Beast Machine Hunters> The First Season Guide part 3

Last time on Beast Machine Hunters we looked at the first two Maximals, Optimus Primal and Cheetor. The fact that it took so long for just two makes me concerned. If we could do two an installment, great, but we have three more Maximals so this may be a long one.

So let’s just make this a short intro and apologize if it looks terrible on the homepage. Here’s an advertisement for the show to fill out the space.

Wow, is that what you guys had to put up with in Canada? Ours was kind of lame but at least it wasn’t that.

Let’s just get on with it.

BLACK ARACHNIA

Black Arachnia’s past is as twisted as her present. She began as a Maximal protoform only to be reprogrammed by the their enemies the Predacons in the Beast Wars. After a clandestine romance with Maximal Silverbolt, she was convinced to override her Predacon programming and join Optimus’ team.

Black Arachnia has a history of treachery and double-dealing that makes her an uneasy ally under any circumstances. She has an instinct for self-preservation and is less than forthcoming about her personal agendas. This mysterious nature makes her at once seductive and deadly.

That was her Beast Wars depiction, but she didn’t show any of those traits in Beast Machines. It seems like the show bible remembers these characters more than the show writers. As we know now that was by design, but that was still one of the issues fans had against the show.

Black Arachnia likes to present herself as the hard-edged bad girl, but as she deals with her memories of her lost love Silverbolt, she discovers a vulnerable chink in her cynical armor. She does everything she can to suppress that vulnerability, putting all her efforts into her training, rather than deal with her loss.

By mid-season, Black Arachnia develops feelings for Thrust. She begins to suspect that the Spark of Silverbolt may be inside her Vehicon enemy. She becomes obsessed with recovering her lost love, jeopardizing Maximal missions in her attempts to reach Thrust. Even when her efforts result in getting her own Spark briefly removed, Black Arachnia strengthens her resolve, now understanding first hand the turmoil that Silverbolt must have been put through.

The obsession came through, even when Thrust’s true spark was revealed and she had to switch to Silverbolt’s actual holder, which I still blame on the spoilers but it does take a while to make a CG show, especially back then. All the rest? Not really. She just starts pining over Silverbolt when she finally remembers him. This and the tech gadget thing being moved over to Rattrap really weakened Blackarachnia as a character.

By the end of Season One, Black Arachnia will risk all, abandoning the Techno-Organic War to use an experimental process on Thrust to restore his Spark’s true personality. She succeeds, only to discover that true personality is her old Beast Wars nemesis WASPINATOR! The Silverbolt Spark is actually in the Aerial Vehicon JETSTORM — who wants nothing to do with his old self.

In Season Two, Black Arachnia will ultimately restore Silverbolt, but his experiences will leave him an embittered shell of his former self. Ironically, it will be up to Black Arachnia to teach Silverbolt how to be noble once again.

Ooooooohhhhhhhh….so it actually was intended to be a bait-and-switch the whole time! Unless this was a revised guide they were always messing with us. Makes me wonder if the mess-up in the spoilers was on purpose and the leaker got tricked. That’s what I like about doing this site. I learn things I wouldn’t have if I didn’t research cool things like this. As for Blackarachnia teaching Silverbolt how to be himself again, had it been better handled it would have a great idea.

POWERS/ABILITIES:

Beast Mode – Black Widow Spider wall and ceiling crawling; enhanced (but essentially organic) web-spinning (think modified Spider-Man stuff, but no parachutes or hang gliders).

Robot Mode – Web-spinning includes ability to create web shield to deflect energy pulses; webbing appears as energy/circuitry; BLUE WEBBING is elastic, but very strong — used for shields and constructs; RED WEBBING works like a high-tech fuse and explosive all in one; CLEAR WEBBING is almost weightless and invisible to the eye, but strong as steel — used in close-quarter hand-to-hand; razor-sharp legs and claws; two stinger legs that can disrupt/overload any electronic system (Vehicon or computer); can ground herself with her legs and use the stingers to zap the ground and send electrocution-like pulses to enemies; six eyes that are hyper-sensitive to enemies and targets; can always see everywhere with three sets of eyes.

I didn’t know that she had different colored webbing for different abilities. If that came up in the show it wasn’t easy to spot.

RATTRAP

The perennial street-smart, Brooklynese wiseguy, Rattrap is always the first to complain and the last to charge into battle. He is never without a quip or a put-down, even under fire. His favorite target is Black Arachnia, who gives back as well as she takes.

Rattrap begins our series continually frustrated by his inability to Transform, resorting to more and more desperate measures to find a shortcut to the process.

When he finally DOES Transform, it’s still a let-down. His Robot Mode is kind of wimpy and contains no weaponry whatsoever, so he’s still pretty useless in battle. Mid-season, he’s so desperate for a decent Robot Mode that he even seeks help from Megatron. Rattrap ultimately rejects Megatron, but his allies have trouble trusting him the same way again.

Ah yes, “The Weak Component”, the most controversial episode in Beast Era shows, even more than “The Low Road” from the previous series. It didn’t take long to regain their trust, but given how these Maximals bicker like they’re still Marvel Comics characters, would we be able to tell the difference?

Rattrap eventually regains their trust, as well as a sense of self-worth, as he discovers his Robot Mode’s usefulness in surveillance, stealth and recon. More and more he becomes the “tech guy” for the team, hoarding spare parts like a pack rat and cobbling them into weapons and other useful devices.

Like I said, taking the “tech head” job from Blackarachnia hurt her character. Meanwhile the closest we get to seeing recon is the rare occasion Rattrap is allowed to transform to plug into a computer. Also, the toy (when it finally came out and even then it was practically a KB Toys/Toy Works exclusive) had feet but the show kept him in wheelchair configuration and he didn’t get to use his tail whip much. I was glad the toy had feet but disappointed the show never used it. Considering his Transmetal form was a wheeled rat rod…oh, Primus, I just got it!

Rattrap gains an innate understanding of the old Transformer Technology leftover over in the catacomb ruins and is able to get a defense system up and running for their lair. In Season Two he ultimately cracks the solution to achieving technorganic vegetation that won’t overrun and choke the planet, thus his role in the salvation of Cybertron is assured.

All he did was come up with a way to get the goo that fed the technorganic plants to the garden and create technorganic plant bombs. Once he used a driller to till the soil or whatever but I don’t remember a lot of security. Not that the Autobots ever had great security and if it wasn’t for Sentinel neither would the Maximals.

POWERS/ABILITIES

Beast Mode – whip-like rat tail can also grab things (use of tail often preferred to hands or feet — also the tail is  a bit of a klepto, sometimes appearing to have a mind of its own); gnawing teeth; digging claws; a storage pouch on his back for packrat-like hoarding; can collapse his body to fit through impossibly small spaces; innate understanding of traps and how to escape them; natural sense direction/navigation.

Again, never saw him use his tail for anything, nor do I remember seeing him “collapse his body” or have a storage pouch.

Robot Mode – Wheels for speed; multi-tasking tail can shunt into any computer system (or another Transformer); whatever he shunts into can become a weapon; can download viruses into other systems (computer or  Transformer); tail also doubles as surveillance  camera/microphone and solder/arc welder; helmet visor allows for telescopic/microscopic vision and doubles as computer screen; shoulder pads can repel energy pulses; finger/claws can pick locks.

Still no use of the tail outside of an R2D2 style interface with computers, or a built-in camera or welder. The helmet thing he used a few times.

Both Modes – Creates small but powerful electronic devices from the stored parts in his back-pouch; encryption and language (biological or digital) expert.

Refer to the previous notes and move on to Nightscream. Nightscream…was not very popular. Created for the show his toy was somehow boosted to the larger price point and size. Again, you can’t create a breakout character. The audience chooses who they like and you can’t always guess right on that. In fact most of the time they don’t. I have the Happy Meal version just to have a complete TV set.

NIGHTSCREAM

The newest addition to the team, Nightscream is a defiant young Transformer who managed to survive Megatron’s virus and Vehicons through cunning, tenacity and pure luck. Much like Edward Furlong in T2, Nightscream is tough, independent, and defiant of authority.

Nightscream initially has trouble fitting in with the rest of the team. He can be distrustful, coarse and tactless (even compared to Rattrap) and often serves as a divisive force for the rest of the team. Also, as the only non Beast Wars veteran, he often feels left out of the natural comradery that occurs among a team that has fought side by side for so long. Nightscream tries to play the part of the independent know-it-all loner, but deep down he’s an insecure kid who longs to be accepted like everyone else.

Which was Nightscream’s problem, or rather the fact that he never grows out of that. Nightscrap has no character arc at all. He’s a punk when he started and he was a punk when the show ended. Also, everyone thought that fake hair piece to flip was silly.

Having served under Cheetor’s command more than Optimus, Nightscream tends to side with the big cat and respect his authority more than the big monkey. He tries to be protective of Rattrap, which only irks the streetwise rodent who feels that he should be the one protecting the kid, not the other way around. He is especially distrustful and dismissive of Black Arachnia, being too young and inexperienced to understand the kinds of things love can make you do. Plus any attempt to get two such fiercely independent personalities to cooperate on anything is automatically doomed to failure.

None of that happened. He was generally rude to everyone and only seemed to hang out with the others for protection. I mean, there’s a reason Nightscrap is the only one Rattrap actually blasted in “The Weak Component”. He was worse to Rattrap than he was the others, and he wasn’t exactly friendly to either of them, especially when Noble appeared but we’ll cross that bridge in the season two guide.

Nightscream’s biggest asset to the team is his vast knowledge of the labyrinthine underground catacombs. He’s been down there for a while and can navigate his way around even better than Rattrap (although Rattrap can be more intuitive finding his way around unfamiliar areas). Also, as the only Maximal who can fly in Beast Mode he’s very useful for above-ground recon.

That would have been cool, if that happened. Megatron probably made some changes to Cybertron that would confuse Rattrap, who grew up on the streets of Cybertron, and Nightscream would know the new areas, though there may be one or two areas Rattrap would know better. This was never utilized in the show.

Nightscream’s Beast Mode is a source of much speculation. How could he have acquired a Beast Mode on a planet with no natural animal life? As the Maximals will discover, Nightscream actually DNA-scanned a fossilized bat buried deep within Cybertron’s core — concrete evidence that there was once organic life on the planet.

Leading to an oddity about crashing on ancient Earth a product of the Oracle to bring DNA to Cybertron, a planet that had started using organic modes to blend in with and explore other worlds after the war.

Nightscream’s Robot Mode relies heavily on sonic blasts for weaponry. Thus he’s the ultimate sound system in Robot Mode. He also uses his sound system to create music as a hobby — something he’s very embarrassed about sharing with the others (it doesn’t quite mesh with his tough-guy image).

The music thing never happens either, unless he’s also hiding it from the audience.

By Season Two, Nightscream will have been through enough battles with the others to feel more like a full-fledged member of the team. He’ll even loosen up on the whole “I don’t need anybody” attitude, but not to the point where he’ll willingly admit it to anyone’s face.

Also never happens. Instead he chases after Noble, which will both make sense and not make sense as we hit season two.

POWERS/ABILITIES:

Beast Mode – can fly and glide like a bat; powerful claws; piercing sonic screech; and, yes, he sleeps hanging upside-down.

Robot Mode – increased flight speed and maneuverability (propels  himself via sound); powerful sonic scream can shatter solid objects or send them flying back; twin taser fangs (tethered to his mouth) suck electronic energy from Vehicons and other machines, draining them and powering Nightscream; can project his voice/audio signature to make himself appear to  be everywhere at once (a swarm of techno-bats).

Beast mode abilities are all things we saw. The robot mode ones…I don’t remember the Energon vampire thing but I know throwing his voice didn’t happen. Would have been an interesting ability, like a human who can “throw his voice”.

It’s kind of interesting how many things in this part of the guide we never saw in the show and yet the one part I thought for years was a last-minute change was part of the final plan the whole time. I’ll try to remember that for next time as we start looking at Megatron and his unmerry band of Vehicons.