The Burden Hardest to Bear

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You found me beautiful, once.
"The Burden Hardest to Bear"
Production code	700-114
Season	3
No. in season	28
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 19, 1986
Written by	Michael Charles Hill
Animation studio	Toei, Trans Arts Co.
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Overwhelmed by the burdens of leadership, Rodimus Prime doesn't care too much when the Decepticons steal the Matrix of Leadership away from him.

Synopsis

So, uh... If what looks like is about to happen happens... does it count as an orgy?

At dawn, the people of Japan are awakening to do their daily tasks: fishing, going to shrines, and sword practice. Then, the Decepticons show up to cause random trouble.

Devastator and Predaking begin harassing a few fishermen, but are chased off by Broadside. Astrotrain tries to ram a train head on (real smart) only to have the Aerialbots drive him away. Bruticus and Defensor fight it out, when Cyclonus and the Sweeps arrive, but are driven off by Rodimus, Kup, and Sky Lynx. However, instead of thanking the Autobots for saving many lives, the government of Japan is very upset, saying that the Autobots frightened people and ruined business (thankless bipeds). When Marissa Faireborn arrives and brings more problems to Rodimus, the Autobot leader loses patience, transforms, and drives off. Marissa is perplexed, and Kup says that Rodimus is struggling with his giri, a Japanese word he translates as "the burden hardest to bear". He says that Optimus Prime went through the same process after he first received the Matrix of Leadership, eventually learning to live with and respect his giri. Marissa decides to follow Rodimus, to let him have someone to talk to.

Galvatron takes the brown acid.

Meeting up on the highway, however, the two are attacked by Wildrider and Dead End, who knock Marissa's spinner into a lake and force Rodimus off a cliff. When they inspect Rodimus, they find the Matrix. Realizing that Galvatron will be really happy, they steal it and return to Chaar. In his throne room, Galvatron inserts the Matrix into his cannon, but instead of making it even more powerful like he had hoped, visions of the Ancient Autobots (including Optimus Prime himself) seep out of the barrel and demand that Galvatron return the Matrix. Galvatron orders Scourge to destroy the Matrix, believing it better to be destroyed if the Decepticons can't have it. But instead, Scourge inserts the Matrix into himself, gaining immense power even as he mutates grotesquely.

Augh... can't get the mental image of Bruticus/Defensor out!

Meanwhile, the Autobot leader wakes up, to learn that he's reverted to Hot Rod. Springer and Ultra Magnus argue that they should go after the Decepticons, but Hot Rod feels that the Matrix isn't worth it, and jets off. Real smart idea, Roddy. On Chaar, Scourge challenges Galvatron, defeating him and Cyclonus easily, before leading the Decepticons off to Earth. Galvatron and Cyclonus still function, and set off in pursuit in the Revenge.

Yoink!

On Earth, Hot Rod, while watching a martial arts class, gets some perspective and some wisdom from the kendo instructor, and realizes that he needs to get the Matrix back. Meanwhile, Scourge arrives in Japan with his forces, tossing around the Autobots. Broadside tosses him to the ground and he frightens an elderly woman. Ozu, one of the kendo students, comes to her aid, attacking Scourge with a sword and he begins to chase the pair. He corners them in a blind alley, only for Hot Rod to arrive. Shocked at the changes the Matrix has wrought in Scourge, Hot Rod defeats the Decepticon and reclaims the Matrix, becoming Rodimus Prime once more. Galvatron and Cyclonus find a less powerful, and very frightened, Scourge. And they are none too happy with him...

As the Decepticons retreat, Rodimus realizes that he must deal with his missing part, as have those who came before him. Kup reminds him that no matter who carries the Matrix, he will retain that part forever.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Broadside (1) Superion (8) Slingshot (9) Air Raid (10) Fireflight (11) Skydive (12) Silverbolt (13) Defensor (14) Sky Lynx (21) Rodimus Prime/Hot Rod (22) Kup (23) Ancient Autobots (35) Optimus Prime (36) Ultra Magnus (37) Springer (38)	Devastator (2) Predaking (3) Mixmaster (4) Hook (5) Long Haul (6) Astrotrain (7) Bruticus (15) Cyclonus (18) Scourge (19) Sweeps (20) Blast Off (24) Onslaught (25) Vortex (26) Swindle (27) Brawl (28) Wildrider (31) Dead End (32) Galvatron (33) Devastator (34) Scrapper (39) Scavenger (40) Bonecrusher (41) Drag Strip (42) Breakdown (43)	Ozu's sensei (16) Ozu (17) Disgruntled businessmen (29) Marissa Faireborn (30) Old Japanese lady (44)

Quotes

"Eh, you've had worse times."
"Yeah, when do they get better? That's what I wanna know."

—Kup and Rodimus

"He done blowed up real good."

—Wildrider, master of grammar

"You dropped it, didn't you? You broke the Matrix, didn't you?!"

—Galvatron

"Return the Matrix! Return the Matrix!"

—Ancient Autobots

"Scourge, take this and destroy it!"
"But mighty Galvatron, you agreed to return it."
"I lied! If we can't have it, then no one shall!"

—Galvatron ordering Scourge to destroy the Matrix.

"Aren't you getting a little carried away here? I'm still me, you're still you: Matrix, schmatrix."

—Hot Rod is flippant after losing a hand-me-down.

"I...still....function...."

—Cyclonus referencing a callback.

"We're too late, Galvatron! Scourge has already launched his assault!"
"He doesn't know the meaning of the word assault, but he's going to learn!"

—Cyclonus and Galvatron

"Oh no, we're trapped! We'll be killed!"
"Remarkable. The woman is clairvoyant!"

—Scourge mocks his intended victim.

"The Matrix did this to you? Then I have to take it back. I see now it is my obligation. I belong to it... as much as it belongs to me!"

—Hot Rod's realization at last.

"Well, son of a gun. Found that missing part, huh?"
"Not just the Matrix, Kup, a missing part of... myself."

—Kup and Rodimus Prime

Notes

Continuity notes

Spend $14.99 to get the same guy, just minus two lines on his face.

• Broadside appears in his more toy-based model, with a faceplate, smaller head and large separated optics. He's also shown to be huge, in keeping with his aircraft carrier mode, something which other episodes often failed to convey.
• This episode is one of a handful that finds excuses to turn Rodimus back into Hot Rod, presumably since that toy needed to be plugged as well.
• The Matrix's adverse effects on Scourge could be explained as a result of him having been created by Unicron.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Bruticus can somehow tilt his back cannons forward and fire them over his shoulders, something his Generations toys can do.
  • It seems that someone remembered the Stunticons' "automatic forcefields", as Wildrider survives a head-on collision with Rodimus without a scratch, while Rodimus goes down in flames.
• When Galvatron inserts the Matrix into his cannon, he says "Now, all shall become one, under Galvatron's rule!"
• After he rams Scourge, Hot Rod transforms in a manner similar to one of his transformations from the movie.
• This episode marks the last appearance of Springer, Broadside, Astrotrain, Devastator and Marissa Faireborn in US continuity.
• Astrotrain actually travels on the railroad his locomotive mode was designed for in this episode.
• Besides Optimus Prime, four Ancient Autobot ghosts emerge from the Matrix to haunt Galvatron, but none of them match the leaders we saw back in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4" (or will see in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"). Three of them are based on "ancient robot" character models created for "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2," which will all go on to be used as generic present-day Autobots throughout The Headmasters cartoon:
  • A pink-ish one, the only one of three designs that actually made it to the screen in "Desertion," also previously seen in "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1", and later used in The Headmasters for an intelligence officer, among others.
  • An orange-and-blue one, used in The Headmasters as Scout A and Scout B.
  • A yellow one, notably used for a whole base's worth of generics in The Headmasters episode "Ultra Magnus Dies!!"
  • The fourth, a blue robot with a crest of three spikes on his helmet, did not appear in either "Desertion" or The Headmasters, and is currently indentified, but we'll eat this hat if the model wasn't pulled from some other episode!
• While the episode order can vary, it's a little funny that the episode about Rodimus finally getting used to being leader of the Autobots was followed by the episode in which Optimus returns to replace him.

Real-world references

Netflix lied to us! This is nothing like Aggretsuko at all!

• Set in Japan (see also: "Kremzeek!"), the episode is replete with references to Japanese culture. We see a fishing boat (all wood, with hand-cast nets), a flock of sacred red-crowned cranes, a high speed bullet train passing by Mt. Fuji, a kendo dojo, a woman about to offer prayer at a Shinto shrine garden, and a surprisingly accurate rendition of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and its Seimon Ishibashi bridge, where Rodimus meets with the Prime Minister. We also see Rodimus get chewed out by government guys who are stereotypically worked up about robot battles being "very bad for business." And of course there's that metaphorical rising sun in the opening shot.
• Giri (義理) is a real Japanese word and concept with long roots, but the specific translation of "the burden hardest to bear" comes from The Yakuza, an American crime film from the 1970s. Defining it this way is questionable, as giri more accurately refers to one's social responsibilities and duties, regardless of their difficulty. But in broad strokes, Rodimus's arc does echo the tension between giri and ninjō (or "human feeling") that has historically driven much of Japanese drama.
  • In addition to The Yakuza, Hill took inspiration from Hagakure, an 18th century book on bushidō written by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
• The train driver calls in the incident with Astrotrain to "JNR Central", referring to Japanese National Railways (which in the real world would be broken up and privatized only a year after this episode aired.) The specific line is called out as the Yamanote Line, which... is an urban transit line entirely within Tokyo, and certainly doesn't pass by Mt. Fuji, but hey, points for trying! The train itself appears to be very loosely based on the 0 Series Shinkansen trainsets.
• The voice acting for several Japanese characters in this episode employs a very stereotypical Western view of Asian people and their pronunciation of English words.
• The naming of Marissa's vehicle as a "spinner" presumably comes from the hovercar vehicles of the same name in Blade Runner.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Scourge launches for Earth with the Millennium Falcon engine burst noise.

Animation and technical errors

• Coloring errors:
  • Devastator is colored olive green rather than light green in the opening battle.
  • Behind him, Predaking is colored entirely orange.
  • The first time we see Cyclonus, his nose cone is purple. In the next shot, part of it is grey.
  • Onslaught - visible for only a split second as Bruticus separates - remains in the light gray color of Bruticus's torso, even though he should be dark blue. Swindle's weapons are also colored the same yellow as Swindle himself, instead of dark gray.
  • Rodimus' spoiler should be orange in the middle, but many shots have it colored completely in yellow.
  • Magnus's missiles are white instead of red as he turns to receive Kup's report on the missing Hot Rod. In the same shot, Springer's cheekguards are abnormally huge.
  • In one shot of Optimus Prime's "ghost", he is colored completely blue.
  • The orange shapes on Cyclonus' chest are colored red in several shots.
  • In the pan across the fallen Cyclonus, Hook (standing between Predaking and Drag Strip) is colored like Dead End.
• Devastator splits apart into the Constructicons off-screen, with no transformation sound and no indication of why he separated.

• Hook has two optics instead of a visor as the Constructicons retreat.
• A shot of Astrotrain from the human train's perspective shows no tracks on the ground.

• Superion's mouthplate doesn't move as he speaks; his voice continues giving the command to separate after his components have separated.
• The Aerialbots' lasers simply come from unmarked points on their wingtips.
• Rodimus' crest is missing the horizontal line during most shots in this episode.
• When Rodimus is called to the palace, he's missing his Autobot logo.
• As he says, "When do they get better, that's what I want to know," Rodimus' face becomes all glitched up, with a partially miscolored helmet and a huge shadow line where his eyes should be.
• For some reason, the EDC logo on Marissa Faireborn's shoulder has been replaced with "AOC".
• When Rodimus drives away from Marissa, his smoke trail appears behind Kup instead of in front of him and his vehicle form is about half of Marissa's height. Also, Sky Lynx is missing in the shot.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • Rodimus' display shows a rear angle shot of Dead End and Wildrider, but he's in front of them.

• When Wildrider holds the matrix, it looks like a big yellow blob. The next shot shows it in the usual colors and configuration.
• After Wildrider and Dead End drive off with the Matrix, Rodimus reverts to robot mode; the animation of him settling into place is played twice.
• While Rodimus is reverted to Hot Rod, he's still occasionally drawn using Rodimus Prime's character model.

"...A burnt-out hulk of a planet called Chaar, a world of... ash... and ruin? What?"

• Chaar is portrayed using Cybertron's post-Movie model, with two similarly designed moons.
• Attending Galvatron's throne room are several Decepticons of made-up design, colored as Constructicons (in the same olive-yellow seen previously.)
• Galvatron's throne changes color and design multiple times throughout one scene.
• The ghost image of Optimus has two fog lights instead of four.
• As Galvatron tosses the Matrix to Scourge:
  • Bruticus and Devastator have replaced the generic non-Constructicons that were there previously; they are also drawn as normal-scaled Decepticons.
  • The Matrix is missing its handles.
• When Rodimus wakes and touches his forehead in the next scene, his face is partly purple.
• A few shots later (during the "Matrix, schmatrix..." lines), the depressions in Rodimus' shoulders are blue instead of white.
• Galvatron is missing the red squares on the tops of his shoulders in most shots.
• Wrong lasers:
  • Cyclonus' gun fires a yellow laser. That's the Autobot color (it should be purple). It also uses a non-standard sound effect.
  • Hot Rod carries a gray laser gun rather than the usual red rifle. It has a non-standard sound effect instead of Prime's rifle sound effect.
  • In the battle scenes just before the Decepticons retreat, nobody has the standard Autobot or Decepticon laser sound effects.

It's an evolution revolution!
or
I'm your ice cream man, stop me when I'm passin' by!

• After he dispatches Galvatron and Cyclonus, Scourge transforms with one of the most cheatsy sequences in the whole series - he simply melts or morphs into his vehicle form.
• When Cyclonus helps Galvatron up from the cliffside, he speaks in mutated Scourge's voice.
• The sensei continues making aggressive fighting noises long after his student opponent has lost his weapon and retreated.
• Galvatron's ship is gray instead of purple.
• The first shot of Galvatron aboard his ship has the whole bottom half of his face in dark gray instead of just his chin
• Two of the hovercraft-mode Sweeps accompanying Scourge are drawn with the heads-sticking-up model.
• Confusing animation and editing makes it very unclear what's happening at the start of Scourge's assault. We're supposed to see a large outdoor video screen showing a character firing a laser gun; then a transport passing by on the street gets blown up by Scourge, making it seem like the movie character blew up the transport - but it all happens so fast there's no time to figure it out.
• Scourge's energy blasts are very poorly animated, often lacking their glow effect and sometimes failing to connect with their targets at all.
• Kup's cry of pain comes before Scourge actually blasts him.
• When Galvatron opens the airlock door, one shot has "AIR LOOK" written on it. Also, it's not actually an airlock - it's just a door directly into space, with no airlock chamber and no apparent mechanism to adjust either pressure or air.
• The Matrix is in Scourge's chest, but later Hot Rod pulls it out of his stomach.
• When Hot Rod fires his first shots at Scourge, the background behind him has turned from a dark, grubby alleyway brick wall into a lit-up building - the same building he pulls up in front of as Rodimus Prime once the Decepticons pull out.
• As Hot Rod holds the Matrix, one shot has his arm pipes clipping through it.
• Hot Rod sticks the Matrix into his chest without opening a compartment for it.
• As Galvatron and Cyclonus fly Scourge away from the city, Galvatron is mouthing something, but there's no dialogue.
• In the last shot of the episode, Ultra Magnus is missing his shoulder missiles and Kup is missing the white part of his chest.
• The version of this episode on the Shout! Factory DVDs (as well as the Hasbro Pulse upload on YouTube) features a glitch with an unstable horizontal line appearing at the top of the picture throughout the episode. The error appears to be on the episode's master copy, as the version included on the Kid Rhino DVDs has the picture slightly zoomed in order to avoid showing the offending line.

Continuity errors

• It's not clear what caused the Constructicons to separate and retreat; they seemed to be handling Broadside with ease up to that point.
• The humans who call out "Mayday! Mayday!" don't appear to have a radio on their ship.
• The wanton assault of the Aerialbots seems more likely to blow up the railroad tracks than actually blast Astrotrain off of them.
• Wildrider now has a very bad Southern accent, perhaps in response to his "dun blowed up real good" line.
• Galvatron says the Matrix eluded the Decepticons for years, but he had it for a while during the movie (which happened less than one year ago in the timeline).
• It's not really clear why Galvatron puts the Matrix in his cannon rather than his chest.
• Why didn't the ancient Autobots pop up when Galvatron had the Matrix during the movie? (one possible explanation: he never placed the Matrix inside himself in the movie, instead only wearing it on a chain.)
• Likewise, why does Scourge get all mutated when Galvatron didn't?
• We don't hear Optimus' voice during the "return the Matrix" chant.
• Galvatron comes to the rather odd conclusion that Dead End and Wildrider "dropped" and "broke" the galactically powerful, ancient-beyond-all-history, mystical Matrix, despite learning first-hand during the movie that he cannot use it, "not by a Decepticon." Of course, Galvatron isn't exactly renowned for his logical reasoning skills . . .
• After Galvatron tells Scourge to get rid of the Matrix, the scene transition has two Decepticon logos, but the next scene is of the Autobots.
• Just before he quits the Autobots, Hot Rod states that "this war has been going on now for a few dozen millennia". Back in "War Dawn", we learned that the Third Cybertronian War started nine million years ago, which is about 750 dozen millennia... assuming, of course, that we want to take Hot Rod's pointedly off-handed remark as being based on historical accuracy, which is kind of a stretch for a guy who's at the end of his rope and sarcastically railing about "the known universe and its outlying suburbs".
• The Decepticon army is inexplicably small in the second half of the episode, consisting of just Predaking, a couple of Sweeps, and some Constructicons who come and go.
• Ozu injures Scourge (a giant metal robot, juiced up on Matrix steroids) with his sword.
• Scourge is portrayed as ultra-powerful early on, but is defeated by a ramming and three shots from Hot Rod's gun at the episode's end. This downfall comes on the heels of him abandoning his "destroy everything!" mission in order to fixate on chasing an old lady around, making it a somewhat fitting defeat.

Trivia

" 'Front Toward Enemy'? What does that mean?! ARE YOU THREATENING ME?!"

• This is one of the most well-illustrated episodes of season 3, with lots of deep, detailed shading and well-proportioned characters. That said, there are some instances where the animation gets overly sketchy to the point of being indecipherable during Scourge's attack of Japan. And the general aesthetic looks a lot like the yet-to-be-released Headmasters series.
• The Japanese train drivers appear to be wearing... spacesuits?
• When Scourge starts mutating, at one point it looks like he's... crying?
• Isn't it convenient that Scourge launches his attack on Earth in Japan, where the Autobots happen to be located?
• When Galvatron inserts the Matrix into his cannon and it fails to fire, he briefly looks directly into the barrel of his cannon before berating Dead End and Wildrider.

• Those government spokesmen who complained about the fighting in the beginning must be pissed after all the destruction we see at the end!

Foreign localization

French

• Title (European French broadcast): ?
• Title (Canadian French broadcast and European French DVD release): "Le fardeau d'être chef" ("The Burden of being a Leader")
• Original airdate: ?

• To date, and although there is probably one in existence, the European French dub of this episode is lost. The French DVD editions use the Canadian French dub instead.
• In that same Canadian dub, Sky Lynx is still called by his English name instead of "Chaînon".

German

• Title: "Die Last der Verantwortung" ("The Burden of Responsibility")
• Original airdate: February 29, 1992

• After Rodimus looses the Matrix, in the german dub he is still referred to as "Rodimus" instead of "Hot Rod".
• This was the final episode in the 39-episode-run of the original cartoon on german Television. The Series would return in 1995 to german television, but not the way many Fans had hoped...

Italian

• Title (first dub): "Il fardello del comando" ("The Burden of Command")
• Original airdate: ?

• For the first time in the series, Bruticus is called by his Italian name, Mutiforce. In season 2 he kept his English name.
• Like in Kremzeek!, in this episode some Japanese people's accent sounds more Chinese than Japanese. Still, someone simply speaks in perfect Italian.
• The name "Otoboto-san" oddly becomes "Autobotu-san". This makes even less sense if you consider that Autobots are known in Italy as "Autorobot".
• At least once, Springer speaks in rhymes.

• Title (second dub): "Il peso più difficile da portare" ("The Hardest Weight to Carry On")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Omo Sugi ta Shimei" (重すぎた使命, "The Mission Too Heavy")
• Original airdate: June 11, 1987

• When they recover the Matrix of Leadership, the Narrator misidentifies Wildrider and Dead End as Runabout and Runamuck. Which is very strange because the Battlechargers weren't sold at Japanese retail, but the Stunticons were.
• A "Secret Files of Teletraan II" segment unique to Japan was attached to this episode. It focuses on the many battles between Menasor and Superion. It replaces the original "Secret Files" segment which focused on the Decepticons.

Mandarin

• Title: "Jiān Fù Zhòngrèn" (肩负重任, "The Heavy Responsibility to shoulder")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Samaya tyajkaya nosha" (Самая тяжкая ноша, "The Heaviest Burden")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 11: The Decepticon Possession (Rhino Entertainment)

LaserDisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 5: Series 3.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2005 — Transformers — Volume 22 (Déclic Images) — Canadian French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode dialogue script