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Predatory

2011-05-04T23:51:12Z

76.203.48.121: /* Transformers references */

{{episode|
|otherseries=''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Transformers: Prime]]'' ep 12
|prev=Speed Metal
|next=Sick Mind
|image=Airachnid.jpg
|caption="So we have this episode that's really ''Predator''-y. What should we call it?" "Hmm..."
|title="Predatory"
|airdate=[[April 16]], [[2011]]
|written by=[[Marsha Griffin]]
|directed by=[[Todd Waterman]], [[Kirk Van Wormer]] (co-director)
|animation studio=[[Polygon Pictures]]
|production company=[[Hasbro Studios]]
}}

'''When Arcee takes Jack on a routine mission, Airachnid turns up, putting him in danger.'''

==Synopsis==
A mysterious object streaks through the [[Solar System]] and crashes in a remote part of the northern [[United States of America|United States]]. Trudging through the forest nearby are [[Arcee (Prime)|Arcee]] and [[Jack Darby]], out searching for an underground [[energon (fuel)|energon]] deposit that [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] has detected. Jack complains about the mosquitoes, but Arcee picks up some strange readings and they quickly come upon the crashed spaceship. Telling an increasingly unnerved Jack to stay where he is, Arcee moves in closer to examine it, and suffers a flashback containing a [[Airachnid|menacing figure]] as she realizes whose ship it is. She attempts in vain to contact [[Autobot Outpost Omega One|base]] to request a [[GroundBridge]]. Leaving Jack by the ship, Arcee walks out into the trees to find a trail left by her mystery assailant, and again flashes back to a past time when she had been captured. Jack interrupts her, and she transforms before driving them both at high speed through the trees for a distance. When she still can't contact base, she drops Jack off on the other side of a deep crevasse and heads back. Jack starts climbing down the side of the crevasse. Arcee, scouting among the trees, finds a tree stump covered in an acidic compound, and has another flashback.

[[Image:Predatory-Airachnidscratch.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Hellooo, alternate headsculpt!]]

''On [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], Arcee runs through ruined buildings while radioing [[Delta Team]] for backup. She trades banter with her partner [[Tailgate (Prime)|Tailgate]] before asking directions, but before she can complete her next sentence, she's stuck to a nearby wall by a glob of webbing. She finds herself chained up, a prisoner of [[Airachnid]], who scratches her face with an acid-emitting talon.''

Elsewhere, Airachnid moves in on an unsuspecting camper in a tent. As she jumps to strike, she's tackled by Arcee, and the pair roll downhill to a clearing. Amused to be reunited with the Autobot after all this time, Airachnid reveals her new hobby: collecting the heads of endangered species, though most of them weren't endangered until she got to them. Now she has her sights set on a human for her next trophy. Enraged, Arcee begins fighting her, but Jack arrives, distracting Arcee long enough for Airachnid to web her to a nearby rock. Arcee cuts her arm free and zaps Airachnid before informing Jack that he's more a liability than a partner. Jack responds that he doesn't believe her and he can tell she's afraid, and Arcee flashes back again.

''Finding Arcee a tough nut to crack, Airachnid has a couple of [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicons]] drag in a severly battered Tailgate, and demands the information she wants, or Tailgate dies. Arcee, however much she wants to save her partner, doesn't know the attack coordinates, and Airachnid calmly kills him.''

Airachnid recovers from the battle and closes in and says she'd heard about [[Cliffjumper (Prime)|Cliffjumper]]'s fate, then twists the knife by asking Arcee if she has a problem with losing partners. As Jack flees, Airachnid promises to finish Arcee later, after she's added her human companion's head to her trophy collection. As Airachnid leaves, Arcee flashes back once more...

[[Image:Predatory-ArceeBeeCliff.jpg|thumb|250px|Color-coded for your sake.]]

''As Airachnid moves in on her living prisoner, [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] and [[Cliffjumper (Prime)|Cliffjumper]] burst in to execute a dramatic rescue. Though they gun down the Vehicon guards, Airachnid makes her escape. The Autobots free Arcee and carry her out as she laments that she couldn't save her partner.''

Arcee is overcome with grief at having put Jack's life in peril, realizing that she should have just... kept... driving! Her lament gives her the insight she needs to free herself, pulling at the webbing enough to transform to cycle mode and peel out at full throttle, eventually breaking her bonds.

[[Image:AirachnidUpsideDown.jpg|left|thumb|250px|No consideration for personal space.]]

Meanwhile, Jack ducks behind a fallen tree in an attempt to evade Airachnid, but she easily finds him. He continues running, and though he's scared, keeps looking for ways to fight back (though he quickly dismisses his Swiss Army knife as a viable weapon). Eventually, he reaches Airachnid's ship and hides against it as she enters, believing him to have snuck inside. While clambering through the trench left by the ship's landing, he finds a puddle of [[energon (fuel)|energon]] leaking from a port on its underside. Grabbing a nearby stick, he uses his pocket knife and flint to set fire to it, then throws it into the leaking port. Airachnid, now standing on top of the ship, yells his name as the ship explodes.

Jack is thrown clear, but just as he's beginning to relax, a still-burning Airachnid pins him to a nearby tree with webbing. She moves in, ready for the kill, but Arcee comes barreling through the trees and beats her with feet and fists, finally sending the Decepticon flying through the forest, creating her own trail of debris. Arcee cuts down Jack, but then they hear the sound of drilling, and find Airachnid has burrowed into the ground and escaped.

Arcee says she admires Jack's bravery, and as she radios base for a GroundBridge, saying she needs to get her ''partner'' back to safety. As Jack notices the choice of words, Arcee quips that he's still the ''junior'' partner in this team.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Arcee (Prime)|Arcee]] (1)
*[[Tailgate (Prime)|Tailgate]] (4, flashback)
*[[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] (8, flashback)
*[[Cliffjumper (Prime)|Cliffjumper]] (9, flashback)
|c2=
*[[Airachnid]] (3)
*[[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicons]] (7, flashback)
|c3=
*[[Jack Darby]] (2)
*Camper (5)
|c4=
*[[Airachnid's specimens]] (6)
}}

==Quotes==
"I may not have stinger-proof metal skin, Arcee, but in a pinch, I can use my multi-function pocket knife and magnesium fire-starter to cook up some freeze-dried mac and cheese."
:—'''Jack''' subtly plants a [[wikipedia:Chekhov's gun|Chekhov's gun]].

"These days, I travel solo in pursuit of my new hobby." 
"I got a look at your souvenir case." 
"You mean my trophies. I collect endangered species. Of course, they aren't really endangered...until they meet me."
:—'''Airachnid''' shares her favorite pastime with '''Arcee'''.

"So much for closure."
:—'''Arcee''' is annoyed as Airachnid gets away.

==Notes==
===Animation or technical errors===

===Continuity errors===

===Transformers references===
* Arachnid strongly resembles Blackaracnia

===Foreign dubbing===

===Real-world references===
*This episode contains four or five possible references to the ''[[Predator (alien)|Predator]]'' franchise: Airachnid's ship entering Earth's atmosphere resembles the movie's opening scene, Airachnid coming to Earth with the sole purpose of hunting humans echoes the Predator's motive, Airachnid's trophy case of heads is similar to one seen in ''Predator 2'', and the scene in which Jack uses a personally made flaming "arrow" to ignite energon resembles a tactic used by Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Dutch in the first film. The title "Predatory" may also be just as much a reference to ''Predator'' as it is to [[Predacon (disambiguation)|Predacon]]s.
* The sound effects used for when Airachnid spews her webbing are the same used for [[Spider-Man]] in the 2008 ''[[Wikipedia:Spectacular Spider-Man (TV series)|Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' TV series, in which Josh Keaton (Jack) voiced the title character.

===Trivia===
[[Image:Predatory-Airachnidship.jpg|thumb|250px| The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the Jack, and ''blew'' the spider up.]]
*This is the first episode not to feature Optimus, Bulkhead, Raf or Miko.
*Arcee, Cliffjumper, and Bumblebee didn't have different robot bodies on Cybertron, retaining all of their Earth vehicle-specific [[kibble]] long before reaching Earth. This seems to be [[Skyquake (Prime)|intentional]].
*With its scratches and angled spikes positioned against burnt trees, [[Airachnid's ship]] resembles a hairy spider in one shot.
{{-}}

==Home video releases==

==External links==

[[Category:Prime episodes]]

Total Meltdown

2011-05-04T23:01:08Z

76.203.48.121: /* Continuity errors */

{{episode|
|series=Anitoon
|series2=AniJapan
|image=TFA Total Meltdown entrance.JPG
|caption=What if Mr. Freeze and Clayface had a baby...?
|ep=5
|ep2=7
|prev2=Home Is Where the Spark Is
|next2=Blast from the Past
|title="Total Meltdown"
|airdate=[[January 19]], [[2008]]
|written by=[[Rich Fogel]]
|directed by=[[Matt Youngberg]] [[Naoto Hashimoto]]
|animation studio= [[Mook]]}}

'''A bio-engineering genius experiments with some of Bumblebee's hydraulic fluid and accidentally transforms himself into Meltdown, whose corrosive touch can melt anything—including Autobots!'''

==Synopsis==
[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown Bumblebee Rhodes inside.JPG|left|200px|thumb|Rhodes admires his new ''Masterpiece'' Bumblebee.]]

[[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]], [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]], [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] and [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] are observing human society by way of [[television]]. After seeing cars being refueled and demolition derbies, they find a wrestling show hosted by businessman [[Meltdown (Animated)|Prometheus Black]] as part of his biochemical makeover program (or as Prime puts it, human upgrades). As a demonstration of the upgrades' success, one of his test subjects will be fighting a robot in the ring. To the Autobots shock, the robot is [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]]! To their greater shock, Bumblebee's puny opponent, [[Colossus Rhodes|Cyrus "Colossus" Rhodes]], activates special pistons on his back that stimulate special steroids in his system, causing him to swell into a muscular bruiser bigger than Bumblebee.

[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown Bumblebee Rhodes outside.JPG|right|200px|thumb|Smooookke on the pavement!]]

As 'Bee takes a beating, Black converses with [[Carmine Fanzone|Captain Fanzone]] in the luxury box. Black believes that this display should prove that he, not Isaac Sumdac, deserves the Detroit Police Department's security materials contract, offering bio-enhanced officers over robotic drones. Then Bumblebee starts using his speed and stingers to get the better of his overgrown opponent. Enraged, Rhodes stimulates the steroids further, growing even huger, then scoops up Bumblebee and chucks him out through the arena wall. He then leaps outside after the small 'bot and starts tossing and smashing everything around to crush 'Bee. The other Autobots arrive and, thanks to Prowl's quick thinking, manage to stop Rhodes. However, during the battle, Bumblebee has become more and more sensitive to size-related comments, taking them personally. Bulkhead's ribbing doesn't help. Across the parking lot, a disgusted Fanzone denies Black the police contract; as much as he hates machines, he'll take them over a berserk, bio-enhanced gorilla. As Black fumes, he discovers a piece of Bumblebee, covered in the Autobot's internal fluids, at his feet, and takes it back to his lab for research.

[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown Black mutation.JPG|left|200px|thumb|IT BURNS US! IT BURNS US!]]

At the lab, Black combines Bumblebee's fluid sample with his own special steroids, creating an incredibly powerful acid. However, his financier, [[Porter C. Powell]], informs him that, owing to the bad publicity from the wrestling match, his investors have cut all their funding and not even prisons will give him test subjects any more, leaving him no way to continue his research. Furious, he knocks over the containers of his experimental fluid, swearing he'll take matters into his own hands if he must. The acid starts melting through a good portion of his lab, with the fumes setting off alarms. Black stumbles through the fumes, half-blinded, and begins mutating, his flesh developing a greenish, flowing patina. He then emerges from his lab, swearing vengeance, his hand melting a portion of the door jamb where he gripped it.

[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown drone explosion.JPG|right|200px|thumb|We have hereby filled our [[Michael Bay|Bay]] quota.]]

Later, [[Isaac Sumdac|Professor Sumdac]] unveils the newest model of the Sumdac Systems [[Police drone|Police Drone]] to a rather bored audience of local dignitaries, promising, among other things, that its new recognition software will prevent a recurrence of "that unfortunate incident with the captain's wife." The drone malfunctions badly and explodes, and an angry Fanzone demands the apologetic Sumdac contact them after the bugs are fixed. [[Sari Sumdac|Sari]] then discovers a portion of the drone covered in a greenish residue and takes it to Ratchet, who confirms that it indicates sabotage. The corrosive even melts Autobot alloys, so he requests a few hours to run tests on it. Bumblebee is impatient, drawing more "short" jokes from Bulkhead and even Prowl. Sari insists that the banter can wait, as her dad has to be warned first. Most of the Autobots leave for the Sumdac Tower.

However, Black, now fully mutated and calling himself Meltdown, has already arrived. He melts his way past the robot secretary, with the resulting smoke setting off an alarm, and starts on his way up. As Sumdac wonders what the noise is about, Sari contacts him from within Bumblebee and tells him about the sabotage. Isaac wonders who would sabotage him, then gets his answer as Meltdown dissolves the door.

[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown Bulkhead stuck.JPG|left|200px|thumb|Winnie-the-Pooh pulled this off a lot better.]]

Outside, Sari warns Bumblebee a bit too late to keep him from running into a force field, the result of the tower's auto-defense mode. Ratchet's magnetics open a hole in the field, but Colossus Rhodes shows up to keep the Autobots occupied. His old weak spot's been reinforced now, so Prowl's previous strategy won't work. Prime orders Prowl and Bumblebee to go into the tower with Sari and save her father, but Rhodes knocks Bulkhead into the force field hole, plugging it before Prowl can get through. Bumblebee and Sari are on their own.

In the tower, Bumblebee finds the elevator cables melted, so he wheels his way up the shaft while Sari tries to deactivate the force field from the front desk. In Sumdac's office, Meltdown gives vent to all his frustrations, swearing he won't be bested by a fraud like Sumdac, even though he himself is a freak now. Downstairs, Sari finds the force field controls, but her first attempt to deactivate it only makes it stronger. Back upstairs, Bumblebee arrives just in time to knock Meltdown aside, scoop up Isaac and burn rubber. Meltdown's pursuit forces Bumblebee to drive down the stairs, badly shaking up Sumdac, but they reach the ground floor safely. Meanwhile, Sari finally finds the right data port for the [[AllSpark Key]] and shuts down the force field, freeing Bulkhead.

Bumblebee and her father arrive in the lobby just ahead of Meltdown, who has taken a shortcut by...er, melting his way down. Bulkhead arrives and grabs him up, but finds a handful of acid is VERY painful. Still, he refuses to let go.

Outside, Rhodes smacks Prime into a nearby church bell, then seizes up when it rings. Realizing what's going on, Prowl calls for Prime to hit it again. As Prime plays Quasimodo, Ratchet brings the bell down on top of Rhodes, thoroughly disrupting the bruiser's techno-organic circuits and bringing him back to normal (and probably deafening him).

[[Image:TFA Total Meltdown imprisoned.JPG|right|200px|thumb|"What an incredible smell you've discovered!"]]

Back in the tower lobby, Meltdown works a hand free and prepares to blast Bulkhead in the face, but Bumblebee takes the shot. As both Autobots collapse, Meltdown approaches Professor Sumdac yet again, but Prime runs up and clocks Meltdown with the church bell. It doesn't prove effective, but Prime quickly suggests stopping him with the one thing that stopped the Autobots: the tower's force field. Sari reactivates it, Ratchet plugs himself into the console to project the field, and Meltdown finds himself contained, unable to melt what he can't touch.

Afterward, Ratchet and Prime praise Bumblebee's courage and Bulkhead apologizes for going a little overboard with his teasing. Bumblebee's learned that even at his size, he's still pretty awesome, but now he won't let the others live it down for a while.
{{--}}

==Featured characters==
{{Featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] (1)
*[[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] (2)
*[[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] (3)
*[[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] (4)
*[[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] (7)

|c3=
*[[Meltdown (Animated)|Prometheus Black/Meltdown]] (5)
*[[Sari Sumdac]] (6)
*[[Colossus Rhodes|Cyrus "Colossus" Rhodes]] (8)
*[[Carmine Fanzone|Captain Fanzone]] (9)
*[[Porter C. Powell]] (10)
*[[Isaac Sumdac]] (11)

|c4=
*[[Security Bot]] ()
*[[Condiment Bot]] ()
*[[Reception Bot]] ()
}}

==Quotes==
"That's a human?" 
"Must be a new model."
:—'''Bulkhead''' and '''Prowl''' comment on Cyrus Rhodes.

"Just stay out of his reach." 
"Which one? The guy in the middle or the two on either side?" 
"Just swing at all of them."
:—'''Sari''' plays coach to '''Bumblebee'''. She's no [[wikipedia:Mickey_Goldmill|Mickey Goldmill]].

"Stand and fight! What are ya, yellow?!" 
"Well, duh."
:—'''Colossus Rhodes'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s insult is lost on '''Bumblebee'''

'''Prowl''': ''[to Bumblebee]'' Next time, use your head. Find your foe's weakness and strike there. 
'''Bulkhead''': If you can reach it. 
'''Bumblebee''': Oh, right. I get it. Cause I'm short. 
'''Bulkhead''': What? I'm just bustin' your bumpers a little, buddy. 
'''Bumblebee''': Why does it have to be 'little buddy?' Why can't it just be 'buddy'? 
'''Ratchet''': What's with him? 
'''Bulkhead''': Ah, he's just mad cause he came up a little short. 
''[Ratchet, Bulkhead and Sari laugh]'' 
'''Bumblebee''': Okay, now, you're doing it on purpose!
:—Bumblebee is having a bad day

'''Ratchet''': I'd like to run some more tests. It should only take a few hours. 
'''Bumblebee''': That long? 
'''Bulkhead''': His attention span is short, too. 
'''Bumblebee''': I heard that! 
'''Prowl''': Apparently, so is his fuse. 
'''Bulkhead''': Ooh, the ninjabot gets in a good one! 
'''Ratchet''': Who knew he had it in him? 
'''Bumblebee''': Yeah, aren't you supposed to be the strong, silent type? Emphasis on the ''silent''.
:—Auto-banter

'''Sumdac''': Prometheus, why are you doing this? 
'''Meltdown''': Because you're a fraud! 
''[Sumdac gasps]'' 
'''Meltdown''': I am smarter, better-looking, and more educated than you, and yet, everything you touch turns to gold! While everything ''I'' touch... 
''[Statue melts, and Meltdown throws it out through a window]'' 
'''Meltdown''': Just...look at me. I'm a freak! But I refuse to be beaten by some simpering nerd who merely got lucky!
:—Meltdown gets closer to [[Megatron (Animated)|the truth]] than he realizes.

==Notes==
===Continuity errors===
* Why did Sari have to wait until she and the Autobots were en route to Sumdac Tower to contact her father? Could she not have reached him from the Autobots' base?

** Perhaps she wants to keep the base a secret

*During the battle outside Sumdac Tower, plenty of car alarms are going off from wrecked vehicles, but these don't appear to affect Rhodes the way the car alarm did outside the wrestling arena.

*When Optimus orders the Autobots to roll out, only Bumblebee and Bulkhead are seen transforming and following him. However, Ratchet and Prowl appear out of nowhere in the next scene.

===Transformers references===
* Black angrily asserts that Sumdac is only successful because he "got lucky." In "Transform and Roll Out!", Sumdac publicly joked that he had "stumbled upon" [[Megatron (Animated)|the secret of his success]].

===Foreign dubbing===
'''French'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Fusion Totale'''" ("Total Meltdown")
:*''Original airdate:'' ???

'''German'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Der Säureangriff'''" ("The Acid Attack")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[May 31|31 May]] [[2008]]

'''Japanese'''
:*''Title:'' '''灼熱巨人の挑戦''' (''Shakkunetsu Kyojin no Chōsen'', "Challenge of the Burning Giant")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[May 15|15 May]] [[2010]]
* '''Cut''': The Autobots are watching television to observe human cultures. After Bulkhead turns his kibble into a chair, they channel surf and comment on a gasoline commercial and a demolition derby.
* '''Cut''': Captain Fanzone, in the luxury box, tries to dispense condiments from the condiments-bot, but gets a handful of mustard instead and a bunch of napkins before he says his catchphrase. Prometheus Black then walks in to check on him while Fanzone feels "influenced" to accept his Biotech offer.

'''Polish'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Wielkie roztopienie'''" ("Great Meltdown")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[October 18|18 October]] [[2008]]

===Real-world references===
* Sumdac's sabotaged police drone bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the [[wikipedia:ED-209|ED-209]], a police robot from the film ''[[wikipedia:RoboCop|RoboCop]]''. Likewise, Sumdac's mention of its faulty identification software is likely a reference to a scene in the film in which the ED-209 runs amok at a demonstration. Coincidentally, ''RoboCop'' also takes place in a futuristic [[Detroit]].
* Obviously, Cyrus Rhodes is meant to roast [[The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!|professional wrestling]] and the prevalent use of [[wikipedia:Anabolic steroid|steroids]] in the business. His name is also a reference to both the last name of famous wrestler [[wikipedia:Dusty Rhodes (wrestler)|"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes]] and to one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World; [[wikipedia:Colossus of Rhodes|The Colossus of Rhodes]].

===Trivia===
*Bulkhead can make a chair out of his own back [[kibble]]. The Leader class toy can do that!
*Prowl gets called a ninja, finally.
*The Sumdac "S" logo on the Foyer floor is the same as the Sphere logo from ''[[Wikipedia:Skyland|Skyland]]''.
*Although "Total Meltdown" is the fifth episode in production order, it was aired as the eighth episode in the [[United States of America|United States]].
*On [[January 19]], 2008, this episode aired on YTV in [[Canada]] and was also made available through OnDemand stations in the U.S. It finally got a "normal" airing on [[Cartoon Network]] on [[February 10]], 2008.
*In the United States, as of 2008, the possession of anabolic steroids without a prescription is punishable by up to seven years in prison. Since Black volunteers the info about Rhodes' use of steroids to Fanzone, the laws must be different in near-future Detroit, or else Black's particular types of steroids are exempt. (Or Rhodes' doctor wrote him a prescription with the decimal point in the wrong place.)
*This is the first episode (counting "[[Transform and Roll Out]]" as one episode) not to feature Megatron. Or any [[Decepticon]] for that matter.

==Home video releases==
;DVD
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2008 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Season One ([[Transformers Animated (cartoon)/home video|Paramount]]) — English and Spanish audio. 
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2008 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume One: Blast from the Past (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[Image:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2008 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume One: Blast from the Past (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[Image:Flag of Germany.png|20px|Germany]] 2008 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume Eins: Drachenkämpfer (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 2010 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Vol. 2 (Paramount) — Japanese audio only.

[[Category:Animated episodes]]