As always, Tarantulas weaves a wicked web.
Last time on Beast Wars, the showdown finally got underway.
The Maximals did their best to keep the Predacons away from their base while
Rhinox had his out-of-body experience. Unfortunately, Megatron got wise and sent
Waspinator and Silverbolt ahead to force them to fall back. Cheetor got kicked
into gear by Rattrap and flew to head them off. He took out Waspinator with a
headbutt and then had the auto-guns shoot Silverbolt down. Rattrap and Dinobot
joined them, and they elect to help the new bot and get him repaired. Rhinox made
it back to his body and while they’re still not in a great position, he insists
that miracles can happen. The Maximals hold off the Predacons for a bit longer
but were eventually overwhelmed. Megatron had his troops walk up slowly to
gloat, which bought enough time for a reconstituted, Transmetal Optimus Primal
to make a big entrance. He singlehandedly defeated most of the Predacons, and
Silverbolt drove Megatron himself off as an end to his affiliation with the Predacons
and start being a Maximal. Meanwhile, Blackarachnia was forced to try to
recover some of Megatron’s records of the Golden Disks after Dinobot stole the
original by Tarantulas. She used his momentary distraction during the fighting
to download the records and then pretend that the records were booby trapped.
In the end, Megatron announced things moving forward will be… interesting.
Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The episode begins with the
Predacons meeting to discuss making repairs to their infrastructure that was
lost during the Planet Buster attack. He calls Tarantulas to him specifically, despite
the spider’s insistence that he’s working on very important research on their
new transmetal bodies. Megatron orders him, and the two other Arachnids,
Blackarachnia and Quickstrike to a new Energon deposit he’d detected to build a
refueling station for them. Inferno and Waspinator wonder what they can do in
the meantime, and they’re ordered to build a jamming station nearby to block
Maximal communications. They’re excited to do it, Inferno saying as much to his
‘Queen.’ I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but Inferno still sort of
thinks he’s a giant ant and not a robot, and he mostly understands the world
through that lens. So, if Megatron is his leader, that means that he is Inferno’s
queen. He mostly sticks to calling Megatron the Royalty as a more gender-neutral
term but slips up constantly. It’s the one thing Megatron hates about his new top
kiss ass. Tarantulas ask why they’re doing this and Megatron cryptically says “Preparing
for the future.” Whatever he’s doing, Tarantulas does seem to know what it is,
saying that Megatron is “persist in his madness.”
The bugs all prepare to go about
their various tasks. Tarantulas complains about wasting his time with this, but
Blackarachnia tells him to shut up and get moving. She uses a bit of flattery
to get Quickstrike to agree to take her share of the cargo, by saying that she’s
sure a ‘big strong bot,’ like him can take more than 1/3rd of the
weight. Quickstrike agrees and gives her the nickname ‘Sugar-Bot,’ a nickname
he will always use instead of her name going forward. I think even as a child
in the 90s, I knew Quickstrike was simp. Waspinator brags that he and Inferno will
finish their mission while the arachnids argue. Tarantulas is set on disrupting
whatever plan Megatron has in place and plants a beacon in their supplies that
will broadcast their position on Maximal frequencies. He transforms into his
cycle form and drives off.
We cut to the Axalon where
Rhinox is attempting to run tests on Optimus’ new Transmetal body. He says that
despite his best efforts, they really don’t know the limits of these new forms
and want to use a scanner he cobbled together to get more data. Unfortunately,
the scanner shocks them both and knocks Rhinox out. Cheetor interrupts and lets
them know he picked up Predacon signal on one of their frequencies. He tells
Cheetor to get someone on it, and the closest pair are Rattrap and Silverbolt.
So, fun fact, while Scott McNeil has provided the voice for Rattrap, Dinobot,
and Waspinator this entire time, he also now voices Silverbolt. So basically, a
third of the character interactions of the Maximals are just Scott McNeil
talking to himself. Weird. Anyway, Cheetor tells them to check it out, Silverbolt
is eager to be a service while Rattrap is a passive aggressive whiner. Silverbolt
says he’ll “prove worthy of (Optimus’) trust,” and flies off as his noble
trumpets flare. Despite knowing Silverbolt for only a little bit at this point,
Rattrap says he already hates when he does that, implying to me that everyone
hears the horns when Silverbolt is being noble.
Back with the arachnids,
Quickstrike attempts to impress Blackarachnia by offering to take more of her
load from her. Blackarachnia is clearly already annoyed by his advances but
pretends to be flattered by his attention but doesn’t want to strain him. Tarantulas’
projects into her mind and laughs at Quickstrike not seeing how she’s manipulating
him. He reminds her that he’ll allow her to play whatever games she wants with
Quickstrike, but if she tries to play with him, he’s going to punish her. He
then mentally blasts her so bad she causes some of the cargo to fall on her.
Quickstrike rushes over and unintentionally belittles her again, and she snaps
at him. He’s confused by this saying it’s impossible to understand females, and
Tarantulas agrees that that is a fact of life. And I’m just sitting here
thinking about how weird it is robots have any concept of gender at all. Blackarachnia
swears to herself she’ll beak free of Tarantulas’ control and make him pay.
The Predacons start setting up the
refueling station. Tarantulas is extremely impressed by the location. Aside
from the cave entrance, it’s incredibly well hidden, the Energon is abundant,
and fits his personal design aesthetic of “creepy underground lair.” He decides
he won’t need the Maximals meddling anymore and destroys his beacon, announcing
the cave is a perfect location for his new lair.
Rattrap and Silverbolt lose the
signal. Silverbolt says they should do their best to follow their noses now
they’ve lost the signal, which, ya, works when one’s a wolf and the other rat.
Back at the cave, Blackarachnia has
the same idea as Tarantulas, saying that the cave would make a perfect fortress
with some reinforcement. Tarantulas notes that the Energon deposit could supply
a frugal Predacon for a very long time. He jumps on ‘Blackarachnia’s’ idea,
suggesting that maybe they could turn this cave into a stronghold for them. An
arachnid alliance, their own third faction. Blackarachnia scoffs at this,
saying he's out of his mind. Tarantulas reminds her he’s inside hers, so she
really doesn’t have a choice. He pitches the idea to Quickstrike, who is
interested in the idea when Tarantulas suggest that he’ll get to fight even
more in his faction. He’s hesitant at first, because Megatron is so powerful,
but Tarantulas manipulates his fragile masculinity to get him to agree.
Silverbolt and Rattrap find the
scent, and know the three Predacons they’re dealing with. They then find the
combination of arachnid legs and tire treads that they left behind. The chase
continues.
Thinking she’s alone, Blackarachnia
mutters to herself that Tarantulas can laugh for now, but she’ll soon use
Megatron’s datatracks against her. Tarantulas hears her muttering, but not what
she’s actually saying, and demands to know what she’s thinking. She refuses so
he tries to scan her mind. He discovers that she’s actually gotten a portion of
her mind completely blocked from him. He tries harder to scan, but she fights
him, throwing the equipment she’d been holding at him and knocking him over.
She transforms and scurries away. Tarantulas gets up and quotes Bugs Bunny of all
people, “Of course you realize, this means WAR!” I’m starting to think
Tarantulas is a fan of The Looney Tunes…
Megatron relaxes in his CR chamber jacuzzi
when Waspinator calls. He says they’re finished their project and will be
heading back soon. Just before Inferno knocks a tripod leg over and the tower
pitches forward onto Waspinator. So I guess they’ll be delayed a bit longer.
Megatron is still pleased with their progress. He decides to check in on his
Arachnid trio, but no one will answer their coms. So he knows that at least one
of them is up to something.
Tarantulas hunts for Blackarachnia
in the cavern. He begins to swear vengeance when she appears, transforming and
pulling a knife on him. Having had enough of Tarantulas’ rummaging around her
processor whenever he likes, she uses her dagger as a vice on an Energon chunk and
tells him to severe the link or she’ll kill them by crushing the cube and
causing a massive explosion. He says he’s not afraid and that he can stop her
with a thought. Blackarachnia bets that the Energon radiation will interfere
with the link. Tarantulas tests it, and she starts crushing the cube. The radiation
causes them both intense pain, but Blackarachnia refuses to toss it aside
unless he breaks the link. He initially is fine with her killing herself, but
their link causes him to feel her pain as well. He finally agrees and breaks
the link to free himself. Blackarachnia tosses the cube aside with just enough time
to save herself from the explosion. Tarantulas is furious he lost his control over
her and threatens to make her suffer for that, but Quickstrike interrupts,
saying they’ve got trouble with a capital M.
The Predacons go outside and see
Rattrap and Silverbolt closing in. Quickstrike is overjoyed he gets to fight
something, finally and leads the charge against them. The battle commences,
Silverbolt lobbing explosive feather javelins as Quickstrike fires his poison
blasts. Silverbolt’s wing gets clipped and crashes. They trade blows, the
Maximals holding their own despite the numbers difference. Until Silverbolt refuses
to strike Blackarachnia because chivalry or sexism, depends on who you ask. But
he has no trouble fighting Quickstrike, especially after he shoots Rattrap.
They fuzors face off, something they often do as they’re ya know, kind of a
pair. Silverbolt gets him pinned to the ground but is knocked off by Tarantulas.
The spider runs from the cavern, warning the others they need to keep the
Maximals away at all costs. Hearing that piques their interest, Silverbolt tries
to fly to the cavern, but it explodes, knocking him back. Tarantulas says the
Maximals have destroyed the cave and order them to fall back. Rattrap
compliments Silverbolt on the explosion, but he insists he didn’t do it. Quickstrike
tells Silverbolt, whom he dubs Tinhorn because he’s a southern cowboy
stereotype, they’ll have it out for real one of these days and follows
Blackarachnia, trying to get her attention again. Rattrap thinks Silverbolt will
want to chase them, but Silverbolt has had enough excitement for today and
thinks they can leave things as they are. And Rattrap thinks that’s the first
thing he’s said that makes sense all day.
At the Darksyde, Megatron
chews out his minions for failing to report and then for failing to protect the
new refueling station. Tarantulas, so obviously faking contriteness that I’m
shocked Megatron doesn’t pick up on it, claims that everything was destroyed
even the stable cubes they could have harvested. Megatron orders them all out
of his sight, as he’s furious. Later, we see Tarantulas setting up his lab,
revealing that he’d destroyed the cave entrance with a single well-placed
charge. He ends the episode with the old saying, “be it ever so humble, there’s
no place like home,” and cackling madly.
This episode mostly serves as
setting up Tarantulas’ position in the new status quo. As I said last time,
with the death of Terrorsaur, he takes up the lion’s share of being the most traitorous
Predacon. He was never dripping with loyalty, but he used to mostly work in
concert with whatever Megatron is doing. But now, he’s much more active in his defiance
of Megatron. I mean, he went so far as to propose forming a Predacon faction that
was against the Maximals and Megatron. And if Blackarachnia hadn’t
broken the link, I think he’d have kept up this plan. She has Quickstrike under
her claw, so with her manipulating the other Arachnid, he’d have had two minions
that would serve him. But Blackarachnia outfoxed him with that Energon gambit. I’m
a little disappointed that the psychic connection didn’t last longer, as having
Blackarachnia as an unwilling minion was an interesting dynamic. There was a
point where it seemed like these two would work their own side hustle, but
neither spider is particularly loyal so in a weird way they grew the most
antagonistic to each other than any of the other Predacons. The other part of
this episode was just to give us more of an idea of Silverbolt’s personality
now that he’s a Maximal. And… ya, he’s a white knight. He does the tasks put to
him with honor and vigor, he doesn’t complain, makes noble speeches, and
refuses to strike a lady even when the lady will absolutely shoot him in the
face if given the opportunity. There is good and bad to the white knight. He
also gets along with just about everyone, as showcased by Rattrap being annoyed
by but not openly antagonistic towards him in the episode. The only other thing
to note is obviously that Megatron is planning something big, and it’s a plan
crazy enough that Tarantulas has doubts about it. We won’t get many more
details for a while, but since I know the plan, I can confirm its batshit nuts.
But we’ll see more of that later. So, ya, Tarantulas is getting more unruly, Silverbolt
has ingrained himself with his comrades, and Megatron is planning something
bonkers. Next time, Dinobot makes a choice. See you then.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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