Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future

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The Beast Era ends here... till the comics come out.
"Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future"
Season	2
No. in season	13
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	May 3, 2000 (Canada) November 18, 2000 (USA)
Written by	Robert N. Skir
Directed by	William Lau
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment

As the last two living Transformers on Cybertron, Optimus Primal and Megatron stage their final battle.

Synopsis

Round one. FIGHT!

As Optimus lies defeated, Megatron stands gloating over his nemesis. To add insult to injury, Megatron has taken a new body... Primal's Optimal body, minus the beast mode. And, to make it just right, Megatron then adds the sparks of the Maximals to the spark containment unit. Enraged, Optimus fights back, but Megatron punches him through the wall to the outside of the big floating head. Optimus manages to get in a few more shots, but stops, seeing the sparkless bodies of Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. Megatron takes a moment to rub it in, then attacks.

Primal flees through the city scape, flying a merry little chase, until he reaches a power generator storage area. As Megatron temporarily loses track of his prey, Optimus comes up from behind and destroys several generators. The explosion engulfs Megatron and severs his left arm. Optimus barely manages to escape the inferno, as Megatron's arm is thrown out of the flames. After Primal makes a bad pun, Megatron emerges, kicks Optimus aside, and retrieves and reattaches his severed arm. As Primal jumps into a nearby river, he dives, only to have Megatron follow him in and shoot a hole in the ground, causing them to sink into a whirlpool.

As Optimus wakes up, he realizes he is in the chamber of the Oracle. However, the technorganic orchard has been completely destroyed. Worse for Primal, he sees Rattrap and Botanica's sparkless bodies, lying on the ground, with their hands stretched toward each other. Megatron then arrives, and takes him to the surface.

It's like Chinese New Year, only I'm using the souls of your friends as fireworks!

Heading toward the Council Citadel, Megatron activates a throne built into the Citadel to appear, then opens the spark chamber, absorbing the sparks and preparing to ascend to supplant the Matrix and achieve Godhood. As the sparks enter his body, Megatron grows in size. Primal tries to talk, saying that each spark is but a part of the Matrix and that together, they add to its totality. Megatron then activates the Key to Vector Sigma, to be used against the organic core. However, Megatron cannot fully activate the Oracle, as he and Primal are linked. Megatron then severs the link, and Primal fears that he has failed.

Left off the agenda: "Buy parachute."

However, the sparks of his comrades speak to him, inspiring him on. Shooting a beam at Megatron's throne, vines extend and grab Megatron's arms. Primal then tries to push him into the core. However, Megatron grabs hold of Optimus, who merely shoots off Megatron's fingers to sever the vine, allowing them both to fall into the core. As they plummet, Primal bids Megatron farewell. Upon impact with the core, both Optimus and Megatron die in a flash of light. From space, a bright light rises, then begins to cover the surface of Cybertron.

Auditioning for their next role as Easter Eggs in "Halo".

Waking up, the Maximals find themselves on a technorganic world, which they realize is Cybertron. Rattrap is somewhat worried, then Botanica appears, and he jumps into her arms. As Silverbolt sweeps Blackarachnia off her feet, Waspinator appears as a tiny, technorganic wasp, pissed that he's been screwed over again. Then, the Oracle shows Cheetor a vision of Optimus Primal's spark, flying away, telling him to "transform, and transcend". As it fades, Cheetor mutters that he understands. In the distance, the freed Transformers, their sparks once again in bodies, run over the horizon, ready to assume control of the newly technorganic Cybertron.

'Til all are one.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"So, Optimus Primal, it all comes down to you and me. Or should I say, you and you?"

—Megatron notes the irony in fighting Optimus with a copy of his own previous body.

"My great ascension is finally complete! YEEEEESSSS!"

—Megatron brings an old catchphrase back into style.

"What are you doing?!"
"Planting the seeds of the future. We must seek the balance, Megatron. Not only between the organic and the technological, but the balance between eternal enemies. Between you and I!"

—Megatron and Optimus Primal. One good thing about the last episode, no more Optimus speeches.

"The Great Transformation awaits, Megatron. Prepare to be... reformatted."
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

—Optimus Primal's and Megatron's last words. (Until Universe, that is.)

Still better than being possessed by Starscream.

"The menace has passed. Now we can truly be together, dark venom of my heart."
"Oh, of all the corny..."

—Silverbolt's attempt to woo Blackarachnia almost fails until she realizes that she doesn't care.

"Waspinator want glory, Waspinator want power! And what does Waspinator get?! (Waspinator gets swatted away by Rattrap) Waspinator never gets what Waspinator wants!

—Poor old Waspinator, who for some reason is now the size of a regular wasp and has Thrust's head.

"At long last. Transform your destiny. Transform and... transcend."
"I... understand."

—The Oracle and Cheetor

Notes

Technical and animation errors

• When Megatron blows Optimus through the wall, all the debris is behaving really oddly – pieces keep sticking to the floor for a few frames, then abruptly disappear.
• The first time Megatron uses his jet mode, his spark is colored blue instead of red.
• When Megatron taunts Optimus while holding him in his grip, both animation models are low resolution.
• When he later throws Primal aside next to his throne, they are low-res again, and Optimus' shoulder-pad is clipping through his shoulder.
• Rattrap's model also turns low-res (note his hexagonal wheels) just before the Maximals wake up.
• As Silverbolt delivers his final line, his right pupil is strangely shifted to the side, giving him an awkward stare.
• The freed Transformers that appear at the end of the episode have pretty weird running animations. They are running forward, but their legs are moving as if they're running sideways.

Continuity errors

• When Megatron blasts Optimus out of the Spark Chamber room, the deactivated body of Thrust is seen right next to those of Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. The problem with this is that Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were deactivated outside of the base, whereas Thrust was deactivated by Cheetor inside the anti-gravity engine room in the previous episode.

Continuity notes

• Megatron's final plan involves the Key to Vector Sigma, which first appeared in "The Key".
• While in his vehicle modes, Megatron stores his spark in his cockpit. This is the same place that Primal stored the original Optimus Prime's spark during "Optimal Situation".
• Megatron uses all of Optimal Optimus's modes (minus his removed beast mode) during this episode, arguably with greater efficiency than Primal did.
• Optimus notes that both of them share the Oracle now, following on from the events of "The Search."
• Optimus's final words bookend the Oracle's very first prophecy in "The Reformatting", as he tells Megatron to "prepare to be reformatted". As Optimus joins the Matrix, the Oracle tells Cheetor to "transform, and transcend".
• In a truly beautiful irony, Megatron's final word is "Noooo!"
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Megatron uses wrist-mounted searchlights as he hunts for Optimus underwater. He can also fire torpedoes, a weapon that Optimus never displayed in Beast Wars.
  • Botanica can make plants grow instantaneously, creating a meadow of technorganic flowers.

Real-world references

• Optimus taunts Megatron by imploring him to bid "farewell to arms".

Trivia

• Technorganic Cybertron apparently has non-Transformer animals on it; a flock of birds can be seen flying above the reformatted Cybertropolis.
• Bob Skir wanted to depict Obsidian and Strika's return to Cybertron after the Great Transformation; they would remain the only purely mechanical Transformers on the planet as penance for their actions. This scene was ultimately cut for time before it could be animated.
• The Oracle makes contact with Cheetor towards the end of the episode. This is later played on in the Universe comics, which would establish Cheetor as a Matrix Templar, and in the Wings continuity, where Cheetor becomes the successor to Alpha Trion.
• Waspinator laments that "Waspinator never get what Waspinator wants!" an ironic echo of his last line in "Nemesis Part 2", where he claimed to be "happy at last".
• The very last line spoken is by Cheetor. Cheetor also got the very first line in Beast Wars, so this works as a bookend to the entire Beast Era, as well as signifying Cheetor's progression from naive rookie to capable commander.
• The series closes out on another bookend, focusing in on a technorganic variation of the organic flower that appeared in the very first shot of "The Reformatting".

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Bataille Finale (Partie 3)" ("Final Battle (Part 3)")
• Original airdate: ?

German

• Title: "Der letzte Kampf" ("The Final Battle")
• Original airdate: December 27, 2000

Italian

• Title: "Fine del gioco (terza parte)" ("End of the game (third part)")

• There was a bit of confusion in the dub of the scene in which the Maximals talk to Optimus: in fact, Nightscream's line: «Don't give up, Optimus!» in voiced by Rattrap's actor, while Rattrap's line: «Don't forget what the Oracle said» is voiced by Botanica's actress (thus looking like a single sentence together with her next line).

Japanese

• Title: "Mirai no Yukue" (未来の行方, "The Course of the Future")
• Original airdate: January 30, 2005

• The events of the Beast Wars Reborn text stories continue the tale of Optimus and Megatron after their deaths (in Japanese continuity, anyway).

Russian

• Title: "Konets Igry (Chast 3): Semena Budushchego" ("End of the Game (Part 3): Seeds of the Future")
• Original airdate: ?

Mandarin

• Title: "Wèilái de Zhǒngzǐ " (未来的种子, "Seeds of the Future")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Fim de Jogo Parte 3: As Sementes do Futuro" ("Endgame Part 3: The Seeds of the Future")

Spanish

• Title: "Juego Final Parte 3: Las Semillas del Futuro"
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

DVD

2005 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns — Volume 7 (Geneon Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Beast Machines: Transformers — The Complete Series (Rhinomation)
2014 — Transformers: Beast Machines — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season Two: Volume One (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Complete Season Two (Sony)
2009 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Intégrale Saison 2 (Sony) — French audio only.