Let Battle Be Joined!
Last time on Beast Wars, we
learned the secret mission of the Axalon. Cheetor discovered a crashed
oversized Stasis Pod and called it in. Optimus and Silverbolt fly out to meet
him, and Optimus explains that this is Protoform X. He was an attempt to make a
Maximal with the mutation that Starscream’s spark had that made it immortal.
The result was a Transformer that was nigh invincible, but Protoform X was also
extremely violent and aggressive. Their conversation was ultimately interrupted
by Blackarachnia and Waspinator arriving to steal the Protoform, and then
Tarantulas arriving to torture and probably murder Blackarachnia. The fight
caused the Energon the pod was sitting on to overload and cause a massive storm
that threw everyone around. Silverbolt and Blackarachnia ended up together and
agreed to a truce until they could contact their teams. Tarantulas landed with
the Protoform, which activated and ripped him to pieces. He’s fine. Silverbolt
and Blackarachnia bond as they travel, despite their best efforts to avoid it.
Silverbolt tried to coax out Blackarachnia’s better nature, but she fought him
every step of the way. They were ultimately cornered by Protoform X, that
revealed he was a Transmetal Coconut crab, with a tank alt-mode. Optimus and
Cheetor arrive and help the unlikely pair fend off the colossal crustation.
Megatron came across the body, he’d been monitoring Blackarachnia the whole
time, and performed invasive heart surgery on the Protoform. He removed the
spark and placed it in a vice of Energon to keep the Protoform, whom he
redubbed Rampage, in line. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open with a group of protohumans
in a forest within a valley. They’re attacked by a large anaconda, and one is
eaten alive. Dark way to open an episode. We then cut to Dinobot kneeling,
sword drawn and clearly getting ready to perform seppuku. If you don’t know
samurai traditions, it’s a form of ritual suicide that’s supposed to save the
honor of disgraced samurai. The samurai cuts their stomach open with their
blade and often have an attendant with them to decapitate them, so they don’t
suffer. It’s gnarly, but I suppose Dinobot considering it shows how messed up
be feels about the whole Golden Disk thing. He’s unable to end his life,
though, and tosses his sword aside.
Optimus comes onto the bridge and
asks Rhinox what’s up. Rhinox explains that the transwarp explosion released a
shockwave across space time. He’d discovered that the wave was accelerating the
farther it gets from them and by his calculations should reach Cybertron soon.
Because of the weird space time rules of this show it’ll also hit Cybertron at
a point in their future, ya know, so Cybertron knows what the hell is going on.
If it hit the Cybertron in the year they’re on Earth the only one who’d be
listening would be a very confused Shockwave. They’re going to know where they
are. Optimus realizes that Megatron would also have made the same calculations,
so they’ll need to increase the base defenses in case Megs starts getting
desperate and attacks again.
Sometime later, Dinobot crosses
paths with Rattrap, who makes a lot of passive aggressive jabs at him about the
Golden Disk and his recent betrayal. When Dinobot snarls and threatens him to
just try pushing him one more inch, Rattrap actually snaps. He shoves Dinobot
back and snipes at him, “Ya know, I used to figure I had you pegged. Ya, he’s a
slag spouting saurian. But at LEAST you know where he stands.” He storms off.
Dinobot is angry, but he admits that Rattrap is correct. He wonders if destiny
has tested him and if he’d failed. He claims that a deed once done cannot be
undone, but it can perhaps be mitigated. He transforms into raptor mode and
runs off with a blaster in hand.
Cheetor is on a scouting mission
and comes across Megatron and Rampage near the valley from the opener. Some
time must have passed between episodes as he’s not surprised to see Rampage
with Megatron. They transform and shoot at Cheetor, driving him off. Dinobot, meanwhile,
is tracking Tarantulas. He sniffs at some of the spider’s Energon silk when he
hears Cheetor’s distress call. He hears Cheetor get shot down and panics for a
moment, but Cheetor recovers, saying he’s falling back to base but someone
needs to keep an eye on Megatron. Dinobot promises that someone will.
We cut to Tarantulas leaving his
lair to pick up dinner. Despite his upgraded form, it seems he’s kept up his
quirk form season one, where he cosplays as an actual spider. He captures
animals and drains their fluids, I mean. He attempts to grab a deer, but
Dinobot grabs him instead, saying that the ‘stench of his perversions revealed
the lair to him. He holds Tarantulas by the throat and demands to know what is
on the Golden Disk. Tarantulas says he can’t tell him. Dinobot shoots near his
head, freeing the deer and spooking the spider to elaborate. He literally can’t
tell him, as Megatron isn’t letting the disk out of his sight anymore. No
copies, just the original that he always keeps with him. Dinobot announces that
he will have to get it from Megatron. Tarantulas mocks him, saying that
Megatron is miles from them right now. Taking a page of his new travel habits
with Rattrap, Dinobot makes Tarantulas drive him in motorcycle mode. Ya know,
because he’s keeping that blaster to his head. Tarantulas swears vengeance but
Dinobot just says, “Shut up and accelerate.”
At the valley we see the
protohumans milling about and then freaking out when they see the flying
dinosaur. Megatron in flight mode soars over them and lands on a hill beside
Ramage. He deems a mountain in the distance as the perfect target for their experiment.
Rampage makes a snide remark and Megatron punishes him with a vice squeeze. He
tells the giant crustation that he’s expecting a visit from Cybertron soon.
Rampage says he’s looking forward to his imminent demise then. Megatron agrees
that’s a risk, but only if history remains the same. He pulls out the Golden
Disk and puts ‘The Sounds of Earth’ in a projector attachment to his tail
lance. He uses it to show an image of the mountain. He orders Rampage to shoot
the mountain. Rampage briefly considers shooting Megatron instead but fires on
the mountain. Dinobot arrives in time to see the mountain get destroyed and see
that it changed on the “Sounds of Earth” image. They both realize that changing
their present alters the future and that Megatron’s power is virtually
limitless so long as he has the disk and the future knowledge it contains. Megatron
has studied the disk a lot since stealing it and knows that they valley they’re
standing beside is the God Damned cradle of humanity. Knowing that human’s
involvement is what ultimately helped the Autobots defeat the Decepticons in
the Great War… Megatron 2 thinks he and his crew might give Megatron 1 a hand
by wiping out our ancestors. Inferno, Quickstrike, Blackarachnia and Waspinator
arrive to back him up. Panicked, Dinobot tries to call in backup but gets shot
by Tarantulas when his back is turned. Tarantulas taunts him about how spider’s
are venomous, but Dinobot counters with, “But they still SQUASH” before
shooting a boulder onto Tarantulas, crushing him. Dinobot, injured, gets in
contact with Optimus and warns it’s a code red situation. Just as the Predacons
start attacking the protohumans. Optimus says they’ll get there ASAP but he
should fall back and wait for them. Dinobot refuses, saying that he now knows
the future isn’t written in stone, his choices matter, which is ironic since he
doesn’t have a choice here. He says, “I am a warrior, let the battle be
joined,” and draws his sword.
We cut to the Maximals racing
across the countryside to reach Dinobot in time. Rattrap, shockingly, is
pessimistic about their chances of arriving on time. Rhinox ribs Rattrap for,
“always looking on the Brightside,” and Rattrap adds that with Dinobot fighting
six Predacons, there won’t be enough of him left to fit in a toaster.
The Predacons have the valley
ablaze, the protohumans running in terror. Dinobot arrives and quickly
dispatches Inferno and Blackarachnia, stabbing the former and using him as a
human shield to block Blackarachnia’s attack. He then shoots her with Inferno’s
gun and then pops Inferno’s head off. He’s still him a few times in the
crossfire but keeps going. So, it’s now 4 v 1. He comes upon Inferno and
Rampage next. He comes up with a novel way to disable then. He lands on
Waspinator after taking a few hit, knocking him down. Rampage wants to finish
him quickly, so transforms into crab-tank mode. Dinobot grabs Waspinator and
rams his head into the barrel of the tank’s cannon, blowing it up and crushing
Waspinator head. If these guys couldn’t recover from nearly all damage, this
episode would be so dark. Dinobot doesn’t come out unscathed though, his
body is burned in several places, and his helmet is damaged exposing more of
his teeth than normal. Megatron mocks Dinobot’s valiant effort, despite the
fact he beat nearly all of Megatron’s troops by himself. He orders Quickstrike
to scrap him, and looks at some protohumans, thinking about tilting the odds in
his favor.
Dinobot tries to clear a path for
more protohumans to escape, but is shot in the side by Quickstrike. The
scorpion-snake says to not bother getting up, he enjoys kicking folks when
they’re down. Dinobot shoots Quickstrike with his laser eyes, but his damage
keeps him from a second shot. Quickstrike asks what is a warrior without
weapons? Dinobot shouts, “A warrior still,” before beating the oil out of
Quickstrike with his bare hands and piledriving him into the ground. Dinobot
gets an alert that his power reserves are down to 4% and that he needs to go
into stasis lock. Dinobot overrides the command, his internal computer insists
he’ll die if he does this, but Dinobot just shouts “OVERRIDE!” again.
Megatron arrives in T-Rex mode and
decides to mock Dinobot by listing his advantages. Namely that he has the
Golden Disk that will allow him to alter history, and the only thing stopping
him from erasing humanity from existence is Dinobot, a badly damaged exhausted
soldier. Dinobot tries to rush him, but Megatron reveals that he has a
protohuman at gunpoint. When Dinobot doesn’t attack him, he says that’s very
‘Maximal’ of him, and how he was always weakened by compassion. He turns his
cannon on Dinobot, who does a summersault, grabs a stick and beats Megatron
with it. Megatron is barely fazed, dusting himself off and asking if Dinobot
really thought a stick would work against his Transmetal body. He smacks
Dinobot aside and he starts going into an Energon surge. His internal computer
warns that his power is failing and he’s in extreme jeopardy. Megatron mocks
Dinobot and his obsolete technology and asks him what he could even do.
Dinobot, as if waiting for that line says, “Improvise.” He then slams the stick
into a rock and creates a primitive hammer. He then slams it into Megatron’s head,
disorientating him knocking the Golden Disk free. This also frees the
protohuman who runs off. He then grabs
the disk, holds it up and uses the last dregs of his energy to power his beam
eyes. He shatters the disk into splinters before collapsing. The Maximals
arrive and star shooting, driving Megatron off. He transforms and moans how he
was SO Close!
Rattrap drives up, sees Dinobot and
gasps. Cheetor puts out the fire with a some chemicals and then everyone
gathers around Dinobot’s body. Cheetor asks if there is anything they could do,
but Rhinox says he’s too far gone even for Stasis Lock. Optimus tells Dinobot
that he did a good job, he protected the valley and the people that live there,
and their descendants. Dinobot sighs and says, “Then there is nothing to
regret.” Rattrap, while clutching Dinobot’s hand, repeats his ‘Slag spouting
Saurian,” assessment but adds that “It’s nice to know where you stand.” Dinobot
smiles weakly and just adds, “Upwind of you for preference, vermin.” He quotes
Shakespear at his friends, specifically Hamlet, asking them to tell his
tale to anyone who asks, truthfully, both the good and the bad and the rest is
silence. He dies as Rattrap clutches his hand. We see his Spark raise out of
his body into the sky. Everyone stands and salutes him as he goes, Optimus eulogizing
him by saying, “He lived a warrior, and died a hero. Let his Spark join the
Matrix with the greatest of Cybertron.” We see at dawn they cremate Dinobot’s
body as the flyers fly over him in salute.
Sometime later, the protohuman from
before got his hands on Dinobot’s hammer and uses it to crack a coconut open.
He then uses it to kill a snake when it attacks him, the protohuman screaming
in triumph when he realized what he did. Huh, Dinobot gave us stone age tools.
Neat.
Ya know, when I decided to do one
more week of Beast Wars content, I didn’t realize I’d end on this
episode, but I couldn’t be happier with that accident of timing. This is one of
the best episodes in the Beast Wars series. It was a perfect send off to
Dinobot, even though as a kid (and still as an adult) I’m sad to see him go. Season
2 has been teasing this idea that Dinobot is going through an existential
crisis since realizing they’re on ancient Earth. The idea that he’s in a
determinist universe had clearly been messing with him for a while, and that was
before he spelled it out or his attempt at Seppuku. I like that it is Rattrap’s
chastisement that seems to inspire him to go out and make things right. While
the two are antagonistic and always will be, Rattrap’s opinion of him clearly
matters to Dinobot and so I think his rebuke hurt him more than anyone else
would have. I also liked that moment where he was concerned for Cheetor when he
heard him get shot down. He’s come a fair way from that episode where he was
willing to sacrifice the big cat to try to get Megatron. The fight itself was
spectacular as well. Dinobot taking out each of the Predacons, while still
taking damage, was honestly a great way to remind us that Dinobot is a combat
expert. A point further highlighted when he took Quickstrike out with his bare
hands and then beat Megatron with an improvised hammer. The bot fights and
fights extremely well. Taking out Rampage by using Waspinator’s head was my
personal favorite TKO. I liked his final moments, too, giving him a moment to
say goodbye to his team but specifically Optimus and Rattrap who were the two
he was closest to in my opinion. Both their goodbyes touched him in a way that
I think made his passing easier. Optimus gave the goodbye of a military
commander, and Rattrap the goodbye of a comrade in arms. So… ya, Dinobot
sacrificed himself to undo that great mistake that was giving Megatron the
Golden Disk. Regardless of what you think of the former Predacon’s choices, I
think anyone could agree he did his best to make up for that last screw up.
Have a good month, everyone, I’ll try to figure out something else to do next.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-beast-140150639
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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