Protection

« Transformers: Energon ep 28 »
Always use it. Especially when fighting giant robots.
"Protection" 守るべき星々 () (Mamorubeki Hoshiboshi) "The Planets that Must Be Protected"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	16 July 2004 (Japanese) October 8, 2004 (Canada) November 1, 2004 (USA)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Mitsuru Kawasaki
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

On the first of Alpha Q's new planets, Wing Saber takes on Shockblast, and a Megatron-controlled Scorponok leads an attack to capture energon.

Synopsis

Kicker recounts the events leading up to the current crisis. Ironhide sights Alpha Q, who rejoices that his planets are finally free, absorbing the energon and growing.

One of the planets suddenly explodes, destroyed by Megatron. The Decepticons send Terrorcons to recapture the energon. The Autobots are puzzled as a planet just explodes, and head to find Megatron. Kicker and Ironhide report in to Optimus Prime. As Rodimus and Optimus wonder what to do with the tagalongs, Kicker senses energon on one of the planets.

Planets, like glass, are made to be broken.

On one of the worlds, Shockblast awakes, and is startled by a stone monolith erupting from the ground.

In space, the Decepticons and their Terrorcons fly toward Unicron. They find Scorponok's inert form; Megatron plans to revive him, reformatting him entirely to be loyal.

Shockblast anxiously shoots at the emerging rocks. Elsewhere on the same planet, Kicker and Ironhide are having similar troubles. Alpha Q tells Kicker that the planet is absorbing the energon, growing an energon nucleus at its core. Arcee reports a Decepticon presence on the planet; Ironhide and Kicker go hunting for it.

Prime's team arrives to hunt for Ironhide and Kicker. Prime asks Wing Saber how he's handling his new body; Wing Saber laments that if he'd had this hardware sooner, he could have saved Padlock. Inferno reports a Decepticon reading nearby.

Hey guys, check out my new look.

Ironhide and Kicker find Shockblast, and demand to know where Megatron is. Prime, Jetfire, Inferno, and Wing Saber arrive; Shockblast recognizes Wing Saber with shock. Surrounded, Prime has Wing Saber move in to capture him.

Demolishor reports a distress signal from Shockblast, but Megatron says to let him fend for himself... then decides to go watch the Autobots destroy him.

Wing Saber makes sure the others have his back, flashing back to Padlock's death. Shots are fired, and Ironhide winds up being held hostage by Shockblast. Wing Saber attacks, freeing Ironhide. Shockblast tries to flee, but Wing Saber pursues and smashes him to the ground. When the smoke clears, Shockblast lies embedded in the rock, defeated.

This all seems a bit familiar.

The Autobots string Shockblast up amid a rock formation. Kicker reports incoming Decepticons, and the Autobots scramble, leaving Shockblast behind. They realize that the approaching force is led by Scorponok. Alpha Q rejoices that he's alive; Ironhide runs to greet him. Kicker suspects something's wrong, however; the Autobots agree as a huge Terrorcon force lands. Scorponok doesn't respond to Ironhide's greetings, and finally bashes him aside, his Decepticon brand gleaming bright. Jetfire pulls Ironhide out.

Megatron and his troops arrive, abjectly refusing to help Shockblast. Scorponok strikes a blow to the ground to expose the energon, and the Terrorcons commence feeding. The Autobots and Decepticons square off, but Scorponok reports a successful mission, and Megatron orders a retreat, leaving Shockblast behind.

Alpha Q wonders what Scorponok was doing. Prime vows to stop Megatron at all costs. Ironhide laments to Wing Saber that, in the wake of Scorponok's apparent betrayal, he can't trust his instincts anymore.

On the other side of the rift, a pair of Autobots approach the space bridge left behind by Kicker—a search team hunting for Optimus.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Hysterical face: "Our precious little planets are finally free. Our treasures!"
Sinister face: "Yes, and they have finally been liberated from their prison."
Angry face: "They're no longer hostages of Unicron!"
Hysterical face: "Absorb the energon and grow, grow, grow!"
Angry face: "Grow nice and strong!"

—Planet-growing fun with Alpha Q

Snow Cat: "Heh! Who put the bee in your bonnet?"
Megatron: "Stop it, Snowcone. These planets will soon be as useless and vacant as Snow Cat over here, once we've collected their energon."
Mirage: "Megatron... are you still going ahead with your plan for Unicron?"
Demolishor: "Of course he's still gonna resurrect Unicron, you dimwit! I don't even know what you're still doing here!"
Megatron: "CAN IT! I worry about the plan; you follow orders. Transform!"
Mirage: "Someone's a little moody today."

—The Decepticons exchange random sentences.

"How dare you!"
"Oh please!"

—Megatron is outraged to be struck in the face but Optimus Prime doesn't have time for his vanity

"Well, Optimus. It looks as though you've lucked out."
"What?"
"Well, it looks as though I'm going to save this little charade for another day."

—Well, Megatron and Optimus Prime

"On second thought... let's watch Wing Dagger take him apart."
"You mean Wing Saber, sir."
"Dagger, Saber, same difference, Starscream!"

—Megatron and Starscream

"Optimus... I know I have to face Shockblast. After all he escaped on my watch. But you guys have my back, right?"
"You guys have my back, right?"

—Wing Saber gets mocked by Shockblast

Notes

Lost in translation

Various little things, but the only significant changes in the dub all center around Wing Saber.

• The Super Link version of this episode begins with dialog between two unseen members of a search party. The dub replaces this with a recap by Kicker, and moves the search party's conversation to their actual appearance at the end of the episode.
• The dub omits the fact that Prime's team is searching for Hot Shot's group, who were sucked into the rift ahead of them.
• The dub takes the straightforward conversation among the Decepticons after Megatron destroys the planet, and transmogrifies it into an incoherent series of unrelated sentences—see Quotes, above.
• A moment of foreshadowing is lost in the dub. In Super Link, the newly reformatted, not-yet-seen Scorponok speaks from the shadows, suggesting the team go watch Shockblast get beaten up. Energon has Megatron speak the equivalent lines, with no dialog for Scorponok at all. Since everyone is in near-total darkness in this scene, there's no other way to realize Scorponok is even present. And since everyone sounds virtually the same in both versions, it'd be hard to pick up on anyway.
• In Super Link, Prime tells Wing Saber that he is not Prime's property, and must live his own life; Wing Saber replies that his purpose now is to serve his commander. The dub replaces this with a recap of Wing Saber's regret at being unable to save Padlock.
• Further, Wing Saber originally says that he's no longer driven by vengeance, having discarded those concerns; he's only spurred to action when Shockblast threatens Ironhide. The dub replaces this with him hesitating repeatedly and making sure he's got the rest of the team behind him.
• In the dub, Shockblast recognizes his former jailer immediately. In Super Link, the realization comes near the end of their battle, when Wing Saber repeats a sentence he said during Shockblast's escape.
• The dub version ends with Ironhide telling Wing Saber he can't trust his instincts anymore. The original version has them somberly concluding that they'll have to defeat their former ally Scorponok.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 11
• Stock footage: 3
• We need/they want energon: 1
• I've got to/you can do this: 3
• We're a team: 1
• Our planets: 1
• It's time to: 1

Trivia

• During his opening recap, Kicker recalls his decision to follow Optimus as though it were the most profound wisdom ever spoken by man.
• So Megatron reformats Scorponok, erasing his memories, personality and long-standing loyalties to Alpha Q, thereby negating all his character development to this point. In subsequent episodes, as this change becomes obvious to the Autobots, Ironhide spends a lot of time and effort trying to talk Scorponok out of this new misplaced loyalty. You might think this is leading up to something, but no, Scorponok remains loyal to Megatron to the bitter end; the only resolution is essentially him saying "Oh hey, wait—" a second before he drops dead.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Il ritorno di Scorponok" ("Scorponok's Return")

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 007 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 3: Shockblast Unleashed (Paramount)
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)