Death

And lo, the children did weep. They wept hard too.

Transformers is a children's franchise, but most works of Transformers fiction are stories of war. This means that the death of major and minor characters often 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, 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.

Hasbro and death

They also cease to appear on store shelves.

When the Transformers franchise debuted in 1984, Hasbro saw the show's enormous cast of characters as interchangeable product to be advertised and discarded in favor of the next toy. This cynical approach to marketing meant that characters were constantly rotated in and out to accommodate Hasbro's marketing wishes; as Transformers was first and foremost a war story, death or deactivation became a convenient "out" to remove those characters whose toys had left store shelves in favor of new product. The more serialized Marvel comic and its UK imprint would also feature original characters like Scrounge, Subsea, Impactor, and Chuffer, toyless characters whose sole purpose was to raise the stakes by dying to the villain of the month—it must be said, however, that many of these characters would themselves garner substantial fan followings over the following decades!

Over the course of their seven year run, the Marvel comics featured three distinct "massacre" storylines that removed multiple irrelevant characters from the comics: the UK comic's "Time Wars" storyline features the deaths of multiple Autobots and Decepticons, while the notorious "Underbase Saga" sees a cosmically-empowered Starscream indiscriminately obliterate a combined Autobot-Decepticon alliance, conveniently removing pretty much every character who wasn't a Headmaster, Powermaster, Targetmaster, or Pretender from the story. As is the way of such things, many of those characters would then fall to Unicron in 1990's "On the Edge of Extinction!", clearing the way for a new storyline involving the brand new Action Master gimmick.

The most infamous massacre of all, however, would be The Transformers: The Movie's decision to sideline vast swathes of the concurrent cartoon's cast. Within the first half hour of the film's runtime, many characters who'd starred in the show's first two seasons suffer abrupt, violent deaths, sometimes not even on camera: notable casualties include Prowl, Brawn, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Ratchet, and, most notoriously of all, Optimus Prime himself. Having cleared the proverbial deck, the film then pivots to follow multiple new characters with new toys to sell. In what could be called a microcosm of Hasbro's cynical approach to marketing, Ultra Magnus is ambushed, blasted and subsequently ripped to pieces by Galvatron and the other Decepticons... but because he's a new character with a new toy to sell, the Autobots and some friendly Junkions repair him a few minutes later, and he returns to life none the worse for wear. Ultimately, however, Hasbro underestimated Optimus's pull: the decision to kill him off sparked a massive letter-writing campaign from young fans; Hasbro eventually backtracked, and the season three episode "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1" ended with Optimus's resurrection. However, the fiasco had taught Hasbro a valuable lesson: their target audience saw these characters as more than just interchangeable merchandise, and this, in turn, would lead to a much tighter approach to how Hasbro would advertise its characters going forward.

When the Transformers property returned to the airwaves in 1996, the decision to use computer-generated imagery restricted Beast Wars to a limited pool of characters, and the introduction of "new product" meant permanently eliminating other cast members. To this end, Terrorsaur and Scorponok unceremoniously plunged into lava in the second season premiere to make room for the arrival of Silverbolt and Quickstrike; not long afterwards, Optimus Primal returned to life in a new body a mere three episodes after meeting his end in the first season finale. Anticipating that someone on the main cast would have to be swapped out for new product, the producers of the show had enough time to craft a meaningful farewell arc to Dinobot, a long-time series mainstay; his final episode, "Code of Hero", is widely hailed as one of the best Transformers episodes of all time.

After this point, most mainline Transformers television shows put less of an emphasis on death, and largely reserved it for various background generics, the occasional villain, or one-off characters like Prime Cliffjumper or Cyberverse Blurr who perished in their debut episodes. When one of the good guys did die, they were more often than not returned to life after an episode or two—in really extreme cases, they might even return to life less than five minutes after biting the dust. Part of this comes down to Hasbro's comparatively cautious approach to contemporary brand management: after what happened last time, does anyone really think they'd permanently kill Optimus again? That said, many of these rules go out the window when it comes to series finales: as writers and showrunners strike the proverbial sets and tie up their stories without any real Hasbro input, basically anyone can die, including series mainstays. The final Animated episode ends with Prowl giving up his own Spark to complete the AllSpark, the Cyberverse finale features the death of on-again-off-again protagonist Soundwave, while the Prime movie Predacons Rising ends with Optimus Prime sacrificing himself to reignite the Well of All Sparks... although he returns to life in the sequel series.

All this said, death remains a fixture in older-skewing works of Transformers fiction. The live-action films take a relatively cavalier approach to the concept, as do the comics published by Dreamwave Productions and IDW Publishing. With no fixed cast to build the series around, nor any specific toylines to advertise, creators have the freedom to kill off as many characters as they want: indeed, plenty of works positively revel in the opportunity to depict violent, over-the-top gorefests where dozens of characters meet their ends, and a few stories like Regeneration One and Last Bot Standing have stretched the concept to its ultimate endpoint by depicting the final extinction of the Cybertronian race. That said, Hasbro still has some say over who lives and who dies—while writing the first issue of IDW's 2009 Transformers ongoing, for instance, Hasbro vetoed author Mike Costa's suggestion to kill off Bumblebee, the most shocking death he could think of, and Ironhide ultimately wound up taking his place.^[1] Of course, these attitudes can change with time and circumstance, as evidenced by Hasbro having no qualms with Daniel Warren Johnson killing off Bumblebee in the very first issue of the Energon Universe Transformers series. ^[2]

Death in fiction

Originally, the Marvel Transformers comic took a relatively cavalier approach to death: characters could be smashed, blasted to bits, or fatally zapped with cosmic energy, but, so long as their bodies remained relatively intact a sufficiently skilled mechanic with enough time and resources could restore them to full functionality. It was the Beast Wars cartoon that first introduced the concept of the spark to the Transformers canon: with the insertion of a physical, tangible "life force" came the implicit assertion that the destruction of a Spark equals death, and that Cybertronians could permanently die; as explained in "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)", deceased Sparks return to a mysterious "Matrix", a metaphysical realm beyond space and time where "all are one".

When a Transformer dies, the loss of their life force (or artistic convention, out here in the real world) often results in them turning gray. The most well-known example by far is Optimus Prime's death in the animated movie; Prowl can also be glimpsed turning gray as he falls during the shuttle assault. This idea has shown up in a few other places, such as the Animated cartoon and the More Than Meets the Eye comics, the latter of which coined the term "aggressive depigmentation" to describe the phenomenon.

Common causes of death

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer—sometimes it take a single, well-placed shot, while in other stories the total annihilation of a Transformer's physical body still won't do the trick. Across the multiverse, different Transformers have survived being blasted, roasted, melted, disintegrated, and even eaten; even the very concept of destroying a spark varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series. Many modern works of Transformers fiction have explained or implied that Cybertronians are extremely difficult to kill: their durable mechanical bodies and extraterrestrial construction allows them to survive attacks that would kill or incapacitate lesser beings.

Below are some of the most common causes of death that have befallen unfortunate Cybertronians across the Transformers mythos. This is not an exhaustive list-the Transformers franchise is too large to try to catalogue every single fatality, and a creative writer can come up with dozens of bizarre ways to kill off their characters. Furthermore, just how durable Cybertronians are vary greatly across different dimensions; what is immediately fatal in one story is but a minor inconvenience in another.

Weaponsfire

Most Transformers stories feature at least some degree of conflict between different groups of Cybertronians, who often resolve these interpersonal problems by repeatedly shooting at each other. Transformer weapons can be kinetic, energy-based, or even chemical in nature; in different Transformers stories, all three forms of weaponry have killed characters, even though the actual damage threshold of the average Cybertronian can be frustratingly inconsistent.

Sometimes, it takes a hail of bullets to take a sufficiently motivated Cybertronian out of commission; in other stories, a single shot aimed at a specific weak point, such as the spark core or the brain module, can permanently kill a Transformer. Sometimes, Cybertronians are even vulnerable to human firearms; notably, in the first live-action film and its ancillary media, it's specifically noted that the film's Cybertronian characters are vulnerable to the United States military's high-heat sabot rounds, as the 6,000 degree magnesium burn can easily punch through their regenerative living metal.^[3]

Explosions

Dirge learns the hard way not to overdo the propane at his Fourth of July cookout.

Cybertronians are durable. How durable generally depends on both the universe and the needs of the story, but multiple stories have revealed or implied that Cybertronians can survive the low-yield explosions released by conventional armaments. However, Cybertronian warfare is anything but conventional, and as a result various Cybertronians have found themselves at ground zero of explosions they can't so readily withstand—across the multiverse, these have included high-powered missiles, exotic materials like energon crystals, unusual forms of energy like transwarp, exploding starships, and the extreme heat and pressure released by nuclear weapons. In some cases, a weapon might overload the spark or ignite the Transformer's internal energon supplies, and the resultant explosion may very well blow the unlucky Transformer apart from within.

Compared to most other forms of death, explosions are comparatively quick and can obscure what would otherwise be a graphic death scene. On top of this, a single explosion can quickly remove many characters from a story, making them a perennially popular choice for the discerning Transformers author who needs to quickly clear the deck. Additionally, the messy, imprecise nature of explosions makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death, or for a later creator to retcon their survival.

Head trauma

In the early days of the Transformers franchise, most prominently in the Marvel comic, a Transformer's life force was synonymous with the brain module, and destroying this module would kill the Transformer. With the rise of the Beast Wars television show, this premise was eventually modified to incorporate the more esoteric mythology surrounding sparks, but the concept of killing a Transformer by destroying or removing their head remains a ever-popular means of killing characters in older-skewing works of Transformers fiction.

Different works of fiction have offered varying interpretations on whether or not one can safely remove a Transformer's head. In some works of fiction, notably some Marvel-era stories and the Animated cartoon, characters can survive as severed heads; in others, removing one's head is immediately fatal. In the letters page to issue #202, Dreadwind addresses this discrepancy by noting that the Cybertronians of his reality can voluntarily detach their heads, but merely yanking it off without safely deactivating the relevant neural connections is usually fatal.^[4] Most other works of Transformer fiction generally agree that, even if a the character can survive as a severed head, attacking the brain module itself—be it a shot through the head or the outright destruction of the relevant hardware—will kill, or at the very least severely injure, a Transformer. In the universe of the live-action Transformers film, this appears to be the definitive way of killing one's foe.

Bodily harm

Much like a human body, Transformer physiology can be viewed as an elaborate life support system that protects a few critical failure points—if their physical form is compromised, then the risk of death dramatically increases. Transformers can endure truly harrowing amounts of physical trauma, shrug off the loss of their limbs, and piece themselves back together from all but the most debilitating injuries, but most Cybertronians do have an upper limit on just how badly their bodies can be damaged before vital systems fail. In some instances, the impact trauma incurred by plummeting from a great height can do the trick: more than one unwary Cybertronian has met their end by plummeting off a high structure or suffering critical damage while in an airborne alternate mode before dashing themselves to pieces upon hitting the ground.

Other Cybertronians have been crushed to death—although their metallic armor can withstand a certain amount of excess pounds per square inch, few Cybertronians can survive being trampled by towering combiners or planet-sized monsters like Unicron. Ripping a Transformer to pieces or deliberately removing vital parts such as the spark core can prove fatal: Cybertronians can survive losing extremities and even entire limbs, but not even they can survive wholesale damage. One alarmingly common way of putting a Transformer down for good is to simply rip them in half. While many Cybertronians can withstand a horizontal bisection that severs their torso from their legs, no Transformer can survive a vertical cut that destroys multiple vital components in one clean motion. Their robotic natures, combined with the inherent dehumanization of watching brightly colored space robots fight it out, mean that Transformers stories can feature a comparatively high level of violence and physical peril than other shows aimed at the same age group. That said, this kind of violence is usually beyond the pale for even the edgiest of kid's shows, so these kinds of actions are generally reserved for more adult-focused Transformers media; cartoons might imply a fatal dissection or dismemberment, but the actual deed is rarely shown on-screen.

Destruction of spark

Transformer bodies can withstand a staggering amount of punishment, and sometimes even the complete destruction of their physical body won't keep them down forever: if their spark still exists, it can, depending on the universe, be transplanted into a fresh protoform and effectively return the Cybertronian in question to life. To put down a Transformer for good, one must directly attack and extinguish their spark. Although Cybertronians usually protect their spark underneath layers of armor and a specially shielded spark core, any weapon that penetrates these protective measures and damages the spark itself will almost always prove fatal. Using technologies such as spark extractors, a spark can be safely removed from the body without causing any physical injuries: while this does not strictly "kill" the Transformer in question, the body becomes an inanimate "shell" until the spark is placed in a suitable receptacle.

Some works of fiction have revealed or implied that a spark can survive outside of a body, possibly even indefinitely; in other universes, this is decidedly not the case, and any spark removed from its housing will gradually dissipate into nothingness as it returns to the afterlife. Under very rare circumstances, a Transformer may even choose to voluntarily relinquish their spark: whether through employing spiritual techniques, using technologies such as spark extractors, or simply reaching into their chest and ripping their spark free from their body.

Disintegration

"Optimus, I don't feel so good..."

With the right weapons and technical know-how, one can damage a Transformer's physical structure, and even take them out of action for a prolonged period. However, thanks to their durable physiologies and their capability to pull themselves back together from even the most grievous injuries, it's difficult—and, depending on the universe, sometimes nearly impossible—to permanently keep them down; sometimes, the only way to permanently put a Cybertronian down for good is to completely obliterate their physical body in one go, reducing them to nothing but atoms, ash, and a few metal flakes.

This is easier said than done, however: across the vast multiverse, there are very few beings who wield the kind of high-powered weapons required to instantly atomize a Cybertronian. Some pathogens such as Cosmic Rust, Ore-2, and alchemical viruses cause fatal damage by gradually decaying their bodies from within; however, most Transformers who perish in this way are killed by astronomically powerful beings of supernatural origin, who can channel vast amounts of power required to instantly disintegrate a Cybertronian: common culprits include Unicron, Primus, and the Vok, and empowered servants such as Tigerhawk and Galvatron, who can channel a fraction of their creator's power. Additionally, Cybertronians have demonstrated a marked weakness to magic and other forms of paranormal energy; even brief exposure to certain spells or artifacts can cause a Cybertronian to fatally crumble away.

Melting

There's nothing you and I won't do. I'll stop the world and melt with you.

Most Cybertronians are made out of metal. Although the exotic alloys that constitute their biology can withstand extremes of heat, cold, and pressure, prolonged exposure to extremely high temperatures—such as the molten rock found in active volcanoes, or the searing cauldron of liquid metals that constitute the dreaded smelting pools—will fatally reduce the average Transformer to a smouldering heap of white-hot liquid. More insidiously, Cybertronians have also demonstrated a susceptibility to certain acidic compounds strong enough to punch their way through Cybertronian armor plating; given enough time to fester, they can seep into vital internal components, compromise their structural integrity, and fatally damage their targets.

Much like disintegration, melting a Transformer is generally regarded as a foolproof way to kill them for good—after all, many forms of resurrection hinge on piecing their broken bodies back together again, so liquefying their remains ensures that there simply won't be anything left to repair. On the other hand, sending a character plummeting to an uncertain doom can open the road for a later writer to reveal that they somehow escaped their predicament; when Terrorsaur and Scorponok perished in the Beast Wars episode "Aftermath", the writers deliberately showed them beginning to change into Transmetal forms, a convenient "out" in case they decided to bring them back, even though this possibility never came to pass.

Exotic energy

As robotic life-forms, Transformers can subsist upon a wide range of energy sources; in some continuities, they can even convert mundane fuel sources such as oil, coal, and uranium into energon. Their advanced mechanical bodyframes mean that Cybertronians are largely impervious to most ordinary forms of radiation, such as the ionizing radiation that damages organic tissue, but over the course of their endless wars Cybertronians must often contend with far more unusual—and potentially lethal—forms of energy unlike anything on planet Earth. While Transformers subsist upon energon, overexposure to the energon radiation produced by the substance in its raw, crystalline form can easily prove fatal. "Energon overload", as it is often known, begins with paralysis and quickly progresses to stasis lock, then outright deactivation. To survive on energon-rich planets, Transformers often adopt biomechanical "beast modes" that sheathe their vulnerable mechanical components beneath a layer of synthetic flesh. Other dangerous forms of energy include the volatile plasma energy, anathema to mechanical life, the unpredictable Angolmois Energy, and unusual variants of energon such as Dark Energon and Tox-En.

In universes where science and sorcery coexist, Cybertronians and their technology have demonstrated a marked susceptibility to magic and other forms of supernatural power. Foolhardy Cybertronians who attempt to co-opt lost Cybertronian relics like the AllSpark, the Enigma of Combination, or the Underbase can overwhelm other Cybertronians with arcane energies, only to find themselves undone by the same power as their mortal bodies struggle to cope with the energy overload. Other notable vulnerabilities include the necrotic Dead Universe, the destructive energies of the Talisman, and the enchantments channeled by spellcasters like the Visionaries of Prysmos and even the ponies of Equestria—as something "beyond" the ken of Cybertronian science, intellectuals of at least one universe have rationalized the existence of magic as a unique form of gamma radiation;^[5] left unchecked, prolonged exposure to magic can cause complete molecular breakdown, sapping away their life force as they crumble to dust.

Diseases and predators

It may seem strange that robotic beings like Transformers could contract illnesses of their own, but different works of Transformers fiction have established that Cybertronians are living mechanical beings whose systems more closely mimic a living organism's than a mundane machine. As a result, they are susceptible to a range of illnesses and ailments; if not properly treated, these diseases can gradually sap away their strength, impede the functionality of their bodies, and, in the worst case scenario, even prove fatal. Ailments like Red Rust, Cosmic Rust, and Corrodia Gravis painfully oxidize their metallic bodies, more aggressive pathogens can immediately corrode them to nothing, and some diseases like Cybercrosis attack the spark itself.

While rare, some life-forms prey upon or parasitize Cybertronians—and some Transformers who adopt a beast mode might well indulge their new instincts by hunting down and devouring other members of their species. Alien predators like Scraplets, rust worms, or the Mecannibals can devour Cybertronians in a matter of minutes; more exotic creatures like limbo parasites can telepathically attack them. Even organic creatures can pose a threat to an unwary Transformer; alien predators like the chaosteros or Earth dinosaurs have displayed the capability to bite through Cybertronian armor.

Old age

A single Transformer might live for many millions of years, outlasting entire civilizations in the process, but in the end the vast majority of Cybertronians are as mortal as any other being: their lifespans are, ultimately, finite. Parts wear out and can no longer be replaced, systems break down, living metal fatigues, and the interlinked technologies that make up their bodies become obsolete; eventually, their aged bodies can no longer safely support a spark, and a Transformer dies. While many, many Transformers characters have been portrayed as old or elderly, actually showing a character dying from old age onscreen is almost unheard of. Some fiction, notably the "Wings Universe" stories, the live-action films, and Last Bot Standing, have linked the process of "aging" itself to the availability of energon—in these stories, prolonged periods of fuel deprivation artificially accelerates the aging process.

IDW's 2019 Transformers reboot took a more nuanced look at the concept of aging in a society of nigh-immortal robots: in this universe, Cybertronians who have grown weary of life can choose to go "immersant", a kind of voluntary euthanasia process where aging Transformers return to the living strata of Cybertron; in this state, what begins as a gradual dissolution of the self eventually culminates in death when their spark finally leaves their body and rejoins the Allspark.

After death

While the prospect of eternal conflict has forced the Transformers to become a race of warriors, they are not emotionless machines. Like humans, Transformers sometimes struggle to process the loss of a close comrade or accept their own innate mortality, and this human-like drive to find meaning in both life and death has led their race to develop their own religious beliefs and ceremonies regarding death and the afterlife.

Funerals and memorials

Main article: Transformer funerary practices

Transformers is mostly aimed at kids—while most continuities show or imply the deaths of many Transformers, fewer stories have depicted their funerary rites or even any real kind of organized grieving process. Occasionally a deceased Transformer of narrative significance may be laid to rest inside a sarcophagus; depending on the needs of the story and the beliefs of their faction, they may be buried, launched into space, interred in a mausoleum alongside other fallen Cybertronians, cremated, melted in a smelting pool, or simply broken down for spare parts. When stranded on remote worlds like Earth, Cybertronians have occasionally been forced to dig basic, unmarked graves or dump their bodies at sea. Such methods of disposal are not entirely imprudent; given the opportunity, many unscrupulous humans would do anything to get their hands on Cybertronian technology, including desecrating the corpses of fallen Transformers.

In wartime scenarios, the task of eulogizing the fallen generally falls to the commanding officer or some suitable equivalent. Religiously-motivated memorials may tie their passing to prominent Cybertronian deities, most prominently Primus, the Thirteen, or Allspark that ties all Cybertronian lives together. In times of peace, Transformers may construct memorials honoring those that gave their lives in the conflict, either on Cybertron or on the battlegrounds of alien worlds. In some realities, quasi-deities such as the mysterious "Necrobot" are said to spend their lives cataloguing each and every dead Cybertronian.

Afterlife

Main article: Transformer afterlife

When a Transformer dies, their spark is said to have been "extinguished" as it vanishes from the material world. In reality, however, the spark simply transcends back to a higher dimension, a realm alternately known as the "Matrix", the "Afterspark", or the "Allspark", an extradimensional space where all Sparks are truly one, united through a higher consciousness. Religious Cybertronians who pass on may die secure in the knowledge that their experiences on the mortal plane will enrich the entire collective, and some supernatural artifacts like the Matrix of Leadership can channel a fraction of this accumulated wisdom into its bearer.

Various belief systems in different universes have ascribed unique properties to the Allspark and the sparks that dwell within them. In some mythologies, sparks must transcend through a vast, metaphysical "tree" representing unique phases of consciousness in order to reach the Allspark itself;^[6] in others, primordial deities like Primus and the Guiding Hand are said to reside in the highest echelons of the Afterspark, guiding and welcoming new arrivals into the kingdom of the dead.^[7] Not all Cybertronian belief systems subscribe to the concept of the Afterspark, however; adherents of the Way of Flame, for instance, instead believe that deceased sparks are recycled and reincarnated into new Cybertronians within the mythical Forge of Solus Prime.^[8]

Resuscitation and resurrection

Transformers are robots—they can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together, good as new. As a result, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is it for humans and other organic beings. Various Transformers stories have offered various and sometimes contradictory explanations as to how Cybertronians can raise their dead. In some universes, these forms of resurrection is so commonplace as to be an entirely mundane part of the average Transformer life cycle; in others, death is something more permanent, and Transformers seeking to resurrect their comrades must turn to extraordinary power sources or commune with higher beings.

Resurrecting a Cybertronian may return them to perfect condition, as though they never died, or leave them with their personalities and memories only partly intact. In rare cases, a Cybertronian might return to life as an entirely new being with a new name, personality, and alternate mode. Cruder forms of resurrection might simply animate their corpses as mindless zombies. All this to say, transient nature of Cybertronian death and ability to bring a character back to life in a new body (and thus a new toy) makes a tremendously convenient storytelling "out" for writers who want to resurrect a character for narrative—or, more commonly, marketing—reasons.

Physical reconstruction

Your average Transformer job lot on eBay.

In early works of “Generation 1” fiction, all it took to bring a “dead” Transformer back online was a suitable repairman and the right set of tools—bringing a Transformer back to life was as simple as fixing a broken television. This kind of resuscitation was very common in the Marvel comic and, to a lesser extent, the cartoon. Notably, this the mechanism by which Bumblebee evolved into his powered-up “Goldbug” form; in the Marvel continuity, Ratchet would then rebuild the damaged Goldbug back into his younger "Bumblebee" persona during a storyline introducing the Classic Pretenders, for no real reason other than that he "always preferred [his] original form."^[9]

With the rise of the ephemeral spark as the defined core of Transformer life, this form of revival has generally fallen off as a clearly defined way to raise the dead. When characters in modern Transformers fiction sustain critical structural damage, they are often said to be in “stasis”, a kind of protective low-power state in which all functions are rerouted to protect the spark.

Consciousness transfer

Regeneration One becomes weirder to read when you realize that Prime spends the entire series with a shrivelled little Hi-Q mummy in his chest.

As machines with a spark-based physiology, "death" does not always equal the complete destruction of their physical body. Like human computers, a Cybertronian can survive the complete destruction of their physical form so long as their spark, brain module, core consciousness or some other seat of higher functioning persists; to bring them back to life, all one has to do is plug them back into a suitable receptacle—whether that's a tailor-made body, a sparkless protoform, or, in emergencies, mundane human technology—and they'll be instantly reborn. In some realities, this kind of ad-hoc surgery can succeed even if a Transformer's original spark has been extinguished.

In the original Marvel comic, which existed in a time before the franchise had fully codified the concept of sparks, this was a very common way to resurrect characters: notably, Optimus Prime cheated his first death when programmer Ethan Zachary downloaded a copy of his mind onto a floppy disk; when the Autobots resurrected their leader, all it took was to simply reupload the information encoded on the disk into his new body.^[10] When Prime died again during the final battle against Unicron, his Powermaster partner Hi-Q revealed that a portion of Prime's consciousness persisted in his own mind thanks to their binary bond, and the Last Autobot subsequently resurrected Prime by combining the two into a single Action Master body which contained both of their memories.^[11] Similar examples exist across the franchise.

Supernatural abilities

"I am Optimus the White. And I come back to you now—at the turn of the tide."

Transformers has always blurred the line between science fiction and fantasy, and the introduction of explicitly divine entities like Primus, quasi-deities like the Thirteen original Transformers, and various supernatural artifacts like the Matrix of Leadership or the AllSpark into various works of Transformers canon has allowed various authors to lean on a very literal deus ex machina to bring a character back from the brink. Multiple deities and artifacts across the multiverse can deliver a supernatural infusion of energy that can instantly repair a fatally wounded Cybertronian, or recall their Spark or "life essence" from the afterlife back to the mortal plane.

In some stories, notably the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons and their tie-in comics, Cybertronians can, with the right technology, open a "bridge" between this world and the next, and encourage Cybertronians to recuse their sparks from the afterlife and voluntarily return to the corporeal realm.

Zombies

Main article: Zombie

A Transformer zombie is, essentially, a dead, sparkless shell that operates on only the basest of instincts, its motor functions slaved to the will of some other controlling force. Some zombies are created through scientific means, such as salvaging a dead Transformer and rewiring it into a remotely controlled puppet; others, however, are the result of true supernatural power, created from exposure to mysterious, dangerous energy sources such as Dark Energon or the Dead Universe. While some zombies can be repaired and restored to life, it can be very difficult to truly reverse the procedure: oftentimes, the only way to defeat a zombie outbreak is to either eliminate their physical bodies or neutralize whatever's controlling them.

Ghosts

Main article: Ghost

In very rare cases, completely destroying a Transformer's physical body will simply cause the Cybertronian in question to return as a ghost, a disembodied, incorporeal vestige of their former self. In this form, Cybertronians can manifest various "ghostly" powers, such as the ability to phase through walls; in some cases, they can temporarily return to the material plane by possessing other Cybertronians. Unlike the ghosts of human folklore and fantasy, however, this state can be ultimately reversed by constructing a new body for the Transformer to inhabit, which will effectively return them to some semblance of life.

Different works of Transformers fiction have tied the existence of ghosts to paranormal entities who blur the line between science and sorcery, while others have drawn a connection between ghosts and spirits and supernatural artifacts like the Matrix of Leadership, Vector Sigma, or the Oracle—the implication, evidently, is that these powerful relics have somehow found a way to preserve the spirits of the great heroes and villains of ages past for future generations to consult. In rare cases, the restless dead can even pierce the veil themselves; in one notable instance, multiple slain Decepticons somehow amalgmated themselves into a the dread Violengiguar. Perhaps the most famous ghost is Starscream; across the vast Transformers multiverse, many independent works of fiction have established that various iterations of the character possess a unique, "mutant spark" that allows him to exist as a ghost even after the destruction of his physical body.

Immortality

This is every day of his life.

All Cybertronians live for a very long time, but a select few Cybertronians can be considered truly "immortal" beings, impervious to the ravages of time. Different works of fiction have offered varying explanations for this phenomenon; the most notable, however, would be the Beast Wars cartoon's assertion that Starscream possessed a unique "mutant spark" that persisted even after the complete destruction of his physical body. Within the lore of the Beast Wars universe, this mutation went on to form the basis for the murderous Rampage, a rogue Maximal experiment who'd seemingly inherited his genetic template's immortality. However, Depth Charge was able to kill him, seemingly for good, by impaling him through the spark with raw energon, suggestion that the experiment was not perfect.

For a while, Hasbro's licensees established that different iterations of Unicron, Primus, and the Thirteen were immortal due to their unique status as "multiversal singularities"—that is to say, every incarnation of these characters were extensions of one singular being across different dimensions. However, due to a variety of factors, this explanation was later retconned away via the Shroud, and these characters are now as mortal as any other Cybertronian. Other characters might gain temporarily invulnerability through advanced technology or supernatural boosts of power, but these kind of enhancements are almost always temporary in nature.

Characters like Waspinator, meanwhile, are "immortal" solely for comedy's sake. They can be blown up, torn to shreds, decapitated, crushed, and generally sustain damage that would kill any other character, only to pop up completely fine in the next scene, ready for another comedic beatdown.

Characters who die a lot

You can set your calendar by this kind of thing.

• Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal: Probably the most infamous repeat offenders across the entire Transformers franchise. Together, they've been blasted, roasted, disintegrated, liquified, melted, zombified, blown to bits, and yet they still keep coming back for more, always just in time to light someone's darkest hour. One prose story lampshades this tendency by having multiple Optimus iterations from across the multiverse meet up in a place beyond death at the moment of their passing.
• Megatron: Antagonists named "Megatron" often die at the end of a Transformers story, an easy way to emphasize that the threat has passed and good has triumphed. In keeping with the tradition of The Transformers: The Movie, however, it also paves the way for a sequel in which he returns as "Galvatron" to menace our heroes all over again. Notably, however, a few cartoons like Animated and Prime made the decision to sideline Megatron early on, a narrative choice that increased his menace by directly contrasting his no-nonsense leadership against Starscream's failed attempt at leadership when he made his inevitable return.
• Starscream: In stories where Starscream attempts to backstab Megatron and take his place, it's not unheard of for the Decepticon leader to fatally return the favor after one bungled coup too many. Additionally, multiple works of fiction have either continued the story of, or homaged, the classic The Transformers episode "Starscream's Ghost"... a story that sort of hinges on, well, killing him.
• Sentinel Prime: As a holder of the Matrix of Leadership, Sentinel usually winds up falling to Megatron or his followers, setting up Megatron as a genuine threat capable of taking down a Prime and forcing Optimus to take up an active role in the story as he inherits the Matrix and sets about cleaning up his predecessor's mess. This sequence of events isn't always the case, however: in one notable story, it's Optimus who must put down Sentinel after his predecessor goes too far.
• Cy-Kill: Throughout the early 2000s, many Transformers comics would take a pop at the defunct GoBots franchise by having Transformers murder other Cybertronians designed to resemble GoBots antagonist Cy-Kill, sometimes accompanied by Scooter or Leader-1. Eventually, however, this "running gag" garnered backlash from fans, who came to view the joke as overdone and unnecessarily mean-spirited; Hasbro's various licensees picked up on the criticism,^[12] and the joke has largely fallen off in recent years.
• Solus Prime: The Transformers: Prime tie-in compendium The Covenant of Primus told the story of the Thirteen original Transformers for the first time—a tale that culminated with Megatronus accidentally killing Solus Prime in a fit of rage using the Requiem Blaster she created for him. According to the Covenant, her fallen body became the Well of All Sparks, a physical passageway by which new Sparks could travel into the physical realm. For the next decade or so, basically every new incarnation of Solus Prime leaned on this backstory to varying degrees, depicting or alluding to her death over and over again, with it taking nine years to have authors take the character in new directions—in IDW's Transformers reboot, for instance, she and Alchemist Prime are the last remaining members of the Thirteen, having outlived their siblings and surviving into the early years of primitive Cybertronian civilization.

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See also

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