#tf tigatron

[catxbandeetos]

first time drawinf CHEETOR & TIGATRON!! my favorite pussycats of the jungle EVAAA

[blade-liger-4ever]

Beast Wars Thoughts

So, I've been watching the episodes with Tigatron and now Airazor, hoping to get a feel on their characters, Tigatron in particular.

See, for years, the only one of this pairing I had a real connection with was Airazor. Her sheer confidence, humor, and combat prowess made her already magnetic personality even cooler in my mind in my younger years. And as someone whose favorite big cat is the tiger, I was immensely disappointed to learn that Tigatron, the resident/most famous tiger in the franchise, was for all intents and purposes a hippie. In my mind, he should have been this fierce predator cat, someone who could throw down with virtually anyone and walk away unscathed, or with few scars. If Tigatron was gonna have the form of the Emperor of Felines, then he should act like it, in my eyes.

Having gotten all the way to "The Trigger" arc, though, I have learned something:

Tigatron was only truly a hippie in that arc, perhaps even in "Law of the Jungle" as well, though I've yet to see that episode.

Oh yes, the Nature Boy aspect was hinted at in his prior appearances. However, it only really becomes prominent when he starts getting cozy on the killer island the Vok made. Before that?

Tigatron is actually a very adept fighter, infiltrator, and hunter. He can level the playing field when his lowered guard isn't taken advantage of, and is savvy enough at a multitude of professions as to tip the balance in the Maximals' favor when needed.

In short, I misread and misconstrued him greatly.

I still haven't truly clicked with Tigatron. So far, I feel more kinship with Airazor, and am more interested in Wolfang and his story than Tigatron's. Why that is, I don't yet know.

But I know now that I was wrong about Tigatron, and am looking forward to seeing some more of the White Tiger.

[nukeli]

What color should i make SG Tigatron's non-tiger bits?

The tiger is a normal orange tiger with a bit of white, but what colors should his visible metal parts be to go with that? Or his eyes?

(Real prototype colors above. What other color is good to pair with orange?)

Please actually give suggestions, instead of just liking my post which happens every time when i ask for opinions about my SG color schemes.

[monstrosibee]

“Let the trails lead where they may. I will follow...”

literally i have no idea if hes green or blue, so i just went w the show color scheme. also i know he has an arm gun but. i didnt want to draw it

Art Tag | Commission Info | Kofi

[blade-liger-4ever]

Thoughts on Tigatron: How to Improve On An Aimless Character

Within the last little while, I managed to finish watching all of Tigatron and Airazor's major appearances - as well as their last speaking appearance together - in Beast Wars. While Airazor was painfully underutilized to the point of quickly being taken out of action, she nonetheless made up for it with personality, spunk, and competency that meant she often compensated well in the wake of the first single strike per episode that initially took her out of the action.

Unfortunately however, Tigatron didn't have that luxury.

Throughout his appearances, Tigatron is frequently used to simply progress the plot by having him fulfill any role that another character cannot simply due to some external forces preventing him from doing so. And when Tigatron is not progressing the plot, he's used as a painfully ham-fisted sponsor for environmentalism. Neither of these is particularly fair to Big Cat, especially since Airazor, despite her limited screentime, is both more memorable and has managed to carry out her own stories separate from the general Beast Era stories, and even from Tigatron himself in more recent years.

But there are at least three ways in which you could change that.

The Easy Way: Make Tigatron A Female

Now before you get angry or leave, look at the below image.

This is Tigatron's original bio from 1996, and as you can see, there are neither masculine nor feminine pronouns in the bio. For all intents and purposes, Tigatron had no established gender at the time the toy was released. Had the writers chosen to tell the Beast Wars with Tigatron as a female - which, in all honesty, is probably where such a take would work the easiest - then the best way to utilize Tigatron would be to keep the coexistence between rationality and bestial instincts by having the character be female and forge a life in the wild in order to get herself under control. It would also make the moment Tigatron gets snappish with Primal about "solitary hunting" make more sense, as tigresses can be scarily independent.

Additionally, if you chose this easy way to use Tigatron in a universe that more closely follows Beast Wars' path, then your hypothetical female Tigatron could have more obviously impactful interactions with the rest of the cast. Say, for example, you had a female Tigatron, effectively an onna-begueisha/ronin/hermit, butt heads with Dinobot, the resident bushido practitioner/honorable barbarian, then they could inspire growth in each other: Tigatron slowly embracing combat and team bonds as necessary despite wanting to live in isolation, and Dinobot mellowing out and becoming less disdainful of his teammates and even softening up towards some of them. Perhaps, even, you could try a romance between a female Tigatron and Dinobot in such a variation of the story.

This is the first option which, while fun to imagine, does take away from the appeal Tigatron, as he stands, has. Should you reject this easy path, worry not. It's just the beginning.

The Medium Way: Make Tigatron the Moral Center of the Team

Unlike his contemporaries, Tigatron has no set role. Primal is the young exploration captain grappling with leading guerrilla warfare, Rattrap is the demolitionist/tech guy with a "useless beast mode" and the resident detractor of all parties in the show. Dinobot is the warrior struggling to live with scientists, Rhinox the senior officer with talents in many scientific fields, Cheetor the young gun trying to prove himself and experiencing the pitfalls of youth, and Airazor is the scout/air support. Meanwhile, Tigatron just balances out whoever needs their abilities balanced in the episode of the week.

Since Tigatron is more in tune with his emotions, however, you could effectively make him the moral center, or the Heart, of the team he's on.

Imagine a scenario with someone like Transmutate, where characters have a moral dilemma on their hands, but they don't realize it until Tigatron points out the moral wrong they'd be doing by taking a life outside of a combat situation when it's not their right to do so. Or, if you placed him on the Wreckers, then he could be the one keeping them from going overboard in their missions, from needlessly abusing Decepticons/Predacons, or encouraging the more bloodthirsty members into overcoming their battle frenzy and thus not becoming the very thing they are fighting against. While this may be a "boring" role for Tigatron to fill, it's actually an important role to give him, and one that would keep him both relevant without reducing him to a plot device, and aid in character growth for himself and those around him. It would also make his and Airazor's romance all the better and sweeter, as Airazor is an astute observer who will not leave a teammate be when they need help, whether it be emotional or physical. And with such a role as the Heart, Tigatron would need someone to keep an eye on him lest he fall apart from stress.

And now, we come to the final option.

The Hard Way: Make Tigatron a Ranger of Some Kind

If you wish to do neither of the other options with Tigatron, then have him guarding a specific area on the planet he's on. Now, should you choose this option, there must be a vitally important reason for him to guard this place. It could be a forest with deposits of energon scattered around like aquifers, a lost jungle city that holds ancient artifacts hidden behind dangerous booby traps, or a location that houses something from Cybertron he was guarding before planetfall to Earth.

Simply saying he's guarding an area of Maximal territory could be done, but it makes it a little hard to grasp with how the Maximals and Predacons each tend to rely specifically on their base as their settled territory and nothing more. Merely placing Tigatron in the forest because he's a nature boy leaves him open to many of the grievances we are trying to avoid with him, and makes him feel like the least reliable member of the team. However, this could conceivably still be employed, but only if you have him drawn to one particular area from a deep seated "need" to guard something there, and then Tigatron slowly discovers the artifact in question, regains some memories relating to it, and then takes the necessary steps to protect it while bringing in the team in order to keep that device well and truly safe. And again, you could still keep his romance with Airazor, for she would still be inclined to check on him - and perhaps even have similar memories as Tigatron of the artifact that she, too, may have been protecting.

Those are the three ways - at least so far - that you can utilize Tigatron in a way that's more than just the resident hippie who fills out whatever role the plot demands. I hope you enjoyed it, that it got you thinking, and that it opens up more chances for you to use Tigatron in your stories.

I know it's helping me understand him better, as well as appreciate him more than I did ten years ago.

"Maximals, maximize!"