Proving Grounds (BW)

« Beast Wars: Transformers ep 46 »
Quick, before Silverbolt comes!
"Proving Grounds"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	February 14, 1999
Written by	Arthur Sellers
Directed by	William Lau
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

Blackarachnia leaves the Maximals, and is drawn into a dangerous hunt with Dinobot.

Synopsis

Nice curves.

The Maximals examine Blackarachnia, using a machine to display her insides. Rattrap is unimpressed with the Predacon, but Cheetor finds the lady's structure to be fascinating. Rhinox finds the location of the shell program that Tarantulas installed in Blackarachnia's protoform to make her into a Predacon. When the test is over, Blackarachnia responds aggressively to Rattrap's suspicion and Cheetor's infatuation, but Optimus Primal orders her to stand down. Frustrated with not yet being accepted, she leaves the Maximal base using a secret tunnel, but Dinobot, spying on the Maximals, watches her exit and follows.

In the outdoors, Blackarachnia reflects on her situation to a stray butterfly. Before she can execute the butterfly, she notices Dinobot hunting her. She leaps through trees and starts to hunt the predator. Soon, she ensnares and suspends Dinobot by her webbing. Dinobot cuts himself free and transforms to his robot mode. He accuses her of being a coward and walks away.

In the Maximal base, Rattrap enjoys a video game, but Silverbolt deactivates the game to use the computers to find Blackarachnia. Rattrap cries over his lost game, while the Fuzor determines Blackarachnia to be in Predacon territory. Silverbolt convinces Rattrap to not report Blackarachnia's irregular whereabouts to Optimus Primal by mentioning Dinobot.

What is it with Dinobot and logs?

In darker woods, Blackarachnia and Dinobot find each other again. But the spider realizes she has been fooled by a hologram, while the real Dinobot attacks her from behind using a strong tail swipe. The two fire at each other, and Dinobot dodges a falling tree. Blackarachnia runs, but Dinobot blasts down two trees, pinning the widow's legs under two massive pieces of lumber. Before he can carve into her, Blackarachnia is able to grab her gun and fire a shot into Dinobot at close range. With her enemy down, Blackarachnia tries to radio for help, but doesn't notice Dinobot being repaired by his Transmetal 2 energies. Luckily, Silverbolt is already searching for his lady friend, tracing her scent.

The other Maximals figure out that Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are in Megatron's jamming zone.

Silverbolt was strapped the wrong way around on Goldfinger's table.

Blackarachnia keeps her guard up, aware that Dinobot is still hunting her. Silverbolt arrives, and is promptly shot directly in the chest. The two males battle, with Dinobot getting an upper hand. As Dinobot uses his heat vision to slowly burn Silverbolt's face, Blackarachnia fires her machine guns at her lover, announcing the fight is between Predacons.

Blackarachnia tries to convince Dinobot to form a private alliance. Dinobot rejects the idea and stuns her with a beam from his eyes. But Blackarachnia's conversation gives Silverbolt the time to stand up again. Dinobot's attacks, but discovers too late that Silverbolt had created a hologram of himself using the holo-projector. He blasts the Transmetal 2 over the edge of one of those surprisingly common steep cliffs—but Dinobot climbs back up to level. However Blackarachnia fires a missile directly into his face, making sure he won't be able to climb up again.

Shoulder massages always help.

As the sun rises, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt discuss the conversation about her betrayal that he overheard. She explains it was an attempt to fool Dinobot—a stalling tactic. Blackarachnia decides to leaves the Maximals—no longer desiring to let them distrust her as they do. Blackarachnia tries to leave, but her headbutt harms both Silverbolt and herself. Primal lands and explains that it's up to Blackarachnia if she wants to have the shell program removed. Blackarachnia is surprised to find out Optimus is pro-choice. Blackarachnia agrees to stay with the Maximals, but keeps herself the way she is.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Rhinox (2) Optimus Primal (3) Cheetor (4) Rattrap (5) Silverbolt (7)	Blackarachnia (1) Dinobot II (6)

Quotes

"What's the matter? Don't you trust me?"
"Huh, about as far as an anvil can jump." [forcibly grabbed by the neck] "Of course, I mean that in the best possible way."

—Blackarachnia and Rattrap

"Hands off the metal, Sir Drools-a-lot."

—Rattrap to Silverbolt

"Mood, setting... all I need now is my dance partner."

—Blackarachnia on her "hunt"

Silverbolt: You're going to hear the truth if it...
[Blackarachnia turns around and headbutts Silverbolt, knocking him down.]
Blackarachnia: Warned ya... ohh, not such a great idea.
[Blackarachnia falls to the ground; she and Silverbolt groan.]

—Blackarachnia learns not to do something stupid the hard way.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• When Blackarachnia jumps out of the X-ray machine, she's missing her beast mode legs.
• The way the trees fall on Blackarachnia, her head and torso would have been trapped, with her legs sticking out.
• During the scene where the Maximals work out where Silverbolt and Blackarachnia have gone, a piece of green metal clips through Rhinox's chest.
• Blackarachnia's cyber-venom is blue, as opposed to its usual dark purple.

Continuity errors

• Previous episodes established that the Predacon shell program was something installed onto a stasis pod, activated through the DNA scanner. This episode depicts the shell program as a physical object implanted within Blackarachnia.
• Dinobot displays enhanced healing in this episode, allowing him to shrug off incapacitating damage in a matter of seconds. You'd think that this ability would come in handy in the previous two-parter, after he was repeatedly defeated by Cheetor.

Continuity notes

• Like all the other Earth-born Predacons except Quickstrike, Blackarachnia derived her personality and allegiance from Tarantulas' shell program.
• Silverbolt brings up Rattrap's rivalry/friendship with the original Dinobot.
• Blackarachnia downloaded the codes to the Ark off of the Golden Disk in "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)".
• Blackarachnia proposes an alliance with Dinobot. It's not explicitly stated, but her comments about him being "state-of-the-art" suggests that she hopes to use him to gain some Transmetal powers of her own, a long-term goal first alluded to in "Cutting Edge".
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Dinobot's left eye has a telescopic function.
  • He also carries around an illusion-generating machine.
  • After getting blasted by Blackarachnia, Dinobot heals off the damage. This is accompanied by a purple glow emanating from his spark, much like Cheetor's own supernatural abilities back in Feral Scream Part 2.
  • In addition to all the other things he can do with his left eye, Dinobot can fire a paralyzing beam.

Real-world references

• The video game Rattrap plays has some aspects modelled after Street Fighter. Optimus Primal tosses a projectile similar to Ryu's "Hadoken" and performs a spinning kick similar to Ryu's "Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku". The two characters in the game are a miscolored Megatron (Transmetal body) and Optimus Primal (using the body of pre-beast mode Megatron from "Beast Wars" (Part 1)).
• The next game Rattrap plays is a first person shooter, a la Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. It consists of blasting many Waspinators.

Trivia

• Blackarachnia's scan highlights various skeletal-like structures in her body, including hips and a rib cage. It also highlights some sort of tube structure smack-dab in the middle of her pelvis. Really, Mainframe Entertainment?

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Sauvetage" (Canada, "Rescue")

Italian

• Title: In fuga ("On the Run")

Japanese

• Title: "Love Typhoon" (ラブタイフーン)
• Original airdate: February 9 2000

Portuguese

• Title: "Fazendo Escolhas" ("Making Choices")

Spanish

• Title: "La Prueba" ("The Test")

• Title: "La Prueba" (America, "The Test")

Mandarin

• Title: "Zhēnjiǎ Lìchǎng" (真假立场, "Stand between Truth and Fault")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Love Typhoon (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (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)
2005 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 2 (Universal)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)