Well, if shocking is meaning sudden and unexpected, I'd have to go with Terrorsaur, because he was a fairly prominent character in season 1 and was offed in the first 10 seconds of season 2.

That one surprised me the most too. He seemed to be the Beast Wars version of Starscream, always trying to take over and the high pitched voice, but his career was cut short. At least he lived on in the toy line

Yeah, I agree with Scorponok, Terrasaur, and Inferno.....

 

I never was able or had the time to sit through and watch Beast Wars on TV. Only when I got the DVDs that I found out that Scorponok and Terrasaur died in the first episode of Season 2. Heck, they don't even mention it! The DVD insert has to mention it actually. That was surprising.

 

With Inferno, that dude must have died several times on end throughout the show. It makes you question whether or not he does die at the end of the Beast Wars series or not.

 

Tigerhawk I'm not too surprised about. He's suffered the fate of many characters who come out with they're splash episode as all powerful (ie Dinobot 2 and TM2 Cheetor, Optimi) then come down to earth and get trashed.

Well, if shocking is meaning sudden and unexpected, I'd have to go with Terrorsaur, because he was a fairly prominent character in season 1 and was offed in the first 10 seconds of season 2.

That one surprised me the most too. He seemed to be the Beast Wars version of Starscream, always trying to take over and the high pitched voice, but his career was cut short. At least he lived on in the toy line

thats what bothered me more. he should have lived and been a tm. actually i change my vote to terrorsaur. i really liked him and he got a raw deal. just falling in lava... weak.

I think any similarity between Terrorsaur and Starscream's voice is rather coincidental. For Terrorsaur, I believe that Doug Parker was trying to give him an avian-like "squawlking" quality; and don't forget that a lot of evidence indicates that dinosaurs were essentially birds (arguably dinosaurs never became extinct - they evolved into modern birds, this is supported by the recent discovery of dinosaur soft tissue and blood).

 

Furthermore the late Chris Latta (G1 Starscream) was once Doug Parker's mentor, so it's understandable that some of Latta's voice acting style would have rubbed off on his former understudy. This is part of the reason why Parker stepped up for the role of Starscream in Beast Wars' "Possession" episode.

 

And yes, Terrorsaur and Scorponok's deaths were crap. Blame Hasbro - they wanted both of those characters killed off at the beginning of season 2, hence why the writers had to "slot in" a quick death scene amidst a whole heap of other expositionary stuff they were already scripting. (-_-)

 

P.S.: the reason why Hasbro would've done this is because CG animation is very expensive and when new characters (and hence new CG models) are going to be introduced into the show, other characters are often eliminated - that way, there is always a limited number of characters in the Beast Wars show at any one time, thus limiting the cost of production.

I voted Terrorsaur & Scorponok. Those deaths were cheap & weak & came out of nowhere. I was never able to follow BW on TV back in the day, and only recently got to watch it on DVD. I'm up to the last disc in Season 3 so I will get to see all those other deaths too.

Out of that list I hated Depth Charge to die, but I wasn't really surprised...

 

Probably Dinobot. That's cliche but it was probably the most influencial death of a "cartoon character" since the original Optimus Prime.

Albeit tragic, Depth Charge's death was pretty cool though - it was ultimately his lust for vengeance that destroyed both him and Protoform X, but in a way that was also his greatest heroic act since he sacrificed himself in an attempt to stop the Predacons from accessing the Nemesis.

And it also brought about the change in Dinobot 2. Yeah he had an awesome death. Thats what was great about Beast Wars, the heros death always meant something. It always served a purpose, which is always good.

 

He was my fav character so I hated him to die, but yeah it was a great way to die. Live by the sword...

Gotta go with Dinobot. That was an unexpectedly mature moment in the show. Actually showing a character dying (and making it VERY CLEAR that said character is in fact dead, and not just "blown up") is pretty rare in kids' shows. When my son watched that episode, he was in tears at the end.

And also, the Transformers mourned for his loss and even held a funeral.

 

Although this was common place in the G1 comics, where the Autobots mourned the death of Optimus Prime, had a funeral (with a memorial plaque and torch) and even buried his body in space aboard a funeral barge (which became a pivotal element in the Matrix Quest), it was uncommon in the G1 cartoons... at least, the US cartoons. When Ultra Magnus died in the Japanese cartoon, the Autobots held a funeral for him too. Metroplex insisted that he buried on Earth, the adoptive planet that he loved, the people that he protected, and in whom's defence he died fighting for. It was a very touching moment - his coffin filled with various flowers from around the world, representing the planet that he gave his life for.

 

These are quite mature moments, portraying the fact that war is not a game - that people do die in wars.

 

One of my all time favourite lines in animé was from the Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen OVA where Kenshin was arguing with his master Hiko Seijuurou about going off to fight for his country and trying to romanticise war - until his Ronin master snapped, and despite all the romanticism of Samurai warfare from Bushido said: "剣ã?¯å‡¶å™¨ã€?剣術ã?¯æ®ºäººè¡“! ã?©ã‚“ã?ªç¶ºéº—事やã?Šé¡Œç›®ã‚’å?£ã?«ã?—ã?¦ã‚‚ã€?ã??ã‚Œã?ŒçœŸå®Ÿ" ("A sword is a weapon of evil and swordsmanship is the art of murderers! No matter what you say to make it sound pretty, that is the truth!")