Savage/Noble

''Savage/Noble is a dual-identity mutant character from the Beast Machines television series. The action figure of this character was released under the name Beast Changer due to the trademark for Savage/Noble being unavailable upon release.''

Noble is not a Maximal, nor Savage a Predacon. He is in fact the amalgam of residual organic components of Megatron, who had his technological and organic sides seperated as a side affect of coming into contact with the conflicting energies of the Key to Vector Sigma Program and the Plasma Energy Chamber. This backlash left Megatron's Spark in a completely organic body with two beast forms, similar to the Maximal Mutants. While one form was a gentle, humanoid wolf-like creature named Noble, the other was a feral dragon-like entity (obviously the dominant genetic material left over from Megatron's previously acquired Beast Mode), called Savage.

While trapped inside Noble, Megatron manipulated the Maximals (and more specifically Nightscream) into helping him get back into the Council Citadel. There, he used several Spark Extractors to remove his Spark, and joined together with his gigantic, head-like, floating fortress. This left Noble a Sparkless animal, not native to The Allspark (The Matrix), who still seemed to have a profound attachment to the sensitive young Nightscream. This continued, residual attachment reached its pinnacle upon Noble sacrificing himself in an attempt to destroy Megatron, something for which he was honored by the Maximals.

A major item of debate among Transformers' fans revolves around the existance of the Noble wolf and his connection to Megatron, since Megatron had never been shown to have, or be in any contact with, any sort of wolf-like Beast Mode, wheras the Savage dragon could easily be explained prior to Noble's appearance. It could be reasoned that (as seen during the Beast Wars) the alternate and robot modes of transformers share a more symbiotic relationship than once thought. As such, the existance of Noble could stem from the Dragon Beast Mode's need of a counterpart to stabalize its own physical structure (notice how Noble appears vastly more humanoid than any other wolf/wolf-like mode previously seen when Megatron's Spark remained within him - slightly similar to the humanoid features of most robot modes). Noble's lupine features could also stem from Megatron's multi-leveled, twisted sense of humor; knowing the Maximals would want to absorb any organic sentience into their ranks to directly combat his technology, Megatron literally presented them with A Wolf In The Fold (also the title of a Beast Machines episode).

According to as-yet-unknown sources, this wolf form was originally supposed to come from Silverbolt, who was originally intended to be a traitor to Megatron. The wolf DNA of Silverbolt's Fuzor Beast Mode would've been absorbed into Megatron's dragon DNA during a final confrontation, which would have also explained why Silverbolt returned to the Maximals with an entirely bird-like Beast Mode. Because of the story change, his new Techno-Organic form's Beast Mode was explained away as having still been a amalgam of various creatures (as seen in the fossil chamber), composing something that was even more genetically streamlined than his previous form. It would seem that the Stasis Pod damage Silverbolt's Proto-form suffered in the Beast Wars extended permanently into his very Spark. As the series developed even further, writers would decide that it was amazingly uncharacteristic for Silverbolt (the chivalrous, honorable knight) to be the traitor and opted for Rhinox instead. The story was thus changed accordingly, with Noble/Savages' unique and interesting design/concept (provided by Draxhall Jump) remaining as well as Noble's existance never fully fleshed out.