Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5: Difference between revisions
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* Just from the episode alone, it's impossible to tell who the line "It'll be passing above us soon" is being spoken by, as it doesn't correspond to any of the known voices of the Autobots present. This just left Swerve and Tailgate as possible candidates for the line (since neither was ever seen to speak any other lines, it could have been either of them). The episode's script would later confirm that the line belonged to Tailgate, and was delivered by the eternally overlooked [[Ted Schwartz]]. | * Just from the episode alone, it's impossible to tell who the line "It'll be passing above us soon" is being spoken by, as it doesn't correspond to any of the known voices of the Autobots present. This just left Swerve and Tailgate as possible candidates for the line (since neither was ever seen to speak any other lines, it could have been either of them). The episode's script would later confirm that the line belonged to Tailgate, and was delivered by the eternally overlooked [[Ted Schwartz]]. | ||
* This episode is the first appearance of the Predacons. | * This episode is the first appearance of the Predacons, and the last appearance of the volcano, the Ark and Teletraan-1. | ||
==Home video releases== | ==Home video releases== | ||
Revision as of 03:20, 15 January 2012
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 How can he possibly resist the diabolical urge to pull the lever that could erase his very existence? | |||||||||
| "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-90 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | September 19, 1986 | ||||||||
| Written by | Flint Dille | ||||||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
With Earth and Cybertron under joint Decepticon-Quintesson assault, the Autobots raise a last stand against their old enemies... and the race which created them.
- Japanese title: クインテッサ星人の陰謀 (Quintessa Seijin no Inbō, "Conspiracy of the Quintessons")
- German title: "Die fünf Gesichter der Finsternis, Teil 5" ("The five Faces of Darkness, Part 5")
Synopsis
The Decepticons open a sortie against the Autobots on Cybertron, and the initial attack took out the whole defense system. Ultra Magnus tells the others to go, while he holds them off. Rodimus Prime says that Magnus's courage will be remembered. Unsaid is the possibility that there will be no one to remember it. From their ship, the Quintessons calculate that it will take less than a day to completely defeat the Autobots. After all, they've given Galvatron something worth fighting for...
On Earth, the new Decepticon battle station heads for Autobot headquarters. Pipes and Warpath lead a counter offensive, but their efforts are stymied when the station transforms into Trypticon. Warpath orders Teletraan I to activate the defense systems, but Trypticon causes the volcano to collapse on the ship, destroying it. With his task there complete, Trypticon heads to his next target: Autobot City.
On Io, Sky Lynx hurries to rescue Wheelie, Blurr, and Marissa Faireborn from certain death from the natives. However, the Predacons arrive to steal the Transformation Cog intended for Metroplex. Initially, the Predacons turn out to be all bark with no bite. However, they merge into Predaking, and manage to disorient Wheelie, Blurr, and Faireborn. However, Sky Lynx attacks Predaking, and causes him to separate. Sky Lynx orders the others to board him, and Wheelie discovers the cog.
Meanwhile, Galvatron orders Blitzwing to give a status report to the Quintessons. However, Blitzwing overhears that the Quintessons don't have the Decepticon Matrix. What's worse, they want the Sharkticons to pull a large switch which will deactivate the Transformers all over the galaxy. Blitzwing tries to tell Galvatron, but the psychotic Decepticon leader merely beats him. Blitzwing realizes that there is one other option...side with the Autobots to stop the Quintessons.
On Earth, Trypticon has arrived at Autobot City, but Wheelie is able to get the cog to Pipes, who installs it in Metroplex. Coming online, Metroplex and Trypticon throw down. Their battle extends into another city (which everyone manages to evacuate from). Finally, Metroplex manages to overwhelm Trypticon, and throws Trypticon a great distance, where he lands in the ocean and sinks.
On Cybertron, Blitzwing, Rodimus Prime, and Spike Witwicky manage to stop the Sharkticons, but Galvatron, thinking the switch is the key to the Decepticon Matrix, pulls it. With the Transformers offline, the Quintessons land on Cybertron. As the Quintessons enjoy how great it is to be home, Spike grabs Rodimus' weapon, and destroys the lever. Reactivating, an incredibly angry Galvatron begins chasing the Quintessons, who manage to escape. Galvatron then prepares to fight Rodimus, but Blitzwing pulls his weapon on Galvatron, telling him that this has to end. Galvatron banishes Blitzwing from the Decepticons, and orders the Decepticons to retreat.
Rodimus notes that the battle is over for now, but the Autobot leader also notes that the Transformers may well have met their greatest enemies...
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Olé, sucker!"
- —Wheelie the bullfighter!
"Mighty Galvatron, there is no Decepticon Matrix!"
[smacks him away] "Tell it to the Autobots!"
- —Blitzwing gets some inspiration from Galvatron
"Faster, Pipes, faster faster faster faster faster! You gotta work faster because if you don't Trypticon's gonna stomp us and that's why we're gonna get..."
"Blurr...shut up!"
- —Pipes gives Blurr an idea.
"This planet's not big enough for the both of us."
"Me crush Metroplex!"
- —Metroplex, the gung-ho cowboy, meets Trypticon, the ravaging dinosaur.
"We Transformers have looked into the face of our creators...and seen the face of an enemy."
- —Rodimus Prime
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- During the recap, Galvatron's "Very well, Junkions" line is not flanged.
- In the opening pan, the entire Decepticon army seems to be made up of randomly recoloured Sweeps and Cyclonuses. Among the more visible examples are Sweeps colored like Breakdown and Wildrider.
- Rodimus's spoiler ridge is colored yellow instead of orange as Kup laments the loss of the defense system.
- Springer changes places between shots, going from Magnus's right to directly behind him (and back again when the first shot is recycled.)
- As Magnus turns to open fire, the foreshortening of his arm is bizarrely misdrawn.
- As Galvatron continues to descend and fire, an extra Cyclonus appears in Dirge's colors, alongside the actual Cyclonus.
- A Dirge-colored Cyclonus strafes Cybertron after the first commercial break.
- The click sound of the button pushed by the Quintesson to activate his monitor doesn't coincide with the actual push of the button.
- The Quintessons' view of Earth initially shows partly cloudy skies... then Trypticon just appears out of nowhere against the same sky. We'll be kind and not count this monitor view under "Improbable Viewpoints".
- Warpath neither moves his faceplate nor flashes his cheek blinkers when he speaks.
- Swerve disappears after the initial shot of the Autobot ambush, and is replaced by Beachcomber.
- The view of Trypticon smoking and damaged is set against a starry night sky, despite the scene occurring during the daytime.
- An establishing shot of Metroplex shows him sitting in the desert all by himself, without Autobot City anywhere in sight. He also has Scamper sitting in his "garage", drawn to toy-based scale... which means he'd be a hundred foot long car.
- Sky Lynx flies behind a smooth, featureless reddish celestial body. If it's supposed to be Io, it's waaaaaay too small, not more than a couple hundred feet across. In fact it's too small to be a regular round body.
- Io has changed colors; an establishing shot shows it to be red instead of the gray it was last time. Of course, the real Io actually is red.
- In the first shot of Blurr, Wheelie, and Marissa fighting the lipoles, none of them is standing on Io's surface.
- Also, Marissa's ship is intact, but it was blown up in the previous episode.
- Improbable viewpoints:
- How does Blaster get an eye-level view of Marissa fighting on Io?
- When Wheelie loses the transforming cog, three of the next four shots are shown against a blue sky with clouds, rather than the night sky of Io.
- Once again, the animation fails to convey that the lipoles are an actual threat.
- In the second shot of Warpath's team of Mini Vehicles outside Autobot Headquarters, Beachcomber is colored like Wildrider.
- Powerglide gets a descending-pitch transformation sound as he changes to his plane mode and takes off. Launching aerial Transformers normally get the rising-pitch version.
- The Constructicons watching Trypticon on the hill are much larger than they should be.
- Scrapper's faceplate changes from grey to red as he listens to Bonecrusher.
- Five Autobots drive toward Trypticon, but the next shot shows only three getting kicked away.
- Pipes and Swerve seem to be firing lasers right out of their windshields.
- As Trypticon approaches the Ark, it only has two engines sticking out rather than three.
- As the Autobots watch Trypticon walk off, Warpath's back is grey rather than red.
- The sound effect for the shot that Trypticon fires at the camera lags behind the shot itself.
- Cyclonus and his Armada:
- Four Cyclonuses are shown strafing Cybertron after the first commercial break.
- The next shot shows two Cycloni.
- While retreating from Cybertron, there are five Cyclonuses flying with Galvatron.
- Ultra Magnus punches Ramjet, who spirals out of control. When he hits a wall and explodes, he's colored like Dirge. The error is particular visible since Dirge himself gets the same punch-and-explode treatment a second later.
- When Galvatron transforms to fire on Ultra Magnus, his arm cannon flies off screen, and a new one comes out of his head to take its place in cannon mode. (Again!)
- Magnus and Galvatron's voices are muffled as if they were speaking by radio, even though there's no reason for them to do so. Dirge and Ramjet suffer from a similar though less obvious effect in the same scene.
- Bumblebee and Powerglide are briefly visible fighting alongside Perceptor against the Sweeps on Cybertron, despite being on Earth at the time.
- Streetwise has a red chest (Red Alert's color scheme?) as he stands next to Perceptor and Slingshot, firing.
- As he delivers the "Meet your fate valiantly, Autobots!" line, Perceptor's Autobot logo is all grey rather than just a grey outline.
- Blitzwing's voice isn't properly flanged as he acknowledges Galvatron's command to report to the Quintessons.
- Throughout the episode, the area around Blitzwing's Decepticon symbol changes. Sometimes it has lines above and below it, sometimes only above, sometimes none. Sometimes red, sometimes purple.
- In the establishing shot before Sky Lynx arrives, Marissa and the 'bots aren't even trying to fight off the lipoles! Incidentally, Io's gone back to being gray.
- Sky Lynx's first transformation sequence lacks any transformation sound.
- The squawks that Sky Lynx lets loose after transforming are not by his voice actor! (The whole animal noise shtick for him would be dropped after this episode.)
- The Predacons get some bizarre use of the transformation noise. It plays as they emerge from the balls of fire that carried them to Io (a means of transport that they never used again.)
- Headstrong and Tantrum arrive carrying their guns, but a second later they charge into battle with their swords. They then proceed not to use either weapon.
- Sky Lynx's transporter section transforms to lynx mode, but is back in transporter mode when Blurr and Marissa run away from it.
- Headstrong's beast mode head has a huge swath of black on it in two different shots.
- Blurr lacks a transformation noise as he changes modes to cross the canyon.
- Predaking gets the transformation sound every time he moves.
- Sky Lynx's transporter section lacks the transformation sound as it converts to lynx mode again. Apparently, Predaking sucked up all the transformation noises from the whole scene.
- When Predaking fires his foot weapons, a laser emerges. The weapon's effect, however, is shown as a windstorm.
- Sky Lynx's combining sequence is a little messed up; his lynx legs are shown unfolding, but since his lower half was already in lynx mode, they should be unfolded already.
- Predaking's head is on backwards as Sky Lynx wraps his tail around it.
- As Trypticon approaches Autobot City, the city is shown in a barren desert. It had previously been shown to be located in a lush mountain valley, and is shown that way again at the end of the episode.
- Slingshot is seen running about in Autobot City as it transforms, even though he was last seen on Cybertron with Perceptor.
- As Blaster despairs over Sky Lynx's absence, his helmet is white instead of red.
- Scrapper's mouthplate continues moving even as Mixmaster gives the order to fire. (And why is Mixmaster giving the orders, anyway?)
- As the Autobots exit Sky Lynx, the transforming cog is shown as a large gear wheel, instead of an orb-shaped device. Sky Lynx's windows aren't colored in, either.
- Night sky is shown behind Marissa as she orders Blurr to "stop babbling"...
- And again behind Blurr as he prepares for his "lateral"...
- And again behind the cog as Wheelie throws it to Sky Lynx...
- And again behind Sky Lynx as he flattens the Decepticon lineup...
- As Blurr throws the cog, Thrust flies past in Laserbeak's colors. This was probably intended to be Laserbeak himself, since Thrust just got swatted.
- As the Constructicons try to tackle Wheelie, they're shown on a metal floor, despite the preceding and following shots being shown in the desert. Motormaster likewise goes from desert to metal floor as he accidentally tackles Bonecrusher.
- When Wheelie faces off against the big line of Decepticon troops, all three Insecticons are present, including two Shrapnels. Bombshell's eyes aren't colored in. Blast-off and Swindle are also in the lineup, despite appearing on Cybertron at the start of the attack there.
- When Sky Lynx jumps over/through the lined up Decepticons, the second Shrapnel is replaced by Soundwave.
- It's an AKOM episode, so watch for Soundwave's white backpack as Sky Lynx flattens him.
- Sky Lynx clearly throws the cog horizontally, yet it somehow arcs so high that Trypticon can't catch it. As Trypticon lunges for the cog, it's the size of his fist -- the same fist that easily held Outback earlier in the episode.
- When the Autobots are celebrating the safety of the transformation cog after the little game of catch with the Decepticons, two Constructicons and Frenzy are seen "raising the roof" along with them. Slingshot shows up again, too, along with a generic model colored like Dead End.
- Metroplex is back in city mode as Trypticon prepares to stomp him.
- The hand that topples Trypticon does not come from the actual location where Metroplex's arms are stored in city mode.
- When Metroplex transforms, Autobot City is nowhere in sight.
- Metroplex's single line is delivered in a different voice than that of his later appearances.
- Who knew Trypticon was so aerodynamic? After Metroplex throws him, he falls up in the second shot of him sailing over the landscape.
- The late Ratchet is among the Autobots cheering Metroplex's victory, in Blaster's colors. And is that another Ratchet in the background?
- The large switch stops glowing after the Sharkticons arrive.
- For some reason, a view of Cybertron is used as an establishing shot for Earth.
- Blitzwing is shown with a purple Autobot insignia while being offered membership in their ranks by Rodimus Prime.
- Spinger and Arcee are shown among the frozen Autobots on Earth, despite being on Cybertron. Sludge is shown in the same shot in Grimlock's colors (and possibly with Grimlock's head.)
- As the Quintessons venture onto Cybertron, a frozen Sweep is shown with red (pink?) wings.
- A second later, the Quintessons walk past a frozen Rewind (or Eject), drawn at the size of an ordinary Transformer and colored like Jazz.
- The energy beams of the fleeing Quintessons don't line up with their bodies.
- As the Quintessons blast off in the escape pod, we see a group of generic Transformers who look a lot like those seen in Rodimus's flashback during the previous episode!
- Mixmaster and Scrapper are seen on Cybertron as the Quintessons escape, despite the Constructicons being on Earth.
- Sky Lynx is far too small as he and the others watch Rodimus on screen.
- Although both the Kid Rhino and Shout! Factory versions of this episode contain the correct unique opening titles for the story (one of only two parts of "Five Faces of Darkness" on DVD that do), the Shout! version incorrectly uses the soundtrack to the standard season three opening as now found on the broadcast masters to all five parts.
Continuity errors
- The opening pan over Cybertron shows it with two moons, even though Unicron ostensibly devoured both of Cybertron's moons during The Transformers: The Movie. One moon appears again as the Quintessons make their battle projection.
- Kup says that "that blast took out the whole defense system". But it wasn't a blast; it was a crashing space ship.
- Spike retains his superhuman capabilities, surviving a blast that trashes the room he's in and sends his Autobot friends flying.
- Powerglide notes that Trypticon has "another transform," but at this point he's only seen it in the battle platform mode.
- So if everyone actually retreated to Level 2, per Rodimus's order, then who are all those Decepticons firing at? How long would it take them to gang up and overpower Magnus, if he's really the only one left?
- The answer comes a moment later, when Perceptor and company are seen to have ignored that order.
- Dirge and Ramjet both appear to explode rather fatally after Magnus punches them. Both will nevertheless show up alive and well in later episodes. Considering they were already seen eaten by Unicron in the Movie, this is not so surprising.
- Despite the absence of the transforming cog, both Autobot City and Metroplex are showing transforming to their respective battle station modes. Apparently, Metroplex only needs the cog to change into robot mode.
- Most of the battle on Cybertron is shown happening on the surface, with no ceilings and blue night skies, despite Rodimus's order to retreat below ground. Yet Blitzwing still flies underground to report to Galvatron.
- Most of the Constructicon's appearances shows that Scrapper leads the team, so why the hell is Mixmaster giving the orders?
- There appears to be a human city quite close to Autobot city, but previously in the Movie, there were no signs or suggestions of a human city being nearby. In addition, this poses the question of why the Autobots or humans built their cities so near to each other despite the fact that Autobot City is often under attack by Decepticons.
- Superhuman Spike has amazingly little trouble hoisting Rodimus's gun onto his shoulder.
- Speaking of which, the gun disappears after Spike shoots the switch, but several shots later Rodimus suddenly has it again.
Continuity notes
- Pipes cites the late Optimus Prime and quotes his catchphrase, "Transform and roll out!"
- Gadgets and powers:
- Bumblebee is shown with a rooftop cannon in vehicle mode during the first attack run on Trypticon. The weapon appears to be based on that of Outback.
- Galvatron makes reference to his last meeting with Ultra Magnus, on the planet Junkion.
- This episode is the first and only appearance of Tailgate. Swerve would later appear briefly in "Forever Is a Long Time Coming".
Real-world references
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Laserbeak and Thrust emerge from Trypticon's chest with the sound of the Millennium Falcon's engine burst.
- It must be more than coincidence that the force attacking the city-scale Trypticon is made up entirely of characters from the Mini Vehicle range (plugging the new Decepticon's playset potential).
Trivia
- Just from the episode alone, it's impossible to tell who the line "It'll be passing above us soon" is being spoken by, as it doesn't correspond to any of the known voices of the Autobots present. This just left Swerve and Tailgate as possible candidates for the line (since neither was ever seen to speak any other lines, it could have been either of them). The episode's script would later confirm that the line belonged to Tailgate, and was delivered by the eternally overlooked Ted Schwartz.
- This episode is the first appearance of the Predacons, and the last appearance of the volcano, the Ark and Teletraan-1.
Home video releases
- VHS
1990 — The Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness (Family Home Entertainment)
- Laserdisc
1990 — The Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness (Family Home Entertainment)
1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness: Parts 1-5 (Sony Wonder)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1: Vol. 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
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)
