Swoop (Armada episode)

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Titles
English (Dubbed)	Swoop
English (Translated)	Sword
Japanese (Katakana)	つるぎ
Japanese (Romanized)	Tsurugi
Themes
Opening (Japanese)	Transformer - Dream Again
Ending (Japanese)	Never Ending Road
Opening (English)	The Transformers Theme
Ending (English)	The Transformers Theme (instrumental)
Details
Season	Armada
Episode (season)	013 (Armada)
Episode (series)	013 (Unicron Trilogy)
Episode (lifetime)	385 (Transformers)
Airdates
Japanese	04. April 2003
International	November 29, 2002
Navigation
Previous	Prehistory
Next	Overmatch

Swoop is the thirteenth episode of Armada. It first aired in the United States on November 29, 2002 on Cartoon Network.

Content

Summary

The Decepticons, intent on completing the Star Saber, invade the Autobot base.

Plot

Patrolling the skies, Cyclonus searches for the exact position of the Autobot base, for which the Mini-Con Sonar was able to determine the general location. Demolishor is surprised that Megatron can understand the Mini-Cons' language. Cylonus finds the base, and Megatron, having gained another advantage, has a hearty laugh. Within the Autobot base, Alexis, Carlos and Rad start to give Billy and Fred the grand tour. But before the two can be shown around, an alarm goes off, and Alexis, Carlos, and Rad rush to the control room, abandoning their friends. Billy has the brilliant idea for himself and Fred to explore. Meanwhile, Optimus notes that a warp gate has opened within the base. Megatron and the Decepticons, along with Sonar, arrive in the Autobot base and are soon caught on security cameras. Red Alert activates some defense devices built into the base by Hot Shot. Billy, hopelessly lost as Fred predicted they would be, concedes that his navigational skills have failed him. The Decepticons walk by, not noticing the humans, and come under attack from the defense lasers, unwittingly putting the two humans into danger. Optimus characteristically orders a ceasefire, and Megatron assumes it must be a system malfunction and presses forward. Red Alert determines that the Decepticons are tracking the Mini-Con storage panels that contain the other two Star Saber Mini-Cons, Runway and Jetstorm, and Hot Shot eagerly rushes to confront them. Optimus takes the panels elsewhere, drawing the Decepticons away from the control room. Alexis then uses the room's computer to track Billy and Fred's movements within the base and find out what is happening around them. Hot Shot, on his own, attacks the Decepticons, but Megatron uses his antlers to grab Hot Shot's head, suspend the Autobot in the air, and then toss him aside like trash. The other Autobots arrive, and Smokescreen quickly activates a, well, smokescreen, to allow them to fall back into a separate chamber. By the time the Decepticons blast through the door, they only see Hot Shot drive away. The Autobots use the chase to isolate each Decepticon from the rest and take them out to stop the group from reforming:

• Demolisher ends up on the receiving end of Smokescreen's versatile hook and gets lassoed before Smokescreen pulls him in for an unknown fate.
• Red Alert baits Starscream into a hall of mirrors, his reflected taunts leading the seeker into a trap pit. Starscream dodges the closing panels as he attempts to soar out in vehicle mode, even breaking one wing in the process as a price, but alas, the exit closes on him regardless of which ever way it works for him.

The three friendly human kids find their two jerky peers, and Cyclonus finds all five of them. The Decepticon intends to capture and ransom them for the Mini-Cons, but they use the Autobots' warp gate to send Cyclonus to someplace far away where he can chill out and cool his jets... Megatron, the only Decepticon left, is double-teamed by Optimus and Hot Shot, but the skirmish leads to Megatron holding his cannon right up to Hot Shot's face, thus the concept of "held at cannonpoint" comes into effect. Sonar awakens his brethren within Hot Shot's hand, and Megatron seizes the Star Saber. But just as he holds his new weapon in the air, Optimus blasts it out of Megatron's hands, directly into Hot Shot's. Megatron Powerlinks with Leader-1 and offers Hot Shot one last chance to reconsider his side, which Hot Shot refuses. Now that Hot Shot's mind is made up, Megatron signs and seals his choice personally by opening fire. The torrent of energy blasts blows back Hot Shot, but the coaching of his human friends, and Rad's advice to "Powerlink" with the Star Saber, gives him the inspiration he needs to use it to resist Megatron's gunfire. After Hot Shot gets close enough to slice off one of Megatron's antlers, the Decepticon leader orders an immediate withdrawal. Optimus lets Hot Shot keep possession of the Star Saber, and the children celebrate this victory. On the moon, Megatron wishes revenge so hard it hurts.

Trivia

Characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Mini-Con guests
Optimus Prime (12) Red Alert (13) Hot Shot (15) Smokescreen (16) Mini-Cons Sparkplug (14) Sureshock(17)	Megatron (1) Cyclonus (2) Demolishor(4) Starscream(5) Mini-Cons Blackout (3) Leader-1 (20)	Regulars Rad (7) Alexis (8) Carlos (9) Billy (10) Fred (11) Guests	Sonar (6) Jetstorm (18) Runway (19)

Quotes

"I'm really not a big fan of surprises, you guys!"

—Fred

Fred: "Where are we, Billy?"
Billy: "Hey, you got me."
Fred: "You see? It's happening again. We're lost. I'm hungry. And I want to go home. Why does this always happen to us?"
Billy: "Ugh."
Fred: "Go on. Say it."
Billy: "Uhh...OKAY! I don't have any idea where we are!"
Fred: "I knew you'd say that."
Billy: "Well, at least things can't get any worse than this, I guess."

—Fred proves to be far better at predicting the future than Billy, right before the Decepticons find them.

"It's...it's...MEGAFROG!"

—Billy, before running away.

"Maybe they ran out of ammo."
"Lasers don't run out of ammo!"

—Cyclonus and Starscream trade ideas on why the automatic defenses have stopped shooting.

Hot Shot: "Man, that laugh of yours is really annoying. We take trespassing very seriously around here. So I suggest you all better leave, right now."
Megatron: "Try and make us, if you dare."
Hot Shot: "Hey, it's a tough job, but, uh, somebody's gotta do it."

—Hot Shot fails to intimidate Megatron.

"Try and download THIS!"

—Hot Shot risks attacking Megatron with a bad computer pun as he charges him.

Billy: "Cyclo-butt!"
Fred: "That's Cyclonapus!"
Cyclonus: "It's Cyclonus!"
Billy: "...Thanks for clearing that up, mister."
Fred: "You have a nice day!"

—Billy, Fred, and Cyclonus are all in a rare purposeful Armada name mix-up

"Hurry, everybody, find a place to hide!"
"Hahahaha, now it's time to play! Come out, come out, wherever you are! No use hiding from me, children; my sensors can detect the heat from your bodies! Or maybe you want to play hide-and-go-squish?"

-- Rad gets his friends to hide in the warp gate room, and Cyclonus gets to be mean.

"Time for a SYSTEM CRASH!"

—Lame computer pun #2 from Hot Shot as he tackles Megatron

Megatron: "Yes, this is more like it, I'm going to pixelate every one of you Autobots."
Optimus: "He's out of control."
Megatron: "Now you will do as I say: hand over all your Mini-Cons to me, or I'll have no choice but to reformat your friend's memory bank."
Hot Shot: "You... won't get anything from me!"
Megatron: "Then I'll have to execute your program."

—Megatron gets computer-pun vengeance on Optimus Prime and Hot Shot.

"For the last time: access denied."

—Hot Shot tries something different for rejecting Megatron's offer of allegiance: a computer pun!

Notes

Animation and/or technical glitches

• During the close up of Sonar sitting upon Megatron's arm, Megatron's entire arm is miscolored red.
• When Runway and Jetstorm react to Sonar's proximity by projecting an image of the Star Saber, Carlos reacts to it by saying "Hey! The Autobots shut off the force field! Follow me, you guys!" This is presumably an error, as there was no force field present.
• After Megatron warps into the Autobot base and instructs Sonar to find his partners, one of Sonar's chest panels is miscolored yellow.
• After failing to transform in the corridor, Cyclonus is colored like Demolishor.
• After being blasted by Megatron and Leader-1, Hot Shot's visor is briefly miscolored yellow instead of black.
• After Hot Shot is told to "concentrate on the Minicons", Leader-1 is miscolored purple.
• In the beginning of the episode, Cyclonus has Blackout connected to him. He may just be borrowing him for his sensory abilities, but considering how often Cyclonus's Mini-Cons are mixed up it may be an error.
• After the Star Saber combines, Optimus shoots it out of Megatron's hand, making it fly behind him and into Hot Shot's hands. Wasn't Hot Shot just in front of Megatron a moment ago though?

Miscellaneous trivia

• The establishing shot of the Autobot base is the same establishing shot seen in episode 5, "Soldier".
• It is revealed Hot Shot is responsible for the internal defense systems of the Autobot base, which explains a lot.
• Smokescreen activates...a SMOKESCREEN! As his Japanese name is "Grap", this probably wasn't an intentional bit.
• Cyclonus is really stupid in thinking he can capture the kids and trade them for the Mini-Cons, after all, he just did it!

Gallery

Episode

"It says here the Dow Jones is down by 100 points!"

Megatron: 50 pts
Megatron: 100 pts if you get a crotch shot
NUTSHOT!

Megatron is really happy to see Hot Shot!

Out you pixies go, through the door or through the window! It's the freezing cold out there you go!

You gotta eat lightning and crap thunder!

Light-Bloom is TOTALLY next-gen.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Links

The name or term Swoop refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Swoop (disambiguation).