Scorponok (Beast Wars)

Scorponok is Megatron's first lieutenant in season one and one of the least ambitious characters in the series, which in the Predacon ranks makes him unusually useful. Don Brown voices him as a gruff, slightly slow enforcer who follows orders without the political calculation that consumes Terrorsaur and Tarantulas. He is the one who shoots Dinobot in the opening episode on Megatron's instruction, and he never questions it.

His niche is weapons. Scorponok carries the Predacons' heaviest ordnance, a pair of shoulder-mounted cybervenom missiles that can infect and disable a Maximal, and he functions as the faction's artillery and demolitions arm. He is also, quietly, the most reliable Predacon: while Terrorsaur plots and Tarantulas defects, Scorponok simply does the job. The show gets comedy out of this by pairing him with Waspinator, where his gruffness plays against Waspinator's whining, and out of his frequently poor aim.

There is not a great deal more to him than that, and the series knows it. He never gets a spotlight episode of his own in the way Terrorsaur gets "Power Surge" or Inferno gets his colony obsession. He is a foundation piece for the Predacon roster rather than a character with an arc.

He dies with Terrorsaur, off screen, in "Aftermath": the quantum surge hits the Darksyde and the pair fall into the lava pits below. It is a functional exit rather than a dramatic one, clearing two slots for the Fuzors. IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook later declared he survived, which the cartoon does not support.

Scorpion beast mode with a heavily armoured carapace and pincers; carries the Predacons' heaviest weaponry, including shoulder-mounted cybervenom missiles capable of infecting and disabling a target, plus a tail-mounted stinger. He also serves as the faction's demolitions specialist. Limits: slow, no flight, poor marksmanship played for comedy, and no strategic initiative whatsoever.

• Megatron: unquestioning loyalty, the only Predacon in season one not actively plotting against him.
• Terrorsaur: an uneasy peer and occasional co-conspirator, and the character he dies with.
• Waspinator: a comic pairing, gruff enforcer against complaining trooper.

IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook establishes that Scorponok survived the war, in direct contradiction of "Aftermath". Fun Publications convention material also uses him post-war. The cartoon treats his death as final and never revisits it.

Killed in "Aftermath", falling into the lava pits beneath the Darksyde during the quantum surge. Later retconned as a survivor by IDW.

• Voiced by Don Brown, a long-serving Vancouver voice actor from the same casting pool that supplied most of the Beast Wars cast.
• The name is reused from G1's Scorponok, the Decepticon Headmaster city-bot, with no in-fiction relationship between the two.
• His 1996 Deluxe toy carried the first-wave "mutant head" gimmick, a flip-up second face concealed in the beast mode.
• He and Terrorsaur were killed in "Aftermath" largely to free character slots for the Fuzors within Mainframe's limited CGI capacity.
• IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook later stated that Scorponok survived the Beast Wars, contradicting his on-screen death.

Where the cartoon, the Marvel comics and the toy bios disagree, or where a popular claim does not hold up. We record these rather than smoothing them over.

• IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook claims he survived the Beast Wars; the cartoon depicts his death. Neither account has been reconciled with the other.