New Season, New Primal.
Last time on Beast Wars,
Megatron unveiled his master plan. The Maximals are able to hold off Megatron
and Ravage’s assault, Rattrap ended up breaking into the ship and blowing it to
the Pit (Cybertronian Hell). Megatron flees for the cavern Blackarachnia and
Silverbolt were digging out. That cavern, as it turns out, housed the crashed
Autobot ship, the Ark. Megatron arrives and forces Blackarachnia to give
him access to the ship using the access codes she stole by threatening
Silverbolt. The Maximals arrive, but Blackarachnia activates the ship’s
defenses to slow them down. Megatron, meanwhile, enters the ship and finds the
Transformers in stasis inside. He finds Optimus slumped in the captain’s chair,
charges up his cannon and unleashes a full power blast directly to his head.
This causes a massive time storm; a swirling vortex of energy that starts to
erase time and space as the Maximals know it. Megatron loudly announces to the
horrified Maximals that evil triumphs and now they no longer exist. Enough
recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The episode opens with the massive
time storm that is erasing the universe as everyone knows it after Megatron
(BW) murdered the Stasis Locked Optimus Prime. He gloats about his victory,
until Blackarachnia stands up and reminds him that she was a Maximal Protoform.
So, she’s at risk of being erased too. To prove how not cool she is with that,
she reactivates Teletran-1 and boots him from the ship. Silverbolt crawls over
and swears to protect her from the storm, whatever it is. Blackarachnia tells
him to shut up and follow her, as she needs to ‘undo’ something. She and
Silverbolt work together to activate the Ark’s emergency life support
system. They get Optimus Prime plugged into it via his emblem, which stabilizes
him and the time storm. For the moment. Unfortunately, Prime is still fading,
and thus time is still in flux. We see both fade out of existence for a moment
before fading back in to prove the point. Optimus and the others fly in and he
utters his catchphrase, “That’s just Prime,” upon seeing the legendary leader
with his mangled face. Rattrap adding “What’s left of ‘em, anyway,” which
causes Rhinox to smack him. Cheetor says they have to save Optimus Prime or
they are goners. Rhinox does some quick calculations and says there’s not
enough time. Prime is already fading and with the trauma of the repairs they’ll
lose him for sure. Optimus says they’ll just have to move his Spark. He opens
his own chest compartment to let us know what he’s doing. Everyone tries to
object to the idea. Rattrap says you can’t have two sparks in one body, and
Rhinox points out that Prime’s spark houses the Matrix as well, so it’ll be too
powerful for him. Optimus reminds them all that they don’t have much choice and
flies to meet his ancestor. He takes Optimus Prime’s spark, erroneously
depicted as the Matrix container, and places it within himself. The second the
two sparks make contact, Optimus is thrown back amongst the cargo, dropping the
Matrix container which shatters. Rhinox orders Blackarachnia to get the repair
equipment online. They get Optimus Prime’s head into the repair system.
Outside, Megatron recovers and
orders Inferno and Waspinator to converge on his position. Waspinator has
reassembled himself and heads over, and a very badly damaged Inferno drags
himself from the cavern he seemingly died in last season and announce, “I’m
coming, my queen!”
The Maximals get the repairs going
but meanwhile hear Optimus groaning in pain as he tries to hold the two sparks.
Rhinox yells at Blackarachnia to hurry. She reminds them that she’s working
with 4-million-year-old technology, and that takes time. Rattrap tries to
threaten her to work faster, but Silverbolt won’t have that. Rhinox tells them
to both knock it off as they have bigger problems. Imagine having to listen to
petty squabbles while you’re trying to perform emergency surgery on Winston
Churchill or FDR. I’d shout at them too. We see Optimus start to mutate, his
body morphing and contorting as he continues to scream in pain, Cheetor asking
what is happening.
We cut back to the Axalon
where we see Tarantulas’ spider drones putting his body back together. One of
them knocks Ravage’s broken head off the cliff and into the river below.
Megatron calls an alert to his troops, ordering them to pull themselves
together and meet at his location. We see Quickstrike’s snake arm find the rest
of his body, and a badly burnt Rampage flake off the canyon wall as well.
Rhinox is able to get the
regeneration systems set to maximum. Cheetor is the first to notice the…
changes in Optimus Primal. His body has been completely morphed. He now towers
over the rest of his troops, still being smaller than an Autobot but being
twice as tall as Rhinox. His body has shifted to an entirely mechanical look,
with extra fins and wings as well. He says, “In a word… Prime.” His chest has
been converted to have a sort of cockpit design where we can see Optimus
Prime’s spark floating inside it. Megatron and Inferno arrive and open fire on
them, but Optimus’ new body comes with shields that easily block the attack. In
the confusion, Blackarachnia transforms and scuttles away in spider mode.
Optimus stomps over to Megatron and tells him they’re taking it outside.
Megatron is impressed by Optimus’ new look, dubbing him Optimal Optimus.
Megatron calls Optimus’ bluff, saying that he wouldn’t risk firing in the Ark,
it could alter history. Optimus counters that he has four million years to
clean Megatron off the walls, he might risk it. The two, weirdly, get into a
quote fight before Rattrap tells Optimus to just shoot Megatron already.
Rattrap prepares to do it himself, Optimus slaps him aside, and in the
confusion Megatron orders Waspinator to launch the distraction attack. Waspinator’s
shots cause a minor quake that throws the Maximals around and allows the
Predacons to escape. Megatron tells Optimus that this place remains a target
and that he will be back. Optimus realizes that the Axalon is unguarded
and they can’t let Megatron escape to attack it.
Megatron and company fly out of the
cavern and shoot at it, trying to reseal the hole. Optimus protects his troops
with his shields and tells them they need to “transform and roll out.” Outside
the cavern, Megatron finds Blackarachnia with her foot stuck. She isn’t
apologizing for stopping him, asking if he thought she’d really go along with
dying for his ambition. Optimus bursts out of the cavern in his new truck mode.
Megatron says that there will be no more betrayals and shoots Blackarachnia.
Cheetor notes that they’re headed for the base. Optimus tells Cheetor to follow
him and transforms into jet mode, rocketing off. Cheetor notes that Optimus
sure figures out a new body quickly, and Rattrap points out that he should as
he changes them often enough. After the ‘ba-dum-bum-ching,’ he tells Cheetor to
get moving.
Rhinox starts up the next phase of
the repairs, saying he just needs a few more cycles. And once the repairs are
complete, all they’ll need is for Optimus to bring Prime’s spark back in one
piece. Rattrap radios in to tell him that Silverbolt might be in the middle of
a… situation. Silverbolt cradles a badly damaged Blackarachnia, using his
favorite pet-name for her going forward “sweet black poison of my heart” and
begs her to stay with him. She says he’s got a way with words and that he
almost makes her wish she was a better person. He says that she is, as she
chose to not let evil triumph. When she points out that she was saving her own
hide, he tells her that she still saved him, which still counts for something.
He swears his undying love for her and begs her to join the Maximals. She
admits that, for him, she would join his side, but as a Predacon. She passes
out and Silverbolt lets out a howl of pain. Rhinox and Rattrap both mock him
for the schmatlzy overreaction, as she’s just in Stasis Lock. They agree to
take her in for repairs. Rhinox prays for Optimus to hurry back with Prime’s
spark or none of this matters.
Optimus and Cheetor catch up with
the Predacons. Cheetor takes out Inferno and Waspinator, and Optimus tackles
Megatron. He rips Megatron’s tail from his beast mode, forcing him to transform
and slaps him to the ground with it. Optimus says that it’s over, but Megatron
reveals his evil backup plan. He has Rampage and Tarantulas’s drones drag the Axalon
with ropes to knock it from the cliff. Optimus flies in, using his wings to
slice the ropes they were using to drag it. Rampage transforms and marvels at
how huge Optimus is now before firing a rocket at him. Optimus, fearing for
Prime’s spark in his chest, blocks it with his arm… unfortunately deflecting
the rocket at the Axalon. The ship breaks in two and plumets into the
river below. Ramage laughs evil as he leaps in after it. Cheetor asks what they
do now, and Optimus says that for now they’ll regroup and return their precious
cargo to its vessel. They fly off as Tarantulas watches them go, laughing
evilly.
Optimus returns Prime’s Spark.
Optimus Prime briefly powers on and the two Optimus’ look into each other’s
eyes before he goes back into Stasis. Rattrap makes a sarcastic comment about
protecting Optimus Prime and making sure he stays in stasis lock for a few
million years. Optimus agrees that’s their situation. He orders his Maximals…
and one Predacon, to get as much salvage from the Axalon as they can.
They need to fortify the location to keep Megatron and the Predacons out. They
end up recovering the Axalon’s bridge from the river and set it up as
their command post within the Ark’s cavern. Optimus announces that
they’re moving in as they power it up.
First off, I love the design of
Optimal Optimus. It’s a great combination of his original simian look with a
bigger, blockier, more classic Autobot look. His original body was about
average for his era of Transformer, his Transmetal body was big, and now he’s
basically Goliath. Rampage and Rhinox were the biggest characters on each side
up to this point and they’re basically up to his waist. I’ve wondered for ages
if Optimus’ new body was simply a side effect of trying to house the Matrix or
if the Matri acknowledged him in some way and thus reformatted him into
something Prime adjacent. Not quite making him a Prime like with Hot Rod but
making him more than he was. Just something I ponder occasionally. This episode
was mostly marveling at Optimus’ new look and then having one of the biggest
status quo changes of destroying the Axalon. It’s a good balance. And I
like that Blackarachnia ends up defecting to the Maximals now that she knows
Megatron’s big plan would involve her being erased. Weirdly, Quickstrike and
Rampage never voice their own concerns about being erased as both were Maximal
Protoforms as well. Inferno is too but I see him going along with whatever
Megatron tells him. It’s just a minor inconsistency that bugs me. So, ya, new
Optimus, new allegiances, and a new location, that’s a solid season premier.
We’ll see where they go from here next time. Have a good night. Stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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