Predacons Rising (Animated)
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| "Predacons Rising" | ||||||
| Airdate | April 11, 2009 | |||||
| Written by | Larry DiTillio Bob Forward | |||||
| Directed by | Kalvin Lee Yutaka Kagawa | |||||
| Animation studio | Mook | |||||
Blackarachnia has plans... for Wasp!
Synopsis
The Autobots engage in a high-speed chase after Wasp through the city of Detroit. Though Optimus Prime says he believes even Wasp doesn't know where he's going, the fugitive former Autobot makes clear one thing: they're not going to take him while he's still online. Bumblebee nearly catches Wasp, but the interference of Sentinel Prime allows him to get away again. Optimus insists that Sentinel's responsibility lies on Cybertron and that he ought to deliver the remaining prisoners to the stockade. Sentinel counters that he's sure that Wasp knew about the attack on Ultra Magnus, and he intends to bring him in.
With the help of the twins, the crew finally corners Wasp. Bumblebee tries to talk him down, but finds that his excuses fail to placate the fugitive. Optimus tells Wasp that the espionage charges against him have been dropped, but Sentinel again interferes and the two Primes get into an argument about jurisdiction. In the confusion, Wasp escapes again.
Taking pursuit, the Autobots are stymied when Wasp is plucked from the ground by the arrival of Swoop. They are only able to pursue the flying Dinobot to the pier before being forced to break off. Sentinel is infuriated, and has the twins grapple him to continue the chase. Optimus, realizing that Swoop is likely taking Wasp to Dinobot Island, begs Sentinel to hold off, as he hasn't yet explained what his former comrade would find there. Sentinel disregards this, and tells the twins to continue onward.
Wasp is brought to Meltdown's old lab, which has seen a considerable refit. In charge now is Blackarachnia, who looks him over. Satisfied that he has pure Cybertronian circuitry, she decides that he is ideal for her purposes and offers him a chance to have enough power to get his revenge on the Autobots. Showing him a transwarp generator, she explains that it has only been used for transport before, but she has found a new application.
Waspinator, Blackarachnia, and the Dinobots were transported to what appeared to be an African jungle, where they encountered a gorilla, cheetah, rat, and rhino.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
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Quotes
Bumblebee: Hate to say it, but Sentinel's got a point. I'd feel a lot safer with Wasp behind bars.
Optimus: That's not your call to make, Bumblebee.
Sentinel: It's not your decision either, Optimus. I'm in command.
Optimus: On Cybertron. This is my jurisdiction, Sentinel.
Sentinel: This is a Cybertronian fugitive, and I'll enforce my authority as the...the uh...primer Prime!
Optimus: Did you just make that up?!
Sentinel: No!
Optimus: There's no such thing as a Primer Prime!
Sentinel: It's a real term. Look it up.
Optimus: I'm not gonna look it up!
- —Optimus and Sentinel engage in what can be politely described as a pissing contest.
Sentinel: Right, okay. Here's the plan. Give me a few nanokliks to get into position and, then, give me a diversion to draw them away from the entrance.
Jetfire: De version? Vat kind of version?
Jetstorm: Means for us to blow something up!
Jetfire: Oh, good! I am liking de version!
- —The Twins enjoy blowing stuff up.
"I just never knew, never imagined that something this...unspeakable could have happened to you. How can you even live like that? It's horrible! It's disgusting!"
"Okay, okay, I get it! It's bad, but it's not that bad, alright?!"
"No. It's worse. You should have gone offline."
- —Sentinel Prime has more issues with Blackarachnia's condition than she does.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
Continuity errors
Transformers references
As the plot of this episode centres on Blackarachnia and Waspinator, the Animated staff recruited Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward, the head writers of the Beast Wars animated series, to script it. Consequently, the episode has quite a few references to Beast Wars, including:
- The title itself is, of course, a reference to the Predacons from Beast Wars, but it's a reference that doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to anyone who doesn't already know what a Predacon is, since no-one in the episode is actually called a Predacon at any stage.
- Although it's hardly a Transformers-specific term, Sentinel instructs Jetfire and Jetstorm to fire their jets at "Maximum Burn", which was a pretty common command phrase used by the Beast Warriors for firing their own jets. If it were anybody but DiTillio and Forward on scripting duties, we'd probably write it off, but...
- At the end of the episode, Blackarachnia comes face to face with a gorilla, a rhino, a cheetah, and a very large rat.
- Just like his predecessor, this Waspinator can survive being blown to scraps.
Real-world references
- When Blackarachnia presses some buttons on her computer, they sound the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- The transwarp experimentation chambers look and function exactly like the telepods from David Cronenberg's The Fly.
