After getting tired of one too many responsibilities put upon his shoulders, Rodimus Prime gets into an accident that sees the Autobot Matrix of Leadership stolen by the Decepticons and himself transformed back into Hot Rod. But at what cost?
Tropes:
- Accidentally Broke the MacGuffin: Galvatron chides Dead End and Wildrider when they bring the Matrix to him, accusing them of this. Unfortunately for Galvatron, it works perfectly fine, but not as expected.Galvatron: You dropped it, didn't you? You broke the Matrix, didn't you?!
- Art Shift:
- The animation and visual style in general feels a bit like a testing ground for Transformers: The★Headmasters (which episode animators Trans Arts also helped out on) than a typical episode of the show.
- Scourge's assault on Japan in the third act is visibly rougher and borderline incomprehensible, with characters besides Scourge melting into blobs.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: This being an episode of an 80s cartoon, most of the Japanese characters speak this way. How extreme this gets varies from character to character.
- Bad Boss:
- Galvatron berates two of the Stunticons for seemingly breaking the Matrix, and comes close to vaporizing them where they stand before the spirits of the Matrix demand Galvatron to give it back to the Autobots.
- He later punches Cyclonus for no reason after declaring himself as the only one who leads the Decepticons, before the two head off to Earth to deal with Scourge and his treachery.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Rodimus's desire to become Hot Rod is granted when Wildrider and Dead End run him off the road and snatch the Matrix from him.
- Body Horror: Scouge becomes a walking Eldritch Abomination upon taking the Matrix for himself. Even his transformation becomes disfigured as he melts into his spaceship mode.
- Call-Back: Cyclonus utters "I still function" as he gets back up from his thrashing by Scourge.
- The Corruption: The Matrix of Leadership turns out to only work with Autobots, as Galvatron gets haunted by the spirits of its past wielders when he tries using it, and Scourge becomes a physical horror on the verge of melting.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: An odd inversion as Scourge uses the Matrix and gets uglier, even though the Matrix itself is a force for good.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Giri (translated here by way of Title Drop) is uttered by Kup when Marissa asks what's going on when an aggravated Rodimus drives off.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Rodimus at least wants to go back to being Hot Rod, and while he enjoys not having the responsibilities he had as Rodimus, he also gets depressed. This lasts until the Matrix-possessed Scourge leads an attack on Japan.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Rodimus has this outlook for much of the first act between dealing with the Decepticons attacking Japan, and the Japanese congressmen laying into him for the attack happening. Upon seeing what it has done to Scourge, he takes it back realizing that the Matrix chose him for a reason.
- The Juggernaut: Upon taking the Matrix for himself, Scourge becomes nigh-invincible, develops Eye Beams, and takes out Galvatron and Cyclonus with with relative ease.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Scourge gets his when Galvatron and Cyclonus, furious at him for usurping them, deal with him violently offscreen before parading his body to the other Decepticons.
- Never My Fault: Scourge tries to blame his treachery on the Matrix. Galvatron decides to flip it back on him and declare blasting Scourge with his laser cannon also the fault of the Matrix as punishment.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Galvatron's intent when tasking Scourge to destroy the Matrix, because if they can't use it, then the Autobots won't either. Cyclonus questions this decision, but Galvatron won't hear of it.
- Painful Transformation: As the Matrix corrupts Scourge, he undergoes an extensive and dreadful transformation in which the end results aren't pretty...
- Refusal of the Call: Rodimus Prime is tired of leading the Autobots and allows the Decepticons to steal the Matrix of Leadership. A human kendo sensei convinces Rodimus to take his responsibilities more seriously.
- The Starscream: Scourge, upon getting corrupted by the Matrix overthrows Galvatron and Cyclonus to become the temporary Decepticon leader.
- Took a Level in Badass: Scourge becomes a lot more powerful after gaining his hands on the Matrix and easily defeats Galvatron and Cyclonus in combat as he takes control over the Decepticons.
- Unreliable Illustrator:
- As mentioned above, the animation gets wildly sketchy and melty by the third act, rendering characters like Rodimus and Broadside as disfigured as Scourge.
- The Matrix has a habit of shifting from its usual design, to one without handles between shots multiple times.
- Villain Ball: Galvatron tasks Scourge to destroy the Matrix when he can't get it to work properly for him. Scourge, on the other hand, sees this as his opportunity to overthrow Galvatron and lead the Decepticons and keeps it for himself.
- With Us or Against Us: Scourge threatens the other Decepticons to either follow him, or "follow Galvatron and Cyclonus to your doom!" They opt to not question his authority and follow him back to Earth.
- Would Hit a Girl: Scourge gets sidetracked by an old lady and tries to kill her. This proves his downfall as Hot Rod, and later Galvatron and Cyclonus, find him in the alleyway he chased her down.
- Zeerust: A bullet train in the beginning of the episode, and Marissa Faireborn's car.
