Transmutate (episode)
| This article is about the Beast Wars cartoon episode. For the spotlight character of this episode, see Transmutate (character). |
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 You cried. Don't lie! | ||||||
| "Transmutate" | ||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | |||||
| Airdate | March 10, 1998 | |||||
| Written by | Christy Marx | |||||
| Directed by | J. Falconer Sean Osborne George Samilski | |||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | |||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | |||||
A strange creature emerges from a damaged stasis pod, and both Rampage and Silverbolt find a strange type of kinship with it.
- Japanese title: カニじゃい! (Kani Jai!, "I'm a Crab!")
- Latin-American title: Transmutante
Synopsis
Within the Predacon base, Megatron dozes in his quarters, an opportunity which Rampage uses to make a grab for his Spark. His efforts earn him nothing but painful punishment and a sharp rebuke from the suddenly-awake Predacon leader.
Elsewhere, Rattrap, Silverbolt and Cheetor are searching for another Pred jamming tower in a mountainous, seismically unstable region; Megatron monitors them, and sends Inferno and Rampage to deal with them. Worried about the growing earthquakes, Primal heads out to back up his teammates. A huge earth tremor emits strange energon discharges, knocking out Rattrap and Cheetor and burying them under a rock slide. The quake also uncovers a buried stasis pod; Megatron immediately sends Inferno after it; Rampage follows.
Inferno arrives at the pod, which is badly malfunctioning. Silverbolt arrives and takes him out of the picture. Rampage arrives, intrigued by the pod's contents. As its computer warns that "deconstruction" is "imminent", he urges the powerful spark within to fight its way free. With a mighty shriek, the pod explodes, releasing its passenger.
Rattrap and Cheetor free themselves, and behold the new arrival: a strangely misshapen, almost skeletal creature. Rampage is impressed. He urges the newcomer to destroy the Maximals; Silverbolt counters that they offer friendship. The new robot doesn't seem to know what to make of either side, until Inferno returns, opening fire on the Maximals but hitting the new arrival instead. In response, it unleashes a sonic shriek that shorts out the Maximals and drives Inferno off. As the last one standing, Rampage leads "Transmutate" away, telling it that he is its only friend.
Away from the others, Rampage examines Transmutate. Inferno catches up and demands to return the creature to Megatron. Rampage is prepared to fight it out, till Megatron sends a holo-communicator to speak with the new creature. When it can't even transform, he deems it worthless and orders it destroyed; Rampage pleads to give it a chance to destroy the Maximal to prove its worth. Megatron agrees.
Primal and Silverbolt split up to hunt for Transmutate, sending the others' back. Rampage uses Transmutate to lure Silverbolt into an ambush; he and Inferno blast the Maximal unconscious. When Transmutate hesitates to finish off Silverbolt, Inferno bashes it aside and prepares to finish the job himself. Transmutate responds by blasting him over the horizon. Primal arrives and buries Rampage; Silverbolt's intervention keeps Transmutate from blasting Primal in defense of its friend. Primal and Transmutate take Silverbolt away, Transmutate revealing that it can fly. Rampage breaks free and promises that Primal will not have the creature.
At the Maximal base, Rhinox scans the creature and finds that its malformed structure and datatrax make it a danger to itself and everyone else. He recommends putting it into stasis, a suggestion that angers Silverbolt. As the team argues, Transmutate wanders off, then bursts out of the base in response to a call from Rampage. A still-fuming Silverbolt stalks off. Primal orders the team to find Transmutate.
Rampage welcomes Transmutate, but Silverbolt arrives, and a fight ensues, with Transmutate watching unhappily. As the two struggle, they eventually launch weapons. Transmutate lands between the opposing missiles of its two friends with a cry of "Stop!"; its energies destroy the missiles but overloads the creature, destroying it.
Rampage cradles the creature's head in his hands as its spark fades out. As Primal arrives, Silverbolt urges him to leave Rampage be; they are "brothers" for the moment, both mourning the loss.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Man, I am tellin' ya, the things coming out of these pods is just getting weirder and weirder."
- —Rattrap on spotting the title character.
"Do not speak. None shall hurt you now. Come with me, come. I will protect you... I am your friend. Your only friend."
- —Rampage shows his compassionate side to Transmutate.
Inferno: "Speak up! I won't have you freaks plotting behind the Royalty's back!"
Rampage: "I was explaining what it means to be a Predacon. Deceit, treachery, mindless loyalty."
Inferno: "Loyalty comes first!" *nod*
- —Inferno has his priorities straight.
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a subtle blend of mech-fluid and grated gears?"
- —Rampage being creepy again
"NOOO! You will not have him, Optimus! The darkness of its Spark echoes my own! It belongs with me!"
- —Rampage
"Are we all Predacons now?! Do we destroy that what does not fit our view of perfection?!"
- —Silverbolt, who is very pissed off that the rest of the Maximals want to put Transmutate into stasis-lock.
[to Transmutate] "I knew you wouldn't fail me. We are two of a kind. We belong together."
"Stop! This one is not for you."
"It is only for me!"
- —Rampage and Silverbolt
"No hurt."
- —Transmutate, during Silverbolt and Rampage's fight
"Time to go back to the Matrix, hero!"
- —Rampage, before firing on Silverbolt
"Friend…good. Friend…dark. I…am…hurt."
- —Transmutate's last words
"It's over. It's gone. We extinguished its Spark before we ever saw its true light."
- —Silverbolt, mourning Transmutate
Optimus Primal: Cheetor and I will take care of Rampage.
Silverbolt: No. Let him be. For the moment, we are brothers.
- —Silverbolt showing mercy towards Rampage after Transmutate's death.
Notes
- When new, this episode was at the center of an April Fool's joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. A copy of the script was altered by persons unknown at Mainframe Entertainment to include some rather lurid scenes, such as Rattrap mounting Transmutate. Regardless of whomever the victim of the joke was intended to be, the altered script found its way onto alt.toys.transformers, to the horrified chagrin of the fandom.[1][2]
- As if that weren't bad enough, the script was leaked before the episode actually aired in the United States, leaving the fandom debating whether the entire story, and the naughty bits in particular, were actually legitimate.
- This episode features one of the rare instances of Inferno referring to Megatron by name rather than as "Royalty" or "my queen."
- This is the first episode of the series in which Waspinator does not appear.
Technical/Animation glitches
- When Transmutate unleashes a burst of energy upon exiting its pod, knocking Silverbolt and Rampage for a loop, Rampage is missing his robot mode "kibble". He is also missing it while he is trying to step on Silverbolt during the last battle.
- When Silverbolt declares to Rampage "This one is not for you!", he's missing his wing assembly.
- Rampage has lots of problems with his backpack this episode. His right-shoulder kibble (the wheeled joint) is out of alignment in multiple scenes and he is missing his entire backpack assembly when Transmutate knocks everyone out the first time. Poor Rampage.
- How the hell is Cheetor holding Rattrap in mid-air by the tail? His paws lack opposable thumbs!
- When Rampage drives up to the cliff where Transmutate's stasis pod in tank mode, just before he transforms to robot mode, his crawler treads just disappear. They don't retract, just vanish.
Continuity errors
- Rampage calls the protoform Transmutate before he actually asks it for a name and goes through his "Part transmetal," description and decides upon the name, Transmutate.
Transformers references
- Rattrap claims that Arcee is his great-aunt.
- Also, Susan Blu, Arcee's voice actor, provided the voice of Transmutate.
