Recap / Transformers G 1 Sea Change

On the planet Tlalak, native rebels led by Princess Alana have scored their first major victory against the Decepticon overseers who are plundering the planet's resources. The beleaguered Viceroy requests reinforcements, and Megatron arrives intent on personally crushing the rebellion. Fortunately for the rebels, the Autobots have intercepted the transmission, and Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee, Perceptor, Cosmos, and Seaspray to investigate. The Autobots and the rebels quickly join forces, and an unlikely romance blooms...

Tropes

• Antagonistic Governor: Deceptitran, the overseer of Decepticon operations on Tlalak.
• Bigger on the Inside: Played with for Cosmos. He is able to carry Seaspray, Bumblebee and Perceptor from Earth to Tlalak but actually tells Optimus Prime he is too big to travel with them. In fairness, Prime is considerably taller than any of the others.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Autobots and the Tlalakan resistance have driven the Decepticons off world. But the Tlalakan capital was devastated by the battle, and Seaspray and Alana part ways, as Alana stays with her people while Seaspray returns to Earth.
• Character Focus: As of this writing, this has been Seaspray's only starring role in any G1 media.
• Do Androids Dream?: This episode draws a firm distinction between the Transformers, who have souls and can use the Well of Transformation, and non-sentient drones who get destroyed by its waters.
• Fat Bastard: Deceptitran's rotund design evokes this, with Sunbow's production notes specifically describing him as the robotic equivalent of Jabba the Hutt.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Deceptitran is not highly regarded even by his fellow Decepticons, as Megatron finds him so annoying that he shuts him off at one point.
  Megatron: Somebody's going to have to reprogram this hysterical piece of machinery!
• Human Resources: Deceptitran has found that draining the life forces of the native Tlalakans is a more effective means of acquiring Energon than mining the planet's fuel and mineral resources.
• Interspecies Romance: Seaspray and Alana.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Rumble getting turned into a tree. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Just a Machine: For all its human-like excitability, Deceptitran and its minions are apparently this, as they lack souls and cannot use the Well of Transformation. Megatron consistently refers to Deceptitran as just a computer, and simply switches it off when it sufficiently annoys him. By contrast, Seaspray and Rumble have souls and can use the Well.
• Lazy Artist: After Rumble gets turned into a tree, in the distance shots, he is a tree with eyes and mouth, but in close-ups, he has his regular face and shoulders.
• Mythology Gag: Bumblebee's prominence in this episode is a Call-Back to an early toy bio which states that he is particularly good at underwater operations.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: This episode and The Gambler imply that Megatron has offscreen interplanetary dealings beyond Earth and Cybertron.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: The Tlalakans have a bipedal humanoid form that resembles Mayincatec elves. When underwater, the lower half of their body turns into the traditional fish tail.
  Megatron: So these organics are transformers too.
  Rumble: I'm gonna transform their city into junk!
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Zigzagged. The "sparks" of Cybertronians enable them to use the Well of Transformation, which destroys "soulless automatons". However, Deceptritran, who does not have a spark, behaves far more histrionically than one would expect from an artificial intelligence.
• Transflormation: After Rumble falls into the Well of Transformation, Alana tricks him into turning himself into a tree, immobilizing him. Luckily for the diminutive Decepticon, he reverts at the end of the episode when an explosion knocks his tree form into the water.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: To prove to Alana that he was a living being with a soul, Seaspray braves the Well of Transformation and used it to transform himself into a male Tlalakan. For the final battle with the Decepticons, Alana uses the Well to become a vaguely Cybertronian-looking mechanoid.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The male Tlalakans, and Seaspray when he becomes a Tlalakan.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed.
  Alana: You're machines, aren't you?
  Seaspray: Is that how you think of me?
  Alana: Seaspray, you're my friend.
  Seaspray: Maybe that is all I am, a bunch of transistors and bolts... but I don't believe it! My heart may look like an Energon pump, but that doesn't mean it can't feel!