Puppet

Autobots and Decepticons land on a mysterious planet where there's an evil version of Optimus.

=Armada Episode 43=
 * Canadian air date: September 19th, 2003
 * American air date: November 7, 2003
 * Preceded by: Miracle
 * Followed by: Uprising
 * Characters (in order of appearance: Megatron, Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Red Alert, Starscream, Nemesis Prime, Prime, Overload, Thrust

Synopsis
On the bridge of his ship, Megatron blogs to himself about how happy he is that Optimus is alive again, which confuses his minions.

On top pf the hull of the Axalon, Optimus gets reintroduced to his crew, and the Mini-Cons escorting the ship. But the welcoming party is cut short by an electrical space anomaly that suddenly appeared in the ship's path. Hot Shot ad Red Alert are pulled into the hole, which fades away.

On a strange alien landscape, Hot Shot and Red Alert reawaken. Red Alert quickly acts responsibly and sends a beacon to the Autobot ship. Next, the two survey the irregular terrain they arrive in. A dark copy of Optimus Prime assaults and chases the two.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons begin their hunt on the planet for their enemies. Their attention is brought to the noise of the Autobot's fight. The three Decepticons transform to assist the black scourge who introduces himself as Nemesis Prime. Using an amazing ability to alter his own shape, Nemesis Prime turns on Megatron, holding the Decepticon leader in the air.

The Decepticons and Autobots both fight against Nemesis Prime, but the battle quickly comes down to Megatron resorting to the use of the Requiem Blaster. The resulting explosion destroys the Prime-doppleganger and damages the Autobots.

In space, the Mini-Cons guide the Autobot ship to the planet with their two missing friends.

Megatron prepares to finish off both Autobots. Starscream interjects, suggesting using the Autobots as captives. Megatron buys Starscream's disguised compassion. Nemesis Prime re-forms from fragments on the ground and battles the Decepticons again, this time with a sword, but the arrival of Mini-Cons takes the menace down. Before they leave again, the Mini-cons bathe the gathered bulks in energy, repairing them and giving the large transformers new colors.

The Axalon arrives over the planet, dropping Optimus and Overload onto the surface. A giant Nemesis Prime emerges from the ground for a third attempt at destroying the Transformers. When Optimus and Megatron combine their ordinance, the creature finally dies, revealing a brief transparent image of Sideways before vanishing. With Nemesis Prime destroy, the planet begins to disintegrate, and so the Autobots and Decepticons return to their ships and continue on their voyage to Cybertron

Quotes
"Nemesis Prime will... destroy!"
 * -Nemesis Prime

"This fighting must end."
 * -Leader-1

"I look like.... Thundercracker."
 * -Starscream

"As Galvatron, I have even more power!"
 * -Meg-err, Galvatron

Aberrations, Errors, Contrarieties

 * The intro to the episode has a unique narration that mentions the kids, which flows into a recap of the last episode.


 * Nemesis Prime's has a trailer in the animation, the toy does not.


 * Why couldn't Prime have arrived on the planet seconds before the Mini-Con and receive his Powerlinx colors like the rest of the Transformers with Powerlinx colors? Only Stephen Colbert knows and he's not telling.


 * Thrust and Cyclonus also had Powerlinx colorations that were never used in the series.


 * Optimus doesn't wish to use the Space Team Mini-Cons as weapons but has no problem suggesting Megatron to use them?


 * Overload's sudden appearance was on the "to-do" list of things to be explained in the Linkage series, but there was never time for it. So all we can insinuate is that it's a big weapon set that for whatever reason Prime was unable to bring to battle before.