Beast Machines: Difference between revisions

The story opens with Optimus Primal in his original ''Beast Wars'' body, awakening on Cybertron to find the planet deserted and himself being pursued by Vehicons, a strange race of sparkless Transformers under the control of Megatron, who, as it's further revealed, has somehow managed to conquer Cybertron. Unable to transform, Optimus runs, and manages to find some of his fellow surviving Maximals. Deep beneath the surface of Cybertron, they manage to find the Oracle supercomputer, which reformats them into 'technorganic' beings, a perfect blend of biological and technogical parts. From then on, they embark on a mission to restore organic life to Cybertron and bring down Megatron.

 

 

Several items deserve particular noting. The CGI was top-notch, even better than the already impressive stuff from the end of ''Beast Wars'', and it still holds up today. And while ''Beast Wars'' provided the concept, this show is the main source of information about the origin and properties of sparks, the [[Soul]] of a Transformer.

 

It has a [[Beast Machines (Animation)/Characters|character sheet]].

* [[A Boy and His X]]: Nightscream and Noble Have this relationship after {{spoiler|Megatron's consciousness exits Noble.}}

* [[After the End]]: Cybertron under Megatron's control.

* [[Downer Ending]]: An overwhelming number of the episodes in this series end on a bad note.

* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: Optimus gets a ''lot'' of practice at this.

* [[Evil Plan]]: Megatron's endgame is to purge Cybertron of free will, individuality, and Organic matter before {{spoiler|absorbing the Sparks of his entire species and becoming a [[Physical God]]}}. Yipes.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Rhinox/Tankor}}.

** [[Big Bad]]: Megatron.

** [[The Brute]]: Tankor {{spoiler|until Rhinox resurfaces.}}

** [[The Evil Genius]]: First the Diagnostic Drone, then {{spoiler|Tankor/Rhinox}}, as [[The Starscream]]. Later, Strika and Obsidian.

** [[The Dark Chick]]: Thrust.

** [[The Hero]]: Optimus Primal (promoted to [[The Messiah]] at the end.)

** [[The Lancer]]: Cheetor (promoted from [[The Chick]] in Beast Wars. Becomes [[The Hero]] at the end.)

* [[Necessary Drawback]]: In combination with a Necessary Advantage. Their new technorganic robot forms give them weapons and advanced combat abilities, but Rattrap learns by accident that their beast forms shield them from the Vehicon sensors. Both forms were needed in order to survive.

* [[Never Say Die]]: Subverted. In the first few episodes this is played straight with replacements like "sparkless body" and "extinguished spark", but as the series progresses, death and dying are referred to directly more and more often.

* [[Plot Tumour]]: Sparks, an interesting and occasionally important aspect of the ''Transformers'' [[Mythology|mythos]], introduced in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', ends up being central to the plot of ''Beast Machines''.

* [[Same Character but Different]]: ''The'' source of flack the series gets. Applies to pretty much the whole cast.

* [[Shout Out]]: From "Revelations, Part 1", while attacking the others:

* [[Those Two Bad Guys]]: Jetstorm and Thrust, Strika and Obsidian.

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Cheetor, as part of his promotion from [[The Chick]] in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' to [[The Lancer]] in ''[[Beast Machines (Animation)|Beast Machines]].''

** Thrust is perhaps the greatest example of this in the whole Transformers mythos. {{spoiler|He. Used. To. Be. [[The Chew Toy|Waspinator]].}} Seriously, I'm not making any of this up.

** "The Weak Component" has several instances:<br /><br />''Megatron'', of all people, calls Blackarachnia, Cheetor and Nightscream on mistreating Rattrap and Optimus for promising more than he can deliver.<br /><br />They also call Rattrap on making a deal with Megatron and Optimus calls him for attacking them.

*** However, Rattrap and everyone else (except Megatron) thought that {{spoiler|Tankor was already dead. Given Tankor's similar appearance to his troops, It's possible Rattrap mistook him for a tank drone.}}

** At the end of season one, {{spoiler|Optimus}} calls upon the energies of Cybertron in a last-ditch attack against {{spoiler|Megatron}}, knowing full well that {{spoiler|everything mechanical on Cybertron will be annihilated.}} His response? "If this is the Will of the Matrix, so be it!" {{spoiler|Thankfully, the Allspark calls him out on it and allows him to redeem himself.}}