Empurata

This article is about the ritualized punishment involving the removal of a Cybertronian's face. For the casual hobby of removing a Cybertronian's face, see Optimus Prime (Movie).

Empurata is an old tradition on pre-war Cybertron. A tradition of removing the damn heads and hands of criminals and installing new faceless, fingerless replacements so everyone knows to shun them.

It was mostly performed on those constructed cold, almost certainly out of racism, although even those who were forged could find themselves subjected to it if they made powerful enough enemies.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

"The one with the claws."

When Whirl's combat prowess caught the attention of the Senate, he was pushed into joining the Rodion police force. When the 'bot tried to resist his orders, they used empurata to "persuade" him otherwise. Interiors When he sold out the Senate to Orion Pax, the reason he gave was "I want my hands back".

The outlier Damus was also a victim of empurata. Patternism He would later regain normal hands and a face. Do Not Go Gentle

During the Clampdown, amputee support groups called on the Senate to ban the practice but the Senate responded that it was only used on criminals who deserve it. At the same time they were saying that, the Institute was 'working' on the crusading Senator Shockwave and performed empurata on him solely out of spite. Shockwave later replaced his claws but not his head. An Intimate Beheading

The Functionist Universe

Admit it: you want to do this with a Prime Master and a Titans Return Deluxe/Voyager/Leader-class figure.

In another universe, the Functionist Council had slowly but surely conquered the planet. By the present day, empurata had become so common it lost its ability to offend, so it was upgraded: the new "flatheads" had their heads replaced with computer screens and could only display text instead of speak. Officially, they were Council property now, and pop-up propaganda would appear on their faces without warning. By removing your ability to fully express yourself, you were made easier to ignore. The Custom-Made Now

The Functionist Council were not above turning their own underlings into flatheads. One such flathead working for Twelve-of-Twelve helped arrest Rodimus and his associates on their arrival in the Functionist Universe. Anomie When the stranded Megatron took command of the Anti-Vocationist League, a flathead listened to his speech at Nova Point, displaying "Resist" on their screen. This Machine Kills Fascists

Beast Wars: Uprising

Fearswoop had an empurata-style optic. Micro-Aggressions Highline was also a victim of empurata. Cultural Appropriation

IDW Shattered Glass comic

Empurata was a form of torture from a bygone era Cybertron. Prior to the Great War, it had been reinstated, Megatron blaming Orion Pax for its return. The process proved divisive in society, Megatron holding rallies protesting it outside the Senate building. Shattered Glass #2 When Pax had Ultra Magnus' Wreckers storm the Senate building, Magnus abducted Senator Shockwave. Shattered Glass II #1 Seeing Shockwave as a threat, Pax ordered his fellow senator to be subjected to the procedure. Though intended to strip Shockwave of his compassionate nature, the process backfired and caused his empathy to consume him. This resulted in Shockwave becoming the face of the anti-empurata movement. Whirl by contrast became the face of those who supported the punishment. Shattered Glass #2

Notes

• "Empurata" is an anagram of the Latin verb amputare, meaning "to cut away". Rather than be used in a surgical context, as the descended word "amputation" is today, amputare was a punishment inflicted upon criminals to mark them as such, as it is in the world of More than Meets the Eye.