The Human Element
From Transformers Wiki
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| "The Human Element" (Brave Maximus no Nazo) "The Mystery of Brave Maximus" | |||||||||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | ||||||||||||
| Airdate | 22 November 2000 (Japanese) February 23, 2002 (English) | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Junki Takegami (Japanese) Tom Wyner (English) | ||||||||||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | ||||||||||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | ||||||||||||
Scourge has Maximus
How can the Autobots win?
The Onishi plan
Contents |
Synopsis
Galvatron is unhappy that Scourge failed to control Fortress Maximus and tasks the Decepticon with finding what went wrong. Sky-Byte, hoping to ingratiate himself with Galvatron once more, spies on Scourge and Mega-Octane as they examine Cerebros. Scourge comes to the conclusion that Maximus obeyed Koji because of his humanity, and locates Maximus in Sector 18 (with some help from Cerebros and Movor).
At the Autobot base, T-AI has also been working on the problem of why Maximus obeyed Koji. Side Burn suggests that Koji might have some special power, but his father rubbishes the suggestion. Suddenly T-AI reports Decepticon activity in Sector 18, and Optimus realises they're after Maximus. He and the Autobot Brothers rush there with Dr. Onishi and son.
Scourge has already found Fortress Maximus by the time the Autobots arrive, and he has the other Decepticons form Ruination to hold them off. Side Burn's left babysitting Koji and his father as X-Brawn and Prowl try to take down Ruination with no success at all. Scourge announces that he's realised that Maximus will only obey humans—fortunately when he scanned in his Earth mode, as well as Optimus and the truck, he also scanned Kelly, which gave him human bio-energy—bio-energy which he has magnified a hundred-fold. Sure enough, when Maximus transforms, Scourge is able to enter his command centre and control the giant. Sky-Byte, who's been lurking in the sands, laments that now he won't be able to redeem himself with Galvatron.
Ultra Magnus arrives and merges with Optimus, but even Omega Prime's formidable arsenal is unable to shake Maximus. Koji believes he can still make Maximus obey him, and Side Burn takes the boy closer to allow him to try to issue commands. Scourge's control is too powerful, and Maximus kicks up a wave of sand which sends Side Burn flying into the air. Side Burn transforms in mid-air causing Koji to fall, but the boy is caught by the unwitting Sky-Byte. Sky-Byte flees in embarrassment at Koji's gratitude.
Although all seems lost, Dr. Onishi announces he has the answer—more human bio-energy. Team Bullet Train and the Build Team arrive via the Global Space Bridge, carrying a thousand children between them. With the children all shouting at once for Maximus to stop, Scourge finds himself unable to make Maximus move, and is blasted out of the command centre by Omega Prime. Fortress Maximus sinks into the ground, but at the last moment Galvatron swoops down out of nowhere and carries Cerebros off.
Koji apologises for endangering himself to try to stop Maximus, but Dr. Onishi responds that he is proud of his son for risking everything to help his friends. Optimus says that they will get Cerebros back and defeat Galvatron's forces.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"I'm not special, I'm just... me."
- —Koji is a humble boy.
"Nonsense. There's no evidence to support such an outlandish theory."
- —Doctor Onishi is somewhat blunt in ruling out his son's specialness.
"Koji, being able to eat three cheeseburgers in one meal is your special power."
- —Doctor Onishi on his son's specialness.
X-Brawn: Aren't you forgetting something? One of us has to stay with Koji and his father.
Prowl: And we agreed that it would be you, remember?
- —What's the bet that "we" didn't include Side Burn?
"I was taking a nap, but your whining was so loud it woke me up. What's your problem, Side Burn?"
- —Ultra Magnus is not a morning person.
Koji: Gee, Sky-Byte! Thanks for saving me again!
Sky-Byte: Ahhh?! It was an accident! A fluke, a fin, a flounder! Noooo! If Galvatron finds out I've saved you again, he'll—I don't even want to think about it!
- —You can't keep a good shark down.
T-AI: When Dr. Onishi contacted me and asked me to send a thousand children into the desert, I thought he'd lost his marbles. But as it turns out, he was right all along.
- —The moral of this story is: when in doubt, send a thousand kids into the desert.
"We'll rid this planet of Galvatron and his gang of evil-doers, I promise you."
- —...did Optimus just say "evil-doers"?
Notes
Differences with Car Robots
- Robots in Disguise adds a "Previously on Transformers" segment to the start of the episode.
- The opening scene in the Megastar is extended for Robots in Disguise, with an extra close-up shot of Galvatron added to the start. Additionally, the rear-view shot of Scourge is one, continuous shot in Car Robots, but Robots in Disguise splits it in two (presumably because it was a noticeably long shot of absolutely nothing moving or doing anything), putting the second close-up shot of Galvatron and the front-view of Scourge and Sky-Byte between the two pieces of footage.
- As Scourge and Mega-Octane regard the prone Cerebros, Robots in Disguise replaces the opening few lines of their conversation with another exchange about Cerebros's "command block" (see last episode's notes for more details). In Car Robots, Mega-Octane is questioning the hastiness of Scourge's promise to Galvatron that they will solve the mystery of Cerebros, and Scourge retorts that his promise is a lie, and that he will be using Fortress Maximus to conquer the universe for himself.
- In the course of the conversation between Scourge and Mega-Octane that follows, this episode introduces the existence of the "command block" into the Car Robots versions of the show (called a "black box" in the Japanese script). Scourge has not yet deduced that Koji was responsible for stopping Maximus, and it is when this "black box" is talked about that Mega-Octane suggests that its primary directive would be the protection of the Earth, leading Scourge to realize Koji's role in things. In Robots in Disguise, the command block is an established fact already, and per the end of the previous episode, Scourge has already sussed out Koji's involvement, so Mega-Octane's dialogue is changed to him making incorrect guesses about Maximus's failure to obey Scourge.
- When Mega-Octane contacts Movor, a Car Robots scene transition is replaced with a Robots in Disguise one. Movor's little nonsense-song ("I'm a seagull, I'm a duck, I'm just kidding!"), meanwhile, is replaced with him responding formally to Mega-Octane's orders. His voice runs over the scene as if we are seeing the emergence of Maximus from his POV in Robots in Disguise, which the silence of Car Robots does not imply.
- The scene in the Autobot base is snipped and clipped in a lot of trivial little ways for Robots in Disguise, with numerous shots being cut short, reducing the whole scene's total runtime by about 9 seconds.
- T-AI's explanation of the command black/black box in Car Robots doesn't really tell us anything we don't know, but in Robots in Disguise, the technical elements of the system are played up, and an explanation is added in to justify why Cerebros obeyed Scourge but Fortress Maximus didn't. Koji and Maximus's connection is described in more burning spirit-y terms in Car Robots, with "heroic spirits" reaching out to one another, while Robots in Disguise opts for a more sci-fi approach, talking about a mental link akin to telepathy.
- In Car Robots, Side Burn gets much more invested in the notion that Koji has a special power to control Fortress Maximus, and talks about it several times during the episode.
- When Koji expresses his desire to join the Autobots in battle in Car Robots, he specifically flags up his apparent ability to control Maximus, which his dad then makes a point of refuting, before expressing his desire to go with them as a representative of Earth. In Robots in Disguise, the scene is flipped around, as Koji makes mention only of his own bravery, and it is his father who suggests they should go because of Koji's connection with Maximus.
- After the Autobots arrive in the desert, Robots in Disguise inserts the transformation stock footage for all three Autobot Brothers, followed by a shot of the three moving into shot one after the other.
- After Ruination takes down X-Brawn and Prowl, Side Burn does some panicked looking around; in Car Robots, his dialogue as he looks off-screen is about Scourge having made it to Fortress Maximus, while in Robots in Disguise, it's reimagined as him calling out to Optimus.
- Robots in Disguise adds in the notion that Scourge has increased the human part of his bio-signature "a hundredfold"; he doesn't imply he's doing anything different in Car Robots.
- After Maximus transforms, Car Robots cuts to commercial break; when it returns, it opens on a similar shot of Maximus, with Scourge at his feet, followed by a shot of Scourge raising his hand to command the giant. As Robots in Disguise does not go to commercial here, rather than have two near-identical shots of Maximus back to back, it adds a modified version of the shot of Scourge in between them, lacking the raised hand.
- During the scene of Scourge entering Maximus's command module, Robots in Disguise is apparently stuck with some unfinished animation that was later corrected for the DVD release of Car Robots. The glowing orb of light that surrounds Scourge lines up with the circular indentation in the chamber wall in Car Robots, but in Robots in Disguise, it's offset, falling lower in the animation.
- In response to Ruination's inquiry, Car Robots has Scourge confirm that his theory about humans being able to control Maximus is true. In Robots in Disguise, he instead talks about how he will crush his enemies, including Galvatron.
- After Scourge instructs Maximus to stomp the Autobots, Robots in Disguise goes to commercial break. When it returns, it re-orders the first two shots from Car Robots, moving a long shot of Maximus up to before a wild-take reaction from X-Brawn and Side Burn.
- When Doctor Onishi stops Koji from leaving, Car Robots has the doctor make clear that it's his own concern for the boy that is prompting his actions; in Robots in Disguise, Onishi instead tells Koji the Autobots wouldn't want him to get hurt. Nice parenting, doc.
- In-keeping with earlier scenes in Car Robots, when Koji finally gets in Side Burn, Doctor Onishi insists that Koji doesn't have any special powers and won't be able to control Maximus. In Robots in Disguise, this is replaced with Onishi stating that he won't be able to override Scourge this time because he's controlling Maximus from the command module. This plot point is part of Car Robots, but doesn't come up until a little later: when Scourge talks to himself after Sky-Byte saves Koji, he realizes that his being in the module was what prevented Koji from usurping his control.
- Just before Maximus sends Side Burn and Koji flying with a sand-wave stomp, Koji's dialogue in Car Robots continues to be him calling out to Maximus. In Robots in Disguise, it's changed to instead having him talking to Side Burn, telling him to get closer.
- When Doctor Onishi contacts Koji before the other human children arrive, Car Robots continues with the whole noble burning spirit stuff, with an added dash of "power of friendship". Robots in Disguise goes more science-y again, replacing this with Onishi talking about Scourge's amplified bio-signature, and the fact that they can overpower it with more children.
- After Scourge's defeat, Robots in Disguise cuts to commercial, removing the dissolve that links the scene to the next in Car Robots.
- While it's been proven that there's nothing unique about Koji's connection to Maximus, Robots in Disguise tries to thematically follow through on the idea that Koji is special for its final scene, with Onishi telling him that his courage and the goodness in his heart are "very special indeed." Car Robots, on the other hand, goes for a very... Japanese sentiment, and basically has his father tell him "You're not special, special people don't exist, so work hard and find something you're good at instead".
- Robots in Disguise turns the ending speech between Optimus and Koji into a gushing "power of friendship" affair, as they vow to work together to stop Galvatron and save Earth. In Car Robots, their discussion is about this episode's revelation that Maximus is designed to be controlled by a human with a "heroic spirit".
Animation and/or technical glitches
- The strange-looking eel/fish that swims across the opening shot of the Megastar is presumably supposed to be swimming close to camera, but it then passes behind the rock on which the ship is resting, making the creature appear absurdly gigantic.
- When Sky-Byte is half-buried in sand, his exposed flipper is wrongly coloured white instead of blue, and appears to be an uncomfortably large distance away from his main body.
- The children accompanying the Build Team in the finale are really, really small.
Continuity errors
- Optimus says they found Maximus in Sector 18 (which appears to be in Libya), but Maximus was found underneath Metro City!
Transformers references
- Scourge announces he's going to crush the Autobots like Insecticons.
- When Side Burn super-charges, he first turns transparent. This brief appearance was the basis for the "clear" redeco of his toy released as an exclusive at a few Japanese conventions, featuring body panels that turn clear while their flames remain colored, and coloured interior components (like his robot limbs) visible beneath them. The one major difference is that this is a clear version of his regular coloration, featuring blue highlights and visible parts, whereas the toy itself is a clear version of his super coloration, with orange highlights.
Real-world references
- As Scourge pilots Maximus forward to achieve the aforementioned crushing, he quips that it's "one step for Maximus, one giant leap for the Decepticons", an obvious reference to Neil Armstrong's first words upon setting foot on the moon. Except with somewhat more evil.
Trivia
- Dr. Onishi gets a ride to the desert in X-Brawn. He sits in the passenger seat next to X-Brawn's head, which appears to be driving. (Toy accuracy!) X-Brawn's head isn't always there, or else Kelly would surely have noticed it by now.
- Once again, Ultra Magnus's demonstrates his uncanny knack of coincidentally showing up at the right place at the right time. He was taking a nap in the middle of a desert in central Africa? Yeah.
- Corralling trainloads of children and teleporting them into a Libyan desert is something the Autobots can just do at short notice, it seems.
- This episode is one of the few times a Transformer has switched to robot mode while carrying a human passenger. Rather than being either squished to death or torn to pieces by the moving metal parts, the passenger is ejected. The same thing happens in "The Secret of the Ruins". Miko survived inside Bulkhead during his transformation in "Darkness Rising, Part 4," but was not ejected. Optimus Prime in Revenge of the Fallen and Bumblebee in Dark of The Moon also did this, with the passenger (in both cases Sam Witwicky) being ejected. This kinda defies logic but Transformers is for kids so....
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Il fattore umano" ("The human factor")
- The voices of the thousand children... are clearly just a few voices, like four or five...
Portuguese
- Title: "O Elemento Humano" ("The Human Element")
Spanish
- Title: "El elemento humano" ("The human element")
- Sky-Byte's reaction to saving Koji omits the fin and flounder pun due to it being impossible to translate. And adds a line of him worrying that Galvatron will use him to make ceviche.
Home video releases
- DVD
2001 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 9 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
