Portent
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| "Portent" (Pendant) "Faith: Pendant" | ||||||
| Production code | TF: A-47 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | September 28, 2003 (English, United Kingdom) 21 November 2003 (Japanese) December 5, 2003 (English, United States) | |||||
| Writer | Shōji Tonoike | |||||
| Director | Shigenori Awai | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc. | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
Starscream, Hot Shot, and the rest continue their pursuit of Thrust, arriving at a portal to a strange organic area. The rest of the Autobots gather to fight Unicron.
Synopsis
In the mysterious tunnels within Cybertron, the kids explain to Hot Shot and Wheeljack that it was Starscream who brought the kids to where they are. Hot Shot advises the kids to return to the Axalon where it's safer, but the kids argue they can be useful, eventually convincing their gigantic metal pals. The group radios back to Optimus Prime with their status, while Billy and Fred feel neglected.
Meanwhile, Jetfire and Hoist continue to order Autobots to withdraw from their positions. Blurr relays to Jetfire orders from Optimus Prime to assist Hot Shot and Wheeljack below. Galvatron is satisfied with the Autobots' retreat, allowing his forces to easily take over Cybertron.
"Why not?"
"BECAUSE YOU ARE HEADCRAB ZOMBIE!"
Thrust, still running from Starscream, dives through a strange portal. Starscream bravely follows into the unknown. On the other side, in an organic-looking area with Transformer husks around, Sideways finally appears. Starscream arrives soon after. Next, Hot Shot's group prepares to follow through the portal, Alexis making sure to put on a good luck charm first.
Sideways and Starscream come face to face. As is tradition, before the battle, Starscream declines an offer to join up with Unicron's side of the conflict. Sideways attacks Starscream with a swarm of bot-spiders. Hot Shot's team runs to assist, but Wheeljack and Hot Shot are attacked by more of the parasites.
The kids try to rouse the Mini-Con weapons into freeing themselves from Thrust's possession, and whistling from Perceptor helps the effort. Thrust and Sideways ignore the kids and leave, their tracks covered by tendrils. With no other options, Hot Shot and Wheeljack connect their backs and form a completely silly-looking cyclone. Alexis lets Starscream join the team because she's Starscream's friend.
Sideways plugs the Mini-Con into Unicron's core processor, angry at Thrust for having not grabbed the Star Saber.
As the team moves through the caverns, they run into more suspiciously organic obstacles, separating Starscream and Alexis from the rest of the crew. Starscream goes airborne to fly Alexis to safety, but Alexis (stupid) hops off Starscream (really stupid) to retrieve the good luck charm she dropped (very stupid). Starscream saves her.
Everybody manages to make their way to the surface, finding themselves to be on Cybertron's moon. The surface shatters and quakes, with Jetfire arriving just in time to save Hot Shot, Wheeljack, the Mini-Cons, and the kids. From a distance, it becomes evident that Unicron has been gestating inside of the Moon from the start. On Cybertron's surface, Wheeljack departs. Starscream begins to depart as well, but Alexis stops him, begging him to stay. Starscream thinks it wouldn't be fair if he betrayed them again, but Alexis knows he wouldn't do that. Starscream ponders to himself for a moment before turning back to her and thanking her for trusting and believing in him. As he leaves, Alexis says his name sadly and clutches her pendant.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Quotes
"All right! Well, that was some fireworks display, fellas, but who said you can start the party without me?"
"Show-off."
- —Jetfire and Tidal Wave
"You were wondering what kind of place this is. Well, for you it's a graveyard. Goodbye, Starscream!"
- —Sideways welcomes Starscream to Unicron.
"Unicron will awaken and both the Autobots and Decepticons will be destroyed. They will become a distant memory. The Mini-Cons' true destiny will be revealed. Those who helped will be rewarded and all others will suffer Unicron's wrath."
- —Sideways makes with the spoilers.
Notes
Differences with Legends of the Microns
- As should be obvious to anyone paying attention, Alexis's pendant is clearly made from the rock Starscream brought the kids back from Mars in "Mars", symbolizing their relationship and highly prized by her because of that. Armada screws this one up badly, as Alexis says she made it out of a rock she found on Cybertron. Oof.
Animation and technical errors
- Carlos calls Grindor "Sureshock," and later, Alexis refers to Sureshock as "Grindor."
- When Carlos and Alexis argue with Hot Shot, Wheeljack's right eye is gray.
- When the kids speak to Optimus, the neck segments of their spacesuits are missing.
- In the first shot of Thrust, he isn't carrying the Skyboom Shield or Requiem Blaster. The two weapons reappear as he jumps into the warp.
- Encountering Sideways in the organic cavern, Wheeljack's face is grey for a second.
- As Rad spies on Thrust holding the Requiem Blaster, the blaster is colored like part of Thrust.
- When Hot Shot and co. are fleeing from the wave of acid, his thighs are briefly gray instead of black.
- When Alexis jumps off Starscream, her visor frame is colored greyish instead of pink.
- Before Jetfire grabs hold of Wheeljack and Hot Shot, the latter two float in the chasm forming beneath them, unaffected by gravity. They were also on the ground in the previous scene.
- When Wheeljack turns his back on Hot Shot at the end, his back looks nothing like it should. In Legends of the Microns, Wheeljack is entirely redrawn with his back now being on-model.
- In the scenes of Alexis asking Starscream to stay and her assuring him that he wouldn't betray his friends, Alexis's pendant is missing. The Japanese dub fixes this mistake. Legends of the Microns also completely redraws Alexis for both scenes, changing her facial expression from stoic to despondent.
- In the Japanese dub, after Hot Shot tells Starscream that Alexis is right, Alexis's character model changes into her Armada version for a split-second just before the scene cuts to Starscream.
Continuity errors
- In the Japanese dub, Carlos tells Hot Shot the enemy found the kids after they descended to the planet. However, the accurate answer is that the kids more or less stumbled upon Thrust and Starscream, as seen in the previous episode.
- Alexis says Starscream found the kids and brought them to the planet, which isn't true. Legends of the Microns changes it to Alexis saying that Starscream saved them.
- During Hot Shot's transmission to Optimus, Alexis is wearing her pendant even though she wasn't previously seen putting it on.
- Alexis says she made her lucky pendant from a rock she found on Cybertron when it's actually from the Mars rock that Starscream gifted the kids in "Mars." Legend of the Microns corrects this error.
- When Rad and Hot Shot mention the crumbling moon, the scene makes it seem they are talking about Cybertron since they're looking at it. The Japanese dub fixes this by changing their lines to Rad being shocked by the sight of Cybertron, and Hot Shot wondering what's happening.
Transformers references
- In Legends of the Microns, Starscream mentions the Pit before following Thrust through the portal.
Trivia
- The English version of "Portent" first aired in the United Kingdom. It aired in the United States on December 5, 2003.
Foreign localization
German
- Title: "Ein Zeichen" ("A Sign")
- Original airdate: 19 December 2003
Hungarian
- Title: "Hajsza és menekülés" ("Chase and Escape")
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Armada — Vol:14 (Warner Music Video)
2004 — Transformers: Micron Densetsu — Volume 12 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
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)
