Dark Awakening

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Yeah, let this be how the kids remember their hero.

Optimus Prime is revived as a zombie by Quintessons.

Detailed synopsis

No, keep all MacGuffins away!

On the run from Galvatron, Rodimus, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Spike and Daniel take refuge on board the mausoleum ship containing many of their deceased comrades. These include Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Huffer, and Optimus Prime. While exploring by himself, Daniel is stuck in a dark room with robot corpses and gets appropriately creeped out. When he finds the others he swears he has seen Optimus Prime alive. To satisfy his curiosity and against the opinions of the other Autobots, Rodimus opens Prime's tomb only to find it empty.

However, they cannot investigate further because the Decepticons have followed them inside and attack them. The fierce battle that follows appears lost for the Autobots when suddenly they are saved by none other than Optimus Prime. Freaked, the Decepticons retreat.

The Autobots are amazed and confused at his presence. Optimus can give them no explanation to his apparent resurrection, just the typical near-death experience of seeing darkness and then a light at the end of the tunnel.

Rodimus Prime eagerly (too eagerly) returns the Matrix of Leadership to him, despite Prime's bizarre behavior and damaged appearance, and against the advice of Kup and Ultra Magnus. Without the Matrix inside him, Rodimus reverts to Hot Rod and declares, "Let's party!" Optimus evidently has other plans and attacks the Autobots and sets the auto-destruct sequence to the mausoleum ship. He then departs and leaves the others stranded.

After returning to Cybertron, Optimus declares Rodimus and the others killed by the Quintessons. He re-assumes command and orders an all-out attack on a supposed Quintesson base. The Autobots obey without question or explanation (loyal bunch, aren't they?) and the entire Autobot fleet heads into battle. The Dinobots stay behind to "guard the base."

Hot Rod and his group manage to escape and return to Cybertron, only to find that most of the Autobots have left to attack the Quintessons. They pursue the fleet in their own ship, but their frantic calls to stop the attack are dismissed by Optimus as Quintesson tricks.

Hot Rod and the others finally manage to board the lead ship and the former Rodimus goes "Optimus hunting" after his his zombified mentor. When the two meet, Optimus starts to pound on Hot Rod, but as he's kicking Hot Rod's tailpipe he begs Hot Rod to defeat him.

It is finally revealed that the Quintessons stole Optimus Prime's corpse and reanimated it with their own evil programming to lead all Autobots into a trap. Optimus is nothing more than a "mindless zombie." However, since the Matrix of Leadership is inside him, Prime's true, heroic self is overriding the Quintesson evil.

Hot Rod is physically overcome by Prime, but the Matrix finally reverts the evil programming and Optimus returns it to Hot Rod's chest cavity. Prime then takes control of the ship, and orders the Autobot fleet away from the Quintesson trap.

The irreparable Optimus' last act is to pilot the Autobot flagship into the trigger zone of the Quintesson trap. And thus, the tears of Daniel Witwicky and many other thousands of young boys flowed all over again.

However, a voice asks if this is really the end of our beloved Autobot? The voice also mentions a return.

Stats

Written by:

Notable quotes

• Spike: "Great. What'll Daniel and I do when the air runs out?"
  Rodimus Prime: "Basically you've got two choices: suffocate, or smother."

• Optimus Prime: "Decepticons! Leave this place... or die!"

• Arcee: "Sludge! Snarl! Oh, are we glad to see you."
  Sludge: "Me Sludge not glad to see you."
  Snarl: "You all dead! Rarrr!"
  Sludge: "...Maybe we dead."

• Kup: "Where is everybody?"
  Sludge: "All go smash Quintessons."
  Ultra Magnus: "Quintessons? What do the Quintessons have to do with this?"
  Snarl: "They kill you! Optimus Prime say so! ...Uh-oh. Something not right."

Other Notes

• Notes

Animation and/or technical glitches

• Glitches

Continuity errors

• Shortly after Optimus Prime first awakens, Rodimus Prime states that Optimus has been dead "for years". Unless he means dog years, this is impossible, considering season 3 starts immediately after the 1986 movie. Also, Daniel is the same age he was when Optimus died. In actuality, Optimus probably hasn't been dead more than a few months. This works a little better in Japan, though, where the series takes place in 2010.

Transformers references

• References

Real-world references

• References

Miscellaneous trivia

• When Daniel lists the names of the Autobots killed in the shuttle ambush, Brawn (the first casualty of the movie) is mysterously absent, replaced instead by Huffer (whose death is unseen). Brawn and Huffer (miscolored) later reappeared fighting for the Decepticons in the episode Carnage in C Minor (This is usually dismissed as an animation error)

• Optimus returns to Cybertron alone and says that Rodimus, Kup, Ultra Magnus and Arcee gave their lives so he could return and resume command. Well then, what happened to Spike and Daniel? Evidently no one cares.

Keywords

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Death

External links

• IMDb's page for this episode

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