Ways and Means
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| "Ways and Means" | ||||||
| Production code | Cyber Pass 49 | |||||
| Season | All on Tape | |||||
| No. in season | 1 | |||||
| Airdate | December 26, 2025–December 29, 2025 | |||||
| Written by | Simon Furman | |||||
The Autobots and Decepticons do some refocusing.
Synopsis
[edit]Part 1
[edit]The Earthforce meets with Optimus Prime and Prowl so Laser Optimus can raise a glaring issue to them: as of late, the team hasn't actually done much to protect Earth, despite that being exactly what they were formed to do. He points out that they've gotten so caught up in all the cosmic, Prime-related stuff that they've lost sight of the bigger picture—fighting the Earth Wars. They request being granted full autonomy, which Prime approves (despite Prowl's issues with allowing such), and set to work on expanding their C.O.M.B.A.T. Bot lineup and dealing with the two Decepticon factions (the main army and the Terrorcons) while the others handle all things cosmic and Primal.
Part 2
[edit]Megatron calls a Decepticon meeting to announce a return to form for them. Overkill is most excited at the prospect of new C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots joining the war, but Megatron soon reveals that his plan is larger than just that. As Soundwave explains, they're going to be doing a good old-fashioned power play involving harvesting geothermal energy from a recently-sunken well in New Mexico. Skullsmasher asks what the plan is if the Terrorcons show up, to which Megatron replies that he has permission to do what he was named for. He and Soundwave add that, if the splinter faction does indeed get involved, the team should make sure they get the message: this plan is his.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Gameplay
[edit]This event was an individual totaliser, meaning players earned points and unlocked prizes on their own as opposed to with their Alliance. Although the top prize was 500000 XP points, the more noteworthy prize was a No Dupe 4-star Crystal.
Notes
[edit]- This event and the rest of its saga were subject to a hiccup in production whereby their story component went un-aired until being backfilled post-facto in a marathon "recap" included with the event "Questionable Comrades".
- Despite clearly being the starting event of the saga, the name of the next event, "Back to Basics... Again?", is mentioned in the Autobot dialogue rather than this one's own name. The words "ways 'n' means", meanwhile, are said in "Back to Basics... Again?".
Continuity Notes
[edit]- The Earthforce point out that they've all been incredibly caught up in the whole "second Age of Primes" situation that they haven't focused much on protecting Earth—while the team had an important role in "New Armada", "Second Armada", and "Third Armada (Part 1)" last year, most of their work was centered around finding Artifacts of the Primes before the Decepticons or Megatronus Prime could. In "Third Armada (Part 2)", no member of the team even appeared.
- The mentions in both parts of bringing in new C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots is, of course, a teaser for the upcoming introduction of Sundor and Ratbat midway through this saga.
Errors
[edit]- When Trip-Up namedrops the Earth Wars, the word "Wars" is spelled without an uppercase letter at the beginning.
- The words "master plan" are spelled "Masterplan".
