Death/Archive

This older version has been superceded by the current Death page, and is presented here for archival purposes.

And the sounds of a million fanboys' cries were heard across the land.

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. 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 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.

"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, "Prisoner of War!"

Generation 1

Marvel comics continuity

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

Right from the beginning, the Marvel Comics made it clear that Transformers could die. The first issue mentions that "billions" of Autobots were slaughtered in the initial Decepticon assaults on Cybertron. Various battle scenes in the same issue show anonymous characters getting blown to bits.

Equally evident, however, was the fact that Transformers could survive and recover from massive damage. The combatants aboard the Ark survived crashing headlong into the planet Earth; although they were all knocked offline, the Ark's computer was eventually able to restore them all to full functionality. This additionally demonstrated a Transformer's ability to lay in stasis for incredibly long periods of time -- four million years, in this case. The Transformers (issue)

Transformers' capacity for taking damage was highlighted by the plight of Gears, who plummets to his "death" from a towering mountain. Though rendered inoperative by the impact, Ratchet is soon able to piece him back together to a minimally operative status. Optimus Prime explains to several observing humans that the damaged Gears is not alive, "but neither is he what you would consider dead! Prisoner of War! Two issues later, nearly all the Autobots are knocked offline again, either through fuel deprivation or after being blasted by Shockwave. The Last Stand Again, Ratchet is eventually able to restore most of them to life, DIS-Integrated Circuits! apart from the especially-damaged Sunstreaker The Next Best Thing to Being There!

With the battle resumed on Earth, the first true casualties were the Navigator and his guardian, the so-called "Man of Iron", both sent to find the missing crew of the Ark. The Man of Iron died from the weapons of a Decepticon, while Navigator was incinerated by an unwitting Jazz along with his ship. Man of Iron's death involved a huge fiery explosion which blew him into burning component pieces; Navigator's demise was less explicitly portrayed. Both established that the weapons carried by everyday Transformers could in fact be lethal to other Transformers (despite Trailbreaker, Thundercracker, and Skywarp all taking almost equally severe damage during the same story and surviving.) Man of Iron!

The Man of Iron story highlighted a disconnect particular to Transformers: named characters, especially those with toys, are a lot less likely to die than ones without toys. In fictional terms, it's hardly ever explained. The Marvel Comics' first issue mentions that the crew of the Ark is drawn from the Autobots' most powerful warriors, perhaps explaining some of their resiliency, but these characters rarely fare much better or worse than numerous others who come later.

The Marvel book's varying treatment of human characters perhaps illustrates the differences in sensibilities between the US and the UK at the time. Outright human death was almost never shown for most of the Marvel US run, though it surely had to be a result of numerous battles (such as the Army taking on the Decepticons in "Prisoner of War!".) The UK book, by contrast, killed off its first confirmed human in #45, where Professor Morris used a brainwashed Swoop to accidentally murder a security guard. The Icarus Theory Earlier stories implied human death as well; Brawn runs a car off the road causing it to explode with its driver screaming in UK #14, whilst in the same issue Starscream blew up several human jets in mid-air. The Enemy Within!

Outright Transformer death would be seen in the first story set on Cybertron. The story opens with a Decepticon killing civilians only for Blaster to kill it; Straxus, current commander of the Decepticons, was constantly throwing hordes of Transformers to their deaths in his smelting pool; and Blaster's ally Scrounge died a quite brutal death. The Smelting Pool! Furman notably pre-empted this some time earlier with the deaths of Earthquake and Tornado in a flashback sequence. The Enemy Within!

Soon death would be seen again and again, particularly in Furman's UK strips—generally these deaths would be of original characters who lacked toys, such as Impactor. Target: 2006 This was a useful way of getting across a sense of genuine war and build reader tension, while simultaneously leaving the toy characters untouched.

Gears died as he lived—not being on-panel.

Optimus Prime himself would end up outright dying to clear the way for new characters—following immediately on, Megatron was killed in a Space Bridge accident. Afterdeath! Gone but Not Forgotten! The following issue would have the Transformers holding a funeral for Optimus, Funeral for a Friend! while a crossover story unceremoniously bumped off Dirge. Ashes, Ashes... This kill-spree was slightly undermined by Bob Budiansky leaving himself a get-out clause, and showing the reader that a back-up copy of Optimus Prime's mind could exist. Megatron, meanwhile, would turn up alive in Marvel UK so they could sneak around the US stories without contradicting their plots (he'd later be retconned as a clone). Ancient Relics!

Marvel UK stories set in the post-movie future got to be even more kill-happy—as they didn't have to bother meshing with the present day continuity, any character could be killed off. As well as minor ones such as Inferno, this would also include major character Shockwave. The Legacy of Unicron!

Soon, Transformers was saddled with a large number of characters who no longer had toys—to thin the crowd, both Simon Furman and Budiansky began repeated cullings so the newer toys could get more "screen time". In Marvel UK, most of the Wreckers, Galvatron (and previously Cyclonus), and a few little-seen Decepticons would all be slaughtered. Time Wars That paled before the most grandiose of slaughters, the Underbase Saga, where a super powered Starscream destroyed/deactivated dozens of Transformers, Autobot and Decepticon alike. Conveniently, only those with organic bits (Headmasters, Pretenders et al) could survive the Underbase. Dark Star Many of these characters would remain dead until the climax of the Unicron saga, when they were revived by Nucleon; at the same time, the Unicron battle would kill off scores of characters who'd survived the Underbase! On the Edge of Extinction!

The experience of having been dead does not seem to bother most Transformers who were resurrected. One exception is Optimus Prime; due to his time spent as a computer-game character (no, really), he was separated emotionally from his past life and lost interest in Earth. This was soon cured. Cold Comfort and Joy! Another exception is if a Transformer has suffered a humiliating death or rebirth; their confidence will end up weakened. Fallen Star!

American cartoon continuity

Who knew Autobots could be killed by shooting their shoulders?

The Transformers: The Movie is infamous for the slaughter of a large number of season 1 and 2 characters, especially the likes of Optimus Prime and Starscream. The reason for this was the upcoming season 3 toy line. Some would die without getting a chance to say anything or even being named. 'Bots dying in the movie include Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet, Brawn, Windcharger, Wheeljack, Optimus Prime, and Starscream.

In this continuity, dead Transformers can still exist as ghosts. These ghosts are capable of possessing the forms of living Transformers. Starscream's Ghost Or at least Starscream can; there's no evidence of any other Transformers being able to do the same.

When Matrix bearers die, their wisdom and spirits remain within the Matrix. A near-death experience allows the current Matrix bearer to make contact with these spirits. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4

Japanese cartoon continuity

The Japanese continuity did not skimp on showing death as a part of war. Aside from numerous generic robots (for example, the prison guards from Victory), notable characters were also killed. The most famous victim of this tendency was Ultra Magnus, who died in battle against Sixshot in The Headmasters. In Super-God Masterforce, Sixknight was killed by Devil Z and BlackZarak perished in the finale along with the Decepticon Emperor.

However, Transformers that have been mortally wounded can be rebuilt into new forms, as happened with Soundwave/Soundblaster and Ginrai/Victory Leo. Also, because of a different approach to censorship, human death was not unheard of. While not present in the first two seasons (which were simply translated from the American version) nor the following Headmasters cartoon, plenty of humans became unlucky collateral damage from Masterforce onwards. Besides victims such as Professor Gō early in the series, the Decepticons often slaughtered people in the course of their activities. Giga, for example, destroyed a passing airliner (presumably killing all aboard) simply to test his new Deathball toys. In Victory, Earth was spared much destruction until the latter half of the series, when Deathsaurus's forces began attacking in earnest (killing countless human soldiers in the process). In addition, Star Saber's adopted son, Jean Minakaze, was the sole survivor of a Decepticon attack.

At the same time, supernatural forces irrefutably exist in this universe and are capable of reversing the process of death. Optimus Prime died a second time Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime but was brought back by Zodiac energy as Star Convoy The Battlestars; the evil entity Dark Nova took Galvatron's remains and reformatted them as Super Megatron. The demonic being Violen Jygar was composed of the "angry souls" of dead Decepticons, and seemingly resurrected BlackZarak to serve as one of his Demon-Generals. Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!

The Kiss Players, infected by Galvatron's cells, are capable of resurrecting dead Transformers like Optimus by kissing him and channelling the cells into him; however, once the cells were taken out, Optimus died again. Kiss Players

Generation 2

The Generation 2 comic had less oversight from Hasbro, a whole lot of inherited characters that didn't have toys, and an existence in the extreeeeeme and violent 1990s US comic industry. The result was the Transformer equivalent of the Battle of the Somme—almost every issue would have a known Transformer or three being killed off. Even the crossover with G.I. Joe, setting up Megatron's new toy, killed off four. Final Transformations

Blades in Generation 2: a violent, gritty, pointlessly graphic nightmare… in Generation 2.

Even characters who had previously been major ones in the Marvel Comics would be killed, with Nightbeat, Bludgeon, Spike Witwicky and Fortress Maximus all dying alongside lesser-seen characters like Skullgrin and Mirage. Amusingly, some of these characters (such as Dirge, Joyride and Quake) had died in earlier G1 issues and had returned from the dead without explanation solely to be bumped off. Red Alert, a 1985 Autobot car, even made his very first clear appearance in the US comics in one issue, only to be immediately killed off after giving his first (and last) line of dialogue. Devices and Desires!

In addition, the Transformers would slaughter large numbers of Cybertronian Empire soldiers, and many alien planets were shown being exterminated. Earth didn't escape unscathed either, with widespread devastation, open slaughter of humans and the obliteration of San Francisco. Oh, and Prime dies and comes back again.

Beast Wars

Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!

Beast Wars, being a CGI cartoon, could not afford to have too many characters in the show at any one time—once they reached seven-a-side by Season 1, any new character coming in would mean an old one going out. This led to some quite arbitrary deaths, such as Terrorsaur and Scorponok falling into lava and going unmourned, or Tigatron and Airazor suddenly being dragged into space by the Vok. Dinobot, by contrast, had an episode devoted to his heroic sacrifice and his death served as the end to his plot arc for that season, and has become one of the most popular episodes. Code of Hero

One problem Beast Wars had with killing characters is that every character on the show would be blown up real good during the series, only to be put back together again—this would mean when they were actually being killed, they'd sometimes be suffering less damage than they had in battles where they lived. In addition, Optimus Primal and Blackarachnia both died and came back with brand new bodies, showing death to be a potential revolving door. At one point, Inferno was clearly vaporised in an explosion—but, because it was decided not to kill him when Season 3 started, he was suddenly merely a bit singed. Optimal Situation

We're not using the Z word!

The character of Dinobot II presents interesting questions about Transformer death. While cloned from the original Dinobot and possessing the same voice, same look (albeit an eerie skeletal version) and same skills, he had a different personality & memories and was clearly a different character, even carrying a different Spark (half of Rampage's). However, in the season finale, the destruction of Rampage caused him to gain an increasing number of Dinobot's memories that he could not have and start gaining Dinobot's personality. He also viewed his Spark as being "different… at last complete". Nemesis Part 2 How all this occurred was not explained; based on the visual of him turning into the original Dinobot & back again when Rampage was destroyed, Nemesis Part 1 it could be assumed the original was influencing him.

The final three episodes would kill seven characters, including the majority of the Predacons and two of the Maximals—-including Tigerhawk, who only appeared two episodes before his death—-to pave the way for Beast Machines. In order of their passing, the unlucky 'bots were Tarantulas, Depth Charge, Rampage, Tigerhawk, Inferno, Quickstrike, and Dinobot II, but not, surprisingly, Waspinator, who ended up becoming 'happy at last'.

IDW comics continuity

IDW's Beast Wars comics would introduce a large number of unused toys into the fiction—a large number of which were then massacred in the second miniseries. Many of them had hardly got a chance to show any characterization. The exception is Razorbeast, who had been the main character in the previous story and had to be euthanised by one of his friends. The Ascending

Beast Machines

Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.

The premise of Beast Machines was that Megatron had taken over Cybertron and removed the Sparks from everyone, leaving massive graveyards across the planet. However, this hadn't actually killed anyone—as long as the Sparks survived, they could be put in a new body and live again, and everyone was restored at the end of the series. Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future

The series would also introduce the concept of the Allspark—a dimension composed of Transformer Sparks, the home of every one that will or can ever be. When a Transformer dies, their Spark returns to it and all of their knowledge and life experience is added to the Allspark. Rhinox's spirit would be seen within in it, advising Optimus Primal to move on.

Optimus Primal was outright killed, but would come back to life again after deciding not to join with the Allspark but continue his mission Fallout; this could be seen an in-universe explanation for why some Transformers return to life while others stay dead. Primal would die properly later on, taking Megatron with him.

The original Vehicon generals contained the Sparks of existing Beast Wars characters but possessed completely different personalities—most notably Thrust, the brooding, loyal and fearless general who had Waspinator's Spark. Overriding the general's shell programs to bring back the original characters could be seen as killing the Vehicons.

Singularity Ablyss

Megatron would also have the opportunity to allow himself to pass on and rejoin the Allspark. However, his repeated returns to life (during "Spark of Darkness") convinced him he could still achieve godhood and so he rejected passing on. He also erased Rhinox's Spark, showing that even the dead can be killed. Singularity Ablyss

Robots in Disguise

The Robots in Disguise franchise is unique in that almost nobody dies. The exception is Megatron—he was completely destroyed, but then reborn as Galvatron due to the Orb of Sigma and energy drained from Predacon sparks. Peril from the Past While possessing the same voice, personality and general form of Megatron, Galvatron declares himself to be a different person and his former self to be dead. Maximus Emerges

Universe

The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!

The BotCon comic The Wreckers would use death quite a lot in its second issue, for one very specific reason—they'd brought in too many bloody characters in the first issue. A few massacres later and the cast was down to a more manageable level. Betrayal

Universe's multiverse-spanning story allows for a lot of death in character backstories—Smokescreen is killed by another Smokescreen, Unicron's generals all killed Megatron in their home dimensions, and Megazarak has killed everyone on his Cybertron. Shell Game Conversely, it also allowed for a whole load of character resurrections—Optimus Primal, Depth Charge, Rhinox and Tarantulas all returned from the dead. One of the Wreckers, meanwhile, is a revived Tigatron.

Unicron Trilogy

Cartoon

Optimus died holding back the Hydra Cannon, the damage causing him to crumble to dust. Crisis Through the power of the Matrix, he was resurrected by the Mini-Cons shortly afterward. Miracle

Galvatron died to save everyone and came back twice—you lose, Jesus!

Both Galvatron Mortal Combat and Starscream Cramp would make heroic sacrifices in Armada to stop Unicron—only to return from the dead for the Energon cartoon. And then sacrificed themselves again at the end of that one The Sun—and came back again for the next cartoon!

Some characters would be severely injured and seemingly killed, but would survive by being rebuilt into a new character—Smokescreen became Hoist, Tidal Wave became Mirage, etc.

Alpha Quintesson and Unicron possessed the ability to create new Transformers—Terrorcons and Scorponok—out of the remains of the dead. Scorponok was an odd case: it was originally presented that he was a recreated version of an inhabitant of Alpha Q's homeworld, but later retconned that he was, in fact, merely created in that being's image, and actually animated by the Spark of a dead Decepticon. This retcon, however, did not make it into the Energon, since the episode featuring it was not dubbed. Scorponok was later killed, but in both the fan club comics and Cybertron toy tech specs, he became an undead monster.

In the Unicron Trilogy cartoons, resurrection often altered the basic personality of a Transformer. Tidal Wave became more intelligent as Mirage, as well as gaining a crush on Galvatron; Demolishor devolved in intelligence and became more ape-like; the morally conflicted Starscream, who sacrificed himself for the greater good, would became an ambitious power-hungry traitor like those other Starscreams. This has not occurred in other canons, where death and rebirth rarely seems to cause any real problems for anyone.

Comic

While it can be safely assumed people did die in the Autobot-Decepticon war, it was only shown on panel when the Unicron plotline took over. Worlds Collide In addition, Unicron was shown to be able to kill and rebuild Transformers into his loyal servants, doing it to Rhinox and his fellow Beast Warriors. This Evil Reborn While his body had died, Megatron's consciousness remained within Unicron's spark core, and from here was able to return to life with a new body.

Live-action film series

Films

The live-action movie would feature death galore in its climactic battle scenes, with almost every Decepticon being wiped out and Jazz being killed in battle. Not to mention the humans; SOCCENT Forward Operations Base is wiped out by Blackout; Scorponok just loves his stabbing; possible demises caused by Frenzy on Air Force One; Bonecrusher hatefully sweeping away traffic; and countless possible casualties in Mission City. Transformers (2007)

Thankfully, the second film does not kill off the primary six returning robots to make way for a new cast. Unfortunately, the only new Decepticon who seems to survive is Soundwave. Optimus Prime dies but comes back, while only Jetfire and an Arcee component die among the Autobot ranks. NEST's casualties are emphasized in an early scene where coffins are displayed prominently in a single shot, and there are major civilian and military casualties during Demolishor's rampage and The Fallen's arrival (estimated at a toll of 7000), but the main humans get off scott free (even Sam Witwicky cheats death). Revenge of the Fallen

IDW Publishing

Comic books can get away with this, while PG-13 movies can't

Starscream blew up an F-22 Raptor to obtain his alternate mode. Prime Directive (IDW) issue 4 He kills countless Sector 7 soldiers when searching for Frenzy's body in the Hoover Dam, and takes a human along while leaving Earth to see if he can survive the trip. He doesn't. The Reign of Starscream issue 2 When Starscream returns to Earth, many die in his battle with Wreckage, including Professor Vine. Alliance issue 3 NEST naturally loses soldiers in their battles with the Decepticons, most prominently Salani during the battle with Jetstorm. Alliance issue 4

On the Transformers side, a whole lot of toy-only characters die bloody in the runup to Revenge of the Fallen, coincidentally after they'd been on the shelves for a while. The Reign of Starscream Alliance

Titan Magazines

The following events occur in a splinter timeline where Megatron won the battle of Mission City.

From the ninth issue of Transformers Comic, the movie-based comic strip took place in an alternate universe where the Decepticons won in the film. As a result, human casualties are quite high; thousands of NATO sailors are killed in battle, Starscream bombs humans to spread terror, and Sam Witwicky is established to have died.

Shockingly for a Furman-written alternate universe, Transformer deaths have so far been few. No Autobots are yet confirmed as dead, while Decepticon casualties so far include Bonecrusher, Frenzy and Megatron following the initial story. Many Decepticon drones, however, are wiped out by the heroes.

Jazz actually came back from the dead, resurrection being a property of the All Spark. However, anything done to the All Spark will affect the resurrectee; corrupt the All Spark, as Megatron did, and you end up with a corrupt, amoral Transformer. Dark Spark

Megatron also came back from the dead (of course he did) by having downloaded his consciousness into another vessel, showing that (ala Afterdeath! and Rock and Roll Out!) Transformers can be backed up. The Decepticon Who Haunted Himself

Animated

Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.

Severe physical damage does not kill Transformers in the Animated universe — Megatron survived despite being reduced to a severed head, while Lugnut and Blitzwing remained conscious despite being in bits Lost and Found and Soundwave continued to function after its brutal dismemberment. Sound and Fury

Transformer death is, however, possible — a combination of physical damage and AllSpark energy outright killed Optimus Prime. He was resurrected immediately afterward by the AllSpark Key, which, uniquely, channelled the energy of the AllSpark directly (as opposed to the energy stored inside it) for the purpose. Transform and Roll Out

Starscream also was killed Megatron Rising - Part 2 only to be brought back to life by AllSpark energy. In his case, despite his Spark being extinguished, an AllSpark shard has embedded in his head and makes him immortal — kill him, and he'll just come back two minutes later. This has possibly made him the most tenacious (and annoying) Starscream to date. To Megatron, anyway. Mission Accomplished

But how can Bumblebee see it?

Similarly, Omega Supreme had died long ago saving Cybertron in the Great War, but with AllSpark energy he was able to be revived. A Bridge Too Close, Part II To prevent him dying, he was placed into modified stasis in his spaceship mode in order to stave off total death until a cure could be found. In an interesting look at Transformer funerary practices, the Autobots then used him as a spaceship with seemingly no qualms. Transwarped

It is possible to be a living Transformer without a Spark. Two of the Starscream clones lacked Sparks, as did Afterburn in spin-off material. When they die, however, their being Spark-less means nobody cares. Nobody even commented on the demise of the clones A Fistful of Energon and both Megatron and Optimus outright stated that Afterburn wasn't a real person because he'd lacked a Spark Megatron's Revenge.

It is possible to avert death by transferring a spark into a blank protoform. A number of robots, however, view this as appalling as it sacrifices everything that protoform could have been. Five Servos of Doom

Lockdown has a habit of scavenging parts of his victims to use as "upgrades", a habit that sickens other Transformers.

Animated featured relatively few deaths; however, a popular recurring character and two popular main characters both bought it within the course of the series.

See also

• Endspark

• Transformer funerary practices

• Those who die a lot
  • The many deaths of Optimus Prime
  • Dirge (G1) — the unlucky guy who gets killed off in many continuities (but less than Optimus Prime).
  • 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 who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get slagged again.
  • 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 who must die.

• To sell toys