Beast Wars 25 Tournament, Match 12 - Round 2, Match 4: Silverbolt vs TM Rattrap

[Outtsyder]

We're now halfway through Round 2 of the Beast Wars 25 Dream Combat Tournament - here are links to the results of Matches 1, 2, and 3 of the round so far. As usual, the poll for this match lasts for three days, and short profiles for each combatant have been provided.
In selecting the winner, decide which one is more likely to force their opponent into submission or surrender, or a knockout for at least a 10-second period. Outright destruction is not necessary, though possible.
Please note: this is to determine who would win a fight between the combatants, not which character is more popular.
The winner of this match will advance to the Quarterfinals (which begins Sunday, March 7). If a draw is reached in this poll, both combatants will be eliminated from the Tournament.


Match 12: Silverbolt vs. Transmetal Rattrap

Silverbolt (Maximal) - Chivalrous white knight, but still a dangerous fighter when provoked or angered. Fuzor transforms into a wolf-eagle hybrid; has strong sensory perceptions of sight, sound and smell for tracking targets, and is a fast and agile flyer in both modes. Armed with wingtip-mounted blade-edged missile launchers in robot mode; missiles can also be used as blade weapons for melee combat. Very courageous, but noble attitude may leave him open to underhanded tactics.
{Defeated Scorponok (75.0%) in Round 1.}

Rattrap (Transmetal) (Maximal) - Slick, sneaky and smart-alecky soldier and spy; sharp sensory perception, stealth and sharpshooting skills. (Please forgive all the S’s.) Transmetal form allows Triple Changing among robot, robotic rat and hot rod modes. Uses detectors (like infra-red) to spot hidden targets, and “hotbox” weapons for anything from demolitions to traps; also has blaster rifle and prehensile blade-tipped tail-whip. Sixth sense keeps him mentally a step ahead of most opponents. Covert skills compensate for small size, but can be outmuscled.
{Received a bye in Round 1.}


This poll concludes this Saturday night (around 9pm ET), followed by Match 13 (Round 2, Match 5) next Sunday, February 21!

[RNSrobot]

Huh. This is a tough one. TM rattrap has additional speed and strength og vermin doesn't. silverbolt is a hell of a warrior with flight.

Rattrap's willingness and talent to fight dirty tips it, for my money.

[evenstaves]

Apologies for my before votes, which were absolutely popularity contest votes
So to correctly address this as a power-level fest:

Did the fuzors have the ability to stay in bot mode without getting "energon locked"? I can't recall if I ever saw them "glitch out 'return to beast mode!' and run away"
TM Rattrap wins this one imo, even not-withstanding the above

[First It Giveth]

Silverbolt has the advantage of flight, but I think TM Ratrap would outsmart or trick his way to victory. Maybe by giving Silverbolt a pat on the back while planting a bomb at the same time. The Rat for the win!

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by evenstaves

Apologies for my before votes, which were absolutely popularity contest votes
So to correctly address this as a power-level fest:

Did the fuzors have the ability to stay in bot mode without getting "energon locked"? I can't recall if I ever saw them "glitch out 'return to beast mode!' and run away"
TM Rattrap wins this one imo, even not-withstanding the above

Iirc, and thus may be off, the blast wave at the end of season 1 fried the majority of the energon on earth. The dangerous levels of radiation that forced them to stay in their insulated beast modes were gone. Hence both fixor and transmetal were fine from that point forward. Beast mode was for faster travel or whatever other advantages they brought, rather than security.

If the radiation was still toxic, the transmetals would have been toast. They no longer had the "flesh" insulation.

Interesting note, then. How much "organic" material did they have? Just a fake flesh? Did they have fluids to support the fake flesh? Tarantulas was known to actually feed on real animals. Was that for funsies, or was he able to convert organic matter into actual fuel for himself? Or maybe it was a cartoon and cartoons don't always have to make sense!

I often think it is like a Terminator scenario. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. Albeit their tissue is made up of nanotech, which is what their protoforms are.

[Outtsyder]

And Rattrap prevails in this Fuzor-versus-Transmetal battle, and advances into the Quarterfinals of the Tournament. And while I have a brief moment:

Originally Posted by RNSrobot

How much "organic" material did they have? Just a fake flesh? Did they have fluids to support the fake flesh? Tarantulas was known to actually feed on real animals. Was that for funsies, or was he able to convert organic matter into actual fuel for himself? Or maybe it was a cartoon and cartoons don't always have to make sense!

I often think it is like a Terminator scenario. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. Albeit their tissue is made up of nanotech, which is what their protoforms are.

From an in-story standpoint, maybe a bit of both. Tarantulas himself said he enjoys the act more than any nourishment - and given that the feeding style of spiders would be viewed as "gross" by most human observers, that fits with the creepiness factor in Tarantulas' character... and suits him just fine.

As for the nourishment part, we did see Rattrap eating an apple core in that same episode, plus there were mentions of him eating garbage. It looks like that point is being addressed in IDW's BW comic; a preview of issue #2 shows Rattrap saying their newly-adapted bodies do allow them to derive fuel from organic matter. I can't say for sure about the body with "synthetic nanotech flesh" (just improvising a term) having "fluids" in the same way that organic biology would have, but I guess a similar idea may be possible.
It'd be curious to see if BW writers Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio had ideas about protoform physiology when putting the series' story together.

Anyway, we've finished half of Round 2 in the Tournament, so watch for Round 2: Match 5 to open tomorrow afternoon!