Each One Fights...
From Transformers Wiki
| ||||||
 None shall stand, and all shall fall. | ||||||
| "Each One Fights..." (Sorezore no Tatakai) "Respective Battles" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | June 11, 2004 (Japanese) September 3, 2004 (Canada) September 4, 2004 (USA) | |||||
| Writer | Shōji Tonoike | |||||
| Director | Mitsuru Kawasaki | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc., Studio A-CAT (3D) | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
Shockblast leads a Decepticon invasion of Cybertron, intent on destroying the planet's energon towers.
Contents |
Synopsis
Within Unicron's body, Megatron reassures his troops that Unicron's hunger won't be causing any problems, once they feed Cybertron to him. Megatron puts Shockblast in charge of the operation, to his troops' consternation, and tells him to take care of the energon grid as well.
Kicker hollers at the inert Alpha Q to wake up, despite being told that the alien is drained after dealing with Unicron's rampage.
Unicron stops moving, out of range of the energon grid. In the control room, Jetfire and Rad lock onto the mobile fortress. Wing Dagger arrives, looking for Shockblast.
Aboard the mobile fortress, Shockblast rallies a group of Decepticon troopers, dubbing them his "elite troops". As they approach Cybertron, a blast from the energon grid threatens the fortress, until a counter-blast of green energon eradicates it. Starscream suspects it wasn't Megatron doing the firing, either.
Prime arrives on Cybertron's surface with a team of Autobots; Jetfire reports on the imminent attack. Shockblast orders his troops into action, but holds back Megatron's personal squad, saying they're only here because they are Megatron's lapdogs. Tidal Wave is angered, but Starscream calms him, and Shockblast agrees to let them come into battle.
Alpha Q awakens and senses Misha approaching. Not wanting to be disturbed, he decides to scare her with a group of Insecticon beetles. Kicker does not take kindly to this and nearly attacks with the Energon Saber, but Misha talks him down, and forcefully commands Alpha Q to have his minions stand aside.
Misha makes her way past Scorponok in search of Alpha Q. As Kicker spars with Scorponok, Misha tells Alpha Q that he should let them help him. Suddenly strange energies envelope Misha, and she finds herself communicating directly with Alpha Q. He doesn't believe her words, but images from her past flash between them—happy times with her parents, and Misha as a teen standing at their graves. They also observe Kicker as a young boy.
On Cybertron, Shockblast brings down one of the energon towers. Wing Dagger chooses that moment to attack, lassoing the rogue Decepticon with energy beams, only to get hauled off into the air by his foe. Prime and Ironhide urge him to let go, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Megatron's cadre notes that Shockblast's "elite troops" are getting their tails handed to them. Megatron arrives on the planet, furious that only one to has been taken down so far.
Shockblast makes a play to get rid of Wing Dagger, while at the same time Tidal Wave moves in to help him, per Megatron's orders. Shockblast blasts another energon tower, which tumbles to the ground. But in the confusion, Shockblast, Tidal Wave, and Wing Dagger all get taken down with it. Shockblast escapes relatively unharmed, but Tidal Wave is heavily damaged. Megatron has his troops bring Tidal Wave as they retreat.
Ironhide finds Optimus Prime by the destroyed tower... alongside the lifeless form of Wing Dagger.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Kicker, cool it! You can't go alone. I'm coming with you."
"You've gotta be kidding."
"Well, it doesn't look like you're getting anywhere."
"Gimme a break. You're gonna talk to him?"
"Hey, you never know till you try."
"You're... not serious. Misha. Wait up!"
- —Misha is the voice of reason, while Kicker speaks entirely in dub cliches.
Notes
Lost in translation
- The dub makes it seem like Wing Dagger has just been running around to random places looking for Shockblast. In Super Link, he bursts into the control room to find out where the approaching Decepticons are, rather than seeming to expect Shockblast himself to be there.
- The dub takes Starscream's apparent surprise that Megatron fired the energon beam which saves the mobile fortress, and changes it into a declaration that he didn't fire it. A second later, Megatron starts ranting angrily about not accepting excuses from Shockblast, which is random to begin with and is even more random if he didn't actually fire the beam. Super Link instead has Megatron saying that for asking for this much help, he will be especially unforgiving if Shockblast fails in his mission.
- Unsurprisingly, Misha's conversation with Alpha Q is a bit scrambled by the dub. For example, in Super Link, one of her main points is that she, too, is lonely (thus the flashback to the graves of her parents).
- Scorponok's indignant declaration that Alpha Q isn't making one bit of sense: dub insertion.
- Shockblast's "You'll pay for this" is supposed to be him just yelling impotently for his fleeing troops to knock down the energon towers.
- The dub animation uses an altered close-up of Wing Dagger's lifeless body; he's got a differently-shaped chin, a big gash across his face where most of the "nose" on his faceplate has been torn away (or was never there to begin with), showing his mouth. In Super Link, it's just his normal face, undamaged apart from a few scratches and dents(see screenshot on right side).
Real-world references
- While not named in dialogue, their gravestone reveals Misha's parents to be Pierre and Olie. Both names are those of Licca-chan's parents, Pierre (ピエール) and Orie (織江).
Pain count
- "Uh?": 16, not including all the "Yuh! Huh! Uh! Duh!" as various characters fire their guns and receive energon stars.
- Stock footage: 9, including EIGHT IN A ROW as Optimus Prime's team arrives on Cybertron.
- We need/they want energon: 1
- Let's do it: 1
- Our mission is: 1
- "Gimme a break": 1
- "You can't be serious": 2
- You've gotta be kidding: 1
- Come on: 1
- Wait up: 1
Super Link:
- "Eat this!" 2
Animation and technical errors
- When Ironhide says: "Yes sir!" to Optimus, he moves his mouth before he actually say so.
Continuity errors
- Faced with fleeing from a gargantuan falling energon tower, Ironhide and Optimus run. They run. WHY DOES NOBODY IN THIS ENTIRE FREAKING SHOW REMEMBER THAT THEY CAN TURN INTO A VERY FAST FOUR-WHEELED VEHICLE?!? WHY, GOD, WHY?!??
- Faced with fleeing from a gargantuan falling energon tower, Ironhide and Optimus ALSO run in the exact direction the tower is falling instead of off to either side which would be FAR quicker.
Trivia
- The Energon Saber's component Mini-Cons make a rare appearance, arriving in their jet modes before combining and becoming Kicker's sword. Grindor pops up as well, serving as Kicker's floating skateboard.
- The generics in this episode are even more fragile than usual. A single shot from Optimus's troops completely annihilates at least two of them; they explode and, when the smoke clears, there's no trace of them.
- Ironhide's run toward the tower is a hilarious example of how badly animated his character model's walk cycle is.
- The animation of Scorponok's transformation is incredibly cheap; there's simply a cross-fade from robot mode to his battle mode.
- This episode uses the favored Energon technique of frequently cutting back and forth between unrelated scenes to mask the fact that not much is actually happening.
- The final shot of Wing Dagger's corpse is drawn by hand.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Attacco a Cybertron" ("Attack on Cybertron")
- Misha's line: "And there's only one way to do that!" becomes: "And there's only one way to be sure about it!", erm... about what?
Home video releases
- DVD
2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 006 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
