Cutting Edge

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Do you have sssome sssugar I could borrow?

A new group of raptor clones attacks the protohuman tribe, and it falls to Cheetor and Blackarachnia to defend them.

Cutting Edge (Japanese title: "Convoy Great Transformation!") is the fourth episode of third season of Beast Wars: Transformers, is the forty-third episode of the Beast Wars: Transformers series and is overall the forty-third episode of the Beast Era of the Transformers series. It is overall the one hundredth-forty-first episode of the G1 Era of Transformers.

Summary

Chak and Una, two protohuman, children play, and re watched over by an older primate bearing a familiar hammer. But a large raptor with evil red glowing eyes and laser vision arrives to chase the protohumans for their lives. The children hide and stay silent to avoid becoming snacks for the mechanical dinosaur. Optimus Primal and Silverbolt arrive in the sky to save the protohumans from the evil dinosaurs right after being discovered. Back in the Mt. St. Hilary base, Rhinox analyzes recovered materials from the dinosaurs to deduce that Megatron must be masterminding the evil robot dinosaur's activities, and one raptor won't be the end.

Rattrap, lurking about, spies on Blackarachnia carrying around some materials in a suspicious manner. She drops her cargo when the two protohumans run past her, followed by their monkeysitter, Cheetor. Cheetor stops to explain why the kids are here, but is distracted by the sensation of being close to Blackarachnia. In the control room, Primal assigns Cheetor and Blackarachnia to take the kids back to their regular habitat (making Silverbolt act rather territorial). Once the four leave, Rattrap mentions to Rhinox that he saw Blackarachnia taking something from classified area of the Maximal's base.

Cheetor gives Jak, the male child, a dizzying ride through the air, while on the ground, the female child protohuman (Una) puts a coconut on her head and mimics Blackarachnia's behavior. Cheetor and Jak land and Blackarachnia professes her disdain for the adorable antics of the Neanderthals. A Cyberraptor attacks, and despite her own reservations about putting herself in danger, she fights to protect the human kids. Cheetor manages to damage himself with a grandstanding maneuver. After getting away, the Maximals find their radios are being jammed and Cheetor's flight ability is disabled; the two are on their own.

Megatron, watching the Maximals and their charges, sends Waspinator and Tarantulas (brandishing a new toy) and three additional raptors to attack the two Maximals in the field. Meanwhile, Primal and Silverbolt also go to reinforce the two Maximals who haven't radioed in a status report. The four remaining Predacons share a hearty laugh and prepare for an attack on the under-staffed Maximal base.

Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and the kids come under attack from Predacon forces. While they take cover, Silverbolt and Primal arrive to protect their comrades. Tarantulas's new weapon is a Transmetal Cyber-Venom which disables Primal, leaving him drunkenly singing about his Little Guy. Blackarachnia dives to use her own body to take a shot from Tarantulas meant for the two kids. One of the raptors gets close to Optimus, but is damaged by the sudden appearance of the hammer-wielding Protohuman. The damaged Raptor jumps madly, stomping on Waspinator. Thanks to the human, Primal figures out that the raptors are vulnerable on the control units on their backs. Blackarachnia destroys the control unit on the remaining raptor, which takes out Tarantulas as it self destructs.

Megatron's attack on the Maximal base starts well. Quickstrike is sacrificed as a victim to an anticipated booby trap. After getting a radio message from Waspinator that the attack on the protohumans has failed, Megatron, Rampage and Inferno push forward to claim the Ark—but Depth Charge arrives, giving Rhinox and Rattrap the opening they need to force the Predacons back into a retreat.

As Primal's group collect themselves, the children protohumans are delivered back into the care of their parents and wave goodbye to Cheetor. Blackarachnia smuggles some hardware from the damaged raptors. Cheetor congratulates Blackarachnia on her heroic actions, but Blackarachnia tells Cheetor she doesn't care for "nice kids". As she walks away under the wing of territorial Silverbolt, Cheetor mutters that he's not a kid... and maybe not so nice, either.

Meanwhile, Megatron determines that he can perfect the technology from the Cyber raptors by using it in conjunction with the other half of Rampage's divided Spark.

Quotes

Rattrap: "Call me paranoid, but I don't trust Preds, I don't trust spiders, and I don't trust dames who sneak in and out of classified areas when they think nobody's watchin'."
Rhinox: "What are you saying?"
Rattrap: "Nyeh! I'm sayin' that our little spider chum...."
[Silverbolt enters]
Rattrap: "...is a credit to her web-spinnin' species and I don't know what we ever did wit'out her."

—Rattrap convincingly covers his little rant to Rhinox with a genuine and completely sarcasm-free testimonial.

"Eh, typical. Who gets stuck with all the work? The rat gets stuck with all the work, while everyone else goes on a slaggin' picnic."

—Rattrap, complaining as usual.

"Ah, exactly as I anticipated. The base is undermanned and unprotected, ours for the asking."
"Aww, now, we ain't gonna ask, are we? How's about we just blast our way in there, an' slag everybody 'n' TAKE IT?!"
"Mmmmm... o-kay!"

—Megatron gives Quickstrike exactly the right answer.

Megatron: "Quickstrike, you may lead."
Quickstrike: "Yeah! That's what I like to hear!"
Inferno: "Royalty, why was I not chosen?"
Megatron: "Because, Inferno, when expecting booby traps..."
[Quickstrike gets smashed by one said trap]
Megatron: "...always send the boob in first." [Quickstrike seeing stars]

—Megatron instructs Inferno on the correct use of minions such as Quickstrike (and gets to say "boob" in the process! Hehehehehehehehehehe...).

"Rattrap to Optimus...hate to interrupt your picnic, but we got big Pred problems!"
"Just hang on, Rattrap. You and Rhinox are our last hope. Defend the-[ZZT] [WWWHHHRRR] Defend the-[ZZT] [P-CHOW] [sings] THERE HE IS, MY LITTLE GUYYYYY! THERE HE IS; MY LITTLE GUY. ISN'T HE CUTE?"
"That’s... not what I wanted to hear."

-Rattrap finds that cyber-venomed Optimus Primal sure can sing.

"No! Down raptor! Bad raptor!"

-Waspinator, just another day at the office.

Stats

Writers: Ian Weir
Original air date: November 15, 1998

Characters (in order of appearance): Protohumans, Cyber Raptors, Optimus Primal, Silverbolt, Rhinox, Rattrap (BW), Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Megatron, Inferno, Waspinator, Tarantulas, Depth Charge

Notes

• This marks the first episode of Beast Wars: Transformers to have one of the hominids play a larger major role.
• This episode sets up the following two-part "Feral Scream" episode and the Transmetal 2 technology, as well as starting Blackarachnia's covert attempts to turn herself Transmetal.

• Cheetor is shown to have developed a crush on Blackarachnia.

• This is the last appearance of Inferno and Quickstrike in their beast modes.
• One of the hominids is still carrying around Dinobot's makeshift hammer that he discovered back in the Season 2 episode of Beast Wars: Transformers "Code of Hero".
  • Coincidentally, the next episode debuts Dinobot II.

Continuity errors

• Tarantulas is now working under Megatron's command again.... for whatever reason.

• The first raptor Blackarachnia and Cheetor fight wanders off, and doesn't turn up in the final battle (where there's only three from the Darksyde). Where the heck did it go? It's possible it's disappearance was foreshadowing for a canceled episode or story arc.

• With the Predacons in retreat and still at his fighting strength, Depth Charge seems to squander an excellent opportunity to fulfill his life-long ambition of killing Rampage. This is probably a deliberate action from the producers to flex Depth Charge's skills.

Theatrical release

It's like an anime convention threw up.

This episode was titled "Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Daihenshin!" ("Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Great Transformation") and released theatrically as part of a triple feature of animated films based on Takara properties. The other two short movies included were "Super Doll Licca-chan" and "Microman". Due to the relatively late theatrical release, the episode was not included on the Japanese DVD box set of Beast Wars Metals and is the only episode of the series to have not been released on video in Japan.

Real-world references

• Megatron exclaims "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war," a quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Notes

• This episode features the first and only time Tarantulas uses his spider-leg guns in his Transmetal form.
• Cutting Edge shares a very similar premise to the Season 2 episode of Beast Wars: Transformers "Bad Spark", in that its an episode were a Maximal that is themed after a Quadruplet animal traverse with Blackarachnia in an area and develops a specie bound.

External links

• Link

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