#but..yeah

LOOK, THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT IN ALL OF BEAST WARS.

It’s Rattrap, who despite his skittery personality and...occasional regression to his Season One model...

...is a grizzled veteran of demolitions. He’s a miner, but like pretty much everyone on Cybertron, he’s seen war. He’s been a soldier, he knows what loyalty is, he’s devoted to a cause, and he’s always disliked Dinobot because that dude is a traitor and is constantly trying to take over.

Rattrap complains all the time, but he’s always aware of his position and his role: he’s here to serve the Boss. He doesn’t actually want to lead, and because Dinobot’s full of that sinister Predacon ambition, Rattrap knows he’ll never look up to him. Despite this lack of respect, though, he has a fondness for Dinobot because he knows he’s Not Someone to Respect. He says it earlier in the episode: “He’s a slag-spitting saurian, but at least you know where he stands.”

So of course, when Dinobot defected a week earlier, Rattrap took that incredibly personally and lost all of his respect for the guy: because not only is this dude a contemptuous warrior with ambitions and resentment for the chain of command, but he also might be a coward.

So when that dude lays down his life and shows his true self to Rattrap, the old soldier is the first to salute.

Something's terrorized my psyche to get even Lately you're the only human I believe in I tried to understand his logic But there's just no pattern there No sympathetic voices anywhere There's blood in my hair

but it’s impossible to ignore the inherent heaviness behind it.

stephen lost all his family. it wasn’t all at once, which--while always tragic--is a lot different than having your family picked off, one by one, and living and dreading when it’ll happen again and how it inexorably proved him right every time when it did happen, again. and again. and again.