With the aid of his new minions, the Constructicons, Megatron creates a machine that will allow him to use his troops abilities, which he uses to take on Prime in a one-on-one duel.
- All Your Powers Combined:
- Megatron’s scheme this time is to do this to beat Optimus in battle, by having his allies give him their power chip rectifiers so he can handle the power boost.
- Defied at the end, when Optimus states that he’ll beat Megatron using only his powers.Optimus: No, Megatron! You will not have to fight all Autobot powers at once. Just me!
[shoots Megatron before he has a chance to react]
- All There in the Manual: The hologram Hound projects was later stated by Transformers: Wings of Honor to be a hologram of an actual Autobot called Halonix Maximus.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Megatron used his underhandedness to beat Optimus in combat, forcing the Autobots to leave Earth. This victory is short lived, however when his cheating is exposed.
- Combining Mecha: Devastator makes his debut here.
- Combat Pragmatist: Having already lost a duel of honor where Megatron cheated, during the final battle Optimus decides to simply shoot Megatron instead of dueling him hand-to-hand again. He also shoots Devastator while he's distracted by the hologram of Halonix Maximus.
- Continuity Snarl: Megatron says in this episode that he built the Constructicons on Earth. But during the second season, it's shown the Constructicons used to live on Cybertron, implying they originated there and NOT on Earth. The Wings of Honor comics later said the Construticons were rebuilt on Earth after being heavily damaged in an ambush on Cybertron and Megatron demoted Hook to second-in-command but didn't bother to change the combination, hence why Hook is the head and shoulders and Scrapper is the left leg.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Megatron’s new abilities allow him to deliver a one-sided beatdown to Prime.
- Didn't Think This Through: Megatron’s plan is to have the Constructicons destroy Teletraan 1 to prevent the Autobots from learning about his cheating. But wouldn’t a smoking, destroyed computer be an even bigger tip-off?
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In this episode, not only does Devastator use “The Devastator” in place of pronouns, but he goes down to a One-Hit Kill. Later episodes would make him more indestructible (until new toys came along) and give him some (but not many) pronouns.
- The End... Or Is It?: As Prime and Spike wonder if falling into lava has destroyed the Decepticons once and for all, Megatron once again rises from the ashes to vow revenge.Megatron: We shall rise again.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Starscream of all people believes that Megatron should simply play by the rules of his own challenge rather than cheat. Suffice to say, he's proven right at the end when the enraged Autobots blast the Decepticons into a lava channel in revenge for Megatron's cheating.
- Lazy Artist: An Ashi/Nakamura Pro Season 1 joint (with storyboards provided by Sei Young), so inconsistencies abound here. Not as bad as their earlier efforts, but there's the usual mix of Depending on the Artist and genuine goofs and oddities regarding the artwork (Megatron's oversized helmet during the power transfer, Huffer gaining an additional pair of wheels as he takes Optimus' trailer, Rumble being called Runble and being referred to as a "red robot" on Teletraan I's monitor as a few examples). These issues are only worsened by the Rhino DVD release, which uses an incomplete film print of the episode (much like the rest of Season 1) that introduces errors not seen in most other releasesnote . Rhino's own attempts to fix these mistakes are either half-assed or outright non-existent.
- Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Cybertronian Code states that the loser of a duel must exile himself and his followers to deep space forever. If it weren’t for Megatron cheating, the Autobots would have lost the war for good.
- Pet the Dog: Huffer, normally the crabbiest Autobot, takes on Prime’s trailer when the latter is too weak to pull it.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Chip likens the duel between Optimus and Megatron to Roman Gladiatorial Combat. Although Cybertron has its own history of Gladiator Games, Ironhide is not familiar enough with Earth history to get the reference.Chip: Doesn't this remind you of the gladiatorial combats of Ancient Rome?
Ironhide: Maybe it would if I knew what you were talking about. - Series Fauxnale: The episode was written to serve as a finale in case the show wasn’t renewed for season 2.Spike: Is it really over, Optimus? I mean, have we seen the end of this war? Forever?
Optimus: Who can say, Spike? In this vast universe, is anything truly forever? - Summon Bigger Fish:
- When the Constructicons invade the Ark, Teletraan 1 activates the Dinobots to chase them off.
- Subverted with the even bigger robot that the Autobots seemingly unleash against Devastator… it’s just a hologram.
- Wham Shot: The Dinobots have stopped Scrapper and his crew from wrecking the Ark and seemingly got them to transform and retreat. Only for them instead to transform into limbs! That come together as one.
