Raksha

Apparently there is at least one beast she likes...

Raksha was a prominent figure in Transformers fandom, circa the mid-1990s. She was rather controversial due to her opinions and actions supporting her view of the Decepticons in the original cartoon (namely, that they were an oppressed minority driven to acts of terrorism by their Autobot oppressors and were, in fact, the actual "good guys") and intense dislike for later media, such as Beast Wars.

She organized BotCon 1995, and created the character Nightracer.

Beast Wars was irredeemable any way you turn it, of course. Even had Megatron’s name not been besmirched by the presence of the Pretender, even had the series not spit upon everything that was ever excellent about Transformers, there were no worthwhile characters in the mix. I’m told there’s practically no Usenet discussion at all anymore about BW characters. They failed to capture the imagination and incite the passion that the multi-faceted, compelling, and awe-inspiring G1 characters were capable of. Beast Machines was an amusing side-trip into the back alleys of obscurity, serving only to invalidate Beast Wars further, and with that I have no complaint - but there were certainly no merits of characterization to be found. For all the clamor the Beast-series caused, no sooner were the shows off the air, than the flash in the pan sizzled out. It is a most fitting journey into extinction.Raksha on how Beast Wars forever ruined the brand

Writing

Known toy bios

Generations 2

• Nightracer (dubiously canon)

Timelines

• Nightracer

Known toy design credits

Generation 2

• Nightracer

Fiction

3H comics

The time-traveling Antagony described herself as Megatron's doom, his destruction, and his worst enemy.

Megatron naturally assumed this meant she was Raksha, his worst enemy. Antagony corrected this misunderstanding. Visitations Raksha may have been in league with Wonko the Sane. Ask Vector Prime

Notes

• In an interview on Kid Rhino's Beast Machines DVD set, David Kaye mentioned an encounter with Raksha at a BotCon convention:

I didn't know it was such a huge deal. And there was one fan, she had a snake around her, I found out she was a big G1 fan and she didn't like the new series, and that's fine. But then I found out that, wow, some people really don't like what we do... huh. It kinda deflates you but then you realize it's the fan thing, some people like it, some people don't, whatever.

• In similar fashion to the numerous other references to the fandom included in the Beast Wars cartoon, an homage to Raksha was planned for the episode "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)", in which the Cybertronian word for a blank protoform would have been given as a "Roc-shaan". The term didn't make it into the episode.

• She now spends her days breeding snakes and other exotic pets, largely unconnected to the Transformers fandom.

External links

• The Serpent's Lair, Raksha's homepage