Code of Hero

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The rest is silence...
"Code of Hero"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	March 9, 1998
Written by	Ian Weir
Directed by	Bob Forward
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Packaged with	Dinobot

Dinobot makes the ultimate sacrifice to save those who are still to come.

French-Canadian title: Code du Héros ("Code of Hero")

Japanese title: あばよッ! (Abayo!, "Farewell!")

Spanish title: El Código del Héroe

Latin-American title: El Código de un Héroe

Italian title: Un grande eroe ("A grand hero")

Brazilian name: Código de Herói

Synopsis

In a wild valley, a group of primitive hominids forage for food. A gargantuan snake attacks two of their number, and the protohumans are helpless to stop it...

"I have no other choice, I have dishonored my comrades."

At the Axalon, a haunted Dinobot meditates on his sword... and holds its blade ominously over his chest. But after a long moment of tension and hesitation, he casts it aside with a growl of frustration.

Rhinox has been calculating the path of the Transwarp Wave from the Planet Buster's destruction—it's traveling through time at an accelerated rate, and will reach Cybertron in the "present", thus alerting Cybertron to their location. Optimus fears Megatron has made similar calculations, and the group realizes they need to increase their defenses.

Dinobot, still somber, runs into Rattrap, who nearly goads him into a fight over his turning the Disk over to Megatron. Rattrap stalks off, concluding that he'd thought Dinobot was at least forthright. Dinobot is left to reflect that his past actions cannot be undone... but they "may yet be mitigated". He arms himself and heads off into the wastes.

On aerial recon, Cheetor observes Megatron and Rampage out for a stroll. They drive him off with some damage, but Cheetor calls in the sighting to Dinobot, who promises to follow up.

At his lair, Tarantulas has captured a tasty antelope for his dinner. But as he creeps up to the struggling beast, Dinobot bursts out of the ground, holding him at gunpoint and demanding to know what information is on the Golden Disk. Tarantulas doesn't know—there are no more copies remaining, and Megatron is keeping the Disk on his person at all times. Still holding him at gunpoint, Dinobot uses Tarantulas as his unwilling ride.

The hills are alive, with The Sounds of Earth!

The protohumans scatter and panic as Megatron flies overhead and lands. Rampage sneers that the Maximals will soon arrive from Cybertron, and that he anticipates Megatron's imminent demise. Megatron admits that's very likely... but only if history remains as it is.

Megatron explains that the Golden Disk contains images recorded in the future, including one of a nearby mountain. Megatron has Rampage destroy the mountaintop. After a moment, the image on the disk changes to suit the altered reality, to Megatron's delight. Dinobot observes all this with dawning dread: Megatron has the power to change the future.

The valley they are standing above, Megatron explains, spawned the human race. Their interference helped the Autobots win the Great War, thereby allowing the Maximals to rule over the Predacons today. But Megatron has a different history in mind. Summoning the rest of his troops, he orders them to annihilate the valley and its inhabitants. With the protohumans destroyed, the human race will never have existed!

File:BWDinobot decision.jpg

A picturesque image is required before a dramatic death.

While Dinobot's back is turned, Tarantulas blasts him; Dinobot reciprocates by squashing him under a rock. Dinobot contacts Optimus, who orders him to maintain position, but Dinobot knows there is no time to wait. With his questions answered, Dinobot is ready to face his destiny.

Dinobot moves in to attack the entire Predacon force single-handed. He blasts, punches and stomps his way past Megatron's minions, but loses his weapons, suffers considerable damage, and drains most of his energy supply. His computer warns him that he must enter stasis lock to survive... a command which Dinobot overrides.

Megatron confronts the damaged warrior, gloating over his near-total victory; when Dinobot starts to attack, Megatron reveals a human captive. The hostage is enough to make Dinobot halt; Megatron rebukes him for weakness. But Dinobot is a warrior still. Forging a makeshift hammer from a rock and stick, he knocks the Disk out of Megatron's hand. With the last of his energy, he summons one final optic blast, shattering the Disk.

Furiously lamenting his failure, Megatron flees as the Maximals arrive. Cheetor douses the flames of the burning valley. The Maximals gather around the fallen Dinobot, but it is too late to help him. Optimus assures him that he has saved untold lives yet to come. Dinobot exchanges a final round of barbs with Rattrap; he asks them all to tell his story truthfully, both the good and the bad, and allow him to be judged accordingly. With that, the proud warrior dies. Rattrap leads the others in a salute as Dinobot's spark leaves his body, with Primal wishing it on to the Matrix, there to join Cybertron's finest.

File:Dinbot funeral.jpg

Old soldiers don't die, they just fade away...

The next morning, the Maximals hold a funeral for Dinobot. The fliers soar through the air in a salute, as Rattrap and Rhinox dissolve Dinobot's remains.

At the valley, a curious protohuman finds Dinobot's hammer. He soon figures out how to use it to help gather food... and to fend off predators, such as the giant snake. The protohuman's yell of triumph echoes through the valley.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Protohumans
Dinobot (2) Optimus Primal (3) Rhinox (4) Rattrap (5) Cheetor (6) Silverbolt (14)	Tarantulas (7) Megatron (8) Rampage (9) Waspinator (10) Blackarachnia (11) Inferno (12) Quickstrike (13)	Leader Neanderthal (1)

Quotes

"Remember that transwarp cell explosion?"
[Primal just glares]
"Okay, stupid question..."

—Rhinox has a once-in-a-lifetime lapse in intelligence.

"Well, if it ain't the irascible raptor."
"The base remains infested with vermin I see."
"Yeah? Funny, y'know not much changes around here… except maybe the occasional allegiance. Find any Golden Disks lately, hmm? Pass them on to any Predacons?"
"I don't need to explain my actions to you, mouse!"
"Yeah, that's right, ya don't cause they pretty much speak for themselves."
"Go ahead, rodent. Push one more inch."
[pushes Dinobot back] "You know, I used to figure I had you pegged. 'Oh, yeah, he's a slag-spoutin' saurian, but at least you know where he stands.' Guess we live and learn."

—Rattrap and Dinobot

"The rodent's words give off the stench of truth. Destiny is one great test in store for us all. Has mine already come and have I failed it? A deed once done cannot be undone, but perhaps, it may yet be mitigated."

—Dinobot embarking on his destiny

"Destroy this valley! And everything in it! The human race will never have existed!"

—Megatron, announcing the impending genocide of the proto-humans

"The question that once haunted my being has been answered. The future is not fixed, and my choices are my own. And yet, how ironic... for I now find that I have no choice at all! I am a warrior... let the battle be joined."

—Dinobot, realizing his destiny

"One lonely turncoat, battling on against impossible odds." [Wipes fake tear] "I'm almost touched! ...Fortunately, such moments pass quickly. Quickstrike, scrap him!"

—Megatron, observing Dinobot's solo fight to save the valley.

"What's a warrior without weapons, eh?"
"A warrior still!"

—Quickstrike totally underestimates Dinobot.

"Hmm, my ears are burning! Yesss! Why, Dinobot, what a delightful surprise! Let's see, where are we now? I have the Golden Disk, I have the power to change the future, and the only obstacle in my path to unimaginable glory... is yourself. Exhausted. Damaged beyond recovery. Defeated."
"Not just yet!"
"Ah-ah-ah!" [Megatron reveals a bound proto-human] "One more step, and it's raining bits of early anthropoid, yesss." [Dinobot hesitates] "Oh dear, how positively Maximal of you. You were weakened before you started, Dinobot. Weakened by compassion."

—Megatron confronts the severely damaged Dinobot.

"Face it, Dinobot! You're old technology, obsolete. What could you possibly do?"
"Improvise."

—Megatron is about to find out that Dinobot has one more trick up his sleeve.

Optimus Primal: "Well fought, my friend. You saved the valley. You saved the lives of those who live here... and of those who are still to come."
Dinobot: "Then... there is nothing to regret."
Rattrap: "Like I said, you're just a blasted, slag-spouting saurian, but... it's nice to know where you stand."
Dinobot:"Upwind of you, for preference, vermin. ...Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."

— Dinobot shares last words with his comrades

"He lived a warrior... and died a hero. Let his spark join the Matrix, the greatest of Cybertron."

—Optimus Primal's eulogy for Dinobot

Notes

Technical and animation errors

• The interior of the Axalon, and thus the doors to Dinobot's quarters, were made at a different scale to his character model, so he could not actually fit through the doorway. Bob Forward explained that it had to be faked by a cut.
• When Rattrap is working at the wall panel, his right forearm is backwards and remains thus until he is grandly gesturing.
• When Megatron is flying over the proto-human valley, his legs are missing and his body has very little detail.
• As Quickstrike approaches Dinobot, his left shin is backwards.
• At Dinobot's funeral, Rattrap is in his pre-Transmetal body. On the Madman DVD commentary for this episode, Bob Forward could not believe how the production team (who had viewed this scene at least a hundred times trying to get everything right) did not notice the fact they used the wrong Rattrap, and yet every fan did.

Continuity errors

• The strategy of the Maximal cavalry seems a bit odd. Granted, arriving in ones and twos would make them more vulnerable to attack but surely there would be some advantage in sending at least Cheetor on ahead? Or are we supposed to assume that every single Maximal, from jet-powered cheetah to bog-standard rhino, has the same top speed? (It's especially odd for Rhinox, considering that vehicle-mode Rattrap has given someone a lift before, and Primal will give Rhinox a lift later).
• When Dinobot laments about Megatron's power being limitless, Megatron and Rampage can be seen on the cliff right behind him. This and the previous shot also indicate that Dinobot is right out in the open, possibly exposing himself in full view of both Predacons. So...exactly why didn't Megatron or Rampage notice Dinobot, now?
• Megatron left the field of battle in Maximal hands with all of his troops incapacitated. Yet next episode, the Predacons are back under his command. The Maximals must have simply left and allowed Megatron to collect their injured chassis at his leisure instead of taking them prisoner.
• Towards the end of the episode, listen closely when the caveman hits an oncoming snake with Dinobot's hammer. A mechanical thud can be heard when the snake hits the ground, making it sound as if the snake is made of metal.
• In this episode, the Voyager Disk resembles an old record (complete with being labeled "The Sounds of Earth") instead of the design used since its appearance in the first episode.
• Rattrap mentions that Dinobot would be up against six Predacons when there was a total of seven. Either he had totally forgotten about Tarantulas or assumed that Tarantulas would still not be working with Megatron.
  • Or he decided that Waspinator didn't count.
• Megatron's strategy of destroying the human race before it evolves has a critical deterministic error; if he succeeds in preventing the human race from coming into being, then the golden disk would never have been created by NASA in the future. Megatron would never have been able to acquire the disk in the first place, and thus would not have the foresight to attempt to destroy the human race, and then the human race would have evolved as normal, creating the golden disk in the future... and so on and so forth.

Transformers references

• Megatron orders the destruction of the prehumans to prevent the development of mankind. Humans assisted the Autobots to win the Great War. Most of these were probably Witwickys.

Real-world references

• As the Predacons jump into the valley to destroy the hominids, Rampage crushes a butterfly. This evokes the famous Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder", in which a time traveler in the past steps on a butterfly, thus dramatically altering the future of humanity. It is also reminiscent of the Butterfly Effect, a principle of chaos theory which holds that a small change (a flap of a butterfly's wings, killing a few dozen hominids) can eventually lead to vast changes (changes in storm systems a world away, the dominion of Predacons over Maximals). Of course, the writers may have merely intended Rampage's act to symbolize how killing the hominids would be no more difficult for the Predacons than crushing a butterfly . . .
• When Dinobot is leaving the base, he comments that "a deed, once done, cannot be undone", a slight modification of the Shakespearean quote "what is done cannot be undone".
• Dinobot's final words, "The rest is silence", are taken directly from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
• In a bit of foreshadowing, while Dinobot is contemplating suicide, three ravens fly past his window in the missing man formation, which the Maximal fliers use in their salute to him at his funeral.
• Right after Dinobot crash-lands on Waspinator (for the umpteenth time, Waspinator gets no respect) Rampage points his cannon at Dinobot with the aim view similar to the gun barrel views from numerous James Bond movies. Of course, most Bond villains do not give the opponent time to stuff a trashed Waspinator into the barrel (for the umpteenth and 1 time, Waspinator gets no respect) but still...

Trivia

• Beast Wars co-story editor Bob Forward drew storyboards for this episode. Not only is it the only Beast Wars episode to be directed by the series's writers, but it is also the only episode to be done up in storyboards rather than being directed on-the-fly. Bob Forward worked in person with the Mainframe animators for this episode.
• The original storyboards were auctioned for charity at a BotCon.
• According to Bob Forward, Megatron's transformation sequence had to be reconstructed to be able to show his transformation from underneath for one shot. Previously, the animation only "worked" when seen from eye-level or above.
• During the recording of this episode, Scott McNeil was attempting to deliver Dinobot's last words, but was continually interrupted by the recording crew's laughter. He is reputed to have said while still in character, "Do you mind?! I'm trying to die here!"
• According to McNeil, Dinobot knew he was going to die five episodes before he did, as right up until the last second, he believed Dinobot to only be "cartoon dead" as opposed to "dead dead".
• When originally broadcast in the United Kingdom, this episode was edited, with Dinobot's contemplated suicide completely excised and his hallway altercation with Rattrap cut down to only a fraction of its actual length. In the latter case, this seem to serve no other purpose than the elimination of the word "slag", and Dinobot's dying exchange with Rattrap was likewise altered to purge the word.
• It's no surprise that a DVD containing this episode was packaged with Dinobot for Beast Wars 10th Anniversary. This is the only post-Season 1 episode included with any 10th Anniversary figures.
• Bob Forward considers this to be his favorite Beast Wars episode, as well as the "The Agenda" three-parter.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Bad Spark / Code of Hero (KB Toys)
2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Huh? The Face? (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 7 (Universal)

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Second Season (Rhinomation)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 2 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)