Star system

This article is about the generic term. For the actual Solar-related system, see Solar System.

To get to "another galaxy", you've got to go past a few hundred billion of these.

A solar system (more properly, star system or stellar system) is a grouping of one or more stars, commonly orbited by one or more planets and various other cosmic detritus.

Transformers typically travel to different star systems in the course of their adventures. As star systems are generally several light years apart, this requires some sort of faster-than-light propulsion, or an instantaneous gateway system of some kind, such as a space bridge.

Fiction

Notable solar systems in Transformers fiction include:

• The Solar System, dominated by the Sun, appears in almost every Transformers story. Its known orbital bodies include:
  • Mercury
  • Venus
  • Earth, and its moon, the cunningly named "The Moon".
  • Mars
  • Various asteroids, including Ceres (technically a dwarf planet), Juno, and Pallas
  • Jupiter, and its moon Io
  • Saturn, and its moon Titan
  • Uranus and Neptune
  • Pluto

Marvel Comics

• The Alpha Centauri system was the home system of Cybertron, before it was knocked out of orbit.
• The Rigel system, including the planet Rigel III.
• An unnamed system where the Matrix Quest took place, home to the following planets:
  • Cheyne
  • Pz-Zazz
  • Pequod
  • Cameron, and its barren moon VsQs

Beast Wars cartoon

• An unnamed system containing the planet Cybertron. Cybertron's irregular orbit, seen in "The Agenda (Part 1)", indicates that it may have been moved into this solar system artificially.

IDW Comics

• The Lambda Scorpii system, also home to the planet Cybertron.
• The Kol system, home to the planet Varas Centralus.
• The Eigerson-48 system, home to the planet Mumu-Obscura.

Transformers (2007)

• The Charii system

Those poor, confused writers

A star system should not be confused with a galaxy, which is a massive grouping of millions of star systems. A single galaxy is unfathomably huge, with our own Milky Way Galaxy containing several hundred billion stars. The distances between galaxies are several orders of magnitude greater than the distances between the star systems they contain.

Unfortunately, in Transformers fiction, "galaxy" is frequently used in places where "star system" makes a lot more sense, or at least is not as jarring. Given that all interstellar travel is based on fictional technologies, it's not inconceivable that characters might actually come from or travel to other galaxies. But the notion seems an unnecessary complication at best (a single galaxy is a more-than-ample playground for fictional adventures) and often outright contradicts information given elsewhere. Cartoon animation, for example, almost never supports the idea that characters actually leave the Milky Way galaxy.

Notable examples of galaxy/solar system confusion include:

• Countdown's bio, which says his rocket base can use gravity to "slingshot across entire galaxies in seconds".

• "The Test", wherein Galvatron is delighted to find energon "just inside our galaxy", as if that meant it was nearby.

• "Primal Fear!", in which the Decepticon Warworld is said to be operating in "another galaxy".

• The Energon episode "The Return of Demolishor" features Kicker narrating, "We warped into another galaxy on the outer reaches of the solar system." The dialogue is less confused in the original Superlink version, and may be more of a dubbing artifact than pure authorial error ("from the outer reaches of the solar system", or switching the two terms around, would both make a lot more sense.)

• Prime Directives issue 2, as Megatron describes searching "countless solar spans, through myriad galaxies, nebulae and systems".

• Transformers: Beginnings: In a voiceover monologue not taken from the comic version, Bumblebee announces his arrival in the Milky Way galaxy, despite Optimus Prime's opening narration for the movie, where he stated that the Autobots "scattered across the galaxy", thus implying that Cybertron is located within the Milky Way galaxy.

• The Reign of Starscream issue 1: Despite Optimus Prime's aforementioned opening narration for the movie, Starscream claims in this issue that the All Spark's journey ends "galaxies away" when it arrives on Earth. (Issue 5 later corrects this.)

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, revolving at nine hundred miles an hour...

Remarkably, the Generation 1 cartoon series seems to portray Cybertron consistently as being originally located outside our galaxy. The episode "Roll For It" shows Cybertron outside of a spiral galaxy (though it is also shown against a field of stars, instead of the empty black void that should be there if it's located in inter-galactic space). The episode later shows a rather confusing visual of the space bridge energy beam emanating from an empty point in space alongside a galaxy, but not going into the galaxy. Later, in "The Ultimate Doom", Optimus Prime comments that the pylons of the Decepticons' Cybertron-centered space bridge "form a pyramid, with the apex beyond this galaxy."

Galaxy ≠ Universe

On more rare occasions, "universe" is used in place of "galaxy" or even "solar system", to even more ridiculous effect. Since the universe includes millions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, the following usages of "universe" seem painfully misworded:

• In "Changing Gears", it's stated that the exploding Sun could destroy the universe. Suns have exploded on a pretty regular basis for billions of years, and so far, the universe is still ticking away.

• In "The Return of Demolishor", Optimus Prime says that by using the energon grid, they "run the risk of destroying the entire universe". Though the characters are in a new, fledgling universe where this might make some slight amount of sense, the line is in fact a dubbing error.

• Various Decepticons have made the claim that they plan to rule not merely the galaxy but rather the universe, such as Starscream in "The Revenge of Bruticus" — "I will rule the universe, even if I am the only one left in the universe!" That's a lot of conquering to do there, buddy!