Relatives

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"You, Artist! Make me shinier!"

Throughout the Transformers multiverse are many Transformers who consider themselves family and refer to each other as such. The most common case is when two Transformers regard each other as siblings. Transformers even occasionally express familial relationships with non-Transformers.

Given that Transformers are not organic life and likely do not reproduce sexually, the origin, distinction, and exact meaning of many of these terms is frequently unclear.

Notably, a lot of Japanese-originated continuities have significant amounts of sibling relationships.

Possible explanations

Early on in the letters page of the Marvel Transformers comic, Soundwave asserted that Transformers have no relatives.<ref>Soundwaves, issue 32</ref> He later clarified that Transformer "brothers" are considered such due to being "vastly similar" in some respect, being "built to exactly the same specifications",<ref>Soundwaves, issue 37</ref> and/or having "an almost total similarity in bodywork design."<ref>Soundwaves, issue 51</ref>

The Dreamwave More Than Meets The Eye guide provides a partial possible answer. According to the guide, when a spark naturally splits as it's being introduced to a protoform, it creates two robots who are "brothers", (or twins), such as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. When such a spark division is artificially induced, the less balanced and self-reliant pair created are referred to as "clones". (This definition of "brother" may or may not apply to RID Prime and Magnus, whose brotherhood was said to result from the special circumstance of having been created simultaneously by Alpha Trion).

However, the "Beast Era" widened the issue of reproduction with Rattrap referring to his "great-aunt" Arcee and in general the practice of Maximals and Predacons referring to the Autobots and Decepticons as their respective "ancestors", as well as themselves as being their "descendants", implying a direct genetic (for want of a better term) lineage. Various sources of debatable canonicity suggest that Optimus Primal is specifically descended from Optimus Prime, usually through the phrase "his ancestor Optimus Prime". In the absence of sexual reproduction, the use and meaning of these genealogical references is difficult to explain. One possible explanation might be a situation such as when Airazor is brought to life. Her spark and protoform are heavily damaged, and Cheetor allows some of his parts to be used as replacements while Rhinox guides the procedure. The Spark To compare to human procedures, this is something like assisting with childbirth and donating blood or organs. It seems unlikely that this happened enough to cause two large societies to consider themselves "descendants" of two other large ancient societies.

Other family designations exist as well. Wheelie has "parents" who were lost in his crash on Quintessa, according to some background material. The Mini-Con Twirl very specifically calls Falcia her "mother" (which Falcia hates) and seems to treat Redline like a father, since the two's spark frame energies went into constructing her physical form. Linkage Part 7 In the Armada cartoon, Side Swipe refers to Hot Shot as his brother after Hot Shot saves his life, suggesting at least an understanding of the concept; on the other hand, the Armada cartoon is originally Japanese, and in Japan, 'brother' and 'sister' can be used as terms of affection or respect to an unrelated person. The Unicron Trilogy universe has also used the term "cousin" for certain Transformers on occasion. The Victory manga from the Japanese Generation 1 era features Decepticon wives and children. Even the live-action movie features an Optimus and Megatron who are brothers, and it is mentioned in the related Nintendo DS game that Megatron "took the spark" of their father.

The case of Hydra and Buster from Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity is rare as they were originally human siblings before being converted into Transformers by Devil Z. Battle to the Death!! God Ginrai VS Darkwings RebornThe Birth of the Super Life-Forms Similar things happen to the case of Primus and Unicron, who were originally astral being before they got trapped in planetoids and converted their "vessels" into planet-size Transformers. Transformers: The Ultimate Guide

In the Dreamwave Generation One continuity, Getaway remarks that his proto-hatcher would have been proud of him for making the most wanted list. The Age of Wrath #2

The 2005 IDW continuity has Ratchet mentioning that his "batch proto-initiator told me there'd be moments like this...", when he was wondering if he should take the humans and investigate the bunker in Nebraska. Infiltration #3 Later, Minimus Ambus described Dominus Ambus as his "spark-brother" and confirmed that they were members of the House of Ambus. House of Ambus

In Transformers Animated, Ironhide mentions that Brawn is "his brother from another batch proto-initiator..." Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II

Notable siblings

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Generation 1 / Beast Era

Can you guess which is which?
Japanese continuity

Car Robots / Robots in Disguise

Unicron Trilogy

Go-Bots

Live-action film series

Twins

Transformers Animated

Shattered Glass

Prime

EarthSpark

Parents and children

Generation 1 / Beast Era

"Stampy, eat your roast carrot before it gets chilled."
  • Optimus Prime may have a mother.<ref>
    Dear Son: Don't forget to close the fridge door.

In an advertisement for Pepsi Convoy that shows him in a refrigerator (along with Destron Pizza), a note attached to a nearby piece of tupperware reads:

Dear Convoy
Warm it before you eat
Mom
Although the ad itself is for Pepsi Convoy, he is a separate character, and it can be assumed that the note was left for Convoy/Optimus Prime himself.</ref>
Creators as parents

Unicron Trilogy

  • Sideways calls out his mother when he's about to be blasted. City
  • Starscream calls out his mother right before being pummeled into a planet by a moon wielding Primus. Titans

Live-action film series

Transformers Animated

  • In the Japanese dub of the Animated cartoon, Bulkhead frequently calls for his mother when he's in distress.

Aligned

Cousins

Shattered Glass

Beast Era

Unicron Trilogy

Aligned

Other relatives

G1/Beast era

2001 Robots in Disguise

Animated

Revenge of the Fallen

  • The original Primes had descendants, including Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime.<ref name="ROTFadapt"/>

Prime

Ask Vector Prime

  • Vector Prime considered Adaptus and Mortilus to be "uncles", although owing to the complex origins of the Thirteen he was most likely speaking metaphorically.

Aligned

See also

Footnote

<references />
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