Endgame, Part I

This article is about the Animated episode. For the Beast Machines episode, see Endgame Pt. I: The Downward Spiral.

« Transformers Animated ep 41 »
You're telling us this entire series was just to get Prime a hammer and a jetpack? Again?
"Endgame, Part I"
Airdate	May 16, 2009
Written by	Rich Fogel
Directed by	Kalvin Lee Kentaro Mizuno
Animation studio	Mook

The Autobots race to find an advantage over Megatron's control of Omega Supreme.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Jazz (1) Prowl (2) Bumblebee (3) Bulkhead (4) Omega Supreme (5) Arcee (6) Optimus Prime (11) Ratchet (12) Ultra Magnus (14, flashback) Cadet Sentinel (15, flashback)	Shockwave/Longarm Prime (7) Megatron (8) Starscream (9) Lugnut (10) Female Starscream (17) Three Lugnuts Supreme (18~20)	Isaac Sumdac (16)	Sari Sumdac (13)

Quotes

Lugnut: I am the most faithful!
Shockwave: Have you blown a diode?! I'm trying to work here!
[A scuffle insues]
Megatron: Oh, for spark's sake...

—You get what you pay for, Megatron. And these guys are free.

Prowl: I'll transwarp to the moon and spy on them.
Jazz: And take five on your Cyber-Ninja training? No dice. You're close to a real breakthrough. And I got a vibe that says we're gonna need every advantage we can get our servos on.
Optimus: Agreed. We'll send someone else.
Bumblebee: Who'd be crazy enough to go on that mission? [Everyone looks at Bumblebee] Why is everyone looking at me? Why is everyone always looking at me?!

—Bumblebee gets tired of all the suicide missions he keeps going on.

Notes

Transformers references

Now, that's some upgrades...

• Optimus's new flight attachments (specifically the colors and details of his wings and gauntlets) are based on God Ginrai's flight-endowing Godbomber components. The flight pack itself, to which the wings attach, doesn't seem to owe as much to the Masterforce character, appearing instead to resemble booster pack from the original Jetfire (and thus, the FAST Packs from Super Dimension Fortress Macross). His shoulder cannons also appear to be based on his Voyager-class toy's water blaster.

• The wingless rocket pack could also be seen as a reference to the final scenes of More than Meets the Eye, Part 3 from the original series, when Optimus Prime borrowed Sideswipe's rocket pack to chase Megatron's space cruiser.

• As he jets into the sky, Optimus shouts out "Yessssss!" and "Excellent".

• The creation of the Lugnuts Supreme, evil clones of Omega Supreme, hearkens back to Omega Sentinel and the Dark Guardians.

• This episode finally confirms the real reason why Optimus is no longer a member of the Autobot Academy- he was expelled by Ultra Magnus for what happened to Elita-One. Also of note is that Sentinel said absolutely nothing in his friend's defense while the latter willingly took the blame, but really, should that come as a surprise by now?

• The episode also confirms why Prowl never finished his Ninja Bot training- his not-going-so-well "optics quest" was interrupted by Optimus' crew (who accidentally caused the destruction of his ship), and he did time on the vessel in exchange for a ride home. However, with the ability to materialize All Spark fragments out of thin air with this episode, it seems that he is becoming ever so closer to mastering his training.

• Ratchet once again harps on the fact that "Autobots don't fly", a common if frequently broken rule throughout most of the Transformers fiction, before being confronted with the harsh reality.

• This is not the first time that an Optimus has taken up a huge, Matrix-related melee weapon for the final battle against a Megatron.

Real-world references

• When testing the jetpack for the first time, Optimus started by using only 5% of the power and still went ballistic in flight, a reference to the comical scene from the movie Iron Man.

Trivia

• It's heavily implied that Prowl has been on his optics quest since around the end of the Great War "centuries" ago until he joined up with Optimus... and had accomplished jack squat in all that time.

• It is showed and told that Prowl's sidecar contains shoulder's additions that allow him to fly. His samurai toy version counterpart, on the other hand, doesn't.

• Megatron purposely started the Shockwave/Lugnut feud, knowing Starscream would try to seize Omega Supreme's access codes, just to be sure Lugnut would be in his most loyal state at the moment of the transfer? Now, that's some sleeky fore-thinkings...

• Shockwave has enough of a sense of humor that he can laugh. Who knew?

• Interestingly, Megatron destroys all of the remaining (albeit inert) Starscream clone shells, instead of reprogramming them to serve him and boost the number of troops under his command. Starscream even suggests this, but apparently Megatron prefers sheer brute force over numbers.

• After spending all of Season 3 as a disembodied head, Starscream finally regains his body....only to have Megatron blow it to smithereens at the end of the episode. Tough break, Screamer.