Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki

Welcome to Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki. You may wish to create or login to an account in order to have full editing access to this wiki.

READ MORE

Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki
Register
Advertisement
MissingPiece
Thanks for helping me... pull myself together.

This cartoon episode article is a stub and is missing information. You can help Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki by expanding it.

Spider's Game

Wait, Beast Machines: Transformers is gonna do WHAT in it's finale?!?

Tarantulas detects a new stasis pod and attempts to turn the protoform into a new Predacon.

Spider's Game is the eighteenth episode of first season of Beast Wars: Transformers, is the eighteenth episode of the Beast Wars: Transformers series and is overall the eighteenth episode of the Beast Era of the Transformers series. It is overall the one hundredth-sixteenth episode of the G1 Era of Transformers.

Summary[]

As another stasis pod leaves orbit and completes planetfall, Tarantulas sends out a magnetic pulse that disrupts the sensors at both the Predacon and Maximal bases. The pulse ensures that Tarantulas will be the first to arrive at the pod's landing site, within Grid Halex, and that he will be able to manipulate the protoform inside. Blackarachnia discovers what Tarantulas is up to and insists on accompanying him to the pod's landing site.

Tigatron also sees the pod arriving, but is unable to contact the Maximal base so he sets out to intercept the pod on his own. He is intercepted by Waspinator, who delays Tigatron until Airazor arrives and saves him. Tigatron tells Airazor to go to the pod and that he will join her there.

Arriving at the pod, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are too late to hand pick an arachnid form for the protoform; however, Tarantulas is able to do some reprogramming and turn the protoform into a Predacon. The new Predacon, Inferno, emerges from the pod only to attack the other two Predacons. Tarantulas deduces that Inferno's beast mode is dominating his logic circuits and that he thinks he really is a fire ant protecting his colony.

Airazor arrives on the scene only to be attacked and disabled by Inferno and Blackarachnia. While Blackarachnia uses this opportunity to make nice with Inferno and start to win him over, Tarantulas uses it to accomplish his real goal - stealing the stasis pod. This act enrages Inferno who sets out in pursuit of Tarantulas, with Blackarachnia not far behind. Tigatron arrives and tells Airazor to find Optimus while he pursues the Predacons.

Nearing his lab, Tarantulas is caught by Inferno who demands the return of the "colony". Tarantulas ensnares Inferno in a web and is preparing to finish him off when Scorponok arrives and informs Tarantulas that Megatron wants the pod. Before that can happen however, Tigatron arrives and destroys the pod. His victory quickly turns sour as he is attacked by both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia, who inflict heavy damage on him. Megatron arrives on the scene shortly, and even though both of the spiders flee, Tigatron is still in trouble. Inferno breaks free of Tarantulas's web, enraged at the destruction of the colony. He turns his fury on Tigatron and is preparing to destroy him, when Optimus and Airazor arrive and blow Inferno into scrap.

Megatron gathers up the parts of Inferno and has him restored, while Optimus and Airazor take Tigatron back to the Maximal base for repairs. Back at his lab, however, Tarantulas is lamenting the loss of the pod, revealing to an eavesdropping Blacharachnia his beliefs that the planet they're on is doomed. From this, the black widow correctly surmises that Tarantulas was going to convert the pod into an escape shuttle, but is unable to wrench any more information about his motives for doing so out of him.

Quotes[]

Blackarachnia: Lunatic.
Tarantulas: Witch.

Blackarachnia and Tarantulas express their loving feeling to one-another


Tarantulas: I am Tarantulas, your creator. Identify yourself.
Protoform: Spiders! You dare invade the colony? Inferno: TERRORIZE!
[The spider couple just look at each other and shrug before they watch the Protoform Transform. The Protoform roars and readies his weapon for Mr. and Ms. Blackarachnia]
Blackarachnia: Incoming!
[The couple scream as the shot sends them flying]
Inferno: Destruction to all who threaten us! The roalty commands it!

—Congratulations Mr. & Ms. Blackarachnia, you now have a new addition to the family


Blackarachnia: That 6-legged freak nearly roasted us! I thought you said he was a Predacon!
Tarantulas: His Beast Mode is dominating his logic circuits.
Blackarachnia: He thinks he's a real insect?
Tarantulas: Precisely! And he sees the pod as his colony. Anyone who threatens it is his enemy.

Tarantulas explains the ant lifestyle


Blackarachnia: My Cyber-Venom will make him more friendly!
Tarantulas: NO! (He lunges on top of Blackarachnia, stopping her) I don't want to risk damage to the pod!
Blackarachnia: Why do you want it so badly?
Tarantulas: That's not for you to know!

Tarantulas has plans for any stasis pod he can find; Inferno's happens to be conveiently present

Stats[]

Writers: Larry DiTillio
Original Air Date: January 6, 1997

Major Characters (in order of appearance): Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, Inferno (first appearance), Tigatron
Minor Characters (in order of appearance):Waspinator, Optimus Primal, Airazor, Scorponok,Megatron

Notes[]

Animation and/or technical glitches[]

  • Curiously, when Tigatron is injured near the end of the episode, his beast mode's face (which serves as his robot mode's chestplate) appears to be bleeding. Either this contradicts what Cheetor said to Tarantulas in an earlier episode when he said "I don't have real blood....only mech fluid.", or this lends credence to the theory that beast modes are wholly organic.
    • Alternately, it could be charring, as the same discolorations appear on his metal portions.
  • When Tigatron arrives at the stasis pod drop zone after the Predacons have left and Tarantulas has taken the pod, the stasis pod can still be seen in the background.

Real-world references[]

  • The idea that Inferno thinks that his Pod is a "Colony" and marches around it is a based on the fact that Inferno's Alt Mode is a Fire Ant, which in real life are very protective of their Colonies.

Notes[]

Spider s game-fireants

...And here on our left we have some ant porn... Fascinating... because...YOU KNOW... FOR KIDS!!!

  • This episode is the debut appearance of Inferno.
  • Tarantulas expresses a desire for a stasis pod and his belief that the planet is "doomed", revealing that he knows more about the planet than he let's on, and foreshadowing the events in Other Voices, the two-part Season 1 Finale of Beast Wars: Transformers.
  • Given how Airazor stairs at Tigatron with a smile, theres a possibility she might have a crush on him.
  • It is snowing at the Maximal base.
  • This is the only stasis pod to land on its own without damage.
  • While Megatron is complaining that repairing the computer is Tarantulas's job, you can see the words "eat me" on the screen in the Predacon variant of Cybertronix.
  • Right before Optimus enters the command room and says, "Rhinox, what's going on? I was running a strategic simulation, when everything went dark." a toilet is flushing in the background... strategic huh?
  • At the end where Tarantulas laughs evilly, he has a shadow made from the computer screen. A rare privilege in the Beast Wars ears used to emphisis just how evil he is.
  • When the ant hill that Inferno gains his beast form from is shown as the stasis pod is landing, two ants can be seen on top of each other in the bottom left corner. Either they are rough-housing or... the animators had been watching too much of the Discovery Channel...
  • Waspinator seems to bear a grudge against Airazor in this episode for some reason; despite no such interaction between the two ever taking place before it. In fact, their one battle in this very episode is literally as close as these two characters ever get to one another... so where this supposed grudge came from is anyone's guess.
    • He may simply resent how the presence of a Maximal with a flight-capable beast mode nullifies the only real advantage he had over any of his enemies, thus undermining what Waspinator can contribute to the team.

External Links[]

  • Link
Advertisement