Serpent's Eye:

CHANGING GEARS

Review by Raksha

Nice to see Starscream leading the mission at the start, and nice also to see the efficient teamwork of Soundwave, Laserbeak, and Ravage.

I laughed when the human miner tried to bash Ravage with a wooden stick. I thought, "Yeah, right!" Ravage of course snaps it in half easily.

Starscream from the first is unusually respectful toward Megatron. There's no sarcasm at all in his greeting of "Hail Megatron!," nor in his report. Oddly enough Megatron isn't very tolerant of him in return; without apparent reason he sounds very brusque and demanding when he addresses Starscream, and even slaps him aside. To which Starscream, again oddly enough, does not react with outrage.

Prime takes Megatron's bait right away. Megatron always knows just how his enemy will react, and can play him like a cheap fiddle.

Starscream is again very deferential to his leader: "Mighty Megatron" and "Do I have your permission...?" Interesting.

We see Prime's unbelievable arrogance: "Give up, Megatron, you've lost." What, after a few shots fired back and forth? Did he think he could make the reality match his fantasy by simply saying so? What an idiot.

Great to see a transformed Megatron fired by Soundwave. Several times in this episode, in fact.

I must agree with Megatron: "Your pathetic concern for humans demonstrates that you're weak, Optimus Prime."

"Bowling for Autobots" is cute....

Starscream really doesn't think ahead. Megatron had already said he wanted Gears captured, when Starscream moved to melt him down. No wonder Megatron swatted him that time - though it's still a little extreme. Normally he'd just call Starscream a "fool" - his favorite insult. I always wondered why a guy as brilliant as Megatron couldn't come up with a more creative insult than "You fool" - though maybe he didn't feel the recipient was worth the extra effort. Or perhaps didn't deserve a truly vile epithet?

With the Solar Needle in place and Gears trapped, Megatron's tone toward Starscream changes completely - conspiratorial, almost friendly. Starscream is only too happy to comply with orders.

The Autobots can apparently reach the geographic center of Africa from their North American base in "slightly less than two Earth hours."

Starscream is surprised and worried that "the Earth seems unstable," and is looking for reassurance from Megatron. Megatron for his part is neither surprised nor worried - which leads me to believe he knew very well the effect his device would have on the sun. But more on that shortly....

The Autobots for all their professed concern for Earth life have no qualms about burning their way through the rainforest. Contrast that with Prime's holier-than-thou comment in "Microbots."

Starscream gets angry when Gears insults Megatron ("evil son of a retrorat"), and reacts reflexively to the point where he fires without thinking (again). Interesting.

Wheeljack pulls Bumblebee up from the cliff edge just as he's about to fall. All well and good, but why don't we see those types of scenes more often among the Decepticons too? There are a few, to be sure, but if you blink you miss them. Among the Autobots it's "featured" like it's a big deal.

Prime is willing to risk killing one of his own (Gears) in the crossfire, but wasn't willing to fire and defend his troops when humans were in the way earlier. There's a set of screwed-up priorities for you! Which is why Megatron is absolutely right: "That is why I shall destroy you."

Nice moment of harmony between Starscream and Megatron as they laugh together over the Autobots' reaction to the forcefield.

More theory on the Solar Needle and Megatron's true plans: The Decepticons have presumably collected quite a bit of energon from this device, but we don't see the cubes piled up anywhere. There are also many scenes where it seems only Megatron and Starscream (and Gears) are present at the structure. I dare say Megatron had a space bridge nearby, and Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Soundwave & Co. were shuttling energon cubes to it and sending them to Cybertron. When the sun destabilized to the point of explosion, Megatron and his troops would use it as their escape.

There's one scene where it looks as though Skywarp has been miscolored as Starscream - or Starscream has been mistakenly given Skywarp's voice. The latter is the case, as we see a moment later. Starscream still has it in for Gears!

Prime claims the Solar Needle is going to destroy the sun, and Megatron feigns disbelief ("Do you expect me to believe you?"), presumably to cause a delay and buy time. Again, I think he knows very well what the Needle will do to Earth's sun, and has lured the Autobots into his web to trap them on a doomed planet, while he and his troops escape at the last second. Reminiscent of his tactics in "The Core," but less explicitly stated.

Prime seems to simplemindedly equate Earth's sun with "the Universe" - while to Megatron, the power gathered from that sun will be used to conquer the Universe. A world of difference in scope.

There's one moment of very bad art for Megatron, at the point where he tells Gears to repair the Solar Needle. Otherwise this episode has excellent art, especially for Megatron.

Prime says, "Time is running out," to which Megatron replies, "Yes, Prime, it is - for you!" Which again corroborates my theory that Megatron fully and consciously intends to leave the Autobots behind on Earth as it's burnt to a cinder.

Megatron shows a moment of Decepticon's honor toward an enemy when he grants Prime a "last request." But Prime's duplicity proves that Autobots aren't worthy of being treated with warrior's honor, so why should Megatron ever act honorably toward them again, even briefly?

Soundwave calls Ravage and Laserbeak back to safety before taking off.

The Decepticons appear to leave without Megatron ("your troops have deserted you"), but in fact if the space bridge is nearby, Megatron has sent them on ahead and is delaying the Autobots long enough for the others to reach the bridge. He then follows himself, but makes it look good to fool the Autobots.



Summary:

There are no second-season Decepticons in this episode. I honestly didn't pay enough attention to the Autobots to tell if there were second-season 'Bots, but I don't recall any. Except for the generally better art and animation, as was characteristic of the second season, this could easily have been a first-season episode, going by the character roster. There were some absolutely amazing scenes of Megatron reveling in his victory amidst the seething energies of the sun!
While I would have been pleased to see the Autobots melted down in the sun's explosion, I wouldn't have wanted those zebras we saw to be caught in the nova, so I guess we'll have to grant Megatron some other means of ruling the Universe - but I don't expect him to have any reason to care about what happens to Earth and its inhabitants.
Story-wise, there was a lot going on "behind the scenes" that wasn't explicitly shown, only hinted at. There are what appear to be some odd mischaracterizations (Megatron and Starscream's reactions to each other; Decepticons deserting their leader in battle), but within the internal consistency of the cartoon universe, there are always reasons for such events. In a mere 22-minute episode, the details are often left for the viewer to piece together from a scattering of clues. Especially when precious exposition time is wasted in scenes like Wheeljack rescuing Bumblebee, and the unnecessarily drawn-out recovery of Cliffjumper after his run at the force- field.
While a surface-level viewing may lead one to believe that Megatron was unaware of the damage his device would cause, it must be recalled that Megatron is a strategist who always plans ahead of his foes, knowing exactly how they'll react in any given situation, and using it to his advantage. The Autobots blundered into his trap at the start of the episode, and they continued to do exactly what he wanted and expected. From the scientific aspect, a highly intelligent and skilled individual such as Megatron is unlikely to be ignorant of the effects of his Solar Needle. Especially as (if you'll forgive another foray into my own fanfic timeline) I happen to believe he had built a similar device once before. And that ties in with Starscream's unexpected behavior....
There's not one snide remark, not one sarcastic word, not one instant of insubordination from Starscream toward Megatron in this episode. He's respectful, deferential, and even indignant on Megatron's behalf! Megatron for his part is at first barely tolerant of Starscream, but then relaxes a bit toward the end. It's pretty clear, though, that Megatron deliberately kept Starscream in the dark for much of this story. Starscream was uanaware that one human was supposed to "escape" to call in the Autobots, for instance, and wasn't clear on the significance of capturing Gears alive. How much easier it would have been, for Megatron to simply fill Starscream in - but he didn't, for whatever reasons of his own. What is it about the Solar Needle that ties into both of their past history? Now that speculation leads right into fanfic fodder!

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