Blackarachnia (TFA)


 * Blackarachnia is a Decepticon from the Transformers Animated continuity family.


 * [[Image:FinalAniBlackarachnia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Welcome to [[wikipedia:Goth Talk|Goth Talk]]!]]

Blackarachnia hates her techno-organic beast mode with a passion. Once she was an Autobot Academy cadet, but when she was abandoned on an alien world by her former teammates, she was forced to adapt to the monstrous organic lifeforms that inhabited the world. Now she is trapped between organic and machine, unable to take a new form. The experience fueled a newfound hatred of the Autobots and a quest for revenge that led her to join Megatron in his war against them, but she doesn't appear to hold any real loyalty toward him. Her hatred of her organic body is driving her insane, and she will do anything to get rid of it, no matter whom she has to crush in her path.

By stabbing other mechanoids with the spider legs projecting over her shoulders, she has the unique ability to download and mimic their traits and weaponry for a limited amount of time. Hope nobody told Lockdown.

Blackarachnia acts differently around robots of the "opposite sex" depending on faction; she's biting and sarcastic towards the Decepticons, but seductive and manipulative towards the Autobots. However, these appear to be but shells worn by a being who desperately wants to be normal again.

"It'll be a long time before I ever trust another Autobot. Especially you, Optimus."

- Blackarachnia

Animated cartoon

 * Voice actor: Cree Summer (English), Christin Marquitan (German)

Blackarachnia was previously known as Elita-1. A thousand stellar cycles ago Elita and her teammates, Optimus and Sentinel, were exploring an alien world, looking for a Decepticon ship filled with energon. They accidentally fell into a series of caves. They were ambushed by giant spiders and, when escaping the massive energon explosion caused by the battle, Elita ended up being left behind. When she tried using her ability to borrow powers from other beings, she was injected by the spiders' venom, turning her into the hideous freak she is now. Because of her new, semi-organic nature, her signal did not appear on Optimus's radar, leading him and Sentinel to believe that she had perished in the explosion.

When the AllSpark was found by a group of Autobots, Blackarachnia was aboard the Nemesis with the other Decepticons, annoyed at Lugnut's emphatic, vocal loyalty to Megatron. She even suggested that Lugnut's speech of praise was hardwired into his mind. She also had conflict with Blitzwing, who touched a sore point by insulting her organic mode. Her retort to "blow it out your actuator, three-face" angered Blitzwing to the point that he...began to express his feelings in song. Later, at Megatron's orders, she scanned the Autobots' ship to determine the nature of their high-energy cargo. She confirmed the Autobots were carrying the AllSpark, or at least something just as powerful. When the Autobots escaped and it became clear the Nemesis was going to crash into an exploding space bridge, Blackarachnia fled in an escape pod.



Later, she stalked Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Sari on Halloween night. After she took out Bumblebee and Bulkhead, she started lying to Sari, who, even after her encounter with Starscream, still couldn't recognize a Decepticon. Fortunately, Optimus came along, but Blackarachnia kidnapped Sari and started web-swinging.

After she got to the top of a skyscraper, Prime tried to fight her, only to realize at last who she was. Blackarachnia tried to use the Key to become fully mechanical. However, the energies unleashed caused any organic life in range, including Sari (and presumably any other fleshy) to shrivel and sicken. It almost killed Blackarachnia, but Optimus Prime pulled the Key out, restoring the organics. Prime tried to reason with "Elita", asking her to come with them in the hopes of curing her, but Blackarachnia stabbed him, saying that it would be a long time before she trusted him again. After she knocked out Prime, she cried her four eyes out.

Later, she again kidnapped Sari, who was running away after having the Key taken away from her. When she heard about the Key and how Sari felt totally mistrusted by the Autobots, Blackarachnia played on the girl's sympathies by saying she knew how Sari felt. BA noted how she was not a Decepticon until after the Autobots turned their backs on her, and how the AllSpark's power was the only thing that could cure her current form. Despite being kidnapped again and nearly being killed by Blackarachnia's previous use of the Key, Sari appeared to start seeing eye to eye with her captor.

At least, that was what she wanted Blackarachnia to believe. Leading her around in circles over the frozen Lake Erie, Sari was finally forced to admit that the Autobots' ship, which contained the AllSpark, was underwater. Blackarachnia's organic half couldn't survive the icy underwater; incensed she prepared to kill Sari. Ratchet brought the ship up through the ice, and Sari bit Blackarachnia's hand, showing that her organic half couldn't withstand teeth, causing her to drop Sari and allow Ratchet to grab her and get in the ship. As Blackarachnia tried to force the door open, the vessel accelerated, and Blackarachnia was thrown off the ship.



Washing ashore on Dinobot Island, Blackarachnia was taken in by the Dinobots, who gave her Meltdown's former base as a home. Using her charms, Blackarachnia was able to manipulate the Dinobots into doing anything she wanted. Grimlock was particularly attached to her, and reminded the other Dinobots of this through violence. Going over Meltdown's notes, she realized that he would be able to remove the organic half from her body. She sent the Dinobots to release him from prison, causing the Autobots to come investigating. Blackarachnia then poisoned Bumblebee and Prowl with her venom, and used the threat of an anti-venom to blackmail Optimus into helping Grimlock find the genetic modifier Meltdown needed for the experiment. Unfortunately, Meltdown turned the tables on them when the modifier was his, planning on removing Blackarachnia's technological half and leaving him with an organic transformer. Optimus was able to stop Meltdown before he succeeded, but the modifier was damaged and Meltdown presumed killed. Needing escape, Blackarachnia urged Optimus to hold her, causing Grimlock to attack in jealousy, and Blackarachnia fled. However, it appears that Blackarachnia left the anti-venom needed to save Bumblebee and Prowl beside them. This gave Optimus hope that beneath all of Blackarachnia's anger and manipulation, there was still something left of Elita-1 in there.

Animated

 * Blackarachnia (Deluxe, 2008)
 * Accessories: Grapnel-hook


 * Blackarachnia transforms into a mechanical spider with some organic aesthetic. She features fairly effective light-piping for all four of her robot mode eyes, as the entire back half of her head is translucent red plastic. Many of her pointier parts are molded in softer plastic to keep unfortunate children from putting their eyes out. Her hands are not jointed at all, due in no small part to her slender wrists and the design of her transformation scheme. This limits her poseability somewhat, but her articulation still allows for a wide variety of fairly natural looking poses. She comes with a grapnel hook accessory. This is spring-loaded, with a jointed claw at the end of it. Pressing a button causes it to retract along the string. It may be mounted on her abdomen in spider mode, or her back in robot mode, via two different sets of pegs. There are also a peg hole in each wrist, for web-slinging action. The spider's head is mis-transformed in the package, making the first step of her instructions initially confusing.

Trivia



 * A non-final character model for Blackarachnia was included in the initial Transformers Animated press kit from Cartoon Network, and it was used briefly (in silhouette) for her first appearance in "Transform and Roll Out!". Though the toy shares the non-final model's spider-leg placement in robot mode, the rest of the toy adheres much more closely to the finished model.
 * Her head is actually a helmet that was lying around in the wrecked Decepticon warship where she had her accident. It is possible she is actually wearing that same helmet to spare other Transformers (or herself) from looking at her freakish, spidery face.
 * So far, Blackarachnia's the only major Transformer character not to have a detailed on-screen transformation.
 * Blackarachnia can swing off of tall, unseen buildings, with webbing that shoots out of her hands. Wow, we've never seen that befo—wait a minute...
 * As Elita-1, her head seems to be based on the pony-tailed Ariel, the younger form of Elita One, while her body's ornamentation homages Elita One herself.
 * Out of the four episodes she's appeared in, she's had to be rescued by Prime in half of them. Looking kind of damsel-in-distress there, Blackarachnia.