Open Fire!
From Transformers Wiki
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 Not closed ice. | ||||||
| "Open Fire!" (Shippū! Wing Saber) "A Gale! Wing Saber" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | 25 June 2004 (Japanese) September 4, 2004 (English) | |||||
| Writer | Akira Okeya | |||||
| Director | Shigenori Awai | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D) | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
As the Autobots push their way into Unicron's body, Shockblast betrays Megatron, and Dr. Jones sends all of Earth's energon to Alpha Q.
Contents |
Synopsis
Optimus Prime's team of Autobots charges through Unicron, blasting Terrorcons out of their way. In space, Jetfire splits off from Ironhide and attacks the Terrorcons, while Ironhide runs off somewhere.
Megatron eagerly awaits the approaching Autobots. He recalls his troops, but Scorponok is holding Demolishor and Snow Cat at a standstill, so Megatron simply opens a panel underneath them. Scorponok gets pinned while trying to follow, until Alpha Q manages to free him.
Shockblast is standing around doing nothing, when Inferno gets a surprise shot off at him. But a force shield protects him. Shockblast suddenly announces that he's going to control Unicron and defeat Megatron, to Megatron's amusement.
Eager to prove himself, Ironhide catches up with Prime's group, just in time for Unicron's internal defenses to attack them. But Alpha Q saves them, leaving the team wondering how much control Alpha Q has. Prime leads his men away.
Megatron is still gloating, when suddenly Unicron unleashes an attack of flying spikes at him. Megatron is able to stop them in mid-air, however, and send them back at Alpha Q, who weathers the storm by hiding in his shell.
Kicker tells Alpha Q to focus on helping Optimus instead of trying to defeat Megatron himself. After a moment's thought, Kicker suggests he do this by joining the Autobot team. And by manipulating Unicron. Alpha Q excitedly agrees.
Inferno continues stalking through Unicron, only to find himself facing Demolishor, Snow Cat, and a squad of Decepticons. The tables turn quickly, however, as Scorponok arrives, tossing defeated Decepticons ahead of him.
The Autobots finally remember that they have vehicle modes and transform to keep pushing into Unicron. Kicker reports that Alpha Q is on their side, and tells Misha that energon will win the battle for them.
Dr. Jones gets reports from the various Cybertron Cities about their energon star production. Alexis calls in, rather displeased about the Cities shipping all their energon to Cybertron, leaving Earth in danger. Dr. Jones doesn't relent, and Alexis gives in.
The Autobots hit a snag in the form of a huge crevasse. Prime says he'll go in, prompting Rodimus to point out that this isn't just his private war. Before they can argue further, Megatron answers Prime's challenge for a one-on-one battle by causing a huge fortress/staircase to emerge from the floor before them. Prime walks up, and promptly gets his drone-arms blasted off as Shockblast attacks.
Megatron is furious at Shockblast for interfering with his plan to battle Optimus. Rodimus says that now it's personal, and takes the rest of the Autobots to continue going after Megatron. Prime sends Ironhide with them, saying that he'll heal and regenerate in time. But he reckoned without Snow Cat and Demolishor showing up just then.
Kicker prepares to charge off somewhere, presumably to do something reckless, until Misha stops him with news of his father.
Within the chamber of Primus, Wing Dagger has been restored to life, and vows to make up for his past failure to stop Shockblast. Informed of Prime's injuries, he promises to share his spark with him and heal him. He transforms and flies off.
Snow Cat and Demolishor somehow fail to hit the damaged, one-legged, armless Optimus Prime, long enough for Scorponok to arrive and drive them off. Optimus demands to know what Scorponok wants; he replies that he only serves one master, and he's doing this for Alpha Q, then stalks off.
From Earth and the Moon, Dr. Jones sends the energon into space, through a wormhole.
Shockblast blasts his way into Megatron's chamber and announces his intention to take over, but soon finds himself at Starscream's sword point.
Optimus's energon star is fading, but the energon is approaching. He flashes to images of the humans, the Omnicons, Kicker, his valiant troops, Alpha Q... and the star fades away. The energon surges into Unicron's head, reviving Optimus and unleashing chaos within Unicron's body. Autobots and Decepticons alike go tumbling.
Alpha Q is euphoric as the energon surges around him. He can see his lost planet. Unicron's head charges up into a red glowing orb, with colored sparklies flying out from it. Kicker says that this is only the beginning, now that Unicron's come to life.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
Kicker: "So did you make it?"
Ironhide: "Yeah! But don't ask me how. Hoo hoo!"
Optimus Prime: "I agree."
- —Optimus, "I agree" does not work that way!
Kicker: "The good news is, I convinced Alpha Q to back us on this one. And that means we've got one less thing to worry about!"
Optimus: "Huh?"
[connection closes]
Misha: "Let's just hope Alpha Q can pull through for us."
Kicker: "Uh?"
Misha: "Well, what I mean is... we've got to hope that Alpha Q combined with the Autobots are powerful enough to take down Megatron."
Kicker: "And our secret weapon."
Misha: "What—are you saying?"
Kicker: "The key to this battle is energon. It's just that simple, Misha."
Misha: "Huh?"
Kicker: "We will win this."
- — WHAT THE HELL IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS SCENE?!?
"You're a big help, Kicker! ... NOT!
- — Kicker gets absolutely roasted by Alpha Q.
Alpha Q: "What should we do?"
Kicker: "Help Optimus out and let him destroy Megatron!"
Alpha Q: "Hrm... interestng."
Kicker: "Optimus... is the only one with the power to defeat Megatron."
Alpha Q: "How shall we help him?"
Kicker: "Hrm... ah. I've got it. Join the Autobot team!"
- — Kicker, you are a frickin' genius.
"Heh heh heh. It always amazes me when someone wants my job."
- — Megatron takes Shockblast's betrayal in stride.
Notes
Lost in translation
- In the dub, Jetfire disengages from Ironhide for no apparent reason, telling him to stay out of trouble. In Super Link, he does this specifically so Ironhide can go join the others.
- The dub takes Alpha Q's solid conviction that "Unicron is ours!" and changes into a sort of wishy-washy "I guess we better save Scorponok", which rather negates all the strength of will that Alpha Q has spent the last two episodes cultivating.
- In the dub, Prime says he thinks they might be heading into "one of Megatron's traps". No such trap materializes, because it's the dub changing dialog again. Originally, he just worries that Alpha Q won't be a match for Megatron.
- After all the "team" whiffling in the last couple of episodes, Kicker suddenly suggests, as if for the first time, that Alpha Q should "join the Autobot team". He should be telling Alpha Q to strengthen his will, in order to manipulate Unicron. The dub gets back on track after that one random insertion.
- Amid an otherwise correct translation, the dub has Alpha Q saying that "Unicron will protect us!" right in the middle of talking about how he will not surrender his control of Unicron.
- Misha and Kicker's strange conversation about the "secret weapon" (quoted above) is pretty much entirely dub nonsense. They're supposed to just exchange a few tense words about how Alpha Q may not be strong enough to handle Megatron.
- In Super Link, Prime tells the departing Ironhide to "continue living with Unicron", then briefly wonders what's become of himself in light of this new attitude. The moment of reflection and doubt is totally missing from the dub.
- Nearly all of Wing Dagger's monologue in the chamber of Primus was originally Primus's own dialog. Primus himself is, once again, scrubbed of any dialog in the dub.
- In the dub, Optimus angrily addresses Scorponok as if he were an unwelcome enemy, even though they're on the same side now. In Super Link, Optimus just calls his name, and Scorponok says he will not acknowledge Optimus even though he just saved him, because Optimus wants to destroy Unicron, contrary to Alpha Q's wishes. This continues the theme of Optimus's doubts and change of heart.
- Prime's "hold on, Optimus" thought: dub addition.
- The dub continues its bizarre obsession with Unicron "coming to life", having Kicker state as much in the final line of the episode. In doing so, it totally botches a necessary explanation of an actual plot point: as Kicker says in the final line of Super Link while watching all the little sparkly orb things, Alpha Q has released his planet from Unicron.
Pain count
- "Uh?": 16, plus some "huh - huh - huh - huh" as Ironhide runs, and again as Prime revives.
- Stock footage: none!
- Our planet: 2
- Let's just hope: 2
- Listen up: 1
- It's time to: 3
- I've gotta do this: 1
- We're a team: 1
Trivia
- This episode is another solid example of the ragingly awful dub work on the series as a whole. One conversation after the next fails to correspond with the action or flow internally, and characters' speech is peppered with random "uh?"s and non sequitors which make them all sound like they're totally spaced out or just on drugs. For example, Megatron freezes the attacking spikes in mid-air through force of will... then looks around at them and goes "Huh?" as if he has no idea what's going on.
- Alpha Q is hilarious in this episode, capering and switching heads non-stop. Imagine how funny it coulda been if they'd actually animated his faces?
- When the Desert City Omnicons report that they have about a thousand Energon Stars, they reuse footage from the first episode.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Nelle viscere del mostro" ("Inside the Monster's Viscera")
Home video releases
- VHS
2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 3: Shockblast Unleashed (Paramount)
- DVD
2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 007 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 3: Shockblast Unleashed (Paramount)
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
