The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
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 He's just looking for a heaaaartbeeeaaaat... | |||||||||
| "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-53 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | November 18, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | David Wise | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
A newly-orphaned debutante must protect her late father's work from Megatron. She finds Powerglide, and with him, safety...or perhaps...something...more?
- Japanese title: 令嬢より愛をこめて (Reijō Yori Ai o Kome te, "From Your Daughter with Love")
- German title: "Das Mädchen, dass sich in Powerglide verliebt" ("The Girl who loved Powerglide")
Synopsis
One day Powerglide is out flying when he passes by a building. While he is up in the air, he spots the Conehead trio, Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust. He observes that they are trying to kidnap Astoria Carlton-Ritz from her birthday party.
Powerglide successfully saves Astoria (surprise surprise) but the way he does it is rather... unconventional. Dragging a rope behind him, Powerglide manages to have Astoria snatch the rope despite her not knowing whether Powerglide was there to help her or otherwise. He then proceeds to sweep through the city with her flying through the air at breakneck speed while clinging to a dangling rope with only her arm strength to keep Astoria from plummeting thousands of feet to her sure death. Powerglide does reel her up where she is stowed safely in his cockpit, amusingly with her large floppy purple hat still present.
After performing several evasive manuevers that leave Astoria tumbling willy nilly around Powerglide's cabin, he manages to lose the Coneheads by ducking beneath an overpass. Powerglide introduces himself while they are waiting and we are treated to one of Astoria's supernatural powers: resistance to bruises and scrapes after she is tossed back several feet by a sweep of the red jet's arm when she attempts to glomp him in gratitude.
The duo manages to make it back to Sparkplug's workshop without any further mishap. Optimus Prime shares some pertinent information with Powerglide and Sparkplug and also reveals that the young heiress doesn't know about some of the ventures her company works on even though she is in charge of the company. Optimus Prime believes Megatron wants something from her so he orders Powerglide to escort her back to the Autobot Headquarters. On the way to the Ark, Astoria pipes up and says she is starving and wants to eat something.
Meantime in the Decepticon Base, Megatron is quite unhappy about the Coneheads' failure. He orders them to bring Astoria to him and this time without any failures.
After sating her hunger with hot-dogs, Astoria is quick to amuse herself by jumping on the merry-go-around, much to Powerglide's consternation and bemusement.
After they get down from the merry-go-round, the Coneheads come back for Astoria. Powerglide somehow manages to get rid of them and takes Astoria with him. But soon he gets caught up and is rammed by Ramjet. In the skirmish, Powerglide's left arm and left wing are injured and he is forced to make a crash landing. Powerglide eventually is defeated by the Coneheads whereupon the Coneheads take Astoria to their base.
Powerglide is left engulfed in rocks but somehow he manages to get out from beneath the debris and attempts to set off in pursuit of the Coneheads. Despite his determination, he collapses due to his injuries but he is quickly rescued by Ratchet and Wheeljack.
After Ratchet does some basic repairs on him, Powerglide refuses any further repairs and goes to see Optimus Prime. While Powerglide is discussing his options with Optimus Prime, Teletraan I notifies them that Sky Spy just detected an unusual atmospheric disturbance over the Northern Atlantic and the source is 10 miles above the sea level. Optimus Prime thinks it is possibly the Decepticons' suborbital station. Impulsively, Powerglide rushes out of the Ark and flies directly to the Sky Platform and consequently into the energy storm.
Meanwhile, the Decepticons are interrogating Astoria about the energy formula left by her father. She claims that she know nothing so Megatron decides to use the psycho-probe in order to make her tell him about the formula. To the Decepticon leader's frustration, the psycho-probe keeps malfunctioning, easily provoking Megatron into a rage that even Starscream's traitorous antics can't cause. In his anger, the psycho-probe is destroyed by Megatron.
Then the Decepticons find Powerglide trying to break through the energy storm and everyone goes out to see it. Megatron laughs at Powerglide and says he won't be able to break through the energy storm. But Astoria throws her necklace given by her father toward the energy-storm-generating tower and successfully destroys it. Not surprisingly, the necklace contains the energy formula, but one is forced to speculate how exactly a human-built necklace manages to bring down a large and powerful tower.
The destroyed tower collapses the buildings on Sky Platform. The Sky Platform loses its control and starts to fall down. The Decepticons retreat to their headquarters. Both Powerglide and Astoria go into the control room where Astoria proceeds to demonstrate her superhuman strength by pulling off a metal slab from the control panel. After a bit of a lover's tiff, Powerglide fiddles around with the control panel, successfully slowing down the Sky Platform's descent long enough for the duo to make good their escape. The Sky Platform is shown shortly afterwards falling into the ocean and much to the Decepticons' horror, it crashes on part of the Decepticons' headquarters, allowing massive quantities of seawater to rush into the base.
Back safe in the city, Powerglide asks Astoria why Megatron was so keen on kidnapping Astoria. She tells him it was because of the energy formula hidden in her necklace. Much to the present Autobots' private glee, Powerglide asks whether if he could look her up next time he comes to town in a rather shy manner. Astoria is very happy and kisses him before she scurries off to her limo and is carted off. The minute Astoria is out of earshot, everyone has a good-natured laugh at Powerglide's expense. Thoroughly embarrassed, Powerglide threatens the would-be teasers with a good boxing around the circuits before he stomps into the building.
Once Powerglide is out of sight of the other Autobots, he pauses to open his chest plate, showing a series of LEDs flashing in the form of a stylized heart.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Oh wow! He's tall, he's handsome, he's shiny. And he can fly!"
- —Astoria comments on Powerglide
"Why does everything always happen to me?"
- —Powerglide laments his lot in life.
"You are supposed to be the most powerful jets in the galaxy, and you were beaten by a pipsqueak Autobot plane?!"
- —Megatron berates the Coneheads for their defeat at the hands of Powerglide.
Thrust: We have come for the girl.
Ramjet: And we will get the girl.
Dirge: Or else.
- —The Coneheads act tough.
"Autobot, meet your doom!"
- —Dirge taunts Powerglide
"You got any burgers in this joint?"
"Silence!"
- —Astoria and Soundwave
"Subject's mind completely empty."
- —Why in God's name didn't Soundwave just scan her mind himself?
"The psycho-probe will put 90,000 volts through your brain. It is an excruciating experience. Will you tell me what you know??"
"All this waiting around, that's what's excruciating. I mean, I'm starving, for cryin' out loud! When are you guys gonna feed me? That's what I wanna know. Your dumb machine, like, doesn't even work, and—"
"Enough!"
- —Megatron wants Astoria to just shut up
"Then I'm staying with you, no matter what!"
- —Astoria to Powerglide
"Energize the force fields!"
"What force fields?!"
- —Megatron and Soundwave
"Attention Decepticons, this is Megatron speaking. Your new orders are...er...clean up this mess!"
- —Megatron broadcasts to the Decepticons.
"Ha wow! Who would've believed it! Powerglide shot down by Cupid!"
- —Sparkplug teases Powerglide after he is kissed by Astoria.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Powerglide shoots the vending machine and blows a huge hole in the front of the machine. However, soda is shown shooting directly out of the bottom of the vending machine in a straight line. This seems virtually impossible.
- Powerglide's landing gears are all painted red when he lands after being rammed by Ramjet.
- When Powerglide holds Astoria to save her from falling, her body is drawn, um, weird.
Continuity errors
- Seriously, Soundwave could have scanned Astoria's mind like he scanned Chip Chase back in "Roll for It". Surely, Astoria couldn't have jinxed that ability too!
Real-world references
- Astoria's name comes from two famous upscale hotels, the Waldorf-Astoria and Ritz-Carlton.
Trivia
- Powerglide is actually quite abusive to the human he is charged with "saving" in this episode. Not even the Decepticons have ever been shown slamming a human to the concrete so hard that they bounce or out and out striking a human. But hey, that's what she gets for having to be told twice, right Powerglide?
- Speaking of which, Astoria seems to take a lot of abuse in this episode and still manages to brush it off with no real injuries.
- It seems Astoria is also gifted with superhuman strength, as she is able to hold her own against the Coneheads, prevent Powerglide from taking her necklace, and rip a metal panel with her bare hands. Maybe Powerglide's abuse doesn't seem as bad as it was. Still...
