Death/Archive
Unusual for something that started as a children's toy and 80's cartoon, death of important characters is a prominent feature in Transformers. The reasons for it vary from plot development to the arrival of new toys. However, the fact that the majority of characters are machines means that death isn't automatically an absolute in the various Transformers universes - various characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again in a later issue (only to be killed again).
Generation 1
Marvel Comics
The first time the concept of death was addressed in Transformers is when Gears appeared to fall to his death while he and Spider-Man were rescuing Sparkplug Witwicky. The Autobots coldly gathered up Gears' parts, which creeped out Spidey and Sparkplug, who were expecting some show of sadness for the Autobots' fallen comrade. Gears was rebuilt and back in tip-top shape without a problem. Prisoner of War! This easy cheating of death would be seen again in the storyline that followed, where Shockwave would viciously injure all Autobots bar Ratchet, only for them to be up and running later on (bar Sunstreaker).
The first confirmed human deaths were in Marvel UK's #45, where Professor Morris used a brainwashed Swoop to murder a security guard. The Icarus Theory
Outright Transformer death would first 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!
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.
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 preceding 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 grandoise of slaughters, the Underbase Saga, where a super powered Starscream destroyed/deactivated dozens of Transformers, Autobot and Decepticon alike. Conviniently, 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!
Transformers: The Movie
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 even getting a chance to say anything or even be named.
Generation 1 cartoon Season 3
In this continuity, dead Transformers can still exist as ghosts. These ghosts are capable of possessing the forms of living Transformers.Starscream's Ghost
Japanese animated continuity
Transformers that have been severely damaged can be rebuilt into new forms, as happened with Soundwave/Soundblaster and Ginrai/Victory Leo.
At the same time, supernatural forces irreputably exist in this universe and are capable of reversing the process of death. Optimus Prime died a second time A Dream is Born, Double Prime but is 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 resurrected many Decepticons to serve as 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 extreme & 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
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 & Red Alert. 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.
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
Beast Wars, being a CGI cartoon, could not afford to have too many characters in the show at any one time - one 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 arbitraty 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
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 occured was not explained; based on the visual of him turning into the original Dinobot & back again when Rampage was destroyed,Nemesis Part 2 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.
IDW Comics
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 characterisation. 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
The premise of the series 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
Optimus Primal would be outright killed, but would come back to life again after communing with the Allspark. Fallout He then properly died later on.
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.
Universe
The Botcon Universe 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 Prime once died, hit by Megatron's Hydra Cannon and crumbling to dust. Crisis Through the power of the Matrix, he was resurrected by the Mini-Cons shortly afterwards. Miracle
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 - and came back again for the next cartoon! The Sun
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. In the original Japanese version of Energon, Scorponok was born from the Spark of a dead Decepticon; in the dub, he was made from the Grand Chamberlain of Alpha Q's homeworld Scorponok would go on to be killed but in both the fan club comics and 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 occured in other canons, where death and rebirth rarely seems to cause any real problems for anyone.
Transformers (2007)
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.
Animated
Severe physical damage does not kill Transformers - Megatron survived despite being reduced to a severed head, while Lugnut and Blitzwing remained conscious despite being in bits Lost and Found and the dismembered Soundwave has been hinted to still function. Sound and Fury
Transformer death is, however, possible - a combination of physical damage and Allspark energy outright killed Optimus Prime. He was resurrected immediately afterwards by Sari Sumdac's Key, which contained Allspark energy.
See also
- Transformer funerary practices
- 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.
- To sell toys
