Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike

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So....doing anything later?
"Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike"
Season	2
No. in season	7
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	March 22, 2000 (Canada) September 23, 2000 (USA)
Written by	Brooks Wachtel
Directed by	Steve Sacks
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment

While searching for the missing sparks, the Maximals are attacked by two new Vehicon generals.

Synopsis

This is what Doom mods look like in Heaven.

Cheetor is fleeing from the usual horde of Cycle Drones. Rattrap cuts in and destroys a lot of them.... then Nightscream does the same... and so on, with Thrust looking on in anger as Silverbolt blows away a batch of drones that are surrounding Blackarachnia. Thrust ends up getting bashed down by a flying pile of Cycle Drone parts, then surrounded by Maximals, who send him packing. Rattrap notes that their victories are coming rather easily these days, with a touch of trepidation.

Megatron, observing, coldly notes that he won't allow the "mongrel" Maximals to run roughshod over his planet.

Rattrap has cobbled together a cart from busted Cycle Drones, and hauled it back to base (apparently this was the purpose of the mission!) Blackarachnia thanks Silverbolt for an assist in battle, but he only chews her out for losing focus.

The Cycle Drone parts are for Botanica, to help her unlock the secrets of the organic core. Nightscream tries to warm Botanica up to the idea of combat, but she's having none of it; she's a scientist, not a warrior, and doesn't want to become more like Megatron. Optimus defends her position, saying the other six can easily handle one Vehicon general.

Aboard the big floating head, Thrust gets chewed out by Megatron for failing to hold the Maximals at bay; when Megatron says he's no better than Tankor or Jetstorm, Thrust angrily reminds him that he's remained loyal, and it was Megatron's choices that caused the other two to turn against him.

Cheetor tries to cheer up a moping Optimus, who's down in the dumps over the missing Sparks. Nightscream, meanwhile, approaches Silverbolt, trying to get him not to be such a jerk to Blackarachnia. Silverbolt isn't interested in anything else until the war is won, and flies off.

Wow. You guys look...absolutely nothing like your toys.

Optimus has some kind of brief vision just then, alerting him to trouble with the Sparks. And above, we see Megatron gleefully holding aloft two of the Sparks in question. A moment later, two new Vehicons roll out from a chamber, as Thrust looks on in approval: one floats, with shoulder-mounted helicopter blades; the other is bigger and bulkier, and "skates" just above the ground. Thrust starts to deliver a lecture on the way things work. The new guys look at Thrust, at each other... and then one of them casually bashes Thrust aside, as Megatron laughs.

Nightscream pursues Silverbolt above the surface, still pressing the Blackarachnia issue. But Nightscream is suddenly blasted out of the air, then caught by Silverbolt. They spot the new generals, who stare ominously... then laugh and transform. The floating one becomes a sleek, twin-bladed helicopter: "Obliterate!" The other, a six-wheeled ground vehicle: "Terminate!"

Nightscream radios for help. The Maximals move out; Botanica stays behind, over Cheetor's protests and with Optimus's blessing.

The group arrives in time to help. They handle the new generals easily, and find their vocabulary limited to little but "OBLITERATE!!" and "TERMINATE!" Silverbolt is concerned and confused as to why Megatron would create such ineffective general; Rattrap figures they're easier to control. Primal tries to reach their Sparks, hoping to free captive Maximals within and also to learn the location of the Sparks, but they escape and run off.

Botanica, meanwhile is working with her machines, when a vat of green goo that she's using begins to seethe and speak her name, overwhelming her with visions of drifting Sparks....

The team pursues their quarry; the Generals round a corner and turn to face their opponents, their backs to a wall. For a brief instant, the Maximals are triumphant. And then a cloud of drones — identical to the generals — rises into view.

It's a trap — the Maximals are surrounded by hundreds of drones. Their leaders transform, and speak. The helicopter muses that Primal never learned not to underestimate his opponents; the tank simply laughs that the team fell for the simplistic ruse.

The drones open fire; Primal absorbs it and uses the energy to blast through the platform they're standing on, so the ground falls out from beneath his group. They try to retreat to base, but at every turn they're intercepted by drones. Primal notes that their foes are clearly master strategists.

Back at said base, Botanica finds herself adrift. She is treated to various flashbacks to Megatron's invasion, his armies of drones, the Maximals' fights.... then finds herself alone again.

Even the planet's sewers provide no safe haven, filled with more drones. The Maximals decide to fall back to the Council Citadel, while a plant-vine nearby shows Botanica what's going on.

Thank you for calling Vehicon Pizza Delivery, can I take your order?

The Maximals slam shut a pile of heavy doors behind them. Firepower impacts the doors from the outside. Optimus has a horrible realization: they've been herded here. A screen with the helicopter's face on it approaches; he invites the team to surrender. Primal tries to reason with him, but the helicopter — Obsidian — says that he and Strika are doing what they've always done, which is to defend Cybertron. The Maximals realize they have been taking on the two greatest generals in Cybertronian history.

A horde of Artillery drones bursts through the doors. The group retreats again, but is soon sealed into another room with scads of drones. Primal vows to go down fighting, but then Botanica bursts ito the room and transforms. She launches a plethora of planet-vine-bomb things, disrupting the drones and causing them to randomly blast each other.

Emo Tank Drones. They blow themselves up.

Strika and Obsidian, watching from afar, note that their targeting systems are being disrupted, by the new Maximal whose capabilities they know little about. The Maximals revert to beast mode and retreat, and Botanica simply melts into the floor.

The generals finally arrive at the scene, find the Maximals have vanished, and order their forces to stand down. The two later report back to Megatron, prepared to accept punishment for failure — a point that Thrust happily emphasizes. Megatron is pleased with their loyalty, though, and for keeping the Maximals occupied, allowing him to finalize his plan for the Sparks.

Botanica burrows her way, drill-like, into the Maximal base. She explains what changed her mind; Rattrap facepalms: "Another one with visions." The team apologizes for trying to force her into their way of doing things; Botanica vows that it's her fight as well. Silverbolt is pessimistic; the new Generals have fought a thousand wars together, and won them all. Primal observes that they were culled from the missing Sparks, and vows not to let Megatron violate another. A dancing vision of Sparks fills the screen as we fade out.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Honey, I'm home! You know, they had the best sale on used Vehicon parts, only slightly damaged."

—Rattrap

"The more we fight like Megatron, the more we become like Megatron."

—Botanica

"Until the threat of Megatron is quelled, love is a luxury I cannot afford."
"Did he really say 'quelled'?"

—Silverbolt and Nightscream

Nightscream: "Now we've got 'em!"
Rattrap: "Exactly where they want us."
Cheetor: "It's a trap!"
Rattrap: "Ya think?"

—The Maximals catch on quickly.

"Although he took his name from a great leader, Optimus Primal never learned the first rule of warfare: never underestimate your opponent."

—Obsidian

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• In the opening scene, the Cycle Drones surrounding Blackarachnia are rendered as crude, low-quality models.
• Then, after Silverbolt blows up said Cycle Drones, the debris inexplicably includes aero drone parts.
• When Rattrap is pulling the wheelbarrow of Cycle Drone parts, he's not actually connected to the wheelbarrow in any way. The harness is just hovering over his back.
  • The opposite problem happens as the Maximals approach Botanica: the harness is now going through Rattrap's midsection.
• When Botanica teases the other Maximals for their violent ways, Cheetor's CG model turns low-res.
• Obsidian and his Copter Drones never fire with their robot mode arms/machine guns the same way twice. Adding to this issue, their gun barrels disappear depending on the shot.
• Nigthscream's wing clips through Silverbolt's rear half at every flap when they're flying close to each other.
• When Silverbolt tells Nightscream to split up, Nightscream is in his bat mode. When we see him moments later firing on Strika, he is in robot mode seemingly without transforming.
• When the Artillery Drones, in vehicle mode, surprise the Maximals, and the camera pulls out, it actually clips through one of the drones' wheels.
• When the new generals report their failure to Megatron, Strika's entire head is colored purple in multiple shots.

Continuity errors

• Like in "A Wolf in the Fold", the Oracle's portal-like structure is shown to be active in the episode, filled with a view of outer space. But in the very next episode, it is revealed that, ever since "Fallout", the Oracle hid itself within Optimus Primal's body, meaning the structure should be inactive and empty.
• Botanica's pacifist ways at the start of this episode are slightly at odds with her action in the previous episode, where she pitilessly vaporized a legion of Tank Drones.
• If the Maximals want to make a getaway from the Vehicons, shouldn't they change to beast mode?
• Silverbolt seems to know about Obsidian and Strika's past success as war generals despite the fact that his protoform was activated during the Beast Wars on Earth and his own datatrax were lost. Presumably he read a history book at some point.

Continuity notes

• Thrust mentions Tankor and Jetstorm.
• Thrust is brutally yet comically harmed at least three times in this episode. Sadly for him, he seems to be reverting to his old role.
• Clips from "Survivor" are used in Botanica's vision.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Rattrap has a nail-gun attachment.
  • Botanica can sprout technorganic flowers that act like periscopes.
  • Botanica also carries seed bombs capable of short-circuiting Vehicons.
  • While in beast mode, she can drill through the ground.

Transformers references

Strika is the pink one.

• Obsidian notes that Optimus Primal took his name from "a great leader".
• Several Maximals note that Obsidian and Strika are the greatest generals on Cybertron, having fought and won a thousand wars together. While nothing more is said of this in the show itself, later authors took the idea and ran with it. Subsequent tie-in fiction established the pair as former Autobots who had fought in the Great War. "Flames of Yesterday" would retroactively insert Strika into the original cartoon, identifying her as a generic bystander in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4".
  • However, considering that even the Great War spanned millions of years, the idea that there were a whole thousand other wars fought in Cybertronian history is a rather difficult pill to swallow. Maybe Silverbolt meant a thousand battles rather than wars.

Real-world references

• Nightscream sarcastically invites the Vehicons to "name this tune" as he attacks, referencing the game show of the same name.
• Rattrap's "Honey, I'm home!" line is a reference to Ricky Ricardo's customary greeting to his wife on I Love Lucy.

Trivia

• Optimus refers to Obsidian and Strika's "memory chips" as opposed to the usual "datatrax".
• Once again, Botanica singlehandedly saves the day.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La Guerre des Étincelles (Partie 1)" ("The War of the Sparks (Part 1)")

German

• Title: "Megatrons Diener" ("Megatron's Servants")
• Original airdate: December 21, 2000

Italian

• Title: "Sparkwar (prima parte) - L'attacco" ("Sparkwar (first part) - The attack")

• Weirdly, in the title "Sparkwar" is left in English.
• The word "quelled" is translated as soppressa, which is actually a commonly used word in Italian, making Nightscream's reaction weird.
• Rattrap's line: «Aww, you lost yours too?» becomes: «What! You lost Eight Legs too?». Erm... "Eight Legs"? Rattrap, are you talking about Blackarachnia? The one who's literally in front of you? What?!
• Once, Obsidian says "Optimus Prime" instead of "Optimus Primal".

Japanese

• Title: "Toraware no Tamashii" (捕われの魂, "The Captured Souls")
• Original airdate: January 9, 2005

Mandarin

• Title: "Xīnlái de Jiāngjūn " (新来的将军, "The Newcome Generals")

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Guerra das Chamas Parte 1: O Ataque" ("Sparkwar Part 1: The Attack")

Spanish

• Title: "Guerra de Chispas Parte 1: El Ataque" ("Sparkwar Part 1: The Attack")

Home video releases

DVD

2005 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns — Volume 5 (Geneon Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Beast Machines: Transformers — The Complete Series (Rhinomation)
2014 — Transformers: Beast Machines — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season Two: Volume One (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Complete Season Two (Sony)
2009 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Intégrale Saison 2 (Sony) — French audio only.