A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court (episode): Difference between revisions
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===Continuity errors=== | ===Continuity errors=== | ||
[[File:Spike gets kissed.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|"Look, let me go back in there and face the peril."<br>"No, it's too perilous."<br>"...Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?"]] | [[File:Spike gets kissed.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|"Look, let me go back in there and face the peril."<br>"No, it's too perilous."<br>"...Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?"]] | ||
* The historical accuracy of some aspects of this episode is somewhat lacking. (No! Really?) | * The historical accuracy of some aspects of this episode is somewhat lacking. (No! Really?) | ||
** While the recipe for gunpowder expressed in this episode is roughly correct, gunpowder would not make its way to medieval Europe for another eight hundred years or so, and then only from the Far East. Of course, the whole ''point'' of its appearance is that it's a rare, mysterious, wizardly type of thing, so hey. | ** While the recipe for gunpowder expressed in this episode is roughly correct, gunpowder would not make its way to medieval Europe for another eight hundred years or so, and then only from the Far East. Of course, the whole ''point'' of its appearance is that it's a rare, mysterious, wizardly type of thing, so hey. | ||
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* Ramjet apparently changes his head on a regular basis. Hah! | * Ramjet apparently changes his head on a regular basis. Hah! | ||
* Fans have made much of the fact that Warpath defeats Ramjet in a collision, but really, Ramjet's specialty is hitting ''other planes''. Even a tough jet doesn't compare to a ''tank''. | * Fans have made much of the fact that Warpath defeats Ramjet in a collision, but really, Ramjet's specialty is hitting ''other planes''. Even a tough jet doesn't compare to a ''tank''. It's impressive he withstood one hit when you get down to it. | ||
* Warpath makes a strange observation, noting that he's so low on energy that he "can't even stay transformed". Apparently, remaining in vehicle mode consumes energy. | * Warpath makes a strange observation, noting that he's so low on energy that he "can't even stay transformed". Apparently, remaining in vehicle mode consumes energy. | ||
* Warpath speaks with a moving mouthplate in this episode, rather than the cheek blinkers he sometimes has. | * Warpath speaks with a moving mouthplate in this episode, rather than the cheek blinkers he sometimes has. | ||
Revision as of 20:08, 19 May 2017
| This article is about the cartoon episode. For the Transformers Legends event, see A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court (Legends). |
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 "It's only a model." "Shhh." | |||||||||||||
| "A Deceptacon Raider in King Arthur's Court" "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" | |||||||||||||
| Production code | #700-39 | ||||||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||||||
| Airdate | October 24, 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Douglas Booth | ||||||||||||
| Animation studio | Unknown | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
The Transformers go to the sixth century but avoid Camelot, as it is a silly place.
Synopsis
Warpath and Hoist are battling it out with Starscream, Rumble, Ravage, and Ramjet. When the Decepticons retreat out of exhaustion, Rumble detects energy in a nearby cave. After they wander inside they are transported to 543 A.D., where they are greeted by Sir Wigend of Blackthorne and his knights, who believe the Transformers are knights of an enemy realm. Their arrival is also observed by an owl, who flies off to inform his master, the wizard Beorht, of this strange new development.
Nearby, Nimue, princess of that enemy kingdom, is spying on their conversation and runs to warn her father, Sir Aetheling the Red, but she bumps into Spike (literally). The Decepticons agree to help Blackthorne's knights win their conflict with Aetheling, but Starscream obviously wants to rule and have a land of his own. Spike enters the jousting tournament between the two kingdoms (which has been rigged by the Decepticons, of course), but quickly fails.
Ramjet and Rumble enter the tournament together (Rumble riding Ramjet in vehicle mode), but are defeated by Warpath and Sir Aetheling. An enraged Starscream is sick of chivalry, kidnaps Nimue and threatens her life unless Sir Aetheling agrees to give up his realm. The Autobots give chase but cannot keep up due to lack of energy and collapse out of exhaustion.
Starscream holds Nimue prisoner in Blackthorne's castle, which he has commandeered, and forces its residents to construct and power a primitive electrical generator to keep the Decepticons energized. Starscream then sends Rumble to get potassium nitrate (in other words, LOTS of bird crap) to make gunpowder.
Spike attempts to save Nimue from Blackthorne's keep, only to find she and Sir Blackthorne are now a happy couple. Despite feeling rejected, Spike still agrees to help fight the war against the Decepticons.
Meanwhile, the Autobots and Sir Aetheling's knights charge towards the castle to battle it out with the Decepticons. The Autobots help the knights cross the moat and scale the walls, but they can't put up much of a fight due to their dangerously low energy levels. Starscream's gunpowder projectiles make short work of the invading forces.
Beorht the wizard appears and summons lightning that fills Warpath and Hoist back up to full strength. They take back the battle with Starscream and are victorious. Beorht concludes the robots are time travelers and leads them all back to the cave in which they arrived, only to find it guarded by a dragon. Starscream refuses to go any closer, but Beorht pulls out a pouch of "Dragon's Bane", noting that a little bit of it works every time. He throws the concoction at the dragon, and it explodes, frightening away the beast.
Spike and the Transformers go back into the cave and return to the present using the Dragon Mound. When they arrive back in their own time, they are greeted by multiple cannon blasts by Megatron. Starscream tackles his leader in a burst of enthusiasm at being back safely. Megatron, on the other hand, isn't nearly as happy to see Starscream, who has just ruined his shot...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Oohh! I just changed heads last week!"
- —A ground-bound Ramjet learns that even a tough jet is no match for a tank.
"Out of the way, Rumble! It could be dangerous. As your leader, I must take the risk. Anyway, I'm lower on energy than you!"
- —Starscream acting true to form.
"Huh! Inferior construction, even for an Autobot. One good whack, it breaks right in two!"
- —Ramjet examining the "wreckage" of Sir Wulf and his horse.
"What's more important is that we have 1,451 years to go before we have to worry about the Autobots and that bungler Megatron!"
- —Even trapped in the past, Starscream looks on the bright side, unaware his math is failing.
"Whatcha waiting for, Red Knight? Don't you wanna rumble with Rumble?"
- —"Sir" Rumble prepares to joust.
"I dunno. Must be a king."
"Why?"
"Make some idiot twenty feet tall, and he thinks he rules the Earth."
- — Beorht isn't too impressed by Starscream.
"Starscream! Lower the drawbridge! Ugh! I got your stupid potassium nitrate!"
- —Rumble, carrying a pot of bird droppings while also covered in same.
"What's the matter? Aren't you glad to see us?"
"RRRRAGGGH!!"
- —Starscream asks a rather loaded question of Megatron.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
- This episode omits Warpath's glowing blue faceplate-slits, which light up when he talks throughout the rest of the season. In fact, when he consoles Spike after Nimue is captured, his mouthplate moves up and down, which it doesn't do in any other episode.
- Warpath's chest cannon's length changes frequently during the episode.
- The first shot of Warpath has him rolling along in tank mode, drawn at about a 1/4-angle viewpoint, but the ground beneath him is scrolling parallel to the camera.
- A bizarre flash of energy envelopes Ramjet as he returns to robot mode after colliding with Warpath.
- When Starscream raises his right arm to point, the Decepticon emblem on his wing is no longer there.
- Again showing a wanton disregard for the background matte, Warpath slides sideways as he drives down the hill.
- Princess Nimue has cleavage that appears and disappears from shot to shot and sometimes frame to frame. And no, you are not a pervert if you watched the episode six times to chronicle this error.
- The script seems to have called for a trumpet fanfare to summon Spike to the jousting field (thus Hoist's "That's your call!" line.) The sound editors complied by timing a fanfare in the background music to coincide with the moment, but the resulting effect is that Warpath seems to be listening to the background music.
- A glint of light from Sir Aetheling's sword gets a very loud sound effect. Since sunlight is so loud, y'know.
- When Ramjet rams into Warpath in the jousting duel, his canopy is smashed and nose cone crushed in, yet less than a minute later, he's back to normal when the remaining Decepticons attempt to flee with Starscream.
- As Starscream walks up to kidnap Nimue, the background scrolls behind him much faster than the speed of his walk.
- Starscream is missing his wing emblems as he drives off with Nimue.
- Warpath's tank mode is rather consistently portrayed as bigger and taller than Hoist's truck mode. While that would be accurate in the real world, Hoist is taller than Warpath in robot mode.
- Starscream's mouth doesn't move during most of his "No, Rumble, not I..." line.
- After he throws the gunpowder and puts his hands on his hips, one of Starscream's arm guns isn't quite attached to his arm.
- The tires on Hoist's feet are white instead of black as he stands up after the lightning recharge.
- Hoist tackles Starscream even though one frame later he's seen in vehicle mode.
- A bit of clumsy sound editing towards the end of this episode results in a small but noticeable error. As Hoist says, "That is, if there's a way—" his voice is very abruptly cut off. Then Beohrt announces: "Hoist said 'time'!" when Hoist has actually said nothing of the sort. The line as recorded was "That is, if there's a way back to our own time!" and it was followed by a short scene of Starscream feebly requesting a little energy and being threatened by Warpath, before Beorht makes his proclamation. The removal of the Warpath/Starscream scene appears to have inadvertently clipped the relevant few words off the end of Hoist's line.
Continuity errors
"No, it's too perilous."
"...Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?"
- The historical accuracy of some aspects of this episode is somewhat lacking. (No! Really?)
- While the recipe for gunpowder expressed in this episode is roughly correct, gunpowder would not make its way to medieval Europe for another eight hundred years or so, and then only from the Far East. Of course, the whole point of its appearance is that it's a rare, mysterious, wizardly type of thing, so hey.
- Plate armour of the kind worn by the various knights in this episode was not introduced into medieval Europe until around the year 1400—almost a thousand years from the stated anno domini 543. Even so, one should be fair to the writers and cartoonists, given that major motion pictures like Excalibur also made this sort of error (or used it for dramatic effect because audiences would easily recognise a stereotypical "knight" as opposed to a historically accurate version). We can let slide the armor that Hoist creates for Spike.
- Also, everyone seems to be speaking Early Modern English instead of Old English. Way to go!
- Starscream's math is out by a decade: 543 + 1451 = 1994, rather than the correct date of the Transformers' awakening, 1984.
- Warpath's cannon changes from shooting lasers to shells again
- As usual, many humans are pretty much invincible. Wulf survives getting headbutted off his horse by Ramjet with barely a scratch. Even with his armor on, half of Wulf's bones should have been shattered to bits by a blow like that.
Continuity notes
Quite in-de-fa-ti-gable
Although at times, we're given rhymes
That are quite un-sing-able!
- Ramjet apparently changes his head on a regular basis. Hah!
- Fans have made much of the fact that Warpath defeats Ramjet in a collision, but really, Ramjet's specialty is hitting other planes. Even a tough jet doesn't compare to a tank. It's impressive he withstood one hit when you get down to it.
- Warpath makes a strange observation, noting that he's so low on energy that he "can't even stay transformed". Apparently, remaining in vehicle mode consumes energy.
- Warpath speaks with a moving mouthplate in this episode, rather than the cheek blinkers he sometimes has.
- Even if he can't fire lasers, Warpath can still fire shells (and does so, trying to hit Ramjet in the castle).
Real-world references
- The title of this episode is an homage to the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court written by Mark Twain and published in 1889.
- The Dragon Mound is surrounded by a Stonehenge-like structure.
- The instrument panel on the time-travel device is written in Runic alphabet. [1] [2]
- Surprisingly, there is a slight bit of Arthurian legend present in the episode. Nimue (better known as the Lady of the Lake) is an Arthurian character who fell in love with Merlin. Unsurprisingly, that Nimue is nothing like this episode's Nimue.
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Luke Skywalker's lightsaber deflecting the seeker ball bolts can be faintly heard as Beorht recharges Warpath and Hoist.
- The sound of a lightsaber igniting is used as Beorht drops his electrically charged staff.
- Despite the title, King Arthur doesn't make an appearance in this tale, thus making him Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.
Trivia
"No no no no, it's not that, it's 'ni'."
"Nu!"
"No no, 'ni'. You're not doing it properly."
- The original broadcast version of this episode featured the misspelled title, "A Deceptacon Raider..." The error was corrected for the Generation 2 version of the episode. Likewise, when Kid Rhino recreated the title cards for their DVD release of the series, it was also amended. This flub seemed minor then, but years later...
- Spike actually gets a kiss from a girl. What will Carly think?
- This episode is one of four pre-movie episodes in which Optimus Prime does not appear.
- Among the audience members watching the joust is a dark-skinned man whose outfit greatly resembles the one worn by Hank the Ranger in the Dungeons and Dragons animated series—not entirely surprising, as that program was produced by Marvel Productions, who partnered with Sunbow on Transformers, and both shows were animated by Toei. Next to "Hank" are a man with a shield and a woman in a cloak, but they do not otherwise strongly resemble Eric the Cavalier or Sheila the Thief, characters who were associated with magical versions of those items in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
Foreign localization
Brazilian
- Title: "Um Cavaleiro Decepticon na Corte do Rei Arthur" ("A Decepticon Knight in King Arthur's Court")
- Original airdate:
German
Italian
- Title (dub 2): "Un Decepticon alla corte di re Artù" ("A Decepticon in King Arthur's Court")
- Original airdate: ?
- This episode was never broadcast in Italy in the '80s and, as such, it only got dubbed in Italian with the 2008 full G1 redubbing.
Japanese
- Title: "Time Traveller" (タイムトラベラー, "Time Travellers")
- Original airdate: February 7, 1986
Mandarin
- Title: "霸天虎入侵亚瑟王朝" ("Decepticons Invade King Arthur's Period")
- Original airdate:
Home video releases
1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 04: Stagione Due Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)
