Seven Primes

File:ROTF movie SevenPrimes.jpg

You must avenge my death, Simba—uh, I mean, Sam.

The Seven Primes were the seven original inhabitants of Cybertron and the eventual leaders of a so-called powerful, peaceful and just Cybertronian empire at its earliest inception. Each of these mechanoids possessed a physical form which differed greatly from their descendants. The Primes were charged with travelling the vast expanses of space looking for suns from which they could harvest Energon. However, they tempered their search for energy with a vow that they would never take life in its pursuit.

One of their number became The Fallen.

Fiction

Revenge of the Fallen movie

Voice actors: Michael York, Kevin Michael Richardson, Robin Atkin Downes (English), Banjō Ginga, Daisuke Gōri, Yasuyoshi Hara (Japanese)

Plot details for Revenge of the Fallen (film) follow. Spoilers have expired, you may remove this tag

At least by 17,000 BC, ancient beings known as the "Seven Primes" reached a solar system in their quest to build a Solar harvester that would replenish the All Spark Cube's Energon, their race's life energy, which had been severley drained after a millenia of feeding energy to Cybertron and its inhabitants. However, they soon discovered the chosen system contained a life-bearing world, and so six of the Primes objected to using the harvester on the system's sun. The seventh, however, insisted on using the harvester anyway upon weighing the longevity of his planet and his race against a seemingly meaningless organic world. This Prime quickly turned on his brothers and their creed, waging war against them, with those who agreed with his ideals by his side. After attacking and killing many of his fellow Primes and slaughtering a large number of the world's semi-sapient creatures he was thereafter ever known as "The Fallen". The remaining Primes mounted an attack on their new nemesis and hid the Matrix of Leadership - without which he could not activate the harvester - in a tomb composed of their own bodies on the very planet he sought to destroy, using the last of their energy left from the epic battle to completely seal it.

In the present day, their descendant Optimus Prime perished in battle whilst protecting the human adolescent Sam Witwicky, the chosen vessel of the All Spark after the Cube's physical destruction. With the seemingly confusing knowledge of an advanced alien civilization in his mind, Sam and his companions set out to find the Matrix of Leadership after learning it may be the only thing that could resurrect Optimus - the last of the Primes - who was the only being who could defeat "The Fallen". Travelling to Petra in Jordan, Sam discovered the Tomb of the Primes hidden within, quickly discovering the small Matrix. His hopes were soon dampened however, when the artifact crumbled into dust upon it being moved. Nevertheless, he held onto his faith and gathered up the dust in a tattered sock, intending to revive Optimus with it in any way feasible.

During a climatic battle around the Solar Harvester between the Autobots and The Fallen's Decepticon forces, Sam died in an attempt to use the remnants of the Matrix to resurrect Optimus Prime. Appearing to leave his body, the six Primes soon appeared before Sam, telling him that they had been observing him for a long period of time, praising his sacrificial acts to save the last Prime's spark. They pronounced him worthy of receiving the Matrix, revealing to him that it is now never merely found but instead earned, then instantaneously resuscitated him. Brought back to life by the six Primes, he was able to fulfill his destiny by reviving Optimus, propagating the complete destruction of the Soler Harvester and the defeat of "The Fallen" and Megatron. Revenge of the Fallen

Trivia

• In the novelization and comic adaptation of the film, Jetfire explains that there were Thirteen Primes, and that the Prime that came to be known as "The Fallen" destroyed eleven of them, with the twelth Prime sacrificing his spark to seal the Matrix in a tomb constructed out of the lifeless bodies of his dead brothers. It is possible that, within the film canon itself, five of the Primes met their end so early on in the battle for the Matrix that "Old Man Blackbird" simply forgot to mention it in his abridged version of events when telling it thousands of years later.

• It is unknown at this time what, if any, connection these original Seven Prime Cybertronians have to the First Seven humans who formed Sector Seven. Of note is the fact that the First Seven were said to have "hidden the past to protect the future", which one could argue is exactly what the six Primes did when they hid the Matrix (a key they used for eons when harvesting suns after lightyears of travel) from their "Fallen" brother to protect Earth from destruction (in essence saving its future). The group was seen active well into 1898, with strange artifacts already in their possession, and a few members of the group were unpreturbed by the discovery of a huge mechanical man frozen in a glacier upon hearing of it. Considering the fact that Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman helmed major writing duties for both live action films, the loose connection is not something to be ignored.