Earthrise episode 2
From Transformers Wiki
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 The time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry GODS! Your salvation...is at hand. | ||||||
| Episode 2 | ||||||
| Production company | Allspark Animation, Rooster Teeth, Entertainment One | |||||
| Airdate | December 30, 2020 (Netflix) | |||||
| Written by | Tim Sheridan | |||||
| Director | Takashi Kamei | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
 Watch this episode on Netflix
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An imprisoned Elita-1 tries to get Megatron to see the error of his ways. Optimus Prime and Autobots are at the mercy of Mercenaries and a mysterious benefactor.
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Synopsis
In space, Mercenaries are hard at work on the Ark, analyzing data and binding the unconscious Autobot crew. Doubledealer communicates with a mysterious, multi-voiced entity, promising to get the Ark functioning. Doubledealer only cares about the ship and payment, while the mysterious entity requires that a prize be undamaged for payment. Doubledealer informs the entity that it's only a matter of time before they repair it and deliver their cargo.
Back on Cybertron, Starscream shoves Elita-1 into Megatron's chamber, where she berates him again for murdering Cybertronians, including his own Decepticons, for energon. Megatron in turn believes that they have more in common than she realizes. Elita is sickened by the comparison, and Megatron angrily dismisses her. Back in her cell, Elita confers with the rest of her imprisoned team from their nearby cells, wondering about the nature of Project Nemesis, still strong in her resolve to resist the Decepticons. The Autobots realize their only chance of escape is to overtake the guards coming to take them for energon harvesting. Elita hears approaching footsteps, and prepares her team to attack. Their attempt fails, and her team is escorted out to Kaon Arena for harvesting.
Before Elita is destroyed, Megatron proposes that she join him and help lead Project Nemesis. Megatron remembers when she was called Ariel, and how Prime failed to appreciate her leadership. Elita pleads on behalf of her team, her friends, but Megatron is unmoved. Elita tries a final time to appeal to the gladiatorial champion of old within Megatron, even inviting him to join the Autobots. Megatron quickly rebuffs her and the Autobots await their death. At the last minute, a sudden power outage deactivates the harvesting system, and a lone Decepticon runs out onto the arena to free the Autobots—Scrapface, returning the favor to Elita! Scrapface and the Autobots quickly find another ally as they escape the arena. Even Skytread thinks Megatron has gone too far, and asks the Autobots to knock him out to make it seem that they overpowered him, a task Chromia happily performs.
Aboard the Ark, Bumblebee is suddenly jolted awake just in time to hear Doubledealer order the Mercenaries to set course for planet Chaar. Just as Bug Bite checks on the captive crew, Bumblebee ambushes and strangles him with his restraining cuffs before using him as a shield. Thrust and Exhaust open fire at Bumblebee as Doubledealer aims at him. Suddenly, the recently-awoken Optimus tells Bumblebee to desist as the Autobots are outnumbered.
On Chaar, Optimus tries to learn about his fate from Doubledealer, as he leads the shackled Autobots towards a large, helical structure. Doubledealer is nonchalant and only sees Prime's predicament as just another job. His interest is piqued, however, as soon as Prime mentions that he knows how to find the Allspark. This doesn't stop Doubledealer from sending the captives to his mysterious patron—the Quintesson Judge Deseeus!
Only Doubledealer and Prime are allowed to hold an audience with Deseeus, who tells Prime that it was Deseeus himself that freed ancient Cybertronians from the protracted cruelty of the Quintesson Empire, declaring himself "Deseeus the Renegade, Breaker of Shackles". Deseeus claims that he gave the Cybertronians the ability to transform their destinies; Prime counters by saying only the Allspark grants them the ability to transform. Doubledealer grows tired of the arguing between Prime and Deseeus (as well as among Deseeus's own faces) and only wants his energon payment. As Prime wonders why their so-called "Breaker of Shackles" has them all shackled, Deseeus requires something from the Autobots, but cannot reach consensus on what that actually is.
Prime is returned to the other restrained Autobots, but Deseeus's faces, screeching in attempts to reach consensus with each other, leads Prime to hope the Autobots can exploit that disunity somehow and escape. However, Deseeus exercises extreme methods to reach self-agreement; the face of Wrath simply and brutally slices off the other faces, silencing them! The Wrath of Deseeus quickly reneges on the deal with the Mercenaries, much to the latter's chagrin. The Mercenaries hold Deseeus at gunpoint, until Deseeus's own army forces them to stand down.
Deseeus prepares to destroy the Autobots, believing them too dangerous in their ability for individual, critical thought. As Bumblebee is about to be destroyed, Doubledealer and the other Mercenaries swoop in to save them! As Autobots and Mercenaries battle Deseeus's army, Doubledealer ignores Prime's gratitude and only cares if he can truly find the Allspark. Prime swears that he will, and he and the Autobots escape towards the Ark. Doubledealer hopes to cross paths with Prime again someday, as Deseeus slinks away from the battle...
Back aboard the Ark, Prime and Bumblebee realize that not only has Megatron not found the Allspark, but that they have the means and the will to find it. The Ark takes off, in search of the Allspark.
On Cybertron, a furious Megatron blames Starscream for the loss of the captive Autobots. Shockwave notes that yet another sector will need to be offlined so that more sparks can be harvested. Megatron angrily agrees as Soundwave delivers startling news: he has received a signal from the Ark! Megatron feels there can be no further delay; he forces Shockwave to activate Project Nemesis, a large spacecraft powered by the sacrificed sparks of both Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron addresses a crowd of Decepticons, swearing to exact revenge on Optimus Prime for the loss of the Allspark. Starscream wonders how they can even find Prime in space. Megatron answers that he already has!
In space, the Fool's Fortune surreptitiously follows the Ark...
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Mercenaries | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Where's the ugly one?"
"Hey! Yellow is sporty!"
- —Bug Bite and Bumblebee bicker about their paint colors
Doubledealer: "What's taking so long with that Energon, Deseeus?"
Wrath: "IT'S COMING."
Doubt: "Is it?"
Wit: "They already paid!"
Wrath: "NO, I DIDN'T!"
Wisdom: "Patience, Doubledealer, while I reach... consensus."
Doubledealer: (sighs) "Scrappin' Quintessons..."
- —Deseeus contains multitudes while Doubledealer contains regret
Notes
Transformers references
- Similar to the Judge in Cyberverse, Deseeus has unique voice actors for each face, with two having voices supplied by voice actresses.
- Much like the movie that introduced the Quintessons, Deseeus has a shot of rotating laughter from all five faces.
- Deseeus's sinister feelings about the "innocent" also calls back to the Quintessons' mockery of justice from the 1986 movie.
- Elita-1 mentions how Omega Supreme disappeared after Crystal City's destruction, hearkening back to the original The Transformers episode, "The Secret of Omega Supreme".
- Megatron refers to Elita-1 as "Ariel". This is the name she had in The Transformers before she was rebuilt by Alpha Trion in the episode "War Dawn".
Animation and technical errors
- During Bumblebee's scuffle with Bug Bite, the subtitles refer to Bug Bite as "Exhaust".
- The subtitles do not capitalize the first letter of the Fortune, though this would be remedied in the season finale.
- Possibly due to most of Deseeus's screentime just having one face, the other four faces do not have animated/rigged eyes for emotion.
- When the Ark crew is in the Quintesson pit, the "camera" pans between Bumblebee, Arcee, Prowl, and Ironhide's upper torsos, though does so without changing height, despite the four bots' fairly different heights.
- While Elita-1 and her team are sneaking past the Seekers, she is holding up one "HPI Null-Ray Laser Launcher" in only two close-up shots, while every other shot with her in the scene, she has no weapon.
- After Wheeljack deactivates the Ark crew's stasis cuffs, they disappear in the following shot, and never reappear.
- Dirge and Ramjet do not speak, with only one of them chuckling as the pair take off in the Fool's Fortune. The animation does not show which one chuckles, though the subtitles denote it as Ramjet. However, the credits only feature Jay Sanford as Dirge, meaning either Sanford was supposed to be credited for Ramjet or the subtitles were supposed to refer to Dirge (likely the latter since naming errors in the subtitles are not uncommon).
Trivia
- We have full view of Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust, who are depicted with Siege "tetrajet" models, as opposed to their Earthen alternate forms in the actual Earthrise toyline, with bulky cone-shaped helmets added over the seeker helmets to replicate their G1 design. Their wings are the same as the Siege seeker wings, as well. Sadly, these show-original models didn't get any kind of release in toy form.
