Break Through
From Transformers Wiki
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 Where's Captain Planet when you really need him? | |||||||||
| "Break Through" (Sore yuke! Omnicon) "Keep Going! Omnicons" | |||||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | ||||||||
| Airdate | 29 October 2004 (Japanese) January 21, 2005 (Canada) May 18, 2005 (USA) | ||||||||
| Writer | Shōji Tonoike | ||||||||
| Director | Mitsuru Kawasaki, Hideaki Nakano (asst. dir.) | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D) | ||||||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | ||||||||
Kicker and the Omnicons struggle to shut off the Decepticons' energon gas grid and get Optimus's team onto Cybertron.
Contents |
Synopsis
Arcee and Kicker make their landing on Cybertron, with the Omnicons behind them. They try to figure out where they've landed.
From orbit, Ironhide waits and worries over Kicker. Optimus Prime checks in with him, but there's nothing to report. From elsewhere, Alpha Q observes that Kicker is the only hope for the Autobots and the planet.
Out on the frontier, two Autobot troops observe that Dr. Jones's ship has been shot down, and head to "Outpost SW3" to report this news. They use a distraction to sneak past a cloud of orbiting Terrorcons and head underground; they skip past their dozing comrade to send out a report.
At the former Autobot command center, Six Shot detects an Autobot signal from the southern hemisphere. Galvatron sends the two combiners to scope out the situation.
Kicker and the Omnicons are closing in on the pipeline that supplies the energon towers. At the frontier outpost, Dozey goes to find his captain, but comes under Terrorcon attack the second he sets foot outside. Six Shot detects the Autobots and unleashes a blast from the energon towers at their base. Kicker is angry that the Decepticons are running rampant over the planet.
Below ground, Sally watches Terrorcons stalk past their hiding place. Mrs. Jones is busy baking cookies to keep herself from worrying. Meanwhile, Rad and Dr. Jones have found the elevator shaft that leads to Primus... but it's in ruins. As they consider looking for another route, a Cruellock drone finds them. They hide in the shaft, but when the Terrorcon breaks through, they have no choice but to jump.
Bruticus Maximus and Constructicon Maximus arrive in the southern hemisphere, and start using the Miranda II's hull for target practice. Nearby, the Autobot troops send a few fliers to try and go for help, but the combiners being shooting them. The Autobots attack to try and cover their comrades.
The Omnicons arrive at a point where they can stop the gas flow; Strongarm proposes using a hardening gel to jam up the pipe. The group observes the fleeing Autobot fliers, and smoke from the distant battle. Kicker and Arcee go to help out.
The Autobots are having a tough time against the combiners, falling back repeatedly. Arcee and Kicker arrive and counter-attack.
The Omnicons stop up the pipe, then break it open to vent the gas. They prepare to signal Optimus.
Kicker and Arcee have eluded the combiners. They observe that the Autobots here appear to have all fled safely, and head back to the Omnicons.
Four Skyblasts fire up into the sky, the signal that Optimus has been waiting for. Assigning Rodimus and some others to stay behind, Optimus prepares to go to the surface. Six Shot detects a signal as the Autobots approach. He wants to attack, but Galvatron orders him not to. Then he detects the blocked pipeline, which is none too pleasing to Galvatron.
The Omnicons report to Kicker that the gel is still holding, but gas is still flowing to the towers. Before they can take action, the combiners appear on the horizon. Kicker takes Skyblast to create a larger opening.
The Autobots reach the spot where the signal was seen, but there's no opening in the gas grid. They wait for Kicker's signal.
Kicker has Skyblast fire three energon stars at a tower. After a moment, it erupts into fire, opening a hole. Optimus and the others fly through. The Omnicons provide covering fire, but soon come under attack from the combiners and Galvatron's other troops. Optimus's troops soon join the battle, as does Galvatron himself.
Six Shot observes that this is the perfect opportunity to finish all the combatants off and take control. He unleashes the energon gas on the surface.
Kicker observes the gas approaching, and concludes that they must run.
Optimus observes the gas approaching, and concludes that they must run.
Ironhide and Hot Shot observe the gas approaching, and conclude that they must run.
Galvatron observes the gas approaching, and concludes that Six Shot has defied his orders again.
Prime's team meets up the Autobot troops from earlier, who leads them underground to safety from the gas.
Elsewhere, Wing Saber's team is in a fight with Scorponok. The two surviving fliers arrive with a message, to shut off the pipeline. Alpha Q frets that the gas is now keeping the Autobots trapped under the planet, but says that Prime will find a way.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
Lost in translation
- The point of the temporary energon fields deployed by the Omnicons isn't to keep the gas away from them, as stated in the dub, but to cushion their landing. The plot has already established that the Omnicons are unaffected by the gas (that being the whole reason they're the ones carrying out the mission), and regardless, the animation clearly shows that they've already passed through the gas layer by that point.
- An added dub line has Arcee saying that they're close to the energon tower (singular, as in one tower) that's releasing the gas. A moment later, the animation (and even Alpha Q's dialog) shows that the gas is coming from many towers.
- The two generics are supposed to be identifying the ship as that of commander Optimus Prime, not "the ship that Dr. Jones was on"—since, y'know, Dr. Jones was never on it.
- The dub gives a deep, guttural voice to the dozing generic in the command center—sparing viewers the agony of the absurdly high-pitched voice that this character has in Super Link.
- Six Shot weirdly says the transmission is coming from above the southern hemisphere, like it's in orbit or something. It's a dub flub.
- A second later, he says the energon gas will take care of any Autobots on the surface, in clear defiance of the animation, which shows the gas as cloud in the upper atmosphere. He's supposed to be saying that the Autobots couldn't have broken through the gas grid.
- Skyblast's flyover report is supposed to say that what Kicker sees are just ruins, not "exhaust".
- For some reason, the Omnicons' original plan to freeze the gas is changed to stopping the flow with a hardening gel. (The dub version, truth be told, makes more sense.)
- A missing line or bad translation has Skyblast saying "If that's the case, then the energon gas will disperse" in reply to... nothing.
- After stopping the pipe up, Skyblast is supposed to note that there's still some gas in the pipe, explaining why Strongarm bashes it open a second later. The explanation is missing in the dub.
- The dub omits the Omnicons' explanation that gas from the other towers flowed in and filled the gap from the tower they shut down.
- In Super Link, Six Shot doesn't really have any interest in "taking control", just avenging his brother.
- The message to Wing Saber was originally about the crash landing of the Miranda II. The dub changes it an order to destroy the energon grid, which causes Wing Saber to randomly start panicking.
Animation and technical errors
- The energon gas clouds are completely unaffected by the energon tower's detonation, still flowing past the resultant opening in the clouds. Going by the animation, the hole should be filled and covered up immediately, but it magically stays in place long enough for Prime's team to fly through it.
Trivia
- After three episodes, the animation finally gets around to showing the energon towers actually emitting the energon gas.
- Cybertron's atmosphere gets utterly polluted with killer energon gas. Can anyone say "green aesop?"
- The men go and look for God, while the women stay home and bake food. Yeah.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Nelle viscere di Cybertron" ("Inside Cybertron's Viscera")
- The mistake about Arcee talking about a single tower instead of multiple ones is... somehow corrected by having her talking about a "main tower", which means there are other towers, too.
- The ship is referred to as "the ship Dr. Jones built" instead of "the ship that Dr. Jones was on".
- Both times Six Shot says "above" it is translated as "under"... which is THE OPPOSITE!
- Megatron misnames Six Shot as "Stick Shot" instead of "Trick Shot".
- Instead of saying that the gas will "take care" of the Autobots,
Stick ShotSix Shot says that it will "wipe them away"... erm, that's not how gas works! - Instead of saying "If that's the case", Skyblast says "If we managed to stop the gas".
Home video releases
- DVD
2005 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 011 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
