Terribly disappointed of Beast Machines

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I personally never liked Beast Machines much at all. I found it watchable and good for some mild entertainment when nothing else was on. I didn't like how it threw so much of it's incredible predecessor (Beast Wars) out the window. Beast Wars was set in the G1 universe, and Beast Machines is a continuation of Beast Wars. In G1, to the best of my recollection, we discover that Cybertron was built by the Quintessons. In Beast Machines, Cybertron was once an organic planet (WTF?). Worse than that plot-hole was the massive change in all of the characters' personalities. About the only personality shift that made sense was Cheetor's (he had a 'coming-of-age' thing going right since the beginning of Beast Wars). Primal was suddenly far more self-doubting to an almost emo point. Rattrap was all of a sudden empathetic for everyone rather than being the independant, sarcastic character he once was. The most noble of the (surviving) Maximals, Rhinox, was revealed to be evil (WTF? again). When Silverbolt returns, he's essentially a rip off of Primal's new persona (i.e. emo).
So yeah, that's why I didn't like it. >_> Another thing that just occured to me is this show signifies the first (and only, I think) time ever that a character with "Optimus" in his name looked absolutely nothing like the original Optimus Prime.

Originally Posted by Optimus Sledge Hey hey hey. Hey. I respect intelligent, rational women. The same way I respect unicorns.

I didn't think it was awful OR great, once I got to see it in its entirety. Certainly not worth the sheer raging arguments bringing it up provokes in the fandom.

Seems to me, tho, that Megatron wasn't initially against organics as a whole, but that he wanted to erase all traces of his time on Earth because it ended rather badly for him. And he liked to be in control, but wasn't able to control his dragon side. So it led him to the conclusion that all of it needed to be wiped out, as did the free will of anyone who might have opposed that purpose. But that's my thought on it.

--Moony

The Beast Machine fans are out there, but we're a non-vocal minority. BM is my favorite Transformers series, and the final episodes are my favorite TF fiction, bar none.

First, the themes... DARK. The horrors of racial genocide, nazi/fascism, religious fanaticism, betrayal of a close friend, regret and pain from beyond the grave... hardly your typical cartoon fare. TFs for grown-ups.

Second, the characters... beautiful characterization across the board. Many people don't like the way the characters changed from Beast Wars, but that's actually my favorite part of the series.

Suddenly these kid-themed, wisecracking characters have to grow up... some can deal with it (Cheetor, BA), and others can't (Rattrap). We see Primal getting really off-track. All of a sudden he's terribly flawed--obsessed--and we begin to wonder about his suitability to lead. Silverbolt to me is like Picard in the ST ep where he got "Borged"; he knew what he was doing to his friends but couldn't do anything to stop it and it nearly destroyed him, creating deep and permanent post-war emotional scars. I could go on forever, as I love these characters.

Something that helps with Beast Machines, too...take a Saturday and watch one entire season in one sitting, then the second season in its entirety a week later. It really translates nice as a kind of mini-series. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I were watching it week to week. Also, I would concede that there are a few episodes that are unnecessary and drawn-out. If you pruned out 6-8 of those filler episodes, I think more people would have enjoyed it.

Bottom line is the reason I got back into Transformers after being away since childhood was because of the BM show and the RiD toys. Those two things together showed me that TFs had really "grown up".

Originally Posted by Yet another WTH moment with a fellow collector seth: Man, I can't believe you buy reissues. ams: Well, I also have the G1 originals, and since the reissues are made by Takara, they're official... and sometimes significantly improved. seth: Don't you feel like it takes away from the authenticity of your collection? ams: Dude, you own three different unlicensed City Commander toys and a half dozen fake third-party Prime trailers. WTH?

I thought the first few eps of season 1 were a bit iffy but once it got a story arc going it got better and better, and ended with a great climax. But then season 2 began with the aftermath and it felt like a post-apocalyptic show, which can be fine but it felt like the show no longer had a direction. The big build up of metal vs organics was over, though still in the background. The story shifted over to Megatron and Optimus mental issues. It picked up some at the very end because all the story elements got put back in but that was it.

The Quintessons built the Transformers, not sure about Cybertron. And Cybertron had organic elements in some of it's G1 showings, from having water with fish in it, having an atmosphere that had weather, to the flashbacks of Quinesson rule that showed some parts of land were not paved over by metal and made of soil.

Rattrap felt soemwhat the same, but I think he was more frightful than before, which may account for why he came off like that.

As for Rhinox, I'm not sure. It could be because his spark was slightly altered by Megatron that he behaved as he did. In Beast Wars season 1 a virus did affect Optimus primal, making him more beligerent. He just may not have snapped out of Megatron's personality reformating unscathed as Silverbolt did.

Whilst the Beast Era series are indeed a continuation of G1, they use an amalgam of cartoon AND comic G1. Primus, for example, was G1 comic, not cartoon, and he is mentioned a few times in BW. Personally I was glad about that; I always loathed the cartoon explanation of the TFs' origin. It's a lot more open to interpretation the way they did it.

Beast Machines back when I watched it on FOX KIDS in '99 and 2000, did a total 360 for me. The first episode confused the heck out of me (because by then, I had forgotten the series finale of BW); I was wondering why the Maximals were running for their very lives, where most of the other good guys were, and why they couldn't transform besides the one explained: A virus or something. I was just bloody confused by all the changes (and wasn't Megatron tied to the outside of the Maximals ship? How'd he and his Predicons get ahead of the Maximals and cause all of this damage if he was tied up?)

And when as the show progressed, I wondered if they were gonna do something besides run for their lives every other episode, and why they had demoted Rattrap to the scardy-rat hacker.

WTF! I was so angry (Probably as upset as Rattrap himself). Blackarachnia lost most of her dark edge that made her so cool in the beginning, she became something of a uber-softy (perhaps too in touch with her feminine side) and she had a Trinity-Complex too. Cheetor, however, become an intriguing leader figure while Primal was preoccupied with learning the secrets of Cybertron and whatnot.

I also didn't like the fact that Megatron didn't seem to be able to leave his HQ or where he was situated either. Nightscream the bat Maximal was just an annoying emo-character, whom I loved watched being picked on by Rattrap.

All in all, the storyline and subplots were just way over my head at the time, mostly because I didn't watch the entire BW series assuming it retains the that series' continuity and has anything to do with what's going on in BM, and as the show progressed I learned to like it for what it was even if I was confused most of the time. I'm now in the progress of watching the series again now that I am many years wiser. Plus, Rattrap got a girlfriend, Botanica, there's one superficial reason to watch.

"Burn your tongue; Your a liar because someone disagrees with you,"

I liked the show all the way throught I was like 8 at the time....but I still love the show.

My only dissapointment with Beast Machines, is that it ended. Other then that, it's one of my favorite tf series.

The toys were what really upset me ... don't get me wrong, I liked (and still really like) a lot of them, but there were a few important ones that just screwed up the whole line for me. The decision to make Rattrap a mega size class figure, and Nightscream an ultra (without ANY smaller alternatives) really pissed me off. I suppose that their size was intended to fit in with Supreme Cheetor, but they really should've had smaller versions too. I realize accurate scale is out the window when it comes to TF figures, but this was ridiculous; there was no way to put those guys with the other, smaller scaled figures in the line without it looking completely wrong.
It also didn't help that the figure for Nightscream was (IMO) terrible. A couple of basics for these guys (and maybe for Silverbolt to not have such atrocious colors) and I would've been beyond happy with things.

I loves me some Beast Machines. Mainly because it took a chance both visually and in terms of writing. Sure, it was hit-and-miss but I'm still happy with how it came out.

BM will never be THAT bad to me because it gave me two of my favorite characters, Strika and Obsidian. I love that Strika was a female TF that didn't have a humanoid female shape in robot form. Though, I will admit they had a cheap death.

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