I just never found Silverbolt a good character until Beast Machines came along. He just annoyed me to no end in Beast Wars. In fact, to me, he is basically the Springer of this show. A character that is extremely popular, yet I found incredibly annoying.

Again, I felt Rattrap was good. One of the better characters. In fact, the only characters I didn't like in this show were Scorponok and Silverbolt. Inferno and Quickstrike did things much better than Scorponok and in fact, I think every Maximal did things better than Silverbolt did.

Not for me. I love my Bond villain stupidity. Makes it all more fun.  

It still felt way too out of left field to leave an impact on me. The only think the guy did was not shoot her and after that, he just creeps after her.

 

It's always crazy to me that Silverbolt never interacted with Tigatron or Airazor.

The two's final moments before they get beamed away definitely sticks out as one of the shows most memorable moments, both for how abruptly it happens and there touching last words to each other, last words so good if you saw that scene first without context you would probably think that there romance was given significantly more attention beforehand then it actually was.

One thing I really appreciated about IDW1 was actually getting to see them interact as a couple with some regularity.

 

I think they kind of had to do it to keep the factions relatively balanced since over the course of the series it goes

Beginning: 6 Preds vs 4 Maximals
Dinobot Defects: 5 vs 5
Tigatron debuts: 5 vs 6
Blackarachnia debuts: 6 vs 6
Airazor debuts: 6 vs 7
Inferno debuts: 7 vs 7
Optimus dies: 7 vs 6
Scorponok/Terrorsaur die: 5 vs 6
Fuzors debut: 7 vs 6
Optimus returns: 7 vs 7
Silverbolt defects: 6 vs 8
Airazor/Tigatron "die": 6 vs 6
Rampage debuts: 7 vs 6

and that's where we're at now. Fewer characters keeps the costs down from having to feature too many in each episode and it prevents things from getting tilted too far in the Maximals' favor after deciding that the Maximals needed a fuzor on their side.

What's odd is that by the end of the series, things actually swing harder in the Maximals' favor and before the swath of deaths in the last couple episodes the maximum head-count for each faction is 7 Predacons vs 9 Maximals. Which gets even more odd when you consider some of the power balances (Each side gets a spark-powered-up leader, but the Maximals get 2 Transmetal 2s to the Predacons' 1.)

Also this just makes me think of something related and a bit odd in terms of the logic/consistency of character power and format but I think I'll save it for when the particularly relevant character shows up in Season 3.

I actually quite liked the fact that their relationship was mostly played through sidelong glances and mild, almost courtly flirtations rather than outright gushing statements of gooey, sappy emotions. It makes it cool in an understated way. Different than, say, BA and Silverbolt who (mostly on Silverbolt's side) are practically screaming the depths of their feelings from the rooftops every moment that they interact. Of course the difference being that the Tigatron/Airazor relationship was just a subtle dramatic touch while Silverbolt's infatuation is 100% played for comedy the whole way.

 

EPISODE 34: Bad Spark
"Episode best viewed with some fava beans and a nice chianti. But at least nobody dies in it."


And now for something almost completely different. We've seen G1 do a horror-ish episode in "The Dweller in the Depths" so this kind of plot isn't exactly anything too groundbreaking, but it's still fun to see Beast Wars try its hand at it with a twist by giving us a serial-killer style antagonist in the newly introduced Protoform X (eventually Rampage).

Whether you think the backstory on the creation of X and how he ended up where he did is a good explanation or not (basically do you like that the Maximals did something incredibly morally dubious?) is going to inform some amount of how you receive this episode. As is the fact that it's largely carried by Blackarachnia and Silverbolt and that means that whether or not you like their burgeoning relationship is going to matter as well.

If you like both things then this is an atmospheric, creepy, and engrossing romp that gives us a more intimate sort of conflict than the usual battles and does so by playing things very close to the chest most of the way. And it's held up by the oddly compelling flirtations of a mismatched pair of bots unlike what we've had before in Transformers interpersonal relationships.

If you dislike those things then this is probably a muddled, muted, visually unappealing slog that spends far too much time on a boring plot thread you can't connect to while constantly reminding you that it only happened because the good guys shut their brains off and acted like Predacons for no really justifiable reason.

I think I'm in the former camp more than the latter. I do see that their attempts at a somewhat claustrophobic setting and a murky, foggy jungle backdrop is somewhat limited by the tech of the time, but there's not much they can do about that and it does at least add to the atmosphere rather than taking away from it.

The only thing I really had a problem with is that there was a go-nowhere Dinobot scene that apparently was meant to tie into a story pitch that ultimately never went anywhere. So it's instead left in as this totally orphaned thread that pops up out of nowhere, is never addressed in any meaningful way, and then is never mentioned or deemed important ever again. It doesn't break the story, but I don't like the idea that they built in this foreshadowing without a backup plan or even eventual off-handed way to address it.

But that's really a minor gripe in what is otherwise an enjoyable turn down a dark road that the franchise has proven itself to be weirdly capable of embracing over the years.

Spoiler

-this is Greg Johnsons' 3rd Beast Wars episode (after Equal Measures and Gorilla Warfare). He has one more card to play in season 3 before he vanishes from Transformers work for a couple decades up to being part of the Rescue Bots staff.

-Cheetor is out on patrol and finds a super-sized stasis pod branded with an "X on the top crashed and abandoned in a jungle area. That's not good...

-Rhinox: "Primus help us all if that thing survived."

When Rhinox is scared of something you know it's serious.

-Rhinox sees scans of the big stasis pod and recognizes that it would contain a 'big soldier' *yes*

-So he dispatches Waspinator and Blackarachnia to find the bot and recruit them to the Predacon cause. But he also plants a tracker-type device on BA because he's prepared for her to do something sneaky and underhanded *yes*

-And for a touch of schemeception, as Megatron does this, we see that Tarantulas has a bug planted under Megs' command chair (a re-use of the one he had to put out the false Maximal signature in Spider's Game) so that he can listen in on that conversation.

-And Tarantulas is still a creeper as he talks about catching BA.

-Optimus arrives at the stasis pod and explains that it contained a dark Maximal experiment attempting to replicate Starscream's indestructible spark. Because those words put together just scream "this is a good idea and we as the morally upstanding faction who value peace and justice should pursue it with all haste"

-So the first thing Optimus concludes is that maybe it did die in the crash. Yes. you made a mutant, indestructible spark that couldn't be killed and hey, maybe it just died in this random crash onto Earth. Really?

-Props to the animators for the cool high-contrast flashback of two Maximals (which totally don't look like the heads of pre-Transmetal Optimus and Dinobot pasted onto generic bodies) restrain the experiment to load it onto the Axalon.

Special Guest Animator: Frank Miller​

-Oddly one of the restraining bots has the Optimus head but Optimus himself is shown to be watching from a distance.

-The Axalon's plan was to dump the pod somewhere barren and out of the way. So... why not fire it into a sun? Or a black hole? Or bury it under tons of ice on some desolate moon? Or in an ever increasing set of matroyshka doll-like boxes? That seems a little more responsible than just "maroon it on a planet somewhere and hope nobody ever crosses its path again"

-And then all this drama is undercut when Cheetor farts.

No, I'm not making a snarky comment or joke. Apparently his transmetal body is immune to energon lock-up like the cast was in season 1, but as a result it has to release accumulated energon radiation in the form of... farts. To which Silverbolt makes the standard fart-smeller gesture of recoiling in disgust and waving his hand. Just in case you didn't get what they were going for.

Were they not paying attention to how much everyone hated "The Low Road"?

-Our 2 Preds make the scene and a fight brakes out. Within which time Waspinator is *looney tunes'd* inside of about 10 seconds.

You think he's used to this yet?​

-Silverbolt ducks to avoid a shot from BA and it hits Cheetor and launches him into a pile of energon crystals. This causes a shockwave that revives the "dead" bot in the stasis pod. So there you go @TheUltimateBum, this is all Silverbolt's fault.

-And then Silverbolt just lets himself get beaten up by BA because honor demands he not fight back.

-Tarantulas then pops in to use the opportunity to try and extort whatever it is BA has stored in her head that he couldn't access before. But all she'll give him is "Megatron is a slag-sucking saurian". We don't know if she knows he's listening, but I like to pretend she does.

-And then Silverbolt collects himself and knocks Tarantulas out while defending BA. What a hero.

-This causes an impact that sets of a wierd sort of energon storm though that blows everyone away and deposits them around the nearby jungle. Gotta separate the group and land them in a creepy setting for the obligatory horror episode.

-BA and Silverbolt end up together and thus begins the awkward flirting.
"Are you damaged?"
"Just enough to make me interesting."

-Elsewhere Tarantulas lands and ends up as the first victim of the reactivated bot (it's Rampage. I'm not going to dance around calling him something else all episode even though he only gets the name at the very end.)

One of the times that "look behind you!" isn't a trap.​

And you know something is scary when it makes Tarantulas scream in fear.

-For one thing, stupid fart joke aside, Cheetor seems somewhat more competent these last few episodes. he still says dumb things, but he also makes sensible comments and comes to rational conclusions too sometimes.

-Silverbolt and BA find Tarantulas' severed arm hanging from a tree and get a good laugh over making a "disarmed" joke.   black comedy.

-As befitting a horror-ish episode, a lot of this one is very atmosphere, with dark and foreboding shots and a foggy forest that doesn't let you see the threats that could lurk around every bend and tree.

-BA goes to turn on Silverbolt and shoot him in the back, but she gets jumped by a rather awkward looking saber-toothed tiger. So they spent a season and a half having exactly one tiger model and then Tigatron bites it and we can afford to make a kind of janky looking new one?

I guess it would've been awkward if she got attacked by something that looked just like Tigatron.​

-Though I'll give the animators/writers perhaps a tiny bit of inadvertent credit: Thorough research (ie 5 minutes on wikipedia) suggest that modern tiger type cats and saber-toothed ones may have actually overlapped slightly during the Pleistocene era (aka the ice age). So it's not too outlandish to have both species represented as alive in the show.

-I was wrong when I said nobody dies in this episode. Silverbolt very likely kills that cat.

-BA manages to rescue her savior though by firing her grappling gun and hauling him up the cliff side. Given how tiny she is relative to most other Transformers, she's got some serious cybernetic muscle in that petite frame.

-and the two get another flirty moment as they reverse the "are you damaged?" conversation from earlier.

-Megs and the listening preds (Inferno and Quickstrike) are not impressed by all this sap.

-Back at the Axalon Dinobot wants to spring into action while the losses are 2 to 1 in favor of the Maximals. So Optimus tells him he'll remember Dinobot's compassion next time he's missing in an energon storm.

something tells me that won't be an issue much longer.

-As Optimus and Cheetor leave there's a nice shot of the Axlaon bridge via the reflection in the elevator's glass door. Production sure is improving, they could barely get a "shine" texture on that thing before, now it offers warped reflections.

-Alone in the base now (because Rhinox and Rattrap are where, exactly?) Dinobot walks up to a computer terminal and with a mysterious device stuck on his side he jacks some cables into the computer and transfers... something.

It turns out he was actually just changing Rattrap's outgoing voicemail message.​

This is actually an orphaned plot thread that plays into the somewhat-famous unproduced episode "Dark Glass." Though I imagine most of you are probably familiar with it already, I'll leave any further references of it to the next episode discussion.

-Silverbolt tries to reason with BA by telling her that since she was originally a Maximal protoform, she has residual Maximal programming within her and that surfaces in things like her choosing to save him from plummeting to his death.

-She's not really buying it though. Silverbolt, you gotta read the room, buddy.

-BA's physical acting in this conversation is great though. The drooping frustrated head bob, playful smirk as she shoots at Silverbolt to shut him up. Everything is great.

-Then the two find Tarantulas' unconscious (armless) body and Silverbolt reasons it's the work of "Protoform X"

Nice name, but Optimus (the only bot we see discuss him with knowledge of the events) never uses that name to Silverbolt or Cheetor. So I guess that means Silverbolt just came up with it on the spur of the moment?

-Cue him making his first distinct on-camera appearance mostly screaming like a madman the whole way while he easily dispatches Silverbolt and Blackarachnia.


Protoform X/Rampage's screams and eventual dialogue is provided by the late Campbell Lane, a Montreal-born actor who appeared in a ton of Canadian-produced or filmed-in-Canada media over the years including Cool Runnings, Exosquad, GI Joe Extreme, Gundam Wing's English dub (which also featured Scott McNeil and David Kaye in prominent roles with smaller ones for Don Brown, Richard Newman, and Ian Corlett.), the X-Files, MacGuyver, The New Adventures of He-Man, Battlestar Galactica (the 2000s version), Airwolf, Millennium, Da Vinci's Inquest, The Outer Limits (the 90s revival), X-Men Evolution, Dead Like Me, and Stargate: Continuum. He passed away from lung cancer in 2014. He is, to my knowledge, the only major member of the Beast Wars cast who is no longer with us.

-I guess they didn't want a 4th arachnid Predacon, but it feels like some sort of bug mode might've been more suited for Rampage than a crab (though the giant claws are a nice touch)

-Rampage's first lines to Silverbolt about fear are super creepy and great.

-Cheetor gives a shocked face that Rampage gets up from being knocked down a cliff. What part of "indestructible" were you not understanding?

-Well, the indestructible psychopath has fallen even farther down a cliff. Surely he's dead now even though it didn't kill him before, right?

-And of course as a last moment thing we also have Silverbolt jump off a cliff to save a falling Blackarachnia even though he couldn't guarantee his wings would function and stop him from tumbling to his death too. plus BA has a grappling line and could've saved herself at any time more than likely.

-Yep, Optimus leaves Rampage at the bottom of the ravine because "he's not going anywhere."

BASED. ON. WHAT?!?!

-And then Megatron shows up with an energon scalpel, hovering over the downed Rampage. Cut to the Darksyde and he's hoisted out of a CR chamber. But Megs also reveals his intent: cutting a piece of Rampage's spark out and placing it in an energon-crystal lined box to use like a control device. It's all very evil and creepy and well suited to the monstrous new addition to the Preds. And is how we end, with Megatron celebrating his forces' increase in numbers. With a well-placed *yes* to boot.

Megatron literally squeezing the still-beating heart/soul of one of his bots in his hand might actually be the creepiest thing this episode accomplishes.​

Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 9)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 0 _________(series total - 27)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 3 _____________________(series total - 61)
or "no....": 0 _________________________________(series total - 11)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 7)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 4 (2x Optimus, 1x Airazor, 1x Rattrap)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 1 _______________(series total - 11)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 __________(series total - 7)
Inferno calls Megatron "my queen.": 0 __________(series total - 5)




Pros
+Creepy, horror atmosphere

+Rampage is an interesting new foe

+A bit of backstory

+Blackarachnia/Silverbolt stuff, if that's your bag.



Cons
-the Maximals creation and handling of Rampage/Protoform X is puzzling

-while it's creepy and atmospehric, the visuals are also a little bit limited by the choices.

-Dinobot plot thread that ultimately goes nowhere

-Blackarachnia/Silverbolt stuff, if that's not your bag.

 

Jesus christ...  

He shoulda let BA shoot him. It would have been fantastic.

Silverbolt... just... stop pretending to be an upstanding knight. I know you're a fuckin' creep.

Stupid goddamn tiger. What a party pooper, I really wish BA had killed Silverbolt then and now.

Bitch, I liked you in the first episodes, can you please kill the fuck?

Honestly, when the roles are reversed in Beast Machines, I honestly liked it more. In here, my whole reaction is this:

He was also in the Nick Fury movie with David Hasselhoff.

YES!!! KILL HIM!!! SQUASH HIM!!! MAKE HIM FEEL THE PAIN HE MADE ME FEEL!!!

Ugh, seriously... she should have just used her grappling hook.

 

  It's kind of funny how both Rampage and Tarantulas bear some resemblance to Hannibal Lecter.

Although you could argue that "The Web" was kind of a horror-themed episode as well, given how Tarantulas was the focus character and he wanted to EAT Cheetor.

I think Rampage's creation is an interesting idea that was never properly explained. So, good idea, "meh" execution. And, with apologies to TheUltimateBum, I do like Blackarachnia/Silverbolt, so I always enjoyed that aspect of the episode.

Yay for an unusual atmosphere and new directions for characters!

It's always annoying when the writers set up ideas that never end up going anywhere.

That's an excellent way to set up the atmosphere and the threat of what's in the stasis pod right off the bat.

Schemeception X 2! Hurrah for both Megatron and Tarantulas being competent antagonists!

Of course he is. He's Tarantulas; it's what he does.

Like I said, I think this is an interesting idea. We know so little about how Maximal society as a whole works that it's hard to say if this is out of character for their leaders, and the idea that the Maximal Council could be corrupt is interesting. But they really should've explained this more, because as it stands it's very confusing. And whatever the case, the idiot who proposed creating an immortal spark based on the most notorious traitor in history is the universe's biggest moron.

  Come on, Optimus. I know you're smarter than that.

It does look cool. Too bad they were limited in the CGI models they had to use.

Well, considering the fact that the Maximals were apparently both stupid and morally dodgy enough to create it in the first place, maybe their stupidity in disposing of it isn't surprising.

  THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT, WRITERS!

Poor old Waspinator. At least he doesn't get eaten....

Ooops. Nice going, everyone!

Silverbolt, I like you...but you're an idiot.

Me, too. Yay for another awesome Blackarachnia moment.

Given how much of a creeper Tarantulas is, I'm all for this. Go Silverbolt!

Of course! (At least they weren't stupid enough to separate themselves...)
Also, the energon seems even more explosive than usual in this episode.

And so it continues....

This is another excellent way to build up Rampage's threat level. Although it is weird that, now that he's arrived, we now have two creepy cannibalistic Predacons.

I'll take him saying stupid things, as annoying as it is, over him doing stupid things any day of the week.

And Tarantulas is enough of a creeper that this doesn't make either one seem horrifically insensitive.

Props for establishing a proper horror-esque atmosphere.

Yeah, it's not the worst model in the world, but it's not great, either.

Yay for paleontologic accuracy!

Making it the second tiger to die in the show (the third if you count Tigatron).

I'm glad they had both halves of the relationship pulling their weight when it came to rescues.

Nice callback.

As is proper.

Ouch. It's also kind of ironic given the way that Dinobot ends up dying....

Yay for improved animation!

I really wish that episode had made it to air. Not only would it have explained some confusing developments with Dinobot II, but it would also prevent this scene from being basically pointless.

Yeah, maybe have this discussion while you're not both on the run from a serial killer.

The character animation in Beast Wars is surprisingly good, and adds to the already great character writing.

If Silverbolt did come up with the name on his own, it's the most intelligent thing he's ever done (bar switching sides).

You know, I think that's the best possible first on-camera appearance Rampage could have had.

RIP, Campbell Lane. Like everyone else in Beast Wars, he was fantastic in his role.

Maybe a lobster?

This really is a fantastic way to introduce the character.

At least I believe that Cheetor is stupid enough to not understand that "indestructible" means "falls won't kill him".

No one ever said Silverbolt was smart....

  WHY DO NONE OF THE MAXIMALS SEEM TO GRASP WHAT INDESTRUCTIBLE MEANS? Cheetor and Silverbolt are both pretty dim, but Optimus should definitely know better.

And by doing this, Megatron somehow manages to become CREEPIER than the cannibalistic serial killer he's just added to his ranks (although still not quite as creepy as Tarantulas).

 

I guess third time really was the charm! Gorilla Warfare wasn't terrible, but it was still rather basic.

The Wise Tyrant always keeps an eye out for his minions...lest they stab him in the back!

Who said anything about the Maximals being morally upstanding? Sure, Optimus and crew are alright, but the rest of the Maximal Imperium may not be so cute and cuddly. After all, you don't get to have an imperium in the first place without stomping your boot on someone's face at some point in time.

"The crash that failed to kill us will surely have killed the indestructible super-warrior!"

That was actually Big Convoy before he got his mammoth altmode.

That's because the Maximal Elders don't want Protoform X destroyed, they just want him tucked away on some obscure planet where he can't escape just in case they find a way to control him someday.

DUMB. ASS.

You're gonna miss him when he's gone, Optimus!

No, Silverbolt just hacked into every computer on the Axalon and now he knows everything about everyone. It's all so that he can be a better friend!

If Razorclaw can be a crab, Rampage can be a crab!

Megs never lets a good opportunity go to waste!

It very much is my bag!

 

Is it just me or does anyone else find tarantulas Terrifying ? Or is it just my fear of spiders kicking in?

anyways this was a fun episode I really love rampage

and also this is not really related to the episode but I noticed how megatron always says “ yeessss” is a reference to death’s head from the marvel uk comics was this mentioned by writers before?

 

I really don't think they were referencing Death's Head.

 

It's sad that CHak and Una the proto-humans are legit more important to the show than Airazor was.   What a damned waste of a character.

It's a really great transition episode and shows how to do it properly. It stands on its own, but also fits into the larger narrative.

It's a good moment... but the characters it's used for just don't fit the big drama.

It's almost, "Oh, all right," for me.

I don't really listen to audio commentaries. I like behind-the-scenes featurettes, but I find commentaries to be distracting.

Yeah. It's an interesting idea, but wasn't set up properly.

What's even better is it's 100% true. That makes it even harder-hitting.  

When Rhinox sasses you like this...  

I'm still wondering where he gets the parts and gear for these damned things!

"Will Dinobot find out Rattrap is carrying is sparkling? Will Rattrap find out his evil twin Mousetrap now has the deed to the factory? Find out next episode on 'All my Maximals'!"  

Sorry. I used to watch soap operas on ABC a lot. All my Children and One Life to Live.  

TF: A Megatron really wants to cross dimensions to ask BW Megs how he deals with the hyper-loyal sycophant.

Barely. Sadly.

I love seeing the evolution of the animation in this show.  

There were slight hints here and there, but you're right. It needed more build-up to come off as less shock-valuey.

:O Oh, no! @Rojixus , we found out where the Oracle got its idea for techno-organic in BM! We have to warn them!  

Full confession: I actually like that movie. And Celine Dion's singing.

Ooh... that is not cool, Japanese dub!

I don't think you have. You're reporting the info. Still, legit good on you for taking that into account.  

Always good to see a villain who's smart.

Again. Where's the materials for these coming from?!

  I guess Dinobot's not the only fan of Earth culture.

Let's just pretend he's only thinking about Tigatron, who he did have significant character interaction with.

Wait. Rhinox also has pouches... RHinox has hit PEAK 90"S X-TREME!

I love Inferno.   He really is just so... there. No holding back with him.

As we'll see later on, strength, like scale, can be quite inconsistent in this franchise.

And really outta nowhere, too! No, seriously! Where did this come from?!

Okay, those were freaky... but AWESOME!

But not without precedent. "Ten gigs of attitude on a five-gig hard drive', as Rhinox said.

Oh, thank goodness for the good guys learning from past experiences! Character development, we love you!

Kakuryu tested. Kakuryu approved.  

Because 1. presentation and 2. this one's a legit threat!

It does. The planet-buster was Vok technology.

And yay for the bad guys being smart and anticipating stuff!

When testing out for booby traps, use a booby.  

Indeed. Just marvel at how awesome that looks!

And just leave them where anyone can find them! 

The funny thing is, this is restrained compared to how he'll be later on.  

So if Dinobot is a refugee from Star Trek... is Waspinator a refugee from Looney Tunes?

Yay for the good guys again showing common sense. And having long-term memory.

I figure since the Autobots seem to have won the Great War, that not all of them had to reformat into being Maximals.

That is legit impressive of him.

That last sentence shouldn't be as awesome as it is... but they managed to make it work.  

So technically the bad guys-or at least one bad guy-won.

It's an improvement over how fire used to look. There, I said it.  

And after BA mentioned them once were completely forgotten.

That one line sums up BW Megatron perfectly.

Agreed. I own her TM toy, and it's pretty good overall.

I remember your WIW of this series on Space Battles, and that you admitted that unlike Tigatron, you had a pretty tough time coming up with an appropriate quote for Airazor when she 'died'.

 

So do I.   He's just so damned fun!

Rampage is a thousand times scarier to me. His backstory, his overall look, that he can think!

First mention of Primus outside the Marvel comics, IIRC.

A short but highly-effective way to set the threat bar.

BW Megatron being smart? This is my shocked face!  

Tarantulas could be knitting and it'd be creepy.

How in the everloving FUCK did anyone think this was approaching within a billion light-years of a good idea?! I mean seriously! SERIOUSLY!!!!

Come on, Optimus! You're supposed to be smarter than this! Was this random optimism?

That really does look cool.

I never noticed that! And I do love Optimus' look and shake of his head. "Primus, this is gonna suck..."

...

You were doing so well, show...

And because he's a fucking idiot. Seriously, if DInobot was there BA would be in pieces by now.

I do, too. And mad props to BA for her defiance.

I think overall they did a good job with making the area creepy and unsettling.

And we don't even see what Ranpage does to him. Just the aftermath. Very smart.

So the character development has started?

So does Silverbolt weight less than the Golden Disk?  

They're not the only ones.  

It's cool seeing the advancement of the CGI almost in real-time throughout the show's run.

Little touches that add up to great things.

RIP, Mister Lane.   Thank you for the awesome work over the years.

And they really do work.

I'm just gonna take this opportunity to say how much I love Rampage's TM form. It's a cross between a crab and WW I-era tank all built around a fuck-off huge gun. It's a fucking beast and probably the closest to a true third alt mode the Transmetals have.

Optimus used up all his wisdom stats in the previous episodes? No, no. This was just plain stupid of him.

And thus BW Megatron does what the entire Maximal Imperium couldn't do. He TAMED Ranpage!

We all are.  

 

Oh, most certainly. There was tons of potential with Transmetals.

The best kind of approval you can ever get.  

 

YES! I absolutely adored Transmetals!

 

Code of Hero will be up at some point this evening. Just gotta write the long-form portion of the review and do the usual polish and prep (spellcheck, embed images, figure out captions to go with the images even when they aren't funny. Decide if I want them to (try to) be funny given the tone of the episode. That sort of thing)

 

EPISODE 35: Code of Hero
"Shut up. I'm not crying. You're crying."


I'm not sure I need to do much at the top of this review because I can summarize it in pretty much one sentence:

This is quite possibly the best episode of Transformers fiction the series has produced over the 35 year history of the brand.

If it's not the best, I have a hard time imagining it's not at least strongly in the conversation. It is nearly note-for-note perfect, from the staging, to the action, to the music, to the cinematography, to the acting performances, to the writing, to everything. There are a couple of clunky moments but the rest of this is so fantastic that I just can't make myself care about them enough to knock the grade down. Yeah I don't like the slow-mo bit, but the show always has an issue with slow motion. Yes, I'm not too enamored with the proto-humans, but if that's what it takes to get the rest of this episode, then I'll just have to accept it.

This is also one of the few instances where an episode of the show can rival the emotional impact of seeing Optimus Prime die in The Movie. And I have to give it all the credit in the world for doing that as a 22-minute toy commercial made with the best 1997 CGI that a moderate budget could buy. It's a fitting payoff to a season and a half of evolution of Dinobot's character and a bittersweet sendoff for one of the standout stars of the series. I wish there was more opportunity to do things with Dinobot before he bowed out, but they do say to always leave the audience wanting more and after seeing him go from reluctant Maximal to team player to unsure, to regretful traitor and back to the point where he makes quite possibly the most Maximal decision he could possibly make in full acceptance of the consequences, this was as much as any character could hope for in the hands of a competent writer.

Everyone was in fine form this time and they absolutely knocked it out of the park. Even if nobody did notice they used the wrong Rattrap at the end.

So let this episode join the Matrix, with the greatest in Transformers history.

Spoiler

-Ian Weir provides the script this time, the 3rd of his 4 Beast Wars episodes after Dark Designs and Possession. We'll see him again in season 3's Cutting Edge. But the bigger triva note is that this is the first and only directorial credit for story editor/writer Bob Forward, and the only instance in the series of one of the writers sitting in the director's chair. According to the wiki, Forward storyboarded the episode himself (the only time any episodes were storyboarded instead of just fiddled with in the animation design process) and worked in-person with the Mainframe animators in Vancouver to get everything just right.

-The episode gets off to an inauspicious start as it focuses on the group of proto-humans. I never liked the proto-humans in the series. Their models always seemed too goofy and it was usually pretty blatantly obvious that it was just Garry Chalk and Scott McNeil making grunting monkey-ish noises. But they get attacked by a snake entirely to set up a kinda pointless chekhov's gun for the end of the episode.

-Meanwhile, we get to the good stuff as Dinobot sits in his quarters actually contemplating suicide. It's a little awkward to stage him trying to seemingly commit seppuku with a sword that's as long as his arms, but the intent is clearly there.

-And a flock of ravens (or crows. Honestly I spent like 15 minutes listening to crow and raven calls on youtube to see if I could figure out if they used one call or the other for the stock sound and in the end while I think it probably is a raven call, it's a bit higher pitched than most of the sample I heard and I can't be sure. Plus I realized this was probably a massive waste of time for a discussion about a transformers cartoon. So.... moving on...) flies by Dinobot's window as he sits there, set up in the distinctive "missing man" formation. *OMINOUS FORESHADOWING!*

Yep, birds fly like that all the time. Nothing to see here.​

-the fact that his sword ends up settling alone in the middle of the room, unhandled and lit by a spotlight is probably also some foreshadowing too.

Yep, totally fine. Everything's gonna be OK.​

-At the same time Optimus arrives in the command center, seemingly having been summoned by Rhinox.

-Rhinox's opening line: "Remember that transwarp cell explosion?"

Optimus:


 

-Anyway, Rhinox says that the wavefront from the explosion is traveling into the future and in "2.8 decacycles" Cybertron will know where the Axalon is. Optimus is worried that this will prompt a Pred attack as Megatron tries to kill the Maximals before this can happen, but I'm just left wondering what the time scale is for a "decacycle" A week? A month? I know 'deca-' means '10' but when they've generally made a point of having their time units be roughly analogous to a standard earth unit that we know, I imagine it's not meant to be taken literally as 10 cycles (or days). Unless that is the indication that it is a week.

-At the same time Rattrap gives Dinobot the business for his defection a couple episodes ago and it rattles Dinobot. He also clearly seems to be personally injured by Dinobot's betrayal. It's a nice, subtle moment of McNeil playing off himself.

-And then we get the first of Dinobot's mini Shakespearean monologues in this one as he talks about "destiny having one great test for us all" and not knowing if he already had his test and failed it. Finishing with "a deed, once done, cannot be undone. But perhaps it may yet be mitigated." Great stuff.

-Except the part where it finishes with Dinobot transforming to beast mode and taking off running from the ship. Oh god, the run cycle.... Transmetal Dinobot would've been a godsend because it would've given them cause to clean up his aggressively wide-hipped Raptor design.

-"Cat Patrol to Bot Base. Got a Blue Plate sighting in tengu sector. Crab legs and crabby, all you can eat." Good god, Cheetor, it's like you're trying all at once to make up for having been quiet on the *totally radical* front lately.

-Dinobot gets Cheetor's message and agrees to find out what Megs is up to now that Cheetor has to get back to base after taking a hit from the Preds.

-After the commercial break, Tarantulas emerges from his lair so he can eat the gazelle he caught in his web outside, like the creepy bastard he is.

-but first he gets ambushed by Dinobot, interrogating the bot about the nature of the golden disk (the Voyager one. The other one is destroyed after Other Visits)

-Then he hijacks Tarantulas to use his motorcycle mode to drive him to to Megatron's location. Good thing he got all that practice riding Rattrap.

-Moving to the destination, there's a really cool shot of Megatron flying into the valley where the proto-humans are, showing him from below as he hovers, descends, transforms, and lands. According to the wiki, they actually had to rebuild Megatron's transformation sequence just for this one shot because normally it was only meant to be viewed from eye level or above and a low angle would expose all the places that elements clip through each other or pop into existence to facilitate the conversion. Cool.

I wonder how much they spent fixing the model for this one shot that they don't really replicate ever again. I'll bet it was a lot.​

-Megs looks at the mountain in the distance that will "serve our purpose. *yes*"

-Rampage then sasses him and gets punished for his insolence. He should take some lessons from Blackarachnia on how it's done.

-For a fleeting second, Rampage points his cannon at Megatron and we get a gun-barrel shot that looks very familiar.

Tron. Megatron. Yesssssss...
(side note: I watched this part of the episode and wrote this bit like 2 days ago. I am fully aware of how weird it now looks that I'm posting it on the day Sean Connery Died. I'm not sure if my timeline makes it more or less weirdly coincidental.)​

-But he relents and shoots at the mountain, causing it to explode in a shower of ugly polygons and overlayed real fire. Booo.

-And so we get the demonstration: The mountain explodes and the image on the golden disk changes to reflect the destruction. The disk therefore shows the future and can be used to change it. Dinobot is watching and pronounces Megatron's power as "limitless" as a result. And this entirely sidesteps what he talked about before when he correctly noted that the power would have exactly one use before the ripples of an altered timeline would render the portions of the future not covered by the disk's reach to be so unknown as to be unpredictable. I suppose we can foregive the destruction of the mountain if it was selected becuase it has no known historical impact on anything (though one would assume that even just trashing an unimportant mountain could have unforeseen effects on the biosphere of the region that could cause further problems) but the power is far from "limitless". It has a very concrete limit. Granted it's one that is vast and would allow for one significant change to be made, but it's still definitely a limit.

but who cares, we need drama and this provides it.

-Megs now explains to Rampage that his actual plan is to destroy the valley they're over. From there begets the human race and human interference is what tips the scales in the Great War in the Autobots' favor. So kill all the humans and the Decepticons can win the war.

Now I'm conflicted: If Megs succeeds the autobots lose. But if he wins, there's no more Daniel. And especially no more Headmasters Daniel. Tough call.

-Dinobot calls for backup before he gets jumped by Tarantulas (who he conveniently seems to have forgotten was just standing there next to him. But evn though he takes damage he still squashes the spider, Looney Tunes style with a falling piece of rock. Waspinator would be happy it's not happening to him this time.

-Megs commands the assembled Predacons to torch the valley and make sure the human race will never have existed. And that reminds me of one of my favorite Red Dwarf bits:

Lister: "We don't exist here anymore!"
Kryten: "Actually sir, we don't ever have existed here anymore. But this is hardly the time to be conjugating temporal verbs in the past impossible never tense!"

-Rampage drops into the valley and crushes a butterfly under his foot. Metaphor!

-Also it seems like they've finally gotten away from using real fire on Inferno's gun. Sure the fire effect is quite simplistic and wouldn't hold up in every use, but it's a hell of a lot less jarring than suddenly real fire in this CG world.

A nice example of "less is more"​

-More Dinobot monologuing. This is a good one as he muses that the discovery of his free will leads him to a point where he has to make a specific choice anyway. Obviously when you're writing an episode that goes the way this one does, you'd damn well better make sure you leave none of your good Dinobot material on the table at the end. So far, it feels like that's been what's happened.

"I am a warrior. Let the battle be joined."

We're gonna be just fine. Everything's OK. It has to be. They wouldn't do that to us again. Right?​

Alright people, strap in. It's about to get real.

-First up: Holy hell does Inferno get massacred. Dinobot drives his sword down into the ant-bot's torso, almost cleaving him in half. It's like the kind of thing you'd expect them to do to Waspinator except it's not funny at all, just horrifyingly gruesome. Worse when you consider that Dinobot's sword is made up of little twirly blades and thus lacks a clean, consistent cutting edge. So instead he's forcing what will almost act like a blunt object down through solid metal mass.

Rated TV-Y7!​

-Comparatively Blackarachnia gets off easy as she just takes one shot from Inferno's gun as Dinobot uses the ant like a living shield and goes down. I'll bet she saw what happened to Inferno and figured "There's no way I'm letting that happen. I'll just take a blast to the shoulder and play dead."

-Also Dinobot then uses the gun to shoot Inferno's head off. Because he hasn't suffered enough already.

After that we see the return of something I've spent quite a bit of time complaining about when this show does it: Slow motion. Dinobot leaps from a ridge and uses his tail shield rotor thing like helicopter blades (even though that makes no sense in terms of physics. But whatever) and hovers down into the valley so he can shoot Rampage and Waspinator. The whole thing slows down and it really exposes some frame rate issues in Dinobot's descent.

-Also Waspinator *Looney Tuneses* himself as he shoots the rotor out of Dinobot's hand right as the raptor is over his head. Seconds later and Waspinator is crushed under the feet of his fallen ex-comrade.

-And then just for good measure when Rampage tries to use his tank mode cannon, Dinobot jams Waspinator's unconscious body into the barrel to stop him. Ow.

-And for extra good measure after the cannon backfires and disables both Preds, Waspinator falls to the ground with the barrel still stuck over his head and makes a blurbling "poit" sort of noise that reminds me of Pinky from Pinky & the Brain. One last burst of really silly comedy before the remaining 7 minutes of show (which includes the credits) goes for the jugular.

It's amazing how just changing the character involved can change the tone of the mega-violence.​

-they've done a good job of making Dinobot look increasingly beat up and damaged as the fight goes on. Each time there's a cut we cut back to him and he's more blackened/charred, more ripped up, more unstable.

-Megatron: "One lonely turncoat, battling on against impossible odds. I'm almost touched. *wipes away a mock tear*... Fortunately such moments pass quickly."

It might be Dinobot's spotlight and it might be him getting all the good Shakespeare lines, but this is a strong contender for line of the episode.

-Quickstrike: "So... What's a warrior without weapons, eh?"

Dinobot: "A warrior still."

not gonna lie, I've got goosebumps as I write that.

-One small complaint: As Dinobot's power reserves wane and his on-board computer warns him that the loss is critical and he can't continue on without significant risk, it sounds serious and concerned. then after Dinobot overrides it and the computer acquiesces, the "acknowledged" is somewhat tonally neutral. It makes sense since only the "you shouldn't do this" line would be programmed to sound concerned while the "acknowledged" is a more generic clip, but it creates a bit of a jarring tonal difference.

-Megatron makes the scene finally, and his ears are burning. *yes*

-His speech at Dinobot about there being no real obstacles left in his path to victory and "unimaginable glory" is really great. Almost too fun for the grim nature of the plot at this point. But David Kaye doesn't cut corners. If he's going to have a hammy villain speech, it's going to be hammy enough to make a 6-course meal where every dish is straight up ham with a side of freshly squeezed ham juice to drink.

-another *yes* as Megs reveals his trump card: a captured proto-human hostage.

-Dinobot uses a lull in the action to lunge at Megs with a stick. While I know where it's going and it works and all, shouldn't the stick just snap in half on the first swing?

-"Face it Dinobot. You're old technology! Obsolete! What can you possibly do?"
"Improvise..."

See? Here comes the dramatic comeback! I knew he'd be OK. Heroes always pull out the victory in the end, even against impossible odds!​

There are the goosebumps again.


-And again...

Yep, he had more power reserves than we were lead to believe. This is all a false alarm and it'll all be fine by the end of the episode.​

-And props to Scott McNeil for the scream as he fires his eye lasers one last time.

-Mild moment-killer as it looks like Cheetor farts out fire-suppression foam (have to use a different word because I've found the one thing that this site's auto-filters do clamp down on  ) to put out the burning trees.

I'm just going to ignore this because it distracts from the fact that everything is OK.​

-And now the end. This is the best scene in the entire series and possibly the entire franchise. Prove me wrong. Every line reading is perfect. The music is perfect. The animation is perfect. Everything is perfect. Everything else The Transformers has done lives in the shadow of this span of like 2 and a half minutes

Excuse me. I think I have something in my eye. Damn dust-filled onions...

-"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly: the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."

Perfect.

He didn't turn grey! It doesn't count! This is still just a fake-out and he's really fine.​

-"He lived a warrior... and died a hero. Let his spark join the Matrix, the greatest of Cybertron."

Nope. There it is. best line in the episode. And Garry Chalk actually sounds broken up and on the verge of tears as he delivers it. Which is even better.

It's all just special effects! None of this is real, it's a trick! We're going to get back to the Axalon and everyone's going to laugh at how badly they fooled the audience!​

-And it's only mildly undercut by the fact that during the funeral pyre scene the animators strangely chose to put in a pre-transmetal model of Rattrap at the controls rather than his current one. There's a note on the Wiki that in the Madman DVD commentary for this episode, Bob Forward can't believe that not one person on the Mainframe staff noticed the gaffe in spite of the fact that he believes they watched the scene literally hundreds of times in making it in order to get everything just right.

Oh, I get it now. This is all just a dream. That's why the wrong Rattrap is here. It's like those dreams where you show up for a class and it's the final exam even though you never studied and also you're not wearing pants. Very funny guys. You got us. Now wake up so that we can be reassured that Dinobot is just fine. Guys? Come on....​

-My other gripe with the episode is the very ending. The extra bit with the proto-human finding Dinobot's stone axe and using it to crack a coconut and beat the snake that attacks. I get why it's there. I understand that it's supposed to be "this is the result of Dinobot's sacrifice. the human race will live on and flourish and he even helped them discover tools" and it's also kind of a 2001 reference, but it just feels jarring and inconsistent with all the heavy emotional impact of what we just saw to end with this silly(ish) moment of bad models and Garry Chalk's obvious monkey/caveman noises.

They should've ended on the missing man flyby, having it set at night and panning up into the stars, saving Optimus' last line (the one I quoted above) for then and transitioning into the starfield with the one blue twinkle that represents Dinobot's spark (that last part actually being what ends the episode.)

And there we have it. What a ride.

-But before I go I said I was going to mention the out-of-place scene from the previous episode again, so I'd better do it before I wrap up.

We saw Dinobot plugging into the Axalon computer and doing something when nobody else was in the room. As I said in the recap last time, this was a thread for a script that was being made called "Dark Glass" that would've been written by Christy Marx, best known as the creator of fellow Hasbro product Jem.

For those that don't know the story, the reveal would've been that Dinobot's interface was him leaving a backup of his core consciousness in the computers, which would be discovered by Rattrap some time in season 3 after the debut of (spoilers) Dinobot II. Rattrap would go off on a near-suicide mission and against the better judgement of Rhinox and the orders of Optimus to try and upload the consciousness copy into the body of Dinobot II and for a few moments it would look like he succeeded. But a core consciousness without a spark is merely a shadow of the real person they once were, and while a version of Dinobot is injected into the mind of his successor, it can't maintain control nor is it fully the bot Rattrap remembers. Ultimately the attempt fails, Dinobot II wins out and regains control of his body in totality, and Rattrap must face the reality that his friend, the original Dinobot is really and truly, truly, truly outrageous dead.

Based on comments from Marx and Larry DiTillio the episode was rejected for being "too dark" and for lacking action/excitement. DiTillio would later say that it was rejected because the quality of the script wasn't up to the show's usual standards, but that apparently came in the middle of an explanation that contains several other factual errors in his memory of events, so maybe take that part with a grain of salt.

Regardless, this is important because it's through this lost episode that we find really the only way a critical scene in the climax of the series finale can be explained in a way that makes sense. So if we want to count the events of this episode that never was as some level of partial canon, there are good reasons to do so and very little downside besides "but it was never actually made"

Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 9)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 1 _________(series total - 28)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 3 _____________________(series total - 64)
or "no....": 0 _________________________________(series total - 11)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 7)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 4 (2x Optimus, 1x Airazor, 1x Rattrap)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 1 _______________(series total - 12)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 __________(series total - 7)
Inferno calls Megatron "my queen.": 0 __________(series total - 5)




If I could give it an A++ I would, but I'm not breaking the grading scale now.
Pros
+Some of the best drama and heartfelt moments of sorrow/sadness in the TF franchise

+Everything they've built with Dinobot over the last season and a half comes to a head in one glorious wrap-up of his character (except that one scene from the previous episode that I talked about at the end of this review)

+The action is fantastic

+Megatron and Dinobot get some spectacular lines. Optimus gets one too, and it might be the best one of all.

+I can and will run out of superlatives to laud this episode with.



Cons
-the slow-mo descent bit is kind of janky, as most slow-motion scenes in this series are

-The bit at the end of the episode with the proto-human feels like it distracts from the gravity of everything that came before it.

-that the episode has to end.

 

On my phone, so real quick. But yeah. This? This is the apex. The best ever for Transformers.

 

Yes... I am.  

Eugh... them proto-humans never looked right to me.

A reaction that Rodimus would be proud of.  

Scott McNeil was always at his best in the Rattrap/Dinobot interactions.

RIP Sean Connery. Along with Timothy Dalton, one of my top favorite Bond actors (though none of them was bad and I have a nostalgic attachment to Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan).  

And David Kaye did mention once that he took a bit of Sean Connery and Anthony Hopkins to create his Megatron voice.

Oh yes, they would.

One of the most powerful moments in the whole series.

I personally think the whole final episode of Beast Machines kinda surpasses it in my case, but yeah, this moment is brilliant and heart-wrenching.

Really wonderful line and acting. For me, Ian Weir was quite possibly the best BW writer. All of his episodes were wonderful (hell, he made me prefer the Cheetor/BA interactions in Cutting Edge a lot more than all her pre-Beast Machines interactions with Silverbolt). And this episode is his pièce de résistance.

*sigh* Even the best episodes have a mistake somewhere.

I've actually read the original script, and in it, the description says that the spirit of Dinobot was supposed to look at this hominid with approval. I guess budget didn't allow for that.

I love Jem. Quite possibly one of the few girl properties that is pretty badass (She-Ra does come close). Seriously, for a girl cartoon, there was quite a bit of drama and action. And there were some really heartwrenching episodes (the father's day one left me in tears).

I wish Christy Marx had written more for Transformers. Really one of the best writers from the 80's and 90's.

 

Wondered what happened behind the scenes

 

This episode is a basically a punch to the gut

 

We're all crying.  
A more detailed review will come later.

 

This is the first time in the series I actually found rattrap not irritating. Anyways this is the best episode in all of transformers. This is an unpopular opinion but dinobot’s death is more sad than Optimus prime’s death in transformers the movie. It’s one of the very few moments in TF fiction that actually made me cry, they are some that made me feel sad like Optimus prime’s death in predacons rising, TFP’s s2 & s3 finales, TFA’s series finale, omega supreme asking ratchet what it his purpose is for the conflict, Optimus accepting rhinox’s choice of being a predacon, soundwave’s and megatron’s reaction to ravage’s death, and bumblebee’s ending, but they all pale in comparison to this. This made me weep the first time I watched it and it still makes me tear every time I watch it again. I’m dreading the next episode