Drift (episode)

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

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It's Armada's Wolverine.
"Drift" 運命 (しんじつ) (Shinjitsu) "Fate: Truth"
Production code	TF: A-46
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	September 27, 2003 (English, United Kingdom) 14 November 2003 (Japanese) November 28, 2003 (English, United States)
Writer	Ryō Motohira
Director	Hidehito Ueda, Mitsuru Kawasaki (asst. dir.)
Animation studio	Actas Inc.
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Everybody's hunt for Thrust leads to the revelation of the truth behind the Mini-Cons.

Synopsis

It's a very "Gundam" moment.

With Thrust gone, Galvatron orders Demolishor to find the traitorous Decepticon who stole both the Skyboom shield and the Requiem Blaster. He disregards the Autobots' activities and commands all his resources to hunt Thrust down. Wheeljack and Hot Shot are already on Thrust's trail.

Meanwhile, the Autobots are having difficulty getting the soldiers to withdraw from their fortifications. The soldiers are reluctant to let the threat of Unicron trivialize all the work they've done to try to take back the planet.

This is when fanfics happen.

Carlos walks in on Rad having a shower. Rad considers how much of a major difference in their lives it made to meet the Mini-Cons, and he speculates it might have been part of a larger design, based on a strange feeling he might have met High Wire in the past. Carlos dismisses the theory entirely.

"As usual, this is a six-person infiltration mission."
"Weapons and equipment OSP?"
"Yes. This is a top-secret black op. Don't expect any official support."

Hot Shot and Wheeljack radio the news about Thrust to Optimus Prime, and High Wire sees on the video that the tunnels the two Autobots are venturing through are the same tunnels where the Mini-Cons were created. After disconnecting, Hot Shot and Wheeljack also notice the suspicious organic nature of the caverns. Starscream also hounds Thrust on his own. The three kids, donning their color-coded space suits, also head to the same tunnels, guided by Rad's gut instinct.

The first to locate Thrust is Starscream, so Thrust offers Starscream a job under Unicron. Starscream declines the offer and then he hears Alexis call out his name, indicating the kids have arrived. Noticing the kids, Thrust points the Requiem Blaster at them, threatening to shoot. Starscream attempts to stop him, but Thrust turns back to him and fires a shot from the Requiem Blaster, blowing Starscream into the distance. Alexis calls out his name in fear and in the blaze of light from the blast...

A younger Rad awakens on his mother's lap in the family car. Rad inquires about where the Transformers are, but the parents dismiss his ramblings. High Wire's voice calls Rad's consciousness to another point in time.

Bradley's mom has got it goin' on.

In mysteriously colorful caves, the three kids see Hot Shot's body strapped to the terrain. Hot Shot doesn't identify the kids, but just mentions that the Mini-Cons were created by Unicron's cells. He brings their attention to other Transformers, lying dormant and embedded into the walls of the mysterious cavern, even the Decepticons. As Rad deduces that he and his friends have gone millions of years into the past, Alexis is creeped out. Hot Shot's body begins to be absorbed into the cavern, and there's another flash of time.

The three kids witness several Mini-Cons emerge from glowing eggs, knowing they're watching the Mini-Cons being created by Unicron. Rad sees High Wire, but when he tries to speak to his friend, all he receives is a mind's glimpse at Unicron. Rad, creating a kind of "bootstrap" paradox, instructs the Mini-Cons to find their way to Earth. High Wire reads a few images of Earth from Rad's mind.

Starscream's life is saved by time reversing just a bit as the kids' minds return to the present. Seizing the second chance, the Street Action Mini-Con Team combine and save Starscream's life, giving him a brief window to get close enough to be in no danger from the Requiem Blaster. An upwards shot alerts the two exploring Autobots to the location of the battle and brings the cavern down, letting Thrust get away while Starscream protects the children.

Once the debris from the cavern stops falling, Alexis thanks Starscream. He smiles warmly at her and takes off after Thrust, continuing his hunt. High Wire speaks with Rad, validating Rad's theory that he had met the Mini-Cons before meeting on Earth. Hot Shot and Wheeljack arrive and are astounded to hear what Hot Shot had told the kids millions of years before.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Mini-Cons	Other
Hot Shot (4) Side Swipe (6) Red Alert (7) Optimus Prime (8) Hoist (9) Autobot soldier (10) Scavenger (11) Laserbeak (23)	Thrust (1) Galvatron (2) Demolishor (3) Wheeljack (5) Decepticon soldier #1 (16) Starscream (17) Decepticon soldier #2 (22) Cyclonus (26)	Carlos Lopez (12) Rad White (13) Alexis (18) Billy (20) Fred (21) Rad's mother (24) Rad's father (25)	Sureshock (14) Grindor (15) High Wire (19) Perceptor (27)	Unicron (28) (silhouette)

Quotes

"Withdraw? Come on, you've got to be kidding me. Do you realize how many sacrifices we've had to make to defend this place?
"Sacrifices or not, an order is order".

—An Autobot soldier questions Hoist's orders.

"Be careful, Hot Shot! I almost bought the big one here!"
"Aw, it's not too bad." [falls down hole]

—Wheeljack's warning goes ignored by Hot Shot, to the latter's peril.

"I'd rather fight and die than follow the likes of you and Unicron."

—Starscream refuses Thrust's offer with a furmanism.

"Who would have thought the Mini-Cons were created by Unicron's cells?"

—Past Hot Shot spoils the show's big twist for anyone waiting to see it.

"So much for evolution. At one time we were told we could use them. But instead, we were the ones who were being used."

—Past Hot Shot savors the irony.

Notes

Translation errors

• In Armada, Rad hypothesises, "Somehow, we've gone back into the past, millions of years ago—before we met High Wire, and any of the Transformers." This doesn't make sense, though, as Hot Shot describes the Mini-Cons turning on the Transformers, which never happened in the show's backstory. This is because, in Japanese, Rad only describes it as a world where the kids never met the Mini-Cons—rather than set in the past, it's supposed to be an alternate-timeline present day!
• The alternate Hot Shot says, "So much for evolution," when addressing using the Mini-Cons—"Evolution" being the Japanese term for Powerlinking. Of course, the line still just about works in a less-literal sense, so it's a relatively minor error.

Animation and technical errors

• When the kids see the dead Transformers in the alternate world, Optimus is correctly shown in his Cybertronian form (since he never came to Earth), but his chest is colored white instead of red. Meanwhile, Megatron is in his Cybertronian body in the long shot, but in his Earth model in the close-up.

Continuity notes

• Rad met High Wire before he and the other Mini-Cons arrived on Earth four million years ago as the latter's time skip powers shows, explaining why the Exodus journeyed to Earth when the show began, and how the kids can understand their Mini-Con partners when they speak.
• This episode marks the first time Starscream and Alexis meet since he rejoined the Decepticons.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • High Wire has time skip and alternate reality abilities activated after Thrust blasts Starscream with the Requiem Blaster.

Continuity errors

• The recap dialogue at the start of the episode doesn't match that of the same events shown in the previous episode.
• If the Autobots had no intention of bringing the humans along when building the Axalon and only agreed at the last moment, why is there a human-sized shower on board?

Transformers references

• The tunnels under Cybertron's surface have cables and vines which are "fused and organic".

Trivia

• The Autobot arguing with Hoist has Lander's character model with a different color scheme.
• Minus the wings, Metalhawk's character model turns up as one of the Decepticons searching for the kids.
• According to the Legends of the Microns Year Book 2003:
  • Takeshi Sano explains that this episode's events was one of the hardest parts to do and apologizes for the story being a bit difficult to understand.

Foreign localization

German

• Title: "Zurück in die Vergangenheit" ("Back to the Past")
• Original airdate: 18 December 2003

Hungarian

• Title: "Visszatérés" ("Return")

Italian

• Title: "Il passato" ("The Past")

• The title for this episode was previously used for "Past" and "Past II". Still, we cant' really say that there are two episodes with the same title since, in that case, in was divided in "First part" and "Second part".

Portuguese

• Title: "Impulso" ("Impulse")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2003 — Transformers: Armada — Vol:14 (Warner Music Video)
2004 — Transformers: Legends of the Microns — Volume 12 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers: Armada — Volume Two (New KSM) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers: Armada — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)