Tactician

« Transformers: Armada ep 25 »
"Tactician" 軍師 (ちえもの) (Chiemono) "Tactician: Wise Person"
Production code	TF: A-25
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	January 28, 2003 (English) 27 June 2003 (Japanese)
Writer	Shōji Tonoike
English adaptation	Terry Klassen
Director	Satoru Kusuda, Masayuki Motsumoto
Animation studio	Actas Inc.
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

A new figure emerges, throwing the balance of power among the Decepticons out of whack.

Synopsis

A space shuttle is cruising through space when it encounters a bizarre flying object. Unable to hail the object, the crew brace as the object scans their shuttle. The object then flies off, revealing itself to be a look-alike for said shuttle.

Fred then attempts to discuss the incident with the other kids, but no one aside from Alexis appears to take him seriously.

The scene shifts to the moon, where an invisible figure is shown descending upon the Decepticon base. He saunters on into the facility, opening up a door. Inside the room are several Mini-Cons, who the figure notes as having been locked away. One of them, Inferno, bravely walks forward and is chosen as the personal Mini-Con of this invisible figure. The rest, who were earlier shown trembling, are left in the room when the figure leaves them and the door is closed.

Laserbeak is next seen flying over a battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. The kids ask where Sideways is, and are relieved to see that he’s on the battlefield. Specifically, the kids are relieved that Sideways cannot hack into their system again, and Red Alert informs them that he put a new firewall into place so that another incident can’t happen again.

Laserbeak then spots a Mini-Con crystal embedded in the side of the canyon where the battle is taking place, and so Scavenger volunteers to retrieve it. Megatron orders Cyclonus to intercept, but Cyclonus is shot down by Smokescreen. The battle soon degenerates into a brawl, with Megatron forming the Star Saber and Optimus Prime using the Skyboom Shield as a counter. Overhead, the same invisible figure notes how poorly the Decepticons are fighting and questions why Megatron is only using the Saber at half strength. Scavenger and Laserbeak note that someone else is on the battlefield, but as they’ve already retrieved the crystal and Megatron has ordered a retreat they seem to pay it no further heed.

Back on the moon, Megatron is about to take the Decepticons to task for their recent failure when Cyclonus and Demolishor start in on each other. Their fight is interrupted by a mysterious voice berating all of them for their failure. Demolishor sees Inferno in the back of the room and charges towards him, but he is tripped up by the invisible figure. The figure continues to berate the Decepticons, and then apologizes to Megatron for his late arrival. The figure then reveals himself to be Thrust, who Megatron refers to as his “dear, dear friend” and welcomes to Earth.

Later on, a furious Demolishor punches a wall out of anger over his being humiliated. Demolishor expresses his anger towards Thrust, only to have Cyclonus and Starscream point out that Thrust is a master of mimicry who has never been defeated in combat. Demolishor comments about seeing how good Thrust is by making him go up against the Autobots. Sideways then looks around the room, but says that it was nothing when Starscream asks what Sideways is doing. The scene ends with a shot of a cloaked Thrust walking out of the room.

Back on Earth, Rad, Alexis, and Carlos cheer over the new arrival—the Mini-Con Dune Runner. Dune Runner is greeted by the Street Action Mini-Con Team, with High Wire apparently volunteering to show him around. Blurr, Smokescreen, and Hot Shot celebrate their new victory, but soon get into a spat with Red Alert and Smokescreen, who advocate caution. They are interrupted by Optimus, who is told that nothing is going on.

On the moon, Starscream is practicing while Demolishor and Cyclonus watch. They banter a little bit about how Thrust is their new secret weapon, then note that Sideways has gone missing again; it is speculated that he may be taking a nap. Instead, Sideways is then shown driving off in motorcycle mode while Thrust watches.

Thrust is then seen in Megatron’s throne room, discussing matters with Megatron. Thrust notes that Starscream is suited for second-in-command status, but is otherwise not impressed with Megatron’s soldiers. Thrust offers to go into battle with Megatron’s soldiers in order to observe them, but with the stipulation that he be allowed to possess the Star Saber. Megatron initially refuses, but a beam of light shining into the throne room allows Thrust a chance to talk Megatron into it through the use of metaphor.

The Decepticons, save for Sideways, are then assembled in the throne room. Megatron informs them that Thrust will lead the next mission, with Starscream as his second. Demolishor protests on the basis that Megatron told him that he was the second in command, and Cyclonus adds to it that they don’t know what the plan is. Demolishor and Cyclonus protest further when told to simply follow orders, but Megatron will have none of it.

At the Autobot base, a Mini-Con alarm goes off. Red Alert is told to stay back, while the rest of the Autobots warp to the site.

At the site of the alarm, Cyclonus flies up to the others and notes that he destroyed the transmitter. Thrust orders Starscream to stand by with the Mini-Cons, and tells Megatron to hold onto the Star Saber for the time being.

The Autobots arrive at a gully; Optimus gives them marching orders and they all enter. Starscream radios back to Thrust that the Autobots are falling for the trap, and Thrust orders him not to attack just yet. Thrust then takes off with the Air Defense Team, telling Megatron to wait there.

As the Autobots enter the gully, they are attacked from the air. This drives them further into the gully, where they are ambushed by Demolishor and Sideways. Smokescreen takes cover behind the Skyboom Shield, while the others duck behind some rocks. Thrust, Starscream, and the Mini-Cons attack from above, with Thrust giving the order to focus on Smokescreen. Cyclonus joins in with Sideways and Demolishor, resulting in Optimus ordering the others to try and break through. Just as Optimus blows past the three Decepticons, however, he is stopped by Megatron. Scavenger sees that Optimus needs help and rushes to take over the Skyboom Shield from Smokescreen, only to have all of the Decepticons aside from Megatron start to concentrate their fire; Scavenger, Smokescreen, and the Shield are now pinned in place.

Megatron pulls out the Star Saber and tries to use it against Optimus. Optimus transforms into truck mode (minus his trailer) and races backwards into a clearing. Megatron follows Optimus, and berates him for his choice: he’s now even further away from the others. Optimus tries to fight Megatron, but Megatron overpowers Optimus and prepares to deliver the killing blow.

The kids, watching it on the monitor, start to panic. However, Red Alert sees a bright flash of light and tells them to keep calm.

Not to be confused with Skyfire. Maybe.

That flash of light promptly shoots down the Air Military Mini-Con Team before revealing itself to be an armed space shuttle. It starts to dogfight with Starscream, and then both transform into robot mode; the shuttle identifies himself as Jetfire, second in command of the Autobots. Jetfire then promptly shoots Starscream down before strafing the gully. This allows the other Autobots to move forward, blasting Sideways, Demolishor, and Cyclonus before jumping Megatron. Seeing that he is now outnumbered, Megatron orders everyone to retreat. Thrust protests the order, but after getting shot by Jetfire he also falls back.

Jetfire and the other Autobots share a moment as they finally meet back up. A voice over by Rad talks about how despite this being a quiet moment, the war was about to heat up and Jetfire would play an important role.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Mini-Cons
Jetfire (2) Laserbeak (19) Smokescreen (20) Scavenger (21) Hot Shot (22) Optimus Prime (23) Red Alert (29) Blurr (31)	Thrust (8) Demolishor (24) Starscream (25) Cyclonus (26) Megatron (27) Sideways (28)	Shuttle Astronauts (1) Alexis (3) Fred (4) Carlos Lopez (5) Billy (6) Rad White (7)	Terradive (9) Gunbarrel (10) Thunderwing (11) Knock Out (12) Sonar (13) Oval (14) Spiral (15) Backtrack (16) Inferno (17) Fetch (18) Jetstorm (30) Runway (31) Liftor (32) Dune Runner (33) High Wire (34) Grindor (35) Sureshock (36) Mirror (37)

Quotes

"And if he does, we'll pound 'im!"
"Pound 'im good!"

—Billy and Fred on what they'll do to Sideways if he tries to hack them again.

"Oh, great, time to get shot at again. Why couldn't I have just been a normal 'bot working in a factory?"

—Starscream

"I'm quite sure your plans are impeccable, Thrust, but my main concern is that my men aren't capable of following them."

—Megatron has no faith in his troops.

"You better watch out, you better not cry, cause you're gonna get blasted!"

—Cyclonus massacres the classics.

Notes

Differences with Micron Legend

American group at top, Japanese group at bottom.

• The Mini-Cons held in the random closet that Thrust accesses changes between the American and Japanese airings; specifically, Sonar is replaced with Knock Out and Mirror is replaced with Dualor, while the generic versions of Oval and Backtrack become their Cybertron selves, and Downshift goes from being dark blue to his X-Dimension colors.
• During the first battle of the episode, Smokescreen's cannon does not complete its animation before the beam comes from the barrel should be. A light just comes flashes as the gun almost flips out, begore jumping back into crane comfiguration.

Animation and technical errors

• When Optimus tells Smokescreen to take up the point, Smokescreen's antenna/horn is missing. It is missing again for two cuts when Scavenger moves to shield Smokescreen with the Skyboom Shield and again when Scavenger tells Megatron to go home.
• When Starscream is firing on Optimus Prime, his lower legs are erroneously colored completely white; this clip is shown on the preview used with the "Battle For The Mini-Cons" DVD.
• Dune Runner is erroneously colored entirely in green.
• When Optimus is shown fleeing from Megatron, the overhead shot of the clearing makes it look like Optimus is a box truck instead of just a normal semi.
• During the battle in the clearing, Optimus is shown as only being as tall as Megatron’s waist; just a few seconds earlier he stood as high as Megatron’s chest.
• When Smokescreen flips his crane into cannon mode to shoot Cyclonus, the end disappears as it swings into position.

Continuity errors

• Sonar is shown in the same room as the Air Military Mini-Cons and Inferno; this is a continuity error, as they were all revealed to be on Earth with Megatron, though it could be just an example of model reuse.
• In the Japanese version of the episode, Knock Out is seen in the Mini-Con closet, though he'd previously defected to the Autobots in "Vow". Again, this could just be a model reuse... except he replaced the aforementioned Sonar, who also shouldn't have originally been there.
• The English dub has Optimus ordering Smokescreen to take point, with Hot Shot and Blurr staying together while Optimus and Scavenger take the lead. But when they actually enter the gully, it’s Hot Shot who has point; Smokescreen is in the rear, and the rest are in the middle.
• Cyclonus suddenly appears in helicopter mode alongside Sideways and Demolishor at the ambush point; no explanation is given of where he comes from. The shot where he first appears also shows something resembling a transmitter located beneath where he is hovering; this transmitter was absent in the shot of Sideways and Demolishor springing the ambush, and isn’t shown when Optimus tries to break through.

Trivia

• The furigana in the Japanese episode "ちえもの" could be read as "知恵者", although technically it would be pronounced as "chiesha". The kanji 軍師 would be pronounced as "gunshi".
• "Tactician" first aired in the United States on January 30, 2003.
• During the fight sequence in the canyon, Starscream comments that he doesn’t want to get shot at again; this seeming throw-away line will actually set the stage for what happens in the upcoming episodes.
• The screen is black for several seconds when the Mini-Con alarm first sounds, then goes to a shot of Rad, Carlos, and Alexis running down a hallway.
• Sideways' break-in occurred in "Chase", the previous episode.
• Garry Chalk sounds very bored in this episode.

Foreign localization

Hungarian

• Title: "A taktikus" ("The Tactician")

Polish

• Title: "Strateg" ("Strategist")

French

• Title: "Tacticien" ("Tactitian")

Korean

• Title: "투명로봇 스나이퍼" ("Invisible Robot Sniper")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2003 — Transformers: Micron Legend — Volume 7 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — Transformers: Armada — Vol:09 (Warner Music Video)
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Battle for the Mini-Cons (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part One (Rhino Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Armada — The Collector's Edition (Universal)
2008 — Transformers: Armada — Volume One (New KSM) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers: Armada — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)