Go for Unicron!

« Transformers: Energon ep 16 »
This is about when people started to reevaluate their opinions of Beast Machines.
"Go for Unicron!" めざせ! ユニクロン () (Mezase! Unicron) "Aim for! Unicron"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	23 April 2004 (Japanese) July 3, 2004 (English)
Writer	Shōji Tonoike
Director	Masayuki Ōseki
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Rodimus rescues Scorponok, while the Autobots launch a powerful new starship.
or,
GET IN THE SHIP!

Synopsis

Why? Why? Why was I programmed to feel pain?

Megatron recalls Scorponok's torture as the bait for a trap for Alpha Q. Trapped against the planet's energon grid, Scorponok screams in agony. Alpha Q observes and frets, promising that if it continues they will rescue him.

From Midway Gate Station 0-8, Carlos contacts Optimus Prime. He's tracking the two Terrorcons that Ironhide tagged; they're light years apart, in two different planetary systems. The Autobots suspect their enemy has two bases.

Megatron and Starscream are growing bored waiting for a response for their trap, when a ship approaches. Aboard, Prowl and Landmine voice concerns about Rodimus's plan to rescue Scorponok, but nevertheless refuse to let him go out solo.

The ship lands near Scorponok's position, and is intercepted by Starscream. A battle between him and the three Autobots ensues. Megatron and his troops arrive and attack; he trades words with Rodimus, revealing that they've clashed before. The fight continues. Rodimus Powerlinx with Prowl, and the three Autobots capably hold their own against Megatron's troops. When even Megatron takes a fall, he orders his damaged troops to retreat. Rodimus offers to transport the injured Scorponok back to his planet, eliciting surprise from the Decepticon. Alpha Q speaks, warning that Rodimus cannot be trusted.

Hovering like a loving wife and mother.

On the Moon, Dr. Jones presents a new craft he's developed: the Miranda II, a massive, highly durable vessel powered by its own energon tower, allowing the Autobots to expand their search for energon. Prime assembles his team, which to Kicker's surprise includes Misha. The ship launches. Its first mission is to destroy two transmitters "placed on either end of the planetary system", thereby destroying Unicron. The Decepticons detect the ship, and move to respond.

The Miranda II deploys its Energon Ring, generating a space bridge, but the Decepticons arrive and prepare to attack. Misha prepares to deploy the ship's energon shield, but Snow Cat damages the Energon Ring before the space bridge can be activated. The Omnicons, the only ones capable of handling the energon, deploy to repair it, while the Autobots engage the Decepticons. Ironhide defends the Omnicons, but accidentally knocks Snow Cat into them, leaving them dazed.

Oh no, not again!

Kicker volunteers to head out and repair the space bridge. He suits up and heads into the explosive battlefield... only to immediately lose control and go tumbling head over heels. The Autobots coach him into regaining control, and Kicker sets to the repairs while Ironhide holds off Starscream. The bridge is repaired, and Misha activates both the bridge and the energon shield. As an alarmed Ironhide and Demolishor both watch, the rapidly expanding shield grows toward Optimus and Megatron, who are engaged in battle. Demolishor flies in to push his leader aside, and is caught by the field. As a bright light engulfs him, Ironhide flashes back to their time on Earth together, and... rather calmly notes that they'd better get going.

Demolishor begins to disintegrate, vows that Optimus Prime will pay for this, and then explodes. Ironhide watches and again notes that they should get in the ship, which he does backward. A small glowing spark descends from the explosion, landing in the palm of Megatron's hands. He leads his remaining troops away, while the Miranda II heads into the warp gate.

Amid a somber atmosphere on the bridge, Prime thanks Kicker for his help; Kicker modestly shrugs it off, thanks Misha for her help, and notes that there's still a lot more work ahead. As Ironhide gazes out the windows at the passing space, nobody much notices that their former comrade just died.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Optimus Prime (6) Ironhide (8) Inferno (9) Hot Shot (10) Jetfire (11) Rodimus (13) Landmine (14) Prowl (15) Skyblast (20) Strongarm (21) Signal Flare (24) Prime Force (25)	Scorponok (1) Snow Cat (2) Megatron (3) Starscream (12) Demolishor (16) Tidal Wave (17)	Carlos Lopez (5) Brian Jones (18) Kicker Jones (19) Misha Miramond (23)	Alpha Quintesson (4) Blackouts (7) Perceptor (22)

Quotes

"Oh my! We simply must help Scorponok!"
"Don't worry. He will survive. But if it continues, we must rescue him."
"But what if it's one of Megatron's traps?!"
"Quit your worrying!"
"I can't help it! You know I have a soft spot for Scorponok!"
"Be patient. We won't leave him to perish."

—Alpha Q monologues

"Hang in there Kicker! Just use your body to control your momentum HEYYYYYY! You gotta do what I say, you understand? ...Use your body, Kicker! It'll help you move in zero gravity!"

—Ironhide speaks in run-on sentences. Nonsensical run-on sentences.

"Just look what you've done to me. You will pay for this, Prime! Mark my words, you'll pay."

—Demolishor seems only mildly annoyed about being killed.

"HURRY, GET IN THE SHIP!"

—Ironhide's "reaction" to the death of his old comrade Demolishor

Notes

Differences with Super Link

• The original mission is simply to investigate the system where the transmitters have been located—not to destroy the transmitters! In Super Link, Prime then vows that they won't return until they've destroyed Unicron. Energon somehow skews this into a statement that destroying the transmitters will also destroy Unicron.
• Ironhide's nonsense about "using your body" was originally a "you are not alone" pep talk.
• In what may be the single worst dubbing gaffe in the entire series, everyone's reactions to Demolishor's death are completely wiped away:
  • In Super Link, the flashback to Demolishor on Earth is the moment that Ironhide realizes that it was Demolishor who had been caught by the energon grid. In Energon, since nobody seems to notice Demolishor's plight, it comes off as completely random.
  • When Demolishor pushes Ironhide out of the way in Super Link, he yells, "MOVE!" and Ironhide is taken by surprise at this disruption. In Energon, he is completely unfazed by this event. In fact, Energon treats it as though this event didn't even happen—like the people watching the footage missed it (to be fair, it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sequence).
  • Demolishor's "you'll pay for this" was originally an entreaty to Ironhide to remember him, along with a last "rookie" pot shot.
  • Megatron's "this is far from over" was originally a quiet salute to Demolishor's final act.
  • Ironhide's anguished yells of Demolishor's name are entirely replaced by him urging the others to board the Miranda II. Ironically, in Super Link, everyone else is urging Ironhide to get on board! In case you were wondering why it looked like everyone was dragging Ironhide aboard as opposed to him willingly walking (backwards) into the ship... yeah.
• The ending conversation on the bridge is somewhat reduced in impact, with Misha originally mentioning Kicker's fear of space, and he saying that he thinks he's moved on from it.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 13
• "We need/they want energon": 2
• "It's time to": 4
• "We've gotta": 1
• "(Let's) Do it/this": 7
• "Gimme a break": 1

Animation and technical errors

What the hell happened here?

• Strongarm at one point refers to Skyblast as Ironhide.
• Perceptor is depicted as the same size as a standard Autobot once again.
• There is at least one clip where everything has just gone horribly wrong.
  • Kicker is only a head and is shown wearing his helmet when he isn't wearing it before or after the clip. It would also seem that the cel was meant to be placed over the edge of the balcony, not sideways and in the air away from it.
  • Strongarm and Skyblast are meant to be in the forefront but are instead placed behind everyone and are depicted as very, very large because of this.
  • Jetfire is shown to be the same height as Hot Shot, when he should be around the size of Ironhide. Oddly, Ironhide is grossly out of scale also.
  • You can barely see Inferno, who should most likely be in front of the other Autobots, rather than behind them. He also appears to jump around the scene much like earlier in the episode.
  • Ironically, Optimus Prime is the only one in scale in the entire scene based on the background and everyone around him is far too small.
• Strongarm responds to Skyblast in one scene with Hot Shot's voice.
• Ironhide is shown reporting to Kicker with Strongarm's voice.

Continuity notes

• Demolishor dies this episode. However, much like Smokescreen in Armada, his spark survived the damage.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Landmine's shoulder smokestacks are rotated around and used as cannons.
  • His trailer also used as a turret, firing lasers from the crane arm.
    • Despite actually having a turret mode in the toy's instructions, the turret shown in the show is just the standard trailer mode.
  • Powerlinx Rodimus uses Rodimus's energon blaster.
  • Megatron fires lasers from all over his body, much like Optimus Prime does from time to time.
  • Demolishor is shown to have a normal eye underneath his right "monocle."
• Powerlinx forms:
  • Landmine Brute Mode
  • Powerlinx Rodimus with Prowl
  • Optimus Prime Super Mode

Continuity errors

• Last episode ended with both the comet and Scorponok apparently annihilated against the energon grid. In a rather clumsy (and strangely animated) retcon, Scorponok survives when his particular chunk of the comet is hurled into space during the destruction of the comet, which now fragments instead of vaporizing and also is now made of rock instead of metal and now sort of flies off into space in a neatly funneled stream of rocks and did we mention that Scorponok is not even scratched after all this mistreatment?
• During Carlos's briefing, Inferno can't decide where to stand and jumps all over the place.
• When Team Rodimus arrives to rescue Scorponok, the interior view from their cockpit window suggests that they are parked right in front of the Terrorcon leader—when in the next shot, the ship is only just shown crash-landing on the mobile fortress, and quite a bit away from Scorponok.
• When engaged with the Decepticons and making a leap for Megatron, for a split-second Powerlinx Rodimus has been swapped with Rodimus's CGI model, before being corrected again in the very next scene.

Trivia

• Brian Dobson stands in for his brother Paul as Rodimus's voice.
• In a typical case of Energon's sluggish space opera plot pacing, the first third of this episode has nothing at all to do with the rest.
• Demolishor's anguished expression as he disintegrates on the energon shield is drawn by hand.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Verso Unicron" ("Towards Unicron")

• Ironhide's report to Kicker, unlike in English, is correctly given in Ironhide's voice instead of Strongarm's. Despite that, the mistake about Strongarm once talking in Hot Shot's voice isn't corrected.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 004 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)