Ambition

« Transformers: Energon ep 39 » Transformers: Super Link ep 40
He...he's just gotta make it, right, Hot Shot?
"Ambition" ガルバトロンの蘇る野望 () (Galvatron no Yomigaeru Yabō) "Galvatron's Renewed Ambition"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	8 October 2004 (Japanese) December 31, 2004 (Canada) January 19, 2005 (USA)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Takashi Sano
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Still alive, Megatron launches an assault on Cybertron itself.

Synopsis

In a brightly lit land, Terrorcons swarm.

On Earth, Sally Jones thanks her Optimus Prime doll for saving the universe. Various troops outside work to repair the energon towers.

The three surviving Decepticons are locked away for the next 10,000 years. Shockblast's brother Six Shot is in an adjacent cell, and he swears vengeance when Snow Cat tells him that Optimus Prime destroyed Shockblast.

Dr. Jones proposes a toast (with "sparkling grape juice"), but Rad is worried about Primus. Dr. Jones says that Primus is just in recovery mode.

In one of the planetary cities, the Autobots gather around Optimus's prone form, and Omega Supreme says that Prime will recover. Kicker wonders if the war is truly over and frets that they still have to save the planets.

Spooky.

Elsewhere, Alpha Q frets that the worlds are dark. Elsewhere again, Rodimus observes that the planets are still growing, presumably from subsurface energon.

Kicker contacts his dad and urges him to send Sally and Mrs. Jones back to Earth. He's worried, having sensed the swarming Terrorcons. Sally doesn't want to go back to Earth. Suddenly, Rad detects Decepticons arriving through a space gate.

As various Autobots are going into regeneration, Wing Saber gets a report of the attack from Rad and goes to check it out.

Scorponok and Starscream lead a Terrorcon attack on a Cybertronian city. And worse... Megatron is with them! The trio is headed toward Central City, so the humans frantically prepare to evacuate. The Decepticons begin bringing down energon towers in the central spaceport. After sending Scorponok and Starscream on missions, Megatron notes that he can hear a voice from within himself, and he flashes back to the mysterious green orb.

Hey, Takara, why wasn't this released?

With Optimus still out of commission, Rodimus prepares to lead the Autobots back to Cybertron. Kicker, observing that lifeforms are disappearing from the planets since the loss of the Energon Orb, doesn't want to go, but relents under orders.

Still in stasis, Optimus has a vision of a dark place. His eyes light up. Peeng!

Starscream battles his way into the detention center while Snow Cat looks forward to being rescued. Scorponok continues destroying energon towers. Dr. Jones wants to use the energon grid, but without more energon, it's impossible, so he begs Primus to reactivate and provide more.

Hello, I'm Nigel's brother Cedric.

Within Cybertron's depths, Megatron searches for something at Unicron's behest. Faced with Autobot defenders, he unleashes mass destruction, then demands further directions from Unicron.

The Autobots remaining behind on the planet are startled to hear that Optimus Prime has left his repair bay. Aboard the Miranda II, the Autobots prepare to send Kicker after him, then prepare to intercept an incoming bogey, then dismiss it as a false alarm. Then Optimus Prime flies after the ship, with Jetfire alongside.

Wing Saber arrives in the detention block to find it trashed and empty. The humans fret and worry.

Not Galvatron. At least, not quite yet.

Megatron has reached what appears to be a dead end, but the Terrorcons seem excited. Megatron slashes his way through a wall and leaps into a darkened void. After falling some ways, he arrives at the same place that Optimus saw in his vision. A mural above depicts a history of the Cybertronian wars, while corroded guardians surround him, frozen in a stalemate. To find out what the device is, he blasts one of the guardians and demands answers from Unicron. The room begins to shake and light up. The guardians also light up, emerging as three functional robots.

Megatron exults at the new, more powerful energon he's found...and declares to the three guardians that he shall be their new master.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Optimus Prime (11) Hot Shot (13) Omega Supreme (14) Ironhide (15) Rodimus (18) Roadblock (19) Strongarm (20) Landmine (21) Bulkhead (23) Downshift (24) Prowl (25) Wing Saber (26) Jetfire (32) Skyblast (33) Superion Maximus's brother (34) Superion Maximus (35)	Snow Cat (4) Demolishor (5) Mirage (6) Six Shot (7) Scorponok (27) Starscream (28) Megatron (29) Cruellock (30) Bruticus Maximus (36) Constructicon Maximus (37)	Sally Jones (3) Brian Jones (8) Rad White (9) Kicker Jones (12) Misha Miramond (16) Miranda Jones (22)	Divebomb (1) Battle Ravage (2) Primus (10) Alpha Q (17) (voice only) Unicron (31)

Quotes

"Oh-ee-oh-eeoh! Oh, I just love jail breaks!"

—Snow Cat

"Here at the Hotel Autobotofornia, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

—Autobot guard channeling The Eagles.

Notes

Lost in translation

• The dub inflates the Decepticons' prison sentence from 1,000 years to 10,000.
• Dr. Jones's "sparkling grape juice" is, of course, a dub addition. It's made even more obvious by Dr. Jones's rosy-colored cheeks later in the episode.
• The dub (wisely) omits some Japanese-culture talk from Alpha Q. In the same stroke, it omits Alpha Q saying that he's dead.
• In keeping with the dub's determination to hide the fact that characters die, Kicker says that Alpha Q is "still out there somewhere". In Super Link, he just states that Q's will lives on in the form of the developing planets.
• The dub has Megatron commenting on his communication with Unicron as having merged with a greater power; in Super Link, he says that a new ability has materialized within him.
• The dub mangles the conversation aboard the Miranda II. In the dub, Ironhide randomly tells Kicker "don't worry about it" (with no indication of what "it" might be), then orders him to go find Optimus (even though the Autobots on the ship have no idea that Optimus is missing). In Super Link, he tells Kicker that he can't panic, that he is the one who must save his family this time, and that his father is an amazing guy. The addition of Optimus to the conversation becomes even more nonsensical when Prime shows up a few seconds later.
• In the dub, Rodimus concludes that the incoming signal is a false alarm. In Super Link, upon hearing that it's not a Decepticon, he makes a comment suggesting that he knows who it is.
• Super Link has Megatron describing the mural as depicting "a battle without a conclusion". The dub changes this to an uncharacteristic observation that it is "a history where war has settled nothing". He subsequently fires at one of the guardians to bring a conclusion to their particular stalemate, a minor point lost in the dub.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 6
• Stock footage: 0
• We need energon: 1
• Our planets: 1

Real-world references

• The Decepticons' jailer is apparently a fan of the rock band The Eagles; quoting their signature song, he tells them that at the Hotel Autobotifornia "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Trivia

• Once again, if you're a generic, you're highly flammable and have tissue paper for armor. One generic explodes after a single hit from Starscream's sword. Many others are defeated and seemingly left dead in the course of Megatron's invasion.
• Alpha Q provides off-screen narration in this episode and with increasing frequency in following episodes. You might think this is leading up to something, but, nope, he remains dead for the rest of the series, just hanging around somewhere and fretting over everything that happens.
• Amusingly, Megatron consciously chooses to jump straight ahead into a darkened void and screams all his way down until he hits the ground hard, instead of turning into his jet mode before going down or, you know, just flying in robot mode like everybody does all the time in this series.
• The Axalon is among the ships destroyed, having not been seen since "Cybertron City".

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "L'ambizione di Megatron" ("Megatron's Ambition")

• The Decepticons' prison sentence is changed to 1,000 years instead of 10,000, like in the Japanese version. Still, this dub makes it look like the sentence is just hypotetical, since the line is dubbed as: "Welcome, gentlemen. I hope you like the rooms, since you'll be guests in this hotel at least for the next 1,000 years!"
• Ironhide's "don't worry about it" is changed to "don't get discouraged", while "you've gotta go after Optimus" becomes "you must do you for Optimus", correcting both mistakes.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2005 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 010 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)