With Depth Charge and Rampage destroyed, the Nemesis raises uncontested. Armed with the Decepticon warship, Megatron begins an attack on existence itself. The final battle of the Beast Wars has reached its climax, as Optimus and Megatron face off one last time, with the fate of all on the line.
Tropes featured:
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Dinobot II making his Heel–Face Turn at the last minute proves instrumental in assuring the Maximals' victory at the end.
- A God Am I: Megatron dives right into this once he has the Nemesis, proclaiming that his godhood is imminent and that all of time and space are his to control.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Nemesis has a collection of drills and rotating blades that can reduce mountain rock to pebbles.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Even Dinobot II's amused by a fed-up Optimus punching Megatron rather than going into a heroic speech.
- And This Is for...: As Rhinox pilots the shuttle towards the Nemesis:"For everything that ever was..."
- Armor-Piercing Response: One that sends Megatron into a rage.Megatron: What possible reason do you have to disobey me?! I am your MASTER! I am your CREATOR!
Dinobot II: [beat] And I have my honor. - The Atoner: Since he served Megatron, Dinobot II (now with the personality of the original) chooses to stay behind on the Nemesis as it crashes.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- The main fusion cannon on the Nemesis. It's powerful enough to destroy Vok technology but needs to be at 100% charge to fire.
- The coning tower as well. Sure it gives a great view but it's also a big target for enemies.
- Badass Boast: Megatron gets one during the climax."I am alpha and omega, Optimal Optimus. Now and forever, until the end of time!"
- Beam-O-War: Tigerhawk vs the Nemesis' fusion cannon. The Nemesis wins.
- Berserk Button: Megatron had to put up with the original Dinobot's code of honor between his roles of Predacon and Maximal. The last thing he wants to hear during his Power High is Dinobot II uttering the "H-word", which is "honor".
- Big "NO!": Optimus after Tigerhawk sacrifices himself to distract the Nemesis.
- Big "WHAT?!": Megatron when Dinobot II refuses his orders.
- BFG: The fusion cannon aboard the Nemesis.
- Character Development: With Rampage's death, Dinobot II starts to be influenced by memories of the original Dinobot, which causes a gradual change in him throughout the episode. He expresses increasingly more respect and admiration for his Maximal enemies, and contempt for Megatron. It comes to a head when he sends a transmission to the Maximals revealing the location of a shuttle onboard the Ark just to give them a sporting chance, and then refuses to fire the Fusion Cannon on Megatron's orders, finally completing his Heel–Face Turn.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dinobot II remembers his final stand in his past life when above the caveman settlement.
- The tractor beam of the Nemesis exposes the rear hull and boosters of the Ark. Which still begs the question of how no one noticed the Ark jutting out of the mountain for four million years.
- The Nemesis flies over the horizon before it crashes, presumably to wind up in South America.
- Creepy Souvenir: Rattrap reveals he's been keeping a collection of parts blown off Predacons throughout the war. Unsurprisingly, he puportedly has quite a lot of pieces of Waspinator.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Optimus still isn't a match for two Megatrons in one body. "...But the hero would not prevail" indeed.
- Dark Horse Victory: Ahh, Waspinator happy at last!
- Deleted Scene: Two of them. One where Optimus rips out the Transwarp cell that Tarantulas installed on the Nemesis and the second where he restores the original Megatron's Spark back to his body.
- Despair Event Horizon: As usual, Rattrap proclaims they're all going to die. Rhinox's response? "Yup".
- Determinator:Megatron: [quoting the Covenant of Primus] "And there came a hero who said, 'Hurt not the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, nor the very fabric of time.' But the hero would not prevail."
Optimus: Finish the quote, Megatron. "Nor would he surrender!" - Didn't Think This Through:
- The Maximal's plan of Operation: Eternity. If the situation is dire enough, they'll move the Ark and its passengers out of harm's way to preserve the timeline or in this case, use it to fight the Nemesis. Shame they never thought to see if the Ark had enough power to fly or if it was mechanically able to do so following its violent crash.
- Megatron's whole plan really. If he destroyed the Ark (something he was livid about Tarantulas doing before), he'd have been wiped out due to destroying the Decepticons as well. note
- Returning to Cybertron with Megatron strapped to the outside of the ship. Sure it's humilating for him, but it makes it really hard to keep your prisoner secure. If he gets loose mid flight, there's not going to be a whole lot anyone can do about it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Waspinator gets to be worshipped as a god by the protohumans. He even lampshades it with "Waspinator happy at last". Too bad it doesn't last.
- End-of-Series Awareness: Sequel Series notwithstanding, there's this line.Megatron: [quoting the Covenant of Primus] And the stone of their protection shall rise upward forever and ever, as they who live and war as beast confront their final cycle!
- Epic Fail: Megatron's decision to use the Nemesis' Wave-Motion Gun on a single caveman. The weapon takes so long to recharge that he doesn't get the chance to destroy the Ark properly, he blows up his own troops, and doesn't even kill the caveman!
- Evil Is Petty: In Megatron's own words: "No score too small to settle", said when he unleashes the full power of a Decepticon warship on one caveman.
- Failed a Spot Check: Megatron's so consumed with his megalomania that it doesn't register with him that with Rampage's Spark destroyed, Dinobot II's now begins acting less like a loyal servant and more like the clone's deceased progenitor. It's especially egregious after the "H-word" incident — something Dinobot II would never say. Megatron completely misses the forest for the trees and it costs him the Beast Wars.
- Flashback: When Dinobot II finds something familiar about the protohuman leader, he suddenly recalls the original Dinobot observing the attack on the valley and hearing Optimus's last words to him.
- Godzilla Threshold: Operation Eternity. It was a top secret plan known only by Optimus and Rhinox that involved moving the Ark. It's clearly a desperate plan that can only be executed when there are no other options left to defend it.
- Grand Finale: The series ends here, only to be succeeded by Beast Machines.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Tigerhawk offers to stay behind and distract the Nemesis.
- Heroic Vow: After learning Tigerhawk has died, an enraged Optimus does this.Optimus: This ends here, Megatron! No more good friends will be sacrificed to your insane ambition! I swear it! No more!
- Honor Before Reason: Dinobot II sends schematics to the Maximals to give them a fighting chance as he finds the victory to be "a coward's victory" otherwise.
- Hope Spot: In the Beam-O-War, there are a couple moments where Tigerhawk is able to push back against the fusion cannon, but he is quickly overwhelmed.
- Irony: The Nemesis was raised from the ocean and wound up crashing into a mountain range in South America (as seen in The Transformers). Its sister ship from that series, the Victory, would be launched from a mountain range before crashing into the ocean.
- It Has Been an Honor: When Rhinox takes off in the shuttle, Silverbolt salutes him.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: After the first attempt to start up the Ark fails, Cheetor lampshades how it's now very quiet. Neither he nor Rattrap like what that means, and they're quickly proven right.
- Killed Off for Real: Tigerhawk, Inferno, Quickstrike and Dinobot II are definitely scrapped.
- Lampshade Hanging: After a whole season where everyone but Primal pronounces the name of the Ark's computer as "Tele-tron", Rattrap points out. "It's Tele-tran".
- Macross Missile Massacre: To fight Optimus and Tigerhawk, Megatron releases a swarm of missiles from the Nemesis.
- Mythology Gag: Optimus paraphrases his predecessor when he says that the Beast Wars has to stop "At any cost".
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Whoever had the bright idea to tie Megatron on the outside of the shuttle really didn't do Cybertron any favors.
- Near-Villain Victory: Megatron was mere inches away from total victory and would have definitively won had Dinobot II not betrayed him at the last minute.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had Megatron not opened fire on the caveman settlement, the Nemesis would have had the power to destroy the Ark without needing to recharge. Not only did the blast fail to kill the caveman (who hid in a rock formation) it killed Inferno and Quickstrike.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Quickstrike panics when the Nemesis is about to fire on the valley.
- Cheetor's jaw drops when he hears the rumbling of the Nemesis' engines above Mount St. Hillary.
- Optimus realizes the danger when he realizes Megatron is using the Nemesis' tractor beam.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the Maximals realize they can't move the Ark, Rattrap says his catch phrase "We're all gonna die". This time, however, nobody disagrees with him.
- Operation: [Blank]: Operation: Eternity, Optimus and Rhinox's plan to move the Ark in the event of a truly severe situation like this. Alas, there's not enough time or power to actually do so.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In the face of Megatron being pissed about "the h-word" being spoken, Dinobot II covers by saying he just wanted to conserve resources for a more important matter.
- Punch a Wall: In his anger over learning that Tigerhawk had been terminated, Optimus slams his fists on the door the Maximal's gate. As he's declaring his intent to stop Megatron afterwards, Rattrap is seen opening the gate behind him.Rattrap: uh, you knock?
- Rage Breaking Point: The death of Tigerhawk is the last straw for Optimus, who declares he won't let any more of his friends perish due to Megatron's insane ambitions.
- Ramming Always Works: Rhinox rams the Autobot shuttle right through the coning tower of the Nemesis taking the ship down.
- Revenge Before Reason: Megatron firing on the protohuman settlement is senseless, as Dinobot II points out. He just had to settle the smallest possible score in the most overdone way.
- Save the Villain: Optimus tries this with Dinobot II, whose final acts lived up to his fallen friend's heroic legacy.
- Senseless Sacrifice: A subversion. When the Nemesis survived the energon explosion that destroyed Depth Charge and Rampage, it looked as if Depth Charge's efforts in the last episode were in vain. However, by destroying Rampage, Dinobot II's spark was made whole, resulting in him becoming a Spanner in the Works that helps the Maximals stop Megatron.
- Shout-Out:
- Megatron's quotations from the Covenant of Primus are from the The Bible and Pulp Fiction.
- The protohuman celebration looks very similar to the ending of Return of the Jedi.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!:Megatron: Oh well, come on, let's have it. The usual "destiny and honor" speech.
Optimus: Speech this! [POW] - Something We Forgot: The remaining Maximals depart the planet with Megatron in custody, but one last scene shows us Waspinator living amongst the protohumans.
- Stable Time Loop: Blackarchnia notes that the history tracks never mentioned the Autobot shuttle. As Rhinox notes, history is still being made and the shuttle won't be around in 1984 because the Maximals are going to use it.
- Similarly, the time loop also explains how the Nemesis ends up being found in South America in "Microbots" (and despite having crashed in Earth's oceans last time). It was always supposed to end up in South America thanks to Predacon Megatron's final attack.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Valiant as their defense of the valley was, the Protohumans are outmatched by Inferno and Quickstrike.
- Takes One to Kill One: The Maximals eventually decide to use the Ark to fight the Nemesis. See Didn't Think This Through above.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Yes, even by the standards of a Decepticon capital ship the Nemesis is serious overkill in the amount of weapons it has. And Megatron aims it at a single protohuman as an act of spite.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Quickstrike's final line, as he sees the Nemesis fusion cannon about to fire.
- To Absent Friends: Before the shuttle enters Transwarp, Optimus asks that everyone remember all those who perished in the Beast Wars in the name of preserving the past, present and future.
- Tractor Beam: The Nemesis has a monumentally powerful one that lifts rubble from a mountain.
- [Verb] This!: "Speech this!" (POW!)
- Villain Respect: While watching Tigerhawk holding the line, Dinobot II compliments his bravery.
- The Worf Effect: As a show of how powerful the Nemesis was, its laser cannon was able to annihilate Tigerhawk, who was shown to be the strongest Transformer out of the entire cast.
