily take the directions that people wanted. The audience is made to make the hard decisions and the charcaters are basically dealing with exceptional circumstances in a world of utter pain and misery for 99% of the time.

 

Thanks. Beast era is kind of my specialty.  

 

Over the years I've been meaning to give BM a nice fair go, but those are pretty much the reasons why I could never really give it a fair chance, especially as I grew up on Beast Wars.

 

BM has some great ideas, and some very bad ideas. Lots of the latter include the word organic.

 

+ "I am transformed"

 

the other thing where BM is concerned is the writers were told to take it in a direction that reflected LESS continuity so people who hadn't seen BW could just jump right in.however this just hurt the series right from the get-go because they rapidly decided to include more referential material to both G1 and BW