Blackarachnia (TFA)


 * Blackarachnia was once an Autobot but is now a Decepticon / Predacon from the Transformers Animated continuity family. She was previously an Autobot known as Elita-1 and is also known as Spider Lady.



In another life, she was Elita-1, an energetic, spunky Autobot Academy cadet. However, a fateful trip to an alien world saw her teammates abandoned her to a horde of alien spiders. Now calling herself Blackarachnia, she hates her new body with a passion. Her loathing of her organic half is slowly driving her insane, and she will do anything to get rid of it, no matter whom she has to crush in her path. Her mutation fueled a newfound hatred of the Autobot cause and a quest for revenge that led her to join Megatron in his war against them. However, she does not appear overly loyal to her leader.

Due to her mutant techno-organic form, she can use her newfound cyber venom to paralyze her enemies in addition to her natural ability to download and mimic other Transformers' traits and weaponry for a limited amount of time with a simple touch. Hope nobody tells 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. This desire, however, makes Blackarachnia her own worst enemy, as it's nearly led to her own death.

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

- Blackarachnia

Animated cartoon continuity

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



Blackarachnia was previously known as Elita-1. A thousand stellar cycles ago Elita and her teammates 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. Poisoned by the spiders, her attempt of neutralizing the effects ended up with her reformating into her current form and using a nearby helmet to cover her face in horror. Because of her new, techno-organic form, 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 half. 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.

Fifty stellar cycles later, while searching space for any trace of the AllSpark in the hope that she could use its power to purge herself of her organic half, Blackarachnia stumbled across Starscream, still operating out of the battered shell of the Nemesis''. Realizing that Starscream was searching for the AllSpark as well, Blackarachnia proposed an alliance, but Starscream proved uninterested in sharing power and promptly booted her out into space. Before being ejected, however, Blackarachnia was able to plant a homing device on Starscream.''



Upon arriving on Earth, Blackarachnia stalked Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Sari on Halloween night. After she took out Bumblebee and Bulkhead, she attempted to sweet-talk Sari into handing over her AllSpark-powered key, but Optimus Prime arrived to intervene. Using powers stolen from Bulkhead and Bumblebee to overcome Optimus, Blackarachnia captured Sari and web-swung her way to the top of a skyscraper, with Prime in hot pursuit. In the ensuing fight, Prime finally realized who Blackarachnia truly was. Exploiting the opening, Blackarachnia bound Prime in her web and seized Sari's key, activating its power in hopes of 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 ever trust 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. Blackarachnia 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. Enraged, she prepared to kill Sari as her organic half couldn't withstand the icy water. Ratchet brought the ship up through the ice, and Sari bit Blackarachnia's hand, 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 attracted 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 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 mechanical half and making her an organic transformer. Optimus was able to stop Meltdown before he succeeded, but the modifier was damaged and Meltdown presumably 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 her.



Blackarachnia later began experimenting with transwarp in attempt to purge her organic half. She sent Swoop to abduct Wasp whom she thought to be the ideal test subject. She coaxed him into being tested with her charm and promise of greater power. Locking him inside a chamber and inserted a small wasp into another, she reformatted Wasp into Waspinator. Sentinel Prime in the meantime stumbled upon the laboratory and was horrified to learn Blackarachina's identity. Refusing to accept her as Elita-1, he attempted to kill her.



Waspinator, upon learning of Blackarachnia's betrayal, attempted to kill her in blind rage as his transwarp energy was becoming unstable. Blackarachnia heroically sacrificed herself by sealing both Waspinator and herself in her webbing just before Waspinator exploded. Nevertheless, she and Waspinator survived, and awoke to find themselves on a planet inhabited by several familiar animals, much to her surprise.

Animated

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


 * Blackarachnia transforms into an aesthetic mechanical spider in black, purple and gold. Her front two pairs of legs and the pointy bits on the rear two pairs are made of rubbery plastic to keep children from poking their eyes out. She comes with a grapnel-hook accessory which may fall victim to Clear Plastic Syndrome. It can be mounted under her abdomen in spider mode as spinneret.


 * In humanoid mode, the retractable grapnel-hook can be pegged on her back or either wrist for some web-slinging actions. Blackarachnia gets a pair of fighting claws by swinging the legs on her forearms around. Besides, the hinged pair of legs on her back can be folded over her shoulders for more attack options.

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!".


 * Speaking of her appearance in the pilot episode, it is noteworthy that when shown with other Decepticons, she is only a little bit shorter than them, whereas the Decepticons shown are much larger than Optimus. But in later episodes, she is shorter than Optimus. Whuh?


 * 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.


 * The helmet she wears was found from wreckage of Decepticon warship where she had her accident.


 * She has 21 eyes in total: twelve on her head, five on her alt-mode's head, and four more on her crotch.


 * When her real face is shown, she appears to have two protrusions on the sides of her head, leading to the question of how the helmet fits over them. Unless they fold in or something...


 * Blackarachnia is the only major Transformer Animated character not to have a detailed on-screen transformation, much like her Beast Wars counterpart.


 * Blackarachnia can use her webbing to swing around Detroit's taller buildings. Wow, we've never seen that befo—wait a minute...


 * Due to her techno-organic form, Blackarachnia is the only Transformer in the series who is able to cry and feel sharp pains . It does not appear to affect her aging at all however.


 * Out of the six episodes she's appeared in, she's had to be rescued by Optimus in almost half of them, from situations that are her own fault. Looking kind of damsel in distress there, Blackarachnia.


 * Blackarachnia's desperate quest to rid herself of her organic half is similar to that of Megatron in the Beast Machines.


 * Her Japanese voice actor, Ryōka Yuzuki, originally voiced her Beast Wars counterpart.

Starscream:Blackaranachia is hot. (whistles)
 * In "Megatron Rising - Part II", she state to Sari that she can't survive underwater. But in between the Awesome Japanese version intro, she battle Arcee underwater. Whuh?