Jawbreaker grows tired of being left on the sidelines during fights, due to him still not having an altmode. When the Maltos take in Grimlock, who has found his way from Philadelphia to Witwicky, the King of the Dinobots decides to take Jawbreaker under his wing and teach him to be fierce. But Grimlock is still battling his own inner demons.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- Pushing down your trauma instead of working through it is a bad idea.
- Reducing a person down to just one thing is hurtful.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Jawbreaker's altmode is a Stygimoloch, a type of dinosaur from the pachycephalosaurid family, with Mo mentioning that Dot told her they were common around where they live. The quarry they found the fossils in however is in Pennsylvania, with no documented fossils of pachycephalosaurid dinosaurs being located there, fossils instead being found in North Western regions like Wyoming, Alberta, Montana, and Dakota.
- Beyond the Impossible: Elita and Grimlock are taken aback when Jawbreaker scans a Stygimoloch fossil for his altmode, with Elita commenting that that isn't how trans-scanning usually works.
- Continuity Cameo: One of the Malto's comics features Slag and Sludge alongside Grimlock in their G1 appearance. Fittingly as Grimlock is called "The King of the Dinobots" confirming the other Dinobots do exist in this continuity.
- Continuity Nod: Bumblebee is still recovering from the hellish night he had in "Home".
- A Day in the Limelight: Jawbreaker finally gets himself an altmode in this episode.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Grimlock's constant flashbacks to the horrible things he went through in Bot Brawl and his dino rage activating when Jawbreaker unintentionally makes him relive them by relentlessly attacking him is very reminiscent of a veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and getting triggered due to someone else pressing his Trauma Button.
- Heroic BSoD: Throughout the episode Grimlock experiences flashbacks from his time as an involuntary pit fighter in Bot Brawl.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Both Jawbreaker and Elita try to break Grimlock out of his dino-rage by calling out to his Cybertronian side. Jawbreaker suceeds by going even further and telling Grimlock that he doesn't just see the fearsome Dinobot warrior, but also the scared person underneath who needs help.
- Innocently Insensitive: The Malto kids and the other Terrans treat Jawbreaker more like a fragile child than a teammate, because he has no altmode. They don't mean anything by it, but Jawbreaker still feels hurt by it nonetheless.
- It's All My Fault: Said word for word by Jawbreaker after he unintentionally causes Grimlock's dinobot rage to flare up.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Deconstructed. Jawbreaker starts the episode out frustrated with how everyone percieves him as little more than a Gentle Giant who should be kept away form the fighting and starts training with Grimlock in order to unlock his fierce side. It goes well at the start, with Jawbreaker gaining more confidence through Grimlock drilling him, but then takes a turn for the worse when Jawbreaker takes his fierceness a little too far, to the point where he actually tries picking a fight with Grimlock once he has a dino-altmode and only realizes how badly his attacks triggered the Autobot when it's too late. At the end of the episode, Jawbreaker doesn't defeat Grimlock by being fierce but by being kind and understanding.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After getting an altmode, Jawbreaker is so excited to test his new Dinobot strength that he keeps pressuring the obviously reluctant Grimlock into a rematch. Predictably, Jawbreaker's continued attacks end up giving Grimlock a bad Bot Brawl flashback and he goes into rage mode.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The episode portrays Grimlock as usually calm and collected, so when he all of a sudden starts shouting for Jawbreaker to stop when Jawbreaker attacks him, you know something is horribly wrong.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Grimlock's visor flashes from blue to red whenever he starts getting flashbacks to Bot Brawl. They remain red when his Dino Rage overtakes him and he loses control.
