Editing Savage Noble

{{episode
|series=BMtoon
|ep=15
|image=SavageNoble title.jpg
|caption=''Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea...''
|title="Savage Noble"
|production company=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|airdate=[[February 16]], 2000
|written by=[[Len Wein]]
|directed by=[[Greg Donis]]
|animation studio=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|continuity=[[Beast Wars continuity]]
}}
'''The Maximals discover two strange new organic creatures, but what secrets do they hide?'''

==Synopsis==
[[Image:SavageNoble Maximals Grand Mal.jpg|left|thumb|200px|I see you.]]
The [[Maximal]]s stare up at the [[Grand Mal|giant floating head]] of [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]].  [[Rattrap]] despairs, waiting for the hammer to drop, then is shocked when nothing happens.  [[Optimus Primal|Primal]] suspects that, for some reason, Megatron ''can't'' do anything.

[[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]] hauls [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] up for a closer look; both are repelled by an energy field, but Primal again suspects it's purely automated.

Optimus sends the others to find [[Jetstorm (BM)|Jetstorm]] and [[Thrust (BM)|Thrust]], while he attempts to contact Megatron's [[Spark]].  Nightscream leads the group to one of his old hangouts, a big, generator-filled room with a waterfall. Blast-marks on the walls show that the [[Vehicon general|Vehicon Generals]] were fighting someone or something recently.  The [[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicon]]s themselves attack just then, with Thrust vowing vengeance for the ambush.  

[[Image:SavageNoble Savage approaches.jpg|right|thumb|200px|"Ah, hello! I'm trying to start a book club, and I was wondering if you'd...hey, where are you going?"]]
The two teams exchange words, with Blackarachnia still trying to reach [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] within Jetstorm.  A fight is about to break out, when an eerie howling distracts the group and finally convinces the Vehicons that the Maximals didn't attack them.  [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] leads the others off in a hasty retreat. The Vehicons follow as something massive, spiky, scaly, and four-legged lumbers in the shadows behind them. The group pauses a moment later to observe the beast, a dragon-like creature with spikes on its wings, lips, nose, claws, legs, torso, you name it. They retreat as it begins a firebolt-spewing advance.

Elsewhere, Optimus goes on a spiritual hunt.  He enters the Spark/astral/whatever plane, calling out to his old foe.  He's answered by Megatron's bellowing voice; insubstantial visions of Megatron's head surround him, laughing, mocking, screaming....and the vision ends.  Primal suspects that whatever he just contacted wasn't a sentient mind.

Cheetor, meanwhile, orders the group to stand down, not wanting to destroy the creature before they can figure out what it is.   Jetstorm isn't happy about taking orders from Cheets, but the creature easily repels his and Thrust's attacks, knocking them out. A random shot buries the Maximals long enough for the creature to escape.

[[Image:SavageNoble Noble cowers.jpg|left|thumb|200px|"I am not an animal! I am not—oh, wait, I guess I am."]]
The Maximals track the creature to higher levels in the generator plant, and there discover a wolf-like creature hiding shyly in the shadows.  Nightscream suspects the beast is another survivor, like him.  The Maximals offer friendship, and the creature introduces himself as [[Noble]] and recounts (in [[Forbidden Fruit|a very familiar fashion]]) the story of the Vehicon invasion.  Noble fell into a pit and awoke in his current form.  

Further pleasantries are interrupted by a strafing attack by Jetstorm and Thrust, hunting for the dragon, Savage.  But before the Maximals can even worry about defending their new friend, he disappears while their backs are turned.

Cheetor contacts Optimus, who still hasn't found any trace of Megatron.  The group goes hunting for Noble.  They find the dragon-creature, growling ferociously.  Nightscream is convinced the beast has done away with Noble and leaps to attack.  Only Blackarachnia's quick thinking keeps him from getting blasted with fire-breath.  The group follows as the creature flies off, since they can't leave it loose in [[Cybertropolis]].

[[Image:SavageNoble Noble with wings.jpg|right|thumb|200px|"What? What are you staring at? Have I got some dirt on my face?"]]
Primal arrives and orders the group to split up to cover more ground.  Rattrap eventually finds the beast, which has him cornered and petrified.  To his relief, it chooses to ignore him.  Cheetor hems the beast in by chopping down a bridge, and the others stop it from the other direction.  Primal begins to approach the beast, offering understanding and compassion.  The Vehicon generals arrive and find the beast surrounded, but the dragon bats them away with a tail-slash, sending them over the horizon. After a long moment of carefully approaching the beast, Nightscream touches Savage and calms him enough for him to transform...into Noble.  The two creatures are one, a beast-to-beast [[Transformer]].

Primal vows to help Noble, even as Noble warns that he can't control his other half.  Nightscream reassures him, and Noble smiles to himself—just a bit ominously, yesss...

==Featured characters==
{{Featuredcharacters
|h1=[[Maximal]]s
|c1=
*[[Rattrap]] (2)
*[[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] (3)
*[[Optimus Primal]] (4)
*[[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] (5)
*[[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]] (6)

|h2=[[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicon]]s
|c2=
*[[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] (1)
*[[Jetstorm (BM)|Jetstorm]] (7)
*[[Thrust (BM)|Thrust]] (8)

|c4=
*[[Noble]] (9)

}}

==Quotes==
"I'm going in for a closer look."<br />
"Isn't he ugly enough from here?"
:—'''Blackarachnia''' and '''Nightscream''' discuss Megatron's giant head.


"Get it through your CPU! That program has been deleted. I'm Jetstorm now. PERIOD!"
:—'''Jetstorm''' shouts at Blackarachnia. Meanwhile, the wire in his forehead is about to explode.


"We don't know what this thing is or where it came from - We're not going to find out by destroying it."<br />
"Tell you what, pussycat, we'll bring you back the biggest pieces and you can ask 'em anything you want."
:—'''Cheetor''' and '''Jetstorm''', shortly before the Vehicons get their butts kicked.


"Nice teamwork, Maximals! You catch 'em, we fillet 'em!"
:—'''Jetstorm''', shortly before getting his butt kicked ''again''.

==Notes==
===Continuity errors===
*As the Vehicons rush headlong towards Savage, Thrust and Jetstorm address him by name… almost ''immediately'' after Cheetor declares that "we don't know what this thing is." It seems, however, that Jetstorm and Thrust have come up with the name for the dragon, as a means of taunting it. Noble picks up on this when he names himself, as the diametrically opposed Dr. Jekyll to Savage's Mr. Hyde, an opposition that isn't entirely [[Prometheus Unbound| true]].

===Transformers references===
*When Optimus attempts to make contact with Megatron's spark, he is tormented by numerous heads modelled on Megatron's original and Transmetal designs from [[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars]].

===Real-world references===
* The title "Savage Noble" is a play on the "[[Wikipedia:Noble savage|noble savage]]" of the eighteenth-century cult of primitivism, in which New World "savages" were seen as innocent and unsullied, the core goodness of their humanity free of the chains of civilization and technology. The "savage noble" inversion might suggest the opposite oxymoron: someone so civilized he has become a monster. Not only is that literally true in this episode, where the cogent Noble is prone to turning into the animalistic Savage, but [[Prometheus Unbound|the next episode]] would reveal him to be secretly Megatron trapped in a hated organic form, yearning for access to the technology that would set him free.

===Foreign localization===
'''French'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Noble Sauvage'''" ("Savage Noble")


:*''Title:'' "'''Noble et Sauvage'''" ("Noble and Savage")

'''Japanese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Kaibutsu no Nayami'''" (怪物の悩み, "The Monster's Anguish")

'''Spanish'''
:*''Title:'' "'''El Buen Salvaje'''" ("The Noble Savage")

==Home video releases==
{{homevidnote}}
;DVD
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 2005 — ''Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns'' — Volume 4 ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Geneon Entertainment]]) — Japanese audio only.<br>
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2006 — ''Beast Machines: Transformers'' — The Complete Series ([[Rhino Entertainment|Rhinomation]])<br>
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2007 — ''Transformers: Beast Machines'' — Season Two: Volume One ([[Sony]])<br>
[[Image:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2007 — ''Transformers: Beast Machines'' — Complete Season Two (Sony)<br>
[[Image:Flag of France.png|20px|France]] 2009 — ''Transformers: Beast Machines'' — Intégrale Saison 2 (Sony) — French audio only.

[[Category:Beast Machines episodes]]