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Transformer

2011-11-18T13:49:38Z

RXTheLegend:

[[Image:umk.png]]{{disambig2|the living alien robots|the brand that they appear and are sold as toys in|Transformers brand}}
{{Disambigr|Transformers|other uses of Transformers|Transformers (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Bumblebeeg1.jpg|right|300px|thumb|[[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]], a Transformer, transforming. Savvy?]]
The '''Transformers''' are a species of [[wikipedia:Sentience|sentient]], living robotic beings (mostly) originating from the distant machine world of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. The stories of their lives, their histories, and most especially their wars have been chronicled across many different [[Continuity|continuities]] in the vast [[multiverse]].

The designation "Transformer" stems from the species' generally-shared ability to ''[[Transformation|transform]]'', to change their bodies at will, rearranging their component parts from a robotic primary mode (usually, but not always, humanoid) into an alternate form; generally vehicles, weapons, machinery, or animals. In some continuities this ability to transform is innate to all members of the species, in others it was a wartime innovation that was adopted by most, but not all, of the populace.

Although "Transformer" is the most common term for these beings, there are others, mainly "'''Cybertron'''" as a reference to ''any'' being whose origin traces back to the planet in question (the adjective form being the more frequently used "'''Cybertronian'''" and occasionally "'''Cybertronic'''").

{{bigquote|Many [[MYA|millions of years ago]], on the planet Cybertron, life existed. But not life as we know it today. Intelligent robots that could think and feel inhabited the cities.|[[Victor Caroli|A voice]] from beyond|[[More than Meets the Eye, Part 1]]}}

==Origin==
[[Image:EdgeofExtinction-survivors.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Narration boxes don't lie!]]
{{quote|They '''were''' the dream--mechanical beings able to transform their bodies into vehicles, machinery and weapons; a last line of defense against the chaos bringer, '''Unicron'''! They '''are''' at war, heroic '''Autobot''' pitted against evil '''Decepticon''', both on their homeworld, the metal planet called '''Cybertron''', and here on our '''Earth'''. They '''are''' the galaxy's last hope, they '''are'''-- '''''TRANSFORMERS'''''|[[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''The Transformers'' comic]] introductory blurb}}

The origin of the Transformers species differs according to continuity, and not all continuities have given the race a specific stated origin at all, but, of those that exist, the most prominent are:

* '''[[Atechnogenesis]]''' — Spontaneous evolution from "naturally occurring gears, levers and pulleys" on Cybertron's surface. This rather questionable origin was given in the first [[Marvel Comics|Marvel Comic]] issue and then was promptly (and thankfully) ignored.
* '''[[Quintesson|Quintesson made]]''' — Created as [[Autobot|consumer goods]] and [[Decepticon|military hardware]] by the alien Quintessons, who employed Cybertron as a planet-sized factory. This was the origin given for the Transformers in the original Generation 1 cartoon. Although well-known because of the cartoon's prominence, it has been given relatively little attention in subsequent media, and when it is mentioned it is usually in the form of "[[retcon|corrections to the historic record]]" that place the involvement of the Quintessons as secondary to the role of Primus (see below).
* '''[[Primus|Primus created]]''' — Created by the god-like "Lord of the Light" Primus to carry on his age old battle with the "dark god" [[Unicron]]. This origin sprang from [[Simon Furman|Simon Furman's]] United Kingdom comics and then carried back to the later American Marvel books. It is also the origin that has been embraced and adopted by pretty much every subsequent ''Transformers'' work/continuity except for an interlude from 2007 to 2010 — and a [[retcon]] created by the ''Transformers [[Universe (2003 franchise)|Universe]]'' and [[Fun Publications]] ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' comics and related fiction has unilaterally applied the Primus and Unicron backstory to all Transformers continuities in the Multiverse, past and future.
*'''[[Unicron Trilogy]]''' — After coming into being, Primus, a "unique digital entity", sent out digital mechanical beings into the furthest reaches of the [[galaxy]] as explorers in search of other life. These beings became known as Transformers. They settled on many worlds, one of which became known as Cybertron. {{storylink|First Encounter}} Cybertron was later revealed to be the body of Primus.
[[Image:CybertronFossil.jpg|left|150px|thumb|I ''was'' Batman.]]
* '''Biomechanical evolution''' — In no continuity is this a proven back history for the Transformer race. It is mentioned as idle speculation by [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] in [[IDW Publishing|IDW]] fiction, who wonders if perhaps Transformers perhaps evolved/upgraded (with or without external help) from biological beings to mechanical ones, in a similar manner to the transition he witnesses underway on [[Gorlam Prime]]. {{storylink|Spotlight: Nightbeat}} The inhabitants of Gorlam Prime ''did'' turn into Transformers, albeit with [[Jhiaxus (G2)|outside prompting]], but then went on to independently rename their world... Cybertron. {{storylink|Spotlight: Sideswipe}} In at least one alternate universe, a [[GoBots (franchise)|certain other race of transforming robotic lifeforms]] did indeed arise in such a fashion. In some continuities, Cybertron is known to have once been inhabited by organic life; in ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', for example, Nightscream finds the fossilized remains of organic animals, which incidentally were startlingly similar to known Earthly life forms. {{storylink|Survivor}} However, there is little or no implication that the Transformers ''evolved'' from these organics; there is more implication that whatever previous life was on Cybertron was instead swept aside by the Transformers or their forebears. The ''Kiss Players'' timeline states that [[Generation 1 cartoon timeline (Japan)|12,000,000,000 years ago]] Cybertron was a verdant planet in Japanese continuity.
* '''[[AllSpark|Cube Creationism]]''' — This origin was introduced in 2007 for the live-action movies and ''Transformers Animated''. Here, the cube-like AllSpark (much larger—though shrinkable—in the movie) mystically gave birth to the Transformers. It is not known by any of the Transformers who created it. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} Unknown to the Transformers in the Movie-verse, the AllSpark created them as a worker race to seek out energy refills for it, and had created [[Thirteen|a different race]] first. {{storylink|Defiance issue 4}} Except then [[Seven Primes|those beings]] ''were'' Transformers. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}} {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen issue 3}}
* '''Historical hybridization''' - In 2010, the [[Aligned continuity family|Aligned continuity]] was launched, with one of its goals being to sensibly reconcile many of the more popular elements from prior franchises. [[Transformers: Exodus|The new story]] lists Primus as the ultimate creator of the Transformers, with the AllSpark being the physical mechanism he set up to generate them, and the Quintessons having invaded Cybertron in the ancient past and briefly interfering with their development.

{{-}}

==Biology==
===Physical construction===
====Generation 1 Marvel Comics continuity====
Transformers are composed of a physical body and their programming. Their programming is encoded into a specialized component called a [[brain module]]. Given the resources and a means of assembly, Transformer bodies (including brain modules) can be designed and constructed by other Transformers.<ref>[[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] took over [[Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant Number One]] and assembled bodies for the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] and [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]] there. {{storylink|The Next Best Thing to Being There!}} [[Ark (G1)|The Ark]] created bodies for five 1985 [[Autobot Cars]]. {{storylink|Rock and Roll-Out!}}</ref> Without programming, a Transformer body is a mindless drone. It is able to carry out pre-programmed straightforward missions, but that is about it.<ref>Shockwave sends Jetfire's body on such missions. {{storylink|The Next Best Thing to Being There!}}</ref>

Transformer programming, however, cannot be created by Transformers. The [[Matrix of Leadership|Creation Matrix]] is able to infuse a Transformer brain module with programming, thus giving the Transformer personality and sentience.<ref>Shockwave describes the process of the Creation Matrix infusing prepared brain modules with data in detail. {{storylink|The Next Best Thing to Being There!}} [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] briefly describes the process, "Engineered by [[Grapple]], programmed for life by my Creation Matrix..." {{storylink|Command Performances!}}</ref> Programming on existing Transformers can be copied and stored externally on storage media.<ref>The "minds" of five Autobot Cars were copied and stored as engrams in a [[mind bank]] which are crystal containment vessels storing the minds as patterns of light. {{storylink|The Next Best Thing to Being There!}} [[Ethan Zachary]] copied Optimus Prime's programming and stored it on a [[floppy disk]]. {{storylink|Afterdeath!}}</ref> These stored minds can be used to infuse a new Transformer body with a new brain module with programming.<ref>{{storylink|The Next Best Thing to Being There!}} {{storylink|People Power!}}</ref> The brain module (containing a Transformer's programming) can be extracted from the body and installed into other machinery, keeping the Transformer alive.<ref>{{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}</ref>

====''Transformers: Prime''====
Transformers consist of a [[mind]] and body. A Transformer's mind can be transferred to another body using a [[cortical psychic patch]], where it is possible for two minds to occupy the same body. Without a mind, a Transformer body can be kept alive by artificial means, but it is then essentially without personality.<ref>{{storylink|Sick Mind}}</ref>

====In general====
[[Image:Spark.gif|left|100px|thumb|Sparks retail for $29.95 at [http://www.sharperimage.com/ Sharper Image]]]
Traditionally, Transformers are living, sentient, emotional, and fully-mechanical beings. Many continuities portray Transformer "life" as being granted by a soul-like [[spark]] residing within their mechanical frames.

The [[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|''Generation 2'' comic books]] established that Transformers possess both "genetic material" (useful when [[Reproduction|"budding"]]) and a distinct cellular structure, presumably both of a somehow mechanical nature.

[[Image:Dino comparison Grimlock Megatron.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Original, or extra-fleshy.]]
By the [[Beast Era]] of the [[Generation 1 continuity family]] synthetic flesh had become increasingly incorporated into their construction, often to aid in disguise or survival on worlds inhabited by organic lifeforms. (A version of this technology had been introduced earlier with [[Pretender]] Transformers, though in that instance the synthetic flesh was a removable outer "shell".)

In the era of ''[[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]]'', events led to true organics being infused into Transformers biology down to the cellular level, making them "[[technorganic]]" with an increased range of powers resulting. (The "[[ParasiTech]]" technology introduced in the Generation-1-based ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'' series seems to have an organic component to it as well.)

Being mechanical creatures, Transformers possess a number of distinct mechanical parts that make up their anatomy. For a list, see: [[:Category:Transformer anatomy|Transformers Anatomy]].

Transformers are also known to suffer from some infamous ailments: [[:Category:Diseases|Transformers Diseases]].

First generation Transformers shared the same computational matrix as [[Vector Sigma]], making their power source compatible with the mega computer. Such Transformers are thus capable of reactivating the sleeping computer intelligence. {{storylink|The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1}}

====See also====
{{see|Ability}}

===Size===
[[Image:Sizes TFTM Unicron vs MF Browning.jpg|left|150px|thumb|Unicron is quite big, Browning is quite small. The contrast scares this poor little boy something mighty.]] Transformers are ''generally'' large in comparison to Earth lifeforms, (two to eight times the height of a human seems to be about average, though depictions vary wildly even for the same character), but a Transformer can be much, much smaller or much, much larger. There are some small enough to fit in a human's palm (see [[Browning]] and the [[Real Gear Robot]]s). While the [[Micromaster]]s and [[Mini-Con]]s are two groups whose size range is within normal human standards at a time when most Transformers are larger, human-sized appears to be the norm for Transformers altogether in the Beast Era. In the G1 cartoon, the sizes often shift from episode to episode, at times when they can be twice the average human height to that of being able to reach a four-story building. Several Japanese animations have the robots usually large enough for a number of human characters to fit in one hand.

The upper range of size can be a good deal larger, if you include planet-formers like [[Unicron]] and [[Primus]] or even the colossal city-bots [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] or [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]] (the latter's gigantism depending on the continuity). In the ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' series, the planet [[Gigantion]] is populated by both extremes: robots who tower over "normal"-sized Transformers, aided by their tiny Mini-Con partners. But to be blunt, the usual sizes range from 20 feet to 40 feet.

====See also====
{{see|Scale}}
{{--}}

===Variance in form===
[[Image:Scorponok-Annual.jpg|left|100px|thumb|Unconventional limbs make [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] a slow typist.]]

[[Image:Ravageboxart.jpg|right|200px|thumb|A [[Ravage (G1)|classic example]] of a non-humanoid Transformer.]]
[[Image:ROTF Voyager Demolishor.jpg|200px|right|thumb|A [[Demolishor (ROTF)|not-so-classic]] example.]]

While many Transformers possess a "humanoid" form with two arms, two legs and a head atop their torso, it is not uncommon at all for there to be extensive variations. Some Transformers do not have a "humanoid" mode at all, rather their "primary" form is that of an animal or vehicle. [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1's]] [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]], [[Grand Slam (G1)|Grand Slam]] and [[Raindance]], for example, or the ''Beast Wars'' [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]].

[[Image:MCA-ElitaOne.jpg|left|100px|thumb|[[Elita One|Elita 1]] - Boys 0]]

Some have unconventional limbs, their hands (or whole arm) replaced with tools, claws, weapons, or some other form of manipulator (like a beast-mode's head!). Some Transformers' lower bodies feature digitigrade legs, or wheels/treads instead of feet, or no discernible separate legs at all. Some even have more (or less!) than the normal number of limbs altogether. This design style became much more common in the Beast Era (''Beast Wars'' [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]] and ''Beast Machines'' [[Thrust (BM)|Thrust]], for example), and is also common among the Mini-Cons, but Generation 1 is not without its examples (like [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]], [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]], and [[Octus (G1)|Octus]]).

Transformers' faces also run the gamut of design, from looking like a metal human in a helmet, to faces that can only be described as robotic (again, like Generation 1 Shockwave, whose face consists of little more than a single glowing eye) or animalistic (again, the Beast Era). The Mini-Cons are also notable for more commonly having non-humanoid faces.

The existence and appearance of [[Female Transformer]]s in most continuities seem to suggest a level of "sexual" dimorphism to the species as well (the term sexual is used in a gender-based, rather than physical sense, see [[Reproduction]] for that whole kettle of robo-fish). In almost all cases female Transformers are portrayed as more graceful of form and more rounded and curved in general, often with a more than passing resemblance to an attractive metal human female wearing armor and kibble. There are rare exceptions to this rule (notably [[Strika (BM)|Strika]] and [[Discharge]], though the latter is said to be wearing armor that obscures her true appearance).
{{-}}

===Energy===
[[Image:EnergonCubesCartoon1.jpg|left|thumb|Energon - the food, drink, and primary currency of Cybertron. (It's like if chocolate coins had a valid exchange rate...)]]
Unlike humans who need air and water as well as food, generally the Transformers' only major need to assure their continued functioning is fuel (though again, even this can vary depending on the fiction).

[[Energon (fuel)|Energon]] is the most common and preferred form of Transformer fuel, but other alternatives may be substituted if it is unavailable.

In the Marvel Comics Earth fuel needed to be treated with a special additive (invented by [[Sparkplug Witwicky]]) to be made usable by Transformer life. In the Cartoon, on the other hand, human energy sources were converted into energon simply by being condensed inside Energon Cubes.

In the original cartoon the [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]] alone among Transformers seemed to be able to fuel themselves by ingesting organic matter, but by the Beast Era, the ability to ingest organic substances to supplement their fuel needs seems more commonplace.

The [[Action Master]] line introduced a new type of Transformer fuel called [[Nucleon]] which was extremely powerful but prone to unpredictable and destructive side-effects.

There are also even further examples of fuel, including [[Solitarium]] from the Japanese-exclusive [[Robot Masters (franchise)|Robot Masters]] line of toys/FMV produced by Takara, and the [[Kiss Player|kisses of little girls]] in ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]''.

===See also===
For more information on Transformer biology see:
* '''[[New body]]'''
* '''[[Life cycle]]'''
* '''[[Reproduction]]'''

==Culture==
[[Image:WOTF Emotion.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Transformers are [[Optimus Prime (G1)|lovable]] [[Ariel|couples]], [[Beachcomber (G1)|peaceful creatures]], [[Hot Shot (Armada) | adolescents]] or [[Galvatron (G1)|omnicidal maniacs]].]]
Regardless of continuity, the most distinctive facet of Transformers society has been its near-continuous state of [[Cybertronian Civil Wars|planetary Civil War]]. The two major factions in these wars are the [[Autobot]]s and the [[Decepticon]]s. The conflict is mostly defined by what each faction believes is the "destiny" of the Transformers: the Autobots believe in a peaceful society where Cybertron is a place of culture and justice, while the Decepticons believe in a "might makes right" philosophy where Cybertron would be the center of a [[Decepticon Empire|mighty empire]]. The fact that the vast majority of what we know about Transformers has been shaped by this constant, corrosive warfare should not be overlooked. What a theoretical Transformer society would be like in peacetime is mostly unknown, glimpsed mainly during its disintegration into war or via brief flashbacks and asides. That said, there are some things we do know.

===Sociology===
The Cybertronian society of wartime is portrayed as heavily polarized between Autobot and Decepticon. When there are neutrals they generally fare poorly, becoming victims of Decepticon abuse and destruction.

What little we know of the society before the war suggests it was stratified economically between "haves" (like the aristocratic [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]) and [[Empties|have-nots]]. Other facets of society were similarly Earth-like with [[Needlenose|fads and fashions]], [[Chromedome (G1)|schools]] and [[Crankcase (G1)|lousy jobs]], [[Rook (Universe)|news]] [[Slamdance (G1)|media]] and so on.

===Politics===
{{main|Transformer government}}

In many continuities Transformers seem to prefer a non-democratic one-world autocracy centered around a single powerful hero-leader called a [[Prime (rank)|Prime]], who serves as both Head of State and Commander-in-Chief (sometimes referred to as [[Supreme Commander]]); in the Generation 1 cartoon continuity the Autobots determine this leadership by possession of the Autobot [[Matrix of Leadership]] which is passed from each leader to his chosen successor, while in Dreamwave's continuity they were chosen by a [[Council of Ancients]] and in ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' by an [[Autobot High Council]]. This would make the Autobots an absolute monarchy.

By contrast, in the Marvel comic continuity, possession of the Matrix does not denote political leadership, as it was more of a religious icon. Instead, Cybertron was ''previously'' an absolute monarchy under the [[Overlord (rank)|Overlords]]; however, later on, Cybertron became a multitude of autonomous city-states under their own governments with the last Overlord as a figurehead ruler, making it both a federation and a constitutional monarchy. During the war, Autobot Cybertron was governed by a [[Council of Autobot Elders]] with the Prime as military commander-in-chief. [[Emirates]] existed but we're not sure how they're chosen or what they do.

In the IDW continuity, the planet is ruled by a [[Senate]], with each city-state having a subordinate council with lesser powers; [[Sentinel Prime (G1)|the current Prime]] was ''subordinate'' to the Senate and only ran the security forces. (This would make Cybertron a republic.)

The Decepticons, however, generally bowed only to the supremacy of the [[Decepticon leader|most powerful]] and normally had ''no'' mechanism for peaceful handover of power: a [[Decepticon Civil War]] often resulted. If the civil war began to seriously hamper the Autobot war effort, the opposing factions would agree to a diplomatic meeting called an [[Enclave]] to try the rare idea of ''talking out'' their differences. One (brief) exception was Marvel UK's [[Decepticon High Council]], a governing body that decided on the new Decepticon leader.

By the era of the Maximals and Predacons, the planet is dually ruled by [[Maximal]] and [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] governments with separate jurisdictions; it's not fully clear how this worked. We know the Maximals are in charge of pretty much most of Cybertron, with a [[Predacon Alliance]] overseeing Predacon affairs and a [[Bi-Partate Committee for State Affairs]] bridging the gap: a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consociationalism consociational] government. There's a [[Maximal High Council|High Council]], but they're rarely talked about despite having legislative power (and it may be another term for the Elders). Most of the time, when talking about governments, the Transformers refer to the [[Maximal Elder|Maximal Council of Elders]] or the [[Tripredacus Council]] (what ''is'' it with Transformers and the word "council"?). Both of them are bodies of old Transformers (well, the former would have to be!) who appear to wield the ''real'' power in their respective factions, making this brave new peaceful Cybertron hamstrung by its past. [[Chain of Command|We're told]] that [[democracy]] is a Maximal tradition, indicating the Maximal's Councils are elected by the people.

The [[Go-Bot (species)|Go-Bots]] are ruled by the [[Go-Bot Council]], a triumvirate selected by unknown means. They have direct control over the Go-Bots military force, right down to personally selecting which Go-Bots are going to placed in a planetary garrison. Their primary concern seems to be "helping" other planets, which doesn't sound sinister at all...

In the ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'' continuity, the planet is governed by the [[Autobot High Council]] in the [[Metroplex (Animated)|Metroplex]]. The head of state is the [[Magnus]], an unelected position seemingly based on military rank, and the Council appears unable to depose a Magnus on their own. The Council itself is divided into civilian guilds on one side and military on the other, with security bodies like [[Cybertron Intelligence]] having a seat on the Council. How the civilian councilors are chosen is unknown.

The [[live-action film series]], the first Cybertronian civilization was ruled by the [[Dynasty of Primes]], with the [[Thirteen|Thirteen Primes]] serving as the highest authority. The later Autobots ''had'' a co-leadership structure, control split between the Optimus and Megatron, who commanded the Science Division and Defence Force respectively. Optimus's proper title isn't said ("Prime" was a later addition to his name when he discovered he was the last of the Dynasty of Primes), though Megatron's position was [[Lord High Protector]]. There was a law-giving body called the [[High Council of Ancients]], who were respected but an outdated relic of an earlier time. Obviously, this didn't last long when the war started...

===Interaction with other races===
The Civil Wars have resulted in the factions adopting radically different views of how to interact with other races. The Autobots, in the words of Optimus Prime, believe that "freedom is the right of all sentient beings", whereas the Decepticons view other races, particularly organic lifeforms, as little more than slave labor or target practice. When arriving on a planet, the Autobots will usually attempt to contact the native species and warn them of the Decepticon threat, but sometimes they will remain hidden or outright discourage other lifeforms from participating, usually in an effort to better protect them. The Decepticons often make overt attacks on native species, but there are occasions when stealth has been a priority. After the Great War, the Maximals were ''banned'' from travelling to [[Earth|certain]] areas of the galaxy.

However, one unique method of interacting with other races is [[binary bonding]], a process where an organic lifeform will enter into a symbiotic relationship with a Transformer. Such lifeforms will serve as their [[Headmaster (technology)|heads]], [[Targetmaster|weapons]], and, in rare cases, their [[Powermaster|powercores]]. This process has met with mixed results, as it places the Transformer in a dependent situation in the relationship.

[[Swindle (Animated)|Some]] [[Scorponok (G1)#IDW comics continuity|Decepticons]] [[Swindle (G1)|are]] known for making deals with other races, either to gain power through an alliance or for cold hard cash.

The Autobots have made diplomatic and military alliances with humanity in several continuities, most notably in having [[Autobot City]] built on Earth.

===The Arts===
The Transformers have been shown to have a very active [[Transformer music|musical tradition]]. The [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]] itself has an archive of 11 million traditional Cybertronian songs. Many Transformers such as [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] and [[Blaster (G1)|Blaster]] have shown great interest in music, and [[Squawkbox]] is one prominent example of a Cybertronian musician.

Furthermore, sculpture seems to be one of the primary art forms of Cybertron, with many Transformers dedicated to it. One notable (and gruesome) school of sculpture, practiced by a startling number of Transformers involves making art out of the bodies of other Transformers. The [[Slogism]] movement is a part of this school.

Before the war, Cybertron also featured many marvels of architecture. See: [[Crystal City]]

===See also===
For more information on Transformer culture see:
*'''[[Cybertronian Civil Wars]]'''
*'''[[Religion]]'''
*'''[[Transformer funerary practices]]'''
*'''[[Transformer economics]]'''
*'''[[Transformer furniture]]'''
*'''[[Transformer romance]]'''

==Toys==
{{main|Toy}}

The Transformers were introduced by [[Hasbro]] in 1984 with the [[franchise]] now known as [[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]]. The line has gone through numerous incarnations since, with the latest being the upcoming [[Prime (toyline)|Transformers: Prime]] toyline. Nearly all the product sold in the line consists of actual Transformer figures; non-Transformer items such as bases, vehicles and accessories, while common in most boy-centric toy lines, have been fairly uncommon in the history of the [[Transformers brand]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Alternators]]
[[Category:Animated]]
[[Category:Armada]]
[[Category:Beast Machines]]
[[Category:Beast Wars]]
[[Category:Beast Wars II]]
[[Category:Beast Wars Neo]]
[[Category:Binaltech Asterisk]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Classics]]
[[Category:Cybertron]]
[[Category:Dark of the Moon]]
[[Category:Energon franchise]]
[[Category:Generation 1 species]]
[[Category:Generation 2]]
[[Category:Kiss Players]]
[[Category:Micromaster]]
[[Category:Movie]]
[[Category:Operation Combination]]
[[Category:Prime]]
[[Category:Primus]]
[[Category:Return of Convoy]]
[[Category:Revenge of the Fallen]]
[[Category:Robots in Disguise]]
[[Category:Species]]
[[Category:Super-God Masterforce]]
[[Category:The Headmasters]]
[[Category:Transformer culture]]
[[Category:Transformers| ]]
[[Category:TransTech]]
[[Category:United]]
[[Category:Universe (2003)]]
[[Category:Victory]]
[[Category:War for Cybertron]]
[[Category:Wings Universe species]]
[[Category:Zone]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:43:28Z

RXTheLegend: /* Dismemberment */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
** ALL the Appliancebots were killed by [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] including Dickbot and Ejector.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

* Movie Continuity:
** [[Dispensor]] was crushed by [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]].

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.
* Movie Continuity: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]]'s arm was cut of by [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] and he still sttack the humans.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:40:34Z

RXTheLegend: /* Weaponsfire */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
** ALL the Appliancebots were killed by [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] including Dickbot and Ejector.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

* Movie Continuity:
** [[Dispensor]] was crushed by [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]].

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:38:42Z

RXTheLegend: /* Crushing */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

* Movie Continuity:
** [[Dispensor]] was crushed by [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]].

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:38:00Z

RXTheLegend: /* Crushing */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

* Movie Continuity:
** [[Dispensor]] was crushed by [[Ratchet (movie)|Ratchet]].

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:36:04Z

RXTheLegend: /* Decapitation */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:35:12Z

RXTheLegend: /* Decapitation */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived after decapitated by a chick. {{storylink|Transformers 2007(movie)}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:30:32Z

RXTheLegend: /* Decapitation */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{bigquote|Give me your face.|Optimus Prime, "[[Revenge of the Fallen]]"}}
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:27:50Z

RXTheLegend: /* Disassembly */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote|No,I want TWO PIECES !!!|Megatron}}

[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:25:46Z

RXTheLegend: /* Disassembly */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
{{bigquote You want a piece of me Megetron ? No, I want TWO PIECES !!!|Jazz, "[[Movie]]"}}
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:23:04Z

RXTheLegend: /* Disassembly */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:22:41Z

RXTheLegend: /* Disassembly */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
**[[Hatchet (DOTM)|Hatchet]] was killed when [[Dino|Mirage]] smash him into a car forcing his head to fall off.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:20:24Z

RXTheLegend: /* Energy depletion */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Vector Prime|Vector Prime]] dies after he helps the crew to time travel.

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:18:55Z

RXTheLegend: /* Weaponsfire */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
**[[Que|Wheeljack]] was killed by an executioner.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-11-18T13:17:47Z

RXTheLegend: /* Weaponsfire */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
**[[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] was shot in the back by [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s Cosmic Rust Blaster.
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** ''Dark of the Moon'' also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}} And let's not even get started on how many times [[Waspinator |Waspinator]] has lost his head.
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|The Transformers: Escalation|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

User:RXTheLegend

2011-11-05T12:54:15Z

RXTheLegend: New page: RXTheLegend for you guys.

RXTheLegend for you guys.

Death

2011-10-30T01:12:33Z

RXTheLegend: /* Decapitation */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A [[Decepticon pilot |Decepticon Pilot]] was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** Dark of the Moon also has the Ark to crash onto the moon in million years ago.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}
* [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]] might have returned as the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]] in Revenge of The Fallen.

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T01:09:05Z

RXTheLegend: /* Impact trauma */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A [[Decepticon pilot |Decepticon Pilot]] was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
** Dark of the Moon also has the Ark to crash onto the moon in million years ago.
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T01:06:26Z

RXTheLegend: /* Disassembly */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A [[Decepticon pilot |Decepticon Pilot]] was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T01:00:36Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T01:00:07Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}
[[Image:crankcase dead.png|thumb|right|200px|Last thing Crankcase ever sees.]]

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T00:56:18Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{quote|Decepticon punk!|[[Ironhide |Ironhide(Movie)]] hates Decepticons and likes blowing the crap out of them.}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T00:53:43Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{Decepticon punk! "[[Dark of the Moon (Movie)]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T00:49:24Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}
[[Image:crankcase dead|thumb|right|200px|The last thing Crankcase ever sees...]]

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-30T00:48:45Z

RXTheLegend: /* Big explosions */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}
[[Image:crankcase death|thumb|right|200px|The last thing Crankcase ever sees...]]

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation issue 4|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
** In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']], when [[MECH|human terrorists]] are featured they will often die, but never on-screen. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even ''think'' about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Humanization

2011-10-28T10:23:52Z

RXTheLegend: /* Facial hair */

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

==Glandular, digestive, and respiratory==
===Sweating===
[[Image:LandsharkWOH-energondelivery.jpg|right|thumb|180px|]]

* In [[Prime Time!|issue twelve]] of the original [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''Generation 1'' comic]], [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
* Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] can be seen "sweating".
* ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' and ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.
* [[Wing Saber (Energon)|Wing Saber]] sweatdrops upon seeing a particularly scary expression on [[Lori]]'s face. {{storylink|Ambush}}
* [[Leozack]] sweatdrops oil when [[Landshark]] attacks him. {{storylink|Wings of Honor}}

===Coughing===
* In the G1 episode "[[Roll for It]]", when the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished [[antimatter]] laboratory, they are coughing.
* [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] coughs when [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]] surrounds him with smoke.{{storylink|Triple Takeover}}
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust. {{storylink|Cosmic Rust (episode)|Cosmic Rust}}
* In "[[Call of the Primitives]]", a fiery blast from [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] causes both the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]] and [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to cough.
* In ''Beast Wars'', [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping, and when amidst the smoky remains of an electrical fire.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] fake-coughed in the episode "[[Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege]]" of the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|''Beast machines'' cartoon]] to draw [[Optimus Primal]]'s attention to the matter of [[Noble]].
* In the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' episode "[[Secret Weapon: D-5]]", [[Sky-Byte (RID)|Sky-Byte]], [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]], and [[Dark Scream]] all cough after inhaling smoke.
* In the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' episode "[[Mortal Combat]]", right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you," he coughs silently.
* [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] visibly coughs after [[Sam Witwicky]] uses the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to restore him to life in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', even expelling what appears to be dust.
* On [[Rock Bottom]], [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]] coughs after escaping the collapsed mine. Ironically, Bulkhead later claims ''in the same episode'' that Autobots don't need to breathe.

===Breathing===
On ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation Star Trek: The Next Generation]'', it was explained that the android [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Data Data]'s breathing served to cool his inner components, but mostly so that he doesn't appear unnatural to the humans he was designed to resemble. He also blinks for this reason. It could be argued that breathing serves the same "cooling" purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

* In an ''Energon'' episode, [[Jetfire (Armada)|Jetfire]] instructs [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]] that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can [[Powerlinx|powerlink]].
* At the climax of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] tries to strangle [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]], calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. {{storylink|Dark Voyage}}
* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. {{storylink|Velocity}}
* On the [[Nemesis (ROTF)| Nemesis]], [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] and [[Starscream (Movie)| Starscream's]] breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] breathes heavily as he runs in fear from [[Chaos (alien)|Chaos]] and the slave mines on [[Dread (planet)|Dread]]. {{storylink|Chaos (episode)|Chaos}}
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] is visibly breathing while in stasis. {{storylink|Deus ex Machina}}
* "[[A Team Effort]]" comfirms that Transformers require ventilation airways in their neck to prevent system overheating, as when [[Charger]] strangles [[Roadgrabber]] in a fit of rage.

===Spitting===
* Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at [[Donny Finkleberg|Robot-Master]] despite his [[mouthplate]]. {{storylink|Second Generation!}}
* After [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of back door.{{storylink|...All This and Civil War 2}}
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[Tangled Web]]", [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]] "spits" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]], despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.
*In ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] repeatedly spits while talking to [[Sam Witwicky]] and his companions. [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] also has to spit his mouth clean after being blasted across a forest by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] spits twice: once at Sam while in the [[Broadwater Metal Works]] foundry, and again when he mentions Prime's name. [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] also spits, albeit for no real reason, when addressing Sam and the humans outside of [[Chicago]] in ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]].''
* [[Galvatron II|Galvatron II]] is seen spitting and drooling while explaining the situation.{{storylink|Out of Time!}} Both Megatron and Galvatron II are seen both spitting on each other. Gross!.{{storylink|Exodus!}}

===Crying===
[[Image:Omega Supreme tears up.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Tissue: desired.]]

* A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]'s eye at the end of "[[The Secret of Omega Supreme]]".

* When [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] dies in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] is seen to dab at her eyes.

* [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] told his colleagues he was about to "leak optical lubricant" when they wouldn't stop about giving up on [[Operation: Volcano]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}

* In "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] has tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, during his monstrous disfigurement after he gains the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]].

* There is a teardrop on young [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]]'s face after being beaten by Deathsaurus. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* At the end of "[[Heroic! The Victory War]]", some Decepticons are crying over their defeat.

* As he mourns his dead friend [[Snowstalker]] and decides he can never fight again, [[Tigatron]] cries a single tear in beast mode.

* [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] wiped a fake tear when [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] put on the heroic act. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}

* When pondering [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]'s fate in ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes. This may be due to her technoganic nature though. {{storylink|Revelations Part I: Discovery}}

[[Image:Bw2 ep6 twinwaterfalls.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Surf's up—and I'm talkin' ''up''!]]

* Throughout ''[[Beast Wars II (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]]'' and ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'', and occasionally in the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

* Tears can be seen welling up in [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]]'s eyes and falling to the ground in ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' as he mourns a fallen comrade.

* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] told [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] to "cry him a river". {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}

* Ratchet ''actually'' cries tears of defeat when outwitted by Megatron. {{storylink|Warrior School!}}

* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] cries over [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]'s death in [[The Art of War issue 5|''The Art of War'' #5]].

* In ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers: Animated]]'', [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. {{storylink|Along Came a Spider}}

* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] cries after [[Sam Witwicky]] tells him cars are not allowed on campus, although he was exaggerating his sorrow and was likely deliberately leaking fluids to enhance the visual. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''

* [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was crying in the corner for not being in the [[Transformers: War for Cybertron|War for Cybertron]] game. [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] had to talk to him. Again. {{Storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.12#Law and Disorder|Law and Disorder}}

===Eating===
[[Image:Optimusprime-mom.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Probably contains [[energon (fuel)|energon goodies]] in the shape of a happy face.]]

* There are references to [[Cybertronian food]].

* [[Skullcruncher]] has been known to eat Autobots as well as humans and other organics, despite not needing to do so to survive. Other Decepticons are disgusted by this practice.

* There are Pepsi and [[Destron Pizza|pizza]] in the refrigerator in [[Pepsi Convoy]]'s home.

* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
**[[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point, he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain the Maximal's fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment (which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas). {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Rattrap]] eats apples. {{storylink|The Web}}
**And garbage {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] eats a bird. {{storylink|Power Surge}}
**[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] eats [[Clone One|his clone]]. [[Optimus Primal]] remarks that he is "disgusting". {{storylink|Double Dinobot}}
**While suffering from an [[Energon discharge virus]], [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. {{storylink|The Low Road}}
* In ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Optimus Primal]] wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] protests that "we don't eat food, we process [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]—PERIOD!", but is overruled. {{storylink|Forbidden Fruit}}
* According to [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]], [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] eats [[Autobot]] [[Protoform]]s for breakfast. But of course that could just be a rumour. {{Storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* [[Brains]] is seen chewing on a screw, while [[Igor]] and the [[hatchling]]s are clearly shown to be ingesting minerals. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Flatulence===
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[The Low Road]]", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
* In the ''Beast Wars'' episode "[[Bad Spark]]", [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his [[Transmetal]] body.
* Just go watch ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.
* One of the [[Mini-Constructicon]]s "cuts one", causing the others to laugh and request someone to open a window in "[[Spotlight: Ramjet]]".

===Urination===
* [[Tasmania Kid]] urinates (in beast mode) to put out a fire.
* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] performs a similar action on [[Seymour Simmons|Agent Simmons]] by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that 'Bee is just leaking lubricants on him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a [[Mojo|similar incident]].
* [[Scoop (SG)|Scoop]] apparently urinates himself in [[Do Over]]
* In Beast Wars II, [[DJ (BWII)|DJ]] is known for wetting himself whenever he drinks too much oil.

===Defecation===
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] defecates on [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in ''[[Robo-Capers]]'' from Marvel UK issue [[Robo-Capers issue 87|#87]].

===Blushing===
[[Image:SeaChange Seaspray Blush.JPEG|right|thumb|180px|]]
* In the G1 episode "[[Sea Change]]", [[Seaspray (G1)|Seaspray]] has his whole face turn bright red, even before he jumps into the [[Well of Transformation|Well of Transformation]] and gets turned into a humanoid.
* ''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee has also been shown to be able to blush in a few episodes. {{storylink|Home Is Where the Spark Is}} {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}
*''Transformers Cybertron'' Override blushes when speaking to Lori, which is an indication of the character's original male gender in ''Galaxy Force''. {{storylink|Honor}}

===Intoxication===
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|G1 cartoon]] episode "[[Microbots]]", the [[Decepticon|Decepticons]] behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]. [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] refers to this as "over-energizing".
* In the UK comic, the [[Wrecker|Wreckers]] frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called [[Maccadam's Old Oil House]], where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. [[Dreadwind (G1)|Dreadwind]] and [[Darkwing]] pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice [[Quickswitch]] fighting with some [[Mecannibal]]s.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, [[Lio Convoy]] gets drunk once and messes up [[Apache]]'s room.{{storylink|Recover the Bonds Lost!}}
* The [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]] in ''Animated'', whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.

===Miscellaneous===
[[Image:Cigarchomping.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Bet it's imported from Cubatron.]]
* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] once gets a cold, causing him to cough and have a fever, in an issue of the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|''Victory'' manga]]. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] got a bump on his head after being hit by Deathsaurus with a staff when they were young boys. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* In ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'', [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] chomps on a [[cigar|cy-gar]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Bumblebee (Animated)| Bumblebee]] has bandages wrapped around his middle after Sari is knocked out and the Autobots return to their base. {{storylink|TransWarped}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]] wore a cast over his arm after being hit by a falling building. {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}

{{-}}

==Body parts==
===Mouths/teeth/tongues===
{{Main|Teeth}}
{{Main|Tongue}}
{{Main|Mouthplate}}

* The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon series]] is the only major piece of fiction to ''not'' present Transformers as possessing [[teeth]] and/or [[Tongue|tongues]]. The features appear in both the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] comics, [[The Battlestars (manga)|''The Battlestars'' manga]], the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' cartoon, and the [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons and comics.

* In an episode of [[Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Super-God Masterforce]], [[Browning]] sticks his tongue out at [[Wilder]] and [[Bullhorn]] after they insult [[Cancer (Masterforce)|Cancer]].

*In the [[live-action film series]], the more human-like the robot, the more they are likely to have teeth. In the case of, say, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]], his teeth are mechanical cubes overlaid on each other, while [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] has bona fide fangs. Optimus spits out a piece of his shattered faceplate in the second film, which is intended to resemble a boxer spitting out a tooth after a brutal match. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the [[Kiss Players (manga)|''Kiss Players'' manga]], in which a [[Legion]] character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

===Eyeballs/eyelashes===
[[Image:AutoBerserk OptimusPrime closedeyes.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Oh, my eyes!!]]

* Most Transformers have eyes. They see with them.
* In the episode "[[Auto Berserk]]", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.
* While dying from life force depletion, [[Elita One]] occasionally closes her eyes. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Springer (G1)|Springer]] clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by a claw. {{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1}}
* Cyclonus also closes his eyes when Galvatron is about to go through the [[Alya]] treatment and he cannot bear to watch. {{storylink|Webworld}}
* [[Lyzack]] sports some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|Victory]]'' manga. So does [[Esmeral (Victory)|Esmeral]]. {{storylink|Heroic! The Victory War}}
* In [[Spotlight: Hot Rod]], Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. ''Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that it's just artistic license.''
* The robots in the [[live-action film series]] have eyes designed to resemble cameras, enabling them to dilate and blink.
* ''Animated'' [[Swindle (Animated)|Swindle]] has eyelids. He also blinks frequently.
* The cyborg [[GoBots (franchise)|GoBots]], as portrayed in the animated cartoon, do in fact possess eyelids (when the eyes aren't covered by a visor) and frequently blink. Some also have visible pupils.
* Most robots in ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Prime]]'' possess camera-like eyes similar to those seen in the live-action films, which dilate, contract, and blink in a highly human-like fashion. Notably, they also replicate the involuntary, back-and-forth movements of the human eye when idle.

<center><gallery>
Image:Esmeral-manga.jpg
Image:LyzackEyelashes01.jpg|About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.
Image:HotRodOpticShields.jpg|Hey, wake up!
Image:Dealerseyelids.jpg|Got munchies?
</gallery></center>

===Obesity===
Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

* In [[Letters page (Marvel UK)|Grim Grams #94]], [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] mentioned that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] weighs a little over 90 tons and "could stand to lose a little around the fuel storage system".
* [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] complained that the Decepticons had grown "fat and complacent" under [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]]'s rule. {{storylink|Surrender!}}
* [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
* Much the same could be said of [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]. Being big-chassised is no excuse to let yourself go.
* [[Ratchet (Animated)|''Animated'' Ratchet]] has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably ''lacks'' said paunch.
* [[Gnaw]]. Well, all the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]], really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly-poly.
* [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] has a set of metal plates that form the front of his Alt-mode forming a sort of "beer gut" on his abdomen.

===Masculine characteristics===
====Facial hair====
{{Main|Facial hair}}

* [[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]], [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]], [[Unicron]], and [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar]] all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. In addition to that, ''Energon''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Bulkhead (Energon)|Bulkhead]], the films' Optimus (who has a goatee), [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] and [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] and ''Animated''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]], [[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]], and [[Wreck-Gar (Animated)|the other Wreck-Gar]] all have varying amounts of facial hair. (The last of these was modeled after [["Weird Al" Yankovic|his voice actor's]] own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.) The Shattered Glass versions of [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] and [[Rodimus Prime (SG)|Rodimus Prime]] also have "facial hair", probably as a homage to Evil Spock's appearance in Star Trek.
* Many characters in the live-action series have facial hair, like [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]],[[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]] and [[Fallen |Fallen]].

====Nuts, Bolts and Screws====
[[Image:LightfootDramaticEncounter Gilmer's injury.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]
* [[Gilmer]] got rammed in his crotch by [[Lightfoot]], causing it to become red and Gilmer to clutch it, groaning he got "kicked in the balls". {{storylink|Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter}}

* [[Rattrap]] kicks [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving him a high-pitched voice. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 1}}

* [[Stampy (BWN)|Stampy]] once suggested a kick to the "unmentionables" as a workable battle tactic. {{storylink|The Ascending issue 3|The Ascending #3}}

* [[Heinrad]] has a set in [[Beast mode|tanuki mode]]. Since tanuki are known for their massive testicles, his equipment's existence actually makes sense.

* [[Flareup (Timelines)|Flareup]] interpreted the word "[[AllSpark Key|key]]" in "[[Wikipedia:Ghostbusters|keymaster]]" a little differently than [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] intended. {{storylink|Bee in the City}}

* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] has a pair of dangling wrecking balls in a... very unfortunate place. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* [[Dickbot the blender guy|Blenderbot]] has a... well... [[:Image:Appliancebots2.jpg|just look for yourself (NSFW?)]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Feminine characteristics===
[[Image:CrossingtheRubicron-newbody.jpg|right|230px|thumb|I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.]]
{{main|Female Transformer}}

====Breasts====
Some female Transformers, such as [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Elita One]] (not to mention the ''other'' [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] and [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]]) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their alt mode [[kibble]], but bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob", if you will. Some females even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Antagony (BW)|Antagony]] and [[Beta (G1)|Beta]] all fall into this category. One, [[Thunderblast (Decepticon)| Thunderblast]], even has [[:Image:ThunderblastBoobsAndNipples01.jpg|visible nipples]]. ''(You're going to look, aren't you...?)''

====Lips====
[[Image:G1 Silverbolt cartoon.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Though not female, [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]'s got <s>sexy</s> nice lips.]]
Another common feature to denote gender in female Transformers is distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia's in ''Beast Wars''. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker coloration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed femmes include Blackarachnia in ''Beast Machines'', her [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|''Animated'' cousin]], and the [[Female Autobots|G1 Female Autobots]].

As far as males go, none of them have differently colored lips, but some do have noticeably thicker lips. Generation 1 [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Orion Pax]], [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]], [[Streetwise (G1)|Streetwise]] and [[Shōki]], for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|''Animated'' Optimus Prime]].

====Hips====
[[Image:SpacePirates Arcee Bunsofsteel.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Dan Reed, you perv.]]

Alike to humans, many a female Transformer has a distinctly more curving hipstructure.

:''See also the '''[[Humanization#Sexuality|Sexuality]]''' section below.

{{--}}

===Questionable body parts===
[[Image:Powerglide heart.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Not [[Wikipedia:Astroboy|Astroboy]], we swear!]]

* Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' characters and movieverse [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] being exceptions. Movie [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] also notes that he can smell [[Sam Witwicky|Sam]] when the latter is trying to escape from him, and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] remarks that he can "smell" [[Demolishor (ROTF)|Demolishor]]. This would seem to imply that movieverse Transformers have a form of olfactory systems. The idea of noses is somewhat 'fixed' in ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Prime (franchise)|Transformers Prime]]'' by having the noses be a visible part of the robot's helmet as opposed to being part of their face.

* At the end of the G1 episode "[[The Girl Who Loved Powerglide]]", [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.

* Although listed separately above, breasts and "nuts, bolts and screws" would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.

;Brains
[[Image:PredaBrain1.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Predaking: All brawn AND brains!]]

* [[Predaking]] has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the [[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|''Zone'' cartoon]].

* [[Unicron]] also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, [[Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2|Black Horizon Part 2]]. Later handwaved by explaining that the particular Unicron in the crossover came from the [[universal stream]] Gargent 984.08 Alpha and had taken on an organic brain in a similar fashion as the native [[Go-Bots]].
{{-}}

==Other biological functions==
===Sleep===
* In the G1 comic, [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] plays a prank on [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] while he is in "rest mode." {{storylink|Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Trailbreaker's ''Universe'' profile}} [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare), an experience Prime refers to as an "involuntary systems shutdown". {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} Kup later attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up"—then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!" {{storylink|The Power and the Glory}} When [[Donny Finkleberg]] remarks that unlike machines, humans need to rest, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]] informs him Transformers need to as well to conserve fuel. Skids also has an on/off button in his dashboard. {{storylink|Heavy Traffic!}}
* In the Japanese [[The Headmasters (cartoon)|''The Headmasters'' cartoon]], [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep.
* This ability is also shown by [[Hellbat (Victory)|Hellbat]] in the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|''Victory'' cartoon]].
* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
**Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the ''Darksyde'', while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
** Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "[[Feral Scream Part 2]]", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
** In "[[Call of the Wild]]", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare at one point.
* ''Armada'' [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Cyclonus]] is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. [[Scavenger (Armada)|Scavenger]] does the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron is also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
* ''Animated'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. {{storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* Also in ''Animated'', when the Autobots feel tired after drinking an oil-nog (which Soundwave had spiked), they decide to go to sleep, pardon, to take a stasis nap. [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]] even yawns. {{storylink|Human Error, Part I}}

===Aging===
{{main|Life cycle}}
Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

* [[Image:Alpha Trion through the epochs.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]][[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]] has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his [[character model]] undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.

* The [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] was so old that his body needed a regular energy supply to keep him functioning. {{storylink|State Games}}

[[Image:MangaYoungDeathyStarSaber.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Young and Innocent]]
* [[Xaaron]] couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

* In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.

* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] and [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] are depicted as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments, in flashbacks. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Cohrada]] is depicted as "child" in his flashback in the issue "[[A Battle Fought Alone]]".

* Movieverse [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] has a cane and is rusting. Some parts even fall off him when he transforms!

* [[Side Burn (RID)|Side Burn]] claimed to have been a classic car when he was younger, and a tricycle when he was younger. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]]. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.

{{-}}

===Sexuality===
[[Image:Sideburnhearts.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.]]
{{Main|Transformer romance}}
{{Main|Reproduction}}

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and [[Female Transformer|female characters]] and sometimes drops a hint Transformers may engage in (recreational) sex.

The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including [[Elita One]] and [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]]. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Transformers. In contrast, such relations between two individuals of the same gender are [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|virtually]] unheard of.

{{--}}
==Accents==
{{Main|Accents}}

==See also==
* [[:Category:Transformer anatomy|Transformer anatomy]]
* [[Anatomic euphemism]]
* [[Relatives]]
* [[Transformer clothing|Clothing]]

==External links==
* [http://transfans.co.uk/comics_guide_detail.php?id=106&page=5 Transformers #94 Letters Page on Transfans.co.uk]

[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Humanization

2011-10-28T10:22:29Z

RXTheLegend: /* Facial hair */

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

==Glandular, digestive, and respiratory==
===Sweating===
[[Image:LandsharkWOH-energondelivery.jpg|right|thumb|180px|]]

* In [[Prime Time!|issue twelve]] of the original [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''Generation 1'' comic]], [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
* Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] can be seen "sweating".
* ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' and ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.
* [[Wing Saber (Energon)|Wing Saber]] sweatdrops upon seeing a particularly scary expression on [[Lori]]'s face. {{storylink|Ambush}}
* [[Leozack]] sweatdrops oil when [[Landshark]] attacks him. {{storylink|Wings of Honor}}

===Coughing===
* In the G1 episode "[[Roll for It]]", when the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished [[antimatter]] laboratory, they are coughing.
* [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] coughs when [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]] surrounds him with smoke.{{storylink|Triple Takeover}}
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust. {{storylink|Cosmic Rust (episode)|Cosmic Rust}}
* In "[[Call of the Primitives]]", a fiery blast from [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] causes both the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]] and [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to cough.
* In ''Beast Wars'', [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping, and when amidst the smoky remains of an electrical fire.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] fake-coughed in the episode "[[Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege]]" of the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|''Beast machines'' cartoon]] to draw [[Optimus Primal]]'s attention to the matter of [[Noble]].
* In the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' episode "[[Secret Weapon: D-5]]", [[Sky-Byte (RID)|Sky-Byte]], [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]], and [[Dark Scream]] all cough after inhaling smoke.
* In the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' episode "[[Mortal Combat]]", right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you," he coughs silently.
* [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] visibly coughs after [[Sam Witwicky]] uses the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to restore him to life in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', even expelling what appears to be dust.
* On [[Rock Bottom]], [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]] coughs after escaping the collapsed mine. Ironically, Bulkhead later claims ''in the same episode'' that Autobots don't need to breathe.

===Breathing===
On ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation Star Trek: The Next Generation]'', it was explained that the android [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Data Data]'s breathing served to cool his inner components, but mostly so that he doesn't appear unnatural to the humans he was designed to resemble. He also blinks for this reason. It could be argued that breathing serves the same "cooling" purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

* In an ''Energon'' episode, [[Jetfire (Armada)|Jetfire]] instructs [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]] that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can [[Powerlinx|powerlink]].
* At the climax of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] tries to strangle [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]], calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. {{storylink|Dark Voyage}}
* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. {{storylink|Velocity}}
* On the [[Nemesis (ROTF)| Nemesis]], [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] and [[Starscream (Movie)| Starscream's]] breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] breathes heavily as he runs in fear from [[Chaos (alien)|Chaos]] and the slave mines on [[Dread (planet)|Dread]]. {{storylink|Chaos (episode)|Chaos}}
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] is visibly breathing while in stasis. {{storylink|Deus ex Machina}}
* "[[A Team Effort]]" comfirms that Transformers require ventilation airways in their neck to prevent system overheating, as when [[Charger]] strangles [[Roadgrabber]] in a fit of rage.

===Spitting===
* Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at [[Donny Finkleberg|Robot-Master]] despite his [[mouthplate]]. {{storylink|Second Generation!}}
* After [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of back door.{{storylink|...All This and Civil War 2}}
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[Tangled Web]]", [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]] "spits" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]], despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.
*In ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] repeatedly spits while talking to [[Sam Witwicky]] and his companions. [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] also has to spit his mouth clean after being blasted across a forest by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] spits twice: once at Sam while in the [[Broadwater Metal Works]] foundry, and again when he mentions Prime's name. [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] also spits, albeit for no real reason, when addressing Sam and the humans outside of [[Chicago]] in ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]].''
* [[Galvatron II|Galvatron II]] is seen spitting and drooling while explaining the situation.{{storylink|Out of Time!}} Both Megatron and Galvatron II are seen both spitting on each other. Gross!.{{storylink|Exodus!}}

===Crying===
[[Image:Omega Supreme tears up.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Tissue: desired.]]

* A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]'s eye at the end of "[[The Secret of Omega Supreme]]".

* When [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] dies in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] is seen to dab at her eyes.

* [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] told his colleagues he was about to "leak optical lubricant" when they wouldn't stop about giving up on [[Operation: Volcano]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}

* In "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] has tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, during his monstrous disfigurement after he gains the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]].

* There is a teardrop on young [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]]'s face after being beaten by Deathsaurus. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* At the end of "[[Heroic! The Victory War]]", some Decepticons are crying over their defeat.

* As he mourns his dead friend [[Snowstalker]] and decides he can never fight again, [[Tigatron]] cries a single tear in beast mode.

* [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] wiped a fake tear when [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] put on the heroic act. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}

* When pondering [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]'s fate in ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes. This may be due to her technoganic nature though. {{storylink|Revelations Part I: Discovery}}

[[Image:Bw2 ep6 twinwaterfalls.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Surf's up—and I'm talkin' ''up''!]]

* Throughout ''[[Beast Wars II (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]]'' and ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'', and occasionally in the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

* Tears can be seen welling up in [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]]'s eyes and falling to the ground in ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' as he mourns a fallen comrade.

* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] told [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] to "cry him a river". {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}

* Ratchet ''actually'' cries tears of defeat when outwitted by Megatron. {{storylink|Warrior School!}}

* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] cries over [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]'s death in [[The Art of War issue 5|''The Art of War'' #5]].

* In ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers: Animated]]'', [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. {{storylink|Along Came a Spider}}

* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] cries after [[Sam Witwicky]] tells him cars are not allowed on campus, although he was exaggerating his sorrow and was likely deliberately leaking fluids to enhance the visual. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''

* [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was crying in the corner for not being in the [[Transformers: War for Cybertron|War for Cybertron]] game. [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] had to talk to him. Again. {{Storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.12#Law and Disorder|Law and Disorder}}

===Eating===
[[Image:Optimusprime-mom.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Probably contains [[energon (fuel)|energon goodies]] in the shape of a happy face.]]

* There are references to [[Cybertronian food]].

* [[Skullcruncher]] has been known to eat Autobots as well as humans and other organics, despite not needing to do so to survive. Other Decepticons are disgusted by this practice.

* There are Pepsi and [[Destron Pizza|pizza]] in the refrigerator in [[Pepsi Convoy]]'s home.

* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
**[[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point, he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain the Maximal's fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment (which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas). {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Rattrap]] eats apples. {{storylink|The Web}}
**And garbage {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] eats a bird. {{storylink|Power Surge}}
**[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] eats [[Clone One|his clone]]. [[Optimus Primal]] remarks that he is "disgusting". {{storylink|Double Dinobot}}
**While suffering from an [[Energon discharge virus]], [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. {{storylink|The Low Road}}
* In ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Optimus Primal]] wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] protests that "we don't eat food, we process [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]—PERIOD!", but is overruled. {{storylink|Forbidden Fruit}}
* According to [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]], [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] eats [[Autobot]] [[Protoform]]s for breakfast. But of course that could just be a rumour. {{Storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* [[Brains]] is seen chewing on a screw, while [[Igor]] and the [[hatchling]]s are clearly shown to be ingesting minerals. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Flatulence===
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[The Low Road]]", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
* In the ''Beast Wars'' episode "[[Bad Spark]]", [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his [[Transmetal]] body.
* Just go watch ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.
* One of the [[Mini-Constructicon]]s "cuts one", causing the others to laugh and request someone to open a window in "[[Spotlight: Ramjet]]".

===Urination===
* [[Tasmania Kid]] urinates (in beast mode) to put out a fire.
* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] performs a similar action on [[Seymour Simmons|Agent Simmons]] by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that 'Bee is just leaking lubricants on him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a [[Mojo|similar incident]].
* [[Scoop (SG)|Scoop]] apparently urinates himself in [[Do Over]]
* In Beast Wars II, [[DJ (BWII)|DJ]] is known for wetting himself whenever he drinks too much oil.

===Defecation===
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] defecates on [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in ''[[Robo-Capers]]'' from Marvel UK issue [[Robo-Capers issue 87|#87]].

===Blushing===
[[Image:SeaChange Seaspray Blush.JPEG|right|thumb|180px|]]
* In the G1 episode "[[Sea Change]]", [[Seaspray (G1)|Seaspray]] has his whole face turn bright red, even before he jumps into the [[Well of Transformation|Well of Transformation]] and gets turned into a humanoid.
* ''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee has also been shown to be able to blush in a few episodes. {{storylink|Home Is Where the Spark Is}} {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}
*''Transformers Cybertron'' Override blushes when speaking to Lori, which is an indication of the character's original male gender in ''Galaxy Force''. {{storylink|Honor}}

===Intoxication===
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|G1 cartoon]] episode "[[Microbots]]", the [[Decepticon|Decepticons]] behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]. [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] refers to this as "over-energizing".
* In the UK comic, the [[Wrecker|Wreckers]] frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called [[Maccadam's Old Oil House]], where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. [[Dreadwind (G1)|Dreadwind]] and [[Darkwing]] pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice [[Quickswitch]] fighting with some [[Mecannibal]]s.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, [[Lio Convoy]] gets drunk once and messes up [[Apache]]'s room.{{storylink|Recover the Bonds Lost!}}
* The [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]] in ''Animated'', whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.

===Miscellaneous===
[[Image:Cigarchomping.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Bet it's imported from Cubatron.]]
* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] once gets a cold, causing him to cough and have a fever, in an issue of the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|''Victory'' manga]]. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] got a bump on his head after being hit by Deathsaurus with a staff when they were young boys. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* In ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'', [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] chomps on a [[cigar|cy-gar]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Bumblebee (Animated)| Bumblebee]] has bandages wrapped around his middle after Sari is knocked out and the Autobots return to their base. {{storylink|TransWarped}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]] wore a cast over his arm after being hit by a falling building. {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}

{{-}}

==Body parts==
===Mouths/teeth/tongues===
{{Main|Teeth}}
{{Main|Tongue}}
{{Main|Mouthplate}}

* The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon series]] is the only major piece of fiction to ''not'' present Transformers as possessing [[teeth]] and/or [[Tongue|tongues]]. The features appear in both the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] comics, [[The Battlestars (manga)|''The Battlestars'' manga]], the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' cartoon, and the [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons and comics.

* In an episode of [[Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Super-God Masterforce]], [[Browning]] sticks his tongue out at [[Wilder]] and [[Bullhorn]] after they insult [[Cancer (Masterforce)|Cancer]].

*In the [[live-action film series]], the more human-like the robot, the more they are likely to have teeth. In the case of, say, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]], his teeth are mechanical cubes overlaid on each other, while [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] has bona fide fangs. Optimus spits out a piece of his shattered faceplate in the second film, which is intended to resemble a boxer spitting out a tooth after a brutal match. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the [[Kiss Players (manga)|''Kiss Players'' manga]], in which a [[Legion]] character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

===Eyeballs/eyelashes===
[[Image:AutoBerserk OptimusPrime closedeyes.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Oh, my eyes!!]]

* Most Transformers have eyes. They see with them.
* In the episode "[[Auto Berserk]]", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.
* While dying from life force depletion, [[Elita One]] occasionally closes her eyes. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Springer (G1)|Springer]] clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by a claw. {{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1}}
* Cyclonus also closes his eyes when Galvatron is about to go through the [[Alya]] treatment and he cannot bear to watch. {{storylink|Webworld}}
* [[Lyzack]] sports some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|Victory]]'' manga. So does [[Esmeral (Victory)|Esmeral]]. {{storylink|Heroic! The Victory War}}
* In [[Spotlight: Hot Rod]], Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. ''Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that it's just artistic license.''
* The robots in the [[live-action film series]] have eyes designed to resemble cameras, enabling them to dilate and blink.
* ''Animated'' [[Swindle (Animated)|Swindle]] has eyelids. He also blinks frequently.
* The cyborg [[GoBots (franchise)|GoBots]], as portrayed in the animated cartoon, do in fact possess eyelids (when the eyes aren't covered by a visor) and frequently blink. Some also have visible pupils.
* Most robots in ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Prime]]'' possess camera-like eyes similar to those seen in the live-action films, which dilate, contract, and blink in a highly human-like fashion. Notably, they also replicate the involuntary, back-and-forth movements of the human eye when idle.

<center><gallery>
Image:Esmeral-manga.jpg
Image:LyzackEyelashes01.jpg|About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.
Image:HotRodOpticShields.jpg|Hey, wake up!
Image:Dealerseyelids.jpg|Got munchies?
</gallery></center>

===Obesity===
Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

* In [[Letters page (Marvel UK)|Grim Grams #94]], [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] mentioned that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] weighs a little over 90 tons and "could stand to lose a little around the fuel storage system".
* [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] complained that the Decepticons had grown "fat and complacent" under [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]]'s rule. {{storylink|Surrender!}}
* [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
* Much the same could be said of [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]. Being big-chassised is no excuse to let yourself go.
* [[Ratchet (Animated)|''Animated'' Ratchet]] has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably ''lacks'' said paunch.
* [[Gnaw]]. Well, all the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]], really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly-poly.
* [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] has a set of metal plates that form the front of his Alt-mode forming a sort of "beer gut" on his abdomen.

===Masculine characteristics===
====Facial hair====
{{Main|Facial hair}}

* [[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]], [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]], [[Unicron]], and [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar]] all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. In addition to that, ''Energon''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Bulkhead (Energon)|Bulkhead]], the films' Optimus (who has a goatee), [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] and [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] and ''Animated''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]], [[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]], and [[Wreck-Gar (Animated)|the other Wreck-Gar]] all have varying amounts of facial hair. (The last of these was modeled after [["Weird Al" Yankovic|his voice actor's]] own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.) The Shattered Glass versions of [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] and [[Rodimus Prime (SG)|Rodimus Prime]] also have "facial hair", probably as a homage to Evil Spock's appearance in Star Trek.
* Many characters in the live-action series have facial hair, like [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]],[[Sentinal Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]] and [[Fallen (ROTF)|Fallen]].

====Nuts, Bolts and Screws====
[[Image:LightfootDramaticEncounter Gilmer's injury.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]
* [[Gilmer]] got rammed in his crotch by [[Lightfoot]], causing it to become red and Gilmer to clutch it, groaning he got "kicked in the balls". {{storylink|Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter}}

* [[Rattrap]] kicks [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving him a high-pitched voice. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 1}}

* [[Stampy (BWN)|Stampy]] once suggested a kick to the "unmentionables" as a workable battle tactic. {{storylink|The Ascending issue 3|The Ascending #3}}

* [[Heinrad]] has a set in [[Beast mode|tanuki mode]]. Since tanuki are known for their massive testicles, his equipment's existence actually makes sense.

* [[Flareup (Timelines)|Flareup]] interpreted the word "[[AllSpark Key|key]]" in "[[Wikipedia:Ghostbusters|keymaster]]" a little differently than [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] intended. {{storylink|Bee in the City}}

* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] has a pair of dangling wrecking balls in a... very unfortunate place. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* [[Dickbot the blender guy|Blenderbot]] has a... well... [[:Image:Appliancebots2.jpg|just look for yourself (NSFW?)]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Feminine characteristics===
[[Image:CrossingtheRubicron-newbody.jpg|right|230px|thumb|I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.]]
{{main|Female Transformer}}

====Breasts====
Some female Transformers, such as [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Elita One]] (not to mention the ''other'' [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] and [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]]) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their alt mode [[kibble]], but bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob", if you will. Some females even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Antagony (BW)|Antagony]] and [[Beta (G1)|Beta]] all fall into this category. One, [[Thunderblast (Decepticon)| Thunderblast]], even has [[:Image:ThunderblastBoobsAndNipples01.jpg|visible nipples]]. ''(You're going to look, aren't you...?)''

====Lips====
[[Image:G1 Silverbolt cartoon.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Though not female, [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]'s got <s>sexy</s> nice lips.]]
Another common feature to denote gender in female Transformers is distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia's in ''Beast Wars''. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker coloration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed femmes include Blackarachnia in ''Beast Machines'', her [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|''Animated'' cousin]], and the [[Female Autobots|G1 Female Autobots]].

As far as males go, none of them have differently colored lips, but some do have noticeably thicker lips. Generation 1 [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Orion Pax]], [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]], [[Streetwise (G1)|Streetwise]] and [[Shōki]], for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|''Animated'' Optimus Prime]].

====Hips====
[[Image:SpacePirates Arcee Bunsofsteel.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Dan Reed, you perv.]]

Alike to humans, many a female Transformer has a distinctly more curving hipstructure.

:''See also the '''[[Humanization#Sexuality|Sexuality]]''' section below.

{{--}}

===Questionable body parts===
[[Image:Powerglide heart.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Not [[Wikipedia:Astroboy|Astroboy]], we swear!]]

* Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' characters and movieverse [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] being exceptions. Movie [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] also notes that he can smell [[Sam Witwicky|Sam]] when the latter is trying to escape from him, and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] remarks that he can "smell" [[Demolishor (ROTF)|Demolishor]]. This would seem to imply that movieverse Transformers have a form of olfactory systems. The idea of noses is somewhat 'fixed' in ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Prime (franchise)|Transformers Prime]]'' by having the noses be a visible part of the robot's helmet as opposed to being part of their face.

* At the end of the G1 episode "[[The Girl Who Loved Powerglide]]", [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.

* Although listed separately above, breasts and "nuts, bolts and screws" would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.

;Brains
[[Image:PredaBrain1.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Predaking: All brawn AND brains!]]

* [[Predaking]] has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the [[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|''Zone'' cartoon]].

* [[Unicron]] also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, [[Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2|Black Horizon Part 2]]. Later handwaved by explaining that the particular Unicron in the crossover came from the [[universal stream]] Gargent 984.08 Alpha and had taken on an organic brain in a similar fashion as the native [[Go-Bots]].
{{-}}

==Other biological functions==
===Sleep===
* In the G1 comic, [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] plays a prank on [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] while he is in "rest mode." {{storylink|Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Trailbreaker's ''Universe'' profile}} [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare), an experience Prime refers to as an "involuntary systems shutdown". {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} Kup later attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up"—then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!" {{storylink|The Power and the Glory}} When [[Donny Finkleberg]] remarks that unlike machines, humans need to rest, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]] informs him Transformers need to as well to conserve fuel. Skids also has an on/off button in his dashboard. {{storylink|Heavy Traffic!}}
* In the Japanese [[The Headmasters (cartoon)|''The Headmasters'' cartoon]], [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep.
* This ability is also shown by [[Hellbat (Victory)|Hellbat]] in the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|''Victory'' cartoon]].
* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
**Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the ''Darksyde'', while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
** Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "[[Feral Scream Part 2]]", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
** In "[[Call of the Wild]]", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare at one point.
* ''Armada'' [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Cyclonus]] is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. [[Scavenger (Armada)|Scavenger]] does the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron is also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
* ''Animated'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. {{storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* Also in ''Animated'', when the Autobots feel tired after drinking an oil-nog (which Soundwave had spiked), they decide to go to sleep, pardon, to take a stasis nap. [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]] even yawns. {{storylink|Human Error, Part I}}

===Aging===
{{main|Life cycle}}
Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

* [[Image:Alpha Trion through the epochs.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]][[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]] has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his [[character model]] undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.

* The [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] was so old that his body needed a regular energy supply to keep him functioning. {{storylink|State Games}}

[[Image:MangaYoungDeathyStarSaber.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Young and Innocent]]
* [[Xaaron]] couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

* In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.

* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] and [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] are depicted as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments, in flashbacks. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Cohrada]] is depicted as "child" in his flashback in the issue "[[A Battle Fought Alone]]".

* Movieverse [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] has a cane and is rusting. Some parts even fall off him when he transforms!

* [[Side Burn (RID)|Side Burn]] claimed to have been a classic car when he was younger, and a tricycle when he was younger. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]]. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.

{{-}}

===Sexuality===
[[Image:Sideburnhearts.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.]]
{{Main|Transformer romance}}
{{Main|Reproduction}}

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and [[Female Transformer|female characters]] and sometimes drops a hint Transformers may engage in (recreational) sex.

The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including [[Elita One]] and [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]]. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Transformers. In contrast, such relations between two individuals of the same gender are [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|virtually]] unheard of.

{{--}}
==Accents==
{{Main|Accents}}

==See also==
* [[:Category:Transformer anatomy|Transformer anatomy]]
* [[Anatomic euphemism]]
* [[Relatives]]
* [[Transformer clothing|Clothing]]

==External links==
* [http://transfans.co.uk/comics_guide_detail.php?id=106&page=5 Transformers #94 Letters Page on Transfans.co.uk]

[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Transformer clothing

2011-10-28T10:21:39Z

RXTheLegend: /* Headwear */

{{suite}}
{{-}}

[[Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Wikipedia:Dick Tracy|Beat Tracy]]]]

One way that non-Transformer species seem to have influenced [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertronian]] culture is the relatively rare occurrence of [[Transformer]]s wearing clothing.

==Capes==
[[Image:BlasterG2.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Optimus and Megatron: Slaves to Fashion]]
From time to time, some high-ranked Cybertronians tend to wear capes. Presumably, they are a symbol of office, as only generals, commanders, and other such leaders have been seen sporting them. Exactly what material these capes are made from is unknown, but one presumes that Earth-style fabrics are likely extremely rare on Cybertron (which could make the capes even ''more'' special, considering).

* [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Generation 1 Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (G1)|Generation 1 Megatron]] wore capes while serving as the leaders of the [[Cybertron Alliance]]. Prime's was purple (the Decepticon color), while Megatron's was red (the Autobot color). Whether this was a symbol of high office or just a desire to look pretty is unknown.
* [[Starscream (G1)|Generation 1 Starscream]] wore a cape, large shoulder pads, and a crown at his coronation as Decepticon leader. The crown alone survived [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]]'s blast, only to be crushed under his feet.
* The [[Nine Great Demon Generals]] mostly wore capes (except [[Trypticon (G1)|Trypticon]], who wore a Batman-like cowl) in the ''Zone'' story pages.
* The members of the [[Convoy Council]] wear capes, too.
* [[Scavenger (Armada)|''Armada'' Scavenger]] wore a large, body-obscuring cloak when he first arrived on [[Earth]].
*[[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Tidal Wave]], or at least a computer simulation's version of him, wore a cloak to conceal his identity before a battle.{{storylink|Distribution}}
*[[Great Convoy]] ''is'' a cape. [[:Image:ConvoyCouncil1.jpg|Seriously]].
*[[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]'s appearance in ''[[Dark of the Moon (franchise)|Dark of the Moon]]'' included a hooded cloak to cover up the injuries he suffered at [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]'s hand in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''.

==Trenchcoats==
[[Image:Micromastercoats s.jpg|right|200px|thumb|You better accept the terms, or...]]
Quite a few characters have been depicted wearing trenchcoats, mostly when involved in detective work or similarly secretive activity.

* [[Nightbeat (G1)|Generation 1 Nightbeat]] is often seen [[:Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg|wearing a trenchcoat and fedora]], due to their connection with detective fiction. He pulls it off pretty well, actually.
* The [[Air Strike Patrol|Micromaster Air Strike Patrol]] wore trenchcoats and fedoras while trying to pass as human professional wrestlers. Interestingly enough, these coats somehow obscured large physical protrusions on their bodies (jet intakes, wings, etc.). {{storylink|The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!}}

== Ponchos ==
[[Image:AFistfulofEnergon-Lockdowninponcho.jpg|200px|right|thumb|¿Como estas?]]
* The [[Matrix Flame priest]] wears poncho-style robes.
* The [[Jointron]] brothers have been shown wearing ponchos and sombreros, as well as using mariachi-style guitars and maracas. This is both hilarious ''and'' racist.
*[[Lockdown (Animated)|''Transformers Animated'' Lockdown]] wore a "Space Poncho" when he showed up on the remains of the ''[[Nemesis (Animated)|Nemesis]]'' in reference to the Man With No Name from the spaghetti western ''A Fistful of Dollars''. {{storylink|A Fistful of Energon}}

{{-}}

==Pretenders==
[[Image:Nomates.jpg|right|150px|thumb|No, really, thanks. I got to go now.]]
* Most of the [[Pretender]] toys have clothing molded onto their Pretender shells. Naturally, it's only pretend clothing, being part of the Transformers' shells (which themselves might be considered a form of clothing).
* In the TV commercial for the Pretenders, the human Pretenders can take off these clothes and reveal the muscle of the outer shells.
* In ''[[Super-God Masterforce (franchise)|Super-God Masterforce]]'', human Pretenders wear clothes in their everyday lives as normal humans.
* [[Cloudburst]] also wears normal clothing in [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel Comics continuity]]. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* In [[Revenge of the Fallen (franchise)|Revenge of the Fallen]], the Pretender [[Alice]] conceals her lady-bits with clothing. When she transforms into her robot mode, her clothes appear to fold away in the same manner as her simulated skin. She did however show the ability to alter the appearance of her clothing.
{{-}}

==Headwear==
[[Image:MegatronOrigin2 Megs hair.jpg|left|150px|thumb|This didn't happen. This didn't happen. This didn't happen.]]
[[Image:Timelines-rattrap.jpg|right|150px|thumb|A cap-like helmet]]
*[[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] wore a crown during his coronation in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''.
* [[Cohrada]] wears his father's hat in [[Beast Wars Neo (manga)|''Beast Wars Neo'' manga]].
* In the [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity]], [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] wore a removable face-mask that resembled the face of his original toy. {{storylink|The War Within issue 6}} He was later shown to have integrated a similar mask into his head proper. {{storylink|Skyfire (issue)|Skyfire}} [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] was also shown to wear a removable face-mask that resembled his toy's face. {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}
* During the [[War Within: The Dark Ages|Dark Ages]], [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]] sported a face-mask resembling his original toy, which was later upgraded into a fully removable helmet that he wore along with detachable armor. {{storylink|Skyfire (issue)|Skyfire}} He would also wear a helmet (based on that of his Classics toy) during the events of ''[[Stormbringer (comics)|Stormbringer]]''.
* In "[[Dawn of Future's Past]]", [[Rattrap]] is seen wearing a removable cap-like helmet.
* [[Starscream (Armada)|Another Starscream]] wore a crown very much like G1 Starscream's after stealing power from Primus to grow to giant size.
* ''Animated'' [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] wore a beret while indulging in his artistic tendencies. He was probably trying to be like human artists though.
* ''Animated'' Bulkhead also wore a pair of glasses, and [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] wore a tutor's cap while the two were discussing Sari's origins. They were trying to substitute as teachers for her in an attempt to cheer her up, telling her that she could still learn subjects while out of school.{{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}}
* Back in the [[Megatron Origin|dim and distant past]] on Cybertron, it was revealed that [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]'s "bucket-head" is in fact a helmet, presumably a hangover from his mining days. After his [[Cy-Kill (G1)|first kill]] in the [[Gladiatorial combat|deathmatches]] at the [[Forge]], Megatron removed his helmet to reveal a crest of hair-like panels underneath, while the crowd cheered him on. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 2}}
* Later, [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]] was seen (in a cameo) at [[Bumper (G1)|Bumper]]'s [[:Image:Bumper-funeral.jpg|funeral]] having removed his head/helmet as a mark of respect, along with his unnamed [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|albino twin]]. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3}}
* [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s helment was being hit off by [[Megatron (Movie)|the guy who he joined]].

{{--}}

==Cosplay==
[[Image:LiveActionJazz-Skywarp01.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Robot dancing!?]]
Sometimes, people on [[Earth]] wear clothing to look like [[Ramjet (G1)|various Transformers]]. Sometimes this is hot, sometimes this is sad.

{{-}}

==Others==
[[Image:Windcharger flash.jpg|right|100px|thumb|Hey, cover up! There are children watching!]]

[[Image:GrimlockManga.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Me Grimlock say it fun to learn! (Because knowledge is power!)]]

* In an early plan to trap the Decepticons, the Autobots had to run around in lab coats. It was very silly. {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 3}}

* [[Brawn (G1)|Generation 1 Brawn]] made a seemingly metaphorical reference to footwear called [[proton boots]].

* The magic of [[Christmas]] once made Optimus Prime [[:Image:Christmasprime.jpg|dress up]] in a festive outfit. Obviously, the big guy is a little too open to suggestion. The same holds true for [[:Image:Biggrim christmas.jpg|Grimlock]], it seems.

* [[Grimlock (G1)|Generation 1 Grimlock]] is a king of fashion, at times wearing [[:Image:Biggrim me king.jpg|a crown]], [[:Image:Biggrim.jpg|a bandana]], an [[:Image:Madman Paradise Grimlock drinks.JPG|apron]], a [[:Image:Muk91_robocapers_megrimlockmoviestar.jpg |top hat and cane]] and... err...

* In Japan, [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] once dressed in garb modeled after the hooded outfits worn by the Ku Klux Klan. While Westerners would find this to be in very, ''very'' poor taste, the Japanese have been known to be somewhat ignorant about the negative cultural impact the Klan represent. Villains with outfits modeled after the Klan have appeared in many Japanese children's shows, including the [[Wikipedia:Tetsujin 28-go|Japanese version of ''Gigantor'']]. From their perspective, the Klan outfits just "look cool". {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 7}}

* The [[Convoy Council]] wear robes. They have their reasons, and they do not concern you.

* The [[structure|exostructures]] of the members of [[Council of Ancients]] resemble robes. They also have their reasons.

* In ''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (manga)|Beast Wars II]]'' manga issue "[[Realize the Forbidden Love!]]", both Maximals and [[Seacon (BWII)|Seacon]]s wear suits on [[Bighorn]] and [[Scylla]]'s wedding. Instead of normal wedding suit or dress, [[Bighorn]] and [[Scylla]] wear [[Wikipedia:Tanabata|Hikoboshi and Orihime]]'s clothes respectively.

* In his Unicron-created dream world, ''Armada'' [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]] wore a crimson sash around his shoulders. He was apparently the ruler of all Cybertron in his dream, so it was probably ceremonial.

* The [[Space Mini-Con Team]] and [[Sureshock (Armada)|Sureshock]] have disguised themselves as humans using large, heavy jackets, coats, baseball caps, hats, sunglasses, and other items of clothing to try to blend in with other people in robot mode.
[[Image:Heinrad timecop.jpg|right|100px|thumb|And yet, somehow not as ludicrous as the other Time Cop.]]

* [[Heinrad]] wears his [[Ruler of Time and Space]] agent's uniform. {{Storylink|Return to Zero}}

* [[Six-Speed]]'s curiosity about human clothing led him to examine the closets of his [[human]] friends [[Bud Hansen|Bud]] and [[Coby Hansen|Coby]]. However, his attempt to dress like a human basically amounted to putting random articles of clothing on his limbs, looking more ridiculous than clothing-wearing Transformers normally do. Which is kinda amazing.

* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee]] wore a robe before his wrestling match with [[Colossus Rhodes]], likely more to keep with human tradition than actual need. {{storylink|Total Meltdown}}

*[[Drift (G1)|Drift]] wore a full set of clothes that completely concealed his robot-ness. {{storylink|Spotlight: Drift}}

* [[Scalpel (ROTF)|The doctor]], along with his european [[Accents|accent]] wears what appear to be glasses. They seem to be the lenses for his microscope mode. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
* SCF '''Starscream''' (2002)

:This highly articulated, non-transforming version of Starscream, part of the Japan-exclusive Super Collection Figures series, comes with removable shoulder pads and cloak. He also has a choice of normal head or a head with a crown.

*''Cybertron'' '''Starscream''' (Supreme, 2005)

: Supreme Starscream, a colossally upscaled version of the ''Cybertron'' line's Voyager-class Starscream toy, comes with a Decepticon "Crown of Leadership" obviously based on the one worn by the original Starscream in [[The Transformers: The Movie|the 1986 movie]].

*''Star Wars Transformers'' '''[[Darth Vader]]/[[Death Star]]''' (2007)

:The sole Supreme-class figure of the ''Star Wars Transformers'' toyline, this gigantic Darth Vader mech includes an actual cloth cape that can attach to the back of the figure in robot mode in order to more closely resemble Vader in the ''Star Wars'' movies.

{{-}}

*''Masterpiece'' '''Grimlock''' (2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MP-8'''

: ''[[Masterpiece]]'' Grimlock comes with an intelligence transfer helmet accessory, based upon the device Grimlock used to transfer his super-intelligence into [[Computron (G1)|Computron]] in "[[Grimlock's New Brain]]". He also comes with an apron and serving tray, to simulate the time he served drinks to alien diplomats in "[[Madman's Paradise]]". He was originally going to come with a crown commonly featured in the [[Grimlock (G1)| Marvel Comics]] as well, but that accessory was omitted.

* King '''Grimlock''' (2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MP-8X'''

: King Grimlock is Takara's special edition of ''Masterpiece'' Grimlock decoed to resemble his Marvel Comics appearances. As such, he comes with the crown that was omitted from the regular edition, but none of the other clothing accessories.

* ''Masterpiece'' '''Grimlock''' (2010)

: Hasbro's Toys"R"Us exclusive release of ''Masterpiece'' Grimlock came with the same accessories (including the crown) as King Grimlock, but uses a more cartoon inspired deco.

==Merchandise==
* '''Starscream''' (2002)

: Originally a chase figure in Japan, this remold of the regular figure includes a cape, newly molded limbs, and a head with the crown as seen in the movie.

* '''Coronation Starscream''' (Diamond Select, 2008)

:Released by Diamond Select Toys in 2008, Coronation Starscream was an exclusive to on-line retailer Action Figure Xpress. He was sculpted by [[Mark Wong]] of [[Art Asylum]] and limited to 600 pieces. It features Starscream decked out in the royal crown, cape, and big honkin' shoulder pads he wore (albeit briefly) in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''.
{{-}}

==See Also==
*[[Christmas]] - Some Transformers will dress up for the holiday.
*[[Humanization]]

==External link==
*[http://s90690880.onlinehome.us/jhiaxus/oddities/oddities_clothes.htm "Transformers that aren't nude" at Obscure Transformers]

[[Category:Transformer culture]]

Transformer clothing

2011-10-28T10:21:09Z

RXTheLegend: /* Headwear */

{{suite}}
{{-}}

[[Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Wikipedia:Dick Tracy|Beat Tracy]]]]

One way that non-Transformer species seem to have influenced [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertronian]] culture is the relatively rare occurrence of [[Transformer]]s wearing clothing.

==Capes==
[[Image:BlasterG2.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Optimus and Megatron: Slaves to Fashion]]
From time to time, some high-ranked Cybertronians tend to wear capes. Presumably, they are a symbol of office, as only generals, commanders, and other such leaders have been seen sporting them. Exactly what material these capes are made from is unknown, but one presumes that Earth-style fabrics are likely extremely rare on Cybertron (which could make the capes even ''more'' special, considering).

* [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Generation 1 Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (G1)|Generation 1 Megatron]] wore capes while serving as the leaders of the [[Cybertron Alliance]]. Prime's was purple (the Decepticon color), while Megatron's was red (the Autobot color). Whether this was a symbol of high office or just a desire to look pretty is unknown.
* [[Starscream (G1)|Generation 1 Starscream]] wore a cape, large shoulder pads, and a crown at his coronation as Decepticon leader. The crown alone survived [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]]'s blast, only to be crushed under his feet.
* The [[Nine Great Demon Generals]] mostly wore capes (except [[Trypticon (G1)|Trypticon]], who wore a Batman-like cowl) in the ''Zone'' story pages.
* The members of the [[Convoy Council]] wear capes, too.
* [[Scavenger (Armada)|''Armada'' Scavenger]] wore a large, body-obscuring cloak when he first arrived on [[Earth]].
*[[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Tidal Wave]], or at least a computer simulation's version of him, wore a cloak to conceal his identity before a battle.{{storylink|Distribution}}
*[[Great Convoy]] ''is'' a cape. [[:Image:ConvoyCouncil1.jpg|Seriously]].
*[[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]'s appearance in ''[[Dark of the Moon (franchise)|Dark of the Moon]]'' included a hooded cloak to cover up the injuries he suffered at [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]'s hand in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''.

==Trenchcoats==
[[Image:Micromastercoats s.jpg|right|200px|thumb|You better accept the terms, or...]]
Quite a few characters have been depicted wearing trenchcoats, mostly when involved in detective work or similarly secretive activity.

* [[Nightbeat (G1)|Generation 1 Nightbeat]] is often seen [[:Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg|wearing a trenchcoat and fedora]], due to their connection with detective fiction. He pulls it off pretty well, actually.
* The [[Air Strike Patrol|Micromaster Air Strike Patrol]] wore trenchcoats and fedoras while trying to pass as human professional wrestlers. Interestingly enough, these coats somehow obscured large physical protrusions on their bodies (jet intakes, wings, etc.). {{storylink|The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!}}

== Ponchos ==
[[Image:AFistfulofEnergon-Lockdowninponcho.jpg|200px|right|thumb|¿Como estas?]]
* The [[Matrix Flame priest]] wears poncho-style robes.
* The [[Jointron]] brothers have been shown wearing ponchos and sombreros, as well as using mariachi-style guitars and maracas. This is both hilarious ''and'' racist.
*[[Lockdown (Animated)|''Transformers Animated'' Lockdown]] wore a "Space Poncho" when he showed up on the remains of the ''[[Nemesis (Animated)|Nemesis]]'' in reference to the Man With No Name from the spaghetti western ''A Fistful of Dollars''. {{storylink|A Fistful of Energon}}

{{-}}

==Pretenders==
[[Image:Nomates.jpg|right|150px|thumb|No, really, thanks. I got to go now.]]
* Most of the [[Pretender]] toys have clothing molded onto their Pretender shells. Naturally, it's only pretend clothing, being part of the Transformers' shells (which themselves might be considered a form of clothing).
* In the TV commercial for the Pretenders, the human Pretenders can take off these clothes and reveal the muscle of the outer shells.
* In ''[[Super-God Masterforce (franchise)|Super-God Masterforce]]'', human Pretenders wear clothes in their everyday lives as normal humans.
* [[Cloudburst]] also wears normal clothing in [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel Comics continuity]]. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* In [[Revenge of the Fallen (franchise)|Revenge of the Fallen]], the Pretender [[Alice]] conceals her lady-bits with clothing. When she transforms into her robot mode, her clothes appear to fold away in the same manner as her simulated skin. She did however show the ability to alter the appearance of her clothing.
{{-}}

==Headwear==
[[Image:MegatronOrigin2 Megs hair.jpg|left|150px|thumb|This didn't happen. This didn't happen. This didn't happen.]]
[[Image:Timelines-rattrap.jpg|right|150px|thumb|A cap-like helmet]]
*[[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] wore a crown during his coronation in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''.
* [[Cohrada]] wears his father's hat in [[Beast Wars Neo (manga)|''Beast Wars Neo'' manga]].
* In the [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity]], [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] wore a removable face-mask that resembled the face of his original toy. {{storylink|The War Within issue 6}} He was later shown to have integrated a similar mask into his head proper. {{storylink|Skyfire (issue)|Skyfire}} [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] was also shown to wear a removable face-mask that resembled his toy's face. {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}
* During the [[War Within: The Dark Ages|Dark Ages]], [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]] sported a face-mask resembling his original toy, which was later upgraded into a fully removable helmet that he wore along with detachable armor. {{storylink|Skyfire (issue)|Skyfire}} He would also wear a helmet (based on that of his Classics toy) during the events of ''[[Stormbringer (comics)|Stormbringer]]''.
* In "[[Dawn of Future's Past]]", [[Rattrap]] is seen wearing a removable cap-like helmet.
* [[Starscream (Armada)|Another Starscream]] wore a crown very much like G1 Starscream's after stealing power from Primus to grow to giant size.
* ''Animated'' [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] wore a beret while indulging in his artistic tendencies. He was probably trying to be like human artists though.
* ''Animated'' Bulkhead also wore a pair of glasses, and [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] wore a tutor's cap while the two were discussing Sari's origins. They were trying to substitute as teachers for her in an attempt to cheer her up, telling her that she could still learn subjects while out of school.{{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}}
* Back in the [[Megatron Origin|dim and distant past]] on Cybertron, it was revealed that [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]'s "bucket-head" is in fact a helmet, presumably a hangover from his mining days. After his [[Cy-Kill (G1)|first kill]] in the [[Gladiatorial combat|deathmatches]] at the [[Forge]], Megatron removed his helmet to reveal a crest of hair-like panels underneath, while the crowd cheered him on. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 2}}
* Later, [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]] was seen (in a cameo) at [[Bumper (G1)|Bumper]]'s [[:Image:Bumper-funeral.jpg|funeral]] having removed his head/helmet as a mark of respect, along with his unnamed [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|albino twin]]. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3}}
* [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel]]'s helment was being hit off by [[Megatrom (Movie)|the guy who he joined]].

{{--}}

==Cosplay==
[[Image:LiveActionJazz-Skywarp01.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Robot dancing!?]]
Sometimes, people on [[Earth]] wear clothing to look like [[Ramjet (G1)|various Transformers]]. Sometimes this is hot, sometimes this is sad.

{{-}}

==Others==
[[Image:Windcharger flash.jpg|right|100px|thumb|Hey, cover up! There are children watching!]]

[[Image:GrimlockManga.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Me Grimlock say it fun to learn! (Because knowledge is power!)]]

* In an early plan to trap the Decepticons, the Autobots had to run around in lab coats. It was very silly. {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 3}}

* [[Brawn (G1)|Generation 1 Brawn]] made a seemingly metaphorical reference to footwear called [[proton boots]].

* The magic of [[Christmas]] once made Optimus Prime [[:Image:Christmasprime.jpg|dress up]] in a festive outfit. Obviously, the big guy is a little too open to suggestion. The same holds true for [[:Image:Biggrim christmas.jpg|Grimlock]], it seems.

* [[Grimlock (G1)|Generation 1 Grimlock]] is a king of fashion, at times wearing [[:Image:Biggrim me king.jpg|a crown]], [[:Image:Biggrim.jpg|a bandana]], an [[:Image:Madman Paradise Grimlock drinks.JPG|apron]], a [[:Image:Muk91_robocapers_megrimlockmoviestar.jpg |top hat and cane]] and... err...

* In Japan, [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] once dressed in garb modeled after the hooded outfits worn by the Ku Klux Klan. While Westerners would find this to be in very, ''very'' poor taste, the Japanese have been known to be somewhat ignorant about the negative cultural impact the Klan represent. Villains with outfits modeled after the Klan have appeared in many Japanese children's shows, including the [[Wikipedia:Tetsujin 28-go|Japanese version of ''Gigantor'']]. From their perspective, the Klan outfits just "look cool". {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 7}}

* The [[Convoy Council]] wear robes. They have their reasons, and they do not concern you.

* The [[structure|exostructures]] of the members of [[Council of Ancients]] resemble robes. They also have their reasons.

* In ''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (manga)|Beast Wars II]]'' manga issue "[[Realize the Forbidden Love!]]", both Maximals and [[Seacon (BWII)|Seacon]]s wear suits on [[Bighorn]] and [[Scylla]]'s wedding. Instead of normal wedding suit or dress, [[Bighorn]] and [[Scylla]] wear [[Wikipedia:Tanabata|Hikoboshi and Orihime]]'s clothes respectively.

* In his Unicron-created dream world, ''Armada'' [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]] wore a crimson sash around his shoulders. He was apparently the ruler of all Cybertron in his dream, so it was probably ceremonial.

* The [[Space Mini-Con Team]] and [[Sureshock (Armada)|Sureshock]] have disguised themselves as humans using large, heavy jackets, coats, baseball caps, hats, sunglasses, and other items of clothing to try to blend in with other people in robot mode.
[[Image:Heinrad timecop.jpg|right|100px|thumb|And yet, somehow not as ludicrous as the other Time Cop.]]

* [[Heinrad]] wears his [[Ruler of Time and Space]] agent's uniform. {{Storylink|Return to Zero}}

* [[Six-Speed]]'s curiosity about human clothing led him to examine the closets of his [[human]] friends [[Bud Hansen|Bud]] and [[Coby Hansen|Coby]]. However, his attempt to dress like a human basically amounted to putting random articles of clothing on his limbs, looking more ridiculous than clothing-wearing Transformers normally do. Which is kinda amazing.

* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee]] wore a robe before his wrestling match with [[Colossus Rhodes]], likely more to keep with human tradition than actual need. {{storylink|Total Meltdown}}

*[[Drift (G1)|Drift]] wore a full set of clothes that completely concealed his robot-ness. {{storylink|Spotlight: Drift}}

* [[Scalpel (ROTF)|The doctor]], along with his european [[Accents|accent]] wears what appear to be glasses. They seem to be the lenses for his microscope mode. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
* SCF '''Starscream''' (2002)

:This highly articulated, non-transforming version of Starscream, part of the Japan-exclusive Super Collection Figures series, comes with removable shoulder pads and cloak. He also has a choice of normal head or a head with a crown.

*''Cybertron'' '''Starscream''' (Supreme, 2005)

: Supreme Starscream, a colossally upscaled version of the ''Cybertron'' line's Voyager-class Starscream toy, comes with a Decepticon "Crown of Leadership" obviously based on the one worn by the original Starscream in [[The Transformers: The Movie|the 1986 movie]].

*''Star Wars Transformers'' '''[[Darth Vader]]/[[Death Star]]''' (2007)

:The sole Supreme-class figure of the ''Star Wars Transformers'' toyline, this gigantic Darth Vader mech includes an actual cloth cape that can attach to the back of the figure in robot mode in order to more closely resemble Vader in the ''Star Wars'' movies.

{{-}}

*''Masterpiece'' '''Grimlock''' (2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MP-8'''

: ''[[Masterpiece]]'' Grimlock comes with an intelligence transfer helmet accessory, based upon the device Grimlock used to transfer his super-intelligence into [[Computron (G1)|Computron]] in "[[Grimlock's New Brain]]". He also comes with an apron and serving tray, to simulate the time he served drinks to alien diplomats in "[[Madman's Paradise]]". He was originally going to come with a crown commonly featured in the [[Grimlock (G1)| Marvel Comics]] as well, but that accessory was omitted.

* King '''Grimlock''' (2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MP-8X'''

: King Grimlock is Takara's special edition of ''Masterpiece'' Grimlock decoed to resemble his Marvel Comics appearances. As such, he comes with the crown that was omitted from the regular edition, but none of the other clothing accessories.

* ''Masterpiece'' '''Grimlock''' (2010)

: Hasbro's Toys"R"Us exclusive release of ''Masterpiece'' Grimlock came with the same accessories (including the crown) as King Grimlock, but uses a more cartoon inspired deco.

==Merchandise==
* '''Starscream''' (2002)

: Originally a chase figure in Japan, this remold of the regular figure includes a cape, newly molded limbs, and a head with the crown as seen in the movie.

* '''Coronation Starscream''' (Diamond Select, 2008)

:Released by Diamond Select Toys in 2008, Coronation Starscream was an exclusive to on-line retailer Action Figure Xpress. He was sculpted by [[Mark Wong]] of [[Art Asylum]] and limited to 600 pieces. It features Starscream decked out in the royal crown, cape, and big honkin' shoulder pads he wore (albeit briefly) in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''.
{{-}}

==See Also==
*[[Christmas]] - Some Transformers will dress up for the holiday.
*[[Humanization]]

==External link==
*[http://s90690880.onlinehome.us/jhiaxus/oddities/oddities_clothes.htm "Transformers that aren't nude" at Obscure Transformers]

[[Category:Transformer culture]]

Humanization

2011-10-28T10:13:22Z

RXTheLegend: /* Facial hair */

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

==Glandular, digestive, and respiratory==
===Sweating===
[[Image:LandsharkWOH-energondelivery.jpg|right|thumb|180px|]]

* In [[Prime Time!|issue twelve]] of the original [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''Generation 1'' comic]], [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
* Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] can be seen "sweating".
* ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' and ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.
* [[Wing Saber (Energon)|Wing Saber]] sweatdrops upon seeing a particularly scary expression on [[Lori]]'s face. {{storylink|Ambush}}
* [[Leozack]] sweatdrops oil when [[Landshark]] attacks him. {{storylink|Wings of Honor}}

===Coughing===
* In the G1 episode "[[Roll for It]]", when the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished [[antimatter]] laboratory, they are coughing.
* [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] coughs when [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]] surrounds him with smoke.{{storylink|Triple Takeover}}
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust. {{storylink|Cosmic Rust (episode)|Cosmic Rust}}
* In "[[Call of the Primitives]]", a fiery blast from [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] causes both the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]] and [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to cough.
* In ''Beast Wars'', [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping, and when amidst the smoky remains of an electrical fire.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] fake-coughed in the episode "[[Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege]]" of the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|''Beast machines'' cartoon]] to draw [[Optimus Primal]]'s attention to the matter of [[Noble]].
* In the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' episode "[[Secret Weapon: D-5]]", [[Sky-Byte (RID)|Sky-Byte]], [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]], and [[Dark Scream]] all cough after inhaling smoke.
* In the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' episode "[[Mortal Combat]]", right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you," he coughs silently.
* [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] visibly coughs after [[Sam Witwicky]] uses the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to restore him to life in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', even expelling what appears to be dust.
* On [[Rock Bottom]], [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]] coughs after escaping the collapsed mine. Ironically, Bulkhead later claims ''in the same episode'' that Autobots don't need to breathe.

===Breathing===
On ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation Star Trek: The Next Generation]'', it was explained that the android [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Data Data]'s breathing served to cool his inner components, but mostly so that he doesn't appear unnatural to the humans he was designed to resemble. He also blinks for this reason. It could be argued that breathing serves the same "cooling" purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

* In an ''Energon'' episode, [[Jetfire (Armada)|Jetfire]] instructs [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]] that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can [[Powerlinx|powerlink]].
* At the climax of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] tries to strangle [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]], calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. {{storylink|Dark Voyage}}
* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. {{storylink|Velocity}}
* On the [[Nemesis (ROTF)| Nemesis]], [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] and [[Starscream (Movie)| Starscream's]] breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] breathes heavily as he runs in fear from [[Chaos (alien)|Chaos]] and the slave mines on [[Dread (planet)|Dread]]. {{storylink|Chaos (episode)|Chaos}}
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] is visibly breathing while in stasis. {{storylink|Deus ex Machina}}
* "[[A Team Effort]]" comfirms that Transformers require ventilation airways in their neck to prevent system overheating, as when [[Charger]] strangles [[Roadgrabber]] in a fit of rage.

===Spitting===
* Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at [[Donny Finkleberg|Robot-Master]] despite his [[mouthplate]]. {{storylink|Second Generation!}}
* After [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of back door.{{storylink|...All This and Civil War 2}}
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[Tangled Web]]", [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]] "spits" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]], despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.
*In ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] repeatedly spits while talking to [[Sam Witwicky]] and his companions. [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] also has to spit his mouth clean after being blasted across a forest by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] spits twice: once at Sam while in the [[Broadwater Metal Works]] foundry, and again when he mentions Prime's name. [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] also spits, albeit for no real reason, when addressing Sam and the humans outside of [[Chicago]] in ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]].''
* [[Galvatron II|Galvatron II]] is seen spitting and drooling while explaining the situation.{{storylink|Out of Time!}} Both Megatron and Galvatron II are seen both spitting on each other. Gross!.{{storylink|Exodus!}}

===Crying===
[[Image:Omega Supreme tears up.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Tissue: desired.]]

* A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]'s eye at the end of "[[The Secret of Omega Supreme]]".

* When [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] dies in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] is seen to dab at her eyes.

* [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] told his colleagues he was about to "leak optical lubricant" when they wouldn't stop about giving up on [[Operation: Volcano]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}

* In "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] has tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, during his monstrous disfigurement after he gains the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]].

* There is a teardrop on young [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]]'s face after being beaten by Deathsaurus. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* At the end of "[[Heroic! The Victory War]]", some Decepticons are crying over their defeat.

* As he mourns his dead friend [[Snowstalker]] and decides he can never fight again, [[Tigatron]] cries a single tear in beast mode.

* [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] wiped a fake tear when [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] put on the heroic act. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}

* When pondering [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]'s fate in ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes. This may be due to her technoganic nature though. {{storylink|Revelations Part I: Discovery}}

[[Image:Bw2 ep6 twinwaterfalls.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Surf's up—and I'm talkin' ''up''!]]

* Throughout ''[[Beast Wars II (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]]'' and ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'', and occasionally in the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

* Tears can be seen welling up in [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]]'s eyes and falling to the ground in ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' as he mourns a fallen comrade.

* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] told [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] to "cry him a river". {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}

* Ratchet ''actually'' cries tears of defeat when outwitted by Megatron. {{storylink|Warrior School!}}

* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] cries over [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]'s death in [[The Art of War issue 5|''The Art of War'' #5]].

* In ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers: Animated]]'', [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. {{storylink|Along Came a Spider}}

* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] cries after [[Sam Witwicky]] tells him cars are not allowed on campus, although he was exaggerating his sorrow and was likely deliberately leaking fluids to enhance the visual. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''

* [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was crying in the corner for not being in the [[Transformers: War for Cybertron|War for Cybertron]] game. [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] had to talk to him. Again. {{Storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.12#Law and Disorder|Law and Disorder}}

===Eating===
[[Image:Optimusprime-mom.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Probably contains [[energon (fuel)|energon goodies]] in the shape of a happy face.]]

* There are references to [[Cybertronian food]].

* [[Skullcruncher]] has been known to eat Autobots as well as humans and other organics, despite not needing to do so to survive. Other Decepticons are disgusted by this practice.

* There are Pepsi and [[Destron Pizza|pizza]] in the refrigerator in [[Pepsi Convoy]]'s home.

* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
**[[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point, he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain the Maximal's fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment (which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas). {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Rattrap]] eats apples. {{storylink|The Web}}
**And garbage {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] eats a bird. {{storylink|Power Surge}}
**[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] eats [[Clone One|his clone]]. [[Optimus Primal]] remarks that he is "disgusting". {{storylink|Double Dinobot}}
**While suffering from an [[Energon discharge virus]], [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. {{storylink|The Low Road}}
* In ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Optimus Primal]] wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] protests that "we don't eat food, we process [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]—PERIOD!", but is overruled. {{storylink|Forbidden Fruit}}
* According to [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]], [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] eats [[Autobot]] [[Protoform]]s for breakfast. But of course that could just be a rumour. {{Storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* [[Brains]] is seen chewing on a screw, while [[Igor]] and the [[hatchling]]s are clearly shown to be ingesting minerals. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Flatulence===
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[The Low Road]]", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
* In the ''Beast Wars'' episode "[[Bad Spark]]", [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his [[Transmetal]] body.
* Just go watch ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.
* One of the [[Mini-Constructicon]]s "cuts one", causing the others to laugh and request someone to open a window in "[[Spotlight: Ramjet]]".

===Urination===
* [[Tasmania Kid]] urinates (in beast mode) to put out a fire.
* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] performs a similar action on [[Seymour Simmons|Agent Simmons]] by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that 'Bee is just leaking lubricants on him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a [[Mojo|similar incident]].
* [[Scoop (SG)|Scoop]] apparently urinates himself in [[Do Over]]
* In Beast Wars II, [[DJ (BWII)|DJ]] is known for wetting himself whenever he drinks too much oil.

===Defecation===
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] defecates on [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in ''[[Robo-Capers]]'' from Marvel UK issue [[Robo-Capers issue 87|#87]].

===Blushing===
[[Image:SeaChange Seaspray Blush.JPEG|right|thumb|180px|]]
* In the G1 episode "[[Sea Change]]", [[Seaspray (G1)|Seaspray]] has his whole face turn bright red, even before he jumps into the [[Well of Transformation|Well of Transformation]] and gets turned into a humanoid.
* ''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee has also been shown to be able to blush in a few episodes. {{storylink|Home Is Where the Spark Is}} {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}
*''Transformers Cybertron'' Override blushes when speaking to Lori, which is an indication of the character's original male gender in ''Galaxy Force''. {{storylink|Honor}}

===Intoxication===
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|G1 cartoon]] episode "[[Microbots]]", the [[Decepticon|Decepticons]] behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]. [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] refers to this as "over-energizing".
* In the UK comic, the [[Wrecker|Wreckers]] frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called [[Maccadam's Old Oil House]], where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. [[Dreadwind (G1)|Dreadwind]] and [[Darkwing]] pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice [[Quickswitch]] fighting with some [[Mecannibal]]s.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, [[Lio Convoy]] gets drunk once and messes up [[Apache]]'s room.{{storylink|Recover the Bonds Lost!}}
* The [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]] in ''Animated'', whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.

===Miscellaneous===
[[Image:Cigarchomping.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Bet it's imported from Cubatron.]]
* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] once gets a cold, causing him to cough and have a fever, in an issue of the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|''Victory'' manga]]. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] got a bump on his head after being hit by Deathsaurus with a staff when they were young boys. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* In ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'', [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] chomps on a [[cigar|cy-gar]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Bumblebee (Animated)| Bumblebee]] has bandages wrapped around his middle after Sari is knocked out and the Autobots return to their base. {{storylink|TransWarped}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]] wore a cast over his arm after being hit by a falling building. {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}

{{-}}

==Body parts==
===Mouths/teeth/tongues===
{{Main|Teeth}}
{{Main|Tongue}}
{{Main|Mouthplate}}

* The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon series]] is the only major piece of fiction to ''not'' present Transformers as possessing [[teeth]] and/or [[Tongue|tongues]]. The features appear in both the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] comics, [[The Battlestars (manga)|''The Battlestars'' manga]], the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' cartoon, and the [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons and comics.

* In an episode of [[Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Super-God Masterforce]], [[Browning]] sticks his tongue out at [[Wilder]] and [[Bullhorn]] after they insult [[Cancer (Masterforce)|Cancer]].

*In the [[live-action film series]], the more human-like the robot, the more they are likely to have teeth. In the case of, say, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]], his teeth are mechanical cubes overlaid on each other, while [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] has bona fide fangs. Optimus spits out a piece of his shattered faceplate in the second film, which is intended to resemble a boxer spitting out a tooth after a brutal match. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the [[Kiss Players (manga)|''Kiss Players'' manga]], in which a [[Legion]] character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

===Eyeballs/eyelashes===
[[Image:AutoBerserk OptimusPrime closedeyes.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Oh, my eyes!!]]

* Most Transformers have eyes. They see with them.
* In the episode "[[Auto Berserk]]", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.
* While dying from life force depletion, [[Elita One]] occasionally closes her eyes. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Springer (G1)|Springer]] clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by a claw. {{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1}}
* Cyclonus also closes his eyes when Galvatron is about to go through the [[Alya]] treatment and he cannot bear to watch. {{storylink|Webworld}}
* [[Lyzack]] sports some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|Victory]]'' manga. So does [[Esmeral (Victory)|Esmeral]]. {{storylink|Heroic! The Victory War}}
* In [[Spotlight: Hot Rod]], Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. ''Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that it's just artistic license.''
* The robots in the [[live-action film series]] have eyes designed to resemble cameras, enabling them to dilate and blink.
* ''Animated'' [[Swindle (Animated)|Swindle]] has eyelids. He also blinks frequently.
* The cyborg [[GoBots (franchise)|GoBots]], as portrayed in the animated cartoon, do in fact possess eyelids (when the eyes aren't covered by a visor) and frequently blink. Some also have visible pupils.
* Most robots in ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Prime]]'' possess camera-like eyes similar to those seen in the live-action films, which dilate, contract, and blink in a highly human-like fashion. Notably, they also replicate the involuntary, back-and-forth movements of the human eye when idle.

<center><gallery>
Image:Esmeral-manga.jpg
Image:LyzackEyelashes01.jpg|About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.
Image:HotRodOpticShields.jpg|Hey, wake up!
Image:Dealerseyelids.jpg|Got munchies?
</gallery></center>

===Obesity===
Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

* In [[Letters page (Marvel UK)|Grim Grams #94]], [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] mentioned that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] weighs a little over 90 tons and "could stand to lose a little around the fuel storage system".
* [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] complained that the Decepticons had grown "fat and complacent" under [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]]'s rule. {{storylink|Surrender!}}
* [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
* Much the same could be said of [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]. Being big-chassised is no excuse to let yourself go.
* [[Ratchet (Animated)|''Animated'' Ratchet]] has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably ''lacks'' said paunch.
* [[Gnaw]]. Well, all the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]], really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly-poly.
* [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] has a set of metal plates that form the front of his Alt-mode forming a sort of "beer gut" on his abdomen.

===Masculine characteristics===
====Facial hair====
{{Main|Facial hair}}

* [[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]], [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]], [[Unicron]], and [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar]] all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. In addition to that, ''Energon''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Bulkhead (Energon)|Bulkhead]], the films' Optimus (who has a goatee), [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] and [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] and ''Animated''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]], [[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]], and [[Wreck-Gar (Animated)|the other Wreck-Gar]] all have varying amounts of facial hair. (The last of these was modeled after [["Weird Al" Yankovic|his voice actor's]] own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.) The Shattered Glass versions of [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] and [[Rodimus Prime (SG)|Rodimus Prime]] also have "facial hair", probably as a homage to Evil Spock's appearance in Star Trek.
* Many characters in the live-action series have facial hair, like [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]],[[Sentinal Prime (DOTM)|Sentinel]] and [[Fallen (ROTF)|Fallen]].

====Nuts, Bolts and Screws====
[[Image:LightfootDramaticEncounter Gilmer's injury.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]
* [[Gilmer]] got rammed in his crotch by [[Lightfoot]], causing it to become red and Gilmer to clutch it, groaning he got "kicked in the balls". {{storylink|Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter}}

* [[Rattrap]] kicks [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving him a high-pitched voice. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 1}}

* [[Stampy (BWN)|Stampy]] once suggested a kick to the "unmentionables" as a workable battle tactic. {{storylink|The Ascending issue 3|The Ascending #3}}

* [[Heinrad]] has a set in [[Beast mode|tanuki mode]]. Since tanuki are known for their massive testicles, his equipment's existence actually makes sense.

* [[Flareup (Timelines)|Flareup]] interpreted the word "[[AllSpark Key|key]]" in "[[Wikipedia:Ghostbusters|keymaster]]" a little differently than [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] intended. {{storylink|Bee in the City}}

* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] has a pair of dangling wrecking balls in a... very unfortunate place. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* [[Dickbot the blender guy|Blenderbot]] has a... well... [[:Image:Appliancebots2.jpg|just look for yourself (NSFW?)]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Feminine characteristics===
[[Image:CrossingtheRubicron-newbody.jpg|right|230px|thumb|I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.]]
{{main|Female Transformer}}

====Breasts====
Some female Transformers, such as [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Elita One]] (not to mention the ''other'' [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] and [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]]) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their alt mode [[kibble]], but bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob", if you will. Some females even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Antagony (BW)|Antagony]] and [[Beta (G1)|Beta]] all fall into this category. One, [[Thunderblast (Decepticon)| Thunderblast]], even has [[:Image:ThunderblastBoobsAndNipples01.jpg|visible nipples]]. ''(You're going to look, aren't you...?)''

====Lips====
[[Image:G1 Silverbolt cartoon.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Though not female, [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]'s got <s>sexy</s> nice lips.]]
Another common feature to denote gender in female Transformers is distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia's in ''Beast Wars''. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker coloration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed femmes include Blackarachnia in ''Beast Machines'', her [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|''Animated'' cousin]], and the [[Female Autobots|G1 Female Autobots]].

As far as males go, none of them have differently colored lips, but some do have noticeably thicker lips. Generation 1 [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Orion Pax]], [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]], [[Streetwise (G1)|Streetwise]] and [[Shōki]], for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|''Animated'' Optimus Prime]].

====Hips====
[[Image:SpacePirates Arcee Bunsofsteel.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Dan Reed, you perv.]]

Alike to humans, many a female Transformer has a distinctly more curving hipstructure.

:''See also the '''[[Humanization#Sexuality|Sexuality]]''' section below.

{{--}}

===Questionable body parts===
[[Image:Powerglide heart.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Not [[Wikipedia:Astroboy|Astroboy]], we swear!]]

* Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' characters and movieverse [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] being exceptions. Movie [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] also notes that he can smell [[Sam Witwicky|Sam]] when the latter is trying to escape from him, and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] remarks that he can "smell" [[Demolishor (ROTF)|Demolishor]]. This would seem to imply that movieverse Transformers have a form of olfactory systems. The idea of noses is somewhat 'fixed' in ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Prime (franchise)|Transformers Prime]]'' by having the noses be a visible part of the robot's helmet as opposed to being part of their face.

* At the end of the G1 episode "[[The Girl Who Loved Powerglide]]", [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.

* Although listed separately above, breasts and "nuts, bolts and screws" would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.

;Brains
[[Image:PredaBrain1.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Predaking: All brawn AND brains!]]

* [[Predaking]] has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the [[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|''Zone'' cartoon]].

* [[Unicron]] also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, [[Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2|Black Horizon Part 2]]. Later handwaved by explaining that the particular Unicron in the crossover came from the [[universal stream]] Gargent 984.08 Alpha and had taken on an organic brain in a similar fashion as the native [[Go-Bots]].
{{-}}

==Other biological functions==
===Sleep===
* In the G1 comic, [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] plays a prank on [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] while he is in "rest mode." {{storylink|Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Trailbreaker's ''Universe'' profile}} [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare), an experience Prime refers to as an "involuntary systems shutdown". {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} Kup later attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up"—then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!" {{storylink|The Power and the Glory}} When [[Donny Finkleberg]] remarks that unlike machines, humans need to rest, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]] informs him Transformers need to as well to conserve fuel. Skids also has an on/off button in his dashboard. {{storylink|Heavy Traffic!}}
* In the Japanese [[The Headmasters (cartoon)|''The Headmasters'' cartoon]], [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep.
* This ability is also shown by [[Hellbat (Victory)|Hellbat]] in the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|''Victory'' cartoon]].
* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
**Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the ''Darksyde'', while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
** Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "[[Feral Scream Part 2]]", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
** In "[[Call of the Wild]]", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare at one point.
* ''Armada'' [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Cyclonus]] is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. [[Scavenger (Armada)|Scavenger]] does the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron is also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
* ''Animated'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. {{storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* Also in ''Animated'', when the Autobots feel tired after drinking an oil-nog (which Soundwave had spiked), they decide to go to sleep, pardon, to take a stasis nap. [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]] even yawns. {{storylink|Human Error, Part I}}

===Aging===
{{main|Life cycle}}
Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

* [[Image:Alpha Trion through the epochs.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]][[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]] has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his [[character model]] undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.

* The [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] was so old that his body needed a regular energy supply to keep him functioning. {{storylink|State Games}}

[[Image:MangaYoungDeathyStarSaber.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Young and Innocent]]
* [[Xaaron]] couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

* In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.

* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] and [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] are depicted as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments, in flashbacks. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Cohrada]] is depicted as "child" in his flashback in the issue "[[A Battle Fought Alone]]".

* Movieverse [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] has a cane and is rusting. Some parts even fall off him when he transforms!

* [[Side Burn (RID)|Side Burn]] claimed to have been a classic car when he was younger, and a tricycle when he was younger. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]]. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.

{{-}}

===Sexuality===
[[Image:Sideburnhearts.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.]]
{{Main|Transformer romance}}
{{Main|Reproduction}}

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and [[Female Transformer|female characters]] and sometimes drops a hint Transformers may engage in (recreational) sex.

The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including [[Elita One]] and [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]]. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Transformers. In contrast, such relations between two individuals of the same gender are [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|virtually]] unheard of.

{{--}}
==Accents==
{{Main|Accents}}

==See also==
* [[:Category:Transformer anatomy|Transformer anatomy]]
* [[Anatomic euphemism]]
* [[Relatives]]
* [[Transformer clothing|Clothing]]

==External links==
* [http://transfans.co.uk/comics_guide_detail.php?id=106&page=5 Transformers #94 Letters Page on Transfans.co.uk]

[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Humanization

2011-10-28T10:12:56Z

RXTheLegend: /* Facial hair */

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

==Glandular, digestive, and respiratory==
===Sweating===
[[Image:LandsharkWOH-energondelivery.jpg|right|thumb|180px|]]

* In [[Prime Time!|issue twelve]] of the original [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''Generation 1'' comic]], [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
* Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] can be seen "sweating".
* ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' and ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.
* [[Wing Saber (Energon)|Wing Saber]] sweatdrops upon seeing a particularly scary expression on [[Lori]]'s face. {{storylink|Ambush}}
* [[Leozack]] sweatdrops oil when [[Landshark]] attacks him. {{storylink|Wings of Honor}}

===Coughing===
* In the G1 episode "[[Roll for It]]", when the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished [[antimatter]] laboratory, they are coughing.
* [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] coughs when [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]] surrounds him with smoke.{{storylink|Triple Takeover}}
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust. {{storylink|Cosmic Rust (episode)|Cosmic Rust}}
* In "[[Call of the Primitives]]", a fiery blast from [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] causes both the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]] and [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to cough.
* In ''Beast Wars'', [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping, and when amidst the smoky remains of an electrical fire.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] fake-coughed in the episode "[[Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege]]" of the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|''Beast machines'' cartoon]] to draw [[Optimus Primal]]'s attention to the matter of [[Noble]].
* In the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' episode "[[Secret Weapon: D-5]]", [[Sky-Byte (RID)|Sky-Byte]], [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]], and [[Dark Scream]] all cough after inhaling smoke.
* In the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' episode "[[Mortal Combat]]", right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you," he coughs silently.
* [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] visibly coughs after [[Sam Witwicky]] uses the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to restore him to life in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', even expelling what appears to be dust.
* On [[Rock Bottom]], [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]] coughs after escaping the collapsed mine. Ironically, Bulkhead later claims ''in the same episode'' that Autobots don't need to breathe.

===Breathing===
On ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation Star Trek: The Next Generation]'', it was explained that the android [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Data Data]'s breathing served to cool his inner components, but mostly so that he doesn't appear unnatural to the humans he was designed to resemble. He also blinks for this reason. It could be argued that breathing serves the same "cooling" purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

* In an ''Energon'' episode, [[Jetfire (Armada)|Jetfire]] instructs [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]] that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can [[Powerlinx|powerlink]].
* At the climax of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] tries to strangle [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]], calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. {{storylink|Dark Voyage}}
* [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. {{storylink|Velocity}}
* On the [[Nemesis (ROTF)| Nemesis]], [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] and [[Starscream (Movie)| Starscream's]] breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] breathes heavily as he runs in fear from [[Chaos (alien)|Chaos]] and the slave mines on [[Dread (planet)|Dread]]. {{storylink|Chaos (episode)|Chaos}}
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] is visibly breathing while in stasis. {{storylink|Deus ex Machina}}
* "[[A Team Effort]]" comfirms that Transformers require ventilation airways in their neck to prevent system overheating, as when [[Charger]] strangles [[Roadgrabber]] in a fit of rage.

===Spitting===
* Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at [[Donny Finkleberg|Robot-Master]] despite his [[mouthplate]]. {{storylink|Second Generation!}}
* After [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of back door.{{storylink|...All This and Civil War 2}}
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[Tangled Web]]", [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]] "spits" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]], despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.
*In ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] repeatedly spits while talking to [[Sam Witwicky]] and his companions. [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] also has to spit his mouth clean after being blasted across a forest by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] spits twice: once at Sam while in the [[Broadwater Metal Works]] foundry, and again when he mentions Prime's name. [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] also spits, albeit for no real reason, when addressing Sam and the humans outside of [[Chicago]] in ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]].''
* [[Galvatron II|Galvatron II]] is seen spitting and drooling while explaining the situation.{{storylink|Out of Time!}} Both Megatron and Galvatron II are seen both spitting on each other. Gross!.{{storylink|Exodus!}}

===Crying===
[[Image:Omega Supreme tears up.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Tissue: desired.]]

* A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]'s eye at the end of "[[The Secret of Omega Supreme]]".

* When [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] dies in ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] is seen to dab at her eyes.

* [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] told his colleagues he was about to "leak optical lubricant" when they wouldn't stop about giving up on [[Operation: Volcano]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}

* In "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] has tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, during his monstrous disfigurement after he gains the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]].

* There is a teardrop on young [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]]'s face after being beaten by Deathsaurus. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* At the end of "[[Heroic! The Victory War]]", some Decepticons are crying over their defeat.

* As he mourns his dead friend [[Snowstalker]] and decides he can never fight again, [[Tigatron]] cries a single tear in beast mode.

* [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] wiped a fake tear when [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] put on the heroic act. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}

* When pondering [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]'s fate in ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes. This may be due to her technoganic nature though. {{storylink|Revelations Part I: Discovery}}

[[Image:Bw2 ep6 twinwaterfalls.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Surf's up—and I'm talkin' ''up''!]]

* Throughout ''[[Beast Wars II (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]]'' and ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'', and occasionally in the ''[[Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

* Tears can be seen welling up in [[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]]'s eyes and falling to the ground in ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' as he mourns a fallen comrade.

* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] told [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] to "cry him a river". {{storylink|Night of the Combaticons}}

* Ratchet ''actually'' cries tears of defeat when outwitted by Megatron. {{storylink|Warrior School!}}

* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] cries over [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]'s death in [[The Art of War issue 5|''The Art of War'' #5]].

* In ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers: Animated]]'', [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. {{storylink|Along Came a Spider}}

* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] cries after [[Sam Witwicky]] tells him cars are not allowed on campus, although he was exaggerating his sorrow and was likely deliberately leaking fluids to enhance the visual. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''

* [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was crying in the corner for not being in the [[Transformers: War for Cybertron|War for Cybertron]] game. [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] had to talk to him. Again. {{Storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.12#Law and Disorder|Law and Disorder}}

===Eating===
[[Image:Optimusprime-mom.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Probably contains [[energon (fuel)|energon goodies]] in the shape of a happy face.]]

* There are references to [[Cybertronian food]].

* [[Skullcruncher]] has been known to eat Autobots as well as humans and other organics, despite not needing to do so to survive. Other Decepticons are disgusted by this practice.

* There are Pepsi and [[Destron Pizza|pizza]] in the refrigerator in [[Pepsi Convoy]]'s home.

* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
**[[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point, he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain the Maximal's fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment (which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas). {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Rattrap]] eats apples. {{storylink|The Web}}
**And garbage {{storylink|The Web}}
**[[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] eats a bird. {{storylink|Power Surge}}
**[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] eats [[Clone One|his clone]]. [[Optimus Primal]] remarks that he is "disgusting". {{storylink|Double Dinobot}}
**While suffering from an [[Energon discharge virus]], [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. {{storylink|The Low Road}}
* In ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'', [[Optimus Primal]] wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] protests that "we don't eat food, we process [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]—PERIOD!", but is overruled. {{storylink|Forbidden Fruit}}
* According to [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]], [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] eats [[Autobot]] [[Protoform]]s for breakfast. But of course that could just be a rumour. {{Storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* [[Brains]] is seen chewing on a screw, while [[Igor]] and the [[hatchling]]s are clearly shown to be ingesting minerals. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Flatulence===
* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[The Low Road]]", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
* In the ''Beast Wars'' episode "[[Bad Spark]]", [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his [[Transmetal]] body.
* Just go watch ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.
* One of the [[Mini-Constructicon]]s "cuts one", causing the others to laugh and request someone to open a window in "[[Spotlight: Ramjet]]".

===Urination===
* [[Tasmania Kid]] urinates (in beast mode) to put out a fire.
* [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] performs a similar action on [[Seymour Simmons|Agent Simmons]] by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that 'Bee is just leaking lubricants on him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a [[Mojo|similar incident]].
* [[Scoop (SG)|Scoop]] apparently urinates himself in [[Do Over]]
* In Beast Wars II, [[DJ (BWII)|DJ]] is known for wetting himself whenever he drinks too much oil.

===Defecation===
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] defecates on [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in ''[[Robo-Capers]]'' from Marvel UK issue [[Robo-Capers issue 87|#87]].

===Blushing===
[[Image:SeaChange Seaspray Blush.JPEG|right|thumb|180px|]]
* In the G1 episode "[[Sea Change]]", [[Seaspray (G1)|Seaspray]] has his whole face turn bright red, even before he jumps into the [[Well of Transformation|Well of Transformation]] and gets turned into a humanoid.
* ''Transformers Animated'' Bumblebee has also been shown to be able to blush in a few episodes. {{storylink|Home Is Where the Spark Is}} {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}
*''Transformers Cybertron'' Override blushes when speaking to Lori, which is an indication of the character's original male gender in ''Galaxy Force''. {{storylink|Honor}}

===Intoxication===
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|G1 cartoon]] episode "[[Microbots]]", the [[Decepticon|Decepticons]] behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade [[Energon (fuel)|energon]]. [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] refers to this as "over-energizing".
* In the UK comic, the [[Wrecker|Wreckers]] frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called [[Maccadam's Old Oil House]], where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. [[Dreadwind (G1)|Dreadwind]] and [[Darkwing]] pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice [[Quickswitch]] fighting with some [[Mecannibal]]s.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, [[Lio Convoy]] gets drunk once and messes up [[Apache]]'s room.{{storylink|Recover the Bonds Lost!}}
* The [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]] in ''Animated'', whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.

===Miscellaneous===
[[Image:Cigarchomping.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Bet it's imported from Cubatron.]]
* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] once gets a cold, causing him to cough and have a fever, in an issue of the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|''Victory'' manga]]. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] got a bump on his head after being hit by Deathsaurus with a staff when they were young boys. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* In ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'', [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] chomps on a [[cigar|cy-gar]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Bumblebee (Animated)| Bumblebee]] has bandages wrapped around his middle after Sari is knocked out and the Autobots return to their base. {{storylink|TransWarped}}

* ''Transformers Animated'' [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]] wore a cast over his arm after being hit by a falling building. {{storylink|Autoboot Camp}}

{{-}}

==Body parts==
===Mouths/teeth/tongues===
{{Main|Teeth}}
{{Main|Tongue}}
{{Main|Mouthplate}}

* The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon series]] is the only major piece of fiction to ''not'' present Transformers as possessing [[teeth]] and/or [[Tongue|tongues]]. The features appear in both the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] comics, [[The Battlestars (manga)|''The Battlestars'' manga]], the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the ''[[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|Robots in Disguise]]'' cartoon, and the [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons and comics.

* In an episode of [[Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Super-God Masterforce]], [[Browning]] sticks his tongue out at [[Wilder]] and [[Bullhorn]] after they insult [[Cancer (Masterforce)|Cancer]].

*In the [[live-action film series]], the more human-like the robot, the more they are likely to have teeth. In the case of, say, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]], his teeth are mechanical cubes overlaid on each other, while [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] has bona fide fangs. Optimus spits out a piece of his shattered faceplate in the second film, which is intended to resemble a boxer spitting out a tooth after a brutal match. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the [[Kiss Players (manga)|''Kiss Players'' manga]], in which a [[Legion]] character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

===Eyeballs/eyelashes===
[[Image:AutoBerserk OptimusPrime closedeyes.jpg|right|125px|thumb|Oh, my eyes!!]]

* Most Transformers have eyes. They see with them.
* In the episode "[[Auto Berserk]]", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.
* While dying from life force depletion, [[Elita One]] occasionally closes her eyes. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Springer (G1)|Springer]] clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by a claw. {{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1}}
* Cyclonus also closes his eyes when Galvatron is about to go through the [[Alya]] treatment and he cannot bear to watch. {{storylink|Webworld}}
* [[Lyzack]] sports some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (manga)|Victory]]'' manga. So does [[Esmeral (Victory)|Esmeral]]. {{storylink|Heroic! The Victory War}}
* In [[Spotlight: Hot Rod]], Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. ''Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that it's just artistic license.''
* The robots in the [[live-action film series]] have eyes designed to resemble cameras, enabling them to dilate and blink.
* ''Animated'' [[Swindle (Animated)|Swindle]] has eyelids. He also blinks frequently.
* The cyborg [[GoBots (franchise)|GoBots]], as portrayed in the animated cartoon, do in fact possess eyelids (when the eyes aren't covered by a visor) and frequently blink. Some also have visible pupils.
* Most robots in ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Prime]]'' possess camera-like eyes similar to those seen in the live-action films, which dilate, contract, and blink in a highly human-like fashion. Notably, they also replicate the involuntary, back-and-forth movements of the human eye when idle.

<center><gallery>
Image:Esmeral-manga.jpg
Image:LyzackEyelashes01.jpg|About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.
Image:HotRodOpticShields.jpg|Hey, wake up!
Image:Dealerseyelids.jpg|Got munchies?
</gallery></center>

===Obesity===
Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

* In [[Letters page (Marvel UK)|Grim Grams #94]], [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] mentioned that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] weighs a little over 90 tons and "could stand to lose a little around the fuel storage system".
* [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] complained that the Decepticons had grown "fat and complacent" under [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]]'s rule. {{storylink|Surrender!}}
* [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
* Much the same could be said of [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]. Being big-chassised is no excuse to let yourself go.
* [[Ratchet (Animated)|''Animated'' Ratchet]] has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably ''lacks'' said paunch.
* [[Gnaw]]. Well, all the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]], really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly-poly.
* [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] has a set of metal plates that form the front of his Alt-mode forming a sort of "beer gut" on his abdomen.

===Masculine characteristics===
====Facial hair====
{{Main|Facial hair}}

* [[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]], [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]], [[Unicron]], and [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar]] all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. In addition to that, ''Energon''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Bulkhead (Energon)|Bulkhead]], the films' Optimus (who has a goatee), [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] and [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] and ''Animated''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s [[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]], [[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]], and [[Wreck-Gar (Animated)|the other Wreck-Gar]] all have varying amounts of facial hair. (The last of these was modeled after [["Weird Al" Yankovic|his voice actor's]] own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.) The Shattered Glass versions of [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] and [[Rodimus Prime (SG)|Rodimus Prime]] also have "facial hair", probably as a homage to Evil Spock's appearance in Star Trek.
* Many characters in the live-action series have facial hair, like [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]],[[Sentinal Prime (DOTM)|Sentinel]] and [[The Fallen (ROTF)|Fallen]].

====Nuts, Bolts and Screws====
[[Image:LightfootDramaticEncounter Gilmer's injury.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]
* [[Gilmer]] got rammed in his crotch by [[Lightfoot]], causing it to become red and Gilmer to clutch it, groaning he got "kicked in the balls". {{storylink|Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter}}

* [[Rattrap]] kicks [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving him a high-pitched voice. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 1}}

* [[Stampy (BWN)|Stampy]] once suggested a kick to the "unmentionables" as a workable battle tactic. {{storylink|The Ascending issue 3|The Ascending #3}}

* [[Heinrad]] has a set in [[Beast mode|tanuki mode]]. Since tanuki are known for their massive testicles, his equipment's existence actually makes sense.

* [[Flareup (Timelines)|Flareup]] interpreted the word "[[AllSpark Key|key]]" in "[[Wikipedia:Ghostbusters|keymaster]]" a little differently than [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] intended. {{storylink|Bee in the City}}

* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] has a pair of dangling wrecking balls in a... very unfortunate place. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

* [[Dickbot the blender guy|Blenderbot]] has a... well... [[:Image:Appliancebots2.jpg|just look for yourself (NSFW?)]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Feminine characteristics===
[[Image:CrossingtheRubicron-newbody.jpg|right|230px|thumb|I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.]]
{{main|Female Transformer}}

====Breasts====
Some female Transformers, such as [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] and [[Elita One]] (not to mention the ''other'' [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] and [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]]) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their alt mode [[kibble]], but bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob", if you will. Some females even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Antagony (BW)|Antagony]] and [[Beta (G1)|Beta]] all fall into this category. One, [[Thunderblast (Decepticon)| Thunderblast]], even has [[:Image:ThunderblastBoobsAndNipples01.jpg|visible nipples]]. ''(You're going to look, aren't you...?)''

====Lips====
[[Image:G1 Silverbolt cartoon.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Though not female, [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]'s got <s>sexy</s> nice lips.]]
Another common feature to denote gender in female Transformers is distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia's in ''Beast Wars''. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker coloration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed femmes include Blackarachnia in ''Beast Machines'', her [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|''Animated'' cousin]], and the [[Female Autobots|G1 Female Autobots]].

As far as males go, none of them have differently colored lips, but some do have noticeably thicker lips. Generation 1 [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Orion Pax]], [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]], [[Streetwise (G1)|Streetwise]] and [[Shōki]], for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|''Animated'' Optimus Prime]].

====Hips====
[[Image:SpacePirates Arcee Bunsofsteel.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Dan Reed, you perv.]]

Alike to humans, many a female Transformer has a distinctly more curving hipstructure.

:''See also the '''[[Humanization#Sexuality|Sexuality]]''' section below.

{{--}}

===Questionable body parts===
[[Image:Powerglide heart.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Not [[Wikipedia:Astroboy|Astroboy]], we swear!]]

* Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' characters and movieverse [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] being exceptions. Movie [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] also notes that he can smell [[Sam Witwicky|Sam]] when the latter is trying to escape from him, and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] remarks that he can "smell" [[Demolishor (ROTF)|Demolishor]]. This would seem to imply that movieverse Transformers have a form of olfactory systems. The idea of noses is somewhat 'fixed' in ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Prime (franchise)|Transformers Prime]]'' by having the noses be a visible part of the robot's helmet as opposed to being part of their face.

* At the end of the G1 episode "[[The Girl Who Loved Powerglide]]", [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]] is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.

* Although listed separately above, breasts and "nuts, bolts and screws" would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.

;Brains
[[Image:PredaBrain1.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Predaking: All brawn AND brains!]]

* [[Predaking]] has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the [[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|''Zone'' cartoon]].

* [[Unicron]] also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, [[Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2|Black Horizon Part 2]]. Later handwaved by explaining that the particular Unicron in the crossover came from the [[universal stream]] Gargent 984.08 Alpha and had taken on an organic brain in a similar fashion as the native [[Go-Bots]].
{{-}}

==Other biological functions==
===Sleep===
* In the G1 comic, [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] plays a prank on [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] while he is in "rest mode." {{storylink|Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Trailbreaker's ''Universe'' profile}} [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare), an experience Prime refers to as an "involuntary systems shutdown". {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} Kup later attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up"—then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!" {{storylink|The Power and the Glory}} When [[Donny Finkleberg]] remarks that unlike machines, humans need to rest, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]] informs him Transformers need to as well to conserve fuel. Skids also has an on/off button in his dashboard. {{storylink|Heavy Traffic!}}
* In the Japanese [[The Headmasters (cartoon)|''The Headmasters'' cartoon]], [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep.
* This ability is also shown by [[Hellbat (Victory)|Hellbat]] in the [[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|''Victory'' cartoon]].
* In ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
**Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the ''Darksyde'', while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
** Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "[[Feral Scream Part 2]]", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
** In "[[Call of the Wild]]", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
* In ''Beast Wars II'', [[Galvatron (BWII)|Galvatron]] often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
* In the ''Beast Wars II'' manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare at one point.
* ''Armada'' [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Cyclonus]] is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. [[Scavenger (Armada)|Scavenger]] does the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron is also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
* ''Animated'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. {{storylink|Transform and Roll Out}}
* Also in ''Animated'', when the Autobots feel tired after drinking an oil-nog (which Soundwave had spiked), they decide to go to sleep, pardon, to take a stasis nap. [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]] even yawns. {{storylink|Human Error, Part I}}

===Aging===
{{main|Life cycle}}
Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

* [[Image:Alpha Trion through the epochs.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]][[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]] has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his [[character model]] undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.

* The [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] was so old that his body needed a regular energy supply to keep him functioning. {{storylink|State Games}}

[[Image:MangaYoungDeathyStarSaber.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Young and Innocent]]
* [[Xaaron]] couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

* In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.

* [[Deathsaurus (Victory)|Deathsaurus]] and [[Star Saber (Victory)|Star Saber]] are depicted as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments, in flashbacks. {{storylink|The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!}}

* [[Cohrada]] is depicted as "child" in his flashback in the issue "[[A Battle Fought Alone]]".

* Movieverse [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] has a cane and is rusting. Some parts even fall off him when he transforms!

* [[Side Burn (RID)|Side Burn]] claimed to have been a classic car when he was younger, and a tricycle when he was younger. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for [[Slapper (RID)|Slapper]]. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.

{{-}}

===Sexuality===
[[Image:Sideburnhearts.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.]]
{{Main|Transformer romance}}
{{Main|Reproduction}}

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and [[Female Transformer|female characters]] and sometimes drops a hint Transformers may engage in (recreational) sex.

The [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including [[Elita One]] and [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]]. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Transformers. In contrast, such relations between two individuals of the same gender are [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|virtually]] unheard of.

{{--}}
==Accents==
{{Main|Accents}}

==See also==
* [[:Category:Transformer anatomy|Transformer anatomy]]
* [[Anatomic euphemism]]
* [[Relatives]]
* [[Transformer clothing|Clothing]]

==External links==
* [http://transfans.co.uk/comics_guide_detail.php?id=106&page=5 Transformers #94 Letters Page on Transfans.co.uk]

[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Topspin (DOTM)

2011-10-23T10:02:50Z

RXTheLegend: /* Dark of the Moon (film) */

{{factions|autobot|wreckers}}
{{disambig3|Topspin}}

:''Topspin is an [[Autobot]] from the [[Dark of the Moon (franchise)|Dark of the Moon]] portion of the [[live-action film series]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Topspin-dotm-nizzi-production.jpg|right|thumb|400px|YOU DON'T DESERVE TO KNOW MY NAME!]]

If it doesn't result in at least a few dings and scraped paint, '''Topspin''' isn't interested. To him, buckled and burnt armor are signs of a life well-led. He's proud of being one tough bot, and is more than happy to wear the scars to prove it.

He's one of the [[Wrecker]]s.<ref>http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2107707&id=1319780046</ref>

==Fiction==
===''Dark of the Moon'' (film)===

[[Image:DOTM-Topspinchicago.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Spy's sappin mah sentry!]]

Topspin, Leadfoot and Roadbuster, collectively known as [[Wrecker|the Wreckers]], by [[Charlotte Mearing]], had arrived with the second wave of Autobots aboard the Autobot ship, the ''[[Xantium (DOTM)|Xantium]]'', and were rarely let off of the NASA base because of their attitude. They would spend most of their time working on repairing their ship along with some human engineers, including [[Robert Epps]].

When [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime]] announced that the current occupation force of Autobots was to be exiled or the Earth would face the wrath of hundreds of Decepticons, the three prepared the ship for launch and accompanied [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] and the others aboard, sending the ship into the atmosphere - where it was then targeted and blown to smithereens by [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], seemingly killing all the Autobots aboard. Undaunted by this, the Autobot's human allies nonetheless tried to launch an incursion into Decepticon-held [[Chicago]].

[[Image:TopspinDaytona500trailer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"Talkin'boutthattheredangol'"Wreck'nRule!"man..."]]

Fortunately for them, the Autobots were not actually aboard the ship, and had only feigned their deaths in order to keep the Decepticons from following up on their global threat. Topspin and the other Wreckers swung into action immediately, rescuing Epps, [[Sam Witwicky]] and a group of soldiers from a [[Orbital Assault Carrier|Decepticon fighters]] and executed the pilot before preparing to head into the battle zone.

While the Autobots were scouting a route to the building containing Sentinel's [[Space bridge]] pillars, [[Shockwave (Movie)|Shockwave]] and his pet [[Driller]] separated Optimus from his weapons trailer. Optimus ordered Topspin and the other Wreckers to create a distraction so that he could retrieve it, and in their armored racecar forms fired at Shockwave with their machineguns until being forced to retreat, leaving behind [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] and [[Brains]], who had hitched a ride with them. After Optimus had become snared in a construction site's cables, the Wreckers set out to free him. After doing so they rejoined the battle, battling against a [[Long-legged Decepticon| long-limbed Decepticon]]. After the battle Topspin stood with the other survivors, accepting that Cybertron was gone forever and that Earth was their new home. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
===Dark of the Moon===
====Cyberverse====
[[Image:DOTM_Cyberverse_Topspin_toy.jpg|thumb|300px|Transforms from NASCAR racer to bemulleted, Razorblade-sporting NASCAR fan.]]
* '''Autobot Topspin''' (Cyberverse Legion, 2011)
**''Series:'' '''1'''
**''Number:'' '''004'''
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''CV10'''

: Part of the first wave of [[Cyberverse]] toys, Topspin is a [[Legends Class|Legion-scale]] figure that transforms into a [[NASCAR]] [[wikipedia:Chevrolet_Impala#NASCAR_Sprint_Cup|Sprint Cup Chevy Impala]] stock car, specifically [[Wikipedia:Jimmie_Johnson|Jimmie Johnson's]] Lowes and Kobalt sponsored #48 car. Like the other NASCAR-based ''DOTM'' toys, both versions of Topspin lack the multiple small "contingency" sponsor decals found on a full-sized NASCAR racer.

{{-}}{{anchor|Deluxe}}

====Deluxe Class toys====
[[Image:DOTM_Deluxe_Topspin.jpg|thumb|300px|Well no wonder he's won five championships in a row. Look at that thing.]]
* '''Autobot Topspin''' (MechTech Deluxe, 2011)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''DA10'''
**''Accessories:'' MechTech blaster/combat claw, two small guns, two large guns

: Part of the second wave of ''[[Dark of the Moon (toyline)|Dark of the Moon]]'' Deluxes, Topspin transforms into a heavily modified version of the same #48 Sprint Cup car as the Cyberverse Legion toy, with two sets of two differently-sized removable guns mounted onto [[5mm post|5mm post holes]] on the roof and sides of the vehicle. As part of the [[MechTech]] series, he has a blaster converts into a "combat claw", and this weapon, as well as his four removable guns, can be used by other ''Dark of the Moon'' MechTech toys or any other ''Transformers'' toy with 5mm post holes. The back halves of his vehicle mode can be folded back together into more compact kibble backpack.

:Though he has prominent claws on his arms, Topspin does have fists sculpted onto his forearms.

:The Japanese release comes packed with a character card and an accompanying transparent plastic card of his MechTech weapon for the MechTech Wars online game.

{{-}}

* '''Autobot Armor Topspin''' (MechTech Deluxe, 2011)
**''Japanese ID Number:''
**''Acessories:'' MechTech blaster/combat claw, two small guns, two large guns
: A [[redeco]] of the Deluxe Topspin, "Armor Topspin" now is cast in metallic light gray, gunmetal, and black, and has Kobalt Tools as his primary sponsor instead of Lowe's. His MechTech weapon has now been redecoed to be completely black.
{{-}}

====Robo Power====
=====Activators=====
{{anchor|DOTMActivators}}
[[Image:DOTM_Activators_Topspin.jpg|thumb|right|300px|]]
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (2011)

{{-}}

==Merchandise==
===Speed Stars===
====Mini-Vehicles====
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (2011)
**''Series:'' '''Stealth Force'''
**''Number:'' '''3 of 5'''

:Topspin's ''[[Speed Stars]]'' toy and packaging art is strange. It uses [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]]'s vehicle mode for the most part, with the minor alteration of Topspin's hood armour and of course, the Jimmie Johnson Lowes sponsored #48 car deco.
{{comingsoontoy}}
{{-}}

====Stealth Force====
[[Image:DOTM_StealthForce_Topspin.jpg|thumb|300px|Of course it's stealthy, he's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage dazzle-painting]!]]
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (Basic, 2011)

{{charstubfiction}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
* Topspin's robot mode features "sunglasses", a big "chin" and a "[[wikipedia:mullet (haircut)|mullet]]", making him resemble a stereotypical NASCAR fan.
* According to a profile during FOX's coverage of the 2011 Daytona 500, the real-world Topspin prop car has 510 horsepower and a 11:1 compression ratio, making it a good bit more powerful than even the real NASCAR #48 it is based on!
* As part of the promotions for ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]]'', the film prop versions of Topspin, [[Roadbuster (DOTM)|Roadbuster]], and [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] made appearances at the [[2011]] Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on [[February 20]]th. They appeared both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap.
* He's not the first [[Topspin (G1)|Topspin]] to be a Wrecker.
* Early working names for him included '''Tempest''' and '''Warpath'''.<ref name="nizzi">[http://www.joshnizzi.com/TF3.htm Josh Nizzi DOTM concepts.]</ref>
* Topspin is the only one of the three Wreckers (and for that matter, the only new Autobot in the third film) not to have any spoken lines.
* Despite showing kibble based on [[Wikipedia:Jimmie Johnson|Jimmie Johnson's]] Lowe's sponsored ''Chevrolet Impala SS'', his concept art shows him with the headlights of a ''Toyota Camry''.

===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Topspin''' (トップスピン ''Toppusupin'')

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category: Cyberverse]]
[[Category: Dark of the Moon Autobots]]
[[Category: Wreckers]]

Topspin (DOTM)

2011-10-23T10:02:13Z

RXTheLegend: /* Dark of the Moon (film) */

{{factions|autobot|wreckers}}
{{disambig3|Topspin}}

:''Topspin is an [[Autobot]] from the [[Dark of the Moon (franchise)|Dark of the Moon]] portion of the [[live-action film series]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Topspin-dotm-nizzi-production.jpg|right|thumb|400px|YOU DON'T DESERVE TO KNOW MY NAME!]]

If it doesn't result in at least a few dings and scraped paint, '''Topspin''' isn't interested. To him, buckled and burnt armor are signs of a life well-led. He's proud of being one tough bot, and is more than happy to wear the scars to prove it.

He's one of the [[Wrecker]]s.<ref>http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2107707&id=1319780046</ref>

==Fiction==
===''Dark of the Moon'' (film)===

[[Image:DOTM-Topspinchicago.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Spy's sappin mah sentry!]]

Topspin, Leadfoot and Roadbuster, collectively known as [[Wrecker|the Wreckers]], by [[Charlotte Mearing]], had arrived with the second wave of Autobots aboard the Autobot ship, the ''[[Xantium (DOTM)|Xantium]]'', and were rarely let off of the NASA base because of their attitude. They would spend most of their time working on repairing their ship along with some human engineers, including [[Robert Epps]].

When [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime]] announced that the current occupation force of Autobots was to be exiled or the Earth would face the wrath of hundreds of Decepticons, the three prepared the ship for launch and accompanied [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] and the others aboard, sending the ship into the atmosphere - where it was then targeted and blown to smithereens by [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], seemingly killing all the Autobots aboard. Undaunted by this, the Autobot's human allies nonetheless tried to launch an incursion into Decepticon-held [[Chicago]].

[[Image:TopspinDaytona500trailer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"Talkin'boutthattheredangol'"Wreck'nRule!"man..."]]

Fortunately for them, the Autobots were not actually aboard the ship, and had only feigned their deaths in order to keep the Decepticons from following up on their global threat. Topspin and the other Wreckers swung into action immediately, rescuing Epps, [[Sam Witwicky]] and a group of soldiers from a [[Orbital Assault Carrier|Decepticon fighters]] and executed the pilot before preparing to head into the battle zone.

While the Autobots were scouting a route to the building containing Sentinel's [[Space bridge]] pillars, [[Shockwave (Movie)|Shockwave]] and his pet [[Driller]] separated Optimus from his weapons trailer. Optimus ordered Topspin and the other Wreckers to create a distraction so that he could retrieve it, and in their armored racecar forms fired at Shockwave with their machineguns until being forced to retreat, leaving behind [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] and [[Brains]], who had hitched a ride with them. After Optimus had become snared in a construction site's cables, the Wreckers set out to free him. After doing so they rejoined the battle, battling against a [[Long Legged Decepticon| long-limbed Decepticon]]. After the battle Topspin stood with the other survivors, accepting that Cybertron was gone forever and that Earth was their new home. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
===Dark of the Moon===
====Cyberverse====
[[Image:DOTM_Cyberverse_Topspin_toy.jpg|thumb|300px|Transforms from NASCAR racer to bemulleted, Razorblade-sporting NASCAR fan.]]
* '''Autobot Topspin''' (Cyberverse Legion, 2011)
**''Series:'' '''1'''
**''Number:'' '''004'''
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''CV10'''

: Part of the first wave of [[Cyberverse]] toys, Topspin is a [[Legends Class|Legion-scale]] figure that transforms into a [[NASCAR]] [[wikipedia:Chevrolet_Impala#NASCAR_Sprint_Cup|Sprint Cup Chevy Impala]] stock car, specifically [[Wikipedia:Jimmie_Johnson|Jimmie Johnson's]] Lowes and Kobalt sponsored #48 car. Like the other NASCAR-based ''DOTM'' toys, both versions of Topspin lack the multiple small "contingency" sponsor decals found on a full-sized NASCAR racer.

{{-}}{{anchor|Deluxe}}

====Deluxe Class toys====
[[Image:DOTM_Deluxe_Topspin.jpg|thumb|300px|Well no wonder he's won five championships in a row. Look at that thing.]]
* '''Autobot Topspin''' (MechTech Deluxe, 2011)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''DA10'''
**''Accessories:'' MechTech blaster/combat claw, two small guns, two large guns

: Part of the second wave of ''[[Dark of the Moon (toyline)|Dark of the Moon]]'' Deluxes, Topspin transforms into a heavily modified version of the same #48 Sprint Cup car as the Cyberverse Legion toy, with two sets of two differently-sized removable guns mounted onto [[5mm post|5mm post holes]] on the roof and sides of the vehicle. As part of the [[MechTech]] series, he has a blaster converts into a "combat claw", and this weapon, as well as his four removable guns, can be used by other ''Dark of the Moon'' MechTech toys or any other ''Transformers'' toy with 5mm post holes. The back halves of his vehicle mode can be folded back together into more compact kibble backpack.

:Though he has prominent claws on his arms, Topspin does have fists sculpted onto his forearms.

:The Japanese release comes packed with a character card and an accompanying transparent plastic card of his MechTech weapon for the MechTech Wars online game.

{{-}}

* '''Autobot Armor Topspin''' (MechTech Deluxe, 2011)
**''Japanese ID Number:''
**''Acessories:'' MechTech blaster/combat claw, two small guns, two large guns
: A [[redeco]] of the Deluxe Topspin, "Armor Topspin" now is cast in metallic light gray, gunmetal, and black, and has Kobalt Tools as his primary sponsor instead of Lowe's. His MechTech weapon has now been redecoed to be completely black.
{{-}}

====Robo Power====
=====Activators=====
{{anchor|DOTMActivators}}
[[Image:DOTM_Activators_Topspin.jpg|thumb|right|300px|]]
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (2011)

{{-}}

==Merchandise==
===Speed Stars===
====Mini-Vehicles====
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (2011)
**''Series:'' '''Stealth Force'''
**''Number:'' '''3 of 5'''

:Topspin's ''[[Speed Stars]]'' toy and packaging art is strange. It uses [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]]'s vehicle mode for the most part, with the minor alteration of Topspin's hood armour and of course, the Jimmie Johnson Lowes sponsored #48 car deco.
{{comingsoontoy}}
{{-}}

====Stealth Force====
[[Image:DOTM_StealthForce_Topspin.jpg|thumb|300px|Of course it's stealthy, he's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage dazzle-painting]!]]
*'''Autobot Topspin''' (Basic, 2011)

{{charstubfiction}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
* Topspin's robot mode features "sunglasses", a big "chin" and a "[[wikipedia:mullet (haircut)|mullet]]", making him resemble a stereotypical NASCAR fan.
* According to a profile during FOX's coverage of the 2011 Daytona 500, the real-world Topspin prop car has 510 horsepower and a 11:1 compression ratio, making it a good bit more powerful than even the real NASCAR #48 it is based on!
* As part of the promotions for ''[[Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]]'', the film prop versions of Topspin, [[Roadbuster (DOTM)|Roadbuster]], and [[Leadfoot (DOTM)|Leadfoot]] made appearances at the [[2011]] Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on [[February 20]]th. They appeared both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap.
* He's not the first [[Topspin (G1)|Topspin]] to be a Wrecker.
* Early working names for him included '''Tempest''' and '''Warpath'''.<ref name="nizzi">[http://www.joshnizzi.com/TF3.htm Josh Nizzi DOTM concepts.]</ref>
* Topspin is the only one of the three Wreckers (and for that matter, the only new Autobot in the third film) not to have any spoken lines.
* Despite showing kibble based on [[Wikipedia:Jimmie Johnson|Jimmie Johnson's]] Lowe's sponsored ''Chevrolet Impala SS'', his concept art shows him with the headlights of a ''Toyota Camry''.

===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Topspin''' (トップスピン ''Toppusupin'')

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category: Cyberverse]]
[[Category: Dark of the Moon Autobots]]
[[Category: Wreckers]]

Death

2011-10-13T13:06:45Z

RXTheLegend: /* Human death */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]:
**[[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
**A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**[[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-One (Movie)|Elita-One]] were killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]]. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similiar fate, being punch through the spark chamber right before Optimus Prime crushes it. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
** [[Samuel James Witwicky |Sam Witwicky]] was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-09T08:25:04Z

RXTheLegend: /* Primus and Primus-related powers */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (film)}} [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transfomers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}} [[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-1 (ROTF)|Elita-1]] was killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]].
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similiar fate, being punch through the spark chamber right before Optimus Prime crushes it. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
* Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of [[Primus]].

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-09T08:22:18Z

RXTheLegend: /* Animal death */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (film)}} [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transfomers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}} [[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-1 (ROTF)|Elita-1]] was killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]].
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similiar fate, being punch through the spark chamber right before Optimus Prime crushes it. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}
* A vulture was shot when [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]] landed on Africa.

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-09T08:19:54Z

RXTheLegend: /* Loss of spark */

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (film)}} [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transfomers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}} [[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-1 (ROTF)|Elita-1]] was killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]].
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similiar fate, being punch through the spark chamber right before Optimus Prime crushes it. Ouch. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-09T08:15:35Z

RXTheLegend:

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (film)}} [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transfomers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}} [[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-1 (ROTF)|Elita-1]] was killed by the [[Buffalo MPV Decepticon]].
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

Death

2011-10-09T08:13:59Z

RXTheLegend:

{{disambig2|the end of life|the Horseman of Unicron|Airazor (Armada)}}

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" "The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{--}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, [[Outpost B-67 exo-structuring party|nameless guy]], your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.
* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after ''one shot''.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]], {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}} [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]], {{storylink|New Dawn}} and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3|Prime Directive #3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}} A crapload of [[Protoform]]s were shot down by [[NEST]] soldiers. {{storylink|Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (film)}} [[Crowbar |Crowbar]] was shot in the face by Ironhide. {{storylink|Transfomers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}} [[Arcee (Movie)|Arcee]] and [[Elita-1 (ROTF)|Elita-1]] was killed by the [[MPV Buffalo Decepticon]].
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] gets his face blown off/in by [[Cyclonus (SG)|Cyclonus]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 4}}
{{--}}

* [[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]: [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] was shot and killed by [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] during the final battle of the [[Universe War]].

* Many goons during the [[War for Cybertron]] died from being shot. {{storylink|War for Cybertron}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbuster]] was killed when a prototype [[pathblaster]] exploded in his face. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits — terminally so — by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer (BM)|Deployers]]) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

* Energon: [[Bruticus Maximus (Energon)|Bruticus Maximus]] was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.

* ''Prime'': [[Makeshift (Prime)|Makeshift]] and the surrounding [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at [[BotCon 2011]] with the ''Prime'' show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) {{storylink|Con Job}}
*IDW Continuity: [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Skullgrin]] were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3}}

* ''Movie Continuty'': [[Crankcase (DOTM)|Crankcase]] blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. {{storylink|Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' continuity: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity:
**[[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
** [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. {{storylink|Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four}}
* The [[Beast (G1)|Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
* ''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)| Prime]]'': [[Skyquake (Prime)|Skyquake]] crash-landed after [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:
* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst (G1)|Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power of Unicron}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* IDW continuity:
** [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
** [[Ruckus (G1)|Ruckus]], [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]], and [[Skullcruncher]] were all crushed by [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]].
** [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.
* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronians]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:
* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. {{storylink|The Sun}} This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|Fallen (episode)|Fallen}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutants]] by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}
* [[Flanker]] was eaten up and killed by the [[Insecticon (G1)|"Deluxe" Insecticons]].

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics:
**[[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time & Place}}
**A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
* Movie continuity:
**Being ripped in half by [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}
**[[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]] was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
**A Decepticon pilot was being rip to pieces by the Wreckers.
* IDW comic continuity: [[Pyro]] was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}
* ''Prime'' cartoon: When fighting [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]]'s zombie army, [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] recommended dissection to [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus]] to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. {{storylink|Darkness Rising, Part 4}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] had his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot (G2)|Leadfoot]], presumably (given the ''Generation 2'' book's emphasis on body count) killing him. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
** [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]], [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]], and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] are decapitated in the third movie. [[Wheeljack (Movie)|Que]]'s and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]]'s heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}
** [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]]'s head was crushed by [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] ''bare fist''.

* IDW comic continuity:
** The heads of [[Springarm]] and [[Wheelarch]] are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Orion Pax]].

===Bifurcation===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (Movie)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] slices [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] in half at the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.
* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}
* Movie continuity:
** Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px|And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* ''[[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]]'': [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
*Energon: [[Constructicon Maximus]] was killed when [[Storm Jet (Energon)|Storm Jet]] impaled and crushed his spark.
* ''Cybertron'': [[Megatron (Armada)#Cybertron cartoon|Galvatron]] died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. [[The Fallen]] also met his end when Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a [[spark extractor]].
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [[wikipedia:Water intoxication|a horrible death]]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.
* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their [[microchip]]s. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout (G1)|Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark]] into his chest. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)|Transformers}}
* ''Transformers Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* Movie continuity: [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Suicide===
Sometimes a Transformers kills himself for some reason.
* Marvel comics
** Megatron seemingly killed himself using a [[space bridge]] though it was later revealed that he survived.
** Dirge and Nightbeat self destructed and destroyed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Swarm.
* ''Beast Wars''
** [[Tigerhawk]] sacrificed himself by hurling himself in the way of a fusion cannon blast from the Nemesis.
* ''Energon'': Galvatron, Starscream, and [[Tidal Wave (Armada)|Mirage]] threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. [[Cyclonus (Armada)|Snow Cat]] and Demolishor may have also done this.
* ''Revenge of the Fallen'': Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!" "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"|noquote=true}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, {{storylink|The Last Stand}} who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}} and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}
* Last Stand of the Wreckers: [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]] is torn in half by [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and is easily repaired.

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

===Limbo===
Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.
* Marvel comics:
** The [[Trans-Time Dimensional Portal]] crosses [[unspace]], "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}
** Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as [[Limbo]].
* IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[Laser core|spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]], causing his [[Brain Center|robot mode]] to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}
*Generation 1 cartoon:
**Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{bigquote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
* ''Armada'' Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster {{storylink|Sacrifice}} but his spark survived and was put into a new body. {{storylink|Regeneration}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron (Animated)|Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{bigquote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px|]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon}}

* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle}}
* "[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]": [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into [[Nexus Prime]]. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 5}} Nexus Prime then brought [[Megatron (SG)|Megatron]] back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. {{storylink|Reunification: Part 6}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-[[Expansion]], except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
* Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
* [[Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. {{storylink|End of the Line}} {{storylink| Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}} His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}}

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}} knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. {{storylink|Still Life!}}
* In "[[Last Stand of the Wreckers]]", [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars (issue)|Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}
* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
* The dog-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}
* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}
* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] ate a cute little rat, {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}} and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}
* Human villain [[Trophy White]] had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}}

{{-}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|150px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel comic)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]], though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]]. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to [[Chicago]], killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and annihilated into just skulls ''directly in front of the camera''. Then of course we get to [[Laserbeak (DOTM)|Laserbeak]], whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
** [[Dylan Gould]] was killed when he was shoved into [[Sentinel Prime (ROTF)|Sentinel Prime's]] space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's no so much of a concern.
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.
[[Image:Convoy-kablooie.jpg|right|thumb|150px|They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.]]
* Titan quite blatantly stated that the [[Free Men]] had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, [[Robert Epps]] opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.10|Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime}} Similarly, [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.6|Outlaw Blues}}
* In ''[[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]'', several [[Kiss Player]]s were seen being devoured by Legions.
* In [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'']] episode "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]," a group of cars being driven by [[MECH|human terrorists]] crash and flip over each other and explode. Previously, [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] had ordered his Autobots to engage only with non-lethal force. A similar instance happens during [[Operation: Breakdown|Operation: Breakdown]], most notably when Breakdown throws a car at a helicopter.
{{-}}

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''. But he never actually dies.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life... repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].
* [[Starscream (Animated)]] - the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the [[AllSpark]] embedded in his forehead.

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]