What would happen if Transformers: Beast Machines was rewritten and improved?
Let's Rewrite Transformers Beast Machines is a Fix Fic video created by TJ Omega in improving the original Beast Machines series and be a proper sequel to Beast Wars.
The video can be found here
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Tropes found in the video are:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Rattrap will have weapons post-reformation.
- Instead of being bound to his base in the Citadel, Megatron possesses a body inspired by that of Galvatron from Beast Wars II that can transform into a dragon and self-propelled fusion cannon, allowing him to take to the field more frequently.
- Waspinator goes from Butt-Monkey to a full-fledged badass upon being reformatted.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The Vehicon generals show up much earlier than canon, with Jetstorm showing up in the first episode.
- Adaptational Explanation: The organic planet that would become Cybertron actually produced refined and powerful Energon, hence why the Quintessons built their factories there.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Rhinox returns to fighting for the Maximals immediately after being freed from the Tankor shell program, unlike his canon counterpart that remained evil of his own volition.
- Waspinator would be given the opportunity to join the Maximals and help in opposing Megatron's rule.
- Obsidian and Strika perform a legitimate Heel–Face Turn by the end of the series.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Many of the characters' cynical and abrasive behaviors are toned down to make them likable, especially Silverbolt and Nightscream.
- Nightscream, while retaining his snarkiness, is a good deal more optimistic, filling the Naïve Newcomer role that Cheetor had in Beast Wars.
- Adapted Out:
- Botanica and Noble/Savage are removed from this rewrite.
- BW Megatron's hatred for all things organic is omitted here, instead having Megs wanting to make everyone bend the knee to him by removing their free will.
- Asshole Victim: The Maximal Council were on board in publicly shaming Megatron to tighten control over the Predacons. Once Megatron unleashed his plan, he, along with Strika and Obsidian, murdered the council with little fanfare.
- The Bad Guy Wins: One episode would have the Vehicons successfully killing an off-world Cybertronian.
- Batman Gambit: Megatron knew that Starscream would break free from his shell program and had allowed the Decepticon free reign to produce something that could be of value to him.
- Bookend: In Beast Wars, Cheetor and Waspinator were the first to engage in combat. By the end of this series, the two have made peace with each other and have become comrades.
- Call-Back:
- Megatron used the Transformation Lock Lens from Beast Wars S 1 E 11 The Probe to lock the Cybertronians into their vehicle/animal forms and allowed for an easier takeover of the planet.
- The surviving Cybertronians didn't succumb to their beast personalities because they deleted their programming blocks like how the Maximals did in Beast Wars S 1 E 19 Call Of The Wild.
- Starscream hasn't forgotten his defeat in Beast Wars S 1 E 21 Possession and pursued the Maximals when they left Earth at the end of Beast Wars.
- Composite Character:
- Thrust, in this iteration, contains Silverbolt's spark.
- Jetstorm, instead of having Silverbolt's spark, has the spark of Starscream.
- Cool Big Bro: Cheetor serves as one for Nightscream given how he was once The Baby of the Bunch during the events of Beast Wars much like Nightscream is in Beast Machines.
- Curbstomp Battle: Jetstorm (actually Starscream) dishes out one to Strika and Obsidian due to sheer experience and power.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: Rattrap defeats Tankor in the Final Battle by cutting away at his internal wires one by one until the Vehicon General is completely immobilized.
- Decomposite Character: Both Silverbolt and Waspinator are not Jetstorm and Thrust in this version.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Rhinox dies fighting off Megatron's forces when they attack Old Iacon
- Megatron is sealed in the Matrix by Vector Sigma.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Implied to be Megatron's fate, being sucked into the Matrix through Vector Sigma directly.
- Foreshadowing:
- The reveal of Jetstorm's true nature would be hinted at, mostly with Waspinator being uncomfortable around him.
- Over the course of the series, Megatron's forces are constructing massive buildings for an unknown purpose. Turns out that Megatron has been transforming Cybertron into a Superweapon.
- Good Feels Good: Part of the reason for Waspinator's Heel–Face Turn is due to him being mellowed out from leading the protohumans.
- Guile Hero: Rattrap here uses his wits and stealth abilities to outsmart opponents, though he does have his weapons in case force is needed.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Rhinox holds back Megatron to prevent him and his Vehicons from discovering Old Iacon, leading to his death at Megatron's hands.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- The final battle sees Starscream possessing Waspinator back in Beast Wars ultimately come back to bite him hard. Waspinator sharing a body with him caused him to absorb his experience and memories, and being Older and Wiser with an upgraded technorganic body let's him actually use it and fight Starscream to a standstill before killing him.
- The same battle ultimately ends with Megatron using a spark extractor to try and take Primal's spark...but Primal just reverts to his beast mode, hiding from its sensors, so the extractor is completely confused and unable to react. Primal then grabs it and turns it against Megatron and extracts his spark instead, with Vector Sigma sucking his spark into the Matrix as a final punishment.
- La Résistance: Prime's Maximals and the Knights of Cybertron, which are comprised of surviving Cybertronians following Megatron's takeover, battle Megatron to retake their homeworld.
- Legacy Character: One change that TJ makes to the Vehicon Generals are that their personalities are just shell programs and it doesn't matter which spark is used to power them. Furthermore, any of the drones can be upgraded into a General as long as there's a spark to power them. As such, when the original Tankor is killed and Silverbolt's spark is freed from Thrust, Megatron just sticks new sparks in a new tank and motorcycle drone to make new versions of the aforementioned Vehicon Generals.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Obsidian and Strika turned their backs on the Maximal Council after they found out that the Council merely saw the Predacons as cannon fodder despite their dedicated service to Cybertron.
- The Mole: Obsidian and Strika helped Megatron pull off his heist while pretending to be loyal to the Maximal Council. Their first act was opening the doors to where the Golden Disk was kept, allowing Megatron to steal it.
- Original Character: Three of them in the form of Night Viper (who is based on a character from the Beast Machines Toyline), RAV, and Saberclaw.
- Night Viper is a young and earnest Maximal who idolizes Primal's crew and is eager to help them in any capacity, befriending Nightscream over the shared nature of being the youngest members of their groups.
- RAV is a hot-headed Maximal who serves as a foil for Blackrachnia and the calmer Maximals due to her rage at the bad situation Cybertron is in.
- Saberclaw is the leader of the Cybertronians who survived Megatron's takeover.
- The Reveal:
- The spark inside Jetstorm is actually Starscream's, who has been secretly finding ways to usurp Megatron and take over Cybertron.
- Megatron's Evil Plan is to turn Cybertron into a Warworld and plunder the entire galaxy.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Optimus Primal survives the fight against Megatron in this continuity.
- Trojan Prisoner: How Megatron took over Cybertron. He allowed himself to be captured and manipulated the Maximal Council to give him the opportunity to publicly denounce his crimes, but unbeknownst to the Council and the populace, Megatron and his allies had rigged every monitor to be a Transformation Lock Lens, which caused everyone but the Council to be locked into their alternate forms.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Obsidian and Strika joined Megatron in the hope that his reign would make things better for the Predacons due to the prejudice they faced under the Maximal-dominated society that ruled Cybertron. Once they find out how Megatron only wanted to rule Cybertron with an iron fist, they defect to the Maximals to save the planet from his mad plan to convert it into a Warworld.
