Last time on Beast Machine Hunters we finished looking at the plots for season one. Before we go to season two’s guide, we’ll look at their initial plans for season two to see if it matches up with they ultimately did.

I’m not sure what else to say about season one at this point. Season two we’ll go over when we get there, but I need to pad out the homepage view of this article before the “Read More”. I don’t know, how about this? Here’s the full version of “Phat Planet”, the song used for the Beast Machines intro.

That takes care of that. On to the article.

THE ROAD AHEAD…

(AN OVERVIEW OF OUR SECOND SEASON)

Season Two begins with Optimus in a strange limbo as the Oracle Download within him, sensing that Optimus has strayed down the wrong path in his efforts to restore the organic, sends him back to the Matrix to guide him on the correct path toward seeking a balance between nature and technology. Summoning all his will power, Optimus guides his energy source to neutralize the effects of Megatron’s doomsday weapon without causing any more destruction. Cybertron returns to status quo, and Optimus must begin his quest anew.

So in essence reset everything and got Optimus Primal’s head on the right course. Not really causing a major change besides Optimus becoming less fanatical.

As the techno-organic smoke clears, we discover:

1.) Megatron’s virus has been eliminated from the planet,

2.) Megatron has successfully purged the organic from himself and created a kickass Vehicle Mode, giving himself new strength and mobility and

3.) Tankorr is missing, presumed deactivated.

4.) A mysterious, feral creature is running wild around Cybertron (which we later learn is a completely organic version of Megatron — his purge didn’t eliminate the organic from the mechanical, it merely separated the two.

We’ll get back to Tankor in a moment. The feral creature part is actually part of a mystery for part of season two, and not a very well hidden mystery. Plenty of fans figured it out. As for the virus, I don’t think it was fully removed. We just didn’t need it anymore until our last Maximal cast member arrived. More on that in a moment as well.

Optimus goes about reassembling his team, patching up old friendships and admitting the error of his ways. The Maximals face a crisis as they begin to depower for the first time since they’ve been reformatted. Cheetor leads them to fuel up on Energon, only to discover it has the exact opposite effect on them as the organic fruit in Episode 5, turning them into mindless automatons, susceptible to Megatron’s control. Only Optimus, who refused to ingest the Energon can save them (in a role-reversal from Episode 5). Optimus reformats some Energon into a Technorganic liquid that will fuel the Technorganic Maximals without messing with their internal systems.

This never happens. We really don’t know what the technorganic Maximals use for fuel as we never really see them power up with anything.

The subsequent discovery of Technorganic plant life (first introduced at the end of Episode 5) gives Optimus and the Maximals a new hope for achieving the required balance between nature and technology. In addition, the Technorganic liquid helps the plants grow just like water would nourish an organic plant. Cybertron clearly has a future. Now all that remains is finding and freeing the missing Sparks.

If memory serves, the “goo” as Rattrap called it came from the planet itself. It’s like using crude oil to grow plants…I guess.

The search for Megatron’s Spark containment chamber begins. The Maximals discover Megatron has moved the Sparks from the Palace to a secret new location.

Megatron, having now achieved his goal of purging the organic from himself, now focuses his efforts on recreating that purge on the captive Sparks.

The movement does happen and we’ll discuss that in the season two guide. The purging of captive sparks…what? There was no evidence that Maximals or Predacons on Cybertron had organic beast modes from either series or even the Japanese shows. What’s he purging? Now that I think about it, they might have been better off introducing a new villain, that would force Megatron to work with the Maximals to protect Cybertron, basically putting him in the “Dinobot” position, though more reluctantly, and he be the organicphobe. Knowing Hasbro they would have called him Galvatron, or not since that’s usually Megatron’s altered form, but it might have made more sense and been more interesting.

An Alien Transformer tribe returns to Cybertron from an exploration mission. Megatron tries to shoot them down, but the Maximals manage to save some of them. Megatron realizes that as long as there are DNA-infected Transformers roaming the galaxy his goal of machine perfection will always be threatened. He must focus his efforts outward, beyond Cybertron.

We won’t get a full tribe, just one robot with an alt mode so different they couldn’t make a toy of her, and they still haven’t tried. Megatron looking outward kind of happens and kind of doesn’t. We’ll get into that.

Black Arachnia finally succeeds in drawing Silverbolt out of Jetstorm. Silverbolt joins the Maximals, but his experiences have left him a bitter shell of his former self. Ironically, it’s up to the cynical Black Arachnia to teach Silverbolt how to be noble once again.

This actually does happen, and it’s one of the few good parts of season two, at least in conception. Too bad Silverbolt’s new form is ugly.

Megatron creates new Vehicon Generals to replace Tankorr and Jetstorm, utilizing new organic-purged Sparks which now retain their old memories and former personalities. Should they prove effective, Megatron will perform the organic wipe on the rest of Cybertron’s Sparks, a move that will end all hope of Optimus ever achieving a balanced, Technorganic Cybertron.

We do get new toys generals, but instead of “organic-purged” we get something more interesting. See why I wish I had finished this before the Christmas break? It would have been a great teaser for the next stage of this series. Instead we just start it next week, baring incidents. If it wasn’t for the break I’d take time away from it anyway just because it is a cool teaser.

Tankorr resurrects himself and returns to Optimus, having seen the folly of his ways. He realizes that the balance between nature and technology is essential. But the only way to assure that balance is to destroy everything! Now completely unhinged, Tankorr is a nihilistic loose cannon wild card, and an equal danger to both Optimus and Megatron. In a move that clearly pains Optimus, he is forced to work together with Megatron to remove Tankorr’s Spark in order to keep him from destroying the planet.

Doesn’t happen at all. Instead, Optimus sees Rhinox in the Matrix, who takes the blame for everything and joins the Matrix. That wasn’t a very interesting sendoff to a Beast Wars favorite. I’m not sure this one was a good idea, either.

Optimus learns the location of the Spark Chamber and mounts a massive campaign to retrieve and free the Sparks from Megatron. He nearly succeeds when he learns the horrible truth: The Sparks don’t want their freedom. Removed from the conflicts and chaos of life in their Transformer bodies they have found a kind of peace and are not eager to return to their old lives. Megatron truly is a savior to them.

I would have hated this for my own personal worldview reasons. I could see some wanting this, but when you’re just a glowing ball of energy you can’t do anything. You have no existence. What do they do, watch TV? I rather doubt it. Remember, the war was long since over and whatever plans the Tripredicus Council had never had a chance to happen. The planet was at peace. That was the whole point of the Beast Wars, the Axalon crew trying to keep Megatron’s crew from getting the energy they needed to start a new  Great War.

Megatron is now ready to perform his final organic purge on the Cybertronian Sparks. In a desperate move, Optimus tries to reformat Megatron into a Technorganic Transformer, while the others prepare a Technorganic primordial ooze which, once activated, will expand exponentially and reformat the entire planet. Something goes wrong in the process, leaving Megatron completely organic and Optimus completely robotic. As a result, Optimus is cut off from the Matrix and Megatron has all the Sparks of Cybertron buzzing around in his head. Cut off from the Matrix, and now able to jack into and control all of Cybertron, Optimus tries to destroy Megatron, not realizing he could be destroying the very Sparks he’s been trying to save.

The other Maximals try to stop Optimus, but there’s no reasoning with him in his current robotic state. Ultimately, Rattrap finds the solution by reaching the Sparks through Megatron, showing him/them proof that Megatron created and released the virus that forced them to forfeit their Sparks in order to survive. Megatron is their executioner, not their savior. Seeing this, the Sparks go nuts inside Megatron’s head. He destroys the Spark Containment Chamber to free himself of their torment. Billions of loose Sparks fly around helplessly, releasing chaotic energy everywhere. Big, bad spectacular things happen all over the planet, making the Armageddon at the end of Season One look like a picnic.

None of this happens. Technically the Sparks do get loose in the end, but not like this. We don’t get Robo-Primal and Squishy Megatron. This might have worked, but it’s not the path they chose.

Robot Optimus and Organic Megatron duke it out in a battle to end all battles that culminates at the pit of Technorganic Primordial Ooze. Megatron tries to destroy the pit. Optimus tries to stop him. They both tumble in, triggering the reformatting of the planet. Sparks are restored to their Transformer bodies (Rhinox included), as the entire planet Transforms into a Technorganic Paradise.

Nope. Rhinox stays dead, and the rest kind of sort of happens but not quite.

When the smoke clears, either:
A.) Optimus survives, having willingly submitted himself to a re-reformatting, while Megatron is gone, having refused to submit to a reformatting right up to the end.
B.) Both Optimus and Megatron are gone, having sacrificed themselves for the greater good.
C.) Optimus and Megatron emerge, both reformatted into a Technorganic Amalgamation of one another.
D.) Some fourth, even cooler option.

So at the time they didn’t even know how they were going to end this. We’ll get into that in the next season’s guide. I will tell you C and D don’t happen, and when it comes to C I’m glad it didn’t. It’s probably not what they intended but I’m seeing something like…

…and no kid should have to witness that.

DIFFERENT SEASONS, DIFFERENT CHARACTERS

Six new character designs will emerge during Beast Machines: Season Two. They might just include:

0. Whatever new toys Hasbro wants to push, though like in this season some toys didn’t make the cut.

1. New completely non-organic Megatron with Vehicle Mode.
2. New completely organic Megatron that Transforms from one creature to another.

Those of you who saw season two know why that goes together.

3. Reformatted Silverbolt.
4. New Vehicon General to replace Silverbolt — possibly a Harrier Jet VTOL aircraft or Apache Helicopter.

They went with the helicopter.

5. Alien Transformer — a Maximal explorer protoform that landed on some alien planet populated by intelligent * sentient vegetation (Swamp Thing as Transformer). *

Oh, so they did consider Botanica this far back after all.

6. New Vehicon General to replace Tankorr — some equally big  and destructive land-based vehicle.

Yep, we got her. And we’ll start seeing most of this and talking about what didn’t make it next time, as we reach the final season, aka: