Darkness (episode)
| This article is about the Cybertron episode. For the mysterious energy from Generation 1, see Darkness (G1). |
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
| "Darkness" (Ankoku kara no Gyakushū) "Counterattack from the Darkness" | |||||||||
| Production company | TV Aichi, We've, Tōkyū Agency | ||||||||
| Airdate | August 27, 2005 (Japanese) September 5, 2006 (English) | ||||||||
| Writer | Kazuhisa Sakaguchi | ||||||||
| Director | Atsushi Nakayama | ||||||||
| Animation studio | GONZO | ||||||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Megatron is back, and his mysterious dark powers give birth to two new threats!
Synopsis
In the sky above Cybertron, the deceased Megatron has reappeared as an ethereal image, his ghostly body enshrouded by an enigmatic black fog. Even Megatron himself is unaware of what has befallen him, but he impassively descends to the planet's surface as the Autobots look on. Override and the Cybertron Defense Team follow the spectral Decepticon's descent, and watch as he approaches Ransack and the fatally wounded Crumplezone. As he glides towards his former followers, a lone Scrapmetal crests a nearby building and starts firing at him. The creature only succeeds in drawing Megatron's attention, as its shots disappear into the fog surrounding him. The Scrapmetal lunges at Megatron instead, only to wind up being dissolved and absorbed by the mysterious mist. Megatron returns his attention to the fallen Crumplezone, and immerses the wounded Decepticon in his fog, repairing and reformatting him into a powerful new form. While Crumplezone puts his new power to use attacking his old racing rivals Override and Hot Shot, Megatron realizes that the black fog is a product of his Armor of Unicron, which has preserved him after his death-and made him stronger than ever!
Simultaneously, Safeguard informs Vector Prime that he has lost contact with the Recon Mini-Con Team, and the elderly Autobot returns to headquarters to investigate. Consulting the security recordings, he discovers that Sideways has kidnapped the Mini-Cons, and that the kids leapt through his warp field in pursuit. He informs Optimus Prime of this development, but Prime is caught up battling Scourge and can do nothing to help.
The other Autobots, meanwhile, are engaged in battles of their own. While Jetfire faces off against Thundercracker and his latest (surprisingly effective) "super move", and Crumplezone continues to harrass Override, the rest of the heroes are firing upon Megatron, to absolutely no effect. Seeing that the Decepticons have been galvanized by the return of their leader, Leobreaker is determined to take Megatron down, and lunges at him in lion mode. He slashes at the black fog with his Cyber Key-powered claws, which causes a very unexpected reaction: the fog recedes, and Megatron stands triumphantly before the Autobots, reborn! At Megatron's command, the last remnants of the fog surround Leobreaker, and although the Autobot is able to leap clear, the fog has taken from him what it needs, and coalesces into a dark duplicate of Leobreaker himself! Megatron introduces the dark clone as "Nemesis Breaker", explaining that he has been created from Leobreaker's own dark side. The two lion 'bots engage in a brief battle, which Megatron then stops so that he can reveal Nemesis Breaker's ultimate power: the ability to combine with Megatron in Dark Claw Mode!
At Autobot headquarters, Red Alert and Scattorshot have joined Vector Prime to try and help him track down the kids and Mini-Cons. Scattorshot complains about the fact that he gave Coby an Autobot communicator, and yet the boy is not using it. Little does Scattorshot realize, however, that using the communicator is paramount in Coby's mind—he's just having trouble getting his hands on it, as it and the kids are all floating around in zero gravity in Starscream's hideout!
Back on Cybertron, Optimus Prime breaks off his fight with Scourge and separates from Wing Saber so that he and Leobreaker can merge into Savage Claw Mode to battle Megatron and Nemesis Breaker. After a brief comedy interlude in which Hot Shot finally takes out the reborn Crumplezone (who, as it turns out, really isn't any tougher than he was before), the two leaders get down to business, and their Cyber Key-powered attacks collide in an explosion so indescribably massive that it can be seen from space. When Optimus comes to afterwards, he discovers that Megatron and the Decepticons have disappeared. Wing Saber is quick to locate the villains from the air: they have used the cover of the explosion to make a break for the Omega Lock! The Autobots transform and immediately give chase, and the race is on!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Crumplezone! Hang in there, big guy! We haven't even learned how to play the violin! Waaaaaaah!"
- —Ransack on Crumplezone's death.
"Crumplezone! Oh, the horror! Oh, JEEZ! That's gotta hurt! Oh, man! WOW! Where did THOSE come from? The humanity of it all!"
- —Ransack on Crumplezone's rebirth.
"Hey Ransack! How's it going, little buddy?"
"F-f-fine. How 'bout you?"
"Are you kiddin'? I never felt better."
- —The reborn Crumplezone's first words to Ransack
"Enough with the comic relief!"
- —Optimus Prime on Ransack and Crumplezone!
Notes
Differences with Galaxy Force
- Galaxy Force includes a "previously on" segment summarizing the events of "Balance".
- In Galaxy Force, despite it being the major plot point of the episode, with the script actively calling attention to how mysterious it is, the black fog is completely and totally unexplained. As usual, it's Cybertron to the rescue with a quick explanation that's neatly tied in to the established canon of the show: it's the "shadow spark" of Unicron, the power of the Armor of Unicron that Megatron wears. This even ties in very nicely with aspects of Unicron's power seen in previous Transformers fiction; that is to say, his power to reformat beings, as he does with Crumplezone, and create bodies, as with Nemesis Breaker.
- In Galaxy Force, Megatron notes that one of Leobreaker's dark thoughts from which Nemesis Breaker was created is his resentment of Optimus Prime for ignoring their combination and favoring Wing Saber instead. Cybertron omits this specific.
- In Cybertron, Vector Prime notes that Starscream's island base on Earth has been "cleared out". In Galaxy Force, the island is said to have actually collapsed.
Animation errors
- As Megatron's "ghost" descends on Cybertron at the beginning of the episode, Override and Scattorshot transform and head towards him. However, in the next scene, Override is seen with Hot Shot and Red Alert instead.
- Implausible viewpoints: The "security footage" reviewed by Vector Prime is just the final moments of the previous episode, which leads to some camera placement issues.
- A small animation cheat occurs as Ransack and the newly-minted Dark Crumplezone attack Hot Shot and Override. When the partners in grime charge the Autobots, they're in vehicle mode, but when Dark Crumplezone activates his "Dark Bazooka" attack, he's in robot mode! After the Autobots are blown into the distance, Ransack is also shown in robot mode, despite never being shown to transform. Not necessarily an error, but certainly a bit of laziness here.
- Speaking of bizarre animation, when Crumplezone sneers "What's the matter, Override?", a panel in his exhaust port clips in and out of the scene, making it seem like he's literally speaking through his rear!
Transformers references
- Wing Saber says that Megatron is making for the Omega Lock "like a 'bot outta Chaar"!
- [|another|starscream(G1)] invinible spark?
Real-world references
- Of course, Wing Saber's above mentioned quote also paraphrases the common turn of phrase, "like a bat out of hell".
- Megatron says "Let this be our last battlefield" when preparing to take on Optimus. This could be a reference to the Star Trek episode "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield."
Trivia
- This episode did not premiere until nearly five months after the previous one. By the time "Darkness" was finally aired, Cybertron had been relegated to the unenviable 6am "death slot" on Cartoon Network, where new episodes would premiere every weekday morning for the remainder of the month, bringing the series to a conclusion nearly a year after its Japanese broadcast ended.
- This episode would later be combined with "United", "Cybertron" and "Balance" to create the TV "movie" special, "Primus Unleashed".
- After reformatting Crumplezone, Megatron notes that he has remade him in his own image. This may possibly be the source of his ultimate goal in "End".
- While he is introduced a bit late in the game, more than halfway through the series, Nemesis Breaker, or something like him, must have been planned from the beginning, as evidenced by the combination ports in Megatron's arms.
- Despite being a redeco of Leobreaker, Nemesis Breaker has all-new stock footage sequences for combining with Megatron and activating Dark Claw Mode's Cyber Key power.
- Keeping up the whole "dark mirror" angle with Nemesis Breaker, the evil lion's transformation into arm mode is the reverse of Leobreaker's, first folding up his legs, detaching his forearms one at a time, then folding up his upper body, retracting his robot head, and finally attaching the new fist to the folded-up legs (the only part of the transformation similar to Leobreaker, for obvious reasons). Nemesis Breaker also replaces Megatron's left arm, as opposed to Leobreaker replacing Optimus' right arm.
Home video releases
- DVD
2006 — Transformers: Galaxy Force — Vol. 09 (Victor Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Cybertron — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
