Galvatron's Revenge
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 "Say ARRRRRRRGH!" | ||||||
| "Galvatron's Revenge" (Gyakushū! Devil Gigatron) "Counterattack! Devil Gigatron" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | 20 December 2000 (Japanese) March 16, 2002 (English) | |||||
| Written by | Junki Takegami (Japanese) Richard Epcar (English) | |||||
| Director | Akira Katō | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
Galvatron still lives
Optimus Prime calls retreat
Here come cyber-bats
Synopsis
Following last episode's battle, Galvatron lies fallen at Fortress Maximus's feet. The Autobots are jubilant, but Omega Prime is cautious, and rightly so as T-AI soon reports that she's detecting faint energy signals in Galvatron. Galvatron rises once more, and begins drawing energy from Fortress Maximus. The Autobot Brothers try to attack the Decepticon leader, but are prevented by Scourge and Ruination. The Build Team merge into Landfill and join Rail Racer in battling the Decepticons, while Omega Prime confronts Galvatron.
Galvatron responds by unleashing a cloud of smoke, which blinds the Autobots, and sends forth a swarm of cyber-bats. T-AI's warning to Koji is too late, as a cyber-bat attaches to the boy's forehead and he becomes mesmerised. Galvatron gloats to Omega Prime that he now controls the fate of all Earth's children.
Doctor Onishi find Koji and contacts Omega Prime to let him know he's working on a way to disable the cyber-bats. Prime says he's unfortunately going to have to call a tactical retreat—the rest of the Autobots think they should stand and fight, but Prime tells them that they need a water-tight plan before proceeding, and the group departs via the Global space bridge.
Galvatron switches to his griffin mode and, blasting open the portal to the space bridge, sends the Decepticons in. Sky-Byte tags along, anxious to please his leader. They swiftly catch up with the Autobots, who clumsily assemble and engage them in battle. Outside the tunnel, Galvatron happily announces that he'll be able to get rid of both the Autobots and the traitorous Decepticons at the same time by rupturing the wall of the tunnel and flooding it with lava. Ultra Magnus is on hand to attempt to stop the overlord, but is ultimately unsuccessful. Galvatron contacts his Decepticon troops to bid them goodbye as molten lava begins flooding into the tunnel. On the up-side, Galvatron no longer needs Earth's children and recalls the cyber-bats.
As Optimus floats in the lava, he hears Koji's words pleading that he not give up, and Galvatron is shocked to see the Autobots burst from the ground. His shock doesn't last long, and Galvatron boasts that the Autobots will never be able to beat him. He takes in the returning cyber-bats and the Autobots soon find themselves being pulled helplessly into the air...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"That was pretty awesome, don't you think? I doubt we'll ever have to worry about Galvatron ever again."
- —Wedge is an idiot.
"Sorry to interrupt your ego-maniacal rant, but I think it's time you and I had a little one-on-one."
- —Omega Prime isn't sorry at all, really.
"I guess nobody told them second-hand smoke can be extremely hazardous to your health."
- —Listen to Sky-Byte, kids.
"Oh, wow. This doesn't look good."
- —Koji on the city-sized flock of cyber-bats descending upon him. Doesn't miss a trick, that boy.
"What kind of fiendish monster are you... to do this to innocent children!"
- —Omega Prime is somehow surprised at the depths Galvatron will sink to.
"Don't melt us all, Galvatron! I'm not a traitor, I'm your humble servant! Don't you remember?"
"Sky-Byte, I didn't order you in there, I'm afraid you're on your own."
"What?! Oh, thanks a lot! This is what I get for trying to help the guy."
- —Sky-Byte is somehow surprised that Galvatron doesn't care about him.
"Galvatron's new power has made him unbeatable. He's found a way to disable the Autobots so that they can't fight him. Without their help, the Earth will be doomed! Please, Optimus, don't let him win. We all need you. The Earth needs you!"
- —Koji sets the stage for the epic finale. No pressure, Optimus...
Notes
Differences with Car Robots
- This episode features one of the more obvious changes from the Japanese Car Robots version of the story. There, Galvatron was using his Cyber-Bats to drain mental energy from the children, rather than simply holding them hostage; that's why, when he re-absorbs the bats at the episode's conclusion, he gets such a major power boost. The change is fairly consistent within the larger framework of Robots in Disguise—save for Galvatron's absorption of the Predacon trio's energies in his introductory episode, and Fortress Maximus's power in this one, the dub generally omits the fact that Galvatron is an "energy vampire" of sorts, which is actually central to the plot of the Japanese version of the final episode, but which is changed entirely for the English version.
Animation and/or technical glitches
- Megatron calls out "Iron Mammoth!" before changing into his one-headed dragon mode. And then again when he changes into griffin mode.
Continuity errors
- In the preliminary recap of "Surprise Attack!", Omega Prime's line about the strength of Galvatron's command centre is spoken instead by Koji, who wasn't actually present.
- Skid-Z, Tow-Line and the Spy Changers were all at the battle at the end of the last episode, but are mysteriously missing from this one.
- The Commandos are still in Ruination form at the beginning of the episode, yet form him again a short way in (though they do switch from "land" mode to "sky" mode).
- As the Autobots charge into the Global Space Bridge tunnel, the Build Team are suddenly in their individual forms, having been seen as Landfill moments earlier; the Autobot Brothers, meanwhile, appear in their normal colour schemes, despite being in Super Mode at all other points during the episode.
- Similarly, it is unclear when exactly Omega Prime breaks down into his constituent individual robots; it is Omega who orders the Autobots into the space bridge tunnel, but moments later we see Ultra Magnus hiding behind a rock eavesdropping on Galvatron, whilst only Optimus has entered the tunnel himself.
Transformers references
- Once again, the term "Insecticon" is used a term of derision, this time by Galvatron. It's enough to give a bug a complex, complex.
- Galvatron claims to be indestructible in his iron mammoth mode.
- Optimus Prime's battle mode makes a reappearance after a long absence.
Miscellaneous trivia
- Hightower finally gets his turn as Landfill's arms. By default it's usually Grimlock, and Heavy Load got his turn back in "Sky-Byte Saves the Day".
- It's odd that Galvatron still thinks of the Decepticons as treacherous when he went to all the trouble of reprogramming them at the start of "Surprise Attack!".
- The Autobots, it seems, are quite capable of being completely submerged in lava and coming off no worse for wear, which makes you wonder what they were all so worried about in "Volcano". Then again, not all Transformers are so lucky, so it's better to be safe than sorry...
Home video releases
- DVD
- 2001 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 10 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
- 2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
- 2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
- 2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
