Death

This article is about the end of life. For the Horseman of Unicron, see Airazor (Armada){{#switch:{{#sub:Airazor (Armada)|-1}}

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And lo, the children did weep.

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. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. 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!"{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Spider-Man, Sparkplug Witwicky, and Optimus Prime"Prisoner of War!"|Spider-Man, Sparkplug Witwicky, and Optimus Prime{{#if:"Prisoner of War!"|, "Prisoner of War!"|}}|}}

In-fiction causes of death

Scorponok is just as puzzled as the rest of us.

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's spark, varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.

Weaponsfire

{{#if:Megatron (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, The Transformers: The Movie|

“	This was almost too easy, Starscream!	”
{{#if:Megatron (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, The Transformers: The Movie| —Megatron (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, The Transformers: The Movie{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.

Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!

Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!

Sorry, nameless guy, your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.

• In the Generation 1 cartoon:
  • Many casualties of the Battle of Autobot City (and its run-up), including Prowl, Brawn, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime, were victims of energy weapons. The Transformers: The Movie This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after one shot.
  • Ultra Magnus subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the Sweeps, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the Junkions, however. The Transformers: The Movie
  • In the Japanese continuity, Ultra Magnus dies again, for real this time, after Sixshot shoots him a few times. Ultra Magnus Dies!!
• In the Marvel comics:
  • Impactor was cut down by a single head shot from Macabre. Target: 2006
  • Most deaths in the Generation 2 book occurred from energy weapons, such as Red Alert, Devices and Desires! as well as numerous generics. War Without End! Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including Tantrum, The Gathering Darkness Runamuck, Quake, New Dawn and Smokescreen. Escalation!
• In the Beast Wars cartoon:
  • Dinobot dies after incurring severe damage from numerous Predacon weapons. Code of Hero The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective stasis lock, as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
  • Tigerhawk is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship Nemesis. The same cannon subsequently blasts Inferno and Quickstrike, apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. Nemesis Part 2
• Armada cartoon: Optimus Prime dies holding back the Hydra Cannon, the damage causing him to crumble to dust. Crisis
• Dreamwave G1 comics: Grimlock is killed by Motormaster. The Age of Wrath He got better. Prime Directive #3
• Movie continuity:
  • Brawl and Blackout both died from weapons fire. Transformers
  • A crapload of Protoforms were shot down by NEST soldiers. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Shockwave shoots and kill many Autobots. Transformers: Rising Storm.
  • Crowbar was shot in the face by Ironhide. Dark of the Moon
  • Ironhide was shot in the back by Sentinel's Cosmic Rust Blaster.
  • Que was killed by a Decepticon protoform.
  • All the Appliancebots were killed by Bumblebee.
• "Shattered Glass": Megatron gets his face blown off/in by Cyclonus. Reunification: Part 4

• Universe: Tankor was shot and killed by Rhinox during the final battle of the Universe War.
• Many goons during the War for Cybertron died from being shot. War for Cybertron

Big explosions

{{#if:Prowl, "The Wrath of Grimlock!"|

“	They're going to blow us all to pieces! Guardian's booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!	”
{{#if:Prowl, "The Wrath of Grimlock!"| —Prowl, "The Wrath of Grimlock!"{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. The Wrath of Grimlock! Gone but Not Forgotten! The Agenda (Part 2) Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)

• In the Marvel comics:
  • Straxus was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) The Bridge to Nowhere!
  • In an alternate future, a wounded Inferno died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. The Legacy of Unicron!
  • Finback was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. Misfire tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • Roadbuster was killed when a prototype pathblaster exploded in his face. Time Wars
• Beast Wars cartoon:
  • Optimus Primal was blown to bits — terminally so — by the transwarp explosion that destroyed the Planet Buster. Other Voices, Part 2
  • Depth Charge was killed by the explosion that resulted from Rampage's death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) Nemesis Part 1
• Several of the Beast Era Wreckers (Sonar, Spittor, the Deployers) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. Betrayal
• Energon: Bruticus Maximus was killed when Storm Jet caused a massive explosion that engulfed them both.
• Prime: Makeshift and the surrounding Vehicons were blown up by a grenade attached by the Autobots. Both the Vehicons and Makeshift were killed in the blast. (According to an interview at BotCon 2011 with the Prime show runners, Makeshift was deemed too overpowered to be a regular in the show, so they killed him off at the end of the episode.) Con Job
• IDW Continuity: Bomb-Burst and Skullgrin were killed when Springer blew them up with a grenade. Stormbringer issue 3
• Movie Continuty: Crankcase blew up when Ironhide kicked him into a gas station. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)

Impact trauma

Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:

• Classics continuity: Hacksaw met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. The New World
• IDW G1 continuity: Doubledealer was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. Spotlight: Doubledealer
• Movie continuity:
  • Devastator fell off the Great Pyramid of Giza after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Barricade was smashed to pieces and killed by being flung into a freeway column. Movie Adaptation Issue Number Four
  • Hatchet met his end when Dino sent him in crashing into a car.
• The Beast fell off a cliff and shattered. The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.
• Prime: Skyquake crash-landed after Bumblebee punched out vital components in his alternate mode, reducing his body to a partially transformed scrapheap.

Crushing

DO NOT WANT

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:

• In the Marvel comics:
  • Highbrow was smashed between Unicron's palms, while Bomb-Burst and Hardhead met a similar fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • Inferno is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. Escalation!
• Unicron Trilogy cartoons:
  • Thrust is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. Union
  • Shockblast is crushed by Unicron's hand on Blizzard Planet. The Power of Unicron
  • His brother Six Shot meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. Galvatron Terror
• IDW continuity:
  • Roller was crushed when Megatron caused an avalanche to fall on him.
  • Ruckus, Crankcase, and Skullcruncher were all crushed by Thunderwing.
  • Thrust was killed when a group of police set fire to a building and let it collapse on him, crushing him.
• Movie continuity:
  • Dispensor was crushed under Ratchet's foot.

Melting

Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!

Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.

• In the G1 cartoon:
  • An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. The Search for Alpha Trion
  • Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. The Transformers: The Movie
• In the Marvel comics:
  • Victims of the Deception smelting pools on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including Scrounge. The Smelting Pool!
  • It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) Blot offlined Tracks (for a while anyway). Dark Star
  • Scorponok was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • The Cybertronians used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including Stranglehold. New Dawn
• In the Beast Era cartoons:
  • Terrorsaur and Scorponok were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the Predacon base. Aftermath
  • Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with Megatron. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. Fallout

Incineration

{{#if:Shawn Berger, "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2"|

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

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:

• Generation 1 cartoon: Starscream's spectacular death at the hands of Galvatron might be categorized as incineration. The Transformers: The Movie
• Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
  • Megatron's spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. Mortal Combat Megatron Resurrected
  • Demolishor's body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. Go for Unicron!
  • Inferno was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. Farewell Inferno
  • And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. The Sun This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! Fallen

Consumption

{{#if:Longtooth, "Deadly Obsession"|

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

Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:

• In the G1 cartoon:
  • Various life forms were routinely devoured by the Sharkticons on Quintessa. This included Kranix, a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. Kup and Hot Rod would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. The Transformers: The Movie
  • Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. The Transformers: The Movie
• In the Marvel comic:
  • The Mecannibals ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on Cybertron. All the Familiar Faces! Out to Lunch! There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. Recipe for Disaster!
  • Unicron skewered Brainstorm and ate him. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • The subsurface-dwelling demons devoured Runabout. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronians and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. Swarm Total War! A Rage in Heaven!
• The Sharkticons killed two of the Mutants by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. Betrayal
• Flanker was eaten up and killed by the "Deluxe" Insecticons.

Disassembly

"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:

• Marvel comics:
  • Bludgeon met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. Another Time & Place
  • A future version of Ultra Magnus may have been killed when a group of Decepticons mobbed him and ripped him up. Time Wars
• Movie continuity:
  • Being ripped in half by Megatron killed Jazz. Transformers
  • Ravage was killed when Bumblebee ripped his spine out, tearing him apart. Revenge of the Fallen
  • A Decepticon pilot was ripped to pieces by the Wreckers.
• IDW comic continuity: Pyro was torn apart and killed while making a final stand against a mass of generic Decepticons. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
• Prime cartoon:
  • When fighting Megatron's zombie army, Ratchet recommended dissection to Optimus to "cut" them down to size. How this is more effective then just blasting the living slag out of them is still up for debate. Darkness Rising, Part 4
  • Airachnid managed to offline Breakdown by tearing him limb from limb, leaving only a pile of mutilated body parts in her wake. Crossfire

Decapitation

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"CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!

• In the Marvel comics:
  • The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. Dry Run!
  • Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. Time Wars
  • Razorclaw had his head cut off by a propeller fired by Leadfoot, presumably (given the Generation 2 book's emphasis on body count) killing him. A Rage in Heaven!
• In the movie continuity:
  • Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: Bonecrusher, Transformers and Grindor. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Decapitation was an inconvenience for Frenzy the first time. The second time, when the blow actually destroyed most of his head, was fatal.
  • Soundwave, Laserbeak, Starscream, and Megatron are decapitated in the third movie. Que's and Ironhide's heads fell off when they died, possibly to add finality to their demises. Dark of the Moon
  • Scorponok's head was crushed by Jetfire's bare fist.
• IDW comic continuity:
  • The heads of Springarm and Wheelarch are removed and then mockingly put on display to creep out Orion Pax.

Bifurcation

Ahhhh, there we go...

{{#if:Tracks, "Make Tracks"|

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.

• Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, Grimlock slices Megatron in half, killing him. Victory!
• Japanese G1 cartoon: Predaking gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!
• Beast Wars Metals: Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!
• Movie continuity: Sideways dies when Sideswipe slices his car mode in two. Jetfire slices Mixmaster in half at the chest but Mixmaster survived this. Getting his skull stomped off, not so much. Revenge of the Fallen
• War For Cybertron: In the opening, a Decepticon goon was chopped in half by Optimus Prime.

Destruction of brain

{{#if:Death's Head, "Fire on High!"|

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their brain module, most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of sparks.

• In the Marvel comics:
  • In an alternate future, Shockwave is blasted by Death's Head, who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. The Legacy of Unicron!
  • The Throttlebots avoid death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). Toy Soldiers!
• Movie continuity:
  • Optimus prime kills Sentinel Prime by shooting Sentinel in the head with Megatron's shotgun. Dark of the Moon
• IDW Generation 1 continuity:
  • Impactor killed Snare by crushing his brain module. Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 4

Destruction of spark

{{#if:Depth Charge to Rampage, "Nemesis Part 1"|

And then he hung Skyfall from his ceiling.

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:

• In Beast Wars: The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. Nemesis Part 1
• TransTech: Skyfall died when Alpha Trion rammed his sword right through his chest. Transcendent: Part 6
• Energon: Constructicon Maximus was killed when Storm Jet impaled and crushed his spark.
• Cybertron: Galvatron died after being impaled with Rhisling by Optimus Prime. Unfinished
• Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died when Megatron stabbed him through the chest with his death-lock pincer, followed by a blast from his fusion cannon through the spark chamber. The Fallen also met his end when a resurrected Optimus punched through his chest and crushed his spark. Revenge of the Fallen
• Beast Machines continuity: Rhinox - already reduced to a spark within the matrix - ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. Singularity Ablyss
• Titan's Movie comics: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalized to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. Lost in Space 4: Jazz

Loss of spark

{{#if:Dinobot's internal computer, "Code of Hero"|

Lost, stolen, whatever...

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/AllSpark/another dimension.

• When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. Code of Hero
• Beast Machines subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead", due to the fact that the sparks were forcibly removed with a spark extractor.
• Animated cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. Endgame, Part II
• Movie continuity: Jetfire rips out his own spark chamber to give Optimus a fighting chance. The Fallen also meets the similar fate, Optimus punching through his spark chamber and crushing his spark. Ouch. Revenge of the Fallen

Energy overload

{{#if:Optimus Primal, "Beast Wars (Part 1)"|

Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.

He's got an Underbase in his underpants.

The average human needs a lot of water to survive. But too much water results in a horrible death. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.

• In the Marvel comics:
  • An Underbase-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, Dark Star which reportedly burned out millions of their microchips. Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner? Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs All the Familiar Faces! or through the power of nucleon. The Void! (US)
  • Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. Dark Star
  • Landmine was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the Matrix, though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. All Fall Down (issue)
• Super-God Masterforce cartoon: Sixknight died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z
• IDW G1 continuity: Runabout dies when one of the Reapers zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. Devastation issue 6
• Movie continuity: Megatron was killed when Sam Witwicky shoved the AllSpark into his chest. Transformers Evac did the same thing with the Allspark shard with Megatron Transformers: The Ride
• Transformers Animated cartoon: Optimus Prime got caught in an explosion of AllSpark energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

Energy depletion

On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.

• Marvel comics: the ancient Overlord died from a lack of energy. State Games
• Movie continuity: Jetfire explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy. Revenge of the Fallen
• Vector Prime dies after he helps the crew to time travel. Guardian

Suicide

Sometimes a Transformer kills himself for some reason.

• Marvel comics
  • Dirge and Nightbeat, rather than be eaten by the Swarm, self destructed.
• Beast Wars
  • Transformers can deliberately override the stasis lock protocols, even if this will result in death. Code of Hero
  • In the final battles, Depth Charge allowed himself to be blown up killing Rampage and Rampage let Depth Charge kill him Nemesis Part 1. Dinobot II let himself go down with the Nemesis. Nemesis Part 2
• Energon: Galvatron, Starscream, and Mirage threw themselves into a sun and vaporized themselves. Snow Cat and Demolishor may have also done this.
• Revenge of the Fallen: Jetfire ripped out his entire spark housing for Optimus Prime to have enough power to kill The Fallen.

Non-fatal deactivation

"You mean he's still alive?!"
"No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Spider-Man and Optimus Prime, "Prisoner of War!"|Spider-Man and Optimus Prime, "Prisoner of War!"{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave, The Last Stand who later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. Back from the Dead Gone but Not Forgotten! The Gathering Storm

"Stasis lock" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various Beast Wars characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. Animated showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

Impact trauma

Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:

• The crew of the original Ark is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 The Transformers (issue)
  • Dark of the Moon also has the Ark crash onto the moon and offline the crew.
• Marvel comics: Gears falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. Prisoner of War!

Decapitation

In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In Animated, it's just embarrassing.

{{#if:Landmine jokes about Cloudburst's near-death experience, "Recipe for Disaster!"|

“	Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!	”
{{#if:Landmine jokes about Cloudburst's near-death experience, "Recipe for Disaster!"| —Landmine jokes about Cloudburst's near-death experience, "Recipe for Disaster!"{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.

• Marvel comic:
  • Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. The New Order
  • Cloudburst was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. Recipe for Disaster!
• G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once Ratchet connected a few wires. City of Steel
• Beast Wars cartoon: Inferno survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times, Spider's Game Other Voices, Part 2 Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) Code of Hero and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidentally swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2) And let's not even get started on how many times Waspinator has lost his head.
• IDW G1 continuity: Runamuck was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) Devastation issue 6
• Animated cartoon: Decapitated victims of the Animated Headmaster rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. Headmaster The Return of the Headmaster A Bridge Too Close, Part II
• Movie Continuity: Frenzy survived his first decapitation by Mikaela Banes.

Dismemberment

Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:

• Marvel comic: Scorponok tears Tantrum to pieces. Blitzwing slices Horri-Bull in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. Cold War!
• Last Stand of the Wreckers: Guzzle is torn in half by Overlord and is easily repaired. The same also happened to Fortress Maximus.

Spark removal

{{#if:Rhinox, "Optimal Situation"|

A Transformer's spark—their "soul", their living essence—can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them

• The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. The Transformers: The Movie Starscream's Ghost Possession
• Beast Wars cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. Other Victories
• In the Beast Machines cartoon:
  • Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future
  • Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. Revelations Part III: Apocalypse
  • Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. Spark of Darkness

The treatment of bodiless sparks in Beast Machines is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by Beast Wars, particularly the quote above.

Limbo

Sometimes Transformers get shunted out of creation as we know it, and into various alternate, sub- and non-dimensions.

• Marvel comics:
  • The trans-time dimensional portal crosses unspace, "a bit of dimensional nothingness" where Ratchet and Megatron vanished and were believed dead. The Gathering Storm
  • Transformers mass-displaced by time travel wind up in a formless dimension known as Limbo.
• IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his spark core. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his trailer section, causing his robot mode to appear dead. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered limbo, the transitional infraspace between life and death. Escalation
• Generation 1 cartoon:
  • Come on, we all know what REALLY happened to the likes of Seaspray and Tracks.

Resuscitation

Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

Reconstruction

{{#if:A random Quintesson, "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"|

“	I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!	”
{{#if:A random Quintesson, "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"| —A random Quintesson, "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

• Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply repaired back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1
• Marvel comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new Powermaster body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) People Power!

Spark transfer

Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.

• Beast Wars cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)
• "Beast Machines" various Vehicon generals were brought to life by placing other Transformer's sparks into them.
• Armada Smokescreen was shot through the chest at point blank range by the Requiem Blaster Sacrifice but his spark survived and was put into a new body. Regeneration
• Energon cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies atomized; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot of all of this is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer, unless they do it themselves.) Go for Unicron! Farewell Inferno
• Animated cartoon: The spark of a dying Yoketron was placed into a new protoform body by Prowl; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. Five Servos of Doom

"Magical" substances

• Marvel comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. The Void!
• Energon cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. Megatron Resurrected

Primus and Primus-related powers

{{#if:Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "End of the Road!"|

“	Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!	”
{{#if:Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "End of the Road!"| —Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "End of the Road!"{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

• In the Marvel comics:
  • The Last Autobot was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. End of the Road! (US)
  • Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. Bird of Prey!
  • Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Swarm after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. A Rage in Heaven!
• In the movie continuity:
  • The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, Bumblebee temporarily gets his voice back, Transformers and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Sentinel Prime is revived after crash landing on the moon by the Matrix of Leadership courtesy of Optimus Prime. Dark of the Moon
• Sam Witwicky was brought back alive by the Primes, a creation of Primus.
• Beast Machines cartoon: Optimus Primal's body was destroyed, but the AllSpark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and poof, just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. Fallout
• Armada cartoon: Optimus Prime was brought back to life by the power of the Mini-Cons after his body was disintegrated. Miracle
• "Shattered Glass": Skyfall was resurrected when he and his gestaltmates were combined together and reborn by Primus into Nexus Prime. Reunification: Part 5 Nexus Prime then brought Megatron back from the other side of the Allspark and infused him with some of Primus's power to become Galvatron. Reunification: Part 6

Zombies

• Dude, zombies!

Immortality

Immortal sparks

Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.

• Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". Starscream's Ghost Possession Bad Spark
• Rampage was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. Bad Spark He was eventually killed by Depth Charge, so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. Nemesis Part 1

Other

• Multiversal singularities such as Unicron and The Fallen can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time dimensions, for example, are key to revival of the singularities).
• Animated Starscream could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
• Denizens of the Dead Universe could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them. This ability appears to no longer apply, post-Expansion, except when in direct proximity to the Dead Universe.
• Thunderwing's Pretender shell seemed to make him nearly invincible. At the very least, he was able to withstand incredible amounts of salvo and not even flinch.
• Waspinator can never completely die no matter what for some reason. It's probably because if he died, the universe wouldn't be able to inflict pain on him anymore.

Out-of-fiction causes of character death

Drama / character culmination

I told you I was ill.

At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.

• Scorponok spent much of Simon Furman's Marvel US run conflicted and doubting himself, and under the weight of his pre-Headmaster self's reputation. He finally got past this and took the fight to Unicron, dying in the process, his last words asking Optimus if he'd done good. On the Edge of Extinction!
• Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of Beast Wars began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot. Code of Hero
• Sunstreaker's death in All Hail Megatron is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
• Optimus Primal's death(s) in Beast Machines are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. End of the Line Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future His death in Beast Wars, by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos — knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him. Other Voices, Part 2
• Ironfist's death in Last Stand of the Wreckers is his main plot arc, quietly built up in the background since the first issue.

Consequences of war

His special large intestine! There's only one like it!

It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. Generics are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story. The results can range from high drama and pathos to numbingly pointless body counts.

• Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders. Target: 2006
• The Generation 2 book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up. Devices and Desires!
• Pretty much every death in Last Stand of the Wreckers comes under this.
• Cliffjumper, Tailgate, Skyquake and Makeshift are all killed in their first Prime episodes, due to just plain bad luck in the first three cases and because of a deliberate Autobot killing in Makeshift's. The Vehicons are presented as sentient and as being killed by Autobots in large numbers.

Increased threat

An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.

• The generic who dies at the beginning of "City of Fear!" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
• Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons ; On the Edge of Extinction! knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate. Still Life!
• In "Last Stand of the Wreckers", Overlord makes corpses in practically every scene he's in!
• Cliffjumper in Prime was set up as a main character and then killed in five minutes, immediately putting the Prime Decepticons forward as a major threat.

Cast thinning

Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel comics.

• In the Marvel comics:
  • The "Time Wars" storyline got rid of the Wreckers and quite a few Decepticons as well.
  • The Underbase Saga even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
  • The battle with Unicron in "On the Edge of Extinction!" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
• Wreckers #2 dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

Clear space for new toys

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(They also cease to appear on store shelves.)

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. Beast Wars and Beast Machines are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessitated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.

• The numerous casualties of "The Transformers: The Movie" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
• Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed — quickly — to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "Aftermath".
• Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via a new toy!

Fleshling death

In general, Transformers fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional children's storybook has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

Animal death

One dead dog

Two dead dogs

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:

• A little girl's pet puppy named Pis barked at Wilder and was kicked so hard he died. Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules
• The Murdered puppy was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8
• Jazz reminded Bumblebee that The Fallen once shot down a ship full of Antilian bumble-puppies. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)
• The dog-like Noble was shot at by Megatron because of his hatred for organics Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege and was later mourned by his "owner", Nightscream. Spark of Darkness
• A stray shot from Tigatron accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend Snowstalker. Law of the Jungle
• "Law of the Jungle" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.
• Terrorsaur also once ate an eagle, Power Surge while Tarantulas ate a cute little rat, Victory and nearly ate an antelope as well. Code of Hero
• In order to save Blackarachnia, Silverbolt had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff, killing it. Bad Spark
• Elita-1 used Sentinel's shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used Optimus' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. Along Came a Spider
• Human villain Trophy White had a grisly display of stuffed and mounted animal heads. Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime
• A vulture was shot when Laserbeak landed on Africa.

Human death

This didn't happen much.

• Marvel US: The original Marvel book ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from US #37, shows a very unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was Galen, killed off to make way for Spike. Generation 2 was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later Jhiaxus attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
• Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
• In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially never die. Even Transformers Animated, which features the city of Detroit getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
  • In Transformers: Prime, when human terrorists are featured they will often die. Piloted or driven vehicles explode and enemies are implied to be crushed.
  • A human was shown slumped against a wall, a victim of Soundwave, though it wasn't clear whether he was dead or merely unconscious.
  • When Nemesis Prime attacks the base. It is shown that he has probably killed soldiers.
• Contemporary toyline-based comics (Armada, Energon) seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death — even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "Multiplicity, Pt. 2".
• Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or dog deaths, for that matter).
• The Dreamwave G1 comics really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
• IDW comics managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then All Hail Megatron came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
• The live-action movie continuity implies a great deal of human death. Revenge mentions a body count of over 9,000 (don't even think about it), and massive damage is done during the battle of Mission City, though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably Donnelly. Then of course we get to Dark of the Moon, which has Decepticons laying siege to Chicago, killing most of its citizens, including several being shot and exploding and disintegrating into just skulls directly in front of the camera. Then of course we get to Laserbeak, whose job it is to assassinate civilians, even if it means befriending their children to do it. Twisted.
  • Dylan Gould was killed when he was shoved into Sentinel Prime's space bridge generator, but given he was a villain it's not so much of a concern.
  • Sam Witwicky was killed by Megatron but brought back to life by the Primes.
• The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly insinuating human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in issue 10, where NATO is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the Palais Bourbon is blown up when people are still clearly inside. Sam Witwicky, meanwhile, was stated to have died.

They'll, uh, be okay, maybe.

• Titan quite blatantly stated that the Free Men had caused great loss of life at an air base, a rare example of humans killing humans. In the same story, Robert Epps opened fire on militia men, which kinda implies he was killing them. Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime Similarly, Wheelie of all people was seen zapping humans at close range during a Decepticon attack; with no "oh it was a stun beam" handwave and the 'Cons not pulling punches, it sure seems like he's murdered 'em! Outlaw Blues
• In Kiss Players, several Kiss Players were seen being devoured by Legions.

Characters who die a lot

• Optimus Prime
• Dirge (G1) — the unlucky guy who gets killed off in many continuities
• 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. But he never actually dies.
  • Other Beast Wars characters who died more than once include Optimus Primal and Tarantulas. Both would eventually come back to life for the Universe war.
• 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.
• Starscream (Animated) — the unlucky guy that constantly gets killed, decapitated, or maimed by others, only to be brought back to life, thanks to a fragment of the AllSpark embedded in his forehead.

See also

• Transformer funerary practices
• To sell toys