IMO, when Silverbolt went to kill Tarantulas, that was in a way the "birth of Jetstorm" in a sense... or at least, it was Silverbolt's first real step in the "dark side." We see Silverbolt abandoning all his codes of honour and morals - blinded by hate and furious anger.

 

The thing that made Silverbolt develop such a huge guilt complex about having been Jetstorm was that Jetstorm was nothing more than Silverbolt himself, but freed from his code of chivalry and justice.

 

I see that scene as being similar to the scene in Star Wars II when Anakin killed those Tuskens. Although he quickly reeled back the light side and regretted his action - acknowledging its evil - it was his first step toward the Dark Side...

 

As for Blackarachnia, she did begin to change before the shell program was removed - with Blackarachnia allying herself with the Maximals for the sake of being with Silverbolt. No doubt the removal of the shell program did see a significant change in BA - TM2 Blackarachnia was the first stage of Blackarachnia being a true Maximal - with her Maximal persona refined by BM. But this isn't too surprising considering that the Predacon Shell Program is an allegorical metaphor for mental enslavement...

 

As for the unexplained character development in BM... some characters continued to develop well in BM, others didn't. IMO, the ones which did not seem to have developed as well were:

 

(1) Megatron: In BM Megatron is a villain with a saviour complex. He sees himself as being a hero for Cybertron and key to Cybertron's salvation. His goals are motivated by what he believes to be good intentions... in fact, BM Megatron is motivated by the motto of G1 Megatron: Peace through tyranny. This is pretty neat as a powerful G1 homage and realisation of G1 Megatron's motto. But I've not seen anything in BM that satisfactorily answers why BM Megatron has become like this, because he certainly wasn't like this in BW. BW Megatron was driven by the desire for conquest and greed. BW Megatron never saw himself as a people's hero or saviour... he never even saw himself as being good - in fact, he admitted to being evil -- in "The Agenda," he mocks Optimus Primal with the line, "Evil has triumphed! And you... you no longer exist!" BM Megatron believes that his actions are benefitting all Transformers. BW Megatron only cared about the Predacon cause... he was willing to commit retrospective genocide by killing the Autobots (and thus assuring the non-existence of the Maximals). BM Megatron indiscriminantly "served" all Transformers, regardless of whether they were Autobots, Decepticons, Maximals or Predacons. Also, there is BM Megatron's hatred for organic life... where did this come from? He never seemed to complain about himself or his Predacons having beast forms in BW, and in fact, he even conducted bio-genetic experiments, such as the first Dinobot clone, the raptor clones etc. BW Megatron revelled in his dragon form... BM Megatron is ashamed of it... why? I've not seen/noticed any satisfactory explanation as to why Megatron has made this change between BW and BM.

 

(2) Rhinox: Again, nothing in BW ever suggested that Rhinox hated organics. In fact, he often loved organic life, sometimes speaking about sniffing flowers etc. Also, Rhinox was fiercely loyal to Optimus Primal and the Maximals. Once more, I can't recall seeing any decent explanation in the BM story that satisfactorily justifies why Rhinox has made this dramatic change.

 

Whenever a character undergoes developmental change, this needs to be explained and justified. For example, if we were to study The Hobbit (I cite this as my class is currently studying this text), we can see that Bilbo Baggins begins the story as a typical sort of Hobbit; no desire for adventure or travel. By the end of the story, and certainly by the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo has changed... his adventures have given him a taste for travel and adventure, having confronted trolls, spiders, wargs, goblins, elves and a dragon... and having witnessed eagles, giants and a berserker... the Shire suddenly seems very dull and ordinary. It's little wonder that he decides to leave Hobbiton forever on his 111st birthday. But the Bilbo we see at the beginning of the Hobbit would never even dream of doing something like that! Bilbo undergoes significant character developmental change, but it is thoroughly explained throughout the story of The Hobbit.

Rhinox's evilness is pretty Powerglideing obvious: He still has the shell program active.

 

watch the episode in BW S1 where he goes evil because of a shell program. he an outright bastard there as well.

 

i still can't believe people didn't figure that out. I knew that WHEN I WAS PowerglideING ELEVEN PEOPLE