Kingdom episode 1

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Episode 1
Production company	Allspark Animation, Rooster Teeth, Entertainment One
Airdate	July 29, 2021 (Netflix)
Written by	Mae Catt
Director	Takashi Kamei
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures
Watch this episode on Netflix

The Autobots and Decepticons crash land on Earth, meeting their descendants—the Maximals and Predacons.

Synopsis

The Nemesis burns up in its descent to the Earth's surface, while the Decepticons onboard are violently thrown about their bridge. Starscream and Megatron are both thrown into disarray over their predicament, and the Nemesis soon crashes in a lush jungle on the surface. Megatron receives a vision of Galvatron, who has been forcibly summoned by Unicron. Clutching a Golden Disk, Galvatron swears to find a way back to free himself. Awakening from his vision, Megatron still holds the Matrix of Leadership in hand.

The Autobots slowly awaken, battered by their crash-landing in the Ark. Optimus Prime requests a status report from Wheeljack, who discovers that they landed into an active volcano and sustained serious ship system failures. Optimus realizes he is injured, but asks Ratchet to tend to the others first. Wheeljack and Arcee discover Teletraan I isn't 100% out of commission—it is mumbling something. Optimus orders Wheeljack to repair the ship and reiterates the importance of locating the Allspark.

Noticing a cheetah on the ship's monitor, Bumblebee becomes nervous about its whereabouts. Wheeljack then finds a large rat chewing wires in the Ark's underbelly, and the ship's crew is suddenly attacked by a rhinoceros and a white tiger! The cheetah attacks as well, seeing through Mirage's holographic field, but is repelled by Bumblebee. Optimus shoots the organic creatures with his Ion blaster to halt their attack only to be assaulted and floored by a huge ape.

As Optimus throws his assailant off, the gorilla transforms into Optimus Primal. As the other organics reveal their Cybertronian modes, Prime vehemently denies any affiliation with "Nemesis", though Primal is quick to overtake the injured Autobot. Primal refuses to believe that his opponent is the original Optimus Prime and demands that he sees the Matrix of Leadership for validation of Prime's title. Prime begins to suffer from his wound, forcing Ratchet to intervene between their fight to tend to the Autobot leader.

A falcon spots Laserbeak exiting the Nemesis. Megatron, with the Matrix now strapped to his chest, orders his troops to work on the ship so they can leave Earth, asserting his desire to locate the Allspark and repeating his claims about "saving Cybertron". Megatron turns down Starscream's request to scout the area, while Soundwave reports that Laserbeak has spotted intruders...

The Decepticons wander into the jungle and find a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Velociraptor, the former of which recognizes Megatron as his ancestor and showers him with praise. Predacon Megatron and his partner Dinobot reveal their robot modes and bow to the Decepticons, revealing the Golden Disk.

Back at the Ark, Prime barely recovers from his wound and asks Prowl for information on their visitors. Primal wishes to salvage materials from the Ark to fix their ship and leave the Autobots behind. Rightfully enraged, Bumblebee demands that the bots explain themselves, but Primal churlishly says they owe the Autobots nothing. However, Prime offers an alliance with their former attackers and recounts their dreadful journey through space, and offers to donate parts to the Maximal cause. Primal insults Prime for losing the Allspark, which caused the downfall of Cybertron and the inhabitants suffering for it. Prime explains he is on a quest to find the Allspark, which is on Earth, much to the bots' surprise. The tiger bot, Tigatron, receives a transmission from his comrade Airazor, the falcon, revealing the threat of both Megatrons. Optimus Primal finally explains that he is the leader of the Maximals, who are bots from the future.

Predacon Megatron explains to the original Megatron that the Maximals and Predacons were from the future, where the strongest Cybertronians survived in a dead Cybertron due to the loss of the Allspark. When the original Megatron questions why they went to Earth at this time of all places, Predacon Megatron asserts that he specifically wanted to deliver the Golden Disk to his ancestor—the disk contains all of Megatron's past, present, and future memoirs, unique to his Energon signature. When the original Megatron suspects treachery on Predacon Megatron's behalf, he explains that his existence from the future of Cybertron is essentially proof that Prime never succeeded in retrieving the Allspark. As Starscream expresses disgust at the sycophantic Predacons and his lack of recognition from his peers, the arachnid Predacon Blackarachnia sneaks up on Starscream to polish his wounded ego. The two 'cons then form an alliance in secret.

Back at the Ark, the Autobots and Maximals struggle to trust each other, with the rat Maximal Rattrap suggesting the discovery of the Allspark will halt their alternate timeline and erase the Maximals' existence, but the idealistic cheetah Maximal Cheetor argues that stopping Megatron is more important than safeguarding their own existence.

Meanwhile, Airazor is spotted by Laserbeak and gunned down, enabling Soundwave to drag her back to the Nemesis at the mercy of both Megatrons...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots / Maximals	Decepticons / Predacons	Others
Optimus Prime (9) Bumblebee (10) Mirage (11) Ratchet (12) Hound (13) Ironhide (14) Wheeljack (15) Arcee (16) Cheetor (17) Rattrap (18) Sideswipe (19) Rhinox (20) Prowl (21) Tigatron (22) Optimus Primal (23) Airazor (24)	Megatron (1) Starscream (2) Thundercracker (3) Astrotrain (4) Soundwave (5) Refraktor (6) Galvatron (8) Laserbeak (25) Predacon Megatron (26) Dinobot (27) Blackarachnia (28)	Unicron (7)

Quotes

"It is you, isn't it? Yesss! Lord Megatron, at last!"
(Predacon Megatron transforms and bows his head to his ancestor)
"Megatron... greatest leader of the Decepticons, my namesake, whose destiny lies in an endless war. That is, until now... thanks to this."

—Predacon Megatron, with the Golden Disk, meets the ancestor he holds to the highest esteem

"You stole the Allspark and left Cybertron to rot! And while you were apparently gallivanting through the stars, we were left to deal with the consequences of your treachery!"

—Meanwhile, Optimus Primal is pissed at his ancestor

"We... have to help them. Fate has warped time and space to give us an opportunity to aid our ancestors in their darkest hour. You're going to let that slip by?"

—Tigatron puts a paw forward to help, and drops a quick reference

"Of all the places in the universe the Allspark lands here! Disgusting time displaced beasts! Sure, why not?! And that golden disk, the key to the future! Megatron will hoard it to himself, surrounded by sycophants! Like the tyrant he is!

-Starscream bemoans his usual misfortune & disclosing he's not a fan of Beastwars, intended to himself though Blackarachnia follows him in the shadows, hearing everything

Notes

Continuity notes

• This is the first time Optimus Prime is confused for a "Nemesis", a trend that continues for the episodes to follow until culminating in the finale.
• A random monitor in the Ark displays the same images Teletraan I processed in Earthrise episode 6, now in an unobstructed view, which are all references to the original The Transformers cartoon. A full list can be found here.
• Optimus Prime lists the major events the Ark-bound Autobots went through in Earthrise to Optimus Primal.
• Several plot points were foreshadowed in the Kingdom webpage in the form of messages from the future:
  • Predacon Megatron's message is brought in during his conversation with Decepticon Megatron, as the Golden Disk is stated to be "the key to saving the one [the former] holds in [the] highest esteem".
  • Rattrap's message is alluded to when he suggests the likelihood of the AllSpark's discovery changing history, as it is stated that "a new alliance may threaten [the Maximals'] existence".
  • Cheetor's message is referenced via his idealism, which is stated to "pave the way for a valuable alliance".

Continuity errors

• Megatron lacks the bandage and its respective wound from Earthrise episode 4, when he first appeared with the Matrix strapped to his chest and for the rest of the show. Maybe the wound healed?
• Predacon Megatron claims he decrypted a few minutes of the Golden Disk, despite only Cybertronian units of time being used in the show previously and after barring one other instance.

Animation and technical errors

• During Galvatron's departure from the Dead Universe, he had his particle cannon and tossed the Golden Disk to Megatron, though when he returns to Unicron's domain, his particle cannon is gone and the Disk is in his hand. The Disk disappears when Galvatron pushes himself away.
• The pupils in Predacon Megatron's Tyrannosaurus rex disappear when he transforms for the first time.

Transformers references

• Optimus Prime is gashed in his side/lower torso, much like The Transformers: The Movie, albeit on the opposite side.
• Optimus Prime swears by Primus.
• Rhinox name drops the Axalon from the '90s cartoon.
• As seen above, Predacon Megatron's reaction to meeting the original Megatron is from "Master Blaster".
• Predacon Megatron pets his Tyrannosaurus rex-head hand, much like he did in Beast Wars.
• Starscream calls himself Air Commander, his function on his original toy. Coincidentally or not, Starscream also repeatedly referenced this rank during his appearance in the original Beast Wars cartoon.
• Arcee mentions that she wouldn't be surprised if the Maximals were Sharkticons.
• Tigatron says the Autobots are in their darkest hour.

Real-world references

• A spacecraft can be briefly seen in the background when Galvatron returns to his time. This is presumably the NASA Voyager space probe where the real-life Golden Disk resides.
• The scene of the puddle shaking as a consequence of the stomping feet of Predacon Megatron (while approaching the Decepticons) is clearly an homage to Rexy's first appearance in Jurassic Park.

Trivia

• The episode has reused footage of Galvatron's departure from Earthrise episode 5.
• Predacon Megatron says to Megatron that he is his descendant, and while the Decepticons are collectively depicted as the "ancestors" of the Predacons, this statement (like a similar one made by the original Optimus Primal in the episode "Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search" of Beast Machines) seems to imply a deeper relationship between the two Megatrons.

External links

• Writer Mae Catt's Twitter thread for script commentary and unused dialogue