Remorse
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 Megatron takes his nemesis not becoming a Masterpiece toy poorly. | ||||||
| "Remorse" (Aseri) "Regret: Impatience" | ||||||
| Production code | TF: A-40 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | August 20, 2003 (English, Canada) October 3, 2003 (Japanese) October 17, 2003 (English, United States) | |||||
| Writer | Akira Okeya | |||||
| Director | Yukio Okazaki | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc. | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
The Autobots mourn the loss of Optimus Prime, and Hot Shot is hit particularly hard.
Synopsis
The Decepticons celebrate the destruction of Autobot leader Optimus Prime. While Cyclonus laughs, Megatron and Starscream stay calm, regretting the victory (for different reasons). Acting glad, Megatron orders his crew to return to Cybertron.
In the Autobot base, the kids have trouble coming to terms with the death of Optimus Prime, Fred openly crying. Rad understands that Optimus knew he would die, and he mourns that nobody on Earth would know that Optimus died to save all humans.
A week later, the Autobots are still sad, but repressing their sadness to get work done has increased tensions. Hot Shot gets frustrated with how passively the other Autobots have been handling Optimus Prime's death, and goes to the teleporter room to meet with Jetfire. He recalls the time he accused Optimus of letting the Decepticons getting the upper hand by letting Starscream join the Autobots. Jetfire returns from his mission to the Decepticons' now-abandoned moon-base, and Hot Shot promptly demands Jetfire take him to space to vengefully hunt down the Decepticons.
The other Autobots arrive and try to stress how important it is that the spaceship be finished. But Hot Shot just tells his friends to shut up. Scavenger, insulted, throws Hot Shot to the ground. He commands Hot Shot to be silent as he drags the younger Autobot away. The two teleport away, and Jolt follows. The rest of the kids and Autobots are left to wonder what Scavenger intends to do.
Alexis determines Scavenger and Hot Shot to be on an abandoned highway. There, Scavenger brutalizes Hot Shot, and demands he fights back. Hot Shot avoids most of Scavenger's punches, but doesn't retaliate. The kids and Autobots watch as Hot Shot is thrown around. Hot Shot finally fights back when Scavenger mentions Optimus. When the two Transformers press their weight against each other, Scavenger mentions that it was Hot Shot that made him switch to the Autobots. Between punches, Scavenger explains that Optimus had integrity, and that's why Starscream was allowed to join the Autobots. Alexis, watching the fight with the Autobots (who refuse to help Hot Shot) figures out that Hot Shot blames himself for Optimus Prime's death.
Hot Shot retreats away from Scavenger, still convinced that Optimus needs to be avenged. Blurr encounters Hot Shot on the freeway, but Hot Shot escapes again. The kids try to reason with the Autobots that abusing Hot Shot won't help Hot Shot overcome his own anxieties—but Red Alert is adamant that aggressive therapy is needed.
Side Swipe blocks Hot Shot's path and prepares to open fire against his brother. The Mini-Cons join in on forming the barricade, bringing Hot Shot to an advanced stop. Even Jolt abandons Hot Shot to join the other Mini-Cons. Hot Shot remembers Optimus Prime's word about trusting the Mini-Cons. Thanks to the Mini-Cons, Hot Shot has a moment of clarity and recalls what the war with the Decepticons is about.
Hot Shot apologizes to the assembled Mini-Cons and Autobots. He wants to re-join and help in the fight against the Decepticons as part of the team again. With the Autobots' morale revitalized, Jetfire announces that he's making Hot Shot the new Autobot commander. Scavenger arrives and starts to take a swing at the new commander, but Hot Shot doesn't move an inch. Scavenger cuts his punch before hitting, and gives Hot Shot his approval.
Later that evening, Jetfire tries to give Hot Shot the Matrix, but Hot Shot declines to accept it. Instead, he announces that he'll only lead the Autobots until the team gets back to Cybertron. Working together, the team gets back to work and gets ready to stop the Decepticons.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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Quotes
"Do you have any idea why I left the Decepticons and came over to the Autobots?"
"Better money?"
"I joined because of you."
- —Scavenger and Hot Shot
"That complete lack of fear has served you well, Hot Shot."
- —Scavenger hasn't been paying attention.
"Wow, either I'm overheating or I just heard Optimus speak to me directly from the other side."
"Hey, that doesn't surprise me. In fact, I bet Optimus woulda chosen you to become the next commander of the Autobots."
- —Hot Shot and Jetfire in a WTF moment
"Yo, Autobots! Saddle up! We're going back to Cybertron!"
- —Hot Shot
Notes
Differences with Micron Legend
Animation and technical glitches
- During his first line in the episode, Hot Shot has enormous hips.
- When Scavenger tells Hot Shot they're not friends, he's wearing a (red) Decepticon symbol.
- When Hot Shot asks Optimus for help in his vision, you can see the corner of a Decepticon symbol instead of an Autobot one.
- When the other Autobots came to see Hot Shot after he realized what happened, Blurr was taller than the other Autobots.
- After Hot Shot has his vision, Smokescreen's eyes are too close together and too big.
Continuity errors
- Contrary to what Scavenger said in this episode, he was never REALLY a Decepticon, only an Autobot spy.
Trivia
- Flashback footage in this episode is taken from "Vow", specifically of Optimus walking towards Megatron and the Mini-Cons.
- In Germany this episode followed "Carnival". RTL II—the channel that aired the show—stated that Hasbro Germany insisted on having the entire series aired in just two months to better promote the toyline.
- ? Apparently, it was discovered that a streaming service, TubiTV, used the Shout Factory version of the Armada series (instead of the original release on Rhino DVD) and in that episode, a second English dub was discovered that slightly changes some plot details, as well as some lines changing significantly. Fred had his first line extended from "Is there any way we can fix Optimus?" to add, "the way we fixed up Smokescreen? I mean Hoist?", which required starting the line sooner and made his speech overlap with the animation of him just crying. Red Alert's response was then rewritten some to fit in another mention of Smokescreen's deal, going from... "I'm sorry. It can't be done. Optimus's body released its Spark when it blocked the Hydra Cannon's blast, and without it, there's no way we can bring him back. I wish there was some way we could, but we're just going to have to pull ourselves together and carry on without him." to... "No. I'm sorry, we can't. Optimus's body released its Spark when it blocked the Hydra Cannon. We saved Smokescreen's Spark and were able to reformat him into Hoist. I wish there was some way that we could but... we're just going to have to carry on without him." And sure enough, in the next scene, "Try and be more careful, Smokescreen!" was replaced with, "Please, try and be more careful, Hoist."
Foreign localization
German
- Title: "Reue" ("Remorse")
- Original airdate: 10 December 2003
Hungarian
- Title: "Gyász" ("Mourning")
Home video releases
- DVD
2004 — Transformers: Micron Legend — Volume 10 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Best Of The Decepticons (Rhino Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers: Armada — Volume Two (New KSM) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers: Armada — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
