Beast Wars: Transformers introduced two new factions to Transformers lore: The Maximals, descendants of the Autobots, and the Predacons, descendants of the Decepticons. Both factions have produced some incredibly memorable characters. We’ve already gone through the Maximals, and today we’re going to go through the Predacons. Here is every Predacon from Beast Wars, ranked:
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11 Scorponok
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The show never really knew what to do with Scorponok. He’s the second-in-command… except nobody respects him and Inferno played that role better. He’s supposed to be the tech genius… except Tarantulas and Blackarachnia played that role better. It really wasn’t a huge loss when he dies at the beginning of season two.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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10 Terrorsaur
Terrorsaur was supposed to be the Starscream of the Predacons, but like with Scorponok, other characters filled that role better. Tarantulas did it better; so did Blackarachnia, and so did Waspinator… that one time Starscream’s immortal spark possessed him. Terrorsaur gives up the whole “take over the Predacons” act after Megatron allows him to lead an attack which ends in complete disaster. Like Scorponok, we don’t really miss him when he dies at the beginning of season two. Can you believe the original plan was to kill off Waspinator and spare him? That’s just sacrilege.
9 Quickstrike
Quickstrike was a very trigger-happy Predacon who always wanted to prove he was the toughest person around. Too bad he was far from that. He speaks with a southern drawl and definitely styles himself as some kind of evil cowboy. He’s also dumber than a sack of bricks and has been manipulated twice into betraying Megatron, both times by Tarantulas. Megatron’s opinion of him can best be summed up with the following quote: “When expecting booby traps, always send the boob in first.”
8 Ravage
Ravage was a Decepticon rebuilt as a Predacon. He only appears in the three-part episode, “The Agenda,” where he is initially sent to eliminate Megatron after the Tripedacus Council thinks his actions have gone too far. Despite only appearing in three episodes, Ravage is very competent, and his stealth ship causes a good amount of problems for Maximal and Predacon alike. He’s one of only two Predacons to be killed by a Maximal, meeting his end after Rattrap blows up his ship with him in it.
7 Dinobot II
A literal clone of Dinobot with almost nothing that made the original so interesting. Still, he’s competent and holding half of Rampage’s indestructible spark. An unproduced episode of the show would have seen Rattrap try to upload memories of the original into this new clone, and given the way the series finale plays out, it seems like Rattrap succeeded. Of course, since that episode wasn’t made, it does leave Dinobot II feeling very lacking in development. He’s pretty much just a mindless attack dog for Megatron.
6 Inferno
More so than any other character on the show, Inferno is dominated by his Beast Mode, a fire ant. He refers to Megatron as either “my Queen” or “The Royalty,” with Megatron preferring the latter, and considers the Predacon base his “colony.” He’s also a complete psychopath who would love to burn every Maximal he meets to crisp. Inferno starts out well, being not only powerful, but loyal to Megatron. However, if you start at the top, you have nowhere to go but down. He became more comical as the show went on, but was generally still portrayed as very competent. In all honesty, the list of loyal AND competent Predacons serving Megatron is absurdly small. It’s only Inferno and Dinobot II.
5 Blackarachnia
Intelligent, sexy, dangerous. It’s no surprise her Beast Mode is a black widow spider. She’s got legs… eight of which shoot machine gun fire at her enemies (Tarantulas also can do this), cyber venom, and a few other nasty surprises as well. She’ll eventually defect to the Maximals, but as a Predacon, she’s manipulative, power-hungry, and has on more than one occasion talked Megatron out of scrapping her after a betrayal. She’s got an extensive knowledge of Transformer history and values her independence above all else. No matter how you look at it, Blackarachnia is one dangerous Predacon.
4 Rampage
Rampage is a strong contender for the most tragic character on the show. He was created by the Maximal Elders as part of a misguided attempt to recreate Starscream’s indestructible spark. The good news is the Maximals succeeded. The bad news is they created the Transformer equivalent of Hannibal Lecter in the process. Originally called Protoform X, he was supposed to be dumped on an inhospitable planet by the Maximals. Half of his spark is kept in a cage by Megatron and later put into Dinobot II, but Megatron will torture Rampage with it should the Predacon disobey him. Rampage is absurdly powerful, with a strong healing factor thanks to his spark. He gets a lot happier when Depth Charge is introduced as the two have a personal history. How adorable. All the psychotic, near-unkillable Predacon needed was a friend to play with. Rampage is the second and last Predacon to be killed by Maximal after Depth Charge drives a blade of raw energon through his spark.
3 Waspinator
Much like a certain orange parka-wearing nine-year-old from Colorado, Waspinator spends most of his time getting trashed, bashed, blown up, or suffering some other amusing injury. He’s got a bizarre speech pattern, which the writers found annoying, so they had him get taken out early, so they wouldn’t have to deal with him. However, the writers (and fans) eventually began to love the guy and expressed their admiration for him by… finding new ways to blow him up. Waspinator is well aware of his status as the universe’s chew toy, but we love him for it, anyway. He was voted by the fans into the Transformers Hall of Fame in 2011, where he’s hopefully getting blown up a lot less.
2 Tarantulas
A strong contender for the creepiest villain ever put in a kids’ cartoon, and he’s not even the main bad guy! He’s creepy, he’s got a secret underground lair, he’s enslaved Blackarachnia for a couple episodes, tried to eat Cheetor and other animals just for the pleasure of it, and tried to wipe out every Autobot and Decepticon in history. Megatron wants to kill him, but he can’t. Tarantulas’ technical know-how is too vital an asset to lose. Tarantulas is one of the best schemers in the show and easily the most disturbing character in it as well.
1 Megatron
Grandiose, Machiavellian, powerful. Beast Wars’ Megatron does his namesake proud, yessss. While almost everybody serving under him has tried to betray him, the leader of the Predacons is always two steps ahead. Heck, this is a guy who has actually worked expected betrayals by his minions into his own grandiose plans. He’s got that deep, booming voice that commands a room whenever he speaks; he’s intelligent, and has some of the most ambitious plans of any villain ever put into a Transformers show or movie. That plan? Rewrite history so that the Decepticons triumph over the Autobots. The scary part is how darn close Megatron comes to pulling it off.
