The Transformers franchise has a few famous antagonists. Megatron is always the first name to come to mind. Unicron feels like the final problem, a being who represents entropy in robot form. A planet-eating monstrosity like Unicron poses a slight writing issue. He can't fight the heroes in any fair conflict. In Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, he hired Scourge for the direct combat role.
Rise of the Beasts is primarily an adaptation of the 90s series Beast Wars. The show is far from the best-remembered element of the Transformers franchise. The new heroes all wandered in from the jungles of the ancient world, but the villains are a bit older. Unicron was never a part of Beast Wars, but he and his favorite hunter fit right into the new universe.
Who is Scourge in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts?
Scourge is the secondary antagonist of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. He's the main emissary of the mighty Unicron. He travels to occupied worlds to defeat resistance and feed them to his employer. He was supposedly a victim of Unicron's endless hunger, but he sold out his people for power. He's known across the galaxy as a deadly hunter who adds his victim's insignias to his flesh after each kill. Scourge travels to the Maximals' home planet to collect the Transwarp Key, the film's chosen MacGuffin. The Key will allow Unicron to travel substantial distances and continue feeding in new universes. Scourge faced the Maximals' leader, Apelinq, in combat. He defeated the gorilla easily, boasting of the enhanced dark energy his master lent him. While he's distracted, Optimus Primal and the other Maximals escape with the Key, trapping Unicron for ages. Scourge spent years hunting down the Maximals before he found them on Earth.
An unsuspecting human, Elena Wallace, accidentally activated the Transwarp Key after finding it in a museum. Its signal summons Scourge and his fellow Terrorcons. It also draws Optimus Prime and the Autobots. The Terrorcons and Autobots fight outside the museum. Scourge deactivates Bumblebee and steals his Autobot decal. The Terrorcons take the Key and disappear. The Maximal Airazor arrives and reveals that Scourge only holds half of the Key. Scourge was punished severely for failing to deliver both halves of the Key before being sent back to find the rest. The hunters attacked the Maximals and corrupted Airazor, forcing Optimus Primal to kill her. After seizing the other half of the Key, he erects a massive tower to summon Unicron. He defeats Mirage before he's decapitated by Optimus Prime. For all his power, he dies in his master's stead.
Where did Scourge first appear in Transformers?
Scourge debuted in the 1986 classic Transformers: The Movie. He fills much the same role in his first appearance as he did in the more recent outing. Unicron creates Scourge from the corpse of a Decepticon named Thundercracker. Scourge and his fellow hunters were called Sweeps, and they carried out Unicron's will. After Unicron's defeat, Scourge became a minor villain in the third and fourth seasons of the original cartoon. He's a lesser threat in most engagements. His character traits are limited, making him a lower-quality equivalent to Megatron. A villain named Scourge appears in Beast Wars, but he's mostly unrelated.
What happened to Scourge in Transformers?
Every version of Scourge is defeated regularly. The name quickly becomes a convenient label to slap on any machine in the franchise. Other iterations bear little to no resemblance to the original Scourge. Rise of the Beasts brings the character to the big screen in a method reminiscent of his earlier appearances. Scourge's name is applied to the dark Doppelgänger of Optimus Prime in the 2001 series. The same happens in Transformers: Super Link. His name emerges again in the Unicron Trilogy, in which he's the leader of a jungle planet, and he can turn into a dragon. He's also the wizened older member of the Decepticons in the 2011 series. The Scourge that appears in Rise of the Beasts is an amalgam of different traits from earlier iterations of the character. He's primarily a reworking of his first appearance, with some additional details added in for flavor.
Like a lot of minor figures in the Transformers franchise, Scourge quickly became a name among the list. He's a character in his debut, but his traits are tossed aside and filled with new information in each iteration. Scourge could be anything in his next appearance. All his name implies is villainy. Any Decepticon or Terrorcon machine could be branded with the Scourge label. He's a rare character that was marginally improved by the live-action films. Scourge was never much of a character. The film gives him a decent gimmick, an engaging fighting style, several solid action scenes, and a cool death. That's more than Scourge can usually ask for.