Nightscream (BM)


 * Nightscream is a Maximal from the Beast Machines era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

When armies of Vehicons conquered Cybertron, young Nightscream survived alone in the darkness below the surface of the planet. This trauma influences much of his behavior. He's always on the defensive. Paranoid. Rude. Distrusting. Confrontational. But really, he's just a troubled kid, and he's been through a lot. Inside, he's got a good heart. He's just got to learn to stop fighting friends and enemies alike.

Or it's also possible he's just your typical angsty teenage emo jerk.

Regardless, he seems to have found a kindred spirit in the wild Savage/Noble creature.

Beast Machines
Voice Actor: Alessandro Juliani (US), Nobutoshi Canna (Japan)

When the Vehicons and their virus struck, Nightscream ran and panicked like many Maximals. He fell down a hole during the attack, and everything went dark. Though he would not recall the details later, somehow he wandered into a cave bearing the fossils of a strange, gigantic bat-creature, and his internal DNA scanners used them to reformat him an organic beast form and save him, at least temporarily, from the virus. Nightscream's mental state at this point is unknown, but he seems to have spent the next period hiding and feeding off a strange fruit tree he found growing below the planet's surface. Eventually, Optimus Primal and company arrived and, distrustful, he began to spy on their activities. When they spotted and pursued him, the ensuing confrontation ended up with his food source destroyed and his body reformatted to be technorganic like the other Maximals. He rather reluctantly agreed to join them, but continued to generally mope around and cop an annoying Anakin-esque attitude with everyone.

In the course of events, Nightscream met and befriended Savage/Noble, whom he believed to be a fellow survivor of Megatron's attack. Thinking he'd found a kindred spirit, he dedicated himself to helping the wolf in dragon's clothing until it was revealed that his new friend was really Megatron all along. Ouch. Despite this, when Megatron's spark separated from the Savage/Noble body, the dog-like beast that remained seemed to retain its attachment to the boy and followed him about like a big, ugly puppy. Then Megatron killed his puppy. (Sucks to be Nightscream), and the enraged Maximal unleashed Mary-Sue-level sonic powers on Megatron in retaliation, setting the stage for the final act of the war for the sparks. In the end, Nightscream and the other Maximals stopped Megatron's forces and reformatted the planet. And everyone rejoiced. Yay. Quite why he was kept over Rhinox is unknown.

Beast Machines

 * Nightscream (Ultra, 2000)


 * Nightscream (Happy Meal toy, 2000)

Beast Wars Returns

 * Nightscream (Ultra, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: BR-09

Trivia
Story editor Bob Skir originally wanted the character of Nightscream to be a young female Transformer, patterned after the girl "Newt" from the movie Aliens. When the Powers that Be nixed that, he instead pattered the character after the rebellious young John Conner in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best idea...