Okay so @maja-cherub made some Beast Machine Rattrap posts, and I've also been wanting to write a proper essay about the episode "The Weak Component" for a while now [and recently was ranting to a mutual about it like a week ago, so it's still fresh in my mind. So yeah, shout out to @j-starchaser for letting me rant about it and also for being the beta reader/editor for this essay], so here we are. Long text post beneath the cut, and of course Beast Machine spoilers-
To begin with, I enjoyed watching Beast Machines, despite the fact that yes, it has its share of flaws. Also, Rattrap is my favorite character in both Beast Wars and Beast Machines, so some bias might come through. But I've watched some YouTube essays talking about the full Beast Machines series, as well as text posts/comments by others that say they feel The Weak Component is the worst or one of the worst episodes of the series because of the way Rattrap acts/the actions he takes throughout the episode. [AKA, he's out of character]. So I just wanted to give my view on that and the episode in general.
For me personally, The Weak Component is one of, if not, my favorite episode of Beast Machines. I've only watched the series from start to finish once, but have gone back to watch that episode somewhere around 5-10 times, including once again to refresh my memory on some dialogue for this analysis. Of course, this is a matter of personal preference, and everyone is entitled to their own likes and dislikes. A large portion of why I like the episode so much is because of the amount of Rattrap screen time and focus. So, there's some of the bias I mentioned haha.
As for the argument that Rattrap is out of character, I both agree and disagree to an extent. Yes, in this episode Rattrap does things that he never did or would have done in Beast Wars. However, this is a situation that never happened in Beast Wars. The events and situations in this episode are not something we've seen Rattrap deal with before, and are clearly shown to be very stressful, as well as mentally and emotionally taxing for him. I'll go through the episode, breaking down the individual stress factors and his reactions to them.
To begin with a base line: Before this episode even takes place, there's already a number of stress-inducing factors at play. The Maximals’ entire situation seems completely hopeless. The little group of Optimus, Cheetor, Blackarachnia, Nightscream, and Rattrap against Megatron, his three vehicon generals, and the entire population of Cybertron (the latter made into mindless drones to obey Megatron). They're in an extremely unfair, dangerous, and practically hopeless fight with the entire fate of their home on their shoulders. On top of that, Rattrap can't transform. In beast mode, he has no real weapons to fight with, and has to make do with what his animal form is capable of. Meanwhile, everyone else can transform and has weapons/powers. We know from both Beast Wars and The Weak Component that protecting his friends is something extremely important to Rattrap. So, to be in such an outnumbered and dangerous predicament, to be unable to fight alongside the other Maximals and help them in the way he wants to, and had been capable of before, is immensely frustrating and upsetting to him. He went so far as to take 'transformation enhancers' to try and force his body into doing what he desperately wanted it to be able to do. Furthermore, they still haven't even figured out what's happened to Rhinox or Silverbolt, and Rhinox especially was clearly important to Rattrap, so him still being missing is likely also weighing on him.
Now, episode 6 happens. Rattrap is out on a mission with Cheetor and Nightscream. They didn't seem to want to bring Rattrap with them to begin with since they thought he was likely to just get in the way. And each time Rattrap tries to help or contribute in some way, he's scolded and told to knock it off. The other two even come up with a plan together that they completely leave Rattrap out of the loop on, and then are angry with him when he interferes under the belief that Cheetor was in danger, which ruins the plan, and gets Cheetor hurt by accident. Worse, after messing up the plan he hadn't been informed of in the first place, he finds out that his transformed mode has no weaponry, so he can't even clean up the unintentional mess.
When returning to the base, Cheetor and Nightscream talk down to Rattrap the whole time, and don't seem to care about his attempts at explaining himself. It had been an important moment to him, as it was the first time he had managed to transform to robot mode at will, and it was because he saw Cheetor in what he perceived as danger. The strong desire he felt to protect those dear to him was the motivation he'd been missing. Before, he'd been selfishly concerned about not transforming for his own wants, but he put that aside and was fully focused on only wanting to save Cheetor.
But neither of the other two really try to understand him, and harshly tell him that he shouldn't have bothered helping, since he made things worse. He's crushed that his friends aren't happy for him being able to transform at last, and aren't appreciative of how his only desire and intention had been to help.
He's then seen talking to the unconscious Optimus about how useless he feels, describing himself as a lemon. Though he doesn't seem angry with Optimus, knowing that there was no intention on his end for things to turn out the way they had, but he still blames him to an extent for being the one to convince them all to let the Oracle upgrade their bodies, only to feel that he's been remade broken and much weaker than he'd been before.
In his talking to himself, he transforms, as if to show what he's been turned into. At that exact moment Cheetor, Nightscream, and Blackarachnia walk in and immediately start snapping at him for potentially giving Megatron the chance to lock on to his signal and track them to their base. Cheetor even goes as far as physically tackling him to the ground and yelling at him. Though this does give Rattrap the chance to realize that he had accidentally downloaded Megatron's vital stats during the mission, and that he is very vulnerable and weakened at the moment. He suggests that now is the time to attack, but is quickly told “no” by Cheetor, who insists that they must remain at the base to protect Optimus until he's recovered.
Then they leave Rattrap, only to go to a different room to talk about him behind his back. He listens in on the conversation, hearing how they all think that he's not contributing anything and needs to be looked after. Nightscream even goes as far as suggesting they 'cut him loose'. Considering the position they're in, with Megatron having an entire army searching for them at all times, and all of them knowing that Rattrap cannot defend himself, this is essentially Nightscream suggesting that they should exile Rattrap and leave him to die. [To which thankfully Cheetor at least has the sense to get angry and reject that idea immediately.] Tired of the treatment he's getting and of being seen as a dead weight to the team, Rattrap leaves to try and resolve the problem by himself.
During this time, he's being subjected to even more new stresses piling on top of each other. Now he's able to transform, only to find out that all his struggles were seemingly for nothing. He thinks he's no more capable of helping than when he was stuck as a rat. All of his friends are treating him awfully and being completely unsupportive of the issues he's going through. They’re talking behind his back, have no faith in him, and one of them is even advocating for kicking him out entirely.
Rattrap then comes up with a plan to solve the issue himself. He goes to Megatron with a deal: give me weapons and in exchange, I'll protect you until morning while you recover. When Megatron then points out that he can just kill Rattrap while he's there alone, Rattrap counters that he will just send a distress signal to the other Maximals. But Megatron calls the bluff, and says he knows he wouldn't have come to him if he had anywhere else to turn to, and Rattrap does genuinely feel that way. He doesn't feel that he can rely on the other Maximals to help him, and has no choice but to turn to Megatron instead. He is so disillusioned with the other Maximals, that he throws away the device that would have sent the distress signal, believing that it won't be of any use to him. He feels so uncared for that he doesn't think the others would bother coming to help him if he called.
And Megatron tries to take advantage of this, by offering Rattrap to work with him instead, as a vehicon. Of course, Rattrap declines, but Megatron pushes it. He gives Rattrap a powerful weapon suit, and tells him how he would make such a good ally on his side, while the Maximals clearly don't want him anymore.
Rattrap had no intention of betraying the Maximals with this deal. He only said that he'd protect him because he was certain that no one was going to leave the base anyway. Rattrap was promising to protect Megatron from a threat he knew wasn't coming, certain that he wouldn't have to fight the others.
However, Megatron's blatant emotional manipulation does seem to cause Rattrap even more doubts. He's successfully calling out all of Rattrap's insecurities, telling him all of the things he knows he’s already thinking in his vulnerable state. He tells him how the other Maximals don't care or appreciate him, or how Optimus has fed him nothing but lies and false promises of power that he could never deliver on when he convinced them to have their bodies reformatted.
Then things only spiral further out of control when Cheetor, Nightscream, and Blackarachnia show up under the belief Megatron is holding Rattrap against his will and he needs saving. Rattrap is clearly upset and anxious about them being there, as he's now placed into a horrible lose/lose situation.
He can break his deal with Megatron, and they will be attacked and not permitted to leave unharmed. They are in Megatron's headquarters, without a plan, and without Optimus. They can be easily overrun by vehicons if they try to fight there. And if they just try to run, Rattrap would be forfeiting the weapon suit, and would be going back to just being a dead weight again who can't contribute and needs constant protection.
Or if he keeps his word and protects Megatron, especially with him guilt tripping Rattrap that it's morally wrong to attack an injured and defenseless opponent, Rattrap will be betraying his friends. Even if he tries to explain his reasoning afterwards, there's a good chance they'll exile him anyways and won’t give him any chance to explain himself.
Then the Maximals also start accusing him of being a traitor, saying how they never should have trusted him, and that he's sold them out for weapons. He doesn't want to openly admit in front of Megatron that the deal had been intended as a scam, and tries to subtly tell them that they need to leave.
But Nightscream disregards everything, and tries to attack Megatron anyways. Rattrap has no time to think of what to do, so in his panic and confusion, he fires at Nightscream. This only escalates the situation, with the Maximals attacking him more, and him defending himself as well as trying to drive them away. Rattrap is also clearly reaching his mental breaking point. He starts accusing them back of never believing in him, that Nightscream advocated for cutting him loose, how they were now the ones ruining his plan. But despite how angry and hurt he is, after all of the things that had been said, he gives them a heartbroken look and pleads 'don't make me do this'. After all, he still does see them as his friends, or at least he really wants to believe that they are still friends. He desperately wants them to trust his word and walk away so he wouldn’t have to hurt them.
They ignore his warning though, and Cheetor attacks him again, further proving their lack of trust and faith. Megatron uses this as an opportunity to continue pointing out how they hate and pity Rattrap, how they don't want him around anymore and how Optimus lied to him. He also repeats how, unlike Optimus, he himself has delivered the power that he had promised to Rattrap, manipulating him into trying to think that he can only trust and rely on Megatron now. And it almost works, until Optimus arrives and finally shows Rattrap real support and faith, shaming the others for their lack of belief in their friend. Unfortunately, none of them can be bothered to apologize for their treatment of Rattrap. [I’d like to hope that they apologized off screen, but it would have been nice to actually see it.]
The Weak Component is an episode about Rattrap going through severe self esteem issues, only to receive no support from his supposed friends, and then being pushed into a rapid downward spiral by the compounding stress and pain until he's forced into a corner and reaches his breaking point.
One can argue that he's out of character, sure. I can understand why some people might view it that way. But as I stated at the beginning, we don't see Rattrap go through any of these issues in Beast Wars. He doesn't go through a long period of feeling useless to the team, he doesn't lose faith in his friends, he never feels the need to make a deal with Megatron. The closest we get is the episode where he pretends to be a traitor and to become a Predacon, but he and Optimus were both in on it. They had to make it believable to the others to ensure it worked, and Rattrap knew Optimus had his back to explain things afterwards. He never had to actually hurt his friends for any reason.
The argument I do most agree with is that Rattrap could have just killed Megatron the instant he got the mech suit. He could have solved things then, sure, but by that point Megatron was already actively manipulating him and guilt tripping him with the whole 'you can't kill me while I'm too weak to defend myself' thing. Sure, maybe Beast Wars Rattrap would have just shot him anyways, but there's still the manipulation to account for, and possibly the fear that the rest of Megatron's vehicons would have shown up and overwhelmed him while he was there alone. And of course Megatron also convinced him that calling his friends would be useless.
And even if he can be considered out of character in this episode, sometimes stress does that to people. I can personally attest that I'm usually a very calm, reasonable person, and I have a very long fuse. I don't get angered easily by things, and even if I do get angry, I can keep myself from snapping at people. But when I get stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed, I have less control over my temper, and might get upset or angry over seemingly small things because it was just the final straw. I think that's the case for most people; everyone has their mental limits. In Rattrap's case, he has a bunch of highly stressful and hurtful things happening to him, and he finally lashes out. Honestly with the temper he's been shown to have at times, I'm surprised it took so long for him to lash out verbally.
The same argument can be made aboutCheetor. That his treatment of Rattrap was out of character, especially after everything they had been through together. But Cheetor was also acting out of stress because of the situation as a whole and the additional pressure of leadership while Optimus was out of commission.
To conclude this whole thing, I'd just like to say that yes, I enjoy the episode and think there are valid reasons behind the choices Rattrap makes, and that it actually fits his character if you take everything he's going through into consideration. It’s very difficult for him to think clearly, or make the choices he would have made under normal circumstances. I also really enjoy episodes/arcs that force my favorite fictional guys into brand new situations that push them to their limits and even to their breaking point. I don't think his arc was resolved in the greatest fashion though, considering no one apologizes at the end of the episode, no one brings up the things that were said to each other. And, as far as I remember, Rattrap never shows any further struggles adjusting to his new body or role. Optimus just gives him a pep talk at the end of the episode and all his grievances, self esteem issues, etc. are all just solved I guess. There's things that definitely could be done better and I would have done differently personally, but I still like the episode for what it is.
[Also side note! I just also wanted to say that I love the visual direction of the episode with the intense red and black color scheme throughout the whole confrontation scene. You'll see more of my appreciation for it below. And also Scott McNeil's voice acting for the episode is so good! Rattrap is often treated as a comedic character, so I really appreciate the darker tone of Beast Machines. Rattrap gets some very serious and emotional line delivery, especially in this episode. When he said the lines "I ain't nobody’s charity case" and "I ain't afraid of nothing", I got goosebumps. It’s really emotional, and his anger and pain really hit you. Scott's performance really enhances the whole episode for me.]
So yeah, I've been wanting to break this whole thing down for a while because Rattrap has been consuming my brain for months, and I also think about The Weak Component a lot. So much so I started an animatic like 5 months or so ago about the episode [though completely contrary to my point that Rattrap never wanted to hurt or betray them, it's an au of what if he joined Megatron's side], so I'm hoping finally getting to talk about this more will be the motivation I need to finish it. Anyways, here's a couple frames I had on hand that are part of it, and I also posted a short video a while back showing a run animation for it. So yeah, enjoy these in the meantime until I can make myself finish the full video. ^-^
