The Burden Hardest to Bear

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You found me beautiful, once.
"The Burden Hardest to Bear"
Production code	700-114
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 19, 1986
Written by	Michael Charles Hill
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

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 it 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. Kup explains that Rodimus is merely strained under the burden of command, much like Optimus Prime was in his early days as leader, and Marissa decides to follow him, 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 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. Scourge, however, inserts the Matrix into himself, and becomes more powerful... but at a startling price.

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) Prime Minister of Japan (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

"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 in a call-back to The Transformers: The Movie

"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

Animation or technical glitches

• Devastator is colored olive green rather than light green in the opening battle.
• A shot of Astrotrain from the human train's perspective shows no tracks on the ground.
• The first time we see Cyclonus, his nose cone is purple. In the next shot, part of it is grey.
• 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.
• Rodimus' spoiler should be orange in the middle, but many shots have it colored completely in yellow.
• As he says, "When do they get better, that's what I want to know," Rodimus' face becomes all glitched up.
• For some reason, the EDC logo on Marissa Faireborne'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. Also, Sky Lynx is missing in the shot.
• 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.
• While Rodimus is reverted to Hot Rod, he's still occasionally drawn using Rodimus Prime's character model.
• When Galvatron is about to put the Matrix in his cannon, Bruticus and Devastator are among the Decepticons present, and even though they are closer to the viewer, both are smaller than Cyclonus, who is standing in front of them.
• Galvatron's throne changes color and design multiple times throughout one scene.
• In one shot of Optimus Prime's "ghost", he is colored completely blue.
• When Galvatron tosses the Matrix to Scourge, it's 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.
• Cyclonus' gun fires a yellow laser. That's the Autobot color (it should be purple).
• The orange shapes on Cyclonus' chest are colored red in several shots.
• 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.
• When Galvatron opens the airlock door, one shot has "AIR LOOK" written on it.
• Hot Rod carries a gray laser gun rather than the usual red rifle. It has the standard sound effect instead of Prime's rifle sound effect.
• The Matrix is in Scourge's chest, but later Hot Rod pulls it out of his stomach.
• 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 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

• The Japanese-word "Giri" does not actually carry the rather-negative connotations of "The burden hardest to bear" implied by Kup's mistranslation. Rather, "Giri" more accurately means "Responbility/duty", which is a gladly accepted honor and virtue in Japanese culture rather than a painful annoyance. In the thematic/emotional context of this episode, "The duty hardest to bear" would have been a more fitting title. An even more appropriate word would have been Gimu, meaning "obligation", as a gimu is something which must be done whether you wish to or not.
• It seems somehow unlikely that Rodimus turning around at speed and crashing into a stopped Wildrider would send him flying back hard and fast enough to go over a cliff.
• 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).
• The ghost image of Optimus has two fog lights instead of four.
• We don't hear Optimus' voice during the "return the Matrix" chant.
• Speaking of the chant, why didn't the ancient Autobots chant when Galvatron had the Matrix during the movie? (Though, this could be explained by his not putting the Matrix inside himself in the movie, as we only see him wearing it on a chain.)
• 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".
• Funny how the old lady with the cane runs away from Scourge during his attack!
• Ozu injures Scourge (a giant metal robot) with his sword.
• It's not really clear why Galvatron put the Matrix in his cannon rather than his chest, or why Scourge got all mutated. Or why Scourge is so powerful early on but is defeated by a ramming and three shots from Hot Rod's gun.
• Those government spokesmen who complained about the fighting in the beginning must be pissed after all the destruction we see at the end!
• It would seem strange that Galvatron would not seem to remember anything about the Matrix considering less than a year ago, during the movies, The grandmaster himself, Unicron told him or his former self, Megatron that the Matrix is powerful enough to destroy him, thus, he should know how powerful it is. Ok, ok, you can say his plasma bath may have fried a few memory circuits along with his sanity, but still...If Scourge knows about it (he was also created by Unicron), then Cyclonus should too since he was also there. Why didn't he reminds Galvatron about this since he is supposed to be the most loyal soldier of them all....Was he afraid of becoming Galvatron's personal punching bag again? Well, it didn't help him cause right after both recovered after getting trashed by the mutated Scourge, the first thing Galvatron did was to knock him off his feet.
• Umm, let me get this stright. A mutated Scourge, when attacked easily reflected both Galvatron's and Cyclonus's blasts back at them and yet, when facing off agianst Rodim...urrrr...or in this case, Hotrod, a few blast and he's on the ground taking a nap...Ok, that makes a lot of sense!

Transformers references

• When Galvatron inserts the Matrix into his cannon, he says "Now, all shall become one, under Galvatron's rule!"
• Optimus Prime is among the Ancient Autobots.
• 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.

Foreign localization

German

• Title: Die Last der Verantwortung ("The Burden of Responsibility")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: 重すぎた使命 (Omo Sugi ta Shimei, "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.

Russian

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

Trivia

• 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.
• Astrotrain actually travels on the railroad his locomotive mode was designed for in this episode.
• One of the "ghosts" emerging from the Matrix when Galvatron puts it into his chest is based on a generic character design that was previously seen in "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2" and "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1". His colors have changed, though, and he dropped the antennas on the sides of his head he sported in "The Key to Vector Sigma".
• The yellow, the red and the orange-and-blue Matrix ghosts' character models were reused in the Japanese The Headmasters cartoon as various generic Autobots.
• When Scourge starts mutating, at one point it looks like he's... crying?
• Wildrider seems to now have a very bad Southern accent.
• This episode marks the first time in Transformers fiction that the word slag is used as an insult.
• Isn't it convenient that Scourge launches his attack on Earth in Japan, where the Autobots happen to be located?
• 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.

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)
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)

External links

• Dossier at the Cybertron Chronicle