Hate Plague

You've got red on you.

It's a madness plague, Galvatron! If one of those Transformers touches you, you're infected.Rodimus Prime, "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"

Wretched scumbags! Before you die an agonizing chainsaw-related death, you're gonna hear about the Hate Plague! This insidious, maddening blood-red malady was one of the few capable of affecting those disgusting, rust-bucket Transformers. Any filthy organism infected turns bright red like freshly spilled gore and displays incredibly high levels of SHUT UP AND DIE toward everything and everyone. Now get on your knees and pray, because it's all over!

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Long ago, the Hate Plague ravaged the universe but was contained by a wise man using sheer wisdom. However, nobody was wise enough to completely destroy the plague spores so they were simply sealed inside a star. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2

Eventually, the star went supernova and exploded while being studied by human scientists Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford covering their spaceship in Hate Plague spores. Taking them back to Earth, Gregory studied the spores with his colleague Mark Morgan and learned of their properties. Jessica was later injured in a scuffle between the Autobots and Decepticons prompting the two men to trap various Autobots and infect them with the spores. However, the Hate Plague spread like wildfire infecting Transformers, humans and aliens alike. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1

The newly resurrected Optimus Prime was tasked with curing the disease. Not knowing what to do, Prime dove into the accumulated knowledge of the Matrix of Leadership to question the spirits of leaders before him about the matter. Eventually, the mysterious It informed him of the Hate Plague's past and its weakness to pure wisdom. Going back to the real world, Prime opened the Matrix and unleashed its accumulated wisdom unto the universe, eradicating the Hate Plague. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2

Known infected

• Thousands, if not millions of humans
• Mark Morgan
• Gregory Swofford
• The Aerialbots (and by extension Superion)
• Blaster
• The Combaticons (and by extension Bruticus)
• Scourge and his Sweeps
• Cyclonus
• Galvatron
• Goldbug (previously Bumblebee)
• Jessica Morgan
• The Predacons (and by extension Predaking)
• The Protectobots (and by extension Defensor)
• Rodimus Prime (later Hot Rod)
• The Sharkticons
• Sky Lynx
• The Stunticons (and by extension Menasor)
• The Throttlebots
• Ultra Magnus
• Wreck-Gar
• Blurr
• Kup
• Wheelie
• Steeljaw
• And two lab rats

The only characters in "The Return of Optimus Prime" who definitely never get infected by the Hate Plague are Optimus Prime himself, Metroplex (who was deactivated to prevent him from getting infected) and the Quintesson that Sky Lynx brought to Earth to revive Optimus Prime.

Beast Machines

"DEEEEEEEERP!"

Megatron used a new variety of virus based on the Hate Plague in an attempt to destroy the Maximals. Nightscream compared it to the original Hate Plague. The Maximals were ultimately able to overcome this new strain of the Hate Plague by working together and purging the infection from their systems.A Wolf in the Fold

Animated

Surgeon General Arkeville suggested that Ding Dongs might be an effective remedy for the Hate Plague. The AllSpark Almanac

Beast Wars: Uprising

Deluge listed the Hate Plague as one of many bygone Cybertronian crises that few spoke of in the 24th century because of information creep. The Inexorable March

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Uchū Pest (宇宙ペスト Uchū Pesuto, "Space Plague")
• Mandarin: Chóuhèn Bìngdú (仇恨病毒, "Hate Virus")