Episode List

Season One

More Than Meets the Eye
Transport to Oblivion
Roll For It
Divide and Conquer
Fire in the Sky
S.O.S. Dinobots
Fire on the Mountain
War of the Dinobots
The Ultimate Doom
Countdown to Extinction
A Plague of Insecticons
Heavy Metal War

Season Two

Autobot Spike
Changing Gears
City of Steel
Attack of the Autobots
Traitor
The Immobilizer
The Autobot Run
Atlantis, Arise!
Day of the Machines
Enter the Nightbird
A Prime Problem
The Core
The Insecticon Syndrome
Dinobot Island
The Master Builders
Auto Berserk
Microbots
Megatron's Master Plan
Desertion of the Dinobots
Blaster Blues
A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court
The Golden Lagoon
The God Gambit
Make Tracks
Child's Play
Quest for Survival
The Secret of Omega Supreme
The Gambler
Kremzeek!
Sea Change
Triple Takeover
Prime Target
Auto-Bop
The Search for Alpha Trion
The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
Hoist Goes Hollywood
The Key to Vector Sigma
Aerial Assault
War Dawn
Trans-Europe Express
Cosmic Rust
Starscream's Brigade
The Revenge of Bruticus
Masquerade
B.O.T

Season Three

Five Faces of Darkness
The Killing Jar
Chaos
Dark Awakening
Forever is a Long Time Coming
Starscream's Ghost
Thief in the Night
Surprise Party
Madman's Paradise
Nightmare Planet
Ghost in the Machine
Webworld
Carnage in C-Minor
The Big Broadcast of 2006
The Quintesson Journal
The Ultimate Weapon
Fight or Flee
The Dweller in the Depths
Only Human
Grimlock's New Brain
Call of the Primitives
Face of the Nijika
The Burden Hardest to Bear
The Return of Optimus Prime

Season Four

The Rebirth

Fire on the Mountain in a Nutshell...
Megatron gets a(nother) new superweapon to play with. Skyfire gets dug up (again). Thundercracker and Starscream get simultaneous cases of PMS. Brawn gets to play with Megatron's fusion cannon. And Bumblebee gets...a date?

More Than...You Want to Know!

Warning! Warning! Major spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

Don't want to read everything that happened in this episode? Well, fine! Be that way! You can just darn well click here and go on to the next part, ya spoilsport!

Man, we just leap right into the action with this one, don't we?

Above a generic industrial/manufacturing sort of complex fly two F-15s, a red, white, and blue one and an almost-all-light-blue one. Gee, wonder who they are...? Well, if you want to know, you probably don't want to ask Trailbreaker who, along with Brawn, is following the two jets on the ground. They only look "sickeningly familiar" to him. Brawn points out that they're Decepticons. (Nooooo! Really! Wow, I never would have guessed...) Brawn speeds ahead to get first crack at the jets, prompting Trailbreaker to yell, "Hey! Wait up for me!" (Poor Trailbreaker. Must suck to be a slowpoke amongst a herd of speed demons... No wonder he and Ironhide seem to get along so well.)

Meanwhile, up in the air, Starscream is ordering Thundercracker to transform. They do, and then they land. Starscream runs off ahead while Thundercracker hangs back and complains that "No Earth-made is gonna be strong enough." (For what, one wonders... Oh, I could think of a few things...) Starscream turns around and snippily reminds Thundercracker about who's in charge. He asserts that if he says it's strong enough, it is. ('Cuz he's God, don'tchaknow.) So, off they go to ruin some factory workers' day. They blast through the side of the building (As usual... Y'know, I'd really like to know what the Decepticons have against doors. It's almost amazing to me that they have them in their own Headquarters, given how much they love blowing up walls and stuff to get where they're going...) The humans scatter, Thundercracker idly breaks an I-beam in half and makes sarcastic comments about working with Starscream...and then Brawn shows up to ruin their day, telling them that their "work" looks more like stealing. "And I'm talkin' steel," he adds. (Oy! Bad puns! Will they never end?) Starscream fires off a shot, Brawn leaps back and nearly lands on the arriving Trailbreaker. Brawn, happy that he now has a partner in crime, hoots that "It's fightin' time!"

But the Decepticons, having accomplished their raid, have places to go and people to see and are already taking off, Starscream commenting that, for the Autobots, "It's losing time." He fires some missiles from beneath little pop-up panels on his chest (Good thing he's not female or else that bit would be hysterically funny... BoobMissiles!) as a diversion, and he and Thundercracker are off with the steel. (What a steal! ...Sorry... :) ) Trailbreaker and Brawn unbury themselves from the wreckage of the building in time to see the jets fly off into the sunset, so to speak. Only thing left to do is to head back the Headquarters and report, which they do.

Back at the Autobot Central, Optimus Prime is puzzled. He can't figure out why the Decepticons would want steel beams. (Maybe so they can beat some sense into each other with them? Maybe they're going into the contracting business? Hey, if the Mafia can do it...) Bumblebee's answer? Er...um...Send up a sky spy? Spike launches the thing, and then they all stand there and stare at the resulting pretty pictures on Teletran One's screen, waiting for something to happen, apparently.

Meanwhile...Oooooh! Pretty mountains. And on top of one of the mountains sits a stepped pyramid. Gathered at its base are a few Decepticons--Soundwave, Megatron, Skywarp, and a lone Reflector guy. Soundwave's waxing rhapsodic about Incan legends--Which he says are true. The pyramid in front of them sits on a shaft that reaches...all the way down to the Earth's core? (Ummmmm...OK... The Andes Mountains are actually being formed by two continental plates pushing against each other, much as the Himalayas are being formed. I would think that any such shafts would have been crushed by the formation of the mountains...but I'll let it go...) So Megatron blows a hole in the side of the pyramid (*sigh*) and they all troop inside to look for something called a "Crystal of Power." (Oh great, so now Megatron's into crystals. Next thing ya know, he'll be burning incense, reading palms, and doing tarot card readings for the other Decepticons...) In a stunningly spacious room inside the pyramid, the Decepticons find an altar...and on that altar sits a...funky green crystal, just like the one from "Fire in the Sky" only much smaller. Megs pronounces it, "Magnificent," and then he climbs the few steps to the altar and triumphantly lifts the crystal from it. When he does that, a beam of raw, unfocused energy (From the Earth's core, one assumes) jets up from the hole above which the crystal used to sit...

Later, up on top of the pyramid, Megs is still toting the crystal and the Decepticons have gathered. Megatron orders Starscream to "bring [him] the weapon frame you and Thundercracker made from the stolen steel." (Whoa! Way to go with the exposition there, Megatron! ) "I hope it is stronger than your customary resolve in battle," Megs can't resist sniping (Like Megs should talk. Is he, or is he not, usually the one yelling "RETREAT!" in the most strident of voices?) Starscream wheels the frame over to Megatron, testily tells Megatron to stick it in his ear, essentially, grabs the crystal from his hands, and shoves it into the frame. As he does so, the altar below burps, sending up a beam of energy that envelops the new superweapon and sends Starscream flying. Megatron goes over to where he lands and, er...um...apologizes? (For the life of me, I can't figure this bit out. Megs apologizes and tells Starscream that he's done an "excellent job." His tone of voice seems kind of sarcastic, all overly-solicitous. Yet he doesn't add an insult, as I would have expected. Just when I think I've got the guy figured out...) Well, anyway, Megs is quite pleased. He has a new toy. He can't wait to try it out. And a likely target soon turns up...

Back at Autobot HQ, they're still watching the pretty pictures from the sky spy, which Spike, taking over in the exposition department, says is flying over the "Andes Mountains in Peru." (Funny, they don't look like the Andes...Not nearly high enough and waaaay too green... :) ) The sky spy's picking up a strange energy reading from the ruins. Wonder what that could mean...

Laserbeak, who's out joyriding, spots the sky spy somehow (Geez, he's got good eyesight...The sky spy's in orbit, for pity's sake! Laserbeak can't be more than a few thousand feet about the mountains. Geez...) Laserbeak transmits the fact that they have a visitor to Megatron...who promptly gives said visitor a warm welcome by blowing the sky spy up with his new superweapon. (And Megs has some good sharpshooting skills there! Geez! I'm envious...)

Back at Autobot HQ, Teletran's screen flares with the explosion. "What happened?" Spike asked. (Bit obvious, I should say, Spike-O...) In Peru, the locals freak out at the sight of a beam of energy emanating from the ruins. "The ancient gods have returned to punish us," an old woman laments. But the nameless teenage chick wearing big, honkin' earrings with her begs to differ. The ancient gods are history, she points out (Yeah...That's why they call them "ancient."), but she adds that if the "Crystal of Power has been rediscovered, [they] have much to fear." (Right, because then the tourists will come to see it...and tourists ruin everything.)

Up on the pyramid, meanwhile, the barrel of the weapon frame is drooping rather...*ahem*...amusingly. And Megs is gloating that the crystal is "superb." He likes his new toy, yeeeesssss... The power of absolute destruction is, according to him, his. Starscream snipes, "You mean, 'Ours.'" At which point Megatron accuses Starscream of being responsible for the weapon frame's droopiness. (Aw, just give it some Viagra, Megs. It'll be OK.) Starscream, meanwhile, passes the buck to poor Thundercracker, who's quite peeved. "You lie, Starscream!" he says, all adorably outraged. Megs doesn't care, though. He just wants someone to hit...and poor Thundercracker is the closest, most convenient target. So, over the side of the pyramid Thundercracker goes, poor boy... Megs orders him and Starscream to stay and guard the crystal while the others go off to get some Viagra--I mean, some more steel. (Great plan, Megatron! Those two are quite obviously not getting along very well at the moment. Of course their attentions will be fixed solely on guarding the crystal! *Nightwind rolls her eyes* So what does he do, anyway? He leaves those two behind to guard the all-important crystal, leaving only Skywarp to babysit? Swear, Megatron can be such an idiot sometimes!)

Meanwhile...Uh, we're in the Arctic again? Why, yes! The Autobots have apparently decided that Skyfire's been cooling his heels (And everything else, too) long enough. Sideswipe's using a jackhammer-like think of the ice while Wheeljack stands around watching, encouraging Sideswipe to keep working while he stands there and does nothing. Wheeljack's certain that "he'll turn up soon." Can't happen fast enough for Sideswipe, who notes that "It's cold enough to freeze the ailerons off a Titanian moosebot." (OK...I doubt that there are moose on Titan, bot-like or otherwise. And, besides that, I just can't picture a moose-like thing with ailerons. Well, actually, no...I CAN picture a moose-like thing with ailerons...and the mental picture is making me giggle... 'Scuse me for a moment. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! All right, I'm OK now...) Anyway, finally the ice breaks, crumbling to reveal water below...and, like an ice cube in a glass of lemonade, up pops Skyfire, all encased in ice. "Bingo!" Wheeljack crows. "It's Skyfire," Sideswipe adds, just in case our ice-encased friend could be mistaken for anyone else. (And, I might add, Sideswipe sounds an awful lot like Scrapper for that line. Methinks Mr. Bell forgot who he was voicing for a moment there...) Wheeljack fires what is apparently a heat ray out of his shoulder-mounted gun thingy at Skyfire, defrosting him. He asks Skyfire if he's warm enough to transform. (Sure, 'Jack. I mean, he only just spent who-knows-how-long on ice, a condition from which he was freed approximately 1.2 seconds ago. Of course he's just raring to go. *sigh* Methinks Wheeljack's one of those disgusting morning people. He can wake up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the crack of dawn after a good night's sleep, so he expects everyone else to do so, too, not realizing that some of us are night owls who only went to bed an hour before the crack of dawn and who are only a notch above comatose at any time before noon...) Skyfire, sounding a little groggy, says he "hopes so," fires up the old engines...and manages to transform. He thanks Wheeljack. (Hey, what about Sideswipe?! He was the one who did all the work, dammit!) Wheeljack wastes no time telling Skyfire where to go (Yep, definitely a morning person)--namely, to Autobot Headquarters to pick up Brawn and Windcharger, and thence to the Andes Mountains.

Half a second later, Windcharger and Brawn are swan-diving out of Skyfire to assault some Decepticons while Skyfire goes off to check out the ruins. Brawn lands in mid air atop Soundwave (Woo hoo! :) Sorry...) while Windcharger assaults a Reflector guy, diverting the poor guy's flight path so that it intersects with the ground. Brawn, whooping like a cowboy riding a bronco, sends Soundwave hurtling into a cliff face and then faces off against a landing Megatron, who asserts that "a midget like [Brawn] can't handle the mighty Megatron." (*snort, cough* HAH! *snort, guffaw* Don'tcha just love it when Megaego christens himself "mighty." ) He shoots Brawn with his cannon, sending him hurtling back into poor Soundwave, who's just picking himself up after making friends with the cliff face. Windcharger, being sensible, decides it's time to go. Brawn, yanking his arm out of the cliff face in which it had gotten stuck, protests. He doesn't want to miss all the fun. Windcharger, still being sensible, doesn't think much of Brawn's idea of a good time. He's outta there, with Laserbeak hot on his tail. He contacts Skyfire, who does a U-turn off of his current flight path and goes back to assist the Little Ones.

Soundwave, meanwhile, is shooting Brawn...in the head. And yet, he doesn't die! :) He merely complains that it's "murder on [his] audio receptors." Megs joins in the fun by transforming and Sounder fires the MegaGun repeatedly at Brawn, missing as Brawn leaps nimbly out of the way each time, in the end jumping up onto a bluff. Finally, he calls Skyfire and Windcharger for help...just as Soundwave from below levels the MegaGun at Brawn's back and intones, "Prepare for...oblivion." Windcharger, still fleeing from the Wrath of Laserbeak, is heading back toward Brawn, setting up the Daring Rescue Maneuver™, to use Powerglide's term. Megatron transforms again to take care of Brawn "personally." Skyfire, racing to the scene, begins the countdown. Windcharger, yelling "I'm coming, Brawn baby!" drives into Brawn, who winds up on Windcharger's hood just as Megatron leaps up onto the bluff. Windcharger, with Brawn aboard, drives off the cliff and Skyfire swoops in to grab them before they crash. Safely aboard Skyfire, Windcharger decides they need to rustle up a few more friends. (Good idea, 'Charger... Now why didn't y'all think of that in the first place...? :) )

Back at Autobot HQ, it's "All aboard Skyfire" time and just about all the Autobots heed the call. (Geez, just how big is Skyfire...?) And then it's back to Peru (Skyfire's really puttin' the miles on the odometer in this episode, isn't he? Pretty impressive, given that he was a block of ice just a bit ago... :) ) And, two seconds later, there they are, back in the way-too-green Andes. The Autobots disembark and after that he's off to the ruins...again, though not before Optimus Prime disturbingly gives him a few affectionate pats on his jet nose... :) The Autobots are off to the mining town where Megatron was going to get his Viag--I mean, steel. :)

Skyfire, meanwhile, is coming in for a landing at the ruins. He ambles about a bit, making rueful comments about being too big for spy work.

At the mining town, Megatron and Co. are snitchin' steel again...until the Autobots drive through the door. (See, Megatron? Doors! Doors are good. Doors are your friends. You like doors. You will use them.) But then Optimus Prime rams Megatron, sending him through the wall, anyway. *sigh* While being shoved through the wall, Megatron's fusion cannon pops off his arm...and Brawn drives by and snatches it up. Transforming, he blasts Megatron with his own weapon. Megs gets blown backwards...and Brawn gets blown back, too, by the weapon's recoil. "Now that was a kick," he laments, just as Laserbeak swoops in and snatches Megs' gun back from him, pissing off Brawn. Megs reattaches his gun, which Laserbeak drops off to him and tries to shoot Brawn, but Brawn leaps out of the way again. (He's got the grace of a gazelle, I'm tellin' ya! :) ) Meanwhile, Soundwave and the Reflector guy are shooting at Bluestreak and Windcharger, who also leap out of the way. The Decepticons' shots topple over an electrical tower, which falls right in the direction of...that Peruvian chick from earlier in the episode, who is just suddenly and inexplicably standing there. She yells for help.

Bumblebee to the rescue! He scoops up the nameless Peruvian chick (Let's call her "PC," shall we...? Not to be confused with "TC" for Thundercracker, of course... :) ) PC thanks Spike for saving her life...and tells Spike about the Crystal of Power and how "these evil creatures" have stolen it. Then Laserbeak attacks. But, once Bluestreak blows 'Beak outta the sky, Spike has time to ask what a Crystal of Power is. PC asserts that she will take Spike to it. And off they go!

Meanwhile, Megatron puts in a call to Skywarp, reporting that he's created an alloy suitable for a new weapon frame (All this while multiple laser blasts bounce off of him, mind you.) He orders Skywarp to leave Screamer and TC to guard the crystal and come and pick it up. Screamer's ticked that he has to stay behind, declaring that he's too "mighty" for such menial tasks. (Heh...What is it with Decepticons calling themselves mighty in this episode?) Vastly amused by Starscream's histrionics, Skywarp takes off, telling Starscream to have fun playing "crystal nurse," and then, with a cheerfully sarcastic "Byyyyye!" he takes off, all too happy, one imagines, to be outta there...

Spike, PC, and Bumblebee, meanwhile, have found a secret passageway into the pyramid. PC's been there before, she asserts, so she knows where she's going.. Unfortunately, Soundwave sends Ravage after them...

Skyfire, meanwhile, is still traipsing around the pyramid, climbing the steps, muttering that he must destroy the Decepticons' new weapon. And Thundercracker, apparently, overhears him...and apparently thinks, "Hey! That's not such a bad idea!" Why? Because then Megatron would blame Starscream for it...which, given that TC is not having a fun day with The Screaming One, would make TC quite the happy little camper. Starscream, overhearing this, gets righteously ticked, steals Cliffjumper's line and names Thundercracker a "traitor," and then shoots at Thundercracker...who ducks...and the blast hits Skyfire, who goes flying without the benefit of transforming first. Starscream looks at him, then turns back to TC and threatens the hell out of him. (Geez, and they say Soundwave's the blackmailer... :) )

Meanwhile, back at the factory, Skywarp's reporting for cargo-carrying duty...and the Decepticons are outta there! Yes, friends, it's another pointless G1 gun fight... :) And, as a distraction to keep the Bots busy, Megatron shoots at a mountainside, sending a rain of boulders down into the town. The humans run for their lives, the Autobots go weak in the knees. It's just a mess. The Autobots' solution to the mess is to shoot the big boulders and make them into a bigger mess of littler boulders. (*sigh* Men! Always making a mess!)

Meanwhile, Bumblebee with Spike and PC aboard and Ravage--unbeknownst to him--on his tail is driving around the guts of the pyramid. Starscream and Thundercracker are carrying Skyfire's unconscious body into the temple for some unknown reason. Megatron pops up out of nowhere to congratulate them for nabbing Skyfire (Oh, if you only knew, Megs... :) ) Megs apparently plans to reprogram him and make him a Decepticon again (Didn't you learn anything from "Fire in the Sky," Megs? Yeesh!), a Decepticon whom Megs thinks will be "far more valuable" than Starscream and Thundercracker. (HAH! Dream on, Megs!) Then they all troop out, leaving Skyfire lying there...unguarded...just waiting for rescue.

As if on cue, there's Bumblebee. Spike hops out, sees Skyfire, and declares that "He's hurt!" (How do you know, Spike? Maybe he just found an ancient stash of tequila and had a private party and discovered that he can hold his liquor about as well as Thundercracker can...which isn't very well: See "Microbots." But then, Skyfire does have the little bitty boo-boo on his chest...What a wuss! Little bitty boo-boo, and he's out like a light... :) )

Up on top of the pyramid, the weapon' ready to go again. Megs blows up the mountaintop across the way and pats the weapon affectionately. He declares it "Absolute perfection!"

Meanwhile, down inside the pyramid, Bumblebee is ogling the gusher of energy spewing out of the altar while Spike roots around in Skyfire's innards, trying to get him functioning again. That's when Ravage decides to visit. Bumblebee faces off against Rav and tells Spike to keep working...

Outside, the Autobots are arriving, and Megs fairly salivates at the opportunity to introduce them to his new toy. Megatron, with Laserbeak sitting on his shoulder like a parrot on a pirate, has all kinds of fun trying to pick off the Autobots...and missing, of course...though he does manage to bury a few under rocks. "Such is the fate of all who oppose me," he gloats. (What? To be buried under rocks?) But Trailbreaker unburies himself, muttering "Fate, shmate." He and the also-formerly-buried Wheeljack fire back. And the battle proceeds as usual: Lots of laser fire, very little damage.

Inside the pyramid, Spike's still fixin' and Bumblebee's still gettin' mauled. Finally, Spike succeeds in reviving Skyfire, who sends Ravage packing before transforming and...somehow managing to fly out of the pyramid? (Okaaaay...)

Ironhide and Optimus Prime are foolishly running up the side of the pyramid, meanwhile. Megs turns the Big Gun on them. and they retreat, dodging its blasts. Ironhide declares that "this is what separates the Autobots from the robot chickens." Brawn bristles at that, making it clear that no one calls him a robot chicken. And he and Windcharger...well, charge. And Starscream shoots Windcharger. And Brawn, outraged, decks Starscream, sending him crashing into Megatron, which sends blasts from the Big Gun splattering helter-skelter. Ironhide takes the opportunity to deck Megatron...and pounds on his face? (Yeah, get 'im, 'Hide!) Skyfire, meanwhile, strafes the Decepticons on the ground and Brawn manages to push Starscream off the pyramid. (It's "King of the Hill," TF-style! :) ) Megatron, meanwhile, has gotten the better of Ironhide, and engages in a game of catch with Optimus Prime. And then he levels the gun at Ironhide and Optimus, who gawk at him like dorks. But never fear! At that moment, Skyfire flies by and blows up the weapon, Crystal of Power and all. Megatron cries. (OK, not really, but he does vow revenge.) But since he's distracted, Optimus takes the opportunity to deck him and then toss him off the pyramid. (Making Optimus "King of the Hill". Of course...*grumble*) Megs lands on his head. But apparently he's got a hard head for he gets right up and...calls for a retreat, of course. In Skywarp's words; "Byyyyyye!" As they fly off, Thundercracker takes the opportunity to razz the upper echelons of the Decepticon hierarchy, declaring that Megs and Screamer look "real geeky" and that maybe the Autobots aren't such wimps after all. (Oooooo...Methinks TC's gonna get a whuppin' for that one when they get back to their HQ, poor boy...) As TC flies on ahead, Starscream complains about TC's noise and a headache. Megs mutters scathingly, "And they call themselves Decepticons." (Yes, Megatron. Yes, they do.) And then he vows "I SHALL RETUUUUUURN!" (Thank you, General MacArthurtron! :) )

Later, the energy is still spewing out of the top of the pyramid like a geyser. Wheeljack has apparently devised something to control the flow, which PC asserts will tearn the mountain apart if left unchecked. She's a little concerned over whether Wheeljack's invention will work. Spike's reply: "With Wheeljack's inventions, you never can tell..." (Oh, that's real reassuring, Spike-O *sigh*) But, nonetheless, Wheeljack and Skyfire pop what looks like a manhole cover over the energy geyser...and all is well. Well...for now, at least. Skyfire says he'd shake Wheeljack's hand if he could see it. And, on cue, the rest of the Autobots, in vehicle form and aiming up the sides of the pyramid, turn on their headlights, floodlighting the pyramid. Wheeljack and Skyfire have that handshake, Spike and PC wheedle a ride back into town, and Bumblebee does the taxi thing. Mid-ride, PC asserts that she wants Bumblebee to meet Juanita, her brother's convertible. Bumblebee responds with a big, stupid bumper grin and an "Aw, shucks!" :) (One wonders why BB's so excited. It's just a non-sentient car, for pity's sake. Then again, it has been four million years for the poor boy... ;) )

Back to the top!

Nightwind's Unsolicited Opinions

Y'know...I really like this episode, and there's really only one main and rather goofy reason why I like this episode. And that reason would be two rather snippy Decepticons. Yes, apparently something crawled up both Starscream's and Thundercracker's afterburners and died shortly before this episode began, and it just makes me giggle to watch them snipe at each other as a result. And, to top it all off, it seems to amuse Skywarp quite thoroughly, as well. :)

Now, snippiness is by no means unusual with Starscream, but Thundercracker is not often like that... In fact, Thundercracker, poor boy, is not often like anything in the cartoon. He rarely has illuminating character moments...which, truth to tell, is why I like him. :) A lot. :) Why? Because he's always there — He physically appears in many episodes — yet his character is basically undeveloped. This leaves me free to interpret him as I want to interpret him, to give him a mind and a life and a personality, and while I do that, I don't have to worry about the life I give him conflicting with his "official" life, since... Well, the poor boy doesn't really have an official life, does he? So, I have a clear vision of what I think Thundercracker's like in my little head--Quiet but competent, dependable, not show-offy, not whiny, not trying to draw attention to himself. In short, he's a normal guy. In fact, in the "TF Universe According to Nightwind," Thundercracker's a normal guy drowning in a horde of a variety of different kinds of nuts, from Megatron's egomania, to Skywarp's show-offiness, to Starscream's...er, Starscreamness. :) And that's how he was to me for quite a long time.

And then, relatively recently in the scheme of my TF fandom, I read Thundercracker's Transformers Universe profile thingy...and liked it. A lot. Why? Because it didn't conflict with how I already envisioned him, for one thing. More than that, it practically was how I saw him — A sane, thinking person who does his job. Even though he's not always thrilled with his job. Even though he thinks that maybe he shouldn't be doing the job that he's doing. Yet he plods on, thinking...brooding...yet not really taking any action to change his life. He's conflicted, according to his profile. And according to me. Conflicted characters draw me in like a magnet.

So then there's "Fire on the Mountain." Thundercracker's being a little cranky. With good reason, since he became Starscream's scapegoat for the episode and got walloped by Megatron because of it. And there he is, debating out loud whether or not he should stop Skyfire from destroying the latest Decepticon Ultimate Weapon™. (And you know what? I think he would have let Skyfire destroy it, if Starscream hadn't intervened...) It's nice to see that bit of "Thinking Thundercracker." This is, I think, a bit of the Thundercracker of his TF Universe profile showing through. He doesn't blindly do what he's told — at least not all the time. He has to think about it, mull it over in his head. And that's just what he's doing in this episode. And it's the only time that anything like this shows up in regards to Thundercracker. That, along with the amusing arguing with Starscream and Skywarp's "Bye!" line, makes me like the episode. Just that, nothing more. :)

Welllllll...Except for the bit with Windcharger and Brawn. At this point in the series, I haven't gotten to the point where I actively hate Brawn's little macho, testosterone-overdosed guts (No, that happens in "Microbots," a story to be saved for that review. :) ). And he's amusing in this episode, along with Windcharger, whom I've always just...well, liked for some inexplicable reason. I just have a thing for level-headed, sensible characters, I guess. But this episode is the start of a trend, I think, with Brawn, that being his obsession with whupping Soundwave, of all people. He's always going after Soundwave, for some reason. Don't know if that was intentional or just coincidental, but there it is. The fight between Meg and Soundwave and Brawn is just...amusing. It's like David vs. the Goliaths. One wittle bitty guy against two big guns. (One who's literally a big gun, no less. :) ) And the wittle guy wins, of course, thanks to the level-headedness of Windcharger and a swooping-in-from-the-heavens Skyfire. :) It's just...cute. Love that scene. :)

Speaking of Skyfire...He's baaaaack! :) Seemed awfully easy to dig him up, too. Just a few good whacks from Sideswipe on the ice, and "Whoomp! There he is!" One wonders, as I said in my review of "Fire in the Sky," what took the Autobots so long... Did they just not like Skyfire so they decided to leave him literally on ice for a while? Did they think he was dead? If so, what made them change their minds and start thinking that, "HEY! Maybe Skyfire's still alive down there...?" Why no trace of relief to find out that, hey! He is alive after all! That bit's just always not sat well with me... I hate sudden, unexplained turnarounds like that.

And the other thing that's never sat well with me in the TF cartoon is...scale inconsistencies. They tend to drive me absolutely, positively batty. One episode a given TF appears to be four stories tall (or more!). The next, he's fitting comfortably into...oh...an Incan temple. :)

Let's just put aside for a moment the minor fact that, as far as I know, the Inca didn't build pyramids. :) The pre-Incan cultures of Peru did and the Inca's neighbors to the north — the Aztec and the earlier Maya in Mexico — certainly did, but the Inca did not. So let's just pretend that no mention of the Inca was made and that the episode takes place in Mexico, not Peru, and the pyramid in question is...Mayan. :) Even if we can do that, though, Mayan pyramids have no inner chambers, no internal altars as shown in this episode. At least, not that we know of. (The altars were at the top of the pyramid and the pyramid's purpose was to raise them. Nothing more. Egyptian pyramids have internal chambers, since their primary purpose was to serve as a mausoleum; Mayan pyramids served a very different purpose, one both religious and, often, astronomical.) For the purpose here, I'll let the writer get away with the Incan thing without (much :) ) comment from me, other than to say that a little research would have done a world of good.

But I will say that I highly doubt a TF could fit inside a pyramid even if there were chambers in it. The inside of a pyramid, if it has an inside, is not by any stretch of the imagination spacious. An average-sized human can just barely fit through the passages inside an Egyptian pyramid--which is a lot larger than the largest of the still-standing Mayan pyramids at Chichen Itza in Mexico. And I would certainly think that Skyfire — who to this point in the series is the largest TF we've seen, several times larger than Optimus or Megatron — couldn't fit. If nothing else, he could barely hide behind the ruins — He even makes a comment about being too big! — let alone fit inside them! Yeesh! The mind boggles.

And, in fact, as I recall this was the first episode that actually made me really notice and start to pay attention to scale inconsistencies...so I guess I should hate it for that. :) Like I said, the issue can drive me absolutely insane sometimes...

But, overall, the best thing about this episode is its character development and the interplay between Starscream, Thundercracker, and, to a lesser extent, Skywarp. Those three guys are amongst my favorite characters and I have definite ideas about the relationship that exists between them, warts and all. And, truth to tell, their relationship in my mind is very much as you see it here, though I tend to think of Skywarp as more adversarial with Starscream than Thundercracker — but this will do. It's the only time that all three of them get any sort of real on-screen, non-fighting interaction, other than odd, brief moments, as in "Divide and Conquer." As a fan of the three of them, I've just gotta love that... :)

And now, before I go...A few Nightwind Wonderments™ (Besides the scale thing and the "Incan" pyramid thing. :)):

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Great Moments

Oh, my goodness! Good lines and moments just all over the place in this one. To wit:

The Thundercracker vs. Thundercracker debate: "Yeah, but even without our new weapon, I can still fry your circuits extra crispy. Megatron would love it...But that geeky Starscream would take all the credit. On the other hand, if I let you wreck our new weapon, Megatron might blame Starscream...which would make me very happy..."

Starscream's response to the Thundercracker vs. Thundercracker debate: "And as for you, traitor, from now on you will do exactly what this geeky Decepticon tells you ...or I'll report your treachery to Megatron and he'll have you melted into welding rods!" (Yeeeeeee-OUCH! :))

Brawn steals Megatron's fusion cannon! And shoots him with it! HAH! Talk about your poetic justice... :)

Besides that, we've got cute Brawn Bits:

Windcharger, to Brawn, after Brawn asserts that single-handedly fighting Megatron and Soundwave is fun: "Remind me to discuss your definition of fun some time."

Skywarp: "Have fun playing crystal nurse, Screamer! Byyyyyye!" (Which, by the way, is the only time that my preferred nickname for Starscream is used by a fellow Decepticon in the cartoon. :) Other than that, only Cliffjumper uses it later on... )

The bit while Spike is trying to fix Skyfire and Bumblebee's grappling with Ravage:
Bumblebee: "Spike! *grunt* I can't hold out...*grunt*...much longer! AARRGH!"
Spike: "There! I think I've got it!"
Bumblebee: "I hope so because--Mmmph!--I'm sure getting it!"

And there are probably others, too...but I think that's enough to get the point across. :)

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Appearance List!

The following characters have lines in "Fire on the Mountain." In order of first line spoken, they are:

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Totally Arbitrary Overall Rating, Just For the Heck of It

It has its niggling inaccuracies as far as its setting goes, as I pointed it out, and it has its bafflements. But I love the character development and all the cute bits in this one, so much so that I can overlook the inaccuracies that would normally put me off and/or drive me batty. This is particularly so because it's my beloved Thundercracker who's getting the characterization. :) And then he promptly disappears back into his customary role of "physical ubiquity but character anonymity." But still...

Besides that, the episode's plethora of cute lines and moments sure doesn't hurt it, from my point of view. :) I like it! I gives it a...8.5.