Other Victories

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Sure is nice in the lifeless void.
"Other Victories"
Season	3
No. in season	11
Airdate	May 5, 1999
Written by	Larry DiTillio
Directed by	William Lau
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

The aliens send their powerful new emissary Tigerhawk to Earth to stop the continued disruption of the time stream.

Synopsis

Oh yeah, we still have these two guys.

Somewhere in the vast universe, two entities are discussing the experiment on "Nexus Earth". Though the project was "sterilized", there remains a threat. The entities then reveal Tigatron and Airazor, then merge their bodies together, creating a new Transformer. The aliens inhabit the body and depart in a ball of energy, while two sparks follow.

Believe it or not, you may have better luck on Quintessa.

At the Predacon base, the Predacons are holding a "trial" for Quickstrike. Waspinator is the "defense", Dinobot and Rampage are the jury, Inferno is taking the minutes, and Megatron is the judge, not to mention the fact that he's all dressed up for the occasion. Quickstrike begs for mercy, saying he doesn't know what Tarantulas's intentions for destroying the Ark were, but offers to hunt him down for Megatron, who is less than open to the suggestion. Suddenly, the sensors detect an energy surge on a ballistic approach for the base. Tarantulas and Rhinox both detect the surge as well and recognize that it can only be one thing.

The aliens are back.

Flying Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The Predacons' automated defenses are ineffective against the anomaly, and Megatron orders them to abandon the base. Making contact, the energy ball destroys the Predacon ship instantly. Optimus Primal heads for the base, fearing that the spark of the original Megatron may have been destroyed, and sends Cheetor to assist.

From the ashes of the Predacon base, the alien Transformer appears and introduces himself as Tigerhawk, emissary of the Vok. He dispatches the other Predacons with ease, then sentences Megatron to death for his interference with the timestream. The two battle, but Tigerhawk is victorious. During the fight, Cheetor is incapacitated. As Tigerhawk prepares the killing blow, Optimus arrives. Tigerhawk greets him in a friendly manner, but asks him not to interfere. Optimus tries to explain Megatron's situation, but is entombed in the earth for his efforts. However, Tigerhawk is attacked by Tarantulas's spider drones, which allows Tarantulas to drag him to his lair. Meanwhile, an unconscious Cheetor dreams that he is visited by the sparks of Tigatron and Airazor, who fuse together before he is attacked by the two Vok seen in the beginning of the episode. He wakes up to see the fused spark, which guides him to the lair and the emissary.

The most hardcore death of Beast Wars.

At the lair, Tigerhawk revives and claims to know Tarantulas. The mad scientist states that he intends to use Tigerhawk to destroy the Maximals while he detonates the Ark. He also reveals why he wants to destroy it: Tarantulas and the Tripredacus Council are not descendants of the Autobots and the Decepticons, but have "other origins". This would allow them to control Cybertron and conquer the universe. Cheetor jumps in around this time and looks on amazed at the scene. As Tarantulas activates the deprogramming device, the two Vok entities emerge from Tigerhawk's mouth and enter him. The device then shoots a bolt of energy at Tarantulas, which throws him into a nearby Energon crystal. The crystal detonates, destroying Tarantulas and the two aliens in a freakish yet totally hardcore manner. Cheetor manages to drag Tigerhawk out, but is knocked unconscious when the lair explodes.

Optimus locates Cheetor and Tigerhawk as the merged sparks of Tigatron and Airazor enter the emissary. Welcoming their old friends and new friend back, the Maximals depart for home... as Megatron watches on.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Others
Airazor (3) Tigatron (4) Tigerhawk (5) Rattrap (13) Rhinox (14) Optimus Primal (15) Blackarachnia (16) Cheetor (17)	Inferno (6) Megatron (7) Dinobot II (8) Quickstrike (9) Rampage (10) Waspinator (11) Tarantulas (12)	Magenta-eyed Vok (1) Yellow-eyed Vok (2)

Quotes

"Ooooo, Waspinator like defense! A little more defense, and maybe Waspinator not get blown up all the time!"
[gulp] "Looks like this is my last round-up."
"Aheh-ahem! Two-Head throw Megatron in lava pit. Megatron angry. Think Two-Head a traitor. Want to slag Two-Head. Waspinator down with that!"

—Waspinator "defends" Quickstrike.

"I — I plum don't know! But I do know this. That dang spider double-crossed both of us. I'd be happy to track him down for ya, a-and kick his keister!"
"Ah hah hah. 'Dang spider'. I applaud your good intentions. But we are through being lenient with traitors!"

—Quickstrike learns that Megatron is no longer tolerant of treachery.

"Well, i-i-if it's not a comet, what is it?"
"Somethin' I thought we'd never see again."

—Rattrap and Rhinox, monitoring Tigerhawk's approach toward prehistoric Earth.

"They're back... just like Tarantulas always said they'd be."

—Blackarachnia

"I am Tigerhawk, emissary of the Vok. Your form's changed, but I know you, Megatron. The Vok charge you with the willful disruption of time and space. Surrender to me immediately. Violence will not be tolerated."
[chuckles] "Megatrons do not surrender." [transforms to robot mode] "We conquer! Predacons, attack!"

—Tigerhawk tries to reason with Megatron.

"At least this time, Waspinator has company!"

—Waspinator looks on the bright side as Inferno and Quickstrike go down with him.

"You're insane!"
"So they say. Bblbllllaah! Hahaha!"

—Tigerhawk's assertion is proved by Tarantulas.

Notes

Script timeline

• First script: 8th September 1998
• Second draft: 5th October 1998
• Finalised: 14th October 1998
• As Air: 23rd March 1999

Animation and technical errors

• Characters and objects randomly turn lower-resolution throughout the episode:
  • Waspinator's body as he delivers his "defense speech" (most visible on his rectangular shoulders)
  • Quickstrike's head as he begs for mercy
  • The rest of him, as well as Dinobot and Rampage along with their blasters, as they ready and then lower them. Interestingly, Quickstrike's head is back to being smooth
  • Tigerhawk's wings when he introduces himself
  • Cheetor's body while he's trapped under the web
  • Tarantulas' entire body when he captures Tigerhawk
• Before Dinobot and Rampage grab Quickstrike, the latter's right heel is on upside down. Then, his scorpion-leg fingers clip through his legs.
• Quickstrike's left shoulderpad is sunken in during many shots in the first half of the episode
• As the Predacons scramble for battle stations, Megatron's eyes are green instead of their usual purple.
• Before Megatron orders to abandon the Darksyde, Waspinator screams "What should we do?!", then seems to practically vanish, dropping out of frame extremely rapidly and looking oddly two dimensional.
• When Megatron bursts out from under one of the ship's wrecked panels, parts of him clip through it.
• Following the destruction, as Inferno cries out "The Colony!", Quickstrike in the background oddly snaps forward as he stumbles around.
• As the Predacons open fire on Tigerhawk, Dinobot II fires a green beam instead of a red one.
• When Tigerhawk offers one last chance to Megatron, his right arm clips through his wing-assembly.
• When Optimus introduces himself to Tigerhawk, some of his fingers clip through his chest.

Continuity errors

• The Vok at first seem to believe that Earth has been sterilized following their activation of the Planet Buster back in "Other Voices". However, this doesn't make sense, as they clearly were aware of the survival of the Beast Warriors on Earth when they sent the Metal Hunter there in "Other Visits (Part 1)".
• Speaking of the Planet Buster, the Vok condemn Megatron for changing the past when he attempted to kill Optimus Prime in "The Agenda (Part III)", but that came after their own attempt to destroy the entire planet and Prime along with it. Author intent as related in background production materials suggests that the Vok would have been able to undo the time-consequences of their own meddling but couldn't fix Megatron's actions; however, that was never explained within the series itself, and raises more problems than it solves.
• This episode sees the Tripredacus Council described as having "different origins" than being Decepticon descendants. Back in "The Agenda (Part 1)", however, the council spoke of "their Decepticon ancestors" in private amongst themselves. That's potentially a bit of a glaring retcon, though we might be charitable and suggest that the original line ("Ever since the Autobots defeated our Decepticon ancestors, we Predacons have worked secretly towards the day where we might rise up and take what is rightfully ours") refers to the Predacon faction collectively, rather than the Council specifically.
• Considering at least some time has passed since the last episode, there's no logical explanation for why no one had bothered to explain to Rattrap that Megatron now had the original Megatron's spark and thus why he needed it explained to him in this episode. Nor has Rattrap been portrayed as anything but intelligent up until this point so that he'd need this explained to him a second time if we're to assume they did tell him and he just... forgot. This was likely only done to serve as exposition for the audience.

Continuity notes

• Quickstrike is on trial for his treachery in "Master Blaster".
• The gun Dinobot uses during Quickstrike's trial is one of the guns Rampage used in "The Agenda (Part III)".
• Tarantulas seemed to be happily working under Megatron since the events of "Cutting Edge"; since his power play last episode, he's gone back to acting solo.
• Not only is this the first time that Airazor and Tigatron have appeared since being abducted in "Other Visits", it's the first time they've even been directly mentioned by other characters. Some friends the Maximals are.
• Megatron tries to forestall Tigerhawk's arrival by activating Sentinel, which he got his hands on in "Changing of the Guard". This is its first appearance (or even mention) since then, and its last, so it ultimately did practically nothing for the Predacons.
• The Nemesis is seen on Tarantulas's computer. It will have significance in the series finale. They also show he's got the warship ready to be activated, so its presence on his computer screen may (in-universe) mean he was about to use it himself...
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Tarantulas deploys flying arachnoids to incapacitate Tigerhawk; these ones have blue tips as opposed to their usual yellow-green.
• Cheetor has his last of four strange dreams in this episode, wherein Airazor and Tigatron appear to him and fuse together before his eyes. When he wakes up, he sees and follows the new joint spark over the landscape. He also sees the Vok in this dream before he sees them in real life, perhaps because Tigerhawk shows him or perhaps precognitively.

Real-world references

"The power of Christmas compels you!"

• During Quickstrike's court-martial, Megatron wears a barrister's wig like those worn by British attorneys and judges, in keeping with his accent and aristocratic speech patterns. Inferno acts as stenographer (complete with typewriter).
• As the Vok approach Tarantulas, he attempts to ward them off by forming a crucifix with his fingers, a sacred item often used to ward off vampires in folklore.

Trivia

• The original title was "Closure". The change means it fits the "Other V-word" trend for Vok stories.
• This episode really wants you to buy a Tigerhawk toy. Can you tell?
• In a bit of classic irony, Tarantulas has been trying to destroy the Vok for most of the series and has been attempting to manipulate their creations towards his own plans. However, when he actually faces the Vok themselves he utterly loses it and just starts shooting like a maniac out of fear.
• While Tigerhawk is easily able to defeat six Predacons and obliterate an entire Decepticon warship by himself, he is no match for a group of arachnoids.
• When Tigerhawk is under the influence of the Vok his optics are solid green. Once Tigatron and Airazor's sparks enter his body, his optics are red with a yellow slit pupil.
• The third and third-to-last episodes of Beast Wars ("The Web", and this one, respectively) parallel each other rather nicely and act as book ends to an extent. "The Web" is the first episode to focus on Tarantulas, while this is the last, both episodes involve Tarantulas capturing someone (a cat-bot, no less) and stringing them up in a web in his lair to perform all sorts of acts of evil on them. Both episodes also feature Cheetor as the lead Maximal and feature strange prophetic dreams of his. And, perhaps fittingly considering the similarities, both are written by Larry DiTillio.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La Victoire" (Canada, "The Victory")

Italian

• Title: "Un nuovo amico" ("A New Friend")

• Tigatron's name, which is Tigertron in Italian, is pronounces differently compared to previous episodes: before now, "tiger" was pronounced as an Italian word (approximately: "teejer"), while, in this episode, it's pronounced like the English word.
• Cheetor's line: «Talk about your wild parties!» becomes: «Man, I've never seen such an explosion!»... actually, you've seen worse, Cheetor...

Japanese

• Title: "Tadaima de Gozaru" (ただいまでござる, "I Hath Returned")
• Original airdate: March 8 2000

• "Gozaru" is the outdated samurai lingo which Tigatron used as his verbal tic in the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, indicating he is the one speaking the title.
• Like with Megatron's dialogue back in "The Agenda (Part 2)", Tarantulas' references to the Tripredacus Council are altered to him calling them by the insult of "San Baka Chōrō" (三ばか長老, "Three Idiot Elders"). Considering that it's Tarantulas this time, it is a rather odd that he would use this insult when he has only ever been shown to be loyal to them.

Portuguese

• Title: "Outras Vitórias" ("Other Victories")

Spanish

• Title: "Otras Victorias" (America, "Other Victories")

Mandarin

• Title: "故人归来" ("The Old Friend Returns")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — We Have Returned (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 4 (Universal)

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Third Season (Rhinomation)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Seasons 2 & 3 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)