Miracle (episode)

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« Transformers: Armada ep 42 »
He's back. What a surprise.
"Miracle" 奇跡 (ふっかつ) (Fukkatsu) "Miracle: Revival"
Production code	TF: A-42
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	September 12, 2003 (English, Canada) 17 October 2003 (Japanese) October 31, 2003 (English, United States)
Writer	Shōji Tonoike
English adaptation	Terry Klassen
Director	Shin'ichirō Aoki
Animation studio	Actas Inc., Big Bang
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons... IN SPAAAAAACE!

Synopsis

So first this happens, and then nine months later, a Prime pops out like this.

Aboard the Autobot spaceship Axalon, Alexis and her friends look back on Earth as they head towards Cybertron. Fred eats some chocolate and Billy cries that he forgot his video camera. On the bridge, Hot Shot and the Autobots salute Earth and the memory of Optimus Prime.

On the Decepticons' ship, Megatron orders the ship to be turned around so the Autobots can be destroyed.

Sparkplug, still holding Optimus Prime's Matrix, meets with several Mini-Cons. Moments later, hundreds of glowing lights swarm around the Autobot ship. High Wire—in English—introduces the lights as Mini-Con friends. After the swarm of Mini-Cons are introduced, the Street Action Mini-Con Team trigger a flashback in the humans to that time they saw a big evil in Cyberspace. High Wire names the evil Unicron.

Blurr tries to pilot the Axalon through an asteroid field. In the thick of the space debris, the Decepticons start their attack. Alexis notices the Mini-Cons also running to help the Autobots in the battle. Thrust fights against Jetfire, Cyclonus fights against Blurr, and Starscream and Hot Shot continue their long-standing grudge. Scavenger erratically battles against Demolishor. Megatron easily overpowers Side Swipe.

When Megatron aims the Requiem Blaster at the Axalon, Hot Shot stands in his way. Meanwhile, on the Axalon's hull, Perceptor and Sparkplug present the Matrix to the swarm of their gathered friends. Several Mini-Cons plunge into the Matrix, where something begins to take shape.

Megatron degrades Hot Shot, but a large sphere of green light swoops around and knocks Megatron aside. To everybody's astonishment, Optimus Prime stands alive. With a Max Flare, Optimus ruins the Decepticon's attack. Megatron is glad that Optimus is back.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Carlos: "Hey dude, what's he saying?"
Rad: "Haven't got a clue? What's wrong?"
High Wire: "Enemy."

"Unicron..."

—High Wire

"Oof! Gagh! Enough! Are those Mini-Cons firing at me?!"
"You're mine, pencilhead! YEEHAAW!"

—Thrust receives another head-related insult now that Jetfire's around!

"BWAHAHA! HOOHOOHOO! It doesn't seem like work when ya LOVE your job!"
"Enjoy it while you can! 'cause you're about to get TERMINATED!"

—Cyclonus is having too much fun for Blurr to handle.

"That's it! I'll give you to the count of three to get offa me!"
"Like you can count."

—Demolishor and Scavenger

"I'd never thought I'd say this, but it's good to have you back, Prime."

—Megatron, pleased that his old foe is alive

Notes

Differences with Legends of the Microns

• The Armada dub localises Carlos' dialogue slightly so he says, "What, you wanna high-five?" when the Street Action Mini-Con Team hold their hands up. This is cute!
• In Armada, Megatron recognizes Optimus as soon as the newly resurrected Autobot commander speaks to him from inside the orb of light. In Legends of the Microns, he keeps questioning the figure's identity up until Optimus blasts him before appearing clearly.
• Megatron being glad to have Optimus back has the same intention in both dubs, but the English version has him outright say it, whereas the Japanese version makes Megatron call Optimus a "tenacious" bot.

Translation errors

• While not exactly an error per se, Smokescreen's renaming into Hoist is entirely a dub change made at Hasbro's behest, awkwardly shoehorned into dialogue here. As explained below, the dub writers aren't consistent about the change even within the context of this very episode!
• From the start here, Megatron seems to fixate on dealing with the Autobots. Meanwhile, at the end of last episode, he specifically ordered his Decepticons to ignore the Autobots, as he didn't view them as a problem. Of course, Megatron's changing whims are central to his character—but the inter-episode transition comes off as jarring here. In Japanese, Megatron starts this episode consistently with last time, intending to ignore the Autobots, but changes his mind onscreen, with the Decepticons reacting to his contradictory orders. Perhaps the dub writers, having already forgotten the events of last episode, thought this was unnecessarily complicated within the context of this episode.
• In Armada, Megatron specifically asks, "Demolishor, exactly where are the Autobots now?" Inexplicably, Demolishor acts like there's any ambiguity in this question: "Which Autobots, Megatron?" Maybe he's just stupid? In the original Japanese, Megatron doesn't specify that he's talking about the Autobots, so Demolishor has to get clarification who he's asking about.
• When the Mini-Cons first appear, Hoist says: "Well, that's strange. I never knew it was possible to detect Mini-Cons on our radar." You may recall that the Autobots using their radar to detect Mini-Cons was, in fact, the instigating event for nearly every episode of this show until recently—so maybe he's just stupid? Sure enough, the original Japanese dialogue actually has him wondering why the alarm isn't going off, if a bunch of Mini-Cons have just showed up.
  • Red Alert's response, "We can Smokescreen, when they've turned on their signal beacon transmitter," makes much more sense in this context, but the localisation team has somehow already forgotten that Smokescreen is supposed to be called Hoist now. Maybe Red Alert is just an asshole?
• During the flashback to footage from "Chase", the script has been newly translated, with a new dub being recorded that contains minor differences.
• When Alexis sees Iceberg in the hallway, she bizarrely addresses him as "Junk". This is actually the Japanese name for the character left untranslated; apparently, Takara was under the impression that the Mini-Con turned into some kind of garbage plow! Of course, this is only time this Mini-Con ever appears in the show, so it's not like it matters anyway.
• As Megatron lines up a shot against Scavenger, who has Demolishor pinned, a relieved Demolishor says "Yes, the Requiem Blaster!"—despite the fact that he'll obviously be caught in the blast. Maybe he's just stupid? In the original Japanese, he instead pleads Megatron not to take the shot.
• As the Mini-Cons gather up into a big glowing orb, with Sparkplug at the center, Hot Shot says: "That you, Optimus?" Could Hot Shot's ability to recognise Optimus Prime before he's even been fully resurrected be a sign of his affinity to the Matrix???!!! No, the dub team just mistranslated Hot Shot addressing Sparkplug by name—as in Japan, the Mini-Con is simply called "Prime".
• After witnessing the resurrection of Optimus, Thrust complains, "No! This is going to ruin everything I've planned..." It's unclear how this specific surprise actually changes Thrust's plans in any way. In Japanese, he simply expresses shock over Prime somehow coming back from the dead.

Animation and technical errors

• Optimus is missing the jaw on his Autobot logo in the last shot.
• Just before Optimus is about to go into his Super Mode, Megatron Powerlinxed with Tidal Wave doesn't appear to be in his Full Blast Mode configuration and instead appears in his normal mode. Weird, isn't it?

Continuity notes

"Don't shoot! I don't know anything about Anonymous!"

• Smokescreen finally has his name changed to Hoist; a later edit to the series would instead move this revelation to "Remorse".
• The arrival of the Mini-Cons is explained in the Linkage series of comics that came with each Japanese Legends of the Microns DVD release.
• This episode debuts several generic non-toy Mini-Cons with unique designs. The camera-like Mini-Con would later be named Flashbox in a short online bio from the Transformers Collectors' Club.
• Sparkplug and Perceptor rally the Mini-Cons with the same ethereal melody Sky Blast sung back in "Desperate".
• In previous episodes, Megatron began to feel empty after Optimus Prime's death in "Crisis". This episode he is somewhat happy to see his nemesis has come back to life.

Continuity errors

• Billy mentions that he forgot his video camera. Where's Laserbeak?
• Last episode, Thrust said that it was only a matter of time before the Autobots would pass the Decepticons and beat them to Cybertron. This episode, he reassures Megatron that the Autobots will never catch up to them.
• Look, we've got to ask—what the hell's going on with Blurr's characterisation in this episode? He sincerely expresses wonderment at both Earth and the Mini-Cons, then later sincerely apologises when Hoist makes fun of his piloting! It's like he's suddenly become a nice person.
• Even though a shot from the Requiem Blaster is enough to fatally injure Smokescreen back in Sacrifice, when Side Swipe gets hit all it really does is knock him into a nearby asteroid with no serious injuries.

Real-world references

• Megatron says that it's "time to sink a battleship," presumably referencing the popular kids game manufactured by Hasbro.
• Lightsaber sounds and R2-D2 beeps are heard when Optimus Prime is being reborn.

Trivia

• The usual Prime-transforming sequence runs at the start of the episode, rather than after the first scene.
• This isn't the first time that Megatron has struggled to cope with the death of his nemesis Optimus Prime.
• The series-long animation error of Optimus Prime's mouthplate flashing yellow when transforming into Super Mode doesn't occur in this episode.

Foreign localization

German

• Title: "Ein Wunder" ("A Miracle")
• Original airdate: 12 December 2003

Hungarian

• Title: "Csoda" ("Miracle")

Italian

• Title: "Il miracolo" ("The Miracle")

Portuguese

• Title: "Milagre" ("Miracle")

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Transformers: Legends of the Microns — Volume 11 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Armada — The Collector's Edition (Universal)
2009 — Transformers: Armada — Volume Two (New KSM) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers: Armada — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)