Recap / Beast Wars S 1 E 13 Dark Designs

Megatron captures and reprograms Rhinox into a Predacon.

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Tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Upon seeing why Optimus wanted to hang back on rescuing Rhinox, Cheetor outright laughs.
• An Arm and a Leg: Optimus beats Megatron by cutting off one of his arms.
• Batman Gambit: Optimus decides to leave Rhinox with the Predicons, banking on Rhinox being far more dangerous than Megatron expects to the point of forcing Megatron to revert him to Maximal in order to save his own hide. He's one hundred percent right.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Megatron kidnapped Rhinox and turned him into a Predacon because he admired his intelligence and resourcefulness and desired to add someone with those traits to his resources. The problem is that he gets a Predacon version of Rhinox, who has all of his intelligence and cunning, but none of the morality and compassion that comes with being a Maximal. As such, Megatron soon finds a Predacon Rhinox is more than he can handle.
• Big "WHAT?!": Rattrap's reaction to Optimus wanting to leave Rhinox with the Predacons and let things play out.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Just like with Terrorsaur in Power Surge, Optimus and Predacon!Rhinox mock Megatron's catchphrase, on two different occasions.
  Optimus: ...but I've got a hunch Megatron's bitten off a little more than he bargained for... yesssssss.
  • Later followed by:
  Predacon!Rhinox: It's called irony, sport! I take over, and you head straight to the recycling bin, yesssssss.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Predacon!Rhinox is evil and ambitious.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Optimus says yesssssss, he looks to the camera.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Optimus believes Rhinox would make a prime leader, but Rhinox prefers to just tag along and smell the flowers.
• Chekhov's Classroom: While stepping up in an emergency, Rhinox says he is more than content to be a follower and let Optimus do the leading. Rhinox's stated reluctance to lead is how Optimus knows exactly what will happen after the Transmuter remakes him into a Predacon.
• Defiant to the End: Just before the Transmuter is used on him, Rhinox - believing that Megatron is intending to finish him - merely asks to get it over with.
  Rhinox: If you're going to finish me anyway, then do me a favor: shut up and get on with it.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Well, everyone but Dinobot, that is.
  Cheetor: What's it actually feel like to be a Pred?
  Rhinox: Like you're three gigabytes of attitude on a two gig hard drive. No wonder they've got personality problems.
  [laughing ensues]
• Evil Gloating: After defeating the other Predacons, Rhinox does this to Megatron — who subsequently reverts Rhinox into a Maximal at the right moment:
  Megatron: ...even now, Rhinox, you're teaching me a valuable lesson.
  Rhinox: Yeah? What's that?
  Megatron: Sometimes Predacons gloat too much!
  *ZAP*
• Eviler than Thou: When Terrorsaur proposes an equal partnership, Rhinox not only refuses, but he chokes him and warns about the penalty for telling Megatron what he's up to. He then proceeds to very nearly overthrow Megatron. This was Invoked by Optimus, who knew Rhinox well enough to expect Megatron had made a horrible mistake.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: During the shootout at the cliff, Rhinox's aim appears to be way off, missing the Predacons completely. Cheetor objects to this, but Rhinox persists. Moments later, he causes an avalanche of rocks that bury the various Predacons.
• False Reassurance: Seeing Predacon!Rhinox fiddling with a very tall pile of heavy equipment, Scorponok warns him to be careful. Rhinox insists he's being very careful, as he's not standing on the side that the pile is about to fall on.
• Gone Horribly Right: Megatron wanted a Predacon version of Rhinox and that's exactly what he got.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: To get Rhinox to the Predacon Base, Tarantulas ensnared him in a web and poisoned him. After being remade into a Predacon, Rhinox returns the favor, as well as does the same to Blackarachnia.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Dinobot does not appreciate Rhinox's quip about Predacons having personality problems.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Dinobot was kinda correct. Most of the Predacons were incapacitated, while the Maximals, even without Rhinox, were still functional. It was a good opportunity for the Maximals to take over and win the war entirely.
• Lost in Translation: In the Japanese version, Waspinator identifies himself as "Ultramask the Third" (ウルトラマスク世). Blackarachnia explains that Waspinator is mixing up his "TV heroes" (Ultraman, Tiger Mask and Lupin the Third). This means that Blackarachnia's mentioning of the Decepticon ancestors is eliminated.
• Mythology Gag: When Waspinator is driven temporarily insane in the English version, he babbles that his name is Shrapnel, an Insecticon from Generation One. Despite this, his speech pattern is much more reminiscent of Mixmaster's ^note at least, in the episode "City of Steel", who repeats the first syllable of a sentence several times. Shrapnel, on the other hand, repeats the last word of a sentence once.
  Waspinator: Waspinator? Negative, negative, negative! I am Shrapnel, Decepticon hero-o-o-o!
  • Just before slipping into unconsciousness, Waspinator mumbles the franchise's tagline: "more than meets the eye."
  • Optimus borrowing Megatron's famous "Yes..." may be a nod to the fact that Gary Chalk originally auditioned for the part of Megatron, and David Kaye for Optimus Primal. David's handling of Megatron's catchphrase is what got him the role of Megatron.
• Near-Villain Victory: Rhinox came this close to deposing Megatron.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Rhinox manages to do more internal damage to Megatron's forces than Optimus did waging full on warfare did a few episodes prior.
• Not So Above It All: Optimus clearly enjoys the mess Megatron caused for himself.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Rhinox, one of the kindest Maximals in the series, proves to be a more effective "villain" than most of the Predacons put together.
  • Scorponok takes a beating from Dinobot, but he puts up a much better fight than expected.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Rhinox gains red, 'evil' eyes in beast mode once he's reprogrammed.
• Shout-Out: Cheetor's line below is a paraphrase of an old 1950's anti-Communism slogan:
  Cheetor: Better dead than Pred'. ^note Better dead than red.
  • Optimus brandishes his sword like an expert and Megatron simply shoots him—echoing a famed moment from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • The damaged Waspinator takes offense to Blackarachnia calling him wacko.
    "Wacko? No! Wonko! Wonko the Sane!" ^note The name was also a direct shout-out to Ben Yee, who had been using that as a username. That's why Waspinator salutes and waves at the screen.
  • Right before Waspinator is shot down by Cheetor, he can be heard making Curly Howard's famous "Woob woob woob woob woob!!" noise.
  • In the Japanese dub, the insane Waspinator declares himself to be “UltraMask the Third“. Blackarachnia comments that he’s confusing TV heroes.
• The Starscream:
  • Terrorsaur shows that he's not over his treacherous ambitions in overthrowing Megatron, just that he recognizes his limits and that he'd be better off attaching himself to someone more competent and powerful. Unfortunately for him, anyone competent, powerful and ambitious enough to overthrow Megatron wouldn't bother with a chump like Terrorsaur to begin with except using him as a disposable pawn, a role Predacon!Rhinox happily pressgangs him into.
  • As a Predacon, Rhinox is frighteningly efficient at this. He effortlessly damages Scorponok and Waspinator, incapacitates the spiders, and intimidates Terrorsaur into submission. Even when Megatron figures out what's going on and brings in back-up, Rhinox is able to turn it around like that. He would've won if not for gloating first. Optimus fully anticipated all of this, due to knowing his old friend so well, and correctly banked on Megatron returning Rhinox to normal to save himself.
• Suddenly Shouting: The "unexplainable" problems occurring in the Predacon Base as of late eventually take a toll on Megatron.
  Megatron: WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND HERE?!
• Tactical Withdrawal: After the Predacons are buried at the cliff, Rhinox calls for this, with Rattrap and Cheetor tasked with helping a wounded Optimus along.
• Tempting Fate: When the Maximals' search for energon proves fruitless at the beginning of the episode, Rattrap (as usual) complains about it, wondering what else could go wrong. Cue the Predacons ambushing them.
  Cheetor: Ya had to ask, didn't ya?
• Underestimating Badassery: Twice over. Megatron admits he did this to Rhinox after the opening battle. He realizes he's done it after reprogramming him. Invoked by Optimus, who didn't underestimate Rhinox and fully expected Megatron's reprogramming to backfire.
• Wham Shot: When Scorponok determines that a specific modem is missing from base systems, viewers see Predacon!Rhinox holding it and then crushing it, which demonstrates he will not be a loyal soldier.