Megatron Rising - Part 2



'''The Autobots are beaten down by the Decepticon invasion, but still must rally to prevent the All Spark from falling into their clutches. '''


 * German title: "Megatrons Auferstehung, Teil 2" ("Megatron's Resurrection, Part 2")

Summary
As Megatron descends to ground level, Optimus, Prowl and Bulkhead look on in disbelief. As he lands, Bulkhead takes point, launching his wrecking ball, but Megatron calmly slices it off before backhanding Bulkhead into a nearby building. Prowl then attacks, but his throwing stars are easily deflected, and he finds himself on the defensive, dodging Megatron's swords. Taking cover behind a bridge support, he manages to avoid them, but Megatron's attacks destroy it, and two children are nearly crushed under the falling rubble, saved only by Optimus borrowing "a move from the Bumblebee play book", using a combination of his wheels and ax to dash forward and snatch the children up. Meanwhile, Prowl is pinned under Megatron's foot, and the Decepticon draws a sword, ready to take revenge for Prowl slicing off the remains of his arm fifty years ago. Optimus saves Prowl by using a combination of his grappler and ax to knock the sword from Megatron's grasp. The two leaders face off, but Megatron simply blocks Prime's blow and kicks him away. As Megatron reaches for his dropped sword, Optimus launches a grappler, tripping him. Megatron follows up by snapping the grappler's line and using it to swing Optimus into the side of a building.



In the tower, Blitzwing wants to join the fight, but Lugnut won't allow him to interfere in Megatron's business. As the two Decepticons argue, Dr. Sumdac tries to make a break for it, only to be blocked by Blitzwing. Meanwhile, Starscream holds a struggling Bumblebee while watching Optimus and Megatron battle, trying to decide whom he'll gain more from by helping, the Autobot or his would-be leader. On the ground, Optimus is taking a beating but says he will never reveal the AllSpark's location. Unfortunately, Megatron simply plans to use the Key to track down the AllSpark. Punching Prime hard enough to send him skidding across the tarmac, Megatron calls out to his loyal Decepticons. Lugnut and Blitzwing immediately respond, and Starscream casually comments on his decision being made for him and throws Bumblebee away. As Lugnut prostrates himself, Starscream drops down on his head, ready to renew his tenure as Second in Command. Megatron comments on the appropriateness of Starscream's presence, takes aim on the Autobots...then quickly jams the Key into Starscream's chest, seemingly draining him of life. Dropping the offline traitor, Megatron asks if there are any other dissenters. Getting a negative response, he turns back to the Autobots, only to discover they've used the distraction to escape. Blitzwing wants to chase after them, but Megatron believes the AllSpark takes priority. At his command the Decepticons transform and roll—er, rise up, tracking their prize.

Isaac rushes outside to find the Autobots badly damaged, and confesses to them that he had rebuilt Megatron. Bulkhead and Prowl seem angry, but Prime decides they have more urgent problems to worry about: they were outclassed by the Decepticons even when in perfect operating condition, and now no longer can rely on Sari's Key to repair them. Isaac suspects that there may be enough residual radiation from the Key left in his lab machinery to repair the Autobots, and they give his idea a try.

Ratchet, working to get the submerged Teletran-1 flight-ready, sends out a security scan which detects the approach of Blackarachnia and Sari. Apparently the girl's sympathy from the previous episode was a ruse: she had been deliberately leading Blackarachnia in circles on the ice to waste time, and also had assumed the half-organic creature would not be able to stay underwater for long—a guess confirmed to be true by an outraged Blackarachnia, who becomes very threatening to Sari. Before the situation can get uglier, Ratchet surfaces the ship through the ice beneath them, rescuing Sari and catapulting Blackarachnia helplessly through the sky. Sari's gratitude at being rescued quickly fades when she finds out that despite "all that crud" about responsible handling, Ratchet lost the Key.

Back at Sumdac Tower, the Autobots are more or less repaired by the leftover energy in the lab machines. Knowing they are still sore at him, Optimus apologizes for his earlier bad attitude and asks them to repair their friendships as well. Sumdac is still feeling guilty about rebuilding Megatron and offers his assistance, though the Autobots are skeptical—both of his loyalty and of what a mere human could offer them. Before they can decide, Ratchet and Sari arrive in the Autobots' ship. The Autobots board the ship, which by now has come under heavy bombardment from the Decepticons.



The Autobots attempt to fly the ship into space, drawing the Decepticons away from Earth's civilians—but some well-aimed missiles wreck the ship's vital systems and that idea along with it. The vessel crashes into the side of the volcanic cone on Dinobot Island. The Autobots gear up for what will surely be a climactic battle; Prime states he is proud to have his current team by his side, while Bumblebee says he'd just as happily have the Elite Guard. The Decepticons close in for their attack, and the Autobots use some of their tactics learned throughout the series to throw them off-balance: Ratchet and Bumblebee combine powers to generate an electromagnetic pulse that temporarily disables Blitzwing, and Bulkhead uses his sheer... Bulkheadness... to force Lugnut to crash. Back on the ship, Isaac is trying to jerry-rig a weapon to use against Megatron; recognizing that they might not survive, he tries to tell Sari something that had been a secret, but instead of listening she rushes off to ask the AllSpark to give her more power so she can help her friends. She asks it why she had been chosen in the first place, but doesn't understand its cryptic "charades" answer.



Unable to match the Decepticons in sheer power, the Autobots manage to prevail by using their own teamwork and playing off the Decepticons' weaknesses—thanks to some clever 'bot tactics, the schizoid Blitzwing and overly talkative Lugnut are basically encouraged to defeat themselves. But Megatron has no apparent weaknesses, except perhaps being cluttered with little shards of Optimus Prime after he finishes beating on the Autobot. Their one-sided fight carries them into the hold of the ship, where Megatron succeeds in acquiring the AllSpark. Before he can celebrate, he is temporarily downed by Isaac, who knows enough about Megatron's circuitry to disable his equilibrium sensors—but although he drops the Key in his stumble, the tyrant isn't down for long. Megatron is about to finish Prime, when Sari hurls Prime the Key and he jams it into the AllSpark's spherical casing, cracking it open. A destabilized Megatron flees the ship before the AllSpark explodes inside his chest, dispersing its energy throughout the atmosphere.

The Key is now the single most powerful Cybertronian artifact, and too important to be entrusted to the care of an Autobot—so Prime returns it to Sari, who uses it to repair all her friends as usual. Megatron still functions and has plans for his new prisoner, Isaac Sumdac.

Stats

 * Written by: Marty Isenberg
 * Directed by: Ben Jones, Ciro Nieli, & Shunji Oga
 * Animation Studio: The Answer Studio
 * Original airdate: April 5, 2008

Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes
Starscream: I am ready to serve as your ever faithful second-in-command. Megatron: Ah, Starscream. How fitting to have you by my side as I finally take my revenge on the one responsible for my fifty stellar cycles of helplessness and humiliation. [Megatron aims the fusion cannon at Optimus, powers it up, then suddenly in a move a certain classic evil genius would be proud of shoves the Key into Starscream, causing him to go offline] Megatron: Does anyone else have a problem with my leadership? Random Blitzwing: Uh, no, we're fine. Lugnut: NEVER!
 * Megatron kills Starscream, reestablishes the pecking order, and causes Random Blitzwing to go an entire scene without cackling hysterically.

"Decepticons, transform and rise up!"
 * Megatron coins his own version of "Transform, and roll out!".

Isaac: Oh dear, this is all my fault! Sari: What? It's not like you built Megatron in your lab or anything. [Isaac Sumdac looks away and uncomfortably taps his fingers] Sari: YOU BUILT MEGATRON IN YOUR LAB?! Ratchet: On the bright side, now I don't feel so bad about losing your Key.
 * One of several awkward moments in this episode for Isaac Sumdac.

"If we go down, we go down fighting. Together. And I can't think of a better band of Autobots I'd be prouder to fight alongside." "Not even the Cybertron Elite Guard? Because I sure wouldn't mind having them here now."
 * Optimus Prime prepares to fight and die while Bumblebee would rather fight and live.

Bumblebee: So what do we do now? Wait for him to turn back into a tank and crash like last time? Ratchet: Nobody gets that lucky twice. Prowl: Perhaps we can make our own luck. I've noticed a connection between Blitzwing's multiple personalities and his vehicle modes. We can use that weakness against him...but it will require using Bumblebee's greatest strength. Bumblebee: What, my stingers? My turbo-speed? Prowl: Your obnoxious personality.
 * Prowl nails friend and foe alike with ninja precision.

Bumblebee: Hey, Blitzbrain! Is that your jet mode, or did your pal Lugnut dump out some spare parts? ...How come you have three faces? Couldn't decide which was the ugliest? ...And who uses ice as a weapon? What are you? A refrigerator? Hothead Blitzwing: YOU WANT HEAT?! I'LL GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE! [Transforms to tank mode and promptly falls out of the sky] OH SLAG, NOT AGAI! [Crashes through ice into the lake]
 * Hothead Blitzwing is his own worst enemy.

"You all fought like Autobots! I can't tell you how proud I am of each and every one of you." "Go on, tell us. We can take it!"
 * Optimus Prime praises the Autobots while Bumblebee showcases his recently discussed "greatest strength".

"I trust you are comfortable in your chair!"
 * Megatron to Isaac Sumdac. The choice of furniture was destined to come back to haunt him.

Continuity errors

 * * At the end of the last episode, Megatron grabbed Professor Sumdac as he was being rebuilt. He apparently put him back down through, as we see that at the start of this episode Sumdac is still in the lab being guarded by Blitzwing and Lugnut. Who then, upon being called by Megatron, fly off and leave Sumdac behind. This leaves Megs to grab Isaac again right at the end of the episode. You'd almost think that the guy wanted to get captured.
 * At the beginning of the series, years were measured as solar cycles to Transformers, but Megatron refers to years as stellar cycles.
 * Megatron said that Prowl slashed off his arm, while he actually lost it due to Starscream planting a bomb on his back. Prowl did, however, slash a part off that remained after the explosion.
 * In "Lost and Found", Ratchet reveals that even with the Key, the ship would not be operational for a "long, long time," but in this episode he is able to get it spaceworthy in about two minutes—without the Key and with only one arm. However, the course of the series makes it clear that many months are going by (notice the changing seasons), so it's possible the Autobots had enough of a "long time" necessary to repair the ship off-camera.
 * Sari recognizes Megatron from his new Earth alt mode, despite never seeing it before. She also seems to know who Megatron is, despite never being told, either. Unless you count her experience with the AllSpark, which never gives a name, just an image. (Of course, it's possible that the Autobots filled her in on Megatron between that episode and this one, but that still doesn't explain how she guesses correctly that the Osprey helicopter behind them is him.)
 * Megatron asks Professor Sumdac if he is comfortable in his chair in the form of Megatron's hand, despite it being the wrong hand.

Animation errors

 * During their initial fight, when Prime says that he won't give up the position of the AllSpark, Megatron seems to be three times the size of Optimus, despite the fact the majority of shots of them together he is only around half again as tall at the most.
 * When Ratchet catches Sari after Blackarachnia drops her, his right arm is intact. In the next scene, it's gone again.
 * Also, when Ratchet, Bumblebee and Prowl are planning on how to stop Blitzwing, Ratchet's arm is intact again, but in the next shot, it's gone again. This happens constantly during the final battle.
 * When Blitzwing changes faces after Megatron coldcocks Starscream, his face rotates vertically, not horizontally as it usually does.
 * The black lanyard attached to the Key keeps disappearing and reappearing.
 * Optimus Prime appears really tiny when he's shown sitting at the Autobot ship's door at the end.
 * The stock footage of Megatron's fusion cannon shows it has some sort of lens in the barrel, which isn't present during the normal animation.

Transformers references

 * The manner in which the Autobot ship is left sticking out of the rock is reminiscent of the original Ark.


 * A key as the most powerful Cybertronian artifact? Most familiar.


 * Putting the AllSpark into his chest did not kill Megatron, unlike his second cousin twice removed.


 * The AllSpark gets dispersed in this episode, just like Prime did with a nearly identical artifact after his resurrection.


 * After "killing" Starscream, Megatron asks his minions if anyone else has a problem with his leadership which is somewhat similar to the original movie where Galvatron asks if anyone else wanted to fill the destroyed Starscream's shoes.


 * The damage Megatron receives after his battle with Optimus Prime is near identical to his Generation One self's damage after his final showdown with Prime in The Transformers: The Movie.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * The intro has a number of new sound effects added in.


 * Despite the fact the Autobot ship crashed on Dinobot Island, Grimlock and company are nowhere to be seen. In an interview, Marty Isenberg said that there was a cut scene in which the Dinobots did come and fight, only to be defeated one-by-one by Megatron in order to show how powerful Megatron was. However, the poor quality of the animation caused the scene to be dropped. Additionally, in retrospect, Isenberg felt things might have worked out for the best, since the scene probably would have annoyed Dinobot fans (not to mention contradicted Grimlock's profile).
 * Since virtually the beginning of the series, fans have been theorizing that Sari may be more than she appears (see her own article for all the details), and this episode includes the first serious in-show hint in that direction. In addition to Professor Sumdac attempting to tell Sari "something important" when he thinks it's possible that they're about to die, a point is repeatedly made of noting that the AllSpark "chose" Sari, and when she asks it why, it projects an image of a DNA strand with a glowing, blue orb at its center. Hmmm...


 * Sari bites Blackarachnia's hand, and somehow, the latter feels pain. Ordinarily, this could be explained away if one supposes that Blackarachnia's hand in robot mode is organic, but you can hear a metallic clang as Sari chomps down on it. That girl has some teeth on her.


 * After 24 years, the Decepticons finally have an equivalent of "Transform and Roll Out." And it's one that makes perfect sense, considering that traditionally, most Decepticons can fly. Even after taking that into consideration, the frequent depiction in Transformers lore of the Decepticons as an insurgent army rising to glory and conquest lends it a certain poetic elegance as well. "Decepticons, transform and rise up!"


 * Megatron's transforming sequence from helicopter to robot is mostly the sequence of robot to helicopter played backwards with a few shots added—or possibly, the robot-to-helicopter sequence is actually the helicopter-to-robot sequence played backwards with certain shots removed. The added/deleted shots are seemingly designed solely for a vehicle-to-robot sequence (such as the reveal of his hands, head, and final elegant "Power Pose"), making the latter guess more likely.


 * Megatron actually punishes Starscream for betraying him. You can count on one hand all the times that has happened in every Transformers series prior to this, combined. And Galvatron blasting him to dust doesn't count.


 * The Animated Decepticons seem to do a better job battling the Autobots when Megatron isn't commanding them.


 * This episode proves that Animated Megatron is awesome and a total badass. But we had already guessed that.