Overlord and Emissary

« Transformers: Titans Return ep 4 »
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!
"Overlord and Emissary"
Production company	Hasbro Studios, Machinima
Airdate	November 28, 2017
Written by	Eric S. Calderon F.J. DeSanto Adam Beechen
Director	Yuzo Sato
Animation studio	Tatsunoko Production

Those guys in the title show up.

Synopsis

In the Primal Basilica's prayer chamber, the Mistress of Flame calls out to Primus, invoking the names of the Thirteen as she asks for guidance. She hears someone approach and assumes it to be Megatron, but is shocked to see Overlord instead. Overlord smacks her away as he introduces himself, and explains he watched the events of the Combiner Wars from afar, returning to the city out of curiosity. The Mistress struggles to her feet and attempts to fight him off, but her attacks prove ineffectual, so she instead summons a series of sentries that begin firing upon him.

The missile fired from Fortress Maximus continues towards its target as a small Autobot emerges from inside. Falling from the sky, the missile collides with Metroplex's back, distracting him just long enough for Trypticon to clamp his jaws on Metroplex's arm. As this happens, the small Autobot enters Metroplex and works its way into his inner systems. He introduces himself to Metroplex as Emissary, Fortress Maximus's Titan Master, and offers to help Metroplex in his battle. Though Metroplex claims he will not last long and the battle is already lost, Emissary channels his power into Metroplex, causing him to fire a concentrated blast of flame from his eyes. The blast damages Trypticon, knocking him back and ripping off Metroplex's arm in the process. From within Trypticon, Starscream seems giddy at this new turn, while Metroplex regains his composure and resumes firing.

With the last of her sentries destroyed, the Mistress of Flame creates illusory duplicates of herself that strike at Overlord, but he brushes them off and reveals the original. He destroys her staff and beats her into submission, demanding to know Megatron's whereabouts. When the Mistress replies she doesn't know, he tosses her into the lights above, electrocuting her, and leaves her to bleed to death as he storms off.

At Fortress Maximus, Computron reports that while the Titan's transformation cog is nonfunctional, his missile systems are still active. Victorion orders Computron to take remote control of all Fortress Maximus's cannons, targeting them at Trypticon. Menasor protests, reminding them that Metroplex is still fighting Trypticon, but Victorion believes Metroplex is a lost cause and that they must be the ones to save the world. The cannons all fire at full power towards the battle as Victorion asks Metroplex's forgiveness.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

*Voice-only appearance

Quotes

"You have not been invited to these most sacred chambers. How did you get-"
"Oh, I'm really sorry I had to do that, 'Your Mistressness'. I don't need your permission to go anywhere. I'm Overlord. Hi."

—The Mistress of Flame is knocked aside as Overlord introduces himself.

"Careful. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, right?"

—Overlord's life lesson.

"Oof. You all really wrecked this place, didn't ya? I'll bet you lose your security deposit."

—Overlord revels in all the destruction.

"And call me crazy, but did I see a giant Starscream in there too? I mean, what was that all about?"

—Overlord can't believe how ridiculous the climax of Combiner Wars was either.

"Emissary. Titan Master; Fortress Maximus. I'm here to help."

—Emissary introduces himself to Metroplex.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Overlord mentions several events from the end of Combiner Wars, including Victorion and Devastator's fight and Ultimate Starscream. He also mentions Metroplex walking around on Cybertron, from the beginning of Titans Return.

Transformers references

Some assembly required. Adult assistance advised.

• The Mistress of Flame namedrops several members of the Thirteen in her prayer to Primus - in addition to asking for "the clarity of Alchemist Prime, the dreams of Quintus Prime, the sageliness of Alpha Trion, the fluidity of Amalgamous Prime, the kindness of Solus Prime, and the strength and light of Prima" she bizarrely invokes "the wisdom of Sentinel Prime". Regardless of whether the inclusion of Sentinel Prime amongst the Thirteen was deliberate or an error, it's a very strange choice; Sentinel has never been included in their number before, but rather has only ever been one of Optimus Prime's predecessors.
• The depiction of Metroplex's shoulder, minus the lost arm, is particularly toy accurate - the Generations toy came packaged with one arm removed, for space reasons, to be reattached by the buyer. (Although, in that case it was the right arm, rather than the left.)
• Computron's speech pattern is lifted directly from the Generation 1 cartoon, but it's not being used correctly. Computron does not simply begin statements with "Datum"—rather, that's how he identifies each piece of information available to him prior to analyzing them and coming to a conclusion. That isn't what he's doing in this episode—he's reporting things he has already deduced and describing actions he is taking, with no view to computing an action out of them—so "datum" shouldn't be used. This would be partly rectified in later episodes.
• Overlord uses his Titans Return toy design, specifically the Hasbro version of the mold. The same goes for Emissary.

Animation and technical errors

• The amount of laser fire coming at Overlord as he's targeted by the Mistress's security drones is rather sparse compared to the massive amount of drones she's summoned.