Nericus

As to that hologram schematic of the Mark 1, I'm not entirely sure that was from memory. Remember he had the three blueprints he showed Yinsen that when put together in the right way shows the Mark 1 blueprints.

Tony may or may not have already been tinkering with the idea of powered armor. But as necessity is the mother of invention he had no great need to build it until he was captured, same with making the mini arc reactor.

True, Primal was a good soldier and slowly became a good leader in BW. Perhaps they simply chose him to dump X somewhere. The writers/editors didn't specify why and after all this time they probably don't remember if they ever had a reason for choosing Primal.

I had also hoped we'd get some more back story about the Great War and Cybertronian culture. All we know for sure is that:

1. The Autobots won, with the aid of the human race.

2. Black Arachnia stated that Shrapnel was a legendary Decepticon from the Great War three centuries ago. So we know that the characters in Beast Wars come from 300 years after the war ended.

3. Predacon Megatron views the Predacon race as a slave race to the Autobots/Maximals. This is an interesting viewpoint that wasn't explored. We see a glimpse of Predacons living in outposts in space in Cybertron's system but that doesn't mean they all lived in them and not on Cybertron.

4. Who survived the Great War? We know Ravage was rebuilt/reprogrammed to be a Predacon and we caught a glimpse of Soundwave during Nightscream's flashback in BM.

5. The Matrix of Leadership was emptied by Optimus to cure the hate plague, was it ever recharged?

6. Who is on the Maximal Council? Autobots? Just Maximals?

7. In Beast Machines, despite Primal's memory errors from Megatron's virus about the Beast Wars, he remembers Cybertron's past and its legends. He mentions the "Great Upgrade" when Cybertron was "mechaformed" to have a new surface and the war torn old surface was covered over, including the former capital city of Iacon. We see a hologram tribute to Optimus Prime there but we don't know Prime's fate. Whatever the hologram said was simply Megatron speaking through it. Also there was a statue of Prime holding a golden disc in each hand that was blasted by the tank drones. Did that statue mean that Prime survived the war? The Great Upgrade was also when apparently the Maximals and Predacons arose but what did that involve?

8. Unicron's head no longer orbits Cybertron and over the years we've had confirmation that Tarantulas is in fact a Unicron Spawn. This would mean that so are the Tripredacus Council since Tarantulas told the Vok that both he and Tripredacus do not originate from Autobot or Decepticon. So what happened to Unicron's head? Destroyed? Cast adrift? (that would be a bad idea). Also being a Unicron spawn would explain how Tarantulas survived repeated events where he took damage that should have caused his spark to terminate.

9. The Vok are a mystery unto themselves.

Many questions and loose ends, maybe we can get a new Beast Wars comic series that addresses these someday.

Sure more power can be a good thing, but his plan for Optimus Prime didn't work due to the Maximals. They were all caged except for Black Arachnia, and Primal was under Megatron's remote control and he was the only one that could have contained Prime's spark again.

Property that Rhodey had "Confiscated" or "stolen" from Tony in IM2. Certain legal issues could be raised about that. I recall no warrants being issued or provided to Tony indicating that they were going to take his armor, just Rhodey stating to him that the senator was getting ready to have tanks driven up to his door and the armor taken. Illegal search and seizure?

Granted there is a hint in IM2 that Tony had allowed Rhodey to get into the workshop and access the armor vault. Nick Fury seemed rather astonished that Rhodey basically walked through Tony's defenses and security and took a suit of armor. Tony didn't comment much on that. Was Tony allowing Rhodey to have a suit due to the fact that he was slowly dying and somehow wanted the Iron Man legacy to continue even if it must be as a military weapon?

If nothing else, I would think Tony would want it back to see the full details of what Hammer did to the armor when he weaponized it. Perhaps he will build a superior version of that armor for Rhodey?

As to the workshop, I'm sure that is Tony's workshop albeit either an unfinished set or a new set.

IM2 showed the Mark 1 to 3 in storage with battle damage still showing on the Mark 3. The Mark 4 was what he wore when he was in alcoholic blackout state against Rhodey, the Mark 5 would be the brief case armor he used against Whiplash at the race track. The Mark 6 has the triangular unibeam lens and was the suit he made after he created the new element for the arc reactor. Mark 7 is what saved him after Loki sent him through the window.

That photo only seems to show battle damage to the Mark 3. Mark 4 wasn't damaged so much as set aside after Tony perfected the arc reactor. The Mark 5/suitcase armor looks to be repaired along with the Mark 6 and 7.

As to the decor, I don't think that is a base where someone is copying the Iron Man armors. I think that it is Tony's personal lab/workshop where he constantly modifies and rebuilds the Iron Man. He's been known for years to keep older suits in storage, some in operational condition in case he needs to suit up in one of them.

I wouldn't mind if they added a quick background shot of the stealth and space armors that he's had.

They are indeed the Mark 1 to 7, though the Mark 2 case looks to have a facsimile or replica in it since that suit became the War Machine.

As to the decor, give the CGI folks some time

Presuming there was anything left after plunging into the arc reactor, I'd hazard a guess that Tony rounded up the pieces along with his Mark 1 armor and had Jarvis scan the Monger suit for later study and then destroyed whatever was left of the Monger armor. Hopefully he also retrieved whatever was left of the mini-arc reactor that Stane stole from him.

The Megatron Spark removal scene was cut I think due to keeping the episode a certain time length. I would think they could have chosen another scene to delete instead as it was rather important to remove G1 Megatron's spark. The writers and editors though did state back then that Megatron's spark was indeed removed before they left Earth as history may well have altered if they hadn't done so.

Also note the stormy weather that seemed to be around the volcano where the Ark was after G1 Megatron's spark was yanked out by Pred Megatron. That weather wasn't due to Tigerhawk as he hadn't arrived yet, but could in fact be a precursor to a time storm. G1 Megatron's spark wasn't supposed to be inside Pred Megatron but as it was not harmed or destroyed then the timestorm was basically on "standby" mode.

Also Predacon Megatron was stupid in the episode where he claimed Megatron's spark. He has access to the Ark again and Primal is under his control once more....so why not destroy Optimus Prime now that none can interfere??

There is a cutscene on the DVD that shows Primal ripping G1 Megatron's spark from Pred Megatron and sticking back into G1 Meg's inert chassis. G1 Meg's right eye glows ominously for a moment then he returns to stasis. Good thing too as I doubt any of them would last long against an awakened G1 Megatron

As to Protoform X, Primal states that it was the "dark secret of Axalon's journey". We then see in flashback as Primal is shaking his head sadly as X is caged and sealed in the stasis pod. "it was an attempt to recreate Starscream's mutant indestructible spark with a Maximal, but it was a mistake to even try." Primal stated how dangerous and ruthless Protoform X was and how he was ordered to find some place far and barren to dump him. Rhinox knew of X as he too recognized the stasis pod description from Cheetor "Primus help us all if that thing survived."

What's funny is that Beast Machines showed us that spark extraction and transfer to new bodies seemed commonplace on Cybertron. If they had simply rigged an extractor and a containment unit they could have simply yanked X's spark from his body and contained it for study and possible destruction rather then have Primal dump the experiment somewhere barren.

Protoform X had leveled Colony Omicron before it was captured and I believe Depthcharge had a large hand in it being captured. He was furious when the Council ordered Primal to banish X. But again comes the question; why Primal? I can understand them not wanting to execute X if that could be done as it goes against Maximal/Autobot code of conduct, but why Primal? Why was he chosen to banish X? It was never answered, which led some fan speculation that Primal may have helped create X and thus this was penance for Primal. Just a theory.

For the unaired episode regarding Rattrap and Dinobot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattrap...t_Wars_episode

Agreed, Primal didn't know much about Starscream's behavior only that his spark was indestructible.

Still, Depthcharge had a serious attitude with Primal and I find it hard to believe it was solely due to the council having Primal dump Protoform X somewhere. Seems like there should be more, but it was also nice to once again have a character that wouldn't always go "Yes sir!" when Primal gave orders.

Come to think of it, I think the actor that played LeBeau is the only one left.

An overreach? Maybe. Other then the Tutorial and maria's old arc in Ouro states is gone.

Just glad my statesman tribute alt posed for screen shots next to him in IP before the "Great Statesman Erasure"

If you run Hero's hero via Ouro you can still get Statesman's pal badge, hero epic now gives positron's pal badge.

Otherwise States is gone, I don't even see him available in the AE

Indeed, few characters need a major explanation of their history.

Though Captain America and Red Skull having come over from the Timely era to Marvel era definitely need some, and so would Phantom (original Ghost Rider) Rider due to all the changes and name being reassigned to Johnny Blaze and Dan Ketch.

Well now, a person can hope can they not?

Hey I hear ya! I should be an eight year vet but instead I am stuck at 6 and am about to be two badges behind. But since fixing them isn't a priority then they need to do something else about this.

Then if they aren't going to be fixed they should be either all activated on all accounts, or just take them all away and replace them with some other badges, or else toss about 9000 paragon points to the long term accounts that will be hit by this.

Suggested replacement badges: perhaps some of the "lost" AE badges that were removed during the great purge? perhaps any missing anniversary badges are awarded to all characters that currently exist in the accounts? Perhaps a set of badges of players choice for all their alts that they submit in a ticket?

example: you are an eight year vet and are going to be stripped of all current vet badges you have plus the ones that didn't get rewarded for a total of 8. Pick 8 badges that all your alts could receive and submit that list. Note: only ONE list per account, so what you pick goes to all alts. Also note that if you want say the Immortal or Empath or Leader badge then you need to have all the other badges of said badge set. Anniversary badges should be able to be chosen as well during this.

or restore some of the lost AE badges, albeit with reasonable requirements, thus people need to use the AE to get them. Farming might spike of course, but AE usage in general should increase and perhaps some older or even newer players may find the AE fun to use thus restoring some lost interest in AE.

Or just yank the vet badges and you get 1000 paragon points per badge taken plus another 1000 points per badge that you should have gotten but didn't.

While I am not a fan of badges being yanked, that may be the simplest solution.

Well as this is basically a new Alan Scott, who knows what the weakness in his ring will be.

Afterall, since this is Earth 2 and a reboot then his links to the GLC and the Guardians shouldn't exist now and since they were the ones that programmed the ring/battery with weakness to wood then that shouldn't exist now.

Of course it will all be moot when DC decides the shock value of this is over and they retcon/revert him or just reboot the DCU again....

The CGI improved as the series went but the first few episodes did look a bit rough even back then, but the story was and still is great. As to turning into animals, to me the Maximals and Predacons were an evolution/combination of Micromasters and Pretender armor tech.

Season 3 could have benefited greatly from a few more episodes as somethings weren't fully explained:

1. The Vok: one writer felt they were the Swarm from the Marvel G2 comic, the other felt they were simply an alien race (I prefer this)

2. the transmetal 2 driver: when did Megatron get it and where? It was apparently Vok technology and where did it go after it healed and upgraded Black Arachnia

3. Tarantulas: he states that he and Tripredacus council are not descended from Autobot or Decepticon and thus would likely be immune to a change in the time stream. One writer felt they were descended from the G2 Decepticons (yuck!) the other felt they were Unicron creations before Unicron's head was taken from Cybertronian orbit and destroyed. Megatron later called Tarantulas a "unicron spawn" and later botcon comics I think have confirmed that Tarantulas is indeed a unicron creation. This would greatly explain how Tarantulas kept regenerating himself from damage that would have surely killed another Transformer.

4. The full powers and abilites of Transmetal 2 Transformers were never explored. Super healing and telekinesis were all we saw....

5. When Depthcharge arrived, Optimus tells him to let it go and that "You were not responsible for what happened to Colony Omicron and neither am I". Protoform X leveled the colony and Depthcharge hunted him down and helped cage him, but the Council decided Optimus should exile Protoform X instead. Still that statement from Optimus makes me wonder....did Optimus Primal have a hand in the creation of Protoform X? It was never stated, but it would be interesting and help explain why Depthcharge wasn't too keen on following Optimus' orders. Though I do laugh when Primal confronts Depthcharge about what happened to Cheetor and Depthcharge gives him attitude until Primal gets mad, slams DC into a wall and tells him to talk or he will extract the data from him one bit at a time. Depthcharge then says "Well since you asked so NICELY......"

6. The plot point of Rattrap finding Dinobot's memory/personality copy in the Axalon computers and then inputting it into TM2 Dinobot should have happened. That rejected script would have shown that Rattrap finally realized Dinobot was indeed his best friend and it would have helped explain TM2 Dinobot awakening after Rampage was blown up.

7. Dragon Megatron contained the spark of the original Megatron until he was finally defeated. Would have been interesting to see just how he was coping with having another maniacally evil spark coexisting with him. The power boost was obvious and was why only Tigerhawk could face him since Tigerhawk was empowered first by the two Vok and then by the merged spark of Tigatron and Air Razor. Had Optimus reclaimed the spark of Optimus Prime before the final fight he likely could have taken Dragon Megatron down.

One of the biggest unexplained plot holes of Beast Machines was just what happened to Megatron after he got loose from the Autobot shuttle and tumbled away in transwarp space. When and where did he emerge?

Yes better BW 2 and Neo then Armada/Energon/Cybertron.....man those were awful.

Rattrap was one of my favorites in Beast Wars. It is too bad that the season 3 script Dark Glass (or was it Glass Darkly?) was rejected. It was supposed to have had Megatron testing what would have become the virus he used in Beast Machines, and Rattrap found out that Dinobot copied his memories and personality into the Axalon computers and managed to capture TM2 Dinobot and put that data into him in an effort to restore his lost friend. I thought it was a nice story that had Rattrap fully realize that despite all their arguing and fighting that Dinobot was his best friend.