#daniel witwicky

In 2001 they produced "Departure", part one of a multi year saga, each based on the convention toys for that year.

And, perhaps a little late in the day for the darker 90's vibe, they decided to launch it with a double death scene.

So, as we see that Doctor Fujiyama, who built the first Nightbird back in the G1 cartoon, has learned NOTHING, as he has now built a damned army of them (with colours suspiciously similar to a certain team of mutant ninja turtles) and they have ALSO gone rogue.

On the case are Arcee, Wheelie and Daniel Witwicky, older than we've seen him before, but likely still a teenager.

And Wheelie still has his little verbal tick.

Look I know he's never been a fan favourite, perhaps one of the Jar-Jar's of the 80's, but this seems a bit mean... and it's not over yet...

This just seems... SUPER mean.

A bit like the vote to kill Jason Todd, allowing people who didn't like a colourful kid messing up their dark and brooding Batman to vote for his demise, this is a writer showing that their more grown up than the series now is. Daniel in the G1 cartoon was a bit of a goodie two-shoes perhaps, but he didn't deserve to be shown committing suicide because the damned TargetMasters made the battlefield decision to abandon him.

If it's any consolation, imagine the excrutiatingly uncomfortable mission debriefing that is about to take place with Optimus as they admit that they have lost the son of the Ambassador to Earth (Who happens to be one of their oldest, most valued Earth friends). If Bumblebee doesn't kick seven kinds of shit out of them, then Hot Rod will)

Now, depending on how much of G1 this story acknowledges, Daniel spent time as a Headmaster for Arcee's. He had been injured in combat and she supplied life support equipment for him during the the G1 finale "The Rebirth" which introduced the Headmasters.

So they've spent a lot of time in each other's head, and Arcee being hit hard by his death is understandable. But it hits her very, VERY hard.

Some time later, the Great War is over, and her friends are still concerned abut her...

I like the idea that the maximal upgrade program is mentioned...

Awww.... You do have to feel for her...

Centuries later, during Season 2 of Beast Machines continuity wise, and ignoring a metric tonne of overcomplicated time/dimension/continuity hopping and very convenient memory erasures, we have a bunch of recolours of existing moulds... ahem, I mean "Exciting new characters" running around Cybertron for... reasons which are WAY to complicated, but they need to find the long lost Arcee.

Their Hot Rod is now Rodimus, and I like he's still a vehicle and doesn't have a beast mode, that wasn't a requirement of the Maximal project, as we learn in the first episode of Beast Wars (where none of the characters had had beast modes before), and it's only in Beast Machines that we find out that DNA scanners are now built into all Cybertronians since the last general upgrade.

The little green fellow on the left studying the rocks is Fractyl, a spunky little pterosaur (and Terrorsaur recolour), who had been a Botcon 1997 exclusive toy. He's a geochemist from the Beast Wars era who was a great geologist, but not a great warrior, though he's brave and tries hard (Oh no, a brave but ill-equipped non-fighter in a team of fighters... this is pushing a lot of my buttons in terms of characters I glom on to)

Yeah, racey pink car no more, she's now a giant spider (technically a pink and white recolour of Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia... who came with a specially recorded sound chip recorded by Susan Blu, Arcee's original VA... but I digress)

And so they have one last go at convincing her to end her isolation

This is a very jaded Arcee

(Yeah that's "Primal Prime", don't ask)

But as always, there's one one person who doesn't like to leave things at that, in this case Fractyl.

Anyone wanna guess at how well it goes for these two Vehicons?

I mean, they've just killed the first being Arcee has shown even a glimmer of care for in CENTURIES, right in front of her.

And so we find the reason for her isolation, apart from the crippling grief over Daniel, her new Maximal form had lined up with her concerns over death and she would now foresee the imminent death of anyone around (a bit like Clyde Bruckner, if you're an X-Files fan) and she knew she couldn't go through that again.

But now she acts, and soon, in the middle of a very large firefight between... look, you don't need to know trust, just know there are "Autobot/Maximal/Good guys" and "Decepticon/Predacon/Vehicon/Bad guys" a new player enters the game... two in fact...

Arcee has found a reason to fight again, and j and Fractyl has been upgraded to a Transmetal as well (A toy of this was planned, but never materialised)

Daniel Witwicky!