This Is Why I Hate Machines
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| "This Is Why I Hate Machines" | ||||||
| Airdate | May 9, 2009 | |||||
| Written by | Rob Hoegee | |||||
| Directed by | Kalvin Lee Yutaka Hirata | |||||
| Animation studio | Mook | |||||
A space bridge accident sends Ratchet and Captain Fanzone to Cybertron, right as the Decepticon controlled Omega Supreme arrives.
Synopsis
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
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Quotes
"I'd be a happy man if I never see another—[Fanzone takes in his surroundings]...robot?
- —Captain Fanzone enters his own personal hell, and its name is Cybertron.
"I can't believe we're on Cybertron! Of all the places we transwarped, this is great!"
- —Ratchet, happy for the first since...well, since we've seen him.
"Citizens of Cybertron, Decepticons are in our midst! Neighbours, friends, even your own model can be a spy! Do your duty and report any suspicious activity--" [continues inaudibly behind...]
"...what is this scrap?!"
"--for your protection, all potentially subversive gathering places remain closed. Curfew remains in effect. Remember, Decepticons will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life! Don't let THIS [picture of Ultra Magnus on spark support] happen to you. As your Magnus, I will continue to defeat the Decepticon scourge and bring peace and security to Cybertron! I'm Sentinel Prime, and I approve of this message."
"No-good glory-hog's got a lot of steel. It was Lockdown who caught those 'Cons!"
- —Sentinel Prime's propaganda film, with commentary by Ratchet
"Cybertron. At last our ultimate goal is at our feet. And here we stand aboard its ultimate weapon."
"Now wouldn't it be nice if we could figure out how to use it!"
- —Megatron has a moment, which Starscream ruins.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
- Shockwave's head model changes randomly throughout the episode in shape, size and positioning of his optic.
- When Shockwave holds up the Magnus Hammer and starts generating lightning, its handle is only half as long as usual.
Continuity errors
Transformers references
- Ratchet's favorite hangout is Maccadam's Old Oil House.
- When Ratchet and Fanzone are headed to Maccadam's, they stop in front of a building which appears to have Target's trademark "bull's-eye" logo.
- Parade footage from "Decepticon Air" is used in Sentinel's little propaganda video. (See said episode for the list of cameos within.)
- Ratchet remarks that Lockdown was the one to capture the Decepticon prisoners, as seen in "Five Servos of Doom".
- The Autobot Council's headquarters is known as "the Metroplex", and the Elite Guard's battle station is "Fortress Maximus".
- Ratchet's flashback uses footage from "The Thrill of the Hunt", giving Lockdown a brief "appearance" in this episode.
- At the end of the episode, Shockwave utilizes an electronic paint job to reveal his "true colors", represented by a Target exclusive redeco reminiscent of his Generation 1 namesake's color scheme.
Real-world references
- Sentinel Prime's broadcast was based on The Red Scare during the Cold War. The broadcast concludes with him saying "I'm Sentinel Prime, and I approve of this message."—in the style of contemporary political campaign ads.
- Sentinel's insistence that he is the one who "makes the tough decisions" and insistence that any questioning of his orders is tantamount to treason is probably some kind of statement about someone or something, but we'll leave it at that.
- Shockwave's slow, deadpan delivery of "I'm afraid I can't let you do that" is a reference to the menacing supercomputer HAL from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, who also featured an unblinking single red eye.
Trivia
- This is the first episode in which Optimus Prime does not appear at all.
- There is oxygen on Cybertron. Probably to allow combustion to happen.
- Arcee wasn't actually offline at the end of the flashbacks in "The Thrill of the Hunt" - although she was amnesiac, she could stand, talk and take in her surroundings. This implies that it was the vivisection of her head in the TransWarped flashbacks in an attempt to retrieve the activation codes for Omega Supreme which caused the "damage to her circuitry" that Perceptor called "completely irreversable", and meant she was left to rot, comatose, in a hospital bed for millions of stellar cycles. The Autobots are complete and utter misbegotten children, yes?
