The Power of Unicron
From Transformers Wiki
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 Today, the role of Starscream shall be played by Shockblast. | |||||||||
| "The Power" "The Power of Unicron" (Laserwave no Saigo) "Laserwave's Last Moments" | |||||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | ||||||||
| Airdate | 17 September 2004 (Japanese) November 11, 2004 (English) | ||||||||
| Writer | Akira Okeya | ||||||||
| Director | Naoki Ōhira | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D) | ||||||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | ||||||||
Shockblast tries to seize control of Unicron, but can any mere mortal control the Chaos Bringer?
Contents |
Synopsis
Misha and Kicker watch and crack nervous jokes as Unicron self-heals. Jokes aside, Kicker and Arcee exit the Miranda II, with Ironhide backing them up, and make for Unicron's head. The rest of the Autobots head for Unicron's surface, searching for Megatron.
Within, Rodimus and Optimus Supreme are closing in on Megatron's position. Prime notes that he can sense the life force of those around him. Rodimus suspects it's Omega's influence, as Powerlinxed Autobots increase their strength tenfold.
Megatron can't get Unicron to stop his foes. He reasons that Unicron needs more energon, but all his troops are pinned down by the Autobots—all except Shockblast, who is nowhere close to a combat zone but lies that he is. Scorponok sends the Terrorcons for more energon and heads off in pursuit of Kicker, Arcee and Ironhide.
Shockblast bursts into Megatron's chamber, claiming the Autobots are right behind him, prompting Megatron to burst free from his control throne. Shockblast immediately claims the throne for his own, patching into Unicron and taking control. He sends Unicron toward Blizzard Planet.
Unicron's life force, however, proves too much for Shockblast to absorb on his own; it mutates him and sends him rampaging madly through Unicron. He attacks both Autobot and Decepticon, blasting Optimus and Omega straight out into space. They crash-land on Blizzard Planet, and Shockblast follows.
Omega Supreme tells Optimus that Shockblast is now part of Unicron, driven solely by evil instincts.
The Autobots regroup, getting updates on Prime and Kicker. The Autobots relay to Kicker that they won't be able to escape if Unicron repairs himself, but Kicker is undaunted. Rodimus is almost to Megatron's chamber, where Megatron is having some troubles with his control systems.
Even the Powerlinxed Optimus and Omega are having trouble handling Shockblast, but Omega says they do have the power to win.
Rodimus gets ejected from Unicron and hooks up with the other Autobots. Informed that Kicker is still inside, he heads back in to retrieve the boy.
Optimus tries to talk Shockblast to his senses, reminding him that he is a proud warrior. Shockblast resurfaces, and fires on Unicron—only to have Unicron's hand come smashing down to the surface, obliterating him before Optimus's horrified eyes.
Megatron feels Shockblast's life force flowing through him and laughs in triumph.
Kicker has arrived at wherever he's going. Blasting through, Kicker and the two Autobots enter a dark room and find the gray, lifeless husk of Alpha Q. Kicker is furious at his own failure to protect Alpha Q.
Scorponok finds the trio and calls in to Megatron, requesting orders. Megatron, struggling with Unicron, can barely blurt out "Destroy!" Ironhide points out Alpha Q's remains to Scorponok, triggering a war within him over whom he truly serves. As Unicron's defenses suddenly activate, Rodimus arrives and leads Kicker's group to the outside. The Autobots return to the Miranda II and beat a hasty retreat.
Scorponok is ejected from Unicron, crying out Megatron's name. Within, Megatron says that Megatron doesn't exist anymore—there's only Unicron now, and all will bow before him!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Unicron keeps on going and going and going!"
"Kicker, where are you going?"
"Sorry Misha, now I have to go."
- —At the end of the day, we're all wondering, who the hell's going?!
"When Autobots Powerlink, their power is increased tenfold."
- —Rodimus tells a pretty overt lie.
Megatron: "Where is Starscream? Where is he? Starscream! Starscreeeeam!"
Jetfire [to Starscream]: "Hey! I think your mom's callin' ya!"
"Help! Megatron! The Autobots are attacking us and we don't have any backup! Oh! It's just me and Mirage, and you know how useless he is! OWWWCH!! My arms are getting yanked out of their sockets!! AHHHahahah!"
- —Snow Cat, excitable as usual, skiing behind Mirage
"Shockblast! What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm surrounded by the enemy too. Yeah, and I can't move! Can't help you either. Listen, call back in an hour."
- —Megatron and a very sarcastic Shockblast
"Nobody gets past those doors to see Megatron without an invitation!"
"I see! So Megatron's behind this door?"
"Uh—that's not what I meant!"
- —Snow Cat and Rodimus
"You need to chill out! So maybe THIS will cool you off!"
- —Optimus Supreme's ice puns would make Mr. Freeze proud.
Notes
Lost in translation
- The early scenes in particular are freighted with dub padding, extra dialog thrown in to make sure that every single second of the episode has someone jabbering over it. Basically, if you don't actually see someone's lips flapping on the screen (err, so to speak), then the dialog is a dub addition.
- Several subtleties of Kicker's initial plan to search for Alpha Q are lost in the dub, most notably the basic fact that he's going to search for Alpha Q. The dub inserts some nonsense from Kicker about "that's where the action is" and "I hope we can get there before it's too late!"
- The dub also omits Ironhide repeatedly implying that Alpha Q's already dead (and by extension, the search is pointless). In Super Link, Hot Shot points out that he is still Kicker's partner, and Ironhide agrees to go along until Kicker is satisfied. The dub also has Kicker spouting more random lines that make it seem like he's on some kind of mission to destroy Unicron.
- The dub omits Omega Supreme's explanation that Unicron awakens the most base instincts of those whose minds he controls.
- There are some minor editing differences between the two versions as Shockblast whales on Optimus Supreme, seemingly to give Omega Supreme more time in Super Link to yammer about the strength of a strong heart that is strong and has strength.
- In Super Link, Shockblast has no dialog when he's possessed by Unicron, only screaming and growling.
- Optimus' response in the aftermath of Shockblast's death is changed from Super Link having say "unforgiveable" twice, sounding angry both times but far more furious the second, to him now (oddly calmly) saying Unicron has destroyed Shockblast (just in case the lengthy death scene didn't convey that) before angrily shouting Unicron's name.
- The dub downplays Megatron's delighted sensation of having crushed Shockblast with his own arm.
- Super Link features a much longer rant from Kicker over Alpha Q's corpse, complete with longer scene editing. The gist of it is the ol' "he's not really dead as long as we honor his dream" shtick. The dub replaces this with a shorter rant about the team's failure to protect him.
- Megatron's last line ("especially you, Prime"), and Prime's entire mini-monologue, are both dub additions.
Pain count
Perhaps related to the fact that things actually happen, it's surprisingly low:
- "Uh?": 3
- "We're a team": 1
- Stock footage: 1
- "We've got a mission": 1
Animation and technical errors
- Unicron punches the surface of Blizzard Planet with his left arm, but the painted images used in the scene to represent Unicron's massive hand are orange like his right hand. The shot right before Shockblast is crushed depicting Unicron's CGI arm descending to quickly show off his black hand before a giant orange block crushes Shockblast makes it even more jarring. Unicron is also given a really long forearm when his fist breaks through the clouds, and the animation once he crushes Shockblast initially makes it appear as if the ground stopped his impact before the shot after Optimus screams in horror shows his fist is still burrowing into the ground (the shot after Shockblast's spark extinguishes showing Unicron's fist has penetrated the ground such that only his forearm is visible from a distance suggest the latter was the intent).
Real-world references
- Unicron without his head reminded Misha of Halloween. Kicker referenced the headless horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- Kicker possibly references the Energizer Bunny when he says that Unicron keeps going and going... and going!
Trivia
- The episode was originally titled "The Power". Paramount's home video releases renamed it "The Power of Unicron". While this isn't the first episode title to be changed, it is the biggest of those changes in that it materially alters the title (the other changes were alterations to grammar and spelling).
- This episode has a whole lot of hand-drawn moments:
- Shockblast being warped by Unicron.
- Shockblast's death scene.
- The scene immediately following, with Megatron ranting about power.
- Arcee, as usual, when serving as Kicker's transportation.
- This is the first time Unicron speaks coherently throughout the series instead of a series of banal grunts and groans like he's got a nasty case of space constipation. Unfortunately, for those who enjoyed Mark Acheson's rendition of Unicron's voice, that is all but a pipe dream, as Unicron speaks through Megatron, meaning David Kaye gets all his lines.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Lotta per il potere" ("Battle for the Power")
Home video releases
- DVD
2005 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 010 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 4: Omega Supreme (Paramount)
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
