Scorponok - More than Meets the Eye

Xrerx · Unread post by **Xrerx** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:40 am

Like so many people in real life, Scorponok's intelligence is judged upon his social interaction and communication skills... which tends to be awkward and brief, sometimes non-existent. He's not second-in-command for being a smooth talker, nor for his supposed stupidity. In fact, his intelligence is, if anything, subtle, in stark contrast to the in-your-face personalities of the other Predacons.

Scorponok is an efficient and excellent soldier. I would say he's certainly in the top three for 'most successful battle strategies' for season one on the Predacon side. I'd have to carefully re-watch all the maneuvers throughout that season again to be more precise with the ranking, but he's certainly dealt many a powerful – and precise - blow to the Maximals, sometimes on his own. His courage is unflinching, though he has lost his cool at times (who hasn't?).

Scorponok's loyalty does not seem blind to me. Rather, it seems intelligent. Why be yet another petty schemer that seeks to rule the Preds, when Megatron does a fairly good job as it is? Why get punished and abused at the hands of the 'brains of the outfit'? Scorponok is in control of his ego; he is able to be content, and yet still remain undoubtedly Predacon. I daresay Terrorsaur's constant attempts at ousting Megatron are more stupid than cunning, in comparison.

Scorponok provides a vast wealth of intelligence–gathering too: that's multiple definitions of the word backing him up. His fast, not-too-obvious 'Cyber-bees' provide up-to-date information on maximal activity when ever Megatron so pleases. Even when they are trashed, the relevant data is recorded in real-time, so nothing is lost. His bees can even be modified to deliver disabling computer viruses, though Scorponok has done so with his missiles too.

Only Scorponok's social skills are lacking, especially his ability to express himself and communicate. He has evidently been a soldier/thug 'no-nonsense-man' a long time, because he certainly knows how to fluently express orders at least. Given the intense, battle-driven circumstances of the show, this is what ultimately matters most.

The end result is a perhaps-too-subtle, personality-lacking character, which unsurprisingly becomes unpopular. Still, there is a lot more to this guy than meets the eye.

Alak · Unread post by **Alak** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:20 pm

Nice post, it's nice to finally see a good argument for Scorponok. One problem I have with it is that he's more of a war machine than an actual sentient transformer. It fulfills his role as a Predacon because every hero needs a tough henchman to fight, but when Season 2 introduced Quickstrike and Rampage, we realized that you can be an effective Predacon and have a catchy personality at the same time.

Xrerx · Unread post by **Xrerx** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:31 am

I've done my best to make it clear that he is definitely sentient. It's not a matter of awareness or intelligence: Scorponok is socially awkward, and very much keeps his thoughts to himself, and comes across as a numb-skull due to his subdued, boring military discussions with other characters. Not to mention a comparatively simple vocabulary.

In terms of his appeal to an audience, he is lacking. In terms of his ability as a soldier, he's good. I'd rather have a socially inept, tactically experienced marine on the battlefield with me, than the vice-versa.

There are certainly effective AND catchy/interesting Predacons out there, this is true. To be honest, I'd say several in season 1 have both qualities too. Scorponok lacks 'interesting'-ness, no doubt. Such is his fan-base downfall, and his realistic-soldier glory.

Unread post by **Nurann** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:46 pm

Xerx, I saw someone else mention the fanclubs to you. The fanclubs are pretty much just pages on the main site with some fan material about the characters, along with a nice banner the members can use (like my Optimus one in my signature). If another 3 people are interested in starting a club for Scorponok, you can give your essay to Sapphire to put on his fanclub page.

While I've never been a big fan of Scorponok, is certainly is an interesting character that deserves a closer look.

Xrerx · Unread post by **Xrerx** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:36 pm

Okay, thanks for the fan club info.

To be honest? I'm not all over him, hahah.. but I do like him a lot. I could've made a character study/essay for the others, but I love cheering underdogs and good soldiers. I'd recruit Scorponok into my unit over most of the other characters.

Still hoping that fanclub gets underway. Fanclubs for all.

Alak · Unread post by **Alak** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:08 pm

This actually brings up an interesting speculation. If Scorponok made it into Season 2 (transmetal or not), would the show's producers try to develop his personality a little more? In my opinion, they just replaced him with Quickstrike to give the fans a character that looks familiar but draws more laughter.

Xrerx · Unread post by **Xrerx** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:26 pm

Alak wrote:This actually brings up an interesting speculation. If Scorponok made it into Season 2 (transmetal or not), would the show's producers try to develop his personality a little more? In my opinion, they just replaced him with Quickstrike to give the fans a character that looks familiar but draws more laughter.

That is certainly something Scorponok suffered from: lack of consensus between the writers.. his character was very inconsistent, especially in terms of smarts.

Maybe they just threw up their arms and decided to start from scratch with another character: I'd say that character is Inferno.