Blackarachnia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blackarachnia (Widow in Japan) is a fictional Transformer character from Beast Wars, Beast Machines and Transformers: Universe.
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
| Transformers character | |
 The Predacon Blackarachnia |
|
| Blackarachnia | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Predacon, later Maximal then Decepticon |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Beasts Transmetal II |
| Function | Double Agent Saboteur |
| Motto | "It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver." |
| Alternate Modes | Black Widow Spider Transmetal II Spider Technorganic Spider |
| Series | Beast Wars Beast Machines Transformers: Universe |
| Voiced by | Venus Terzo (English) Ryoka Yuzuki (Japanese) |
Although sold by herself by Hasbro, Takara sold Blackarachnia by herself or packaged together with Tigatron.
Originally, this character was intended to be a quick retool the Tarantulas toy, but animators ended up giving Blackarachnia a very feminine design, said to have been inspired by an Asian exotic dancer.
[edit] Season One
During the Beast Wars series, she was originally a Maximal protoform, but her stasis pod was captured by the Predacons and was fitted with a Predacon shell program and reprogrammed by Tarantulas as a Predacon spy and saboteur. Her beast form is a black widow spider.
Blackarachnia has some skills in mechanics and science but still second to Tarantulas. In season one she largely assisted Tarantulas in his machinations. However, if Tarantulas was expecting a loyal servant and consort, he was sorely disappointed. Blackarachnia proved as ambitious as any Predacon, with no loyalty to anyone save herself. Although she initially served with a pretence of loyalty, this changed when a floating island (created by the Vok) was discovered, Blackarachnia would betray Scorponok, taking over the island for herself and planning first to use its firepower to destroy the Maximal Base, then take over the Predacons. The efforts of Tigatron and Airazor stopped her. But Blackarachnia’s ambition had just begun.
Later, the spark of the ancient Decepticon Starscream possessed Waspinator. Predictably plotting to betray Megatron, Starscream taught her the ways of treachery - a move that backfired when Blackarachnia betrayed him, leaving him to be defeated by Optimus Primal. When the Vok returned to Earth, Blackarachnia forged an alliance with Tarantulas to capture a stasis pod from the Maximals and escape the planet; however they were both unaware this was exactly what Megatron wanted. The Predacon leader sent Inferno to kill them, so that the Maximal would capture the reconverted pod. Blackarachnia manged to defeat Inferno, but Tarantulas was knocked offline.
[edit] Convention Comics
Blackarachnia was one of the stars of the 1997 BotCon Convention Comics, a story set near the end of season one of the Beast Wars television series.
In the Convention Comics plot, Inferno and Blackarachnia watched as the Predacon scientist Fractyl attempted to invent Eenergon Armor capable of protecting them from energon build up. Although seemingly successful, the armor was stolen by the Maximal thief Packrat. Blackarachnia and Fractyl realized the energon armor was flawed and could destroy the planet if it came in contact with large amounts of energon. Inferno pursued Packrat, but since Packrat didn't need to assume beast mode with the armor on, he got the upper hand in the fight with Inferno. Hearing the battle, Airazor, Cheetor and Rhinox joined Packrat. Fractyl convinced Rhinox that the armor was a threat to them all. Rhinox was able to talk Packrat into giving up the armor, which Fractyl aided them in doing. When Blackarachnia arrived with Megatron, Packrat suggested that Fractyl pretend to be attacking the Maximals, who fled. Megatron was impressed with Fractyl's new found battle prowess.
Blackarachnia also appeared in the TransformersCon 2006 program comic, where she was working together with Tarantulas during season two of the Beast Wars.
[edit] Season Two
After talking her way out of being killed by Megatron for her treachery, she was briefly possessed by Tarantulas, who forced her to return his spark to his newly transmetallized body. Maintaining the link, Tarantulas forced her to access Megatron's files on the two Golden Discs. However, she betrayed him, waiting until Tarantulas had been immobilized by the Maximals dropping a boulder on him to download the files for herself. Neither Megatron nor Tarantulas ever trusted her fully after this: in the episode "Bad Spark" Megatron discreetly planted a surveillance device on her, while Tarantulas was willing to use her as a living shield against Maximal fire.
Eventually, Blackarachnia began a relationship with the Maximal Silverbolt, who continually tried to bring her over to the side of good. She first encountered him when she was setting up an energon mining post with Tarantulas and Quickstrike, and was stunned at how he refused to destroy her simply on the grounds that she was a female unit.
They spent their first significant amount of time together when the Predacons and Maximals fought over Rampage's pod; although she had goaded him into trying to fight her as she attacked him, Blackarachnia was attacked by Tarantulas, and Tarantulas in turn was attacked and struck down by Silverbolt, who then helped Blackarachnia to her feet. Unfortunately, Silverbolt slammed Tarantulas into the pod, which was lying in a bank of energon crystals, and the force of the throw caused an explosion that scattered the combatants and left the two equally damaged and in need of contacting their respective bases. So together they traveled to a mountain that was above the energon interference. Along the way, Silverbolt saved Blackarachnia again from a saber-toothed tiger, even though she was about to shoot him in the back. Intrigued by his actions again, she decided to keep him alive after that, unaware that Megatron and the other Predacons were listening in. Their journey ended when Optimus Primal and Cheetor arrive in time to help them fight Rampage (then still called Protoform X), and Silverbolt, forcing his damaged wing mechanism to work, save her from seemingly falling to her demise. This proved to be only the beginning of their rocky relationship.
For a long time Blackarachnia resisted Silverbolt's attempts to reform her based on his assessment that as a Maximal protoform, and she even told him that it was her bad girl persona that he liked most about her, and simply used him. He did seem to bring out a more altruistic side of her however, and she was often genuinely surprised at just how much he cared about her. Having come from the violent, treacherous and often abusive world of the Predacons, the kindness and unconditional love Blackarachnia received from Silverbolt seemed very alien to her, and she found returning it difficult, often resorting to displaying her affection buried underneath her sardonic sense of humor. She used him to acquire parts for her converted stasis pod. When she realized that Megatron was sending Waspinator to the location of The Ark, she followed him, only to be waylaid by Silverbolt again. The two worked together to gain access to The Ark, only to have Megatron arrive and threaten Silverbolt's life to force Blackarachnia to allow him entrance. Upon gaining entrance, Megatron then shot the Autobot Leader Optimus Prime in the head, causing a timestorm that threatened to destabilize all of history.
[edit] Season Three
Blackarachnia officially switched sides in the first episode of the third season when Megatron attempted to change history by killing Optimus Prime, a change which would have resulted in Blackarachnia and the other Maximal protoforms never being created, or even existed. Although still calling herself a Predacon (and not yet changing her activation code), she worked on the same side as the Maximals from this point on, even though none of them besides Silverbolt fully trusted her. She had a few misadventures during this time, including when she and Dinobot's TransMetal II clone hunted each other.
Envying the power Cheetor and the Dinobot clone gained from the Transmetal Driver, Blackarachnia acquired it for herself and tried to remake herself into a Transmetal II, but it failed and caused her Predacon shell program to start to fail, something that would eventually wipe her core clean. While Rhinox tried to save her, she apparently died, but the driver brought her back to life as a TransMetal Maximal while still retaining some of her bad girl personality and sardonic sense of humor, and finally changing her activation code. For some unexplained reason, Blackarachnia gained telekinetic or magnetic powers in her TransMetal II form. After stopping Tarantulas' attempts to destroy The Ark, Blackarachnia would return to Cybertron with the other Maximals after Megatron's final defeat.
[edit] Beast Machines
Blackarachnia was one of eight characters to survive Beast Wars and go on to the Beast Machines series. At this point, she underwent a sort of "role-reversal," and she spent a great deal of time looking for her love Silverbolt and freeing him from his Vehicon alter ego: Jetstorm.
The toy of Blackarachnia again did not resemble the character in the television series (whose design takes it to the full extent of her "Exotic Dancer" look) - although the toy was recolored to more closely resemble the television model in its Japanese release. Also, a kids meal toy was released which looked more like the television model.
[edit] Season One
On the way back to Cybertron Megatron escaped into Transwarp Space, and arrived on Cybertron years before the Maximals. Megatron conquered Cybertron, and when the Maximals arrived he captured Silverbolt and Rhinox and removed their sparks. Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor and Blackarachnia escaped, but were infected with a transformation blocking virus which stripped them of their transmetal enhancements and left them slow dying in beast mode, suffering from memory loss. Fleeing deep within Cybertron Optimus Primal was contacted by Vector Sigma and was reformatted into a technorganic form which then reformatted his companions.
In an attempt to learn what had happened on Cybertron the Maximals raided the Cybertron Archives, but found it empty. Megatron's diagnostic drone continued to remove the organic elements from Megatron's body, however it continued to fail. Blackarachnia started to have visions of Silverbolt when she was in robot mode. Frustrated with how the Maximals were eluding his drones, Megatron used the sparks of Rhinox, Silverbolt and Waspinator to create the Vehicon Generals Tankor, Jetstorm and Thrust . Rattrap and Blackarachnia first encountered the three Vehicon Generals when looking for their ship, the Autobot shuttle Omega Delta, at a spaceport. Rattrap discovered that the Vehicons could only track the Maximals in robot mode. When Blackarachnia accessed the shuttle records in an attempt to learn what happened when they arrived on Cybertron, Megatron attempted to read her memories and learn the location of the Maximal Base, but Rattrap saved her from revealing the information. Cornered by the Vehicon Generals, Optimus Primal and Cheetor rescued their comrades but the shuttle was destroyed.
As the first season progressed, Blackarachnia and Thrust formed an interesting relationship. Blackarachnia believed Thrust was her beloved Silverbolt, but when she was able to look into his spark, she discovered Thrust was actually Waspinator and Jetstorm was Silverbolt. Thrust and Jetstorm battled briefly over who Blackarachnia loved but they quickly reverted back to their evil selves.
[edit] Season Two
Rattrap invented a device which combined a spark extractor with a DNA scanner he planned to use it to restore Transformers into their bodies. Blackarachnia stole this device and together with the organic core of Cybertron and a nearby fossil reformatted Jetstorm into Silverbolt, now a techno-organic Maximal.
Unfortunately, Silverbolt's mind had become fully aware and conscious whilst Jetstorm was active, and the fact that he'd been able not only to commit such atrocities but also enjoy them had left him with a darker personality, no longer as close to his beloved as he had originally been out of mixed-guilt, though by the end of the series he seemed to have reconciled his guilt and became more like his old self, and closer to Blackarachnia again.
After the defeat of Megatron the planet Cybertron was left reformatted into a techno-organic world. Blackarachnia and Silverbolt were about to kiss, but were interrupted by an angry Waspinator - who was promptly swatted by Rattrap.
[edit] Transtech
After the Beast Machines line ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech. The Transtech concept was a line intended to take Transformers to their most futuristic. Hasbro commissioned sets of designs from Draxhall Jump. The series was supposedly to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some characters from the original animated series, all in new, technorganic bodies, though with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing Car Robots to their markets as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Silverbolt, Soundwave, Starscream, Ultra Magnus, and a new character called Immorticon. There were also rumors of a Transtech Dinobot.
[edit] Transformers: Universe
In Transformers: Universe, Blackarachnia is converted to the Decepticon side and joins forces with Unicron, as Silverbolt once again attempts to return her to the side of good.
Celebrating with the other Maximals on Cybertron Blackarachnia was in hand to welcome a group of ancient Autobot heroes back to Cybertron. However, the celebrations were cut short when the entire group was abducted by Unicron and forced to compete in his barbaric games. Reformatted into new bodes by the Chaos-Bringer, the taint went more than skin-deep in Blackarachnia's case, as she now defected to the Decepticons (the servants of Unicron), much to Silverbolt's horror. As he had before, Silverbolt vowed to free her from the influence of evil, even as she attacked Rattrap.
Although Universe finished after issue #3, an resolution of sorts would be found in the flashbacks of Optimus Prime in issue 8 of the Transformers Collectors Club magazine Cybertron/Robots in Disguise. He told of the final battle between Optimus Primal's Autobots and Unicron's Decepticons - a battle cut short when Unicron disappeared (as a result of the events in Transformers: Energon). In the flashback Silverbolt is seen carrying Blackarachnia as they all retreat, but it's unknown if this means she switched back to the Autobot/Maximal side.
[edit] Toys
Although a Transmetal version of Blackarachnia was sold with Happy Meals, Blackarachnia did not become a transmetal in the beginning of the second season of the Beast Wars television series like some other characters did, probably because of the limited resources of the show animators.
The toy of Blackarachnia was recolored as the Autobot Crystal Widow, a separate and different character.
