Decisive Battle
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 You and I are a lot alike, meteor, except I'm a Decepticon, and you're dust! | ||||||
| "Decisive Battle" (Kizashi) "Omen" | ||||||
| Production code | TF: A-21 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | January 24, 2003 (English) 30 May 2003 (Japanese) | |||||
| Writer | Isao Shizuya | |||||
| English adaptation | Terry Klassen and Heather Ann Puttock | |||||
| Director | Mitsuko Ohya | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc. | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
With the power of the Skyboom Shield at his disposal, Megatron invites the Autobots to what could be the last battle.
Synopsis
Testing the power of the Skyboom shield, Megatron disintegrates an entire comet. Satisfied with his new toy's power, Megatron anticipates the next conflict will allow the Decepticons to end the routine of battling for new Mini-Cons and finish the Autobots.
In the Autobots' base, Hot Shot is running through an obstacle course of suspended metal pieces, while the Mini-Cons try to slow him down by tossing stuff at him. But before Hot Shot can win, Blurr catches up and captures the flag. Smokescreen arrives and asks to join in the training, and Blurr goads Smokescreen to attempt a run by challenging his performance hardware. While taking several hits in the process, Smokescreen eventually manages to grab the flag.
In the Autobot control room, Optimus Prime receives a direct challenge from Megatron. Optimus knows that despite being hopelessly overpowered, it is his job to accept the challenge. The Autobots all rush out to teleport to the location Megatron specified.
When the Autobots arrive to battle the Decepticons, Megatron summons his Star Saber and Skyboom shield and tells Demolishor to hold back, as he anticipates that with his new weapons, he can defeat the Autobots on his own. The shield blocks attacks from Hot Shot and Blurr, and then all of the Autobots' firepower. Megatron moves forward and slices apart Optimus's rifle. Cyclonus and Demolishor contribute by raining down gunfire on the scattering Autobots, allowing Megatron and Optimus to be separated from the rest of the group.
Psyche!
Hot Shot and Blurr notice Optimus Prime fighting Megatron by himself, and the two transform and rush to aid their leader. Starscream and Cyclonus chase the duo from the air. Hot Shot provides cover fire while Blurr attempts to lose his pursuers. Blurr and Hot Shot trade positions, and eventually Cyclonus and Starscream fly out of range. Powerlinking with Swindle, Starscream "lays a pounding" on the two cars.
In a move even Demolishor finds unwise, Sideways dives directly onto Red Alert, but is soundly blasted away. Smokescreen, tired of the Decepticons holding an advantage, powerlinks with Liftor and disrupts Starscream. Demolishor rolls a large boulder at Smokescreen, who is pinned to the ground. When Cyclonus observes that the Decepticons are maintaining their advantage, he's blasted out of the sky by Sideways, whom neither side sees.
Near a crevice, Optimus is still surviving against Megatron. Hot Shot and Blurr arrive to distract Megatron, allowing Optimus to grab onto the Skyboom shield while Megatron is still holding it. Trying to slice Optimus away, Megatron accidentally tosses the shield into the crevice. Angry, he attempts to impale Optimus but is halted by Sparkplug.
With Megatron intending to get at Optimus by slicing through Sparkplug, the Skyboom shield activates and levitates from the crevice to protect the Autobot. The two weapons used against each other send out a bright light that Rad notes is similar to the light that reactivated all the Mini-Cons in the start of their Earth encounters.
The Decepticons, having lost the shield, retreat to their base again. The Autobots congratulate Smokescreen for changing the tide of battle (that is, before he was caught under a rock), and Fred hugs Carlos.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"He kinda reminds me of myself when I was working out more."
"Somehow I find that a little hard to believe, Fred."
- —Fred pays Blurr a dubious compliment.
"We've been expecting you, Optimus."
"Didn't think we'd show, did ya, ya overgrown motherboard?"
- —Megatron and Hot Shot, who should really have his audio receptors checked
"Lock onto shield."
- —Sparkplug gives us the first words spoken by a Mini-Con.
Notes
Differences with Micron Legend
- While the animation of the episode isn't given any significant overhaul, Micron Legend fixes the most glaring issues like adding proper laser and lighting effects in places of the black spots, and editing reused footage to match the episode.
- In Armada, the Skyboom Shield glows and fragments of the comet are left. In Micron Legend, the glow effect is more elaborate with an added starburst effect.
- Sparkplug's line (quoted above) is not present in the Japanese version, and his mouth isn't animated since he uses the Mini-Con language.
Animation and technical errors
The animation in this episode is largely atrocious in general.; it's arguably the worst Armada episode in terms of how many errors can be found:
- From the get-go, with the opening scene on the Moon, the numerous amount of errors are a tell-tale sign for the animation quality of this episode:
- During the shot of the meteor with the moon in the background, the camera pans toward the top-left corner and back down toward the bottom right. In Micron Legend, the screen only pans in the bottom-right direction, so the meteor's trajectory is straightened out.
- In the close-up shots of the Skyboom Shield blocking the meteor and its fragments drifting into space after its destroyed, the specks of moondust are miscolored brown. Micron Legend makes them the proper light gray color.
- In the shot of Megatron blocking the meteor before the fade to white, the background is the starry sky instead of the blue stock background from the previous shots. Micron Legend uses the blue background throughout.
- In the final shot of Megatron with the shield after he disintegrates the comet, some of its fragments are static despite other pieces moving in the same shot. The Japanese dub fixes this so that all the meteor fragments move completely out of frame.
- When Megatron says now is the time for the decisive battle, his mouth doesn't move.
- In the following shot of Sideways, the yellow sides of his chest are blue. Corrected in the Japanese dub.
- During the shot of Megatron's internal monologue, a shadowed part of his green shoulder tread suddenly becomes highlighted when he starts laughing. This doesn't happen in Micron Legend.
- When Smokescreen first appears, he is again missing his antenna/horn... and again when he's swinging his crane arm in circles... and AGAIN when the Autobots show up for the decisive battle.
- In the Japanese dub, Optimus says that Megatron's transmission was "intercepted" instead of received.
- In the wide shot of Megatron in his transmission, the background changes. In Micron Legend, the background shot of the Decepticon base remains consistent throughout the message.
- Carlos saying that the "creep" Megatron gives him the creeps makes zero sense since someone giving another the creeps makes the other person scared, and Carlos looks more annoyed than scared. The Japanese dub changes this line to have Carlos call Megatron a pest and an arrogant jerk instead.
- The whites of Carlos's eyes appear in some scenes.
- After Megatron forms the Star Saber and Skyboom Shield, Demolisher has two mouths.
- When the Autobots all shoot at Megatron at the start of the battle, Optimus's mouthplate is blue. Corrected in the Japanese dub.
- Many insignias are missing throughout the episode.
- At one point, Hot Shot's Autobot insignia is just a red upside-down pentagon.
- There is another time where Megatron's insignia on his right shoulder is just a jumbled, purple mess of a polygon.
- In several scenes, Starscream is drawn horribly off-model and is even seen flying backward at one point.
- Starscream appears in a couple of shots as a solid black dot with wings.
- The same stock footage of Megatron slashing at Optimus with the Star Saber and him dodging is used again a minute later.
- When Blurr and Hot Shot try to save Optimus by transforming into vehicle mode and racing over to Megatron, Hot Shot proceeds to turn around, transform, and then turn around again and drive after Blurr... but why?
- There are various instances of what should be glowing energy appearing black, such as Starscream's exhaust, and the shot that takes down Cyclonus.
- There is an unnecessary freeze-frame when Blurr drives away from Stasrcream's and Cyclonus's fire. He is in the middle of driving, floats in the air while the sound of fire continues, and then appears on the ground with dust still in the air.
- At one point when Blurr transforms, he drives away mid-transformation in the front.
- Demolishor's Decepticon insignia is gone in one shot, and instead the whole "box" where it should be is colored purple.
- The boulder chasing Smokescreen jumps back and forth in one shot.
- The short scene where Cyclonus is shot down by Sideways is plainly reused from Overmatch where he was struck down by a flying shard of Starscream's sword, making it look like the scene suddenly taking place at night. The only changes being the shard being replaced with flying black disk, and Cyclonus missing his spinning rotor.
- Before Megatron strikes Optimus with the final blow, he is holding the Skyboom Shield upside-down. In its next visible frame, this is corrected.
- A few seconds later, when Megatron attempts to hurt Hot Shot with the Star Saber, the screen awkwardly turns all black for two seconds.
- When the Skyboom Shield falls into the very large crevice, it appears to be falling smack in the middle. In the next shot, however, it catches on the side and sticks into solid air.
- After Megatron loses the shield, he raises Star Saber, and the arm which should be holding it is totally missing.
- When the energy blast born from the collision of the Star Saber and the Skyboom Shield disappears into the sky, Optimus is drawn with out-of-place cube next to the truck side window on his back, and his waist is colored red instead of grey.
- When Megatron teleports away after losing the Skyboom Shield, in addition of missing Decepticon insignia in his chest, his animation model is drawn with several misproportions (pictured above), his chest and arms being enormous compared to his head and lower body, and his shoulder threads and back tank turret being even more massive.
Continuity errors
- As Megatron blocks the meteor with the Skyboom Shield, the moondust is brown in one scene (explained above) but light gray in the next. Also, between shots, the glow from the shield changes from yellow to white, and the shield isn't visible in the latter shot. In the Japanese dub, the moondust stays gray, the shield remains visible, and its glow is yellow (except for the final shot).
- When he faces the Earth, the rest of the Decepticons are behind Megatron but, in the shot of the Earth appearing over the moon's horizon, Megatron is alone and he seems to be in a different location as the rocky terrain in the foreground is now smooth. Micron Legend adds the other Decepticons behind Megatron as he laughs and the foreground is corrected.
- When Megatron summons the Star Saber and Skyboom Shield before the fight starts, he refers to both weapons by the name "Star Saber" in the English dub. The Japanese dub corrects this.
Transformers references
- Near the end, when he goes to strike Optimus and Sparkplug, Megatron references the Pit in the Japanese dub.
Trivia
- The kanji 前兆 would be pronounced as "zenchō", while "kizashi" uses 兆しor 萌し.
- This is the first time a Mini-Con speaks English.
- This is one of the three Armada episodes with more than one word in the title.
- Sideways's poorly thought out attack on Red Alert could have been to intentionally get himself disabled, helping the sides stay level so the conflict endures. This is consistent with his secret long-term agenda. He has also been shown to try and not make this battle the "final battle" by telling Megatron that he is not ready to use the Skyboom Shield so they should not fight just yet.
- The opening narration has changed for this episode. It did not set up the whole Mini-Con premise but rather the small plot point of the rogue meteor heading for the Decepticon base.
- This episode's title gets "title dropped" a few times.
Foreign localization
Hungarian
- Title: "Döntő ütközet" ("Decisive Clash")
Polish
- Title: "Decydująca bitwa" ("Decisive Battle")
French
- Title: "Une bataille décisive" ("A Decisive Battle")
Korean
- Title: "운명의 결투" ("Destiny's Duel")
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Micron Legend — Volume 6 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Best Battles (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)
- VideoNow
2003 Transformers: Armada (Tiger Electronics)
