Arcee

Token Female Makes Good

Main Page

The Rebellion

Transitions

Season 3

Miscellaneous

The only recurring G1 female transformer (unless you count Elita 1's appearance as Ariel in War Dawn), Arcee is widely remembered but is arguably the most under-developed character from Transformers: The Movie (even Blurr and Wheelie got to appear in episodes that touched on their personality—Face of the Nijika and Surprise Party respectively).  Throughout the G1 cartoon series, she was very much the token female character but was always a low priority when it came to the spotlight due to the lack of a toy in her name.  In the little snapshot documentary on the new Autobots that featured at the end of some episodes, Arcee is described as 'A forceful, female Autobot.'  Add: 'who has an attachment to Springer' and that seems to be the extent of her character profile for Season 3.  She's female.  That's her distinguishing characteristic, like Blurr's speed or Perceptor's refusal to use one syllable where four will do.  She's forceful, because this is the 80's, people, and we now know that girls can fight alongside boys.  And since she seems to be the only female robot around, well, she's the only chance the cartoon is going to have in dealing with robot-romance.  However, few writers seemed to find a use for the character, or even any consistent sense of who she was.

In a sense, she's the first female transformer.  Nightbird can be excluded as... not a transformer (plus her gender choice seems rather arbitrary).  The Search for Alpha Trion and War Dawn, both of which featured female Autobots, were almost certainly written after the original script for Transformers: The Movie, and were probably there to set a precedent for Arcee's appearance.  It made sense for the Movie to introduce a female character.  It was going for a broader, more adult appeal—and trying to be a Star Wars type adventure.  Arcee provided the quasi-love interest and nod towards feminism that Princess Leia did—although with nowhere near the same billing.  However, the point was that she was female.  And that was to define Arcee throughout the Movie and Season 3.  Whether this made her a feminist character is debatable.  More to the point, was she an effective character?

 Character design - First Impressions of Femininity

Her visual design is mostly geared towards being recognisably female.  Most of the robots introduced in the Movie were given more human faces, and ones that could be quite good-looking if transposed onto an actual human; this again is in keeping with the broader appeal.  Arcee is also slender with curved limbs, giving her a more identifiably feminine build, although thank heavens they didn't give her the moulded breasts that some other females in the series would have (what are they? Mammals?).  She's given a chaster image than that with an androgynous breast plate topped by a light grey collar piece, vaguely reminiscent of a Japanese school girl.  A youthful look, in as much as a robot can look youthful.  Certainly an innocent rather than a femme fatale.

Of course, the easiest way of making something recognisably feminine (at least, in the toy world of the eighties anyway) is to paint it pink.  While it's a scarcely original and arguably sexist colour scheme, there is logic behind it.  The movie characters were virtually colour-coded to be easily recognisable and there are more pastels about than before.  Blurr is blue, Springer is green, Wheelie orange....  Pink wasn't exactly going to be destined for anybody else.  Except Hot Rod, and his hot pink paintwork isn't half as worrying as those flames.  At least she's pink and white, rather than Elita 1's pink and darker pink.  She clashes with her lipstick and Autobot symbol, but otherwise co-ordinates with herself.  On the other hand... she's still pink.

Aside from character design, a voice had to be cast.  It's notable that, while undoubtedly feminine, Susan Blu's voice lacks the 'girly' quality of Arlene Banas who voiced Carly, the only previous recurring female character (no offence to Banas intended!).  This matches the female Autobots from Search for Alpha Trion who all had voices with some depth and substance.  Carly's voice was for a girl-next-door teenager with more enthusiasm than wisdom and more courage than experience.  Arcee and the other female Autobots were no delicate flowers, but soldiers who had been in the trenches for years if not millennia.

And finally her name....  The female Autobots in Search for Alpha Trion mostly had names that sounded 'pretty' and feminine, rather than ones descriptive of their personality or function like those of their male counterparts.  Arcee's name appears to be inspired by R/C toy cars, which doesn't appear to apply to either her personality or function.  It's generic and, rather unfortunately, stressed wrongly becomes 'arsey', but it's blessedly androgynous and doesn't jar among the male transformers (see various fanfic original characters for innumerable examples of bad female names).

Interestingly, her name is more representative of the attitude to her gender: very little issue is made of it.  While in Search for Alpha Trion Elita 1's little band were specifically the Female Autobots, and were treated almost as a separate race, Arcee is just one of the Autobot fighting force—in fact, her gender is rarely touched upon, as if the writers were worried the boys might notice that one of their heroes is just a girl.  I don't even recall a moment when anybody said 'she' or 'her' in reference to Arcee throughout the Movie or Season 3.

This is largely because she doesn't feature very often of course, and when she does, it's not prominently.  She is set up in the Movie and Five Faces of Darkness and then cast adrift, essentially wasted in her few episodes that came later.  It is understandable that she wouldn't be a priority character, since she wasn't selling anything, but nobody seemed quite sure what to do with her.  A love interest that never made it to a romance in the movie, she switched allegiances from Hot Rod to Springer in FFoD with understated success.  And that was as deep as she got.  It's notable that throughout Season 3, every episode Arcee appears in is an episode that features Springer.  Even her wordless, blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in Ghost in the Machine was cheering Springer and others on.  Was he needed as a necessary extension of her personality?  Of course, she also only features in episodes with Rodimus Prime, Kup, and Ultra Magnus, so the significance is down to personal interpretation.  Even so, it's not until Rebirth that she really gets to be treated as an individual, ironically enough.

 The original set up: The Movie and Five Faces of Darkness

Introduced as 'ARCEE, a lovely female Autobot of about Hot Rod's age,' in the original Movie script, it seems fairly clear where writer Ron Friedman and story consultant Flint Dille were going with this.  The script does indeed go on to state that they like each other, but, as it turns out, Hot Rod never has a chance of getting lucky.  Arcee's first few lines are worrying about Hot Rod, but the two are quickly separated, the romance element being played right down.  They are together in Autobot City, have two moments where they're talking to each other—and both times, they're arguing in tradtional lovers' tiff style.  Then they get on separate shuttles and are not reunited until several battles later on Junk, by which time they've all got bigger things to worry about.  Arcee is relieved to see that Hot Rod is alive, although he no longer shows any particular concern for her, having a far greater interest in the Matrix.

On the other hand, Springer is with Arcee almost non-stop through the Movie.  The only time they are not together is during Optimus Prime's death scene (Springer was absent) and in the escape to the shuttles, when she is nearly left behind.  Perhaps afraid that she'll pull that stunt again, Springer doesn't let her out of his sight for the rest of the film.  In fact, if it wasn't for Hot Rod, it would seem to be fairly clear-cut that they were destined to be together.  They're teamed up from the start, and in the scene where Daniel learns how to walk in his exo-suit, Springer plays the father figure to Arcee's mother and Daniel's child in an analogy so obvious it's disturbing.

However, there's a difference in Arcee's attitude to Springer.  While with Hot Rod, she's competitive, refusing to let him have the final word, she's more deferential to Springer.  Of course, rank-wise, Hot Rod's plainly something of a rookie, while Springer gives Ultra Magnus tactical advice.  Since Arcee is meant to be about Hot Rod's age, we can assume she's a rookie too—as mentioned above, her appearance seems to be geared towards youth.  This matches up with the way Springer is bossing her around for most of the movie—presumably, he takes responsibility for her in the same way Kup does for Hot Rod.  In return, Arcee trusts his judgment and acts accordingly, providing a contrast to Hot Rod's disdain for Kup's experience.  In many ways, she's more effective as Hot Rod's good student counterpart than as his love interest.

It is possible that they were playing with the idea of a Star Wars type of love triangle between Arcee, Hot Rod and Springer—unfortunately, this didn't get to be resolved with the revelation that Arcee is Hot Rod's sister (would that make Beast Wars' Rattrap the grandson of Rodimus Prime?), or resolved at all, to any decent effect.  After the Movie, we get Five Faces of Darkness, and all of a sudden, Arcee is bantering with Springer, while Hot Rod, now Rodimus Prime, isn't paying her a moment's notice.  This avoidance of romantic plots is not necessarily a bad thing, since it could let us see some female characterisation that doesn't revolve around the males.  Unfortunately the Hot Rod/Springer relationships remain the main springboard for her development, and if that doesn't feature in a particular episode or scene, then she's unlikely to either.

We're missing several months in between the Movie and FFoD.  Most obviously, Rodimus Prime has grown up a lot since Hot Rod went fishing with Daniel—however, Arcee has also matured.  The two stories can be taken almost as a continuous arc, when it comes to setting up Season 3, since Flint Dille was the story consultant for the Movie and the writer of FFoD.  At the start of the film, Arcee takes charge of Daniel and won't take any nonsense from Hot Rod, but otherwise she's subservient.  She follows Springer's lead in the attack on Autobot City, asking him questions and reporting to him—but notice that she doesn't speak when the senior-ranking Autobots are discussing something.  She simply waits for the decisions to be made and orders given by those with more combat-experience.  In short, she knows her place and behaves accordingly.

Of course, by the time they've fled Autobot City, most of the Autobots are either dead or out of action.  By default, Arcee suddenly finds herself amongst the leading five Autobots.  She may not become pushy, but she does question their plan of action: however necessary it was to blow up most of the ship, the separated cockpit is not capable of getting to Cybertron on its own.  Even so, she doesn't challenge the current Autobot Leader, Ultra Magnus, but approaches the lower-ranking Springer who she presumably knows better.  Nor is it so much a challenge as a complaint.  Perhaps she prefers to think before acting and is unhappy following a course of action without knowing the reasoning behind it.  Maybe the tension is beginning to get to her, and she's losing some of her natural reserve.  At any rate, she may be obedient, but she does not follow orders blindly.

As the film progresses, Arcee's group suffer further.  After losing Ultra Magnus on Junk, nobody steps into the breach of leadership, and with just four Autobots (plus Daniel) to face the Junkions, rank is forgotten in favour of fighting ability.  Here, Arcee's better equipped to deal with combat than Daniel or Perceptor, and possibly also the highly-strung Blurr, which places her second only to Springer.  The battle ends with the reappearance of Hot Rod and Co, and it's not Kup with his years of experience who befriends the Junkions, but Hot Rod.  Suddenly the rookies are coming to the fore.  In the subsequent debate about how to face Unicron, even Arcee contributes a line.  It is inside Unicron that she finally starts showing vestiges of her own initiative.  When they're first attacked by the pincer-tipped tentacles, she picks the escape route.  After that, she's the first one to turn back and try to help Daniel when he falls.  By the time Rodimus Prime opens the matrix, Arcee's party consists of Springer, Kup and herself, and she's fighting on an equal footing with the two older Autobots.  She's not leading, but neither is she waiting to be told what to do.

The Movie is a battlefield promotion for Arcee, if to a lesser extent than Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime.  In the blank months between the Movie and FFoD, she appears to have adjusted to her new ranking.  She talks back to Springer and is more forthright with her own opinions in general.  She's clearly aggressive too, frankly rude to the obnoxious little Skuxxoid in part 1.  Most prominently, her love interest has changed.  Once Hot Rod opens the Matrix and proves himself to be the Chosen One, Arcee pretty much has to concede defeat in that little rivalry.  However, she has gained the experience and self-confidence to start seeing herself on equal terms with Springer.

After Ultra Magnus, Kup and Spike are kidnapped at the start of FFoD, Rodimus, Arcee and Springer have a short discussion and reach a mutual agreement on who's to blame: the Decepticons.  This older and wiser Arcee is not at all reticent about putting in her two cents, and she's clearly just as mad as the two males.  Rodimus declares a quarantine on the planet, which is immediately disobeyed by a shuttle, pilot unknown.  Without waiting for the new Prime's instructions, Springer promptly charges off in search of a ship, leaving Arcee and Rodimus.  Obliged to make a decision in a split-second, Arcee dashes after Springer, and Rodimus is left alone with his responsibility.

The lady has made her choice, and from that moment on, the series pairs her with Springer, although it won't be confirmed until FFoD 4.  Having been destroyed by a garbage disposal on the planet of Goo (part 3), Springer is reassembled by the Junkions.  The scene where he is brought back to life is the only time their romance is handled openly.  Arcee's grief is brought to the fore, with the other Autobots as concerned to comfort her as they are to grieve themselves.  Kup has his arm around her, and Wreck-Gar tells her not to cry, addressing her rather than the others when he says he can bring back Springer.  The traditional clichés are brought out when he is revived, with Arcee running into his arms crying his name—to the accompaniment of appropriately cheesy music.

Arcee and Springer only appear in one more scene in FFoD (Springer shows up as an extra in part 5), which makes his resurrection the climax of their story-arc.  This suggests that it is intended to be the first time they have openly shown their feelings for each other.  Previously most of their dialogue, which wasn't reacting to plot events, was spent on arguing with each other—which ties in with traditional romantic cliché.  For Springer and Arcee, FFoD is actually a romance.

So what of Rodimus Prime and Arcee's attitude to him?  In part 2 of FFoD, he's the one believed dead.  Arcee is again tearful, but she doesn't show the same level of grief that she does when Springer 'dies'.  Rather than needing reassurance, she does her best to repair the damage with Springer's assistance.  Rodimus appears to have forgotten his previous feelings for her completely, but this fickleness can be written off as a mark of his changed priorities.  In FFoD we see him facing his first real test of leadership, and it's that aspect of him that is dealt with.  With as many different storylines in FFoD as there are, there's no room for a look at his feelings for Arcee, assuming he still has any (it could be argued that his lack of enthusiasm when Springer is revived is because of this, but that is a little macabre, and the explanation that Rodimus gives is more plausible).

As for Arcee's sudden warming to Springer... clichéd as it is, they have been through a lot together.  It's probably fairly safe to assume that the two continued working together post-movie, just as Kup was still watching out for Rodimus Prime, although Ultra Magnus appears to be his official second in command.  Springer is still the dominant partner: Arcee follows his lead, but she's quicker to talk back to him now and to laugh at him—witness their flight aboard the rockaroid ship in part 1.  He has the edge over her in experience, and she doesn't try for one-up-manship the way she did with Hot Rod, but she won't take any nonsense from him either—nor will he take it from her.

This is perhaps the key to choosing Springer over Rodimus.  Hot Rod teases Arcee with: "And you'd better stay close to me" as they flee from the Decepticons (her reply: "No, you'd better stay close to me!" as she pulls him out of the way of laserfire).  When trying to fight unseen attackers, Springer yells: "I said cover me, Arcee!" (she returns by taking out three Sharkticons at once: "Hah! Is that good enough?").  She was trying to compete with Hot Rod; she and Springer are each expecting the other to match up to the standards they set.  It's a rather refreshing relationship considering the medium: neither offensive nor implausible.

 Dark Awakening, Only Human and Dweller in the Depths - Is there a female character in the house?

So much for Flint Dille's set-up... how about the take of other writers?  Arcee only featured in three other storylines—and possibly only in those because it was useful to have a female character.

It is in Dark Awakening that she is most obviously the token female.  She doesn't get to do a great deal in this (although for that matter, neither do most of the characters), and in the first half is primarily shown as being gentle, sympathetic to both Daniel's and Rodimus' insecurities.  This is the only episode of the season where we see her 'mothering' Daniel (although not to the extent that she did in the movie), which is notable since it is this aspect of her that will be a key plot point in Rebirth.

What is most interesting about this episode Arcee-wise is that it comes the closest to portraying Arcee, Springer and Rodimus Prime as the three sides of a love triangle.  Arcee and Rodimus are both on the shuttle that is forced to dock in the Mausoleum, while Springer is back on Cybertron.  We see a little more of how Rodimus reacts to Arcee, particularly in the fight with the Decepticons aboard the Mausoleum.  Rodimus orders the humans to get to cover—it's debatable if you look at the animation and where the characters are facing in that shot, but it looks like he intends the same order for Arcee.  Granted, she hasn't got the build for physical combat, but they're using guns here, not fists and brute strength.  If Rodimus means for Arcee to stay back as a last line of defence for the humans, that would make sense.  But he doesn't say that.

At any rate, that is what Arcee does, and when a stray Decepticon shot somehow manages to miss the front line of Autobots completely and head for the humans, she steps into its way.  She assures her side that it's only an exostructure wound (and here we have the most sorely missed chance for a Monty Python reference in a Transformers episode: "Exostructure wound? You've lost your bloody leg!"), yet Rodimus immediately calls for a retreat.  It's a bit of a cliché to have the girl get hurt anyway, but was this really justifiable grounds for flight?  Not unless Arcee was more seriously wounded than she was letting on, and she's not even limping in subsequent scenes.  The timing's a coincidence perhaps, since they were obviously outnumbered.  Or maybe Rodimus just wanted to take his chance to assist her—he seems a lot more enthusiastic than when supporting Blurr's weight in Face of the Nijika.

Either way, it seems that Rodimus is protective of Arcee in a combat situation, which makes it all the more preferable for her to be with Springer who at least trusts her to take care of herself.  However, from the first half of the episode with no prior knowledge of the cartoon, it looks like Arcee and Rodimus are an item, if anyone.  It's not until we get to Cybertron and Optimus Prime claiming that the Autobots are dead that Springer shows up.  He doesn't get many lines in this episode (and is perhaps only included because of Arcee), but the one where he swears revenge on the Quintessons for Arcee is a nice one and illustrates his feelings as no other moment in the series.  The episode does not detail Arcee's.

Generally, Dark Awakening shows Arcee as a softer character, who can respond to the more emotional aspects of the episode (as much of a feminine cliché as receiving minor injuries).  This is consistent with many of her other appearances, but we don't see any of her reputed forcefulness here.  The most useful, non-gender-biased thing she does is to check out the situation on a monitor while the others are trying to get the story out of Sludge and Snarl.  She doesn't seem to have much faith in the Dinobots—back in FFoD she refused to believe that Grimlock had saved Hot Rod and Kup on Quintessa.

Only Human on the other hand had the potential to be a really interesting Arcee episode, with all sorts of possibilites for character development.  After all, Arcee is less dependent on physical strength than the other three who were turned human with her.  She might have handled their sudden vulnerability better.  If nothing else, with Rodimus Prime and Springer being two of her humanised companions, there was at least some potential for development through the love side of things.  Unfortunately, no on all counts.  She gets separated from Rodimus and Springer at the first opportunity and wins the Complete Muppet Award for this episode hands down.  I'm not saying that the blonde stereotype is true, but it certainly seems to have an effect on Arcee.  She looks dazed and confused for most of the episode, letting the others decide what to do, and she screws up the one task assigned to her.  The only effective thing she does is to kick away one of Drath's men, and he was probably most hurt due to her stiletto heels—these were prerequisites for just about every 80's female cartoon character, and it is only a wonder that she wasn't cursed with these in robot form as well.

It seems Arcee's main reason for being in the Only Human cast as opposed to another character is that she would be the most immediately recognisable of all transformers in human form.  She thus serves a useful function storywise in introducing the other three humans as their Autobot characters.  It is obvious that the girl is Arcee, and just in case the conveniently colour-coded overalls weren't enough, she does a roll-call of the men while the three nod in turn, identifying themselves to the viewer.  Apart from this, her role could have been performed by just about any other Autobot.

Dweller in the Depths is a more low-profile affair: an unabashed homage to B-movie horror flicks.  Of course, every good monster movie needs a leading lady.  Arcee is neither a Jamie Lee Curtis scream queen nor an alien-butt-kicking Ripley, but she does put in a good showing for Dweller.  In fact, she is arguably the lead player of this ensemble piece.  She would probably share top billing with Galvatron and Ultra Magnus, but unlike them, Arcee remains conscious throughout, and most tellingly, she gets to speak the last line of the episode.  Dweller requires victims not personalities though, and Arcee gets lots of dialogue but little characterisation.

She is more exuberant than in other episodes, quite happy to make comments and also to pull off a few moves.  There is a nice transformation where she backflips out of car mode and lands on her feet firing.  We also get to see her in all-out combat, fighting Decepticons and monsters alongside the other Autobots.  Note that all four of her companions are known for their strength in battle (with the possible exception of Kup, but he hasn't survived this long by being a wimp).  The episode does intend a contrast between her and them, but it also does her the justice of letting her fight quite competently beside them.  Kup looks out for her twice (in as avuncular fashion as in FFoD 4) and Ultra Magnus protects her from Galvatron, but it is all with a sense of watching each other's backs rather than protect-the-girl—Springer's not at all bothered about leaving her alone while he tries to save Wreck-Gar.  She seems quite capable of holding her own, although she's not obvious in the initial fight, with the action focusing on the early victims.  However, once the cast has been narrowed down a bit, Arcee enters the spotlight and stays there.

She's actually the only character to really score any points against the Dweller—if from a defensive point of view.  Several Transformers get caught in the creature's net, and are promptly rendered useless.  Those who are freed are usually barely able to stand up.  Arcee, on the other hand, transforms and tries to break the net that way.  It doesn't work, and she has to call on Kup for help, but she does bring the creature to a tug-of-war stalemate and, once freed, she doesn't seem to be as weak as other net-victims.  Presumably, in her more compact car mode there is less of her touching the net, thus slowing the energy drain?  Certainly, she isn't grasping it with her hands, which seems to have a terrible effect on the others.

More obviously, near the end, when the creature has Galvatron and Ultra Magnus in its clutches, she uses Galvatron's laser cannon to drive it off (she must be a better shot than Galvatron, since it didn't work before) or at least annoy it until it decides that the power core is a less bothersome snack.  It is notable that she cannot physically lift Galvatron's cannon: the most she can do is aim it.  When it does fire, she's hurled backwards by the force of the blast.  When facing a creature that drains robots of their energy, it is the physically weakest robot who has the most effect on it (either that, or the cannon is phallic symbolism which you can interpret for yourself). 

So Dweller in the Depths uses Arcee for a Brains and Brawn set-up.  Ultra Magnus is the brawn for the Autobot side, and the Complete Muppet of this episode.  The only thing he does successfully is to take on Galvatron, which Arcee patently would not be able to do alone (she appears to have lost her gun by that point, and judging from her struggles with his cannon, Arcee and Galvatron in hand-to-hand, unarmed combat would be a really short battle).  Arcee plays brains—smaller than any other creature in the caverns, but resourceful enough to compensate. The Dweller is an energy siphon, making strength no advantage—which puts Arcee in a better position than the others, as could have been the case in Only Human.  When all the others are down, she's still fighting and fighting effectively.  She doesn't actually defeat the Dweller—once she and Ultra Magnus are out of the caverns, they pass the action-baton onto Rodimus Prime and Perceptor—but she comes off best in direct combat with it.

Ultimately, she's still in Dweller in the Depths because of her gender, but this story puts her to better use than either Dark Awakening or Only Human.  The latter two are undoubtedly among the most memorable, high-concept Season 3 episodes, but neither really give us an insight as to who Arcee is.  With Arcee sidelined in these and only given a leading role in an action-oriented episode, it is little wonder that the character concept laid out in FFoD was never actually expanded upon.

 The character study so far....

By the end of Season 3, what do we know about Arcee?  Precious little.  The various writers did not seem to have a mutual concept of her, so the best we can do is form our own interpretations from various events.

Her exact position is never made clear, although she volunteers herself as a gunner in FFoD 1.  Her shooting abilities aren't generally made much of, but she seems competent enough, aside from the perennial transformer inability to hit anything that is necessary to the plot.  Still, marksmanship compensates for her obvious physical lack as a warrior.  Unlike many of the Autobots, she seems to have no weapons incorporated into her body.  She’s also something of a featherweight, although her lighter frame does mean that she is fast on foot.  In the all too frequent moments when transformers forget that they are faster in vehicle mode, she tends to be running ahead of the others.  She's rarely a member of the strike force, but in many cases it would only make sense not to have her on an expedition.  Springer and Ultra Magnus are among the strongest fighters and consequently pop up all the time.  However, a slight build can be an advantage, particularly in covert operations, and it is a shame that few Season 3 episodes ever addressed this.  Certainly, if Wheelie could go on a mission, Arcee could have done.

She has a steadier head than most Autobots too.  The brains to compensate for lack of brawn theme that Dweller in the Depths played on is a cartoon cliché where female characters are concerned—besides, heaven forbid that a female should be deliberately written as stupid.  Arcee is plainly not in the leagues of Perceptor, nor is she ever in the role of tactician, but she has her share of technical know-how.  In FFoD, the one time Springer follows her lead is when trying to repair Rodimus.  She is quick to point out that she is no medic, but she clearly knows more than Springer, and Grimlock assumes that she should take the credit for Rodimus Prime's recovery.  Not to mention the first action she ever does is to help transform Autobot City—a surprisingly complicated process for something that has to be done pretty damn quickly.

Generally however, her intelligence is more of the prudent variety. For beings with nine million years of direct warfare experience, Autobots charge into situations minus any real plan with astonishing frequency.  Arcee may not develop the most heroic image, but it is somewhat refreshing to find somebody who is not eager to throw her life away at the first opportunity.  Where others rush in, she tries to figure out the situation.  In Only Human, as the Autobots come to terms with their new forms, she separates herself from their confused conversation and checks a mirror.  In Dweller in the Depths, she learns from the others that trying to pull apart the net won't work.  Instead, her vehicle mode gives her the traction to pull against the net, preventing the creature from dragging her into its grasp.  Of course, her philosophy has long since been spelled out for us in the Movie: when Hot Rod tells her that he wasn't worried by the Decepticons' initial attack, she retorts that he probably didn't understand the situation.

Just because she's sensible does not mean that she has no sense of fun.  She tends to keep serious when 'on-duty' and there are precious few scenes of any Autobot at ease, but she can relax.  FFoD 1 in particular shows her laughing at Springer, and at the start she's grinning along with everybody else at the Galactic Olympics.  In the opening scene of Dweller in the Depths, she gives a spontaneous cheer as the power core is successfully put into operation.  Examples such as these are scraping the barrel, but her dialogue from the movie and FFoD certainly suggests that she's not as eternally serious as Ultra Magnus.

However, when it comes to the actual dialogue, she's not quite so clever.  Not once does Arcee have a really memorable line. She's able to cut down Springer and Hot Rod in arguments, but she's not witty—her lines are standard fare that we've heard before.  Not that anybody's lines are Oscar Wilde material, but Springer and Hot Rod could both feature in a top 10 list of TF quotes.  I wouldn't bet on Arcee appearing in a top 100 list.  There is a moment in FFoD 1 where Springer asks her if she has any snappy last words.  She doesn't reply.

Talking in general is just not her strong point.  Also in FFoD 1, she proves herself completely inept at cross-examination. Here's a lesson in interrogation: when asking somebody a question, do not provide them with an answer unless you're 100% sure if it's true or false (and if they respond with: "The who?  Oh—I mean yes, of course!  The Decepticons..." it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that they're lying).  In Only Human she provides the perfect example of how not to talk your way past security.  Guile is obviously not her stratagem of choice.

She has better success with words of sympathy.  The most traditional feminine quality is empathy, so the lone female robot has that in spades.  She mothers Daniel throughout the Movie—filling in for the absent Carly, although it is always possible that Carly would have thought it a better idea not to carry Daniel halfway across the universe to fight a planet-eating monster.  She's there to comfort people as they need it: Perceptor bemoaning his lost work in Dweller in the Depths; Daniel again in Dark Awakening as Optimus finally dies for the second time.

She also shows her share of feminine intuition.  In FFoD 4, when Springer jokes to Rodimus Prime that he should half-kill himself again so that he can enter the matrix, Arcee immediately panics, telling Rodimus that it was a joke.  Springer passes her fears off lightly, but it is Arcee who is proved to be right after they leave Rodimus alone.  It's open to interpretation whether Springer convinces her or whether she lets him lead her away from Rodimus, knowing that Rodimus is going to intentionally damage himself.  At any rate, after Rodimus wakes up, it's Springer who is beside himself with panic.  Arcee looks worried but is otherwise quite calm.  Perhaps she decided that it was Rodimus' choice to make.  Similarly, in Dark Awakening, she attempts to persuade Rodimus not to investigate Prime's tomb, but she doesn't scorn his intent as Kup and Ultra Magnus do.

Although usually shown as being restrained and considerate of others, she can become more forceful when pushed.  Towards the end of Only Human, after what was, by anybody's standards, a bad day, she raises her voice to the guards from the start of their dialogue—telling them what she wants, not requesting.  Consequently they lock her in a holding cell, and she's all but banging her head against the wall and swearing in her frustration as she listens to Blaster's commentary on the apparent return of the missing Autobots.  This is probably the only time in the episode where she behaves in a manner appropriate to her circumstances.  It may not help and it may be entirely her fault that she is there, but that situation deserves a little flying off the handle.

Danger for others is the fastest way to break her reserve.  When she does willingly put herself in danger, it's always to help somebody else: covering the humans in Dark Awakening; Dweller in the Depths where, in a moment of complete lunacy, she attempts to run towards the energy vampires as they drain Kup.  Also in this episode, she may have intentionally been trying to draw the creature's attention away from Kup and Ultra Magnus by firing at it—either that or trying to get it to let go of Springer.  The end result was the same: it started attacking her.

This is her chief weakness of course—she's not willing to risk the lives of others.  Not that any Autobot is, but Arcee never quite proves herself able to cope with hard decisions.  Her very first line (in the Movie) is to hesitate in transforming Autobot City for fear that Kup and Hot Rod will be trapped outside.  Later Wheeljack and Windcharger's bodies send her into a shocked daze.  On both occasions, it's Springer who snaps her out of it, bullying her into action.  During Season 3, she appears to become a little more hardened—perhaps Rodimus' short-circuiting in FFoD 4 was a turning point for her.  She copes almost too well when Springer is turned into an energy vampire, but she won't desert the vampires until Ultra Magnus suggests that Perceptor might be able to help them.  Reasoning aside, she will still respond to a direct order, if more reluctantly than in the Movie.  Ultra Magnus has to yell at her in Only Human before she'll leave him to his unsuccessful kamikaze bid.

This obedience to orders brings us full circle to her natural reserve that keeps her from rushing into things.  By the end of Season 3, Arcee has come a long way from the inexperienced soldier-in-training, but ultimately she's still taking orders.  She hasn't demonstrated any ability to lead.  Which isn't to say she has no potential for leadership—she's a generally good all-rounder with an understanding of other people's needs.  However, she lacks the presence to make herself felt, although she's forceful enough with Rodimus Prime and Springer who she knows well.  It is possible that she just needs the self-confidence that will come over time as her competence is proven alongside other Autobots.

Her major failing is making those hard decisions.  She has shown signs of coming to terms with the fact that others have the right to risk their lives, but she has not demonstrably accepted it.  This ties in with her general play-it-safe attitude.  Sometimes risks have to be taken; sometimes there isn't time to check out the situation fully.  Arcee has not yet made that leap of faith.  So, at this point, she's earned her place as a reliable, well-respected soldier.  She needs to be put to the test if she's to prove herself capable of anything more.

 The Rebirth - Ironic Justice

And so we come to Season 4: The Rebirth, and a change of dynamics.  A slew of new characters is being plugged—all of whom are fighting for storytime.  Rebirth is a fairly chaotic piece, with story merits waging a pitched battle against marketing.  In trying to co-ordinate all this, writer David Wise focuses the main plotline on the Headmaster/Targetmaster origins.  There would be more appeal with a bond between two familiar characters, but (assuming the toy-production came before the cartoon production) the toylines didn't have this, although three recurring Autobots became targetmasters, Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr, while Spike finally hit the shelves as part of the Fortress Maximus combination.  But their partners were all new, unknown characters.

The solution: fabricate a headmaster pair for the series.  There was a small selection of human characters to choose from, of whom Spike had already been drafted in as the human component for Fortress Maximus/Cerebros.  The next most well known human was his son, Daniel, who was still a child.  Who to be his robot partner?  Arcee had no toy conflict and did have a pre-existing relationship with Daniel from the movie.

Thus, with Rebirth, Arcee comes into her own.  The only Movie Autobot not to get a toy gains more freedom in the cartoon because of it.  The least developed of the Season 3 stalwarts is the only one to get any characterisation in Season 4, barring Spike, Daniel and perhaps Ultra Magnus.  Even Hot Rod doesn't get to do more than make a few wisecracks.  Springer and others are no longer in evidence in the cartoon (nor, uncoincidentally, on the toyshelves), and she refers to Daniel as her 'dearest friend in all the world' (which several fans would regard as certifiable proof that Arcee is a few fuses short of a circuit board).

This set-up isn't quite consistent with Arcee's previous appearances.  Although the cartoon was never likely to give an explanation for Springer's disappearance—with so many new characters to introduce, who has time to dispose of old ones?—where has this sudden, intense affection for Daniel come from?  She was protective of him in the movie, but they scarcely said a word to each other in Season 3.  Now he's her dearest friend?  Springer aside, Hot Rod and Arcee have always been pretty tight.  Heck, judging from Season 3, Kup appears closer to her than Daniel.  However, we are told that Arcee likes Daniel the most, because that's important to the plot.  Perhaps 'dearest friend in all the world' is unnecessary hyperbole, but prior to this declaration, they anticipated the idea with an echo of the Movie: Arcee again holds Daniel when their shuttle crashes (apparently they still haven't invented seat-belts).  With the Movie in mind, the close friendship is a little easier to swallow, if still something of a jump.

Although she's riding on the coat-tails of the Spike/Daniel relationship that propels much of the plot in Rebirth, her own presence is an integral part of the plot—and she seems less pigeonholed by her gender than she ever was in Season 3.  She has no romantic interest this time and fights neither as back-up/cover nor as female-who-is-as-good-as-a-male, but as any other soldier.  Rebirth is perhaps the only story to let Arcee's role not be defined by her sex, but it's also the only story that doesn't gloss over it.  Season 3 episodes largely seemed nervous of referring to her as female.  In Rebirth part 3, she is identified as 'the female one'.  Later that same episode, when Lord Zarak is threatening the imprisoned Arcee and Daniel, he calls her 'my dear'.

Of course, Arcee is still in a female role, only now instead of being the 'girl' (and all that implies), they're playing off the 'mother' idea.  Carly underwent a similar metamorphosis between seasons 2 and 3, but this spelt characterisation-death for her, as she went from bright and brainy heroine to concerned wife/mother-in-the-background.  Arcee is probably saved by the fact that she's not a true mother, no maternity leave from fighting for her.  Besides, Daniel is no baby; the protection works both ways.  Daniel very nearly sacrifices himself trying to save Arcee, a fact that she recognises and is behind her request to specifically have him as her partner.  It should be noted that he is her partner, another soldier.  At no point does anybody suggest that Arcee and Daniel stay out of danger because he is a child.

In this partnership, it is Arcee who is dominant.  Physically stronger than Daniel, she has also got more experience than him, in a reversal of her previous partnership with Springer.  It's not that she has suddenly become invincible—her comparative weakness to most other transformers is made sharply clear when she's attacked by Snapdragon.  He grabs both her hands in his jaws, and she's essentially at his mercy.  She can't shoot him, she can't transform, and she's not strong enough to pull away.  She can kick him, but her frame's too light for wrestling.  Rebirth doesn't deny Arcee's weaknesses, but it does allow her to be more aggressive and readier to put herself forward.  When the Autobots attack the Decepticons in order to retrieve the key to the plasma energy chamber, it's Arcee (and Daniel) who sees and seizes the opportunity to take it from Scourge.  This definitely marks a step forward from Season 3 Arcee who tended to hang back and provide cover.  Daniel's contribution is less obvious, although he does encourage her to transform as they flee from Scorponok and is fiercely protective of her in general.  But it's Arcee who is the driving force (no pun intended!) behind the pair's actions.

When it comes to characterisation, more attention is paid to her relationship with Daniel than her attachments to Hot Rod or Springer ever received.  Their dialogue as they try to come to terms with their new and unprecedented bond is awkward but intentionally so, and they receive more lines on it (in two separate scenes no less!) than any other headmaster.  Perhaps the deftest handling comes in the sequence where they are interrogated by Lord Zarak.  Throughout this scene, Arcee is headless and held immobile by her restraints.  There is absolutely no visual expression of her emotion (it could be said that, considering Rebirth's animation, this is just as well, but that would be unkind).  She doesn't even have a great deal of dialogue in this scene, since she's trying not to talk.  However, listen to Susan Blu's delivery of the line "Just don't hurt him anymore."  Arcee sounds utterly broken, forced to hand over the key and thus risk all Cybertron in order to protect Daniel.  Was it a smart choice (personal opinions of Daniel aside)?  Since, as Zarak said, they could have ripped her apart to get the key anyway, then yes logically.  Also yes emotionally and morally, considering how dependent Daniel is on his exosuit.  Too much damage to that could kill him.  Arcee forestalls this, although she showed no inclination to cooperate when it was her own health at stake.

This was Arcee's introduction to Season 4—which, of course, never continued.  But writer David Wise laid the groundwork for all sorts of potential developments of the Arcee/Daniel headmaster.  The Headmaster bond in itself is intriguing with a good deal of trust and sacrifice required from both sides.  Daniel's bond to Arcee needs this all the more because, unlike the Nebulan headmasters, Daniel is restricted to his exosuit.  Should Gort finally get sick to the back teeth of Highbrow, he could walk away and return to normal either permanently or temporarily.  Daniel and Arcee are committed to each other; at most, Daniel could only transfer to another Autobot (it is, of course, impossible to be sure what ground-rules the cartoon would have laid down for how permanent the headmaster bond is).  There would be no more privacy for either of them, no way of being alone.  It therefore seems unlikely that Arcee would be seriously attached to another male Autobot in this series, with the possible exception of casual flirting—this in itself a step forward for the cartoon which seemed unable to let female transformers function without significant others.

The exact nature of their relationship could be expanded upon in various ways.  Arcee largely seems to be protective of Daniel in quasi-maternal fashion.  This could provide strife between them later, and put her in several difficult positions.  She's willing to risk herself, we know this, but what about risking Daniel?  She's going to have to face up to her main weakness now, because Daniel's unlikely to want to hold back on his own account.  She's also going to have to accept that Daniel can take care of himself—he is nowhere near as helpless or innocent as he once was.

What about Daniel's feelings for Arcee?  He's unlikely to see her as a mother figure.  It's possible that he has a crush on her, in a way.  After all, if Season 2 can have human/Autobot romance in Sea Change and The Girl who Loved Powerglide, then Season 4 might have thought about going a similar route with Daniel.  He's about fourteen now, and Arcee has probably been the biggest female influence in his life outside of his mother.  This isn't to say that a full-blown romance would develop between the two of them (it would take a lot of plotline to make it conceivable that Arcee would reciprocate), but it's hard to see any other girl matching up to Arcee in Daniel's mind easily.

Certain aspects of this the cartoon may not have gone into.  Daniel is approaching puberty, and there's going to be a point where he's going to want to be something other than the driver of a pink car.  How is he ever going to have a normal family life (medical miracles aside)?  Similarly, how much of a sacrifice is Arcee willing to make?  She has signed up for roughly eighty years of this; she could easily have eight million years afterwards to make up for it, but will she (can she) let Daniel have his own life if it means she is reduced to spending most of her time in vehicle mode?  Would Daniel be content to be merely her head for the rest of his days?  Arcee and Daniel ten to twenty years on would be an interesting scenario.

Of course, we didn't even get to see Arcee and Daniel after ten days of being Headmasters.  Rebirth introduced us to many possible plot elements for Season 4 and then left us hanging—and the Japanese cartoon, Headmasters, does not follow Rebirth's continuity.  So Arcee's development came to an end just as she was starting to achieve originality.  Throughout Season 3, it seemed that nobody was comfortable having the one female character be nothing more than a love interest... the problem was, it took too long for anybody to figure out what do with her beyond that.  The series ran out of steam before she did.

Just how successful a character was Arcee?  Whether she was a step forwards or backwards for feminism depends largely on the episode and your own personal definition of gender equality.  The playing down of her gender is preferable to having it thrust in our faces that "She's a Girl, but she's Just as Good as the Guys" (which is probably what would have happened had Transformers come along ten years later).  Likewise, it is probably a good thing that the writers chose not to deal directly with her relationship with Springer—it lends itself too easily to unbearable corn and isn't particularly original in the first place, but it's a shame that nobody really tried to script another aspect of character development for her until it was too late. 

That said, what vestiges of an actual personality she does acquire through the series are generally appealing.  She's a change from the action-fighter type of Ultra Magnus or Springer without being a repetition of any of the less gung-ho characters like Blurr or Perceptor.  By her last appearance she has all the potential for a very interesting character.  Today she's still widely remembered, and her lack of a toy has never been regretted more.  Susan Blu was certainly fond of her role, which led to Arcee's reference in Beast Wars (famously voice-directed by Blu).  However, the true conclusion as to Arcee's success lies in this question: is she remembered for being Arcee or for being the female?  Sadly, perhaps unfairly, the answer is probably the latter.

The stories on this website are inspired by and based on characters created by Hasbro/Takara and Sunbow.