Beast Wars Episode 12 - Victory

 

Dinobot is probably the most complex character in Beast Wars. This is down to the fact that he is effectively a Predacon fighting alongside the Maximals against his former comrades not because he believes in their cause, but because he wants to take down Megatron. Last week's episode saw Dinobot briefly grappling with his potential fate once they return to Cybertron, and this episode explores that more as he's faced with what to do in light of the Maximal's supposed victory in the Beast Wars.

At the start of the episode, The Maximals are monitoring the Predacon base through a spy camera they planted within the base when a sudden mutiny from Terrorsaur seemingly leads to the Predacons destruction. With their supposed victory in the Beast Wars at hand, the Maximals start to use components from the Predacon's ship to repair their own and prepare for their return to Cybertron. However, Dinobot is left to question what to do now that the fight is supposedly over.

This is a great episode which is more story and character driven than some of the other episodes we've seen this season. I like that the story doesn't feel the need to shoehorn in loads of action to keep the young audience invested. Sure, there is a battle at the climax of the episode, but most the episode is spent with the Maximals dealing with their apparent victory, and the central conflict for most the episode is Dinobot trying to figure out what to do next.

Last episode brought up the question of Dinobot's fate upon returning to Cybertron, and showed that he was reluctant to return due to him having to return as a prisoner as well as that he's reluctant to be referred to as a Maximal. This episode sees him struggling with this notion even further. Rattrap in particular also questions Dinobot's loyalty - feeling that now the Beast Wars are over, he will turn on them. Dinobot ends up deciding to stay on the planet, feeling it would be a preferable option to returning home as a prisoner. His departure with the Maximals is a great scene, showing that in spite of his clashing with them, he has a deep respect for them. 

Another really neat scene comes from Tigatron's first steps onto the Axalon. Seeing as Tigatron is used to being in the wild, he expresses how uneasy he feels being in a non organic environment. It's not a massive moment, but I thought it was a cool little scene that shows Tigatron's differences to the other Maximals.

Of course, the Predacons weren't really dead. It turns out this was a trick they pulled after discovering the Maximal's spy camera. With the Maximal ship up and running, their plan was to comandeer the ship and convert the floating stasis pods into Predacons. Thankfully Dinobot was able to discover this before the Predacons were able to put this plan into action.

While the Predacons don't succeed in this mission, they do end up preventing the Maximals from returning home as Megatron (after Rhinox gets to yet again show off how badass he is by flinging Megatron out of the ship)

plunges his claw into a control panel, sending the Axalon hurtling back to the planet. This is saved at the last minute by Optimus Prime emulating Superman and preventing the ship from plummeting on the surface of the planet (backed by music with a similar vibe to John Williams iconic Superman theme). This is a fun little homage started with the Maximals onboard saying 'Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Optimus!'. This kind of feels like something that wouldn't be out of place in Beast Wars' predecessor ReBoot which frequently had similar homages.

The important thing about this episode's final conflict is that the Maximals decide to go and help Dinobot rather than abandoning him to the cruel mercy of the Predacons. Optimus decides to go and help him, with Cheetor deciding to tag along, and Optimus ordering the ship to leave without them if they aren't back in time. This shows how loyal the Maximals are to Dinobot that they were willing to risk not getting back to Cybertron to save him.

With this episode and the previous one, you can really feel the show beginning to hit it's stride and begin to tell more compelling stories to match up with the already great direction and characters. While there may be a couple more bumps along the road, from this point the show is only going to go from strength to strength.

Next time: Rhinox gets reprogrammed as a Predacon in 'Dark Designs'