Ghost Town

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A world inside the computer where man has never been. Never before now.
"Ghost Town"
Season	2
No. in season	16
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	September 15, 2019 (Australia/NZ) December 13, 2019 (CN app/website) December 21, 2019 (USA)
Writer	Gavin Hignight
Director	Ehud Landsberg
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

The mission to save Cybertron is threatened when Windblade steals the Allspark and flees to a mysterious planet.

Synopsis

As they walk through the Ark, Cheetor admits to Bumblebee that he sometimes misses his cavern where he and the AllSpark had remained hidden for ages. Bumblebee sympathises and assures him that he'll love Cybertron, and as he mentions how Windblade reacted when she first came to Cybertron the bot in question happens to pass them both by. When she ignores their greetings they call out to her, but are then stunned when they see she's carrying the AllSpark. An attempt to get some answers results in her blowing them away with her fans before absconding with the AllSpark out an airlock.

Teletraan-X psychoanalyses Starscream, who is less than enthused by the computer's efforts. Meanwhile, on the bridge, Optimus Prime is alerted to the Windblade situation and when Teletraan-X detects her at a nearby planet the Autobot leader takes an away team made up of Bumblebee, Cheetor and Hot Rod to investigate. Taking a shuttle, the Autobots soon find what appears to be an ancient and abandoned city. Splitting up, Cheetor quickly finds Windblade seemingly trying to dig into the ground. Hot Rod offers to take the AllSpark off her hands so she can focus on her digging, but is met with a blast from Windblade's fans. As she transforms and flees, the Autobots give chase.

Windblade soon arrives at a large building and begins hacking at the door while Optimus and the others discuss options. Cheetor ominously warns he feels some sort of ancient presence that has taken control of Windblade. However, the time for talk quickly passes as Windblade finally manages to cut through what turns out to be a shell covering the actual door, and enters. The Autobots attempt to pursue, but suddenly auto-turrets emerge from the ground and fire upon them, forcing Optimus to deploy his shield to protect them while the others breach the door. Entering what turns out to be an elevator, the Autobots follow Windblade, descending into the depths.

Back on the Ark, Teletraan-X attempts to earn Starscream's trust by trusting him in return, expanding his cell size by 15%. While initially annoyed, Starscream suggests that increasing the cell's size by an additional 4% would show even more trust, an argument Teletraan-X accepts. The moment the forcefield is expanded, however, the Decepticon quickly tears open a ventilation shaft cover (his true objective) and flees his cell as Teletraan-X realises he's been tricked.

Meanwhile, the Autobots stealthily follow Windblade until they accidentally trigger a trap that separates the team: Cheetor manages to follow after Windblade while the others fight their way through the trap. Once they break through, they find a massive chamber with Windblade and Cheetor confronting each other. Optimus demands the entity possessing Windblade to free her and relinquish the AllSpark, but is rebuffed. The possessed Windblade quickly defeats Cheetor and raises the AllSpark high, the artifact flaring to life and shooting energy into the heart of the chamber. A horrified Cheetor demands to know what she has done.

To everyone's surprise, a massive face appears, one that Optimus identifies as a Titan. The entity has Windblade return the AllSpark to Cheetor as she returns to herself. Letting herself act as a conduit, she reveals the Titan is named Croaton, and that he had come to this world to colonize it with his citizens. However, the colony came under attack by a powerful unknown force that kidnapped the population and left Croaton severely damaged and close to death. It was only sheer chance the Ark was passing by close enough for him to sense the AllSpark and recruit Windblade to bring it to him.

Transforming to his colossal robot mode, Croaton thanks the Autobots and declares he intends to scour space in search of his missing citizens. The Autobots wish him luck, and as they blast off in their shuttle Croatan himself takes into the air. As he passes by the Ark, he picks up an unwilling passenger: Starscream, having just fled the vessel, slams into his massive form and finds himself dragged off by the Titan into the depths of space...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I had infinite power, my enemies on their knees, and now it's all gone."
"And how does that make you feel?"
"...How do you think that makes me feel?! I was the most powerful being in the galaxy! And then—"
"I'm sorry. Our time is up. Hold that thought for our next session."
"Why you insolent little—!"

—Starscream is subjected to poor psychiatric aid by Teletraan-X

"I've determined you have an emotional need for someone to trust you. Thus, I will trust you."
"What's this all about?!"
"I am trusting you. I have given you fifteen percent more cell space. Put it to good use."

—Teletraan-X and Starscream continue their double act.

"Who built this place? Glad they went with something other than blue. Whoever they are."

—Hot Rod

Notes

Continuity notes

• As the episode opens, Cheetor mourns for the cavern where he and the AllSpark lived, which made recurring appearances throughout the season starting from "Trials" until its destruction during the climax of "I Am The Allspark".
• While telling Cheetor about Cybertron, Bumblebee mentions that Windblade is not originally from Cybertron, a fact that was first mentioned back in "Cube".
• Starscream's first line, as quoted above, is a rather accurate, if succinct, summary of "I Am The Allspark."
• Windblade has long since been established as a cityspeaker and stated in "Memory" that she used her abilities to communicate with "entities far greater than can be comprehended," unsurprisingly revealed to be the Titans.

Transformers references

• The idea of the Titans spearheading colonization efforts was first introduced in the 2005-2018 IDW comics, with five (technically four and a mobile spaceship) such worlds being integral to the latter half of Phase Two.
• The concept was also a part of the Titans Return cartoon which, as also presented here, featured cityspeaking as more straightforward telepathy.
• The spaceship in Croaton's flashback is a Quintesson Cruiser.
• Characters happening upon a seemingly deserted city that turns out to be a Titan is something that has been used in the 2005 IDW continuity as well as the Aligned continuity family. By coincidence, both of these starred Metroplex and occurred before the concept of the Titans as a group took hold.
• Croaton's head has a resemblance to Fortress Maximus, whose Titans Return online toy bio identified him as being a Titan.
• The scene of the Autobots staring up at Croaton's giant face from within him was inspired by a similar shot from Marvel's The Transformers #60.^[1]

Real-world references

• Croaton's name comes from the word "CROATOAN", found by English colonist John White when investigating the disappearance of the people of the Roanoke Colony, presumably either referring to Croatoan Island or the Croatan tribe of Native Americans.
• This also plays into the episode's title: when John White arrived at the site of the Roanoke Colony, he found the place fortified but deserted similar to the status of Croaton's city mode (a ghost town generally referring to a location that has been abandoned but is still standing).

Trivia

Animation and technical errors

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La ville fantôme" ("The Ghost Town")
• Original airdate: October 20, 2019

German

• Title: "Geisterstadt"
• Original airdate: December 21, 2019

Indonesian

• Title: "Kota Hantu" ("Ghost Town")
• Original airdate: October 22, 2019

Japanese

• Title: "Croaton no Fukkatsu" (クロートンの復活, "Croaton's Revival")
• Original airdate: December 27, 2019

Malay

• Title: "Bandar Terbiar" ("Abandoned City")
• Original airdate: October 23, 2019

Portuguese

• Title: "Cidade Fantasma" ("Ghost Town")
• Original airdate: December 31, 2019

Home video releases

• TBA

References