Maximal Or Predacon- The Life of Dinobot

In this analysis we will be discussing a character who may not be well known to many people. We will be examining the character of Dinobot from the tv animated series Beast Wars which exists canonically within the Transformers universe. Beast Wars does not have the recognition that it deserves and although its animation looks prehistoric by today’s standards, its storytelling and characters can give the shows of today some good competition. Without further ado, let us delve in.

As casual Transformers fans may be aware, it’s a basic fact that with the Transformers there are two factions that began warring with each other and those two factions are of course the Autobots and the Decepticons. Without going into the history of the Transformers, both factions begat descendants and they are the Maximals (Autobots) and Predacons (Decepticons). In Beast Wars, a renegade band of Predacons led by Megatron (who took on the name of the original), head to prehistoric Earth, under the guise that they are simply looking to gather a significant amount of the resource Energon to amass power but in truth, and known only to Megatron, to alter history by obliterating the Autobots who are already on Earth in stasis.

At the beginning of the Beast Wars, Megatron has a band of six including himself- the other 5 are Waspinator, Tarantulus, Terrorsaur, Scorponok, and Dinobot. Being mechanical beings from the planet Cybertron, their bodies could not coexist with the disruptive energy fields from the energon and so had to adopt organic lifeforms based on the fauna of the time (living prehistoric animals as well as extinct dinosaurs). Dinobot adopted the form of a Deinonychus raptor, a lethal creature which was a fitting choice for his already-formidable skills as a warrior and soldier. If Beast Wars had one-on-one battle matchups, then Dinobot would be the top contender and followed closely by other characters such as Optimus Primal and Silverbolt in terms of physical prowess and combat skill. Tall and burly, Dinobot can be very intimidating towards his enemies and his weapons arsenal is one of the deadliest- a full-spiked sword which can spin at a high speed and a rotating blade but his sneakiest weapons are his eye beams. There are other deadly attacks in Beast Wars, a lot which seem to come from the Predacons such as Scorponok’s life-energy-draining cyber bee, his tail acid which can melt through organic matter, Black Arachnia’s poison paralysis, and let’s not forget Inferno’s flamethrower gun but the Maximals get some points too such as with Rhinox’s chaingun and Tigatron’s freeze gun.

I digress. We are here to talk about Dinobot. He is one such being that both factions would be lucky to have. In the first episode of Beast Wars, Dinobot tells Megatron to destroy the Maximals in the first battle between them and the Predacons in space. Believing Megatron to have been mistaken about taking them to Earth, where according to a prophecy on a golden disk the Predacons would obtain absolute glory and turn the tables on the ruling Maximals on the planet, Dinobot challenged Megatron for leadership of the Predacons. Betrayed by Megatron, and believing Earth was just another planet now, Dinobot allied himself with the Maximals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dUdvoalsJc). In this regard, he is much like Vegeta where he truly has no reason to stay or fight with the Maximals other than that he simply bears a grudge against Megatron for the betrayal. During his tenure with the Maximals, there was more tension among his teammates than cooperation. Not used to the non-violent ways of the Maximals, he would mock them for it and sought out more aggressive approaches towards the Predacons. Impatient, impulsive, hasty, and willing to attack the Predacons at the first given chance, his way of dealing with things sometimes clashed with Optimus and the other Maximals and he even attempted to take command of the base by force twice: the first time being after Optimus’ abduction by the Vox and the second after Optimus’ presumed death after sacrificing his life to stop the Vox from obliterating Earth. With Silverbolt at the Maximals’ mercy one time, Dinobot was even preparing to execute him but Cheetor and Rattrap stopped him telling him it’s not what Optimus would have done and he tried to force Tigatron into taking up battle again after he renounced the violence of battle, by almost attacking him, forcing him to defend himself and needed to be told to stand down by Optimus.

Dinobot is a character who puts himself first and is more concerned with his own self-preservation than anybody else’s. When he saved Optimus’ life from Megatron’s missile in the mountain battle in the second episode, he admits that his actions did not imply loyalty and was merely getting even with Optimus for Optimus saving his life before (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otdIaEY9qRk), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loEhGEjPI4Y&t=2s). When Silverbolt goes M.I.A. and when Tigatron and Airrazor are assumed to be killed by one of the Vox’s alien sites, Dinobot simply sees them as casualties of war. Yes, he pays his respects towards his fellow bots but in the end they were ultimately soldiers who were collateral and that was the reality of it. Dinobot formed no attachments to anyone. He knew there was no point- but what was he truly fighting for? I don’t think he even knew. As far as I know, Dinobot was following what Megatron believed was a prophecy according to what the golden disk said, and when Dinobot thought it wasn’t Earth they landed on (where the prophecy would come true) Dinobot challenged Megatron. It wasn’t until Season 2 that Dinobot learned it really was Earth after one of Earth’s moons was revealed to not be a moon at all and questioned whether he was the master of his own fate after all. Was he destined for glory or could the future be rewritten? Doubting his place among the Maximals after learning Megatron was continuing on with his master plan, Dinobot rejoined the Predacons but when push came to shove, Dinobot did not execute Rattrap as Megatron commanded him to, reasserting his allegiance to the Maximals and declaring Megatron and his ambitions insane, telling him he would destroy Maximals and Predacons alike (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2p8WqyU-Vk).

Realizing that the future was not written in stone, Dinobot CHOSE to fight with the Maximals. He could have very well fought with the Predacons but I think that Dinobot’s time with the Maximals greatly strengthened his sense of honor and value for life. While with the Predacons again, he and Quickstrike were battling to the death and as Dinobot became the victor, Megatron ordered him to terminate Quickstrike. Dinobot spared his life. Dinobot has qualities of both Predacon and Maximals in him which Optimus even says to him “For a Predacon, Dinobot, you have qualities I could like”. Dinobot shows no mercy to his enemies and if left to his own devices would probably terminate them in grisly ways yet he will not if they impugn his honor. My guess is, while Dinobot fought alongside the Maximals, he changed his values to protect instead of to conquer and saw the value of having a team that is unified and works together as opposed to one that would leave their teammates to fall into lava and not blink an eye. While he did get frustrated with the Maximals for their ‘sentiment’ from time to time and did become tired of living as a Maximal, he ultimately decided to protect the early humans from extinction by Megatron’s destruction (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SepcT0KtUM).

It is never clear why Dinobot made the choices he did. His back and forth of switching allegiances makes him a tricky character to figure out and it’s not like they dedicated just one episode to explain his actions or thoughts. With only 52 episodes throughout the series, there is only so much time you can alot to develop one character but with what they did, it is impressive. For a 52-episode series, Beast Wars stands on high with the likes of Avatar The Last Airbender and other great animated series. It is criminally underrated and should be more known than it is but it is overshadowed by its sister show Reboot. Dinobot’s character dictates that he plays along with whoever he thinks would benefit him greatest, but with his sense of honor, and sacrifice for sentient life, Dinobot has proven that he is indeed, at his core, a Maximal and the good deeds that were done are what will be known throughout Cybertronian history.

P.S,

Let’s not forget the kick-ass theme song of Beast Wars which is, unarguably, one of the top 20 if not top 10, cartoon theme songs of all time. Fight me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKpU0pnne8