Beast Wars (event)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Beast Wars" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Beast Wars (disambiguation). |
The Beast Wars are the melodramatically named battles between Optimus Primal's Maximals and Megatron's Predacons on prehistoric Earth. Originally an isolated conflict between the stranded Maximals and Predacons over territory and energon, the conflict gradually became an event that would affect not only the future of the Transformers, but also the very fabric of space and time.
| “ | Megatron may be back, and there is still more energon. If they ever get enough, they could conquer the galaxy. So for now, let the battle be here on this strange, primitive world. And let it be called Beast Wars! | ” |
| —Optimus Primal, "Beast Wars (Part 2)" | ||
Contents |
Fiction
Beast Wars cartoon continuity
Beast Wars cartoon
The Beast Wars may not have formally begun until Optimus Primal's declaration on prehistoric Earth, but they were precipitated on Cybertron 300 years after the end of the Great War. The Predacon Megatron had stolen the Golden Disk, escaping with his band of rogues in a transwarp ship. A Maximal exploration vessel, the only one near enough to catch them, gave chase through a transwarp portal. Their ensuing battle ended with both ships crashing on a planet that all parties believed to be an unknown world. The truth that they had reached Megatron's intended destination of prehistoric Earth would not come to light for some time.
One source of confusion was the overabundant energon, so plentiful that its ubiquitous radiation would overload the Transformers' systems within minutes if they left their ships. They adopted semi-organic beast modes to shield themselves, though their robot modes were still vulnerable. Primal feared that Megatron would use the energon to restart the Great War on Cybertron, so he immediately prepped his small crew to fight against the comparably-sized Predacon team.
One might say that the first shot of the Beast Wars was fired by Cheetor, who spotted Waspinator (in insect mode, no less) and immediately attacked him. Beast Wars (Part 1) This led to a series of territorial skirmishes culminating in the detonation of an energon-infused mountain. Primal, realizing that a long fight lay ahead, made his epic pronouncement that their battles would be known as the "Beast Wars". Beast Wars (Part 2)
As they explored their world, they found powerful artifacts of a mysterious alien race, including another Golden Disk. These finds tended to lead to battles as Megatron tried to claim the artifacts as weapons; however, the only lasting effect was to alert the aliens to the Transformers' presence. Deciding that their experiment on the planet had been contaminated, the aliens activated one of its two moons. Other Voices, Part 1 The satellite turned into a weapon that ignited most of the energon deposits around the world. The planet-buster was only stopped when Primal sacrificed his life to blow it up. Other Voices, Part 2 (Primal would soon be resurrected, though, in the start of a continuing trend for him.) Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)
Realizing just how powerful the aliens were, Megatron schemed all the more intently on hijacking their technology. Meanwhile, more combatants had been joining the fray as protoform-bearing stasis pods fell to Earth, an after-effect of the original space battle. And, in the absence of overwhelming energon (and a moon), the Beast Warriors slowly began to realize that they were on prehistoric Earth after all. This turned the battle away from territorial squabbles and toward matters of timeline-alteration. With information from the Golden Disk he had stolen, Megatron was able to threaten both the developing human race and the comatose, Ark-bound Autobots. Code of Hero
Back on the Cybertron of their home-time, the Tripredacus Council became aware of Megatron's location, and they sent their Decepticon-turned-Predacon agent Ravage to retrieve the rogue. The Agenda (Part 1) He nearly succeeded, but he ended up switching sides when Megatron revealed the truth about the Golden Disk: the original Megatron had left a message on the disk, included access codes to the Ark, and had instructed the descendants of the Decepticons to travel through time to locate the Ark and kill Optimus Prime while he was still in stasis lock. The Agenda (Part 2) Ravage would end up giving his life while aiding Megatron. The Agenda (Part III) And Megatron himself almost destroyed Optimus Prime, which caused a timestorm, but the Maximals were able to repair the Autobot and preserve the status quo. Optimal Situation
The last encounter with the aliens came in the form of Tigerhawk, an emissary created from two kidnapped Maximals. He identified the aliens as the "Vok" and tried to destroy Megatron for his temporal interference. But despite his vast power, he was subdued by Tarantulas, who extracted the Vok essence from him. This ended explosively, with Tarantulas apparently destroyed and Tigerhawk left a mere Maximal again. Other Victories But little was learned about him before he perished when Megatron raised the Nemesis from the ocean floor and rained havoc upon Maximal and Predacon alike. Nemesis Part 1 In defending the Ark, the Maximals managed to bring the Nemesis down and capture Megatron, whose troops had either deserted or been destroyed. As the Maximals blasted off in an Autobot shuttle bound for the Cybertron of the future, Primal declared, "The Beast Wars are over... for now." Nemesis Part 2
3H comics
Packrat, Fractyl, Onyx Primal, and Vice Grip were members of the Beast Warriors on Earth. Ground Zero When they fought over a mysterious artifact, they were waging the first battle leading to Point Omega, a timeline-shattering apocalypse. Visitations Antagony, a visitor from the distant future, sought to claim the artifact, Herald a personal belonging of Apelinq (who had arrived independently from the Beast Warriors' own home-time). Apelinq's War Journals The crux of the matter was Unicron's Dark Essence, which had ended up in a cave on prehistoric Earth after his destruction in 2005 tore a hole in overspace. Its continued presence on Earth well into the future was necessary for Antagony's timeline to exist, Paradox and the artifact's dimensional capabilities could either cement the Essence there or banish it. Herald
The conflict came to a head near the end of the Beast Wars, just as Megatron had assumed his dragon form. More visitors from the threatened timeline appeared, and they were soon followed by the Covenant, the ancient heroes of J'nwan, and other Beast Warriors from alternate dimensions. Optimus Primal and the Predacon Megatron were also caught up in this massive battle—Point Omega—which ended with the dispatching of the Dark Essence and the nullifying of its connected timeline. All of the time-travelers vanished in an explosion of light, and their participation in the Beast Wars was seemingly erased from history as well. Terminus
After Optimus Primal and his Maximals left Earth with Megatron in chains, the Beast Wars continued in a fashion. Tarantulas, believed dead, was actually still alive and more dangerous than ever, wielding the captured power of the Vok who had come with Tigerhawk. He resurrected Ravage and gathered a few other Predacons as well (presumably from stasis pods), set on claiming the Matrix of Leadership. The other Vok retaliated by creating Primal Prime, using the Matrix itself as his spark. They also gave new life to Tigatron and Airazor, whose sparks they had saved from Tigerhawk's destruction. Primeval Dawn Part 1 Despite assistance from them and the newly reactivated Ramulus, Primal Prime still fell to Tarantulas, who stole the Matrix. Primeval Dawn Part 2 He planned to deliver it to his master, Unicron, which the Vok feared would disrupt the grand harmony of the multiverse. Their response was to inhabit Primal Prime's body as a "font of energy to rival the Matrix itself". Primeval Dawn Part 3
It's unknown what happened afterwards, but Primal Prime (showing no signs of Vok-possession) and his crew (minus Airazor and plus Spittor) would eventually travel to Vehicon-era Cybertron via transwarp portal—the same portal simultaneously whisking Apelinq to the past. Apelinq's War Journals The rest of Tarantulas's team would never be seen again, though Tarantulas himself did return to Unicron. Escape The Matrix had presumably been taken back from him and replaced in Prime's chest, as no subsequent disruption of history was ever mentioned.
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
Before the Beast Wars, Megatron and Dinobot infiltrated the Vector Sigma chamber and stole from it the Golden Disk. It seemed to contain a whole history of the Great War and its combatants. From that research, Megatron took his name. More Than Meets The Eye
During the Beast Wars, Bonecrusher, Optimus Minor, and Wolfang had activated separately from the main teams, and they kept themselves at a distance. They only revealed themselves once, to save Rattrap from Dinobot II. He tried to welcome them into the fold, but they claimed to no longer be Maximals. They had a new, unspecified purpose that did not involve fighting. Rattrap apparently abided by their wishes and kept quiet. On the trip back to Cybertron, he dreamed fitfully of the encounter, but when Primal asked what was wrong, Rattrap gave no details. Ain't No Rat
Timelines
Just before the Beast Wars, the Predacon crime lord Cryotek engineered the theft of the Golden Disk. He put his star pupil, Megatron, in charge of the actual operation. Secretly, Cryotek set his protégé up by alerting the Maximals, with the intent that a more loyal agent would deliver the disk to him while Megatron took the fall. Unfortunately for Cryotek, Megatron beat him to the treacherous punch, as the package Cryotek received only contained a Maximal homing beacon. While Maximal forces converged on Cryotek, Megatron and his cohorts escaped with the disk in the Darksyde. Theft of the Golden Disk
But Cryotek was not the only Predacon string-puller: The Decepticon Divebomb had also been somehow involved in the affair, ensuring that the Darksyde was available while everyone "played their part" for the "Decepticon dream". As Megatron fled, Divebomb ordered Laserbeak and Buzzsaw to covertly safeguard the Darksyde.
This would prove a wise decision, as Maximal Command sent the Axalon in pursuit. Just out of Cybertronian orbit, the two bird-bots attacked the Axalon in a ship of their own. The battle was going against the Maximals until Tigatron and Airazor came to their rescue. The Decepticon ship was destroyed, but Tigatron and Airazor were left in critical condition. Rhinox saved them by transferring their sparks to blank protoforms at the expense of much or all of their "core mainframes". Dawn of Future's Past
2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity
After Ravage's failure, the Tripredacus Council sent another agent, Magmatron, to perform the same task. Unlike Ravage, he took a team with him, and also unlike Ravage, they were all chronally displaced to be just out of sync with the main conflict. While the new arrivals could see them, they couldn't see the new arrivals. And one could even walk right through the other. Thus, the Beast Warriors were completely unaware when Magmatron activated dozens of the downed stasis pods to create a chronally-displaced army. But one of his soldiers, Razorbeast, was a spy who was able to turn many of the protoforms to Maximals. Foreseeing the scope of the impending battles, Magmatron declared the start of his own "Beast Wars". The Gathering #1
As both groups tracked down their widespread, newly activated allies, Magmatron realized he needed assistance to fulfill his mission. He was able to recover Ravage's spark from his corpse, and he gave the Decepticon new life in a blank protoform. While Ravage led the main Predacon force against Razorbeast and the Maximals, Magmatron captured Megatron. The Gathering #3 To do so, he had to undo his chronal displacement, and this would be his downfall. While Magmatron was preparing the unconscious Megatron for transwarp delivery to Cybertron, Razorbeast stole his chronal phase armband and used it to slip in and out of sync as he attacked the Predacon. Megatron was freed, and Magmatron was thrown into his own transwarp device, which catapulted him out of normal space entirely. The Gathering #4
But, as Prowl would note, this did not end their particular Beast Wars. Ravage's Predacons continued to harry Razorbeast's Maximals, attempting to recover the stolen chronal-phase facilitators. Meanwhile, on the Cybertron of their home-time, a drug-like substance called "Angolmois" was spreading amongst the population. Magmatron, floating through chronospace, could see that Angolmois was a tool for the resurrection of Unicron, and Cybertron was almost inevitably doomed. The Ascending #1 But even trapped outside of space-time, he was able to deliver messages to Lio Convoy on Cybertron and Ravage on Earth, bringing the various teams together against their common enemy.
Lio Convoy and his Pack journeyed to prehistoric Earth to retrieve the combatants of the new Beast Wars, but they were ambushed by Angolmois-infused servants of Unicron. The Ascending #2 The Pack only managed to bring a handful of Beast Warriors back to Cybertron—just in time to fight Shokaract, who was the conduit of Angolmois energy. They were able to defeat him with a chronal-phase facilitator, shunting him into chronospace with Magmatron. There, Magmatron showed him how Unicron would use him as a vessel for his return, destroying the hapless Shokaract in the process. In horror, Shokaract tore the Anti-Matrix from his own chest, self-destructing and sending Magmatron back to normal space.
With the help of a retrovirus, the Maximals set about undoing the effects of Angolmois across the planet. Meanwhile, Megatron had just returned from the Beast Wars, set to unleash his new threat. And on prehistoric Earth, the servants of Unicron were destroyed, but Razorbeast had fallen victim to an Angolmois injection and was euthanized at his own request. The united Maximals and Predacons around him mourned his passing. The Ascending #4
Wings Universe
When Apelinq was a protoform, he was told tales of how Alpha Trizer had once been part of a team of ancients whose battles crossed time and space. Apelinq's personal logs
Fire in the Dark
Three thousand years ago, the Maximals and Predacons fought the Beast Wars in what would one day become Mexico. During the war, the Natiltec tribe—who viewed the Transformers as strange and terrifying animal gods—were enslaved by the Predacons and forced to mine energon. Silverbolt freed them, being honored as the "fire in the dark" for his heroics. During his downtime, Rhinox did anthropological studies of the Natiltec and patiently recorded their oral history so it would survive.
In the 21st century, Rhinox's recordings were found on the walls of the Labná ruins in Mexico by an archaeological team of humans and Mini-Cons. Parts of the message made reference to a journey through time and space which the Natiltec subsequently undertook, explaining how the message came to be recorded in Mexico. The scientists noted that the Natiltec's drawings shared similarities with primitive cultures across the world and one, Jessica Theist, had a vision of the Beast Wars. Fire in the Dark
Ask Vector Prime
In the Beast Wars of Aurex 1104.30-JH Zeta, Megatron sought the dormant Mini-Cons on Earth and both factions recruited Mini-Cons to their cause. Megatron both recruited and brainwashed Wedge Shape, Snarl, Ironlunge, Overbite, Reptix, Sling, Dreadwing, Brimstone, and Gnashteeth; Optimus Primal saved Knockdown, Apexus, Nightscream, Gredator, Catilla, and Dragoyell; meanwhile Rav, Triceradon, and Dualor formed their own autonomous (but Maximal-aligned) group.
Tarantulas naturally had his own agenda: secretly gathering up all the Super Energon he found on Earth. He gathered a mighty cache, but Optimus Primal hijacked Tarantulas's makeshift spacecraft and sacrificed himself to destroy it in orbit. This caused a transwarp explosion that created Transmetals and Fuzors.
The Tripredacus Council sent Sky Shadow; he first 'helped' the Maximals and later died fighting them.
The Beast Wars mostly came to an end when Wedge Shape defied the Servility Program in her CPU and switched sides, bringing many of the Darksyde's codes with her. Optimus and the Maximals stormed their base and rescued the Mini-Cons, and the Predacons were forced into the wilderness. Though Megatron attempted to use Tarantulas's secret projects as a last-ditch effort to turn the tide, in the end he was captured and most of his troopers destroyed.
Inferno was plucked from death by Unicron for the Universe War though he escaped to the Children of Primus. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/13
Cyber Key Code content
When Jetfire went undercover as a Decepticon, he searched the Axalon archives for a past Decepticon to pattern himself after. He took the name "Sky Shadow" in reference to a long-lost "Predacon/Decepticon". This warrior had once been a lieutenant of Megatron, and he had been "sent to Earth during the legendary Beast Wars", where he was instrumental as a strategist and leader against the Maximals. He apparently never returned.[1]
Ask Vector Prime
And in Aurex 615.03 Epsilon, 300 years after the Autobot/Decepticon war, there was a completely different Beast Wars in Alpha Q's universe! In this universe, the Maximals and Predacons fought multiple sub-wars on the planets of Alpha Q's realm until the Alternity had to step in. In the War of the Waves on Ocean Planet, it was jellyfish Predacons against crustacean Maximals; on the Iron Planet, for the War of the Mines, Predacons were motile fungus and the Maximals took the form of burrowing monsters; Blizzard Planet's Ice Age War saw everyone as mega-fauna; the Data War on Circuit Planet had with varying species of mechamorph; the Dust War on Plains Planet had Maximal creatures of earth, wind, and fire against Predacon oni, tengu, and kappa; Jungle Planet's Elemental War had everyone as a Battle Beast; and the Colossus War on Rock Planet saw everyone disguised as a Rock Lord. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/23
Animated cartoon
Animatron was conquered by the Decepticons during the Great War, but was later liberated during a conflict known as the "Beast Wars". The AllSpark Almanac II
Prime cartoon
Bulkhead referred to the potential threat of Megatron cloning a Predacon army as "Beast Wars", saying they could have one on their hands. Project Predacon
2021 Beast Wars comic
The seeds of the Beast Wars were planted when Landquake discovered a Golden Disk in the Upsilonus Belt. Recognizing the artifact's worth, he sent it to the Wheeljack Ministry of Science. The scientists on Cybertron decoded the Disk's surface files only to find more heavily encrypted ones. After decoding one that held the space/time coordinates to an energon rich planet, the scientists opted to leave the remainder alone. Disagreeing with the decision, Reptilion leaked word of the Disk to the rogue Predacon Galavar, hiring him to steal the Disk, decode it and expose its contents to all of Cybertron. Maximals Strike Back, Part 1
Galavar subsequently sent Dinobot, Terrorsaur and Scorponok to the Ministry, the three overpowering the guards and claiming the Disk for themselves. Concurrently, Skold, Waspinator and Tarantulas stole the warship Darksyde. After Galavar said a mocking goodbye to the Tripredacus Council - renaming himself "Megatron" in the process, the Predacons fled Cybertron. As they prepared to time travel to the coordinates, they were intercepted by the starship Axalon, the battle causing both ships to crash on the energon-rich planet. To cope with the dangerously high-levels of energon radiation, both ships rebuilt their crews with beast modes to protect them. Savage Landing Part 1 Unbeknownst to the Cybertronians, the planet was occupied by a trio of Vok who were using it as a testbed for experiments. Observing the two conflicting factions, the Vok decided to study the Cybertronians until they proved too troublesome. Savage Landing Part 2
Disgusted by his comrades' lack of honor, Savage Landing Part 3 Dinobot defected to the Maximals in time for the Predacons to attack the Axalon. Savage Landing Part 5 While the Maximals won the battle and properly accepted Dinobot into their ranks, Tarantulas had managed to infiltrate their ship and upload a corruptive program to the Axalon's complement of ejected stasis pods. Savage Landing Part 6
When Blackarachnia's stasis pod made planetfall, she made her way to the Axalon only for Tarantulas' shell program to activate. Pod Part 1 Her mind corrupted, Blackarachnia began to upload Tarantulas' code to the rest of the stasis pods only to be discovered and interrupted by Rhinox. Managing to infect only 51% of the protoforms, Blackarachnia cut her losses and properly signed on to the Predacons, while a furious Optimus Primal began preparing a counterattack. Pod Part 2
After Blackarachnia had bullied Skold out of the Darksyde, she discovered Razorbeast's stasis pod and befriended the Maximal. Observing, the Vok sent a pack of ironwolves against the two. Though they managed to defeat the predators, Razorbeast was left wounded, Skold bringing him to the Axalon for repairs, though she refused to join Dinobot in defecting. Thicker Skin
Once Razorbeast had been healed, the Maximals attacked the Darksyde. Maximals Strike Back, Part 1 In the following battle, Terrorsaur killed Razorbeast, which resulted in a furious Skold tearing out the flyer's spark. Maximals Strike Back, Part 2 Infiltrating the Darksyde, Nyx destroyed the Darksyde's transwarp drive while Rattrap stole the Golden Disk. The security protocols around the Disk forced Primal and Nyx to rescue him, delaying them enough for Megatron and Tarantulas to capture the three. After Optimus Primal had bluffed to destroy the Golden Disk however, Megatron released the Maximals. Maximals Strike Back, Part 3
As the Beast Wars progressed, the Vok's tolerance of the Cybertronians waned. After Cheetor had been injured in a battle, the Vok Pakak infiltrated the young Maximal's mind, stealing information on protoforms and stasis pods. The Speedway of Central Consciousness With this knowledge, the Vok collected nineteen of the Axalon's stasis pods and reprogrammed the Cybertronians within into the "Children of the Vok". The End Though first using their Children as emissaries, the Vok eventually spoke to Optimus Primal and Megatron directly. Though Megatron had earned the aliens' ire, Primal convinced them to spare the Predacon, offering them the exciting sociological data of two opposing factions uniting against a common foe. Children of the Vok
Though agreeing not to spy on the Cybertronians, the Vok contacted Tarantulas and offered him their knowledge if he turned against his species. Agreeing, Tarantulas sabotaged the Darksyde's transwarp drive only for his treachery to be discovered. After the Axalon had been contacted for reinforcements, The Beginning of the End Tarantulas summoned all of the Children of the Vok to aid him.
As Maximals and Predacons fought against their brainwashed kin, the battle drew the attention of the Vok and caused them to conclude that Cybertronians were too disruptive a species, powering a reversion device to destroy them all before Rattrap and Waspinator, with an unspace weapon, destroyed the Vok. After this same weapon was used to shunt Megatron forward in time and the Children of the Vok had retreated into the wilderness, Optimus Primal offered to extend the truce with the Predacons only to be refused. As the Maximals flew off to prepare for Megatron in the repaired Axalon, the Predacons began trying to repair their own ship. 114 cycles later, Megatron materialized in a cave, swearing that until he triumphed, the Beast Wars would continue. The End
Notes
- The exact time period of the Beast Wars (beyond simply "prehistory") was never established in the cartoon, outside of a few casual remarks by characters referring to the "four million years" timeframe. The 3H comics identify it as 180,000 BCE. The 2006 IDW Beast Wars comics say 70,000 BCE. Japanese media say it is 3,000,000 MYA. This is just one of many ways in which the spinoffs contradict each other.
- Speaking of contradictions, the first on-package bios and pack-in comic set the Beast Wars on modern-day Earth, with Primal and Megatron actually being their Generation 1 counterparts. However, as the show took off, the bios followed its lead. For a long time, the bios did not explicitly retcon their original conceits; however, ambiguity was introduced by referring to, for example, "the Beast Wars world" instead of Earth at any particular time. The final nail in this micro-continuity's coffin came with the last Beast Wars toys produced, whose bios and tie-in comic were a very intentional prequel to the cartoon.
References
- ↑ Unlocked Cyber Key Code bios, notably Sky Shadow's.
