The Legend of Rodimus

« Transformers: Energon ep 11 »
Once upon a time, there was this guy who replaced Optimus Prime.
"The Legend of Rodimus" ちっぽけな宇宙 () (Chippoke na Uchū) "This Tiny Universe"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	19 March 2004 (Japanese) April 9, 2004 (English)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Masayuki Ōseki
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Megatron confronts Starscream, Kicker faces the fears of his past, and a legendary Autobot returns.

Synopsis

Even his comrades are annoyed.

The Decepticons' mobile fortress emerges from a deep space warp gate and crashes violently into... something. Megatron emerges amid the wreckage and questions his troops about what went wrong.

Alpha Q gloats that he will have all the energon before Megatron even notices, and will bring all of Unicron to life.

On Earth, another energon tower emerges from a warp gate above Blizzard City, stabilized by Signal Flares under Hot Shot's supervision. In the mines below, Kicker and Ironhide are looking for energon. Kicker speculates that nobody seems to understand how dangerous the mission is, and flashes back to his father assigning him to lead the search, and to a much earlier time when his father lowered him into a deep, dark mine shaft as a young child.

Taking a break from the search, Ironhide tries to pep talk Kicker into appreciating his father more. Hot Shot arrives and relates the tale of his own hero, the legendary Rodimus, who was last seen traveling into the future.

Within Unicron(?), Megatron proposes stealing more energon from Earth. Scorponok counters that the energon towers make such an attack too dangerous without more energon, and proposes continuing to mine energon from Mars instead. Megatron will only hear of a path of conquest, but gives Scorponok leave to carry out his idea regardless. Scorponok angrily blasts his way out, and departs with a fleet of Terrorcons, musing that Megatron isn't as in control as he'd like to think.

Energon would go on to steal the title of "Most Hated Transformers series" from Beast Machines. Picture unrelated.

Outside Unicron, Starscream approaches, entering and searching for Megatron.

Ironhide tells Kicker more about Rodimus. Amid the endless civil war on Cybertron, Rodimus emerged "8,000 eons ago" and rallied the Autobots around a message of peace, calling for the Autobots to leave and find a new world to live in peace. Kicker points out that this makes Optimus Prime look bad, but Ironhide says that Optimus stayed and led the Autobots, making the current rebuilding of Cybertron possible, and that Prime is his greatest hero. Rodimus was last seen going from planet to planet, looking for Transformers who were lost in space.

On Mars, Scorponok finds the former base empty and abandoned, and deploys his Terrorcons to claim the energon... in the name of Alpha Q. As they do, a suspiciously well-timed trio appears in the distance.

Starscream approaches the sleeping Megatron, and tries to stab him through the chest, but is met with a huge surge of energy. Megatron vanishes; Demolishor engages Starscream; the other Decepticons arrive. Megatron has gained the power of invisibility through his union with Unicron, and easily assaults Starscream with a horde of duplicates and energon shards. Starscream tries to flee, but the big floating head of Megatron pursues and captures him, placing him in an empty void.

Starscream takes a shot in the dark.

Megatron lectures Starscream, reminding him that he used to be one of his troops, and threatens to leave him in the darkness forever. Starscream goes mad, opening fire in all directions, then lets slip that he was working for Alpha Q.

Kicker has had it with energon mining, and tells Ironhide about an energon expedition when he was a kid, when he lost control in deep space and drifted aimlessly. Landing on an asteroid, he resumed contact with Dr. Jones, but then got trapped in a cave-in, left alone in the dark. Ironhide isn't very sympathetic, telling Kicker that Rodimus overcame his fears, and that he isn't a kid anymore. Ironhide gives up lecturing and storms off; Kicker says he'll find his own way out.

Megatron speaks to Starscream: he has no idea who he is, and has forgotten all his ties to the world. Megatron is the only thing he can believe in, and will shape his reality now. He urges Starscream to use his rage, and revel in destruction. He appears and stabs Starscream through the chest with his sword, demanding his allegiance in exchange for allowing him to live.

Kicker forges ahead through the dark, and finds an energon seam. As he does, Ironhide returns with the Omnicons. He apologizes for being harsh, and the Omnicons find a large seam of energon.

On Mars, the mysterious figure attacks Scorponok's Terrorcons. Observing from afar, Alpha Q notes that Rodimus has returned.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Megatron: "What's going on here, huh? Did someone set the wrong coordinates for the warp gate?...Who's responsible for this? I want answers!"
Cyclonus: "Gee, I don't know! You got me, boss!"
Megatron: "Ah, I see. Renovations. Of course! Is that it? How amusing."
Scorponok: "It could be that Unicron is deteriorating from the lack of energon, sir. That could be what happened."
Megatron: "Scorponok. You know that can't be!"
Scorponok: "Hrnnnn."

—The Decepticons bring you your daily dose of nonsensical dialog.

"Now listen up. We're going to raid, conquer, and destroy. I will accept nothing less than that, Scorponok!"

—Megatron lays down the law to Scorponok

"All we do is battle, and nothing happens. Fighting all the time has left Cybertron in ruins. If this continues, we'll have no future. Let's leave and create a better world! Join me! Let's find a place that we can call home. Yes! We will never look back."

—Ironhide recites Rodimus's "famous speech"

"Are you afraid of the dark? Well, you should be, Starscream. Because I'm IN IT."

—Megatron delivers a surprisingly awesome line.

"You have an important decision to make! Say you'll join me or I'll let you slip away into the darkness. I, Megatron, am your only leader now. Say my name and I'll spare you. What is my name, Starscream?"
"...Megatron..."
"Say it again."
"Meg-a-tron!"

—Megatron establishes the pecking order for Starscream.

Notes

Differences with Super Link

• The opening scene's animation is missing the background image of Unicron that the fortress crashes into. Without it, Megatron's ship just seems to be floating through empty space, only to abruptly crash into something that wasn't there before.
• The opening conversation is likewise a bit more coherent in Super Link, as Megatron claims that various walls and passages he's created have disappeared, and Scorponok states that Unicron is regressing since he's not been given energon lately. The "walls and passages" got mangulated into "renovations" for Energon.
• Unicron is regressing because Alpha Q stole his energon, as he gloats to himself in Super Link. Energon omits this bit of back story, which was not actually shown on-screen; the plot point is therefore entirely lost, leaving a typical example of things seeming to happen for no reason at all. However, he does make vague comments that "Megatron doesn't have a clue" and "the energon will be all ours", which do sort of hint at the answer. Kinda sorta.
• In Super Link, Ironhide tells Hot Shot about his own hero-worship of him, with Hot Shot doing a face-palm in response. In Energon, Ironhide just says that he was telling Kicker to respect his father, making Hot Shot's reaction into nonsense.
• The backgrounds of this same scene are incomplete in Energon. Super Link features a mountain-side niche for Ironhide and Kicker, and an interior passage behind Hot Shot, rather than open sky.
• Rodimus originally "journeyed toward the future", in a metaphoric sense. Energon hilariously mistranslates this to say that Rodimus was last seen "traveling into the future".
• When Ironhide tells Kicker about Rodimus, the silhouettes of Rodimus, Prowl and Landmine are shown, but it's a recycled shot from their later arrival on Mars. Super Link features a new matte painting instead (featuring several Generation 1 character models as the original members of Team Rodimus). This painting reappears in several subsequent episodes, and appears in the beginning of "Rodimus Friend or Foe?" in Energon.
• Rodimus's original speech mentions a call not to fear the vastness of space, giving some context to Ironhide's later claim that Rodimus overcame his fears.
• Ironhide doesn't say he's starting to "talk" like Kicker (he isn't), but rather has acquired his habit of kicking things.
• The "say my name" bit with Starscream is an Energon addition.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 13
• "We need/they want energon": 9
• "We've gotta": 1
• "Come on": 2

Continuity notes

• Megatron's reasoning is rather petulantly circular: they can't attack Earth because they need more energon to do so; therefore, they must attack Earth to get more energon, allowing them to attack Earth.
• By the end of this episode, the four Decepticons who came to Earth at the beginning of Armada (and the Unicron Trilogy as a whole) have been reunited.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Scorponok fires from his hip cannons.
  • Using his influence over the Terrorcons, Scorponok orders a squadron of Divebombs to suicide-bomb an entrance into a cave.
  • Megatron temporarily merges with Unicron to gain the upperhand over Starscream.
• Powerlinx forms:
  • Optimus Prime Super Mode

Continuity errors

• "I'll find my own way out of here"—at no point is it implied that Kicker was lost to begin with.

Trivia

• So Rodimus just happens to show up just as Hot Shot and Ironhide just happen to be spinning yarns about him. Riiiiiight.
• Megatron's upgraded Energon Sword has been corrected in color and the model now replicates the toy…at least it was for a second or two.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "La leggenda di Rodimus" ("The Legend of Rodimus")

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 003 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)