List of Beast Wars characters
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This is a list of characters from the animated television series Beast Wars: Transformers.
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[edit] Maximals
*Optimus Primal/Optimal Optimus: The commander of the Maximals and their ship the Axalon. A brave and compassionate leader, Optimus named himself after a great hero of old: Optimus Prime. He can make rash decisions but is compelled to defeat the Predacons. He dies briefly when he destroys an alien death ray, but is revived by Rhinox as a Transmetal. He later becomes Optimal Optimus, a large new Transmetal form he gained by briefly absorbing the spark of Optimus Prime. His beast mode is a silverback gorilla, and when he becomes Optimal Optimus, he gains an assault aircraft and a ground assault vehicle forms.
*Rhinox: Second in command and Optimus' oldest friend as well as the chief scientist and mechanic of the team. He is not really a fighter and more of a strategist, but he can let rip with his two chainguns, commonly referred to as the Chainguns of Doom. He prefers nature then technology at times. He is very intelligent and skilled in multiple forms of science and technology. Rhinox is the only original Maximal to not gain a new body, but he plays a key role in defeating Megatron in the show's finale. His beast mode is a rhinoceros.
*Rattrap: The smart-alek lieutenant of the Maximals. Often pessimistic and sarcatic, Rattrap is usually a survivalist, even though he always believes the Maximals are going to die. Despite the fact he is the smallest Maximal, this works to his advantage several times in the series. He often clashes with fellow Maximal Dinobot, calling him "Chopperface", as he nicknames all his allies and some enemies. Rattrap gains a Transmetal form, including a wheeled mode of his beast mode. His beast mode is a rat.
*Cheetor: The youngest member of the original Maximals, Cheetor is rather immature and reckless. He looks up to Optimus and tries to get into his good books by achieving any mission given to him, but his reckless behaviour can lead him into trouble. He matures over the course of the series, with each form he gains. He gained a Transmetal form first, also gaining a flight mode. He later gained a Transmetal II form after being shot into the overload of a Transmetal II generator, gaining a feral beast mode but a new Transmetal II form. His beast mode is a cheetah.
*Dinobot: A former Predacon, Dinobot is a warrior who follows a strict code of honour. Betrayed by Megatron, Dinobot joined the Maximals, becoming an asset to their team, even though his tactical methods were rather extreme at times. Dinobot often fought with Rattrap, who he named "Vermin" to counter Rattrap's remark of calling him "Chopperface". Dinobot's loyalty is often changed by his own decisions, but he remained a Maximal to the end. Dinobot honourably sacrificed himself to protect the evolving human race from the Predacons, defeating the whole fleet but dying in the process. Beast mode is a velociraptor.
*Tigatron: The first Maximal protoform to crash-land on Earth, Tigatron gained a natural love for Earth and considered it as his home. Peaceful and wise, Tigatron does not really enjoy battle, as seen when his tiger friend Snowstalker is accidentally killed during a battle. Tigatron developed a close relationship with fellow Maximal Airazor, but both were kidnapped by the Vok and later fused together into Tigerhawk. His beast mode is a snow tiger.
*Airazor: The only female Maximal on the team, until the recruitment of Blackarachnia. Airazor's spark nearly died at birth but she was saved by Rhinox and Cheetor, considering them her "uncle" and "brother". She developed a relationship with Tigatron during their time on Earth, but both were kidnapped by the Vok and later fused together into Tigerhawk. Her beast mode is a peregrine falcon.
*Silverbolt: A Fuzor, a hybrid of a wolf and a golden eagle. He is a stereotypical hero and follows a code of honour, but one not as extreme as Dinobot's. Silverbolt falls in love with Blackarachnia, pursuing her to joining the Maximals, which she does eventually. Silverbolt was briefly a Predacon, but defected after realising his place was with the Maximals. Beast mode is a gray wolf/golden eagle hybrid.
*Depth Charge: The only aquatic member of the Maximals, Depth Charge comes to Earth in search of Rampage, who levelled his home Colony Omicron. Depth Charge started out as a rogue, refusing to work alongside the other Maximals, but over time he became a full member of the team. Beast mode is a manta ray.
*Transmetal II Blackarachnia: A former Predacon, turned Maximal, Blackarachnia is Silverbolt's girlfriend. She longed to become a Transmetal II, in order to survive the Beast Wars. She achieves this using the equipment Megatron used to create Dinobot II. Beast mode is a black widow spider.
*Tigerhawk: An emissary of the Vok, created from the bodies of Tigatron and Airazor. Tigerhawk is sent to Earth the apprehend Megatron, but his primary programmed is altered when the sparks of Tigatron and Airazor join his body. Tigerhawk has amazing powers, capable of manipulating the weather. Beast mode is a snow tiger/peregrine falcon hybrid.
[edit] Predacons
**Megatron: The charismatic mastermind commander of the Predacons. Megatron stole the Golden Disk from Cybertron and headed off into space, pursued by the Maximals. The two teams crashed on prehistoric Earth where they battled for Energon. Megatron is a rather sociable person, but dislikes failure. He gained a Transmetal form, and later a Transmetal II form after being tossed into a pit of lava. He attempted several times to alter Cybertron's history throughout the past. His beast modes are a tyrannosaurus rex and later a dragon.
*Scorponok: The loyal grunt-like second-in-command of the Predacons. Scorponok is devoted to serving Megatron, but is rather dense at times. He found rivalry when Inferno showed. Scorponok eventually died when a transwarp explosion struck Earth sending him and Terrorsaur into a pit of lava. Beast mode is a scorpion.
*Tarantulas: Cunning, deceptive, treacherous. As a Tripedicus Secret Police member acting as a member of Megatron's force, he always has another agenda on his mind. Obsessed with leaving the planet, he uses his knowledge of technology to get what he wants. Beast mode is a tarantula.
*Terrorsaur Usurper and aerial combatant; his beast form is a red pteranodon. As well as his aerial prowess, Terrorsaur's offensive weaponry included laser cannons in his optics, similar to that of Dinobot, but his preferred weapons were his shoulder-mounted cannons, forearm mounted double barreled cannon and hand-held pistol.
He often attempted to overthrow Megatron for leadership of the Predacons (reminiscent of his Decepticon Air Commander predecessor: Starscream) but was never successful in the end. Like Scorponok, he also was destroyed in lava during the Quantum Surge.
A not-very-bright and easily intimidated flyer; his beast form is a wasp. Waspinator often refers to himself in the third person, and generally has a gloomy outlook on his own life ("...Inferno blow up, Waspinator salvage; Waspinator blow up, nobody salvage! Why universe hate Waspinator??").
Through bad luck, Waspinator was often shot at or damaged throughout the series, by Maximals and Predacons alike. Later in the show's lifespan, this became a cartoony gimmick, in that Waspinator was blown to bits in every episode. In 'Feral Scream, Part 2' Waspinator was literally cut into ribbons by Dinobot, but he returned less than five minutes later restored, but with his arm in a sling and band-aids all over his body.
Waspinator had a hand held gun, firing projectiles which would explode on impact. He could also fire poisonous barbs. He fired purple laser beams from his optical cannons in season 1, but he never used this ability in season 2 or 3.
In 'Nemesis, Part 1', Waspinator renounced his Predacon allegiance, claiming that he was sick of being a Predacon, sick of being evil, and sick of being blown to scrap (ironically, this outburst led him to being blown to scrap). He did not reappear until the very end of 'Nemesis, Part 2', where he was being treated like a god by the humans. He ended up having the last piece of dialogue in the entire series when he said "Waspinator happy at last."
Saboteur, spy, and master of techno-gadgets, originally a Maximal protoform, Blackarachnia's alliance was switched to the side of the Predacons by Tarantulas, who also chose her beast mode: a black widow spider. She often aligned herself with Tarantulas over Megatron, possibly due to the fact that he was the one who activated her and had the opportunity to introduce modified programming. Given the choice, however, she always looked out for her own skin, and only joined either of the two when she had no choice. Though still containing Predacon programming, Blackarachnia joined the Maximals when Megatron tried to destroy the original Optimus Prime, which would have resulted in eradication of the Maximals and the Maximal protoforms, including herself. She later attempted to give herself a transmetal II form using the Transmetal Driver, but doing so caused her Predacon shell program to fail. To save her life, Rhinox had to remove the shell program; after this, she became an 'official' Maximal. Her weapons were spider legs that doubled as machine guns and a blaster that could shoot missiles, energy blasts, paralytic blasts as well as a grappling hook.
Maximal protoform converted by Tarantulas and later second-in-command after Scorponok's death; his beast form was a fire ant. Due to damage to his programming when he was activated, the instincts of his beast form integrated into his shell program, which causes him to have a personality close to an ant. This gives him predetermined instincts to "defend the colony" (the Predacon base), and an unquestionable allegiance to his 'queen' and 'royalty', Megatron. He would, ironically, be killed by Megatron when he is accidentally obliterated by the guns of the Nemesis. Inferno wielded a large gun; sometimes two. These guns appeared to function identically to every other 'missile launching' handgun in Beast Wars, but Inferno's guns fired white hot plasma bolts, missiles and even functioned as flamethrowers.
Originally a Maximal protoform, he joined the Predacons due to his more violent nature. His Fuzor form is a scorpion with a cobra's head acting as his tail. His personality closely mimics a "Wild West" gunslinger, and even talks in the typical gunslinger drawl with phrases like "what in tarnation!" and "giddy-up". He would be accidentally killed along with Inferno at the end of the series by Megatron with the weapons of the Nemesis. His snake-head shot out a type of paralyzing cyber-venom as well as laser blasts.
A Maximal experiment gone horribly wrong; Maximal scientists once attempted to recreate Starscream's mutant immortal spark, but instead made the hopelessly psychotic "Protoform X". "X" destroyed countless Maximals, razing Colony Omicron and earning him the eternal enmity of Depth Charge (who was Omicron head of security). When his stasis pod crashed on Earth, it was thought that his spark had finally extinguished, but this was not the case as an Energon explosion and subsequent storm awoke his dormant spark. He was forced to join the Predacon ranks by Megatron, who gave him the name Rampage and removed half his spark, using it to torture Rampage whenever he stepped out of line. He was eventually killed in a confrontation with his rival Depth Charge.
Rampage's beast form is that of a transmetal crab with a third form that resembles a tank. His weapons were a missile launcher with three rotating barrels, which he could use in robot or vehicle mode, and a laser rifle.
A clone of the original Dinobot, created by Megatron and enhanced with transmetal II technology, the Dinobot clone served as one of Megatron's most loyal warriors (and is not to be confused with the very first clone of a Dinobot, a direct duplicate unable to transform).
The details of his creation are unique: His body was originally a lifeless blank protoform, one of many that crashed as a result of the Vok's attempt to destroy the planet Earth. In a twisted experiment, Megatron infused the blank protoform with Dinobot's D.N.A. and was given life by the spark of Rampage (half of which Megatron had removed to keep the reluctant Predacon in line), and so could squeeze his own spark to force Rampage to obey him. Stronger due to transmetal II technology and without any of the original Dinobot's honor, the Dinobot clone was a formidable foe. However, Rattrap was able to download the original Dinobot's personality into him with aid from Depth Charge (in the missing episode "Dark Glass"), having no effect until Rampage's death. At the end of the series, he betrayed Megatron, and when the Nemesis was finally destroyed, he chose to go down with the ship. It is unknown whether or not Dinobot was killed by the crash, due to the fact that he possesses Rampage's immortal spark.
[edit] Non-aligned characters
- Jak and Una: Two human children who befriend the Maximals. Jak and Una are originally saved by the Maximals from a cyber raptor created by Megatron. Subsequently, Blackarachnia and Cheetor are sent to escort them home. Later, Cheetor attempts to educate them in basic technology, and they quickly begin to develop. Una is shortly afterward abducted by Waspinator, as the Predacons need her to finish work on an Energon cannon they are developing but cannot get too close to. However, thanks to her primitive mindset, Una unwittingly manages to sabotage the cannon by stealing a stabilizer crystal. Jak and Una also appear in the last episode of the series, where they fight against a Predacon invasion of the human settlement. Though they are too young to do much, Una does an admirable job of pounding on Waspinator's head.
- Hammer: An adult human and the strongest non-machine combatant in the Beast Wars. Not actually named in the series, he first appears with other early humans in the episode "Code of Hero", where he is held hostage by Megatron to prevent violence on the part of Dinobot. As such, he witnesses Dinobot's stunning defeat of Megatron, when the Maximal attaches a stick to a rock to form a primitive weapon/tool, using it to subdue Megatron. The curious anthropoid takes the abandoned weapon, and learns that it can be used both to get food and to fight. Upon realizing the latter, he bellows at the sky of the discovery. In later episodes, Dinobot's influence appears to have caused accelerated development in the early humans, as they are now using basic tools with Hammer as their leader. Despite the fact that he is no real match for the Predacons, he does an admirable job defending the young Jak and Una, and is the first to discover the vulnerabilities of the cyborg raptors. Hammer's last appearance is in the final episode of the series, where he battles against Inferno and Quickstrike. He is targeted by the Nemesis fusion cannon, but fortunately manages to escape (Inferno and Quickstrike are killed instead). He is also likely the one who first rebelled against Waspinator's establishment of himself as a deity over the early humans, leading to the Predacon's exile and his presence in Beast Machines.
- The Vok
- Transmutate
[edit] Characters from the 1980s series
Most of these characters can be seen around the Ark in stasis lock.
Characters mentioned in the show include Unicron (who appears in a flashback with Starscream in the episode "Possession") and during the Vok interrogation of Optimus Primal; Arcee, whom Rattrap humorously indicates he was related to; and Waspinator says he is Shrapnel in the episode 'Dark Designs'. Also, characters seen in the show include Prowl, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ironhide, Soundwave, and several other Autobots and Decepticons seen in stasis in The Ark.
