EPISODE 15: SAVAGE NOBLE
Arooooooooo.... Werewolves of London Cybertropolis



Even if the episode-to-episode scores go up and down a bit, I do feel like this episode continues an overall trend of raising the median higher and higher for the series. It does one of the things I think Transformers has done well over the years in different series and that's tap into a sort of creepy horror movie aesthetic to tell a genuinely unsettling or unnerving story. We got the Dweller in the Depths, the first Rampage episode in Beast Wars (the name escapes me at the moment and though I could go look at the wiki, I don't want to  ), are going to eventually get Predatory in Prime too. Transformers is surprisingly good at doing creepy horror. And the plot of this one definitely hits that niche.

And even aside from that, the concept of Noble (even with the very blatantly telegraphed evidence that there's more to him than we get to find out about, and that it's almost certainly not good) is intriguing and a welcome change of pace for the Maximals to have a new sort-of-member.

Those two things really help push this episode to a very enjoyable place, and when you add on some recurring positives of the series (Cheetor's growth, which is finally happening unabated, and the ongoing presence of the Vehicon generals) it really helps elevate this one above some of the more run-of-the-mill previous efforts, or the ones that were dragged down by the undesirable elements.

Even the down sides to the episode are an improvement. For one of the first times, there's no significant bit of catty, petty, immature character conflict between the Maximals, so instead we're left with issues that hinder but don't cripple. One of the things that the series has done at a few points is let the characters make big assumptive leaps in terms of figuring out the cause or something that's happened. The rush to figure out that what stopped them from transforming in the beginning was a virus is a prime example. And that shows up again here a couple of times as they try to figure out what happened to Megatron and where Noble came from. I don't mind smart characters making smart deductions, but there's a limit beyond which it strains credulity to have them have sensibly gone from point A to point C or D or E or Z or wherever they end up. It's just kind of annoying that they couldn't fill in the dots in between to make the progression more natural.

But the bigger thing that does hold this episode back from an A is that it kind of loses itself in the wrong part of the story. A ton of time is spent on the Maximals and vehicons chasing Savage that we don't spend a lot of time with Noble or the eventual reveal of Savage & Noble's relationship to one another. That's the heart of this plot and the most interesting piece, but it is forced to take a back seat for an entertaining but somewhat hollow segment instead. The chase isn't bad itself, but it feels like it distracts from a more interesting alternate possible path, and for that the episode suffers.

Still, it's enjoyable even with those flaws.

Spoiler

-We get a recap to start this episode too. We're full bore into serialization now.

-And... no title card? Huh. Weird.

-We pick up literally where the last episode left off, with the giant floating Megatron head.

-Nightscream and Blackarachnia head in for a closer look at why it's not doing anything and again it kind of shows that the pair have this fairly relaxed bond going on. No angry snark or teeth-clenched teamwork or the like. Just a cool sort of big sister/little brother thing. It's fun and a little bit sweet.

-But as they get close each is zapped by a shield and knocked away from the ship...head...thing.

-One act break later and BA is still falling and here is our title and writer credit.


This is the one and only Beast Machines writing credit for Len Wein, who I have already covered at length for his credited turns in G1 (Webworld) and Beast Wars (Tangled Web). He's got 2 more Transformers episodes in him though, both in Robots in Disguise (the 2015 version, not the wacky 2001 anime show. We're a ways away from either of them right now.)

Also the episode first aired in Japan on Christmas day, 2004. Why is that important/relevant? I don't know. But it seemed worth pointing out. If for no other reason than that this was a Christmas episode and didn't air for 4 years after it did in the west thanks to how long it took before Japan dubbed the series.

-There's a bit of ghosting as BA falls in sorta-slow-motion from the big head. I've come to believe that perhaps a lot of my issues with ghosty animation in the JPG1 trilogy may have been bad DVD rip settings on my part, but I re-did this series like 3 times to try and get everything as right as I could so I'm fairly certain it's not me, it's actually how the animation has to render things when they move in slow motion. That's too bad, and it shows that even 4 years into Mainframe's work on the series they still have trouble with this.

-BA manages to save herself by... making a spider web parachute? And not one like Spider-Man might do where he spins an entire, solid canopy out of webbing to catch the air. It's the cartoony lattice-work spider web design, but somehow the giant gaps and holes in it aren't enough to stop it from slowing her descent. That seems kind of dubious.

Wheeljack?




"Nope. It checks out."


Of course it does.

-Ironically the one who needs saving is the actual flier, as Optimus has to fly up with his robot mode jetpack to catch the kid.

-With everything that happened, the gang surmises that Megatron isn't alive or conscious inside the head. This is based on the fact that a) they haven't been shot at yet, and b) Optimus and BA agree that the energy barrier was totally defensive and not consciously activated. Ok, I can grant the first one. And BA is right about the barrier. But how is Optimus managing to deduce that it was automated and not intentionally triggered? For all he knows Megs is alive in there and simply lacks the power for anything more significant than triggering a zapping field to keep the little maximal flies of his face. I feel like bad Sherlock-Holmes style mystery writing has ruined storytellers' ability to actually write logically consistent deductive reasoning. So it's not just this show's fault.

-BA suggests they need to find Jetstorm and Thrust if they stand a chance against Megatron in a giant warship shaped like his own head. But Rattrap snarks that it certainly has nothing to do with getting "her old boyfriend back."

Dude? he was your friend too. When did we flip from being angry about discovering they'd forgotten all about Rhinox and Silverbolt to knowing that the pair existed, to wanting to rescue them, to simply not caring if they stay stuck in vehicon bodies for the foreseeable future? I get it that Rhinox is out of the picture now since he's dead, but shouldn't they still want to rescue Silverbolt?

-Optimus sends everyone else out to find the Vehicons while he tries to get in contact with Megatron's spark. That seems like a massively bad idea, but only Cheetor points it out.

-Almost right away the other 4 Maximals find Jetstorm and Thrust, who accuse the Maximals of ambushing them even though it makes no sense. But they are kind of dense, so I'll allow it.

-BA gives her word "as a spider (and a Maximal)" that they just came to talk and are not deceiving anyone. BA? You know I love you but your word means pretty much less than nothing. I mean, have you met you before? Lies and duplicity were your entire stock and trade during Beast Wars. You barely even told the truth to Silverbolt and he's the guy you actually loved.

-the two sides face off and look like they're about to rumble as if this is an old 60s biker gang movie when an ominous and eerie roar cuts through their argument.

-A roar that sounds very much like the noise that Web creatures made in ReBoot.

-Yay! Everyone transforms without the activation code!

-Boo! The Music starts before the fight even begins

-And everyone is being chased by something huge that we don't get to see.

-Jetstorm doesn't take kindly to Cheetor giving orders, and of course that gives the creature a chance to catch up.

-And damn is it ugly.

It actually kind of reminds me of some of the mutant Metroids in Metroid II: Return of Samus (or its more recent remake, Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS. Great game, by the way)​

-Meanwhile Optimus goes ahead with his ridiculous plan to contact Megatron's spark.

-predictably, it goes poorly as Megatron's life force/spirit more or less assaults Primal. But hey we get to see his old 1st season Beast Wars head.

Getting to be less and less excuses for the oddly redrawn beast modes in the pilot.​

-The Vehicons go after the dragon thing, calling it "Savage." Someone's been reading the call sheet.

-Cheetor tries to stop them but Thrust actually turns and says "order this, Maximal!" and flips him off.

Someone needs to tell Killbison that his bit is being stolen.​

-Nightscream mocks the beast for its poor aim, but then a bunch of debris from above (where the beast did hit) falls on them. That's our 3rd cliffhanger act break of the episode so far.

-Good to know that even in this new form, Cheetor makes exactly the same cat noises as he always did in Beast Wars. Consistency is important after all!

-After everyone digs themselves out of the rubble they stumble across someone new. A wolf-man... wolf-bot... were-wolfbotman. He says his name is Noble and tells a tale that sounds eerily similar to Nightscream's (set to a recap of the scenes from Nightscream's own version of coming to be in an organic body)

-His voice is kind of familiar... Ehh, I'm sure it's not important.

hello, can I interest you in several packs of non-prescription Enzyte?​

-But the story time is interrupted by the arrival of the series' true villain: the Music! Er, I mean Jetstorm and Thrust!

-And then in the confusion Noble vanishes. and this prompts Cheetor to radio Optimus for help.

-Rattrap makes 2-stroke engine noises as he rolls. he sounds like a go-kart or a weed-whacker.

-Then Savage attacks them and Nightscream also gets himself killed.

-Cheetor says that Savage is "hurt and scared" and that they're going to help it, like Optimus would. I eagerly await Optimus showing up and telling them that the Matrix showed him they have to kill it.

-Everyone splits up to find Noble and Savage and of course the one Maximal who's been the most frightened by the monster, Rattrap, has to be the one who encounters it. But thankfully for him, it seems to have no quarrel with him and leaves. After being hemmed in by the remaining Maximals Nightscream tries to connect to it for some reason.

-But when he's interrupted by Thrust and Jetstorm arriving to finish the creature, it tail-swats them off to the horizon.

Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!!​

-Nightscream then tries again to connect to Savage and... he does? and DUN DUN DUN! It's Noble! he's a transformer who's wholly organic and has two bestial forms!

-Also I went and looked at his toy. It's hideous.

-Also the Maximals' shocked faces are hilariously goofy.

At least it's not Dull Surprise​

-Optimus promises to find a way to help Noble even if he can't control the "Savage" side. He also says they're going to regret it.

-And then he gives the most reassuring smile ever.

Look at how trustworthy I am!!!!​

Pros
+Savage is a cool design

+the chase is very creepy horror-movie-esque. Kind of like Alien or any of those other "monster stalks from the shadows" type plots

+No matter how obvious it is that there's more than meets the eye (heh) with Noble, the idea of a new Maximal is interesting.

+Cheetor continues to mostly show off his growth as a leader.

+The Vehicons, naturally.



Cons
-Some of the stuff with the giant Megatron head falls into the "how can they be so sure about all these assumptions?" camp like a few previous bits of plot

-so much time is taken up by the chase/hunt with the Maximals/Vehicons/Savage that the conceptually intriguing stuff with Savage/Noble takes a bit of a back seat.

 

EPISODE 16: PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
Trapped aboard a commandeered ship with a mysterious Kull Warrior, Daniel Jackson is the only chance to keep the Stargate program's newest ship from falling into enemy hands... whoops, wrong series.


Oh look, it's the return of the jerk Maximals. Nightscream and the others all heavily revert to their season 1 personas, full of distrust, anger, petty rivalry, and an overall sense of discord and uuuuugh, I had hoped we weren't going to see it again.

Even if I can understand and sympathize with Nightscream since it plays correctly into his character, I'm still so burned out by all of the pettiness that I just don't want to see a rehash of it so soon after we escaped from that abyss.

Besides that, the other major flaw is one of possible taste and preference: Was it too soon to play out Noble's storyline? Obviously we're on an accelerated timeline because they only have a 13-episode season to work from, but Noble barely gets parts of two episodes before the bulk of his narrative importance is complete and we move on to other things. It just feels like we would've been well served to linger on this and see where it leads for another episode or two before springing the (admittedly not hard to predict) twist on the audience.

But beyond that? There's a fair bot to like here. Mostly in the visual department as this episode has some great designs and scene setups that make for an enjoyable watch. That's been one thing that Beast Machines has been good about for this whole series so far is how striking its art design and staging has been. Even if I don't like the character designs, it does manage to make the most of them.

There's also a welcome return for machiavellian, bond-villian Megatron, reasserting himself after a season spent as robo-Hitler. I missed that Megs and it's good to see that maybe we have him back.

There are also some nice, smaller character moments for Rattrap (particularly his scene near the end) and for the continuing development of Blackarachnia and Nightscream into a fun almost sibling act, contrasting nicely with Pervvy, creepy Cheetor coming on to her in Beast Wars.

Still a fun watch, but a step down from last episode because the best things on the plus side of the ledger are not as significant as those on the opposite.

Spoiler

-After the recap, things begin with Noble howling at... I guess it's a moon. It's also the thing that appeared in the background of some other nighttime shots in other episodes. Huh.

Noble cares not about concerns of indulging in stereotyping.​

-Noble is apparently gone because... he wants to escape from the Maximals. That's odd.

-and BA is creeped out by him for some reason. FORESHADOWING!!!

-And while Rattrap freaks out over the fact that Noble turns into an "overgrown gila monster", Nightscream flips out at everyone, calls them all terrible, and storms off.

-And he finds Noble just in time for his angry freak-out to result in him transforming into Savage. Act break!

-And once again we have waited for the end of the first act for the episode title and writer credit.

-Speaking of...


-It's the final writer credit for Marv Wolfman in the series and in Transformers in total.


-As Savage bangs on the doors to Megatron's citadel, a bunch of metal tentacles emerge from a slot in the wall and go after Nightscream for some reason. But shockingly, Savage (not Noble) shoves the kid out of the way and gets captured by them.

-Now wrapped up in a cocoon of tendrils, the Maximals approach, but Nightscream shouts "Get away from him!" at them. So he's backsliding all the way to how he was when we started out. Dang.

-Optimus steps forward and peels the tendrils away to find Noble inside, reverted to his wolf form with apparently no memory of what he was doing. And Nightscream continues to bicker with the maximals, taking potshots at Cheetor and Rattrap when they express concern over what's happening.

-Noble even suggests that he should be locked up for everyone's safety, Rattrap agrees and Nightscream attacks him again for it saying it was just like how Rattrap was when he first encountered the Maximals. I remember everyone being suspicious, but I don't remember it being nearly this bad. Of course that was because Savage poses an imminent threat to everyone while Nightscream was merely an annoying emo teen jerk.

-But thankfully Optimus is back a bit more to what he was like in Beast Wars, mediating the conflict and calming everyone down. It's good to have this Optimus back.

-But when even Opitmus points out that it's too dangerous to have Noble head inside Megatron's HQ when he can't control himself, Nightscream flips out again, calling the gang "losers. all of you."

I get that unlike the other characters, this isn't something I can say is out-of-character for Nightscream. Rather it is entirely in character for him given how he acted in the past. But I just find it taxing to have gone through an entire season where most of the Maximals were assholes to each other and now that Optimus has mellowed out and the rest of the team isn't constantly at each others' throats, Nightscream is reverting hard back to his previous characterization just seemingly for the sake of injecting drama and conflict into the group.

-Aaanyway Rattrap opens up the door to Megatron HQ once Nightscream and Noble sulk away but is stopped immediately by Blackarachnia, because Optimus demonstrates that the place is heavily boobytrapped.

Since when? I mean it makes sense, but the last time Megatron was even there was during his showdown with Primal where he apparently died/deactivated. And there wasn't a boatload of traps at that point. So how did they all get turned on now?

-Cheetor gives us a "that was easy. too easy" and for once it's not just lip service. Optimus very correctly points out that it was probably the trap the Maximals were meant to discover and that it would cover for other traps that are meant to be the ones that pick the gang off. Which is something that I definitely expect Megatron to do given what we know of him from Beast Wars.

-But as the gang heads inside, Noble suddenly turns from Nightscream and runs through the open doors.

-But thankfully he doesn't turn into Savage.

-At least not until he (seemingly intentionally) steps on a landmine in one of the main rooms.

Should we be concerned about Savage/Noble's behavior now, Nightscream?​

-Ok, Rattrap is being kind of an asshole. He does deserve a bit of Nightscream's ire, but maybe not all of it.

-For a giant feral dragon beast thing, Savage is surprisingly stealthy.

-And at the same time Cheetor, Rattrap, and Blackarachnia are being stalked by... Noble? He sure is able to transform back and forth quickly.

-Away from everyone else, Noble manages to enter the control center of the base, where Megatron's now unoccupied control harness thing is still hooked up. Curiouser and curiouser.

-There's a fun sequence as the other 3 maximals show up and have to do a whole gymnastics routine to get from the door to the harness thanks to all the floor panels being set in randomized floaty mode. Even Rattrap gets involved with a ramp-assisted jump, being tossed by Cheetor, and swung on one of BA's web lines. It's creative and interesting and another win for the visual design and animation guys.

-and it ends with Rattrap inside the control harness.

Plot twist: Rattrap was actually Megatron's boss the whole time. Even the times where it made no sense.​

-I don't know if it's intentional or not, but Noble's voice is changing a bit now that he's shown up to reunite the whole gang. It sounds more... familiar...

-And then he changes to Savage intentionally

-The tentacles show up again too. now armed with spark extractors.

-And after the commercial break The Music is here in full force.

-More slow-mo means more motion blur and ghosting.

-But at least Nightscream and BA still seem to have their thing going on as he saves her from one of the spark extractor tentacles.

-As visually creative as this whole fight is, it's done in the dark, which makes it kind of hard to see.

-Savage turns back into Noble and suddenly Rattrap is relieved. But shouldn't he have heard Optimus and Nightscream's shocked reaction to Noble demonstrating he could turn into Savage intentionally (thus tipping everyone off that something is seriously wrong)?

-He doesn't though, and he pays the price with a dynamic smack-down.

All hail the glorious werewolf revolution!​

-Noble grabs a pair of spark extractors and presses them to his chest. Yyyyeeessssss.....

-If you hadn't figured it out already, Noble is Megatron.

-Optimus is shocked when he questions how Noble can have a spark in his chest when he's completely organic. Even though they already granted that he's a Transformer (and thus would of course be in possession of a spark.) This really isn't a banner day for the intelligence of the Maximals.

-His spark free, Megatron joins with the giant floating head. Now in control of it, the eyes move and it floats and turns as it talks. The only disappointing bit is that the mouth doesn't open to talk.

It was the only thing big enough to hold Megatron's ego.​

-And now Megs does his best Bond villain routine as he reveals that there was no Noble. It was simply the organic remnants of him separating the to parts of his combined technological/organic body, with his spark mistakenly stuffed inside it. And he played the Maximals the whole way so they could get him into his citadel to be able to regain control of his tech and be rid of the hated organic side.

-And still Nightscream refuses to believe it.

-Even the eyebrows on the head move. Cool

-and Megs twists the knife by specifically telling Nightscream this is all his fault.

-And that's when Megs powers up Cybertron again and revives all the downed drones. Things just got a whole lot harder for the Maximals.

-Everyone flees underground to escape the onslaught and now they realize that it was foolish to believe Megatron was done for. Rattrap also takes a moment to apologize to Nightscream and offer condolences. But mostly I'm distracted by the exposed wires and "spine" that you can see because he has no external neck covering. It's freaking creepy.

You've seen it! You can't un-see it!​

-And just to cap things off, the now sparkless body of "Noble" awakens, seemingly feral. The end.

Pros
+Mostly the visuals

+BA/Nightscream continue to be a fun duo in a sort of sibling-esque way

+Rattrap's bit at the end

+Megatron embracing his inner Bond villain again.



Cons
-The return of jackass Nightscream (even if it's a sensible direction)

-Hell, the return of jackass pretty much everybody.

-Was it too soon to play out the Noble twist? It wasn't really even two whole episodes before they took their shot.

 

EPISODE 17: In Darkest Knight
DARKNESS!! NO PARENTS!!!


Guess what? We've got ourselves an A+ episode! And all it took was the return of a familiar character and a chance for the series to really do something interesting by exploring that character's growth in a way that doesn't rely on sudden shifts in personality or leaps ahead in their development which can be attributed to off-screen happenings or suddenly-there-all-along characterization aspects.

Silverbolt is back and he brings with him a whole wealth of potential new story opportunities as we learn about how he has handled his time as Jetstorm. It's a welcome boost from the somewhat slapdash way that Rhinox/Tankor got addressed and here it feels more natural and more earned, which makes it more interesting to deal with.

The bond between Silverbolt and Blackarachnia is also a strong as ever. Even if the new style of Silverbolt replaces his silly comedic sappiness from Beast Wars with brooding and self-loathing, the two characters play well off each other and provide a great center for the episode to revolve around.

The other big thing in its favor is that Megatron appears to be keeping his development, by which I mean his reversion to more of a Beast Wars inspired tone in his plotting and manipulations. Gone is the stern, angry, anti-organic-ranting dictator from season 1 and in his place is someone more manipulative, more controlled, more prone to bombast and spectacle and big flourishes of evil for the sake of being evil and flourishy. It's just another way that the series is starting to settle into a groove now that it only has like 9 episodes left after this one.

The complaints are also almost insignificant. Silverbolt looks pretty goofy and hideous in both of his new forms, but it's not like that makes him stand out among the cast of mostly hideous bots, so he gets a bit of a pass here. Also there's a small subplot devoted to Rattrap and Nightscream that is kind of forgettable and pointless except that it occupies the pair's time to keep them out of the rest of the goings on so we can focus on the BA/SB pairing instead. It's disappointing, but not damaging and mostly feels like a waste of our time and a waste of those characters.

Also this episode's major plot point means the end of Jetstorm, which is a terrible shame as he legitimately was the most entertaining character in the series, but since they didn't flub Silverbolt's introduction I'm not going to hold it too much against them here.

Regardless, bask in this very good, very entertaining and very well put-together ride through the highest point in Beast Machines so far.

Spoiler

-We begin in an awfully non-tech looking portion of Cybertron that's in ruins. The buildings look more like Earth buildings made of steel and concrete than the slick technological constructions that we're used to.

*gasp* Cybertron was Earth all along! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!
(I don't care that I already used basically the same Planet of the Apes gag before. It's iconic enough to pull double duty)​

-Nightscream is out on the hunt for Savage/Noble, saying that even if it was all a lie and it was Megs pulling the strings, there has to be more to him than the feral shell that's left. Based on what?

-And that's when he gets cornered by the Vehicons.

-Again it's a late writer credit and once again it's Steve Melching. He's still got 2 more episodes to go after this one.

-Apparently they've thrown their lot back in with Megatron

-The chase ends with a very awkward shot of Nightscream falling right at the camera and then it freezing as we get right into his mouth.

Say "aaaahhhhhh"​

-Back at base, BA wants to know what Rattrap's working on as he engages in some gadgeteering.

-Optimus walks in to discover that Nightscream is overdue from his scouting mission. so clearly something went wrong.

-So they immediately all end up on scene where Nightscream has been taken down and get into a big fight with the Vehicons, all set to THE MUSIC!!

I really should've done a tracker entry for this if I wasn't so lazy.

-Also I guess Cheetor flying by using his swords like a tiny glider are going to be a thing in this series.

-BA jumps on Jetstorm and attaches Rattrap's gizmo to his neck. Said gizmo being based on a spark extractor and a DNA scanner.

-But while the Maximals get the upper hand on the Vehicons, they forget that Megatron has a giant head ship now to tilt the scales. And it ends up abducting Cheetor and Optimus via a tractor beam/anti-grav abduction setup.

Beam me up, Megatron.​

-Meanwhile BA leads Jetstorm into the sewers, Thrust gets the jump on Nightscream, and then the feral Savage saves Nightscream from the bike bot. And Rattrap sees it all go down.

-BA leads Jetstorm through the very organicy looking interior of the planet to a pool of the organic goop. That's kind of weird since last time we got to see anything about their plot with the goop it was made a big deal that they only had a tiny amount. now they have enough to dunk Jetstorm in.

-Jetstorm is stuck in the puddle as the gadget activates and the DNA scanner hits on a bird skeleton in the rock.

-It also passes over a dinosaur of some type. Too bad that didn't take.

And as a result Jetstorm is reformatted into a bird and seemingly freed of the Jetstorm persona (there's no indication yet, but the frightened breathing is definitely Scott McNeil rather than Brian Drummond)

Remember when Blackarachnia made such a huge to-do about the Maximals not reformatting her from her Predacon setup and Optimus agreed they wouldn't until it turned out she was literally dying because of it? I guess it doesn't work both ways with her, because she seems more than happy to basically "kill" Jetstorm to get her boyfriend back.

-Also Silverbolt is just a bird now. No wolf form. Also no trumpet fanfare. Boo.

I wanted to make a Muppets Sam Eagle joke, but then I realized I don't remember any of his quirks​

-He takes his transformation well (screaming "NOOOOO!!!" and flying away)

-Meanwhile Megatron has Optimus and Cheetor held inside his ship.

-Megs is also a lot more... classic here as he interrogates them. More flippant, hammy, and in the vein of his Beast Wars personality, with less of the stoic angry racist.

This actually reminded me of something I neglected to bring up before:

Those bits of G1 fanservice reference like the Key to Vector Sigma or the Plasma Energy Chamber? Those were done at the insistence of Hasbro, not the showrunners. Apparently Hasbro people reviewed the episode scripts and said to the show staff "hey, you're doing <plot point> and it turns out that we have this thing from G1 that would serve that purpose flawlessly." It's a shame they couldn't loosen Dan DiDio's reins on the creative direction of the show a bit to allow them a bit more connectivity with Beast Wars.

-Nightscrema wakes up to find a feral Noble watching him. And though it seems somewhat limited, it does offer Nightscream a technorganic apple to eat, so at least it's sort of friendly?

-Elsewhere, Blackarachnia catches up to Silverbolt and hears all about the "new" Silverbolt: Brooding, angry, morose, self-hating, jaded, and violent. Basically everything his original Beast Wars version wasn't.

Primus, he's sooooooo edgy. Edgier than Nightscream.

-Rattrap finds Nightscream, but ends up agitating Noble to the point that he turns into Savage and attacks.

-BA got Silverbolt to take her to Megatron's ship (going to level with everyone who's likely already seen the series already and just say that it's called the "Grand Mal", so I can use that name instead of dancing around it.) but when she brings up rescuing Optimus and Cheetor Silverbolt just spits "they're your concern.

I can see why TheUltimateBum likes this version (at least I can see why he will like this version as I envision it probably playing out over the rest of the series). Someone grappling with the morality of what they did as Jetstorm is a more interesting character than a cheesy, cartoony white knight that he was in Beast Wars. But right now, in this moment in this episode, it's just another oppressively dark/dickish character constantly saying spiteful, morose things every time they open their mouth. And I had too much of that in the first season from the entire rest of the cast to need even more of it here and now.

-Apparently BA can now throw weird little shuriken things made out of her webbing and some crystals? Who knew? I know she's thrown things before that act like "web bombs" and explode into an encapsulating webbing net to capture targets, but this flies out and cleaves security drone in half and that's it. It does beg the question of how it even works that the webbing edges get to be rigid and razor sharp.

​

"It's not the webbing. It's the green crystals. Those can do anything! The real question is how she got them from the Earth's core to Cybertron!"

-The pair escape from a whole batch of drones into another room where they are confronted by Megatron! Or at least a rendering of his head composed out of Matrix-style raining code.

"Unfortunately, nobody can be told just what The Matrix is. You have to find out for yourself."
"Actually it's a crystal repository of the collected knowledge of all Autobot leaders of the past."
"oh. Ummmm. SPOOOKY CODE FACE!!! OOOOOOOOOooooo"​

Just to avoid confusion, I mean "Matrix" as in the Keeanu Reeves movie, not the Transformers McGuffin. Maybe I should've said Ghost in the Shell style raining code since that's where the Matrix stole it from (and I believe admitted as much?)

-There definitely is a bit more of a classic BW edge

-Megs makes the argument that Silverbolt should side with him because he gave the former Maximal an "honorable cause" in the restoration of Cybertron's status as a planet for mechanical life, free from the meddling caused by Optimus and his visions from a "malfunctioning computer." And though it makes sense given what side she's on, it feels weird to have Blackarachnia act as the counterpoint by giving a heartfelt plea for the sanctity of free will and the moral failing of Megatron indiscriminately murdering any and everyone who gets in his way. Not that BA was ever evil to the point of condoning genocide, but her thing was always rational, if discompassionate, self-interest. To the point that she made several snarky remarks about how she found the Maximals' ethical grandstanding and schmaltzy, saccharine speeches about life and hope and all that to be annoying or sickening. Yet here she is giving one of those speeches. She's become everything she ever hated.  

-As Megatron keeps pelting Silverbolt with the things that he "gave" the former general, Silverbolt angrily retorts "You. Gave me. NOTHING!" We won't talk about how angry Silverbolt sounds suspiciously like Dinobot, but instead focus on teh fact that he transforms in this moment. What happened to the technorganic transformation being a) non-intuitive and taking lots of practice and understanding to master, as it did for the rest of the team in season 1, and b) that it required a calm, centered mind free of the distraction of roiling, tumultuous emotions. Pretty sure Silverbolt running on nothing but bloodthirsty vengeance and rage isn't calm and centered.

Also he looks horrible. I think it's the big googly eyes that ruin it for me.

Dynamic Bird-Ninja poses!!​

-Silverbolt now comes armed with throwing-dagger-like feathers as his primary weapon. It's a nice through-line from the sword/spear like feathers he used before. And perhaps a sign that while previous Silverbolt seemed more inspired by classic chivalrous feudal knights, this version seems to be a bit more taken with ninja style imagery, or even something from Japanese mythology like a Tengu? In addition to the throwing dagger weapons, he strikes several martial-arts-style poses and his design includes a "hair" style reminiscent of a topknot

-Optimus calls BA "Arachnia" as he orders a retreat. Interesting twist. Don't think it ever happens again, but interesting.

-but after the dramatic escape from the falling Grand Mal, we finally remember that there's a B-Plot going on with Rattrap and Nightscream. Turns out they're still being chased by Savage and nothing important has happened in the last 10 minutes or so.

-At least until they escape out a tunnel and come face-to-face with Thrust. But that fight doesn't last since Savage intervenes and everyone pretty much bails on him, aside from Silverbolt chucking Thrust over a bridge into the river below.

-The rest of the Maximals are happy to have Silverbolt back, but he refuses to acknowledge them or shake Optimus' hand. Because he has to go off and brood about darkness.

-Optimus tells Nightscream that they can't help Noble now, but if the beast ever wants their help, he'll come to them. Very zen and very trusting that a non-sentient feral wolf monster will have the faculties to make that sort of decision on any level besides instinct.

-But all that wraps up so we have time to get one last conversation between BA and Silverbolt alone while they hash out what's been going on with him since he was reformatted. Thus we get the big reveal: Silverbolt's problem isn't with Megatron. Or the Maximals. It's with himself. He hates himself for enjoying what he did as Jetstorm, and for reveling in the freedom from his moral code and conscience and he doesn't know how he can live with that knowledge or what it has made him become.

No snarky comment here. This is actually nice and sweet even if it's all about dark, angsty Silverbolt (who would've ever thought that'd be a thing?)
​

For the first time since the show started, I'm actually totally cool with how they've changed a character. Unlike TheUltimateBum, it's not because I disliked how a character was before (I enjoyed cheesy, silly, Beast Wars Silverbolt for what he was supposed to be: a comedy character). Instead I just like the fact that Silverbolt does the thing I've felt was lacking from the journeys of the other BW cast members from where they were after the BW finale to where they are now: Provides a full, complete, uninterrupted through-line from point A to point B so we can see how getting here made perfect sense. We know BW Silverbolt going into the show.

We get a whole season's worth of Jetstorm being a psychotic, unhinged, immoral lunatic. We know from Rhinox that the captured Spark bots are fully aware of everything that's going on while they've been shoved in the Vehicon bodies. And then we get Silverbolt freed from the shackles of Jetstorm and hear him confront that he enjoyed all the stuff we saw Jetstorm do and how he can't reconcile that feeling with how he had always been previously.

It's a complete journey and it makes total sense. You can connect all the points along the way and there never feels like a skip or a jump or a "a bunch of stuff happened off screen and now it's fine" hand-wave.

And it makes sense because they played it out over a season. This is what we needed for the others. We needed to get a good long run of seeing how their new personalities played out and being able to put the pieces together. We needed something to show Rhinox being motivated to accept Megatron's doctrine rather than just "I was left alone in the Tankor body even though you didn't know about it and it was only a couple of weeks and now I hate nature. Booo flowers suck." We needed a lengthier display of megatron's problems reintegrating with Cybertronian society/tech in his partially organic dragon form to see him devolve into rampant anti-organic racism as he seizes power. We needed a better sense of watching the Maximals get from where they were on Beast Wars to where they are now. Obviously they wouldn't have had time for everything, but it would've helped immensely. and I think seeing Silverbolt here only reinforces that point.

Pros
+The reintroduction of Silverbolt is great

+Him and Blackarachnia together is entertaining even if it's not the silly, comedic sappy sweet it was in Beast Wars

+Megatron in command of the Grand Mal is cool and threatening. and he seems to be reverting a bit back closer to form from before this show.



Cons
-Silverbolt is pretty hideous in both new technorganic forms. Though he's hardly alone here

-The Nightscream/Rattrap B-plot is so underserved that it feels like a waste.

 

Again, this is something I really love, because the status quo is in constant flux. It really makes things more engaging because you know that the tables will keep turning and whether it will be good or bad for the heroes, you never knew.

This is something that the "mature" stuff of today (TFP, Prime Wars and the WFC trilogy) fails miserably at.

 

I'll admit, even for me the series is getting better. nowhere near Beast Wars' heights, but then again there's very little that can.

Thank goodness. It gets so damned old.

Babylon five would be proud.  

I do like BA has this kind of relationship with someone. Almost... normal.

I've always felt RID 2001 has been overlooked and underrated, but we'll see.

Spider-Man off to the side is going, "Wait, What?!"  

Indeed! That does seem pretty damned callous.

And after the insanity of the season finale, I can forgive them for being confused about who's attacking who.

I mean, she out-Starscreamed Starscream. That's something you wanna put on your resume!

the show giveth, and the show taketh away.

Seems to be a hint of xenomorph in the mouth, too.

oh, how I miss this design.

there never really was any excuse.

So like Beaker in a Muppet Christmas Carol?  

So much cliffhanging our arms are getting tired!

Oh, definitely not. Just reusing voice actors.  

So he looks and sounds stupid.

I kinda wish that had happened...

Par for the fucking course with the BM Maximal toys.  

Oh, fuck... I can't begin to tell you how goofy they look. Like this is out of a high school "ac-TING!" play.

Next thing you know he'll try and sell you a used car off of Swindle's used car lot, or one from a certain Joe Broca...  

I guess things were too good to last...

A shame. Beast Machines really was pretty damned rushed. Pacing definitely was an issue.

oh, great. If you know your hentai, you know where this is going.  

Time smooths over many a rough edge.

I wish he had never left.  

Knowing Megatron he set these to activate after he might've supposedly died as a final "Fuck you" to anyone trying to get into the Grand Mal.

That's why it made no sense, to throw us off the trail! Diabolical! :O

Oh, please. Unicron isn't big enough to do that!

That's our scheming, planning and plotting Megatron we all know and love to hate! Welcome back, buddy!  

Just when I think their designs can't be any worse... oh, and check out the rabbit ears Nightscream has.

Optimus Prime becomes the new Green Lantern. A shame we never got that crossover...  

Infinitely better. Even I'll admit that.

How many times have I reference Queen?  

Although we'll see later on he's right, at the moment it would seem there to be nothing left of Savage. Except maybe snapping into a Slim Jim and top-rope elbow drops.

That is tripping my uncanny valley senses something fierce.

Eh, we'll forgive you for it. It might've broken the counter.  

oh, great. Megatron's behind those corn field abductions!

Did he have popcorn?  

Ugh, here it comes...

Well, it's BA. I can kinda see it that she wants her boyfriend back.

Basically "'MERIKA!" and red-blooded patriotism taken to eleven.

Considering what he looks like... and I know you said you didn't watch toy reviews, Liege, but I think this one you might wanna check out...

Holy... a positive example of executive meddling?! What new spore of madness is this?

Okay, folks! Let's break out the Linkin park and/or Pearl jam jokes!

At this point it's just straight-up magic with them.

Now all we need to do is figure out who put the crystals there in the first place!

I thought you meant the repository of all Time Lord consciousness after they die? No? What about John Matrix from Commando?  

Oh, that was so last season!

I cannot being to tell you how much I hate how he looks. This... this might beat out Nightscream for worst Maximal design. Maybe.

I'd make a joke... but for once this makes sense and is good, as we'll see later on.

I do like this, not brushing it under the rug and airing it out. Hell, it's actually mentally healthy for him not to bottle it up and admit his problems.

Nothing I can add except, "Agreed."

 

Wolf in the Fold will be out tonight.

Maybe Home Soil too depending on how late my hockey game runs (or how long we go before I get frustrated and depressed and turn it off  ) but I'm less confident about that.

 

I'm going to do a big response post soon...I just have to work up the desire to do it now that there's like five that I need to cover.

 

Beast Machines Silver Bolt is genuinely one of the ugliest transformers of all time and it sucks that he's stuck with it.

If he had been allowed to keep Jetstorms body while still becoming Silverbolt again, I sincerely believe BM's fandom reputation would jump a point or 4.

 

EPISODE 18: A Wolf in the Fold
Did we travel back in time to season 1 while I wasn't looking?


Did the writers think we missed how the characters were in season 1? Did they look at the evolution of the Maximal team's relationship into this season and say "nah, we need them to squabble and bicker more. That's what hooked the audience in."?

Because if they didn't, then I don't get what they were going for in this episode. The entirety of it centers around the infighting and sniping brought out by the virus that the gang is infected with. There are some fun bits and zingers in their bickering, and the fact that it's virus-aided makes it a little bit less angsty and serious than it was when the beefs were more legitimate in season 1. But that doesn't mean that it isn't tiring to get a rehash of a subplot we dealt with for 13 episodes out of nowhere today.

What's worse is that the virus comes and goes rather abruptly, with a clumsy, ill-defined beginning and a quick out-of-nowhere conclusion that doesn't really get proper due to make sense of it. So we lurch into the major plot, that plot spends the better part of 20 minutes annoying the audience, and then as quickly as it came it goes.

Of course the episode isn't entirely about the bickering and in-fighting. The rest of it is mostly about Optimus learning why Megatron wanted to engineer the bickering and in-fighting. For as minimal of a place as that holds in the runtime of this one, it's probably by far the most interesting and impactful part. Megatron's argument about why he opposes Optimus is not without its merits and the realization that not only was all the fighting born from some leftover insecurities and tiffs bubbling under the surface for the Maximals, but also that Optimus is left to wonder if Megatron is actually right to disparage the Maximals and their impact on the planet hints at a deeper potential that could pay off in a big way (if I didn't already know from discussions on the rest of the series that said potential won't pay off and in fact none of this will ever be significant to the series' plot ever again after this episode).

The problem is that this interesting portion of the episode is by far the minority of the focus. Instead of using that as the driving force for what's happening, it's more of a sidebar and talking point for the resolution and it feels under-served because of it. And with that the whole episode just feels kind of "meh." It treads ground we've covered before, doesn't really explain itself on either end of the focal arc, and what value it could get from this experiment is all for naught in the remaining 8 episodes of the series.

The high points prevent it from falling into the realm of the terrible, but the shortcomings also stop it from climbing up above the tier of base mediocrity.

Spoiler

-Huh, no recap to start this one. First time since Season 1 that's happened. I guess since last episode wrapped up most of the major ongoing plot elements in the fallout of the season finale battle this is a chance to breathe a bit.

-Optimus thanks Blackarachnia for bringing Silverbolt back to the Maximal cause, to which Cheetor says "The whole gang is finally back together again."

You know, except for Rhinox, Dinobot, Depth Charge, Tigerhawk, Tigatron, and Airrazor. But it's pretty close.

-At least they mention Rhinox a moment later. But everyone else? Nerp.

-Silverbolt is still uneasy about all the stuff he revealed last episode, but BA reassures him "we'll all need time to adjust now that we have a moment to breathe."

BA... BA, BA, BA, BA, BA.... Do you know what part of that sentence you shouldn't have said?

-Of course, on cue, the earth starts to quake.

Ok, hang on a sec, nerdy question time: should we still call it an earthquake if it's on Cybertron? Isn't it a Cybertronquake? Because it's neither earth in the sense of that being the name of the planet nor that there's small-"e" earth (dirt) under their feet for the most part.

-Rattrap: "You just had to go and jinx it, didn't ya?"

See? He knows what I'm talking about.

-Above them, the Grand Mal is firing massive tentacles into the ground. Megatron suddenly has a rather pronounced affinity for tentacle devices, doesn't he?

I'm sure psychologists would have a field day with all of Megatron's over-compensating phallic imagery.​

-While there wasn't a recap to start the episode, this one does continue the new pattern of withholding the episode title and writer credit until after the first commercial break. Because it takes this long to find out that the episode is the last one written by Brynne Chandler Reaves.

-The tentacles begin to send out pulses and when the Maximals head out to investigate, Silverbolt accidentally steps on one of the pulses, causing a weird little machine thing to embed itself in the back of his neck.

Did Megatron learn nothing from Tarantulas? He should've branded this little thing with his logo.​

-which then turns his eyes red.

Silverbolt reacts violently to the realization that his new face barely has a nose.​

-Strangely none of the Maximals hear him screaming his robo-lungs out as the thing infects him. Cheetor only notices something's up when he hears a quiet cough and turns around to see Silverbolt crumpled to the ground.

-Which is necessary so he doesn't become suspicious, allowing him to touch Silverbolt's shoulder and become infected himself. Great.

-The other thing of note is that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the infection takes hold. Silverbolt stepped on a pulse in robot mode, while Optimus strides right through several in gorilla mode and is unaffected. Ok, so beast modes are immune, right? Well, then explain Rattrap, whose wheel-based travel means he can't step over the pulses like everyone else had been doing. And yet he doesn't get infected until Cheetor steps on his tail.

-And then just to make things more confusing, Cheetor and Rattrap were both infected more or less by accident or indifference. But when Rattrap is compromised, the first thing he does is suspiciously engineer an opportunity to high-five Nightscream, infecting him in the process. So does this virus thing drive its hosts to infect others? Or is it just random chance?

-At least Silverbolt infecting Blackarachnia is relatively within-norms for him, doing so by grasping her around her back/waist and pulling her into a sort of sidelong embrace.

-But here we get another quirk as her face contorts (with a sort of "struggling servo-motor" noise like she's trying to fight against it) awkwardly. Rattrap had a couple of brief facial tics, and Silverbolt's contorted in pain since he was the only one to have the weird gadget thing embed itself in him, but Cheetor showed no strong physical signs of infection other than a shocked look as the viral code appeared in his optics briefly before vanishing and sending him back on his way.

-We're not even 5 minutes in and I've spent more time dissecting the inconsistencies in how this has been handled than I have actually watching the episode.

-Uninfected and unaware, Optimus doles out orders for the rest of his troops, who immediately turn on him and start hurling insults.

-And then they star screaming at each other and acting like assholes.

-So... basically this virus makes everyone act like it's season 1 again? Seems like kind of a pointless endeavor. It's not like the Maximals needed help being dicks to each other.

Pictured: The Maximals in their natural habitat.​

-And this is apparently so normalized by now that Optimus tries to calm them down, but takes their newfound jerk behavior in stride rather than thinking "they weren't like this 5 minutes ago, something weird is going on."

-In fact his solution is to just leave them there and go fight Megatron himself. At least until he sees them now getting attacked by Thrust and the remaining Vehicons and decides to intervene.

-Only to get knocked out by a stray tentacle and sent hurtling unconscious down hundreds of feet to the ground below.

-Except... Megatron saves him? Seriously, one of the tentacles swoops down and scoops him out of the air rather gently.

-Meanwhile, everyone else continues screaming at each other.

-Megatron speaks to Optimus after having brought him inside the Grand Mal, intent on "settling things" once and for all.

-And the whole virus and tentacle thing was just a means of getting Optimus' attention. Now this sort of theatricality is the Megatron I remember.

-So everyone rages at each other, but somehow in spite of that Blackarachnia is still flirting with Silverbolt.

-And then after all the fighting Silverbolt decides that he never should've come back to the Maximals, so he leaves. For which BA insults him, and then she snaps at Rattrap for insulting him.

-Really, this is just a mildly amped up version of how everyone "got along" in season 1.

-Also it seems that Megatron's plan this whole time was to use the virus and the Maximal infighting to demonstrate the "disharmony" that comes from the planet not following his will and being under his command. It would be a pretty crafty plan if it wasn't also so blatantly obvious that this conflict is manufactured and unnatural. Or at least it should be obvious if Optimus wasn't so oblivious to it.

-In fact it takes an infected Cheetor to figure out something weird is going on.

-Or... maybe the virus stops working when Cheetor is in beast mode? His eyes weren't glowing. It's really unclear.

-Elsewhere, Silverbolt finally figures out there's something on his neck and removes it. No idea if this is supposed to fix him or not, though I would lean towards "probably not."

-Optimus finally arrives back at the Maximals' location, screaming at them to stop because they're "soldiers, teammates, friends!"

If we're going to get picky, the Axalon was a science ship. Blackarachnia is a reformed Predacon who has never been about combat, and Nightscream is a total civilian. It's fair to say that none of them are really soldiers.

-Everyone turns on Optimus and Cheetor kicks the crap out of him, infecting him in the process.

-So welcome back Ragemonster Optimus. It's been too long. Or not long enough.

-But just as he's about to kill everyone, Silverbolt shows up to put a stop to things, having indeed deduced what happened (and no, he's not actually cured.) He also debuts some smoke bomb feather darts, which are kind of cool.

-5 minutes ago everyone was raging at Optimus and ready to kill him because they didn't want him to boss them around anymore in their rage-fueled psycho fits. But now Optimus chooses to accept Silverbolt's assertion that they're being manipulated and immediately Rattrap and Cheetor stand down, with Cheetor specifically saying "if Optimus trusts you that's good enough for me." Cheetor's last interaction with Optimus in this episode was to scream a "who died and made you boss?" insult at him. So this is a pretty quick turnaround. Of course it has to be since we've only got 5 minutes left.

-Ok, some of this is coming into focus. The reason that the green pulses never did anything to anyone besides Silverbolt is because they weren't meant to. The waves were only to activate the virus that was already planted in Silverbolt, who could then spread it to everyone else.

That makes a lot more sense. And is actually kind of clever.

-Out of nowhere Nightscream pipes up and says the virus sounds like "that ancient hate plague virus". This would appear to be another one of those Hasbro-suggested G1 callbacks. Though it's funny that this is apparently something that was taught in Maximal history class and yet things from right around the same time period like the events of the Sunbow series and Marvel comics are shrouded in myth and legend. I know this can be explained away by the broad strokes approach that Beast Wars initiated with its place in any prior canon, but it's still weird.

-Also apparently Megatron is able to watch them have this whole conversation.

-Megatron starts another quake and out of nowhere Optimus suddenly says "that's it! We have to work together to re-form our neural pathways!"

Holy ass-pull technobabble solutions, Batman.

-So as Megatron starts demolishing the city and the tunnels around them, the Maximals

-Megs' assault also demolishes poor Thrust, who is, of course, the only remaining Vehicon general.

-As the cavern collapses, Silverbolt falls down a pit, necessitating Blackarachnia trying to rescue him with a web line. But of course since she's like half his size now it's not exactly an easy proposition for her.

"this would be a lot easier if I had feet."​

-Then Rattrap and Cheetor fall down the pit too, so Nightscream dives down to rescue them. And he somehow manages to almost pull the other 4 Maximals up by himself too.

-Optimus, after a big "NOOOOO!!!" (which is practically his catchphrase in this series) dives in after them and hauls everyone up by himself. And somehow in the process the virus is cured. How? Shut up, that's how.

-So Megatron's plan is foiled and he retreats.

-Optimus then dispenses the predictable sage wisdom at the end: that the seeds of their discontent were within them all along and that the virus, while responsible for the uncontrolled nature of their outbursts, didn't make them angry at each other out of nothing.

-Then he finishes with something unexpected: He wonders if Megatron's assertion that Optimus' plan for the dominance of organic or Technorganic life on Cybertron is what creates the opportunity for disharmony and chaos to exist, and that only through his grand technological plan for unity can true peace be achieved.

A heady and somewhat dangerous potential pondering from Optimus, and the kind of thing that could shake his beliefs to their core and force a radical re-examining of everything he's believed in since the series began.

-Too bad the Wiki indicates that none of this happens and Optimus never brings up these misgivings ever again.

-Close on Megatron's ominous laughter.

Pros
+The fighting is kind of fun (or at least more fun than the way they used to fight in season 1) if only because there are some good "comedic-pissiness" zingers and one-liners included

+Megatron makes a not-entirely-terrible argument for why Optimus' goals might not be the most beneficial to Cybertron

+and Optimus even considers the truth of the matter at the episode's end

+the Hate Plague reference is brief but welcome.



Cons
-We already had a whole season of everyone being dicks to one another, we didn't need another episode of it now

-overall the entire plot of the episode is kind of shallow

-The solution to the virus is struck upon out of nowhere and then cured equally abruptly and without explanation.

-Optimus' realization at the end is known to be utterly meaningless.

-Though they do eventually clear up the mechanics of it, the way the virus acts at first is a little bit muddled and difficult to parse.

 

Again, I prefer how it's handled here instead of TFP. In TFP, there is no reason at all for the Autobots being hostile (especially Arcee and Ratchet, who for me were the worst characters in TFP), but here, they all are outcasts and need to hide, so again, the tension is understandable. John McClane also tends to be quite harsh in his words when things go sour, so the hostility during the situation is understandable.

And again, I prefer the handling of the Hate Plague here instead of how it was handled in Return of Optimus Prime. I really liked that we got a better showcase of it here, and at a surprisingly smaller scale.

 

Basically me after most weekends.

I'd extend that to pretty much all the Maximal designs, but yeah. Silverbolt is definitely the worst of the worst.

Oh, great. This is what drove me away from the series back in the day.

Okay, I will give them points for there being an external reason.

Sounds like something that should've been several episodes. Beast Machines' short runtime bites it in the waste-extraction unit again.

Well, to be kinda fair... except for Rhinox the others died before they got back to Cybertron.

Might as well said she's four days to retirement and bought a boat!

Just 'quake'? A ground tremor?

Rattrap speaks for all of us, there.

oh, no! Megatron hacked into Earth's computers and downloaded all the tentacle hentai!  

And that he might be the ugliest Transformer in existence.

Plot-relevant hearing! v

You spent more time doing that then the writers did!

The Maximals wishing they had their BW designs...

So he's tsundere for Optimus? Great...  

Sorry, megs. You've got eight more episodes before that can happen.  

Yeah. This is on the level of the Joker being pissed whenever Batman stops one of his murderous schemes.

The last sentence there sums it up perfectly. ugh, this should've been a two-parter!

oh, my god! Massive kudos to the writers, then.

To be fair the hate plague from season three wasn't the first time it spread.

Captain Janeway would be proud of that technobabble.

Okay, good to read. I hope this brings-

Never mind....

 

I agree that Silverbolt is hard to look at. I'm not sure I can separate him from how much I dislike Nightscream's overall look or bits and pieces of most of the others, but the giant googly eyes and tiny nose/mouth undercut how hard they try to make him all moody and dramatic because his head looks like it should belong to a silly comedy character. Somehow even his inherently silly dog face in Beast Wars managed to better suit the dramatic scenes he was involved in than this one does.

I feel like having him keep Jetstorm's body might not have solved anything though because a) it would've made him a constant reminder that we don't have Jetstorm anymore and b) I don't know if Jetstorm's face is expressive enough to convey the kind of emotion his character arc requires. I think it's the reason that the visor/mouthplate combo face is largely confined to either Decepticons or stoic/badass Autobots. Because it does clamp down on how much emotion you can get out of their facial expressions.

 

EPISODE 19: HOME SOIL
A plant-based Transformer? Don't laugh. It's actually pretty good.


There's only 7 episodes to go before the finale, better add a new character!

I joke, but Botanica is actually a fun and interesting addition, treading new ground for a Transformer by being a plant-based Transformer, while also having a solid voice and creating some interesting new dynamics for the gang.

And it's interesting getting to the point of her addition to the team through a very horror-inspired trip into the crashed ship. It's not the first time we've gone this route and it won't be the last, but it's always entertaining to see how well the franchise takes to this plot type when it occurs.

We're also given a bit of needed development for Silverbolt to make sure he doesn't end up as a one-note moper who brings down every scene he's in with his guilt. I'm happy they didn't just "cure" him in one go, but the progress is a welcome move forward for his arc.

The downside to the Silverbolt development is that it comes with Blackarachnia suddenly becoming quite whiny and offended by Silverbolt's choices and being kind of annoying as she turns all of this out to be about how Silverbolt's issues impact her.

And while Botanica is a cool new addition, she suffers from the same issue as with Nightscream: She's shown to be markedly more powerful than the other Maximals, which somewhat kneecaps the classic characters by making it seem as if they're less important and less worthy of your interest and respect as the new ones. I dislike playing down the existing characters to shill the new ones because of how lazy it feels.

I don't have a lot to say about this episode in terms of a review because it's not a particularly deep or densely packed plot. but it's entertaining for what it is.

Spoiler

-Our opening shot is a different look at Cybertron than we've seen before. It's more detailed than we've seen before, but still shows some of the limitations of the models of the era.

So.. do bots just live underneath those big shell-like pieces?​

-And at the same time a ship approaches and is shot down by planetary defences.

-But meanwhile, Optimus laments that the technorganic trees are dying. And so he mopes. But at least he's not raging about it.

-As everyone surfaces to find out about the crash, Cheetor mentions the hope of finding another "Transformer". I know, branding. But it remains somehow awkward that the gang don't refer to themselves as Cybertronians.

-Nightscream and Silverbolt are dubious about finding anything good in the crashed ship. Instead the surprising voice of compassion and optimism is Blackarachnia.

It's really starting to weird me out that the ex-Predacon with a notable and demonstrated selfish streak is apparently the first one to speak up on the importance of being altruistic.

-Back from the commercial break as the Maximals approach the crash site, we get two important things:

1) The Music. And it's not even a fight scene.

2)

This episode's writer, Meg McLaughlin, is contributing her only Beast Machines script. But she actually has a significant other bit of Transformers history on her resume. She was the credited writer for "Starscream's Ghost" in G1.

-Nightscream continues to show himself to be the most powerful maximal as the gang is interrupted by Thrust and his cycle drones. While BA, Nightscream, Cheetor, and Rattrap each down a drone with little mess, Nightscream's sonic cannon causes his target to explode.

-Needing to now catch up to Thrust before he gets to the crash site, Silverbolt suggests pairing up with Nightscream so they can get there together via air. In the background Blackarachnia shoots a pretty significant glare at them. I guess it was too much to ask that their storyline not be subject to some noticeable strife and conflict?

Is she still glad she saved him?​

-And then Nightscream whinges about the assignment, calling Silverbolt "Typhoid Mary" after the events of last episode.

That's a pretty specific Earth-related allusion to draw, kid. I guess his love/knowledge of history extends to Earth history too?

-Moments later he and Silverbolt also make a Mononpoly "do not pass go" reference. As they deal with aero drones (aka constant reminders that Jetstorm is gone)

-Meanwhile in the tunnels, Blackarachnia complains that Silverbolt "snubbed" her after "all the trouble she went through to get him back". Kinda harsh, no? He didn't choose Nightscream because they're buddies or anything. He chose to go with Nightscream because they're the two fliers and thus have an avenue with which to work together.

-The Maximals are really lucky that Megatron hasn't learned not to put easily accessible computer ports on the exterior of his troops. Rattrap is easily able to commandeer a mole tank that attacks him and BA because of it.

-Cheetor and Optimus get surrounded by tank drones as Thrust taunts them, but then Silverbolt and Nightscream appear to save the day. What are you two doing? The point was to get to the ship before Thrust. He stopped, so you should've used the opportunity to get ahead of him. Now you've just put the team back in the situation it was in to begin with: trailing Thrust as he heads towards the objective unopposed.

-They never show it up close, but Nightscream's method for sucking the energy out of other bots is actually to shoot his teeth out. In a way that looks like a senior citizen spitting out their dentures.

At night he keeps them in a glass of water at his bedside.​

-Ell, it's too late for the Maximals. Thrust reaches the ship first. Only to find he can't get in before Rattrap's stolen mole drone bursts up behind him. And then Optimus arrives moments later.

-Oddly, Rattrap transforms to rat mode to interface with the ship even though normally he's had to do that in robot mode before.

-inside the ship they find it creepily abandoned and filled with plant life. Plant life that bursts out of a vent and attacks Silverbolt like we've stumbled into a horror movie.

-And when we return from the break, it's now attacking everyone.

Legally distinct from and unrelated to Little Shop of Horrors.​

-After fending off the plant creature, the gang spreads out in the ship to track it down before it can damage Cybertron. So we're basically in full horror movie mode now as everyone splits up to scout around, including leaving Blackarachnia and Silverbolt together. Sadly they don't start griping about their problems or making out, thereby averting most horror movie tropes.

-But while everyone is talking about the creature it escapes and heads down the tunnel dug up by Rattrap earlier. And yet in all of this Nightscream still sees fit to blame Silverbolt, because I guess now that there's a new guy to pick on he's going to go back to being an asshole.

-Somehow when everyone chases it into hte depths of the planet, nobody notices that Thrust is following them. Real observant, guys.

-Before they can attack the creature again though, Optimus notices sparks flying from it and decides to try reformatting it, surmising it's actually a Cybertronian.

-It works, and we are introduced to our newest cast member, albeit not with her name yet. But since it's too awkward to have to work around that for the next 5 minutes, screw it. Spoilers: Meet Botanica.

What a cunning disguise. You'd never guess this was actually a sentient being masquerading as a humanoid plant.​

Botanica is a wealth if interesting tidbits. First, the standard issue casting info. She's voiced by long-time Canadian voice actress Kathleen Barr. Barr's career stretches back to the mid 80s with anime spots in series such as Ranma 1/2 and Galaxy Express 999, voicing the Dark Queen in the aborted pilot/"Special" adaptation of the Battletoads video game (along with Ian Corlett and Scott McNeil. The script was also handled by frequent Transformers writer David Wise), and then breaking out in a variety of 90s and 2000s cartoons such as multiple Conan adaptations, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, Darkstalkers, GI Joe Extreme, Street Fighter, Extreme Dinosaurs, Mummies Alive!, Sonic Underground, the 2003 He-Man reboot (as Evil-Lyn), and of recent significance as a pair of recurring roles in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. But her biggest and most enduring role is as Dot Matrix in ReBoot for the show's entire run and as a brief cameo in the repellant "sequel" ReBoot: The Guardian Code. As one of the most prominent members of the Vancouver voice acting community who hasn't relocated to the US, she tends to cross paths a lot with the other cast members of this show, as evidenced by this silly picture taken from TFWiki that was part of a promotional shoot featuring her, Ian Corlett, and Garry Chalk:



I have no idea what's going on there.  

Oddly for someone so prolific and given how we're going to be getting into the Unicron trilogy, which was dubbed entirely in Canada using a lot of Vancouver based talent, Botanica is Barr's only Transformers role to date.

But back onto the character, Botanica is a first in terms of being our introduction to a Transformer whose alternate mode is plant-based. It turns out that this concept was broached with the series writers by the folks at Hasbro, who wanted to use the opportunity to expand the possibilities of what a Transformer could be beyond vehicles, tech, and animals (and tech animals).

What makes this even more interesting is that they did this knowing that Botanica was never going to receive a toy. And in fact she never has received a toy since then either. Ever. Kudos to them for making a fun creative decision and some positive executive meddling in a situation that they could've easily just phoned it in since the character was never going to achieve their primary goal for most TF TV shows.

Botanica also has a vaguely I-don't-know-what-the-hell-it-is accent. It's... like halfway between generically Jamaican/Carribean and... I dunno, maybe Indian?

-Back on track, Botanica fills us in on her history. Her ship landed on a planet populated by chlorophyll based life, which is where the plant alt mode came from. Before she adapted it though, a brief image of her pre-format body shows that she is once again made of that same generic robot shape used on here before (taken from the giant Power Rangers/Sentai parody episode of ReBoot) and her head looks like it was probably Depth Charge's.

Depth Charge's secret long-lost sister?​

The very verdant and detailed forest that Botanica's ship touches down on in its establishing shot looks quite polished for something used as a one-off for this backstory reveal, doesn't it? That's because it's actually repurposed from a different show. It's Planet Plant from Shadow Raiders, a pivotal part of that show's story arc.

Since this might be the last opportunity I have to comment on it, and in case you haven't grown sick of me doing so already: Go watch Shadow Raiders. You can find the entire series on Youtube via a pair of playlists on one user's channel. In spite of the playlist listing being Spanish/Portuguese, the episodes are the original English with no subtitles or dubbing. It's a short 26 episode run like Beast Machines and is a fantastically fun and dramatic show based incredibly loosely on the War Planets toyline from the time. I don't like playing the "It's like Game of Thrones but... X" comparison game, but it has elements of that in its political intrigue and sense of worldbuilding and it features much of the Beast Wars and ReBoot voice cast among its ranks. I still cannot stress enough how much I love that show and how I wish it had gotten the Shout DVD treatment like ReBoot and Beast Wars did, as I feel that those two shows and Shadow Raiders are the trinity of the best work that Mainframe Entertainment put out.

If you are interested and can't find the playlists, let me know and I can pass along the links. I don't want to post them if I don't have to because there's always the risk that someone comes by and initiates a DMCA takedown even though absolutely nobody shows any interest in reviving broadcasts of the series on streaming services or home media. The only DVDs that seem to exist for it are from the UK or are fragmented collections of just a couple episodes at a time (and not encompassing the entire series)

Moving on...

-Cheetor reminds us that the Axalon was a scientific ship and not a war vessel, something that I feel like this series and Beast Wars forgot at time.

-But their information sharing session is interrupted as tank drones burst through the walls and attack the orchard the Maximals had been tending.

-And of course through all of this what sets Botanica off isn't the rest of the Maximals being attacked, it's the tank drones crushing the trees.

-Rattrap seems to have replaced "we're all gonna die" with "we're trapped like rats" as his running gag/catchphrase. It's not terrible, but it lacks the same punch.

-Botanica though is less convinced they're doomed and transforms into a slightly different planty mode and this is one thing I've always been confused about: Which mode is which for her? Was the first mode revealed for her, which she spent most of the previous act in her robot mode? Or is this new modw with its high plant-like collar and translucent components her robot mode and the previous one is her plant-based alt-mode?

Transforms from sentient plant to slightly different sentient plant!​

I don't think I ever figured it out for sure. Though a glance at the wiki now indicates that the first mode was her alt mode and this one is her robot mode.

-Holy crap! She fires of a lightning based attack that chains from tank drone to tank drone and takes all of them out in one shot. There's at least 20 that you can see getting zapped in this one shot and they're all down like it was nothing. Move over Nightscream, you're no longer the strongest Maximal.

Take a break everyone. Maybe grab a sandwich. She's got this.​

-Not only does she take the drones out, they disintegrate! DAMN!

-And so Thrust does the logical thing: Threatens her while making a valiant retreat.

-Botanica commends Optimus on his "excellent team" even though they did sweet eff-all and she was the one that took down the entire attacking Vehicon brigade by herself.

-Meanwhile Nightscream has come around on Silverbolt, who in turn seems almost happy to have gotten through to the kid. But when BA teases him about it, he tries to go back to sullen, jaded, loner domain with a not-disaffected-enough "whatever." It's a nice reminder that Silverbolt can do comedy when he's not busy being dark and broody.

-But buddy, just flirt with your girlfriend already. Watching the two of you tiptoe around each other is getting old.

-Optimus laments that the technorganic trees are dying (the ones that weren't crusehd by the tank drones) and Botanica figures out the problem in about 10 seconds: Fluorescent lights. She takes out the artificial lighting in the cavern and replaces it with a light source of her own and suddenly the trees all spring back to health. And you can tell that they were fluorescent lights bceause they hummed.

-Botanica officially joins the Maximals so we can cut to above as the Grand Mal transforms into a spaceship mode, wipes out her ship, and Thrust stomps on a plant as a big moral victory.

-And with a blunt metaphor shot of a plant burning to ash in the fire of Botanica's ship, Megatron announces they must purge the organic infestation once and for all. Dun dun dun.

But what does it mean?​

Pros
+Fun horror-esque atmosphere

+Botanica is interesting conceptually

+And a new character is always welcome

+Silverbolt is turning a corner



Cons
-Blackarachnia's weird jealous tiff is kind of annoying and makes her act stupid.

-Botanica finishes off a ton of drones rather easily, making her a bit overpowered.

 

Personally, I kinda like that since I felt it was pretty much in-character.

What I liked about it is that they decided to make her a pacifist so she really has a bit of hesitation in using her powers. In fact, I'm glad that she only uses them when necessary, because if she didn't, it really would have been way too easy for the Maximals.

 

Well, when did Tigerhawk appear? Or all the characters in the Rebirth?  

Character progression for the win!

Looks a lot better and more coherent than what we saw of Cybertron in Dark of the Moon!

This does bring up an interesting question. There's Cybertronian colonies and ships out there. What do they, or hell, the rest of the galaxy, think about what's going on with Cybertron?

Oh, don't do this to her, show!

It's weird... too weird.

At this point I'm surprised Rattrap hasn't amassed a small army of drones.

That... that... wow. That looks so damned stupid. Bela Lugosi would kick his ass!

Well, at least it'll increase their survival chances.  

I actually like it, and it makes sense there'd be Transformers with plant-based alt modes. We've had vehicles and other pieces of technology, beast modes. Hell, Pretenders could count as human and humanoid-based disguises.

I agree with this. Damned good of them to do this.

One wonders if this isn't some semi-standardized body template for the Maximals.

Well, eventually in Beast Wars it kinda had to get left by the wayside when the stakes got ramped up enough. That and probably most of the scientists were in the stasis pods and are now dead...

I can see Botanica either being a BAF, a weapnizer/modulator/fossilizer-type, or hell, they released a Quintesson toy.

Especially since we KNOW they 'will' back in Beast Wars!

 

I had banked on getting 1-2 parts of Sparkwar out tonight, but this has been a slow watch as I've stopped at several points in part 1 for lengthy digressions or rapid-fire comments. So chances are I'll either do a double-bill tomorrow (Sunday) and finish up part 3 a day late on Monday or if the last two parts go exceptionally fast maybe I can blitz all 3 parts out tomorrow night. We'll see.

 

just skip a bunch of stuff to save time and only respond to the most important stuff. I don't mind. I've wanted to respond more to response posts as well but time just hasn't been on my side, so I'm not bothered one bit by anyone picking and choosing their callouts so that they're not quoting posts for 3 hours at a time  

 

I live! Time for a post where I comment about all the episodes I haven't responded to yet but in much less detail than usual!

While Zealot Primal was interesting from a writing perspective, it didn't make much sense for Optimus' character to blindly follow the Oracle without being sure of what it was trying to tell him (especially once we saw that Rhinox/Tankor could tamper with it).

The epitome of not thinking things through.

As much fun as eeeevil Rhinox is, I agree that they dropped the ball with him.

Yay for creativity and character development!

Interesting! I wonder how often episodes have different airing dates in different countries.

It's kind of like that bit in the Arkham Asylum game where you're fighting the Scarecrow and the game makes you think it's crashed and that you're going to have to start all over again.

I was not sad to see Zealot Primal go.

Finally!
Beast Machines sure loves its crazy visions.

Optimus' enlightenment is more important than Cybertron potentially getting destroyed!

Trippy! Props to the animators for their excellent design work.

This is what happens when you write yourself into a corner with a character by radically shifting their behavior with little on-screen justification.
"Let's just pretend that never happened!"

 

More props to the animators for visually interesting (and totally bonkers) visuals. Were these trippy scenes supposed to emphasize the show's mysticism, I wonder?

It was SCIENCE!

I would guess that it was a reference if the writers had been allowed to watch G1, but as it is....who knows?

It looks like the end result of Wil E. Coyote getting run over by a train.

Yay! Cheetor's finally getting character development that doesn't involve him arguing with Optimus!

I won't miss it if it's gone.

I love this scene. It's great.

The writers are hoping that we forgot about that. Just like they were hoping that we would forget about how choppy Rhinox's heel-turn was.

Blackarachnia won't let Jestorm be Jetstorm if he wants to be for long!

Is it just me, or does it seem like Cheetor's character development is of the "two steps forward, one step back" variety?

I like his new role much better.

Character consistency is overrated.

I'm starting to wonder if the animators were on drugs. Or had a secret passion for surrealism.

It kind of reminds me of how Super-God Masterforce seemed to imply that humans using Transtectors were superior to Cybertronians.

Props to the animators for more great design work.

I love Megatron's Giant Floating Head (henceforth the GFH) so much.

 

It really is quite good at producing creepy episodes (though I don't think anything in the franchise will ever top the horror that is the Megatron/Ratchet fusion from the Marvel Comics).

David Kaye did such a good job voicing him that I felt sorry for him even though I knew the twist!

HURRAH!

 

That, and the fact that the audience has read or watched so many mystery plots that in order to surprise them, you basically have to cheat.

Maybe Rattrap hated Beast Wars Silverbolt as much as @TheUltimateBum does?

Yeah, maybe let someone else make the promises.

YAY!

GET A NEW TRACK ALREADY!

It also seems to lack eyes.

How could anyone think that this was even remotely a good idea? Are we sure the Oracle is really enlightening Primal?

Are they still goofy?

NOT EVEN REMOTELY SUSPICIOUS!

 

Maybe he means Optimus Prime?

I actually enjoy Nightscream's role in this episode a lot. It makes a good deal of sense and will have numerous ramifications on the plot.

Somehow I'm not surprised.

It's close, though.

HE'S TOTALLY TRUSTWORTHY!

 

It does seem like they could've perhaps dragged out his plot a bit longer to give his (inevitable) betrayal a bit more of a punch.

Yay for good character work!

In case you missed the hints that he's not quite on the level.

ANGST!

He will be missed.

  I get why this is happening; I really do...but it's still frustrating.

YAY!

Although at least it is mostly just him here.

The plot did it.

  WE REALLY DIDN'T MISS THIS, WRITERS!

I remember being surprised by how quickly he could move while watching this episode, too. Maybe he's traveling at the speed of plot.

I WONDER WHAT THIS COULD MEAN!

Seriously, the animators on this show did an amazing job.

 

Apparently slow-mo is still beyond the capabilities of 2000s CGI.

That's pretty cool looking.

The audience will probably figure out that he's Megatron long before the Maximals do.

This is hilariously awesome.

I love Machiavellian Megatron. Poor Nightscream, though.

At least they've stopped being jerks to each other.

Props to the writers for this being relevant later.

 

Part 2!

 

Hurrah for the return of Silverbolt, good character work, and the first A+ episode of Beast Machines!

Hurrah for manipulative Megatron!

Silverbolt's beast mode is particularly ugly. It looks like a deformed turkey.

I will definitely miss him.

It's weird, but it does look kind of cool.

Blind optimism?

 

Hire a new composer! Pay money for a preexisting score! JUST STOP USING THE SAME TRACK FOR EVERY FIGHT SCENE!

Also, didn't she just tell Jetstorm a couple of episodes ago that she was willing to let him continue to be Jetstorm? She sure changed her mind quickly.

This has to be the single ugliest design in the show.

YAY!

Executive meddling that actually benefits the show. There's something you don't see every day.

Be careful when handling Beast Machines Silverbolt. You might cut yourself.

I like the Beast Machines Silverbolt, but his edginess can be a bit much at times.

  New powers as the plot demands!

I do agree that it seems a bit weird to have her give this sort of speech. Maybe she was channeling Beast Wars Silverbolt in an attempt to appeal to his old self.

His design is ugly, but his weapons are cool.

Clearly, this part of the plot was vital to the story.

I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Bat-Condor!

I agree. This is a logical development for his character.

 

No one needed this! (The one redeeming aspect is that at least it's made clear that the Maximals' behavior is unusual here, which wasn't the case in Season 1.)

Yes, I do remember thinking the solution to the virus was rather silly.

It's too bad this didn't have further ramifications; their philosophical debate was really interesting.

Tempting fate and raising the eternal question of why Cybertronians need to breathe!

That's unsettling.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

How did he not notice that?

I think the way the Hate Plague spread in G1 was more consistent than this!

Because everyone loves manufactured drama!

It's like the way in which the infected Decepticons teamed up to infect others instead of just fighting amongst themselves in G1.

You're not wrong.

Great concept, mediocre execution.

Definitely not long enough.

Props to Silverbolt for figuring out what's going on. No props to the writers for plotting things in such a way to necessitate such a lazy solution.

Good to see that Megatron's plan has some clever components.

Space is warped and time is bendable!

SCIENCE!

Thus beginning Thrust's regression into Waspinator for the rest of the show.

When I watched the episode, I just assumed they were cured through the power of friendship.

Cool ideas, though.

She is!

She's at least appearing before Tigerhawk did in Beast Wars!

Much like Beast Machines as a whole, Botanica is incredibly creative.
Transformers really loves its horror plots, doesn't it?

Yay for Silverbolt developing! Boo for Blackarachnia becoming immature!

I agree that she's quite overpowered in this episode.

Cybertron itself looks pretty cool. Its sun...not so much.

On the one hand, it could be a sign of character development. On the other hand...it does seem a bit odd for her to suddenly be getting so many speeches like this.

 

Interesting!

He won't be the most OP for long!

Why was this necessary?

At this point, I just don't question the Earth references the characters make.

Manufactured drama!  

That's incredibly disturbing.

Glad to see I wasn't the only person who thought of Little Shop of Horrors when I saw this.

Seriously, writers. No one enjoys this!

She's simultaneously cool and weird-looking.

Both of these facts are really cool.
And more positive executive meddling? What is this?

I quite like her backstory.

I was confused by this, too. The show never makes it terribly clear (especially since both her modes look like robot modes).

IT'S OVER 9,000!

Good. I hope that never comes back.

At least some of her contributions are related to her being a scientist.

SYMBOLISM!

 

I've been waylaid by some unexpected work to be done, but I hope to get most, if not all of Sparkwar out tonight. Part 1 is entirely done and awaiting posting. Part 2 is like 80% watched. If I get some time I can try and sneak in the rest of it and Part 3 and get it out tonight so that I can properly start the final week of episodes tomorrow.