| “ | Is that fear you're feeling, Maximal? Mmm...yes. My spark, it feeds on terror. Let it grow. Let it consume your circuitry. Feel it! Yes, feel it! Feel the fear! | „ |
| ~ Rampage to Silverbolt |
Rampage (known in the past as Protoform X) is a Predacon from Beast Wars: Transformers. He joins the Predacons as it's conscript due to having a portion of his Spark extracted by Megatron, has three forms, one being his robot form, another being his beast form (a king crab), and the last being his tank form. He is the archnemesis of Depth Charge.
He was voiced by the late Campbell Lane, who was the original voice of Dr. X in the 2000s Action Man.
History[]
He is a dangerous mutant created as a Maximal experiment using Starscream's spark as a template to create an immortal transformer. While it worked, Rampage was uncontrollable and violent due to the torture inflicted upon him as part of the process of his creation. He can survive any damage inflicted upon him (except, it seems, raw energon being stabbed directly into his spark). According to himself, he feeds off of the fear of others. He is nemeses with Depth Charge.
Season 2[]
Rampage's first appearance was in the episode "Bad Spark", in which his stasis pod crashed in a swamp and he was believed dead. When the pod was carried away in an energon storm, Tarantulas discovered the hard way that this was not the case, and was promptly dismembered. Rampage proceeded to stalk and terrorize Silverbolt and Blackarachnia until the Maximal team shot him off a cliff. There, as he was recovering from his wounds, Megatron took an energon blade and bisected his spark, keeping half in an energon crystal-lined box which he squeezed in order to keep the dangerous mutant under his command.
Rampage often made snide remarks and questioned Megatron's orders, which (as expected) earned him much pain. On one occasion he discovered a stasis pod containing a disfigured protoform named Transmutate and quickly grew protective of them, feeling a kinship with the powerful yet naive transformer due to their shared pain and perceived status as outcasts. Megatron did not initially approve of Transmutate joining the Predacons, squeezing Rampage's spark for his insolence, but after Rampage continued to protest he agreed to give them one chance to prove their worth. Sadly, as Rampage fought with Silverbolt over Transmutate's allegience, Transmutate flew between their missiles in an attempt to stop the conflict and was destroyed as a result. Rampage mourned them with an anguished cry, and Silverbolt opted to leave him alone instead of finishing the fight.
Season 3[]
Season 3 introduced Rampage's old "playmate" Depth Charge, the security marshal for the colony which Rampage initially broke out of and destroyed, who chased Rampage to Earth by tracking his signal and was promptly trapped there with the rest of the cast. Rampage seemed very pleased about this development. They got in several scuffles over the rest of the series, during which it was revealed that Rampage had specifically sought out and ate several of Depth Charge's friends at some unspecified time during their four-year game of cat and mouse. Depth Charge often shirked other responsibilities in order to go hunt down Rampage.
In their final battle, the two ended up dueling underwater with sticks of raw energon, and Depth Charge eventually disarmed Rampage and pinned him to the seafloor with his blade to his opponent's exposed spark. Rampage struggled for a moment, then released the blade, allowing Depth Charge to stab him and laughing maniacally as the resulting explosion appeared to kill the both of them.
Personality[]
Rampage is generally sadistic and brutal. He takes pleasure in the struggling of his victims, and openly proclaims as such. However, in the episode "Transmutate", he is shown to have a compassionate side towards the title character, viewing them as a fellow "monster". Additionally, as Depth Charge has his spark pinned beneath a pure shard of raw energon, Rampage initially tries to move it away, but quickly changes his demeanor and lets go of the blade, allowing Depth Charge to stab him and destroy them both. When combined with his ability to feel the emotions of others, it suggests that part of the reason he kills is to vicariously experience death, being unable to die himself despite feeling excruciating pain on a regular basis. However, Rampage's extreme power is overshadowed by his overconfidence which explains that he is beaten easily more often than not, yet Depth Charge has proven to be his match.
Rampage hates the Predacons, mostly Megatron, yet he follows his will because of the latter's inextricable leverage over him; the core of his Spark, forcing Rampage to carry out his will at all times or else Megatron would destroy his Spark. Worse still for him is his forced obedience which he has to maintain when Megatron has attached his Spark into Transmetal II Dinobot.
However, despite his overall psychopathic demeanor, Rampage has a sliver of a soft side inside him. He kindly took Transmutate in and looked after it (though Transmutate was extremely powerful, it was hardly sentient and incapable of thinking for itself), and even was emotional when Transmutate died thanks to the efforts of both him and Silverbolt. He mourned for Transmutate so badly that he did not attack the Maximals out of revenge.
Trivia[]
- Many fans have noticed that Rampage gets defeated easily, despite being shown to be extremely powerful in Bad Spark.
- He tends to make extremely silly noises, though the sound editors seemed to like reusing one very specific laugh throughout the run of the series. (It sounds like "huaaa-huhuhoha-haHAA-ha-huuouu-ha" and happens at least 5 different times.)
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 Villains
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Predacons Beast Wars II Beast Wars Neo Blendtrons Vehicons Evil Copies Others | ||