Beast Wars Season 2 Recap

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podcast. This episode of the Beast Unleashed

podcast features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. Hello, and welcome to the

world's first ever Beast Wars Beast Machines

Review podcast. This is the Beast Unleashed podcast,

brought to you by the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am your host, EFG1Mike, and as usual, I'm joined

with Steve Megatron. Hello. Good day, sir. And

Peacon Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it going?

It's going, Mr. Catchphrase. Today we will be

recapping Beast Wars Season 2. As most everyone

knows, the recap episodes for this show are fairly

short. And it's basically, mainly I created recap

episodes just to talk about the individual DVD

sets. And some favorite episodes, favorite character

arcs, stuff like that. Honestly, fucking Rhino.

They suck when it comes to special features on

Season 2 and Season 3 because 5 .1 audio is not

a special feature. It's a specification of the

disc. And animation tests, they suck. Okay, then.

So there's the DVD part. Not a whole lot going

on as far as special features, huh? No, not at

all. And Steve has said this multiple times before,

I think, on the show. We are hoping and praying

that Shout gets Beast and re -releases them somehow.

Because we all know that Hasbro has enlisted

Shout Factory to a multi -year Transformers DVD

deal. We just don't know what else that includes

other than G1. And I believe they're releasing...

I don't know they're releasing some other Japanese

thing through Shout Factory I heard in the grapevine

they might be doing Headmasters which if possible

I would love to see them get as many of the G1

voice actors that are still around to reprise

whatever role they had to finish to go through

Headmasters but yeah that's about the only thing

I'd want to see with that series But yeah, I'm

really hoping that Shout Factory gets the rights

to Beast Wars, considering Rhino hasn't done

shit with it since the early 2000s. And I'd like

to see them add actual special features and possibly

commentaries or just random notes or interviews

with voice actors. Something more than these

cheap -ass character models that they've got

on here that I could download anywhere on the

net. and probably better quality, too. Yeah.

And they include that scene, which was excluded

from... I'm getting ahead of myself, but there's

a scene that's missing on a Season 3 disc. Yeah,

it was a deleted scene from Nemesis. That's a

special feature on the Season 3 set, but yeah,

that's Season 3. But yeah, the disc sets are

just kind of lame in themselves. I mean, the

packaging looks halfway decent. Oh, the packaging

is awesome. I mean, between... Well, not only

the disc art. I was very surprised with the Season

2, Season 3 sets because there are only two discs

each. But you have, when you open the package,

you've got Megatron, and it's almost like he's

embossed. And then you have, on disc one is Primal,

and underneath him... underneath his disc is

Megatron, and vice versa. You have Megatron's

head on disc two, and Primal's head or face or

torso underneath his disc. I hadn't noticed that.

It's like they kind of screwed up. No, it's kind

of like mismatched, but I mean, it's still cool.

It's not really that they screwed up, because

if you look at all the other discs that... Who

do they go against? No, but if you put disc one

on top of... Here, I'll do it now. If you pop

disc one on top of where disc two is supposed

to go, it kind of completes the picture, so it's

like you can still see Primal's head. Yeah. So,

no, I think they screwed up. I think they put

the pictures on the wrong sides. Well, you know

what? It wouldn't be the first time Rhino's done

that. It wouldn't be the first time they've screwed

up either. Yeah. It was season one where they

glued the... No, don't even... Don't get me started

on that. Don't even go there. They couldn't have

done it like they did it with the DCAU Batman

series. Yeah. A long time later. But the booklet

is nice. Yeah. It lists all the episodes and

gives the synopsis and the air date. I like this.

They put some really nice artwork in there. You've

got Dinobot from Code of Hero looking fairly

epic with the silhouette, or I should say the

sunset behind him. It's kind of nice. What the

hell are you talking about? The booklet. Oh,

okay, inside the booklet. Yeah, there's some

nice artwork inside the booklet. Yeah, yeah,

okay. One of the things I loved about Season

2 is obviously the awesome continuity going back

to G1 and to the other TF continuities as well.

And also, really, we had some very good storylines

this season, even though it's pretty much one

fluid storyline throughout the entire B -series.

I really, really enjoyed this season more than

Season 1. And just to really quick fire off my

list of favorite episodes, Aftermath, Coming

of the Fusors, Part 1 and 2, and Other Visits,

Part 1 and 2, Code of Hero, and The Agenda, Parts

1 through 3. The rest of them are kind of hit

or miss, I think. I would have to agree with

you on those. As far as those are concerned,

I like all those episodes. I would have to rank

probably Coming of the Fusors as a pretty cool

epic return episode of Primal. And then Other

Visits, it's the first time you actually see

a permanent death in the series. Technically,

they aren't really dead, but as they're separate

selves, they are dead. As Ares or Tigatron, they

are both dead. Yeah. Then you get, you know,

of course, we're entering the fray. And then

you see Transmute 8 die, so that's three deaths

this season. In Dinobots, Epic Death, which is

four this season. And then Ravages, which is

five. So, I mean, you have the most death count

in this entire season. Yeah. Did Bob Furman write

this season? Bob Furman? Bob Furman. Bob, no.

Bob Furman. The only thing Simon touched was

Nemesis Part 2. Oh, Simon Furman actually did

have a... Yes, he wrote that episode. That's

interesting. I think it more so had to do with

referencing older Transformer continuity and

to wrap it up. I was referring to Simon Furman

and his knack for killing off Transformers. Maybe

they took cues from him. Hasbro's like, Yeah,

I think we want them dead. We got new toys. Come

on. What the hell's wrong with you? But yeah,

this had the highest death count this season.

The animation models got much, much better, even

for the ones that were existent in Season 1.

By the end of this season, they've gone above

and beyond what they used to look like. Yeah,

I agree with that. Yep. The sound, the visuals,

I mean, everything has gotten more crisp. I mean,

granted, it's more dark, but it's got that more

serious tone that makes it more interesting.

I'll tell you what. Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what,

though. When we get to Season 3, oh, my God.

One of my favorite two -parter, well, I think,

I don't know how many two -parters, I don't remember

right off the top of my head how many two -parters

there are in Season 3. Two. Feral Scream has

got to be the darkest episode as far as the colors.

Yeah, by far. Because obviously you have to hide

the fact of TM2 Cheetor being the sneaky cat.

But overall, Season 2, very well done. There

were some moments where I just didn't care. But

there isn't anything so far out of Beast Wars

that I've absolutely outright hated outside of

Tarantulas. See, I've always liked him. I didn't

like his pre -Transmetal form. I always liked

him after he hit Transmetal. I've always liked

Tarantulas just because, again, he's got his

own agenda. He's doing his own thing. He's counterproductive

to Megatron, but he's got his own lair, got his

own... I don't want to say minions, but in the

form of Blackarachnia and Quickstrider. He's

got his own thing going on. And the spiders.

Yeah, exactly. He's got his own thing going on.

He's a good character. I like him. You know,

the thing about Tarantulas that I noticed, obviously,

since it was revealed in Agenda, which we covered

last week, is that if you look at him from beginning

to Agenda, the first two seasons, You can see

hints that he's a mole throughout the entire

first two seasons. Because he's always talking

about Megatron being on his own agenda. Not just

in the agenda episode, or in the agenda three

-parter, but he's always talking about Megatron

having his own agenda and yada, yada, yada. So

you know that there's something going on there

with Tarantulas. Yeah. But you have to look for

it, though. I mean, it's clear he's got his own

thing going on, but you don't really know what

that thing is until the end of season two. Until

the agenda. Right. Yeah. Michael, what are some

of your favorite episodes? You know, I like The

Code of the Hero. Code of Hero. Thank you for

correcting yourself. The Code of Hero. Code of

the Hero. No, no, no. Code of Hero. Two words.

Code of Hero. Yeah, you know, honestly, toward

the beginning of the season, I wasn't thrilled

with the Transmetal Bodies. Well, more to the

point, I wasn't thrilled with the Transmetal

Monkey. Just didn't like that. Fusors, you know,

they're good characters. You know, Silverbolt

ends up being a very strong character. He starts

off as kind of a one -note pony, you know, up

until he... You know, starts romancing Blackarachnia.

Quickstrike is a one -note pony. He just wants

to kick some Kayster. He just wants to kick Kayster,

and that's the same thing over and over and over

again. In that sense, he's probably made Waspinator

basically a hell of a lot more important just

because Waspinator's got... I mean, granted,

he blows up all the time. Granted... You know,

he has some kind of smart -ass remark for whenever

he gets blown up. But he's, you know, there's

something that's different and entertaining with

Waspinator. Whereas Quickstrike, I would have

loved if they would have just ended him here.

Yeah, just kill him. You know, he's kind of worthless.

Just kill him. Keep Ravage. Yeah, I would have

bought that. That would have made things a hell

of a lot more interesting. I mean, get rid of

Quickstrike. We didn't need him. Ravage was a

bit of a Mary Sue here. It's like, oh, this is

our own private character, and he's uber powerful,

and he can kick everyone's ass. And he needed

to go. He couldn't stick around because he was

just too powerful. Maybe without the ship. Blow

up the ship, keep Ravage, and temper him down

a little bit. But I still think he might have

been too powerful to let live. Hell, all you

gotta do is blow up the ship, force Ravage to

transform permanently into cassette mode, and

put him into the offline sound wave. That would

have been bad. He'd wake up and he'd be like,

Why do I have two Ravages? What's funny is when

you get into the Japanese continuity, where they

actually use Beast Wars Ravage. and G1 Ravage

is kind of a trans -temporal... The way they

describe it, it ends up being more of a paradoxical

goat fuck, to be honest. No, I'm serious. When

they start talking about... And again, this is

the Japanese version of the Alternators line,

where you've got a car... that turns into Ravage.

It's the Trax mold with a Ravage head, right?

And then they've got another car that's a Jaguar,

literally a Jaguar car, that transforms into

a cat. So now they've got to explain logically

how Ravage, the Corvette, is related to Beast

Wars Ravage, who is also related to G1 Ravage.

And, you know, it's basically time... hopping

Ravage who's got his own agenda doing his own

thing and feeding viruses through... It's really

complicated and confusing. That's why the Japanese

continuity sucks. It doesn't count, yeah. I thought

they did a good job really tying, especially

with the Alternators timeline, kind of storyline,

tying in all the timelines and all the series.

It was interesting stuff, but yeah, to digress,

I liked Bad Spark. I liked the whole idea of

the maximal hierarchy having a deep, dark secret.

I think that Rampage could end up being a character

with a lot of potential. And I like the agenda.

All three of them. It was just non -stop epic.

And it still didn't finish Megatron's agenda.

Nope. Not until the next episode. There's more.

There's more? Yeah, but not even in the next

episode. No, I know, but I mean... I mean, not

even in Season 3 did it stop, and it didn't stop

until Endgame in Beast Machines, really. Well,

see, there's a scene in Season 3, and I'll point

it out when we get to that point, that Megatron

kind of alludes to something, because he says

something about planning for the future, and

it never goes back to that particular thing again.

Which kind of alludes me to think that, hey,

I'm creating a virus that I'm going to screw

everybody over once I get back to Cybertron.

Which, in my opinion, should be very soon. Well,

you know, even after Megatron is all said and

done, there's still Joe Convoy. Anybody else

get the Joe Convoy reference? Yeah, leave Joe

Con alone. Joe Convoy. Yeah, leave JoeCon alone.

What is your name, sir? My name is Joe. Joe Convoy.

Who's your daddy? Clint Convoy. Joe Convoy. In

your pants. Joe Convoy. In my pants. Yeah. I

don't know if you've seen that. There was a...

I want to say BotCon... In 2008, they did a voice

actor panel, and Vangelis was actually part of

it. He did the voice for TransTech Shockwave,

and he did a pretty good Shockwave. And David

Kaye was there, and he did a voice, and it was

clearly – Beast Wars Megatron, because he was

doing the Beast Wars Megatron voice, but it was

in the Trench Tech universe, and they said, so

who are you? And he's like, my name is Joe. Joe

Convoy. It was just funny, and at the end, he

basically comes out and says, I don't think he

comes out and says, I'm Megatron, but it's fairly

clear that this is Beast Wars Megatron. It was

called A Bee in the City. If you get a chance,

go to YouTube and look up A Bee in the City.

I think they split it up into three parts. But

it's hilarious. It is really, really funny. Do

we have any other notes for wrapping up Season

2? No, I think Steve covered a lot of what I

was thinking as far as production values and

the animation and the sound. Everything just

got much, much better. I'm looking forward to

it becoming that much more better in Season 3.

Much more better. Much more better. That's correct

grammar. More better, more better, more better.

Who gives a shite? Yes. I think what I'm going

to do is I'm going to have Steve put in every,

not all of them, but every voice actor we've

gotten clips from for this show in between this

and the outro, which you will hear next. We'll

return to the Beast Unleashed podcast after this.

Hey, this is Cheetor, and you're listening to

the Beast Unleashed podcast, Ultra Gear. Respect

my thoughts, hey. Boil them, mash them, stick

them in the stew. It's just a bunch of fucking

repaints. Would it kill you to raise a shovel?

Mmm, it's metal floss. That's like some wine

with that wine. Coulda did what's a coulda did.

I will never buy that movie. What is Jesus? My

pants are full. I want some ho -hos. I love you.

Shut up, bitch. I'm not done. Butthole bag. Now,

back to the Beast Unleashed podcast. Overall,

season two, as we said, very awesome. Lots and

lots of G1 homages and references, especially

Russian Ravage, which I don't think, I think

G1 Ravage only talked once in tape form. And

he wasn't Russian. But anyway, Lee Toker is awesome.

We may have to get him for an interview as well.

There's tons of them. Lee Toker, Blue Man Kuma,

Alec Willows, Venus, Venus Terzo. So, yeah. Thank

you for joining us here on the Beast Unleashed

podcast. There are some ways to get in contact

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Mine is TFG1Mike. Steve, what is your Twitter?

SCP21. And Michael? PconctMichael. Become a fan

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hope you enjoyed this episode of the Beast Unleashed

podcast and wish you'll join us next time. when

we will be reviewing the first three episodes

of Beast Wars Season 3, those being Optimal Situation,

Deep Metal, and Changing of the Guard. For now,

I am TFG1 Mike with... Steve Megatron. And that

other guy. Okay, Michael, you go first. Come

on, come on. With... Michael Wilson. Megatron

Phillips. And the other guy! I just can't seem

to get this right. Megatron, close the show.

Dammit, I told you. I go first. Yes. That's it?

Yes, Megatron, I hear and obey. Oops, you did

it again.