Decapitation

This article only exists to please him.

Decapitation is a means of defeating an opponent by which their head is removed. This may or may not lead to death.

Optimus Prime loves it while Bonecrusher hates it.

Give me your FACE!Optimus Prime revels in his favorite tactic, Revenge of the Fallen

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

Time to face facts.

It's all a matter of how you remove your head. You see, even I - unh, there it goes - can take my head off. It's all a matter of how you do it. There's a whole set of mental commands that disconnect nerve endings and the like. If you just rip it off, fuel lines, neural connections and other vital bits are severed, as in the case of Cyclonus. Nine times out of ten it's fatal.Dreadwind on decapitation.

Well, it's quite simple really: the 'stupid female' (!) in question kindly restored Cloudburst's head to its rightful place, i.e. on top of his shoulders. Cyclonus wasn't lucky enough to have somebody around to do the same.Dreadwind contradicting his previous statement.

After defeating the Autobots, Shockwave removed Optimus Prime's head from his body for the purpose of accessing the Creation Matrix. The New Order Prime's head remained conscious and able to communicate with Buster Witwicky. The Worse of Two Evils! When he was finished with Prime's head, he disposed of a fake Optimus Prime as part of a ruse to trick the Autobots. The Autobots did indeed find the head and install it back on Prime's body. The fake head took control of Optimus's body and immediately started attacking the Autobots. Prime Time!

In order to show his sincere desire for peace, Fortress Maximus ripped his own head off; four others followed him. Ring of Hate! The heads remained alive and capable of talking even without a body. Broken Glass!

Uh, I don't think you'll be able to turn anyone to stone with this.

Straxus-Megatron would rip Cyclonus' head off his shoulders, which killed him instantly. Dry Run!

Headmasters give prerequisite mental commands when their heads come off. Suddenly ripping the head off, as happened to Scorponok, means those commands aren't given and they black out. All in the Minds! The only thing that revives them is if the head is reconnected to the body; Lord Zarak remained as Scorponok's immobile head for some time. Time Wars

During the Time Wars, Twin Twist had his head ripped off and Rack'n'Ruin had one of his/their heads shot off. Both were written off as dead. Time Wars

When Cloudburst pissed off the First One, she cut his head off. However, Landmine struck a deal with her and she returned Cloudburst's head to his body. He showed no signs of severe damage. Recipe for Disaster!

Death's Head murdered two Autobots by lopping their heads off. Headhunt

The Transformers cartoon

Heading into the realms of disbelief.

"Aunido! Aunido! Follow my voice! Follow my voice! To the left—no, turn around! Go to the right, go to—no...that's a tree."

Optimus Prime was decapitated by Hook as part of his disassembly after falling into Megatron's trap. This did not prevent him from being able to have partial control over his body parts. City of Steel

Cybertonium depletion caused Powerglide's head to fall off, though he could still talk and had full control over the rest of his body. Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1

Beast Wars cartoon

"Hey, Scorpy, wanna get ahead? Just a bit off the top this time? Eh? Eh? (Wow, tough crowd)."

Decapitation is notably non-fatal for the Beast Warriors. Waspinator's head frequently comes off, Inferno has lost his a bunch of times too, Silverbolt got his head knocked off in an explosion, Nemesis Part 1 and when Inferno and Megatron accidentally slammed into each other, they swapped heads. Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)

In most cases, the Transformer was still able to talk happily. In some cases, like poor Terrorsaur's to the left, the Transformer's body could still move and would try to re-attach its head. Double Jeopardy

Megatron was obviously going for this result in his attempt to kill Optimus Prime and change history, but he only managed to melt parts of the Autobot's head despite routing all available power to his main weapon. There's something to be said for those "archaic energon guzzlers" after all. The Agenda (Part III)

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Skystalker took off Shockwave's head so he could use it to trick the other Decepticons. Countdown later used it to prove the guzzlers just what Micromasters are capable of. Shockwave was eventually repaired. Victims of the Revolution

2005 IDW continuity

Where knocking your block off has a rather more literal meaning than first intended.

Runamuck was decapitated by the Whirling Reaper. His head remained alive, fully conscious and still able to speak, until another Reaper smashed it with a very large boulder. Devastation issue 6

Decapitation appeared to be the cause of death of Autobot police officers Wheelarch and Springarm while under the command of Orion Pax in Rodion. Both were decapitated by corrupt Senate thugs and their inert heads placed in Pax's trophy case. Harsh. Chaos Theory Part 2

Red Alert attempted to commit suicide by tearing his own head off. The Sound of Breaking Glass Fortunately, he was found before his spark faded completely and was repaired. Shadowplay, Part 2: Patternism

Grit killed Vanquish by tearing his head off. Empire of Stone #4

The Titan Master Infinitus decapitated Alpha Trion, then transformed into his head configuration to puppeteer his victim's body and fetch G.B. Blackrock. Ultimately, the Autobots and their allies were able to retrieve Alpha Trion's body and reunite it with his head, and the sage made a full recovery. White Heat

Live-action film series continuity

2007 Transformers film

Your face? GIVE ME YOUR WHOLE FREAKING HEAD!

Optimus Prime rather ruthlessly decapitated Bonecrusher.

Frenzy was decapitated ... by a chick! ... but his head lived on, taking a cell-phone alternate mode of its own. Frenzy is able to do this because he has a special, decentralized, modular nervous system. In any event, the remains of his head were later seen in a display case, probably because his final injury in the movie only lopped off MOST of his head. Transformers

Barricade was decapitated by Optimus Prime, apparently killing him. Movie Adaptation #4

Barricade's decapitation was not shown in the film. Later comics and movies retcon him as surviving with his head still on his shoulders.

Revenge of the Fallen

Grindor's head was ripped in half and removed by Optimus Prime.

The Fallen met a particularly gruesome end in Egypt, as Prime ripped his face plate off while bellowing the aforementioned quote, though this injury wasn't as fatal as Optimus subsequently ripped out the Fallen's spark core and crushed it. Revenge of the Fallen

Hunters are known for decapitating the corpses of their kills, and displaying them as trophies. Optimus Prime, surprisingly, finds it distasteful. Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime

Dark of the Moon

When he was killed by Sentinel Prime and rusted to nothing, Ironhide's head fell off. Later, Que suffered the same fate when he was executed by Decepticons.

During the final battle in Chicago, Laserbeak was killed when Sam Witwicky held his head in front of a fighter's cannon which Bumblebee then used to blow it off. Later, Sam killed Starscream by decapitating him using a boom stick. Soundwave died when Bumblebee blew his head off and Optimus Prime killed Megatron by ripping his head off with an axe. Dark of the Moon

Age of Extinction

During the battle in Hong Kong, Bumblebee killed Stinger via decapitation before feeding the head to Strafe, commenting "I hate cheap knock-offs." Age of Extinction

The Last Knight

New heads for the collection!

Mohawk was decapitated when Bumblebee blasted him, his head still continuing to yammer on even after separation from his body. Nitro Zeus also met his end by Bumblebee blowing his head off, although this time the head was disintegrated and did not remain. Optimus continued to revel in his favorite tactic, shoving his sword through Infernocus' head before setting a new personal record by decapitating all six Infernocons with a single strike when they separated to attack him again. Don't forget Onslaught losing his fat head thanks to Drift. The Last Knight

Rise of the Beasts

After Bumblebee's death at Scourge's hands, Optimus Prime swore to back Scourge's half of the Transwarp Key, and then, claim Scourge's head. He later made good on that promise; decapitating Scourge after melting part of his face off and disarming him (literally) during the final battle in Peru. Rise of the Beasts

Animated cartoon

Glad to see you've got some headspace to deal with this issue (had enough of the puns yet?)

A Headmaster unit decapitated the head of its rival warbot to take control of it. When used on Cybertronians, this was a notably non-fatal process, the heads of the victims remaining fully animate and able to be reattached to their bodies. Headmaster The Return of the Headmaster A Bridge Too Close, Part II

Megatron was decapitated during an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Transform and Roll Out He was sent into stasis lock as a result, but was reactivated fifty years later thanks to Sari Sumdac's AllSpark Key, which had been powered with the energies of the AllSpark. Home Is Where the Spark Is

Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons

Decapitation remained an effective means of killing a Transformer, including Combiners. This was exemplified when Rodimus Cron ripped Victorion's head from her body, causing instant death. Athenaeum Sanctorum Megatronus later did the same to Predaking during their own battle. Saga's End

Cyberverse cartoons

When Iaconus was on the verge of defeating the Quintesson controlled Croaton, Judge Starscream decapitated the War Titan using unspace. The End Of The Universe III