G1 Episode 73: Dark Awakening

Welcome to the episode where the writers ask, "What if we somehow made Dadimus Prime's death even MORE traumatic?"

Check out our Tumblr for episode notes and links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠afterspark-podcast.tumblr.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music: "Proof of Concept" and "Local Cluster" by Wintergatan

These tracks can be downloaded for free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.wintergatan.net

Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Welcome to episode 73, where thewriters ask if they can make
Dadamous Primes death even more traumatic, and the answer will
be a resounding yes. Very much so.
We start as we do, with many season three episodes in space.
I mean, aren't we all in space? If you really think about it,
Radomus, Ultra Magnus and Spike are on an Autobot spaceship

(00:37):
fleeing from the Decepticons whoare on their own spaceship.
Just, you know, an average day for the Bros at the helm of the
con ship is, naturally, Galvatron, who receives a video
call from The Quintessence. The Quintessence try to suck up
to Galvatron. Since they have given him the
Autobots location, he hangs up on them in a totally normal way

(00:58):
by shooting the screen. The Decepticon repair technician
is in a closet somewhere, cryinghorribly, hysterically.
Crying. I feel like there just has to be
a level of damage you expect when galvatrons on board
anything at this point. They chased the Autobots through
an asteroid field. After taking out one of the the

(01:20):
ship's engines, the Decepticon shoot the Autobot ship and being
down an engine, they are unable to escape.
Galavatron is surprisingly lucidat this point in the episode,
actually going in to investigatethe wreckage and confirm that
the Autobots are dead elsewhere.As you may expect, the Autobots
are fine having gotten away in alife pod.
RC Cup and Daniel are reveals tobe here today too.

(01:43):
Ultra Magnus laments that while they got away, they do not have
access to communications and it may be months before they're
found. Spike is upset at the prospect
of air running out before them. Ronimus says they'll have two
choices. Suffocate or smother.
Damn, Roddy, that was dark. He's not coping with his sudden
career change, no. Thankfully for all involved,

(02:06):
they arrive at a large but strange monument or strange
structure in space. They can't see the same
structure in the distance and move to intercept.
Our strange locale is. Functionally and Autobot and
Mausoleum where all the characters who died in the movie
have been laid to rest and no one told Daniel about this

(02:28):
place. Apparently Daniel's hesitant to
go inside since, you know, dead people he presumably knew and
loved, but Ronimus tells him that there's nothing inside.
They can hurt him. This is reasonable advice, I
guess. Dead people don't typically get
up and walk around, and Daniel, despite his misgivings, goes up
by himself. Coming across the resting places

(02:51):
of several characters we know, such as Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl
and Huffer, and lastly the corpse of Optimus Prime.
Who was just chilling and hanging out behind him because
he was out for his Daily Corpse walkies.
This part is kind of confusing because I'm not sure if we're
supposed to think the button like Daniel accidentally hit

(03:13):
opened Optimist's Tomb because we'd seen optimist legs in the
previous shot, but the walls seem to disappear and reveal
optimist here. We really have it's, it's
unclear. We have no idea what's it going
on exactly. Daniel makes it back to his
group, saying if you know extreme distress that he saw
Optimist the place that Daniel'sworry.

(03:34):
The group arrives at Optimus's tomb that's on the other side of
the memorial veil that's here, away from where the others were
interred. So Daniel didn't open his tomb
earlier, but I am still not surewhat we were supposed to think
happened there. Yep, Rondomus is saying that the
Matrix would have told him if Prime was still alive somehow.
I mean, maybe it's the equivalent of like chipping?

(03:59):
Them. Even if it's been pulled out,
it's still got a connection. Is like they can tell if
previous holders are alive. No idea.
The group opens the casket and are shocked to find it empty.
But the cons arrive before they can investigate any of this.
A firefight ensues. Galvatron destroys their life
pod. The Autobots retreat but are
quickly overtaken. But as Galvatron tastes same, a

(04:21):
very familiar voice speaks and shoots.
That's right, The dead have risen from their graves.
Or least optimist has. And is here to stand guard over
his fallen brethren, telling theKhans to leave this place or
die. The Khans understandably retreat
after getting attacked by fucking zombie.

(04:42):
Cyclone is carrying an injured Galvatron away like a potato
sack. Under his arm is a great image.
It is rhymus is very relieved and no longer be in charge.
The man wants to throw the Matrix out of corpse.
That's not the action of a man who's happy with his current
God-given career path, but cup of magnets are like, let's hold

(05:04):
off a man. Yeah.
Daniel wonders if Prime was in some sort of coma, but the
others aren't so sure. And I mean, they're doubting
preceptor for this. I mean, Prime wasn't technically
pronounced dead by a medical doctor.
All the life signs went dead, and he turned Gray after turning

(05:25):
his face to the wall. I think I trust Percy.
I just think there's some groundfor them to be like.
I mean, they had to have gotten first stage to show up at some
point to do a medical exam. I don't know where the bodies
went after the movie or what process happened.
I'm just saying, if they all checked them on a space
mausoleum, considering Autobot management at the time, I would

(05:49):
not have been hugging shucks, that's all.
Yeah, it's good. They've got the same sort of
laissez faire attitude regardingcorpse disposal as they did in
the comics with Optimus Primes corpse getting launched into
space with the Matrix still in it.
Yep, that all tracks. They follow back on back on
topic. They follow Optimus to a hangar

(06:11):
where he has supposedly been building himself a ship.
Paradomus offers Optimus the Matrix, but he doesn't seem to
want to take it. He does eventually do so but
after sort of, you know, fighting with himself, Paradomus
is overdroyed to be hot rod again like it was not a glow up.
Guys, it he looks so much betteras Hot Rod than Paradomus.
Yeah. Paradomus was premature aging.

(06:33):
Optimus then shoots Hot Rod and begins firing on the group
again, not appearing as if he's in complete control of his own
actions. But the other is out of
Commission. He takes his, you know, podge
podge ship and sets the mausoleum to self destruct via
setting it on a path into a nearby sun.
This is like at least the secondtime that the Autobots have been

(06:56):
trying to be fired into the sun.Yes, everyone's OK at the moment
that they aren't understandably concerned about the fucking
flight path into the sun. On Cybertron, we see optimists
talking to Percy, Grimlock, Springer, and Air Raid, telling
them that the others gave their lives so that optimists might
return. This is a reverse Jesus.

(07:18):
Yes, and also a shitty, shitty management of Shitty Bargainer.
He also tells them that Spike, Daniel were killed by the
Quintessence. Grimlock is very angry at the
quintessence and throws A tantrum while Springer vows to
well, he vows revenge for RC elsewhere.
That quintessents act much like the arbiters of reality, even

(07:39):
more than normal, one of them proposing an anticipatory
snicker of triumph, A disc worldreference.
Our apologies. Yep.
Too bad you can't just kill themwith chocolate.
Back at the mausoleum, the grouphas a pair.
Well, I mean, maybe you could kill them with chocolate.
Maybe they're like dogs. It's poisonous stuff.
I don't know. I'm not even sure they're

(08:00):
organic. I kind of like, want to be like,
maybe we could drown them in chocolate.
That would be fairly entertaining when we walk and
get in here. Gunk up their internal
mechanisms. Sorry.
Back on topic back at the mausoleum, the group has
apparently put together their own ship.
That they used to escape and head back to Cybertron.
Their landing is less than graceful as they nearly take out

(08:22):
two Dinobots, but they do all arrive in one piece unharmed.
In a rare instance of someone actually being nice to the
Dinobots are sea Tel Sludge and snarl.
How happy she is to see them. But the Dynobots are less
enthusiastic, as all of these guys are supposed to be dead.
They are all informed that the Ottobot fleet is on their way to
fight the Quintessence. Instead, Fleet Optimist is in

(08:42):
command and seems hell bent on an all out assault despite
Percy. Suggestions.
Blur informs optimists that Hot Rod and the others are alive,
since apparently they were able to contact them and that's their
nearly departed counterparts. Will be joining them soon, but
Optimist says it's a quintessence trick.
I mean, they managed to get the fastest guy to deliver the

(09:05):
message as fast as possible, andOptimist is just like no back
with the quintessence. They say the Autobots are
attacking A decoy planet and then insinuate ominous things
such as Optimus Prime still doesn't understand what's
happened to him, and then even to himself.
He seems alive. Yep, that's pretty ominous.
The Quintessents plan here is apparently to get the Autobot

(09:27):
fleet around the decoy planet and then blow it up, killing all
of the Autobots. The Autobots attack, but are
counterattacked by Quintessent defense systems taking heavy
damage. Several shuttles.
You know, possibly people are destroyed.
Hot Rods group tries to contact the flagship again, but Optimist
repeats that it's quintessent trick and fires on them.

(09:48):
Everyone on Hot Rod Ship is sucked out into space.
It's a good thing, Daniel and Spike.
We're already wearing spacesuits.
Percy, being the smart cookie heis, realizes that no, that is in
fact Hot Rod and company and sends out a rescue team.
Hot Rod punches through the blast doors to get to Optimists
and tells him that he's taking command.
Those are some shitty blast doors.

(10:10):
If Hot Rod can punch through them though, maybe he was
weakening them with fire. Maybe.
This causes optimists to remember that it's the
quintestants that brought him back, and he begs Hot Rod to
stop him but bring him back. We literally mean as a robot
zombie. Yay.
We're bringing more layers of horror to the show.
Let's let's really traumatize these children, guys.

(10:31):
Let's flog that dead horse. The contestants call him a robot
zombie and the flashback, and weare informed that it's only
fragments of Optimus's personality and memories that
are present. Otherwise he is being controlled
by the quintestants. I'm sorry, no, my brain just
went ChatGPT controlling Optimus.
Oh God, that's what the quintestants are really.

(10:52):
I'm sorry, I literally just had that in the middle of this.
That's very unhelpful. Optimus and Hot Rod fight in the
very awkwardly animated sequence.
Optimist gets the upper hand, but is able to fight the
Clintussian control for long enough to give Eronimus back to
the matrix. Ultra Magnus, RC Cup and Spike
get to Broadmus to help him escape the ship on the bridge.

(11:14):
Optimist sends out his last command for the Abbot fleet to
return to cyber drug. But the flagship and optimists
continue and collide with the decoy planet, detonating it.
While the rest of the fleet escapes, Radomus promises to try
and be as good a leader as Optimist as their episode ends.
So join us next time for episode74, Star screams Ghost.

(11:35):
Come on now, you didn't think that only crime got to return
from the grave, did you? The best character is bad.
OK, I stand by my statement. The clans are not nearly as
interesting and like 90% of thatis because one subway's not
allowed to do anything fun and two star scream is to hear being
a giant bastard. I'm just saying they.

(11:58):
Aren't letting any of the other Decepticons do anything
interesting? Because I mean cyclonist is
basically it. Yes, like when fucking Astro
trained and Blitzwing did their stupid thing, that was.
An entertaining episode it was actually yeah it's kind of the
problem is like Cyclonus and notvery many other people really

(12:18):
get to do anything in I think the entirety of season 3 for the
cons like you know the pop up, there will be 1 music oriented
episode which I think might be the last appearance of sound
wave. It's certainly the last time he
does a lot of much relevant. Yeah.
OK. So today we have both fan art
and fanfic, So. Our first fanfic for today is

(12:41):
Diplomacy by Raised by Moguls. It's a G1 based rated G It's
Jen. There's no pairings, and our
characters here are Veronymous, Prime Star Screen, First Aid, RC
Jazz, and many original characters.
Alternate title Cybertron's Got Talent in summary.

(13:01):
With Cybertron recovering from its long and destructive war,
Gronomous Prime journeys to the secret controlled City of New
Vows in order to reclaim a part of himself long forgotten.
But a dark secret and a fight over New Vows's future threatens
to destroy everything Gronomous has worked so hard to build, and
will push his skills, both old and new, to the limit.

(13:21):
Politics is a dance and in new vows dance can be deadly.
It's a political drama about giant pole dancing robots.
Y'all I. I really can't even.
And I went with it for cultural,cultural reasons.
Because I mean the whole giant robots throwing their dead
people out into a giant mausoleum in space is definitely

(13:44):
a big cultural difference. Definitely.
And so I wanted something that would, you know, explore
different what potential cultural differences and Race
by. Moogles is a pretty good author,
so I like their work. And it's a completed multi multi
chapter fick. The 2nd Fick is Zombie movie

(14:04):
marathon by Gray Lily. It's IDWG 1 rated T Jen.
There's no pairings and our characters are Springer and Cup.
And in summary, Springer hated zombie movies.
Theme here is pretty self-explanatory.
Zombies. Considering Zombie Optimus Prime
and all the random stuff that happened.

(14:26):
Well, not random stuff, but the stuff that happens in IDWG, One
with Cup and Zombies and Springer.
And yeah, so let's go to the fanart, all right, Our fan art
recommendation for today is breakdown butt lights.
They have, they actually have NAO, three and a Tumblr.
They had a Twitter, but the account seems gone now, so I'm

(14:49):
assuming they deleted it. If you're listening to this
Beyond the Year of Our Lord 2023Twitter is currently on fire, so
I'm not exactly surprised. They do mostly IDW stuff and to
kind of summarize what they do, they post a lot of human former
stuff. Currently they seem to be
posting a lot of tarantulas prowl stuff, but they've also

(15:12):
created art for other pairings in the past such as cyclones and
tailgate and ratchet and drift. Today we're linking their
lesbian cyclonists and beardy ratchet designs, which are both
very lovely and some of my favorite humor, human former
designs for these characters. Yeah, like that that cyclonist
can step on me. That would be fine actually.
What a good way to go. And then this I I love this

(15:37):
picture of ratchet like I actually used it for inspiration
for a D&D character. It was like grizzled, old like
medical person. I love it.
And then also they have a human former design for tailgate and
here we're going to link to the anxious little bean.
She's, she's very anxious. She also reminds me a lot of

(15:58):
like kid. Go on, do you see?
I can say. That so you have like, kid.
Go on, ask looking little lady and her giant vamp wife and it
is glorious. And that just about wraps it up
for us today. Remember to check us out on
Tumblr or Pillow Fort as Afterspark Dash Podcast for any
additional information, show notes or links that may have

(16:20):
mentioned. You can also find us on Facebook
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Then feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, YouTube, or
AO3. Till next time I'm specs and I'm
else. Toodles

(16:50):
okay, guys, I don't trust anyone, so please don't come out
with weird sex scandals in the next five years.
I'm begging you. I don't want to fucking find
that out. Thank you.