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Every two weeks, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by me, your fellow editor. These are my opinions (just like movie or game reviews hosted by sites are still just the opinion of one person) so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.


Top 5 Best Beast Wars Characters

I don't know if I will ever have a list of the "Top 5 Transformers TV Shows" because there isn't that much competition and to me the only real discussion point would be why Beast Wars is better than the G1 Sunbow show. That's because if I were to write that list (which I don't plan to at the moment) Beast Wars would trump G1, for sure. So I will cut to the discussion right away and tell you why: the characters. Beast Wars has the best Transformers characters we will ever see on TV and I want to give a breakdown of the ones I like best, so here it goes!


5. DepthCharge/Rampage

I for the two rivals duking it out until their death. I also love the Batman/Joker rivalry and this it is the most prominent and legendary rivalry in all of fiction (anyone dare go against that?) and the Deptcharge/Rampage rivalry seems to take direct inspiration of that. The temperaments of the characters involved in both rivalries is very similar too with an obsessed lone wolf badass hunting down an agent of chaos. It's a fun dynamic and very fun archetypes and I am glad that they were part of Beast Wars.




4. Rhinox

Part of me wanted to put Rhinox at number 1 just to make a statement. He is by far the best maximal character with all the best attributes you can think of. He is the smartest on the team, while also having brute strength and insane firepower. He has all that it takes to be second in command, which he technically is, and yet we don't think of him that was due to his humility and much gentler side (which is an amazing contrast to his arsenal and size). He is the ultimate support to the team and from beginning to end (especially end). I don't know how much is just coincidence or good planned out writing, but Rhinox also ends up being the only character in the entire show to retain his organic beast mode until the end. It shows how that character was quick to accept this new organic life (a lot like Tigertron) and kept exploring it and welcoming all that it had to bring.




3. Blackarachnia

As mentioned in the best female characters of all time in the Transformers franchise, she is one of the characters with the most depth in any Transformers fiction. The reason why she is still only third place on this list is because she lacks a certain gravitas that number 1 and 2 have. But please remember that Beast Wars has the best written characters we will ever be given on a screen so being top 3 is just as good as being number 1.




2. Megatron

It is impossible to express the joy of watching this villain on the screen. He reminds me of Hans Gruber and other villains which just reek of charisma. He knows he is bad and is loving every second of it and that is so infectious to the viewer. I love his assurance too, its very seductive, just ask Ravage. We almost want to see him succeed in his plans and that is the marking of a perfect villain.




1. Dinobot

Unlike almost every other Transformers character, Dinobot doesn't seem to have a predetermined personality based on his allegiance. That is also what makes Beast Wars such a smart show. We see around the end of the second season that the Predacons are not a simple analogue to the Decepticons. They are another clan with different values and ideals. While Megatron has ambitions similar to the previous bearer of that name, it only makes sense that his lietenants share similar aspirations. However, Dinobot shows us that evil is not a hardcoded trait in this world anymore. I love how he never chooses to be a maximal but simply
Dinobot, to me, is not just the best Beast Wars character, he is the very best character to come out of Transformers.



Honourable mentions: All of them, with the exception of maybe Scorponok and Tigerhawk who didn't really do much for me as a kid and even less so now.

People LOVE Rhinox. And I've never understood it. Nothing against him, but I always saw him as one dimensional (much like Scorponok). In many circumstances, he's the Maximal's deus ex machina. And ironically, the only thing that made him interesting to me was when he became Tankor in Beast Machines. Which is almost unanimously hated

Pretty shocked to not see Primal on this list...

shajaki wrote:People LOVE Rhinox. And I've never understood it. Nothing against him, but I always saw him as one dimensional (much like Scorponok). In many circumstances, he's the Maximal's deus ex machina. And ironically, the only thing that made him interesting to me was when he became Tankor in Beast Machines. Which is almost unanimously hated

Pretty shocked to not see Primal on this list...

I think it's more of the implicit parts of his character, and what stories could've been told to expand on it. That and the fact that he doesn't really have any primary vices. Although I haven't watched to series in a while, so don't take my word for it.

How is Una not the number one character? She outsmarted Megatron.


Why world hate Waspinator?

I can't find a fault with the top 3.
4. Waspinator, really this show was defined by the predacons. Every single one of my top 5 was a predacon at one point. Waspinator may not have good at anything except being the scrappy. Everyone loves to see him blow up, get beat on, and just be miserable.
5. Tarantulas, the guy was like shockwave and starscream had a love/hate child. Even Megatron was never as downright disturbing or manipulative as him. There were a lot of episodes I watched just to see how awful tarantulas would be. But he never had the charisma of Megatron, so much farther down the list.

Honorable mention to inferno for constantly protecting the queen!

I can't say a top 5 because I love the show as a whole. Two things that I like about the show are:
1. How developed all the characters are. They each get to shine and they each get their own personality. For the most part those personalities aren't just -insert cliche here-. Even the characters that are cliches (such as Waspinator is slapstick comic relief, Cheetor is kid friendly character...) still were fleshed out. They still felt "alive" and reacted according to their character mostly.
2. The villains didn't outpace the heros. What I mean by that is some shows the villains are the real highlight and the heros are just there to have good vs bad. But to me this show had cool on both sides, and the heros could be just as interesting as the villains. The heros didn't get bogged down by "I have to be good so I am going to be boring good" but still didn't fall into the "I have to be cool so I'm an antihero" that the 90's especially fell into. Both sides got victories and the Maximals didn't win all the time just because the Preds were "bumbling idiots."

no rattrap, this is a joke right?

honestly there are so many good characters in the show you could make a top 15. everyone's top 5 list would probably look different.

While I am glad not to see the always annoying Rattrap or Quickstrike on the list, I cannot agree with Dinobot especially as no. 1.

He's one of the most overrated characters in the franchise and his voice acting was terrible. Someone got paid to do it?!?

Silverbolt, Inferno, Ravage, Waspinator, Airrazor, Tigatron, Cheetor and Terrorsaur were much more likeable characters.

Beast Wars Megatron is the best cartoon Megatron. I wish there had been more seasons of Beast Wars just more more of that Megatron.

Not bad. My list:

5. Rattrap
4. Optimus Primal
3. Blackarachnia
2. Dinobot
1. Megatron

Honorable mention: Tarantulas (just for the fact that he was a Tripredacus agent the whole time)

Trans-mutate is certainly one of mine. Beast Wars, despite the primitive CGI; really knew how to use body language to its advantage and that is extremely evident in Trans-mutate. There's so much expression in one episode and you really feel sorry for the thing.

Great list WJ! Thanks.

Great topic. The Beast Wars story was awesome! The characters were great!

Dinobot is one of the best characters ever.

My Beast Wars list would go more like this.
5:Dinobot
4:Silverbolt
3:Depthcharge
2:Megatron
1:Waspinator
Waspinator, to me, was the best characters, because he simply just would not die, and in the end he became friends with the humans.

Ultimate Weapon1 wrote:Waspinator, to me, was the best characters, because he simply just would not die, and in the end he became friends with the humans.

You have a weird definition of friends.

Windsweeper wrote:While I am glad not to see the always annoying Rattrap or Quickstrike on the list, I cannot agree with Dinobot especially as no. 1.

He's one of the most overrated characters in the franchise and his voice acting was terrible. Someone got paid to do it?!?

Silverbolt, Inferno, Ravage, Waspinator, Airrazor, Tigatron, Cheetor and Terrorsaur were much more likeable characters.

you realize dinobot, waspinator, rattrap and silverbolt all had the same voice actor, yeah? scott Mcneil?

Dinobot as number one is an obvious choice. Best transformers character ever.

But five is a number too short. Top ten would have satisfy every body.

in order : Rampage/Depthcharge, Tigatron, Inferno, Cheetor, Rhinox, Waspinator, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Rattrap, Dinobot.

Gingko wrote:Dinobot as number one is an obvious choice. Best transformers character ever.

But five is a number too short. Top ten would have satisfy every body.

in order : Rampage/Depthcharge, Tigatron, Inferno, Cheetor, Rhinox, Waspinator, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Rattrap, Dinobot.

I think 5 is the right number. Once you get into the top 10, you're pulling in half the cast . You'd be debating the merits of Inferno vs. Cheetor rather than some of the best characters in the show.

Pretty much everyone aside from Scorponok and the two monkey kids are good, really.

I can agree with this list. Maybe I'd move 5 but i don't know for who. Everyone is awesome.


Oh, and waspinator and Inferno also kept their original season 1 bodies all the way up to the end.

The only problem with Beasts Wars was it was stopped too early. I always wanted to see what would come from the "Spawn of Unicron" which I believe is what Megatron refereed to Trantulous as at one point. It just seems like they had some many threads that could have been pulled if Hasbro hadn't decided to move on to Beast Machines.

unicron spawn was written to be nothing more than the equivilant of saying son of a bitch. There was no deeper meaning to it originally.

The Joker/Batman dynamic of Rampage/Depth Charge was very important. Gave them both a solid foundation and rivalry, and I always liked Depth Charge cause he just seemed cool. But...

...there's the Transmutate episode. This was the only episode to really explore Rampage's personality outside of his homicidal/bring pain to everything tendencies. He actually cared for something in that episode, we got a glimpse into a spark that maybe has only ever known pain and misery(Project X was a "dirty secret" after all). There's an untold story there that would be fascinating to explore(and I do have an idea for a fanfic to that extent...).

kurthy wrote:Once you get into the top 10, you're pulling in half the cast .

Yes, and it could be funny. And it is already.