Death

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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!"Spider-Man, Sparkplug Witwicky, and Optimus Prime, "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

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.
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 G1 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 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


Big explosions

“ They're going to blow us all to pieces! Guardian's booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain! ”

—Prowl, "The Wrath of Grimlock!"

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! Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions:

  • 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!
    • Finback was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. On the Edge of Extinction!
  • 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

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:

Crushing

DO NOT WANT
Before time began, there was... THE CUBE.

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:

  • Animated cartoon: Blurr is (possibly) killed by a garbage compactor-like crushing device. (An "out" by writer Derrik Wyatt was intended to show his still-pulsing spark within his cubified remains, but this did not make it into the show, leaving his fate ambiguous at best.) TransWarped

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 Marvel comics:
    • Victims of the Deception smelting pools on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including Scrounge. The Smelting Pool!
    • Scorponok was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. On the Edge of Extinction!
    • The Cybertronian Empire 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

“ I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre! ”

—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:

  • 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. [[|]] 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. This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! The Sun


Consumption

“ ...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna eat us! Right? ”

—Longtooth, "Deadly Obsession"

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

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

  • 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
  • In the Marvel comic:
    • The Mechanibals ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on Cybertron. There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. [[|]]
    • Unicron skewered Brainstorm and ate him. On the Edge of Extinction! Quite a few other Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. The Transformers: The Movie
    • The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronian troopers 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 hem apart. Or both. We don't really know. Betrayal


Disassembly

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 and Place
  • Movie continuity: Being ripped in half killed Jazz. Transformers (2007)


Decapitation

Main article: Decapitation

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


Vivisection

“ I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi. ”

—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.

Destruction of brain

“ Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on all Transformers... ”

—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 Throttlebots avoid death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing).


Destruction of spark

“ RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark! ”

—Depth Charge to Rampage, "Nemesis Part 1"

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
  • Timelines: Skyfall died when Alpha Trion rammed his sword right through his chest. Transcendent: Part 6
  • Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died from a stab wound through the chest. Revenge of the Fallen
  • In Beast Machines continuity: Rhinox -- already reduced to a spark within the matrix -- ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. Singularity Ablyss


Loss of spark

“ Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock must commence. ”

—Dinobot's internal computer, "Code of Hero"

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot.

  • 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".
  • Prowl dies when his spark leaves his body. Endgame, Part II or something


Energy overload

“ We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing. ”

—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...

  • In the Marvel comics:
    • An Underbase-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, which reportedly burned out millions of their microchips. Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs or through the power of nucleon.
    • Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase.
    • 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.
  • Japanese cartoon: Sixknight died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power.
  • Movie continuity: Megatron was killed when Sam Witwicky shoved the All Spark into his chest.
  • Animated cartoon: Optimus Prime got caught in an explosion of All Spark 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.

Non-fatal deactivation

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 are 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:

Decapitation

In the Marvel comics, this would've been fatal. In Animated, it's just embarrassing.
“ Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me! ”

—Landmine jokes about Cloudburst's near-death experience, "Recipe for Disaster!"

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

Dismemberment

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

  • Marvel comic: Scorponok tears Tantrum to pieces. Blitzwing slices Horrible in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. Cold War!

Spark removal

“ His spark can't exist outside a living body! ”

—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.
  • In the Beast Machines cartoon:

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.

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

I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!A random Quintesson, "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"
  • 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)
  • Energon cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies atomized; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer.) Go for Unicron! Farewell Inferno
  • Animated cartoon: The spark of a dying Yokitron was placed into a new protoform body by Prowl; however, Yokitron 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! (US)
  • Energon cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. Megatron Resurrected


Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "End of the Road!"

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, Transformers (2007) and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. Revenge of the Fallen (film)
    • Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman.
  • Beast Machines cartoon: Optimus Primal's body was destroyed, but the All Spark 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


Zombies

Immortality

Immortal sparks

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

  • Starscream
  • Rampage, created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. He was eventually killed by Depth Charge, so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful.

Other

  • Multiversal singuarities 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).
  • 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.

Out-of-fiction causes of character death

Drama / character culmination

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

  • 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.
  • 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. 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.

Consequences of war

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.

  • 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.
  • 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.

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; knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate.

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:

  • The Transformers: The Movie
  • Time Wars
  • The Underbase Saga
  • The battle with Unicron
  • Wreckers #2

Clear space for new toys

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 necessiated 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 TF:TM
  • Terrorsaur and Scorponok
  • Airazor and Tigatron
  • Dinobot


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.
  • 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.

See also

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