Master of the House

« Beast Machines: Transformers ep 2 »
Master of the House, quick to catch the eye, never likes a passerby to pass him by...
"Master of the House"
Season	1
No. in season	2
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	September 25, 1999
Written by	Marty Isenberg Bob Skir
Directed by	Steve Sacks
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

After their reformatting, the amnesiac Maximals come face to face with the source of their troubles.

Synopsis

Unlace your boots, rest from the road

Under the teachings of Optimus Primal, the Maximals are mastering their technorganic bodies, controlling their "emotional center" vital for transformation. Cheetor and Blackarachnia manage to use their technorganic transformations properly, but Rattrap is still struggling with his new body. But their time in robot mode is limited, as a rumbling shakes the chamber and a Mole Drone attacks the Maximals. The shock forces Cheetor and Blackarachnia back into their beast modes, and they take shelter behind Optimus.

Optimus Primal leaps in front of the frightened Maximals and deflects the blasts, all the while explaining that they reverted because they lost their emotional balance. Primal destroys the mindless Vehicon with a blast of energy, but knows it's time to leave, hopefully to find a new base and continue their transformation lessons. Although Cheetor wants to visit Cybertropolis and search for survivors, Optimus overrules his suggestion, insisting that they need to get a handle on their new transformations before they go out looking for trouble. They split up to search out a new training ground. Blackarachnia and Cheetor are paired together (real smart pairing them up, ya big munky), and Rattrap and Primal go the opposite way.

Two percent for looking in the mirror twice!

Cheetor and Blackarachnia (with some goading on Blackarachnia's part) decide to go topside. As soon as they clamber up from the caves, they discover that they are in Cybertropolis, Cybertron's current capital. Cybertropolis should be home to "ten million Transformers", but the duo find it deserted, with the Cybertron InfoCore deleted and useless.

Kidney of a horse, liver of a cat, filling up the sausages with this and that

Before the pair can investigate further, they are attacked by Aero Drones, and plunge off the side of a building before they can slide to safety. As he runs, Cheetor attempts to transform, but Blackarachnia drags him to safety. Cheetor leads two jets into Blackarachania's web-trap, but the pair are still outnumbered. Fortunately, Optimus also arrives. He quickly transforms into robot mode and takes to the air, but is soon overwhelmed.

Cheetor and Blackarachnia manage to transform, and they quickly dispatch the drones with their new weapons and powers. Optimus scolds Cheetor for disobeying orders, but is admittedly intrigued at their findings. Optimus orders the group to head to the Council Citadel, hoping to find answers. Rattrap moves ahead of the rest of the group, but encounters a platoon of Tank Drones. Optimus orders Cheetor and Blackarachnia to hold off the drones while he investigates inside. When he gets inside, he heads to the chambers of the Maximal Elders.

What a cruel trick of nature / Landed me with such a louse / God knows how I've lasted / Living with this bastard in the house

Reaching the council meeting room, Optimus Primal comes face to face with the leader of the drones—Megatron, now encased in a suit of control armor! He greets Primal cordially, and decides to "fill in" the gaps in Primal's memory. Megatron claims that he won the Beast Wars, and that after arriving on Cybertron conquered the populace, remodelling Cybertron into his own image. Megatron's Cybertron is one of technological purity, devoid of organic life. Thus, he explains, came the Vehicons, sparkless Transformers who will serve Megatron and crush Primal's "mongrel" Maximals.

However, the Maximals manage to survive the Vehicons, their technorganic bodies and spark-powered ingenuity foiling the mindless might of the drones. Frustrated by the Maximals' survival, Primal's goading pushes Megatron to the breaking point. Enraged, Megatron breaks free of his harness and transforms into his dragon form, deactivating the drones in the process. Primal and Megatron fight, but Megatron reconnects to his control harness and summons more Vehicons, mocking Primal all the while. The other three Maximals arrive just in time to drag their grief-stricken leader away to safety.

Safe underground, the Maximals inquire about what happened in the council chamber. Optimus explains that all of this happened because he failed to destroy Megatron. Now, Optimus vows, it's up to him to correct that mistake.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Rattrap: "I am transformed, I am sooo transformed I can't even believe it!...ehhh".
Optimus: "Just let it happen, don't try to make it happen."
[Rattrap tries to force himself to transform]
Optimus: "Can you feel it?"
Rattrap: "Oh! I feel a breakthrough coming..."

—Rattrap tries to transform but fails (and makes a dirty double entendre at the same time).

"Aww, come on, ever since we got to Cybertron, all we've done is run and hide."

—Cheetor, who is way more right than he knows.

"Cybertron is now my domain. You may bow before your new lord and master."

—Megatron lets Optimus know who's in charge.

"I am the future. I have forged this entire planet into a single elegant machine. A vision of technological purity and order. And you four mongrels would dare contaminate that vision with your accursed beast modes."

—Megatron speechifies.

"What's wrong, Megatron? Is your single elegant machine having trouble multitasking?"

—Optimus burns Megatron.

"Look at yourself, Megatron. See the thing you despise the most. Cybertron will never be pure as long as the beast exists within you. You've failed."

—Optimus while holding Megatron by the beast neck.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• As she walks on the underground tunnel's ceiling, the shadow that Blackarachnia casts on the wall doesn't actually touch her legs, making it look like she's floating.
• The streaks of dust kicked off by the Cycle Drones in the citadel's hallway keep disappearing between shots. In the shot that focuses on the head of one Drone, some dust can be seen forming to its right without anything kicking it off.
• As Primal smashes his way through the Cycle Drones, a bunch of metal pieces keep floating in the air.
• In one shot with Primal running to the door to the Elders Councilroom, one of the Cycle Drones has Thrust's colors, even though Thrust has not yet debuted.
• As the Drone that ramped off one of its companions falls toward the Councilroom door, it remains stuck in the air for a couple of seconds after reaching it.
• After Megatron breaks free from Optimus' grip, there seem to be weird "spikes" coming out of one of his dragon-fingers on both hands. Likely a rigging error in his animation model, which gets fixed in later shots.
• When Megatron transforms from his dragon mode back to his all-controlling-mastermind-mode, the transformation sequence used is the sleeker, non-damaged one of his Transmetal 2 appearance in Beast Wars.
• In the following shot, as Primal watches Megatron, there seems to be a hole on the side of his robot mode head, behind which a gray color keeps flashing.
• The scar over Megatron's eye switches sides in some shots.
• As they react to Optimus tumbling down into the darkness, Blackarachnia's right arm disappears into Cheetor's chest. Then, as they spin around, their arms clip through each other.

Continuity errors

• How does Cheetor follow Blackarachnia up what appears to be a perfectly smooth vertical pipe? Does his new beast mode come with magnetic paws?
• How does Blackarachnia, who was born on prehistoric Earth, know what the Cybertron Infocore even is?
• Blackarachnia is either a very fast web-spinner or those jet drones took their time!
• It's never been made clear why Megatron- who previously seemed to relish his dragon mode- suddenly had an abrupt change of heart regarding organic alternate modes. Presumably something happened to him after arriving on Cybertron, but the exact circumstances have never been explained or explored.
• Megatron still has his Transmetal 2 body, which used to be huge and scarcely the same size as Optimal Optimus, who in turn was massive compared to the other beast warriors. Optimus Primal got an upgrade to his original, smaller Beast form, yet during their face-off Megatron and Optimus are roughly the same size.

Continuity notes

• Cheetor welcomes Blackarachnia to Cybertropolis, the latter has never been to Cybertron before, having emerged from a stasis pod on ancient Earth.
• Megatron claims that the Maximals lost the Beast Wars. Since Optimus is amnesiac and Megatron did escape to conquer Cybertron (thus pissing on everything the Maximals fought for), this is obviously a taunt and not Bob Skir ignoring the end of "Nemesis Part 2".
• The Maximal Elders received infrequent mentions throughout Beast Wars. It's not clear how Megatron deposed of them, but as Rampage proves, maybe it's not such a bad thing that they've been taken out of the picture...
• Megatron's dragon form looks like a patchwork cyborg rather than the smooth, reddish version it originally was; as we find out in subsequent episodes, this is due to a large number of failed experiments to rid his body of all organic elements. His robot form is altered to make it look more fully mechanical: the dragon wings form a cloak that hides his actual body, and he then plugs into a control harness that provides a larger helmet and arms that look completely mechanical. He has also picked up a scar across his right eye, likely also from his experiments to rid his beast mode.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Rattrap wields an automated, tail-mounted screwdriver in beast mode.

Transformers references

Real-world references

Trivia

• It is never explained why Megatron is unable to purge his beast mode. It would seem plausable all it would take is simply scanning a vehicle to receive a new alternate mode, or if anything has prevented him from discarding the organic elements, it is never revealed. After everything he experienced on Earth, from the Transmetal-creating Quantum surge to taking his legendary namesake's spark into his own body, any number of things might be the cause.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Maître du Conseil" ("Master of the Council")

German

• Title: "Cybertropolis"
• Original airdate: December 3, 2000

Italian

• Title: "Il padrone del mondo" ("The master of the world")

Japanese

• Title: "Yasei no Chōkyō" (野性の調教, "The Training of the Wild")
• Original airdate: November 7, 2004

Mandarin

• Title: "Zài Zhēng Bàzhǔ" (再争霸主, "The Fight for Hegemony Again")

Polish

• Title: "Pan Własnego Domu" ("Lord Of His Own House")

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Mestre da Casa" ("Master of the House")

Spanish

• Title: "El Amo y Señor" ("The Lord and Master")

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns — Volume 1 (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 One: Volume One (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season One: Volume One — Reformatting (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Complete Season One (Sony)
2009 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Intégrale Saison 1 (Sony) — French audio only.