Like he has no redeeming virtues whatsoever, he refuses to obey Optimus's orders to save Cheetor, he doesn't thank Optimus for saving him, and has to be put in his place. But starting with the Web, they started showing more positive sides to Rattrap where he does go to save Cheetor inspite of himself, grumbling and complaining all the way, firmly establishing him as more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold than an outright jerk. I wonder if they realized he was unlikable and made steps to change that or just slow character development building in?
Both? For what it's worth, someone on TFWiki agrees with you. "Rattrap has had a bit of a personality change (some would say "upgrade"). The guy who in the first episode refused to fire back at the Predacons in case it put him in danger, who spent all his time back talking authority figures and made perfectly clear that his main priority was himself... That guy volunteers to correct a mistake he's created at risk to his own life AND without being asked, just because it's the right thing to do. Even Rattrap himself notices the change ("I'm beginning to sound like Optimus Pinhead")."-This is from the "A Better Mousetrap" page.
Yeah, I remember being extremely annoyed by his attitude in the first few episodes, but starting with Power Surge, something started to click, and then, in A Better Mousetrap, I really felt Rattrap found his own character. He had a pretty rocky introduction, but he became a great character. Now, I personally liked him more in Beast Machines, but he was handled well in Beast Wars (those first few episodes aside).
I always see his attitude I'm the first episodes as someone who was 'checking out" his leader before committing to him. It disn't completely go away though - remember his brilliant "if you don't come back....can I have your quarters" line. Which seemed like a joke but when Primal DOES actually die, he moves his stuff straight in there!
Rattrap clearly didn't respect Optimus, or authority in general, at the start of the show. I got the impression that Rattrap was fairly new to Optimus's command (or at least they hadn't been through anything that truly tested Optimus's leadership yet) and was used to working with a bunch of stuck-up elitists who would rather sit back in safety while putting their subordinates in danger. The fact that Optimus was willing to stick his neck out for his team, and genuinely cared about his team, caused Rattrap to rethink his attitude toward Optimus, leadership, and being part of a team.
Honestly Rattrap was a refreshing character for the franchise when he first appeared. I genuinely don't think he got enough credit as a character, his snarky, rude, pessimistic personality might not seem appealing but he definitely grows on you as the series progresses.
Indeed. As I said before, it took a while for me to finally like the character. Once Power Surge came in, I immediately thought "wow, Rattrap actually rocks". That fight between him and Tarantulas was both fun and badass at the same time.
Y'know the amazing thing as I do my Beast Wars rewatch. There are really no "bad" episodes. Or at least none that I've noticed.
Every character in the two-parter is like a hyper-condensed version of themselves. I think the large starting cast size made them crank up their individual characteristics to establish them quickly at the expense of nuance. Didn't help that the writing was clunky and expository, and the voice actors had naturally not settled into the roles. The Preds practically get no exposure, and Terrorsaur doesn't say a word outside of transformation. Beast Wars has such a clunky start but smooths over completely by Chain of Command. The first ep especially is really, really bad in this regard. It's almost hilarious knowing what the show will eventually become. Some people would argue "The Low Road" but I honestly love it. I think the only ep I genuinly don't care for is "dark Voyage" because it's kind of a nothing ep. It retreads the same basic message of "Call of the Wild" but not very well.
Didn't somebody on TF Wiki theorize that Dark Voyage might've been meant to air before Call of the Wild?
Low Road was ....interesting. A fun filler, that proves that even transformers aren't immune to viruses! My take on dark voyage, is that it shows that even those from an advanced civilization, no matter how smart, advanced, educated, etc with their weapons taken away are still just as vulnerable to the "laws of nature". Where as I feel call of the wild was more them losing themselves and going feral to their beast modes, kind of a beast within moral.
