Tarantulas

Transmetal Tarantulas.

Transmetal Tarantulas in beast mode.

Transmetal Tarantulas in vehicle mode.

Tarantulas is a male animated character who features in Transformers: Beast Wars.

Biography

Beast Wars

Tarantulas was the "mad scientist" of the Predacons, he was actually a mole planted by the Tripredacus Council, in the hopes of subverting Megatron's plans. However, upon his arrival on prehistoric Earth, Tarantulas began to follow his own agenda. He designed a variety of advanced weapons and technology for Megatron, as well as the shell program that enabled Maximal protoforms to be reprogrammed into Predacons. Using it, he was responsible for the creation of Blackarachnia and Inferno. However, despite his seeming loyalty, he still pursued his own goals. He built an independent lab away from the Predacon ship, the Darkside- however, this was later destroyed.

Tarantulas was one of the original members of Megatron's Darksyde crew who stole the Golden Disk artifact from the Cybertron archives. A recurring gag throughout the series is his tendency to get squashed by something, usually a boulder. He has been known to attack enemies both physically and psychologically. He is often considered one of the most sadistic and treacherous members of the Predacons, a mad scientist in his own right. He was the one who infected Blackarachnia and Inferno with Predacon shell programs (and once Rhinox as well). In the case of Blackarachnia, he reprogrammed her from a Maximal Protoform with the full intention of her being his mate and partner. He later developed an obsession with the "She-spider" (as he often called her), because of how much she rivaled him in skills. However, when he was consistently betrayed and rivaled by Blackarachnia, he then took to calling her "Witch". Another attempt to create a spider Predacon failed because the pod had already scanned a fire ant, which resulted in Inferno.

Megatron often relied on Tarantulas because of his technological and strategic brilliance. However, he was always suspicious of his intentions and aspirations as well as his somewhat psychotic nature (he made comments about Tarantulas' "treachery" long before he ever found about his agenda). He was well known for his frequent maniacal laughter. Megatron would eventually discover Tarantulas' role but, much to Tarantulas' amusement, could not afford to kill him as he still had need of his talents.

During the events leading to the quantum surge, Tarantulas attempted to leave the planet using a transwarp cell and a modified stasis pod. Blackarachnia assisted him (with plans of betraying him and taking the ship for herself), but before he could finish, he was taken down by Inferno. When Blackarachnia tried to download his data tracks using a cyberlink, so as to gain the knowledge she needed to finish the job, Tarantulas' mind entered her body. The two shared that form until after the surge had passed. He was subsequently restored to his body, which had been transformed into a Transmetal, but maintained a virtual cyberlink to Blackarachnia, allowing him to monitor and influence her actions.

When Tarantulas took himself, Blackarachnia, and Quickstrike to operate on their own in a secret base, the distaff Predacon used the energies of a cube of Energon to force him to break the link. He was enraged, but Maximals Silverbolt and Rattrap attacked and seemingly destroyed the hideout before he could do anything. He told Megatron that the station he'd purported to be building was destroyed, but in reality he'd made it his new lair.

Tarantulas seceded from the other Predacons after that point, though he did aid them in a few campaigns that coincided with his goals. Tarantulas made one final significant attempt at insurrection- when Megatron attempted to increase his power by integrating the original Megatron's spark into his own, he had Quickstrike dunk him in lava. However, this did not destroy Megatron- instead, he arose as a powerful dragon, and severely damaged Tarantulas before leaving.

He retreated to his lair, and when the mighty alien amalgam, Tigerhawk, arrived, he captured it and planned to use it to destroy the Ark. Before he could do this, Tigerhawk's creators, the Vok, destroyed him. His last legacy was an attempt to reconstruct the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis.

Transformers Universe

It was revealed that Tarantulas' destruction was an elaborate ruse engineered by himself, in order to absorb the Vok who possessed Tigerhawk into himself. With the power of the Vok at his command Tarantulas now planned to destroy the rest of the Vok and refashion the timeline to his own desire. Reviving Ravage and adding Razorclaw, Spittor and Iguanus to his ranks, he sought to complete the task he had begun. However, he met opposition in the Vok's new avatar, Primal Prime, as well as with the returned Tigatron and Airazor.

Overview

Powers and abilities

Tarantulas' original beast mode was that of a spider- his Transmetal body could transform into a mechanical spider or a motorcycle-like vehicle.

Notes

• Tarantulas was created by Hasbro, Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward where he was voiced by actor Alec Willows and featured in the setting of the Beast Wars: Transformers universe.
• Writer Bob Forward has claimed that this was in fact meant to show that Tarantulas was descended from Unicron himself.

In other media

Television

• In Transformers: Earthspark, Tarantulas appeared in the setting of the animated television series in the episode "Missed Collection" where he was voiced by actor Alfie Allen. This version was a Decepticon who came to live in the time of the Great War. After the war, Tarantulas set up shop underneath the old Witwicky cemetery, guarded by a hologram guard that told any intruders to leave. When Nightshade showed up one day, he was ready to fight the young bot, but stopped when he realized Nightshade was an unaffiliated protoform, and told them to just leave. Unexpectedly, Nightshade offered to help the scientist in his endeavors: to create a solid hologram avatar that Tarantulas could use to start a new life among humans. Tarantulas bonded with his assistant, and even offered them some important life advice regarding alt-modes. Once the avatar projector was completed, however, Nightshade decided they wanted to go back to their family. Tarantulas, not understanding how close Nightshade was to their family, offered them the chance to go with him and start anew as he believed the peace would never. When Nightshade refused, Tarantulas decided to take matters into his own feelers. Tarantulas attacked the Malto household, and abducted Nightshade's adoptive parents Dot and Alex. He planned to use a G.H.O.S.T.-created device to erase their memories of Nightshade, so the young bot would be free to accompany him, insisting that Nightshade would thank him one day. Unfortunately for him, Bumblebee arrived with Nightshade's Terran siblings to rescue Dot and Alex. A battle ensued, ending when Nightshade scanned a nearby statue of an owl and used their new alt-mode to defeat the scientist. Bumblebee was about to arrest the spider-bot, but Nightshade convinced him to give Tarantulas a second chance. By this point, G.H.O.S.T. was closing in on the bots, so Tarantulas apologized for the misunderstanding and offered to use himself as a decoy so the Maltos could escape, leaving his projector behind as he led their pursuers away.

Appearances

• Beast Wars: Transformers:

External Links

• TF Wiki Entry

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