Prehistory
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 Attack of the Clones | |||||||||
| Prehistory (Riyū [Ikisatsu]) "Reason (Whole Story)" | |||||||||
| Production code | TF: A-12 | ||||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | ||||||||
| Airdate | November 22, 2002 (English) 28 March 2003 (Japanese) | ||||||||
| Writer | Shōji Tonoike | ||||||||
| Director | Keisuke Ōnishi | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Actas | ||||||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | ||||||||
A Mini-Con is located on a volcanic island which soon erupts.
Synopsis
Standing over the Mini-Con panel retrieved from Antarctica, Rad muses that at last he knows what happened to Atlantis.
Up on the Moon, Megatron grumbles about the dormant Mini-Con they've picked up. Despite provoking some small amount of activity from it, he's unable to activate it.
Rad asks Optimus if there's any way to stop the ongoing war with the Decepticons, and the Autobot leader explains how the war began four million years ago when the Decepticons began overrunning Cybertron with their troops. Once the planet was divided into Decepticon and Autobot halves, the Mini-Con faction began to appear and join with both Decepticons and Autobots to increase their power. Realising that they were causing the war, the Mini-Cons opted to leave Cybertron. The Decepticons attempted to block them, but with the Autobots' help, the Mini-Con ship was able to escape. It crashed on Earth, and the rest is history. When Rad and Carlos found the first Mini-Con, they activated a signal which alerted the inhabitants of Cybertron, who sent teams to Earth.
The Mini-Con alarm goes off, and Red Alert quickly fixes the location of the latest Mini-Con on a volcanic island. The Autobots rush there with their young friends. The Decepticons also detect the Mini-Con.
On the island, Rad asks if there's any way to avoid involving the Mini-Cons in the battle, but Optimus says use of the Mini-Cons is the only way they can effectively stop the Decepticons from gaining more Mini-Cons. While they're talking, Megatron appears and opens fire on them. The Autobots return fire, with Optimus using his trailer as a weapons platform. Alexis attempts to convince Rad and Carlos that they should search for the Mini-Con, so Rad dispatches Laserbeak to scout the island.
Starscream and Megatron powerlink with their Mini-Cons, prompting the Autobot-aligned Mini-Cons to man the weapons on Optimus's trailer. Everyone is surprised, but Carlos points out that they're just fighting back. Meanwhile, Laserbeak spots the Mini-Con panel they're searching for at the end of an incomplete rail tunnel. Optimus orders his men to cover him while he retrieves the Mini-Con, but the battle is interrupted by the volcano erupting. Lava erupts from the end of the rail tunnel, carrying the Mini-Con panel. Optimus finds himself falling into an opening fissure in the ground as the lava begins spread across the island.
Red Alert tells Hot Shot to get the kids to higher ground and has Smokescreen dig a trench to divert the lava. Taken to safety, the kids spot the Mini-Con floating on top of the lava, but so do the Decepticons. Starscream prevents Hot Shot from getting it first, but the Decepticons are halted by a burst of energy from the newly arrived Optimus. Cyclonus grabs the Mini-Con but is fired on by High Wire, Grindor and Sureshock and drops it. After Red Alert snatches the Mini-Con out of mid-air, the Decepticons retreat. Once the Mini-Con panel cools down, the kids watch as the ghostly form of a Mini-Con manifests over it.
Back at base, Red Alert says that the Mini-Cons may be the key to peace in the Universe. The only way to solve the riddle as to how is to collect all of them.
Megatron tries again to awaken the Mini-Con from the ruins and at last succeeds, revealing Sonar, one of the Air Defence team who form the Star Saber sword. Megatron laughs in triumph.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Hurry up! Destroy those Autobots! You will not escape my wrath!"
"We can't do that, Megatron! If we do, it'll give away our position!"
- —Megatron and Demolishor, the latter of whom doesn't appear to notice that the Autobots already know where they are.
"Luckily, I fell into a chasm and the lava passed right over me. I had to dig my way out, but I'm all right."
- —Optimus explains how he survived the lava.
"They're fighting to protect the universe!"
- —Alexis, Carlos and Rad, in unison.
"Niiiice"
- —Smokescreen responds in awe to Red Alert and Hot Shot powerlinxing
"Fire away, gentlemen."
- —Megatron is uncharacteristically complimentary to his troops
"Cyclonus failed me again. That figures."
- —Megatron not surprised at Cyclonus's failure
Notes
Differences with Micron Legend
Animation and/or technical glitches
- Optimus leaves Cybertron in Thrust's hands. This seems quite odd to say the least, and no one shows any surprise or mentions any changing of sides when Thrust arrives in the present, on the Decepticon side and apparently having always been. Given Armada's problem with keeping names straight, it's possible that "Thrust" is actually Jetfire - "Thrust's" head looks a little like Jetfire's in a silhouette.
Continuity errors
- Megatron wonders why the Mini-Con retrieved in the previous episode won't wake up, but when he collected it, he stated that there was a reason why it won't wake up.
- Smokescreen's small hook makes a surprisingly large trench while diverting the lava
Other errors
- Optimus Prime says the lava passed over him while he was in a chasm. Somehow, this lava doesn't respond normally to gravity.
Transformers references
- Cybertron is seen in Prime's flashback, as well as practically everyone's Cybertronian form.
Real-world references
- Rad seems to think the underwater city in the previous episode actually was Atlantis.
Miscellaneous trivia
- Over a quarter of this episode is taken up with the flashback recounting the history of the war.
