Editing Spider's Game

{{episode
|series=BWtoon
|ep=18
|series2=BWJtoon
|ep2=18
|prev2=Double Dinobot
|image=Spider's Game Tarantulas Blackarachnia.jpg
|title="Spider's Game"
|production company=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|airdate=[[January 6]], 1997
|packaged with=[[Tarantulas (BW)#Beast Wars 10th Anniversary|Predacon Tarantulus]]
|written by=[[Larry DiTillio]]
|directed by=[[James Boshier]]
|animation studio=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|continuity=[[Beast Wars continuity]]
}}
'''Tarantulas detects a new stasis pod and attempts to turn the protoform into a new Predacon. '''

==Synopsis==
[[Image:Spider's Game Tarantulas console.jpg|left|200px|thumb|It was only after Tarantulas had finished hooking up his TVs that he remembered cable wouldn't be invented for a few epochs.]]
As another [[stasis pod]] leaves orbit and completes planetfall, [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] sends out a magnetic pulse that disrupts the sensors at both the [[Darksyde|Predacon]] and [[Axalon (BW)|Maximal bases]]. The pulse ensures that Tarantulas will be the first to arrive at the pod's landing site, within [[Grid Halex]], and that he will be able to manipulate the [[protoform]] inside. [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] discovers what Tarantulas is up to and insists on accompanying him to the pod's landing site.

[[Tigatron]] also sees the pod arriving, but is unable to contact the [[Maximal]] base so he sets out to intercept the pod on his own. He is intercepted by Waspinator, who delays Tigatron until Airazor arrives and saves him. Tigatron tells [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] to go to the pod and that he will join her there.

[[Image:Spider's Game Inferno pod.jpg|right|200px|thumb|But the box said there were supposed to be ten live ants.]]
Arriving at the pod, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are too late to hand pick an arachnid form for the protoform; however, Tarantulas is able to do some reprogramming and turn the protoform into a [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]]. The new Predacon, [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]], emerges from the pod only to attack the other two Predacons, then begins marching about the stasis pod. Tarantulas deduces that Inferno's beast mode is dominating his logic circuits and that he thinks he really is a fire ant protecting his colony, which his mind concludes is the stasis pod. Blackarachnia tries to fire on Inferno, but Tarantulas stops her, saying he wants no damage to the pod.

Airazor arrives on the scene only to be attacked and disabled by Inferno and Blackarachnia. While Blackarachnia uses this opportunity to make nice with Inferno and start to win him over, Tarantulas uses it to accomplish his real goal—stealing the stasis pod. This act enrages Inferno who sets out in pursuit of Tarantulas, with Blackarachnia not far behind. Tigatron arrives and tells Airazor to find Optimus while he pursues the Predacons.

[[Image:Spider's Game Inferno Tigatron.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Whoops, sorry, I didn't see you there.]]
Nearing his [[Tarantulas's lair|lab]], Tarantulas is caught by Inferno who demands the return of the "colony". Tarantulas ensnares Inferno in a web and is preparing to finish him off when Scorponok arrives and informs Tarantulas that [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]] wants the pod. Before that can happen however, Tigatron arrives and destroys the pod. His victory quickly turns sour as he is attacked by both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia, who inflict heavy damage on him. [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]] arrives on the scene shortly, and even though both of the spiders flee, Tigatron is still in trouble. Inferno breaks free of Tarantulas's web, enraged at the destruction of the colony. Impressed with new guy's violent attitude, Megatron directs Inferno's fury on Tigatron. The ant is prepares to destroy the tiger, but [[Optimus Primal/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Optimus Primal]] and Airazor arrive and blow Inferno into scrap.

[[Image:Spider's Game Scorponok Inferno.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Who buried the loyalists?]]
Megatron gathers up the parts of Inferno and has him restored, while Optimus and Airazor take Tigatron back to the Maximal base for repairs. Back at his lab, however, Tarantulas is lamenting the loss of the pod, revealing to Blackarachnia his beliefs that [[Earth|the planet]] they're on [[Planet Buster|is doomed]]. From this, the black widow correctly surmises that Tarantulas was going to convert the pod into an escape shuttle, but is unable to wrench any more information about his motives for doing so out of him.
{{--}}

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters|h1=[[Maximal]]s|c1=
* [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] (4)
* [[Optimus Primal/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Optimus Primal]] (5)
* [[Tigatron]] (7)
* [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] (9)

|h2=[[Predacon (BW)|Predacons]]|c2=
* [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] (1)
* [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]] (2)
* [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] (3)
* [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] (6)
* [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] (8)
* [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] (10)
}}

==Quotes==
"Besides, you're so ''cute.''"
:—'''Blackarachnia''' to Tarantulas. Erugh.


"Ew, another ''insect''. How depressing."
:—'''Blackarachnia''' on Inferno's alt-mode.


"Spiders! Dare invade the colony? Inferno, terrorize!"
:—'''Inferno'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s first words.


"As Cheetor would say, that flight mode is ultra-gear!"
:—'''Airazor''' should find better people to quote.


"You won't be getting any of our secrets from that pod, Predacons!"<br />
"And you won't be getting any older, Stripes."
:—'''Tigatron''' and '''Blackarachnia'''.


"At least consider it; we could be a great team. <small>...Lunatic.</small>"<br />
"<small>Witch.</small>"
:—'''Blackarachnia''' and '''Tarantulas''' contemplate working together again.

==Notes==
*After Tigatron hits his head, there's a cartoony, tweeting-bird sound.

===Animation and technical errors===
*Inferno's beast form seems to be way too large for the stasis pod he crawls out of...
*Inferno's legs are also colored quite randomly. This means that when he first transforms to robot mode, his right leg suddenly goes from being dark red to a bright hue.
*When Blackarachnia hides behind a tree, her spider legs clip into its trunk.
*Then, as she transforms, Tarantuals' forearms are on backwards. And when ''he'' transforms, his robot mode legs miraculously disappear, only to flip down from his body and retract into it again.
*As Blackarachnia throws Tarantulas off herself, he briefly passes into her back.
*As Airazor struggles to get up, the fingers on her right hand twist outwards two times.
*When Tarantulas transforms after Inferno finds him, the markings on his spider abdomen change as it becomes his back.
*When Inferno breaks out of the web Tarantulas traps him in and fires his jets, his spinning abdomen is seen slashing through the back of his legs. (for a brief second anyway)

===Continuity errors===
*While other stasis pods are shown with hatch windows in outer space, Inferno's stasis pod does not have a window when viewed from the inside.
*Despite what the stasis pod says during Tarantulas's reprogramming of it, it had already started and finished scanning for DNA before the spiders even arrived.
*While Airazor is standing up from her injury, the stasis pod can be seen in the background, even though Tarantulas has already taken it away.

===Trivia===
*While Megatron is complaining that repairing the computer is Tarantulas's job, you can see the words "eat me" on the screen in the Predacon variant of [[Cybertronix]].
*This is the only episode of the series in which [[Scott McNeil]] voices just one character (specifically, Waspinator). The other fifty-one episodes saw him voicing two to four characters.
*This is the first episode of the series to not feature [[Rattrap (BW)|Rattrap]], [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]], or [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]].
*It can be speculated that Inferno's faulty programming can be attributed to his pod already selecting his beast mode before Tarantulas began the reprogramming sequence. It is possible that without the Maximal or Predacon programming chips the pod began to program him with the basic instincts of an ant.
*Curiously, when Tigatron is injured near the end of the episode, his beast mode's face (which serves as his robot mode's chestplate) appears to be bleeding (and has a black eye). Unless mech fluid happens to be red, this either contradicts what Cheetor said to Tarantulas in an [[The Web|earlier episode]] when he said "I don't ''have'' real blood... only [[mech fluid]].", or this lends credence to the theory that beast modes are wholly organic.

===Foreign localization===
'''French'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Inferno'''"


:*''Title:'' "'''Inferno'''" (Canada)


'''Italian'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Intrighi'''" ("Intrigue")


'''Japanese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Jigoku no Ari Senshi Inferno'''" (地獄のアリ戦士インフェルノ, "The Ant Warrior from Hell, Inferno")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[January 28|28 January]] [[1998]]
::* Inferno is dubbed fairly faithfully to his English language version, with the addition of incessantly repeating words and phrases to express his mania.  Like all other characters, Inferno was given a unique verbal tic.  In his case, he ends sentences with the phrase ''de arimasu'', an outdated predecessor to the more modern ''desu'' used only in highly formal situations (for Inferno, it illustrates his reverence for "the colony").  "Ari" also happens to be Japanese for "ant", making it a pun.  Like all characters, he shouts a phrase whenever he fires his weapon.  In his case, it's ''shageki'' (射撃, "Fire!").


'''Portuguese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''O Jogo das Aranhas'''" ("The Game of Spiders")


'''Spanish'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Juego de Arácnidos'''" ("Spiders' Game")

==Home video releases==
{{homevidnote}}
;VHS
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 1998 — ''Beast Wars'' — Warning from Space ([[Alliance Atlantis|Alliance Video]])<br>
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 1998 — ''Robots-Bêtes'' — Alert Dans L'Espace (Alliance Video) — French audio only.<br>
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 1998 — ''Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers'' — There are 2 Dinobots? ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Pioneer LDC]]) — Japanese audio only.<br>
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 1998 — ''Beast Wars'' / ''Robots-Bêtes'' Three pack (Alliance Video) — Available in English or French audio.<br>
[[Image:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2001 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — The Beginning: Vol. 3 ([[Universal]])
;Laserdisc
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 1998 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Predacon Edition ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Pioneer LDC]]) — English and Japanese audio.
;DVD
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 2000 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.<br>
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2003 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — The Complete First Season ([[Rhino Entertainment|Rhinomation]])<br>
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 2005 — ''Beast Wars'' — Classic Episodes: Volume 3 — The Battle Rages On! ([[Alliance Atlantis]]) — English and French audio.<br>
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 2005 — ''Beast Wars'' — The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.<br>
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2006 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Season 1 ([[Madman Entertainment]])<br>
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2009 — ''The Transformers: Beast Wars'' — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)


[[Category:Beast Wars episodes]]
[[Category:Beast Wars 10th Anniversary]]
[[Category:Pack-in material]]