Beast Wars/YMMV
See also:
- Complete Monster: Megatron and Tarantulas.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: "Theme of Hero," the quasi-orchestral song that plays during Dinobot's funeral in "Code of Hero."
- The Japanese opening themes for Beast Wars Metals:
- Ensemble Darkhorse:
- Waspinator. When the series started, he was a semi-skilled fighter that only stood out because of his unique speech patterns. The writers generally disliked him, but were required to use him, so they purposefully made him the Butt Monkey of the series. This comedic take struck a chord with fans and the writers soon warmed up to the character, as well. Waspinator was to be killed off in Season 2 as part of the effort to make room for new characters, but was spared due to his popularity. And he was the second BW cast member to appear in the Transformers Hall of Fame.
- Dinobot, largely because of his Heroic Sacrifice. Evident when many years later, he emerged as the first member of the Transformers Hall of Fame. He beat out SOUNDWAVE for the spot!
- Blackarachnia.
- Even Better Sequel: there are quite a few fans who hold the opinion that Beast Wars is the best Transformers series yet made, as stated above. In fact, Beast Wars is one of the few Transformers incarnations not to be heavily criticized by the Generation 1 purists.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: Terrorsaur jokingly states, "Hunting from the air with automatic weapons—now that's a sport!". Some took note of this later because of a few prominent Republican Governors would come to echo this sentiment, though Older Than You Think can also apply.
- Blackarachnia asks, "What is it with guys and explosives?" Later, an infamous film director would come to echo this sentiment and utilize it in the Transformers franchise.
- In his very last words of the entire series, Rattrap muses with a smirk, "And you know what the best part is? We don't have to see Megatron's ugly butt again 'till we get back to Cybertron!" How right you are, Rattrap. How right you are.
- Jerkass Woobie: Rampage might be one, with a bit more emphasis on Jerkass. For all his crimes, it must be remembered that he didn't choose to be born as the abomination that he is (that's actually the fault of the Maximals), and he seems to be almost remorseful, at times, of his cannibalistic nature. Megatron's cruel treatment of him doesn't make him any less sympathetic. As the episode "Transmutate" had shown, the namesake creature tells you what a Tragic Monster he can be if looked at from a different angle. Even Silverbolt pitied him in that episode.
- Magnificent Bastard: Megatron.
- Memetic Badass: Megatron's rubber ducky
- Memetic Mutation:
- TRUKK NOT MUNKY!
- On a more positive note, we have Megatron's rubber ducky.
- "Beast Mode" is now a popular phrase amongst many people in times of intensity.
- Moral Event Horizon: Megatron crosses it several times: he planned from the beginning to wipe out an entire timeline's worth of Transformers and other lifeforms; in the episode "Code of Hero", where he attempts genocide against defenseless proto-humans; and in the series finale.
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Transmutate.
- Given that sparks = souls, it is instructive to contemplate just how much Predacon technology revolves around horribly abusing them. And that at least some of the characters don't just end up dead, but with their sparks utterly extinguished. Forever. This doesn't necessarily mean "oblivion", just that their sparks are blasted out of the physical universe forever and forced either into the Allspark or the Pit (Transformers Heaven and Hell, respectively). To say nothing of all the Mind Control.
- Rampage was created by the MAXIMALS in an attempt to recreate the immortal/indestructible nature of Starscream's spark and succeeded. Too bad they somehow created an insane freak of nature.
To make matters more horrific, Megatron cuts Rampage's spark in HALF, and keeps the half he has in a cage lined with Energon spikes that he then uses to torture Rampage to force him into obedience, and THEN uses that part of Rampage's spark to create an evil Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot, who has no compunctions about torturing the spark to compel Rampage to continue to obey him, while he seems unhurt by it, and does so almost every time with a dementedly sadistic grin on his face.
Rampage's own apparent atrocities before being forced into stasis could probably count as well, though they're largely noodle incidents.
He also often refers to eating other robots' sparks. Sparks are often compared to souls. Ponder that for a while. And that's just scratching the surface... - Minor compared to some of this stuff, but the two cheetahs Cheetor tries to buddy up to in the first episode. HOLY SHIT.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Tarantulas gets off on sucking blood.
- And Rampage.
- Saved by the Fans: Waspinator was set to die at the start of Season 2 along with Scorponok, but the creators were aware of how popular he was with the online fanbase, and that Terrorsaur was becoming fairly redundant with the much more successful traitor of Tarantulas on board.
- Special Effects Failure: The early episodes (obviously, due to technology limitations) look like crap, there's also several other moments which combine this with Off-Model (such as Rattrap reverting to his old CG model in Code of Hero). Plus there's seams on several of organic beast modes if you look closely.
- Tear Jerker: The death of Dinobot. Transmutate. Blackarachnia's not-quite death, and Silverbolt's reaction.
- Dinobot's death is singled out as one of the best moments of all Transformers history (arguably, the greatest of them all).
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- It's his funeral that really brings the tears - Optimus, Silverbolt and Cheetor fly overhead in a Missing Man Formation.
- "He lived a warrior, and died a hero. May his spark join the Matrix... the greatest of Cybertron."
- For all the horrible things he does and has done, Rampages' pained wails over the death of Transmutate indicates that he wasn't a complete monster.
- Too Cool to Live: Tigerhawk.
- Dinobot as well.
- Uncanny Valley: Transmutate.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Waspinator.
- Villain Decay: Waspinator. Initially, while rarely a victor, he was portrayed as quite a competent fighter (as evidenced by his battle with Cheetor in the premiere). However, the writers soon made Waspinator comic relief, leading him to "getting blown to scrap all the time!" Of course, this led to Waspinator becoming one of the most popular characters on the series, providing an example of Tropes Are Not Bad.
- What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Despite the toyline and therefore the show being ostensibly aimed somewhere around the 10-12-year-old boys slot, the show features clever writing, complex characterizations, truckloads of Getting Crap Past the Radar, and surprisingly mature takes on themes such as warfare and revenge, with a healthy dose of Killed Off for Real to match.
- The Woobie:
- Waspinator.
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"Inferno blow up, Waspinator must salvage. Waspinator blow up, nobody salvage. Why universe hate Waspinator?" |
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- Transmutate. She's a misshapen, childlike being who died trying to stop her/its only friends from hurting each other.
- World of Ham: And it is awesome!