"The Dweller in the Depths" Bloopers

SYNOPSIS FOR "THE DWELLER IN THE DEPTHS"
PLOT OVERSIGHTS	DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS
ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY	TRIVIA ANSWERS
JUNKIONISMS

TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 39
GREAT LINES:
QUINTESSON: "Besides, how can you be so sure we are the ones who betrayed you?" GALVATRON: "Well... you all do look alike..."

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

How long was the Autobots' new power core supposed to last?
For what period of time were the Trans-Organics in hibernation?

NOTES:

As the Decepticons are running from the energy vampires, Galvatron keeps throwing Sweeps at them to keep them busy. Finally it's just down to Cyclonus and Galvatron, but Cyclonus is caught in the Dweller's energy-draining net. As Cyclonus pleas for help, Galvatron stops and turns, just for a moment, before deciding to save himself instead. It's one of the few scenes that suggests Galvatron may actually care about his second-in-command, for all the abuse he doles out. It's one of my favorite scenes in the episode.

PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (6)

This episode reveals that the Trans-Organics were the first creations of the Quintessons. After the project failed, they went on the create the Transformers. The problem here is that the Quintessons didn't come up with the name Transformer. The Quintessons called their products consumer goods (Autobots) and military hardware (Decepticons), according to "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4. They learned to transform on their own. So why would they have named their first creations Trans-Organics? Wouldn't something like "cyborg goods" be more appropriate?
This episode seems to be structured to take place directly after "Five Faces of Darkness," even though there are 17 episodes between then and this episode (seven of which featured the Quintessons). In this episode, the Quintessons give us a quick recap about how they once ruled Cybertron, as though we've just recently been handed this information. Not to mention the fact that we've been shown the historical trailer on the Quintessons three times. (That would be a bit like Rodimus explaining at this point in the series that he acquired the Matrix after Prime's death.)
In a similar vein, when the Quintessons approach Galvatron with their proposal, Galvatron says, "Quintessons! You betrayed us to the Autobots! Why should we listen to you?" And which betrayal was that, Galvy? "Five Faces of Darkness," when the Quintessons tried to use the Decepticons to destroy the Autobots, thus sealing their own fate? "Dark Awakening," when the Decepticons were lured to the mausoleum to be destroyed by the zombified Optimus Prime? "Nightmare Planet" when the Predacons were trapped in Danny Witwicky's dreams? "Webworld," when they tricked Cyclonus into taking Galvatron to Torkulon to have his mind erased? Which of these betrayals is he referring to, exactly? The Quintesson compounds this problem by making the excuse, "You can't lay one bad experience on the doorstep of the entire Quintesson race."
One more thing about this scene. The above line leads into the dialogue I quoted above, "Well, you all do look alike." The thing is, the Quintessons who tricked Galvatron in "Five Faces of Darkness" were the five-faced Judge variety. This guy, credited as a Quintesson Leader in the movie, is a totally different design--he looks like a reject from the film Alien. Galvatron should know these aren't the same Quintessons who deceived him.
I'll also just note that I cannot believe Galvatron fell for this trap. Only Cyclonus has the sense to wonder for a moment if it's a Quintesson trick. It's not as though the episode was just aired out of order, and Galvatron has had little prior experience with the Quintessons--the fact that this episode uses the snazzy synthesizer music from G.I. Joe: the Movie proves that much.
Supposedly, you can be turned into an energy vampire by touching one of the robots who's afflicted with the malady. Why, then, wasn't Kup turned into one when he rammed into the vampires in his truck mode? He remained unaffected until he transformed and they captured him.

DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS: (9)

When Rodimus is talking about the power core keeping Cybertron fully powered, they draw Springer talking instead. (See Animation and Continuity below.)
When Ultra Magnus spots Galvatron about to enter Cybertron, he orders, "Stop where you are, Galvatron! Galvatron responds with, "Of course, Ultra Magnus!" and takes a blast with his arm cannon. His mouth keeps moving after he stops talking, though. (I always like to think he followed this line with, "Not!")
Odd, how the Trans-Organic bird creature sounds exactly like Laserbeak.
When Galvatron blasts Scourge out of the tentacles of the gorilla Trans-Organic, Galvatron commands, "Destroy them!" and again, his mouth keeps moving. Does he mutter something under his breath every time he takes a shot? The sound from his cannon probably would cover it up. In this case, I think he's saying, "Trust me... I know what I'm doing."
Cyclonus' voice sounds really odd in this episode, especially when the Decepticons are searching Cybertron's depths and he says, "There is something in this chamber." It's almost an octave higher than usual.
When the Dweller grabs Wreck-Gar, he utters, "Aye yi yi yi yi!" without moving his mouth.
After Arcee is caught in the Dweller's net, she says, "Have to... try and transform!" and her mouth doesn't move.
Galvatron commands, "Stop them! I don't care how, just stop them!" and then he grunts twice for no apparent reason. The sounds don't correspond to any movements he's making.
After Galvatron throws one of the Sweeps to the energy vampires, he says to the other Sweep, "Be a good soldier. Help him!" This is one of the very few times Frank Welker delivers a line poorly. In this case, he's emphasizing the word "him," which makes it sound as though this Sweep just offered to help someone else instead. (Like himself?)

ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY: (24)

Near the beginning, when Arcee points out that Rodimus is signaling to activate the power core, Springer's actually the one who's waving. Also, in this scene, it looks like Arcee has teeth.
When Ultra Magnus, Perceptor, and Arcee are standing in front of the window, their reflections are seen from the inside. In the scene right after the power core is activated, though, their reflections are missing.
There are five Sweeps in this episode including Scourge. Someone, somewhere, must be making more, considering that at least six have been destroyed in the series so far.
When the narrow-faced Quintesson who worked on the Trans-Organics (let's call him an engineer since he never got an official designation) tells Galvatron to think of the power core as a peace offering, the Quintesson Leader's face is orange instead of its usual sea green.
When Galvatron blasts the truck-mode Ultra Magnus, Magnus' Autobot symbols are blue like the rest of him instead of red.
After the Autobots get free of the rubble in which they've been buried and return to Galvatron's position only to stop at the entrance, Kup is colored like Springer.
Once the Decepticons reach the lower level of Cybertron, we see that it is primarily dirt and rock. Does that mean Cybertron is actually a natural planet with metal surrounding it? This creates a problem, though. In "Five Faces of Darkness," the Quintessons send the Sharkticons to coordinates omega zero one in the depths of Cybertron. Doesn't "omega zero one" sound like it might be the core of the planet? In that episode, the planet was entirely metal. (This issue is addressed at length in the Beast Machines series, incidentally.)
One of the Sweeps is destroyed by a Trans-Organic in this episode. You can see the bear-creature dropping the Sweep to the ground, limp, once the bear is done munching on him. Yet when the Decepticons make their retreat, five Sweeps (including Scourge) accompany Galvatron and Cyclonus. Either another Sweep has joined them from somewhere, or the Sweep that the bear-creature chewed on managed to magically heal his gaping exostructure wound.
Ready for a brief animation lesson? In order to make the Dweller's eyes glow, they first draw the Dweller with black eyes, then they go back and film the Dweller's eyes separately against a black background and backlit to create the glowing effect. After the Dweller grabs two of the Sweeps, one of his eyes is black because they forgot the backlighting.
After the Dweller grabs the other Trans-Organics and destroys them, his eyes are black again.
Arcee has a different gun than usual in this episode. In this one, it's small, grey, and compact with a black tip. In "Dark Awakening," she carried a long, slender pink rifle.
When Wreck-Gar, as an energy vampire, approaches the Dweller to drain its energy, his eyes are supposed to be glowing, but the glowing part doesn't line up correctly.
During the Autobots' fight with the Dweller, Arcee is missing her symbol as she's backing away from it and firing at it.
When Arcee attempts to approach the energy vampires and Ultra Magnus restrains her, Magnus has a blue chin. It should be white.
The animation is weird when the Quintesson engineer rotates faces from a normal one to the one damaged by the Dweller. His head doesn't fully rotate--it just looks like the normal face turns into the damaged face.
When Cyclonus is caught in the Dweller's net and Galvatron looks back, there are some guide lines drawn on Galvatron that suggest the animators meant to ink parts of him in black, but forgot to. Instead, he's just got pointless squiggles all over him.
When Galvatron confronts Ultra Magnus and Arcee in the tunnel, both of the Autobots start trembling. This isn't believable behavior for either of them. Magnus has never cowered in his life. As for Arcee, she may be small, but she's tougher than most of the other Autobots.
After Magnus and Arcee escape and meet up with Rodimus and Perceptor, Rodimus is missing the spoiler on his back.
Once the energy vampires burst onto the scene and Perceptor is trying to figure out how to deal with them, there's a scene where the glowing part of Kup's eyes shift for just a second, and another scene where Springer's eyes aren't glowing at all for a moment. Energy vampires have glowing red eyes.
As Perceptor siphons the energy from the vampires to return them to normal, the panel on his chest is grey instead of red. It does flash to red very briefly.
There are six Sweeps flying off with Galvatron near the end. Even assuming the dead one sprang miraculously back to life, that's still one more Sweep than they started with in this episode!
As the Dweller emerges on the surface of Cybertron, the Autobots firing on him are Groove colored like Wheelie, and Streetwise colored like Optimus Prime. (I'm not gonna ask.)
When the Dweller attaches itself to the power core, its eyes are black again.
At the end when the Dweller grabs onto the Quintesson ship, it's not really sucking the energy from the ship. It's sort of... hugging it.

JUNKIONISMS:

"Yo, Joe!"--the battle cry from G.I. Joe. More proof that a G.I. Joe cartoon exists in the Transformers universe.
"Here I come to save the day!"--Mighty Mouse's trademark phrase.
"Aye yi yi yi yi!"--one of Ricky Ricardo's typical quips from I Love Lucy.
"Can this be the end of little Wreck-Gar?"--cliffhanger ending for any of a dozen science-fiction serials.
"Feed me!"--Audrey II, from Little Shop of Horrors.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

For centuries.
At least twelve million years. In "Forever is a Long Time Coming," eleven million years in the past, Beta said that the consumer goods (Autobots) had been slaves for one million years. The Trans-Organics were created before the Transformers.