Swoop (episode)
| The name or term "Swoop" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Swoop (disambiguation). |
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 Sadly, Swoop received no royalties for this episode. | ||||||
| "Swoop" (Tsurugi) "Holy Sword: Sword" | ||||||
| Production code | TF: A-13 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | November 29, 2002 (English) 4 April 2003 (Japanese) | |||||
| Writer | Isao Shizuya | |||||
| Director | Masayuki Motsumoto | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc. | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
The Decepticons, intent on completing the Star Saber, invade the Autobot base.
Synopsis
Patrolling the skies, Cyclonus searches for the exact position of the Autobot base, for which the Mini-Con Sonar was able to determine the general location. Demolishor is surprised that Megatron can understand the Mini-Cons' language. Cyclonus finds the base, and Megatron, having gained another advantage, has a hearty laugh.
Within the Autobot base, Alexis, Carlos and Rad start to give Billy and Fred the grand tour. But before the two can be shown around, an alarm goes off, and Alexis, Carlos, and Rad rush to the control room, abandoning their friends. Billy has the brilliant idea for himself and Fred to explore. Meanwhile, Optimus notes that a warp gate has opened within the base.
Megatron and the Decepticons, along with Sonar, arrive in the Autobot base and are soon caught on security cameras. Red Alert activates some defense devices built into the base by Hot Shot. Billy, hopelessly lost as Fred predicted they would be, concedes that his navigational skills have failed him. The Decepticons walk by, not noticing the humans, and come under attack from the defense lasers, unwittingly putting the two humans into danger. Optimus characteristically orders a ceasefire, and Megatron assumes it must be a system malfunction and presses forward.
Red Alert determines that the Decepticons are tracking the Mini-Con storage panels containing the other two Star Saber Mini-Cons, and Hot Shot eagerly rushes to confront them. Optimus takes the panels elsewhere, drawing the Decepticons away from the control room. Alexis then uses the room's computer to track Billy and Fred's movements.
Hot Shot, on his own, attacks the Decepticons, but Megatron uses his antlers to grab Hot Shot's head, suspend the Autobot in the air, and then toss him aside. The other Autobots arrive, and Smokescreen activates a screen—of smoke!—to allow them to fall back into a separate chamber. By the time the Decepticons blast through the door, they only see Hot Shot drive away.
The Autobots use the chase to isolate each member of the Decepticons from the rest. Smokescreen is able to lasso Demolishor. Red Alert baits Starscream into a hall of mirrors, his reflected taunts leading the seeker into a trap pit.
The three friendly human kids find their two jerky peers, and Cyclonus finds all five of them. The Decepticon intends to capture and ransom them for the Mini-Cons, but they use the Autobots' warp gate to teleport Cyclonus to some place far away.
Megatron, the only Decepticon left, is double-teamed by Optimus and Hot Shot, but the skirmish leads to Megatron holding his cannon right up to Hot Shot's face. Sonar awakens his brethren, and Megatron seizes the Star Saber. But just as he holds his new weapon in the air, Optimus blasts it out of Megatron's hands, directly into Hot Shot's.
Megatron links with Leader-1 and offers Hot Shot one last chance to reconsider his side, which Hot Shot refuses. Megatron opens fire. The torrent of energy blasts blows back Hot Shot, but the coaching of his human friends gives him the inspiration he needs to use the Star Saber to resist Megatron's gunfire. After Hot Shot gets close enough to slice off one of Megatron's antlers, the Decepticon leader orders an immediate withdrawal.
Optimus lets Hot Shot keep possession of the Star Saber, and the children celebrate this victory. On the moon, Megatron wishes revenge so hard it hurts.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Maybe they ran out of ammo."
"Lasers don't run out of ammo!"
- —Cyclonus and Starscream trade ideas on why the automatic defenses have stopped shooting.
"Man, that laugh of yours is really annoying."
- —Hot Shot to Megatron.
"Try and download THIS!"
- —Hot Shot risks attacking Megatron with a bad computer pun.
Billy: "Cyclo-butt!"
Fred: "That's Cyclonapus!"
Cyclonus: "It's Cyclonus!"
Billy: "...Thanks for clearing that up, mister."
Fred: "You have a nice day!"
- —Billy, Fred, and Cyclonus in a rare purposeful Armada name mix-up
"Time for a SYSTEM CRASH!"
- —Lame computer pun #2 from Hot Shot as he tackles Megatron.
Megatron: "Yes, this is more like it, I'm going to pixelate every one of you Autobots."
Optimus: "He's out of control."
Megatron: "Now you will do as I say, hand over all your Mini-Cons to me, or I'll have no choice but to re-format your friend's memory bank."
Hot Shot: "You... won't get anything from me!"
Megatron: "Then I'll have to execute your program."
- —Megatron gets computer-pun vengeance on Optimus Prime and Hot Shot.
"For the last time: Access denied."
- —Hot Shot tries something different for rejecting Megatron's offer of allegiance: a computer pun!
Notes
Differences with Micron Legend
- In the opening scene in Armada, Cyclonus and Demolishor just generally grouse about the Autobot base being difficult to find; in Micron Legend, Cyclonus is complaining about Blackout's search capabilities, and Demolishor defends his Mini-Con partner.
- In Micron Legend, the human children do not seem to see nor react to the holographic projection of Star Saber, but the Armada dubbing team seem to have misinterpret this as the Autobots' deactivating some kind of force field.
- In Micron Legend, Hot Shot explains that Smokescreen and Red Alert installed the Autobot base's new internal defenses. In Armada, he claims to have invented and installed it himself.
- When said defense systems cease fire, Megatron rationalizes it as a systems malfunction. In 'Micron Legend, he just sort of accepts it.
- Cyclonus plans to capture the humans and ransom them for the Mini-Cons, whereas in Micron Legend he chases them thinking they'll lead him straight to Hot Shot and the Mini-Cons.
Animation and technical errors
- During the close up of Sonar sitting upon Megatron's arm, Megatron's entire arm is miscolored red.
- When Runway and Jetstorm react to Sonar's proximity by projecting an image of the Star Saber, Carlos reacts to it by saying "Hey! The Autobots shut off the force field! Follow me, you guys!" This is presumably an error, as there was no force field present.
- After Megatron warps into the Autobot base and instructs Sonar to find his partners, one of Sonar's chest panels is miscolored yellow.
- Before running off to find the Decepticons, Hot Shot says, "You watch, I'll show them what it means to break into our face" No doubt this is meant to be "base".
- After Red Alert says, "Now, Smokescreen" (signaling Smokescreen to release the smokescreen), Smokescreen is missing his antenna/horn. It proceeds to vanish and reappear in the scenes after as well.
- After failing to transform in the corridor, Cyclonus is colored like Demolishor.
- After being blasted by Megatron and Leader-1, Hot Shot's visor is briefly miscolored yellow instead of black.
Trivia
- The kanji 聖剣 would be pronounced as "seiken", while "tsurugi" is used for the kanji 剣.
- Taking a wild stab in the dark, this episode was probably meant to named "Sword" instead of "Swoop", as the events of this episode have pretty much nothing to do with "swooping" and just about everything to do with a sword. This is supported by the episode's Japanese title. Guess someone goofed and wrote the wrong five-letter "Swo--" word. Oops.
- This is the first episode in which the opening is narrated by Jim Conrad instead of Rad.
- The establishing shot of the Autobot base is the same establishing shot seen in episode 5, "Soldier".
- It is revealed Hot Shot is responsible for the internal defense systems of the Autobot base, which explains a lot.
- Smokescreen activates... a SMOKESCREEN! As his Japanese name is "Grap", this probably wasn't an intentional bit.
- Cyclonus is really stupid in thinking he can capture the kids and trade them for the Mini-Cons, after all, he just did it!
- Speaking of Cyclonus, this episode shows a rare moment of Crumplezone's cockpit mode combination with Cyclonus. At the same time it's a moment of toy-inaccuracy as Blackout is somehow attached to Cyclonus's undercarriage.
- The Decepticons apparently use paper.
Foreign localization
German
- Title: "Das Schwert der Mini-Cons" ("The Sword of the Mini-Cons")
- Original airdate: This episode was never shown on TV, but was dubbed in 2003. The dub premiered in 2009 with the German DVD release of the show.
Hungarian
- Title: "Rajtaütés" ("Strike")
Polish
- Title: "Uderzenie" ("Strike")
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Micron Legend — Volume 4 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Best Of The Decepticons (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part One (Rhino Entertainment)
2005 — Transformers: Armada — Vol:04 (Universal)
2008 — Transformers: Armada — Volume One (New KSM) — English and German audio.
