Relatives

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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.

Possible explanations

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 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 issue 3

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

Notable siblings

See also: Twin

Generation 1 / Beast Era

Japanese continuity

Car Robots / Robots in Disguise

Unicron Trilogy

Live-action film series

Twins

Transformers Animated

Shattered Glass

Parents and children

Generation 1 / Beast Era

Stampy, eat your roast carrot before it gets chilled.
Dear Son: Don't forget to close the fridge door.
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>
  • Stampy's parents are mentioned.
  • Longrack's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-...well, a LOT of his ancestors are mentioned. A Battle Fought Alone<ref>Most of the main Maximals in the Beast Wars Neo manga have families because they spring from whole races of rabbits, cobras, giraffes, etc. They were evolved into Transformers from actual organic animals in this story.</ref>
Creators as parents

Car Robots / Robots in Disguise

Unicron Trilogy

  • Sideways has a mother.<ref>Sideways calls out his mother when he's about to be blasted. City</ref>

Live-action film series

  • As was mentioned above, the live-action movie Optimus and Megatron had a father, whom Megatron presumably killed.

Transformers Animated

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


Cousins

Shattered Glass

Beast Era

Unicron Trilogy

Other relatives

G1/Beast era

  • Tantrum and his descendant.<ref name="pred_dofp" />
  • Headstrong and his descendant.<ref name="pred_dofp" />
  • Rattrap calls Arcee his "great-aunt".<ref>Rattrap said "What in the name of my great-aunt Arcee is going on!?" This is an in-joke referring to Susan Blu, who was not only voice director on Beast Wars, but the voice of Arcee in the Generation 1 cartoon series and Transmutate in the Beast Wars cartoon. Transmutate</ref>

Robots in Disguise

Animated

Revenge of the Fallen

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

See also

Footnote

<references />

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