Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Needs To Avoid One Bad Airazor Mistake
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts must avoid one bad Airazor mistake to help make the live-action version of her character much better in the upcoming film. Initially voiced by Pauline Newstone, Airazor first made her appearance in the animated TV series from the 1990s called, Beast Wars: Transformers. Her ability to fly—as part of her alternate mode, a peregrine falcon—allowed her to be used primarily for recon and surveillance to help the Maximals in their fight against the Predacons. Airazor was mostly calm but confident with sharp eyes and precise aim, making her a difficult opponent to take on.
In the second half of Beast Wars: Transformers’ first season, Airazor and Tigatron, another Maximal who transformed into a mechanical tiger, frequently teamed up together despite Tigatron’s desire to handle things alone. Later, the two became fond of one another and developed a strong bond after being nearly killed several times. During their last mission to find the remaining missing stasis pods on prehistoric Earth, Airazor and Tigatron were abducted by the Vok whose only goal was to destroy the Transformers and develop Earth towards their own designs. After being shot into space which resulted in their deaths, both Tigatron and Airazor were kept in a stasis form until the end of the Beast Wars. Their dead bodies were fused together in the season finale of Beast Wars: Transformers, and they became the Vok-controlled super warrior known as Tigerhawk. This « upgrade, » however, was strongly disliked by fans of the animated series. It’s important that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts avoids this mistake and corrects Airazor’s character.
Why Airazor’s Tigerhawk Upgrade Was So Disliked
Tigerhawk’s appearance in the first season of Beast Wars was extremely short-lived, being killed off after only three episodes. This alone made it seem as though the character was created more so to support the action scenes in the first season’s finale rather than having any sort of real reasoning behind it. Tigerhawk’s character felt like wasted potential with not much room to grow, and for all the power this « super warrior » was supposed to have, audiences didn’t get to see much of it. Any resemblance to Airazor’s character felt non-existent in Tigerhawk’s design, minus her memories and the falcon-like wings she had previously in Beast Wars: Transformers.
Although Tigerhawk shared the behavior and mannerisms of both Airazor and Tigatron, he seemed to be more of an upgrade for Tigatron than Airazor. His voice was Tigatron-dominant, which seemingly eliminated Airazor entirely from the equation. It would have felt more natural for the character to switch between voices and have a shared personality since they were merged together. Also, the toy version of Tigerhawk looks much more male than female, which again hints at the idea that the show didn’t try to resemble Airazor’s character as much as they did with Tigatron in terms of design. If Airazor and Tigatron’s characters had stayed separate, their relationship—which was developing quite nicely in season one—could have been explored more in the second season, but this didn’t happen.
Will The Autobots Get Any Upgrades In Rise of the Beasts?
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts looks to bring back many iconic Autobots to the big screen. Bumblebee and Optimus Prime return, but it seems as though they’ll continue to follow their original 80s design—a 1970s Classic Chevrolet Camaro and 1987 Freightliner FLA semi-truck—instead of getting an upgrade. Maximals Cheetor, Rhinox, and Optimus Primal make their first live-action appearance, but not much is yet known about their design in the upcoming film. It would be interesting, however, to have them appear more mechanically in live-action than they did in the animation, which depicted them practically like normal animals with voices. Wheeljack comes back as a brown and white 1970s Volkswagen Type 2 bus to fit more of the ’90s time period that the film is set in. Mirage and Arcee do the same in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, coming in as a silver-blue Porsche 964 and a red-white Ducati 916 motorcycle respectively.
