Quintesson
Encyclopedia
Quintessons are fictional aliens from the Transformers
universe. Within the TV series, they are the creators of the Transformers
, although in most other fictional universes
featuring the Transformers, they have no such status. Although they have several body types, the name Quintesson focused on the "judge" Quintessons who have five (quint-) faces with five unique personalities.
as a factory to produce cybernetic lifeforms. Their early experiments in fusing organic and technological components into one being resulted in the creation of the "Trans-Organics," which proved too primitive and unstable, particularly a living energy siphon named "The Dweller", and they were all sealed away in the lowest levels of Cybertron.
Subsequently, the Quintessons turned to pure robotics for their creations, and produced lines of consumer goods and military hardware robots—which would eventually become the lineal ancestors of the Autobot
s and Decepticon
s, respectively. Forging their bodies in the Plasma Energy Chamber, the Quintessons programmed their robots with intelligence using Vector Sigma
, to allow them to carry out their tasks on their own, thereby leaving the Quintessons to do nothing other than live in leisure. However, what they failed to realize was that their robots had developed true sentience and real feelings — after a million years of slavery, they could now feel and know the difference between it and freedom, and they struck back against their masters. The Quintessons fought back against the rebellion with their Dark Guardian robots, unconcerned and thinking themselves untouchable, but when the Coda-Remote, a device created by the rebel leader, A-3
, was used to shut down the Guardians, the robots got the upper hand, eventually forcing the Quintessons to flee Cybertron. They scattered through the galaxy until they became largely forgotten by the Transformers.Transformers and Philosophy by John R. Shook, 2009, page 170
The Quintessons took up residence on a world they named Quintessa, although it is not clear if the entire race relocated to the planet, or just one group. Here, they eked out a bitter, resentful existence, putting many unfortunate robots they captured to trial, subjecting them to a twisted form of justice as they sought retribution for the "theft" of Cybertron. Innocent or guilty, the sentence was always the same—death, in the jaws of their monstrous (new) servants, the Sharkticon
s.
At least one group of Quintessons also took up the role of weapons dealer to the galaxy. They would often supply arms for both sides of a war, such as the war between Xetaxxis and Lanarq. They would aid in escalating the war to line their pockets. They chronicled the sale of their arms transactions in a holographic tube which they called their Journal. They kept this Journal safely hidden away, until the destruction of Quintessa sent it hurling through space. Its existence was unknown to all races until the time of a peace conference (in 2006), when it was recovered by the Autobots and used to help bring peace to the embattled Xetaxxis and Lanarq.
The modern Transformers' first encounter with the Quintessons came in the Earth year 2005 (during the events of The Transformers: The Movie
), when Hot Rod, Kup
and the Dinobots
were stranded on the planet and faced Quintesson justice, only able to escape when Grimlock
intimidated the Sharkticons into revolting, and Wheelie
led the marooned Autobots to a Quintesson ship to allow them to get off the planet. After the destruction of Unicron
, the Quintessons launched an all-out assault on the Transformers, in an attempt to reclaim Cybertron. They first attacked the First Galactic Olympic ceremony on its opening day and kidnapped Autobots Kup and Ultra Magnus
as well as human Spike Witwicky. The Autobots, commanded by Rodimus Prime rescued their companions. The Quintessons, believing that if they could destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership it would divide their enemies and eliminate half of their resistance, detonated their home planet of Quintessa. The Autobots managed to escape the destruction of the planet. Frustrated and outraged at their strategic failure, they realized the best hope was to forge an alliance with the Decepticons. They even promised Galvatron the non-existent Decepticon Matrix of Leadership. While the two sides battled each other, the Sharkticons were sent to activate a failsafe that will freeze all Autobots and Decepticons. However, their plan was foiled by Spike Witwicky.
The alliance between the Decepticons and the Quintessons proved to be unholy to say the least, with both sides betraying one another on numerous occasions. Separately from this sporadic arrangement, the Quintessons also seemed to utilize the Predacons as agents.
In 2006, assorted groups of Quintessons would plot various schemes to destroy both the Autobots and Decepticons alike. Some of the most noteworthy schemes involved creating a "Time Window" to go back in time and kill Autobot A-3
, reviving Autobot legend Optimus Prime as a zombie to kill his fellow Autobots, sending Galvatron
to a planet that would kill him, and unleashing the Trans-Organics on Cybertron once again. As beings of logic and statistics, the Quintessons' primary weakness is non-linear thinking — the Quintessons blame Earth's humans and their unpredictability for the corruption of the Autobots that prevents them from accurately deducing their movements. Their initial scheme was, in fact, directly foiled by Spike Witwicky when the Quintessons failed to account for his presence. They later attempted to use this indefinable factor for themselves by harnessing the nightmares in the mind of Daniel Witwicky and turning them against the Autobots.
The Quintessons were known as the most untrustworthy creatures in the galaxy, until the Hate Plague. Quintessons were, at the time, hiding on a planet in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. One, who was fleeing infected Transformers, was rescued by Sky Lynx to restore Prime to working order and sanity and other Autobots who weren't infected.
comic book series, aside from in the comic adaptations of The Transformers: The Movie and the episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006". They did, however, feature in the Transformers Universe profile books, where they are implicated as being servants of Unicron. However, this was based on the original script of The Transformers: The Movie which was changed later but was too late to amend in the profiles, and certainly does not apply to the UK
comics, where the Quintessons were featured in the story Space Pirates (which stated Big Broadcast had been completely made up by Wreck-Gar
). That story saw their homeworld threatened by a growing timestorm, and so, having been compiling a list of metallic planets intended for conquest & colonization, they targeted Cybertron for emergency colonization. In a two-pronged attack, they attacked Autobot City to draw out Rodimus Prime so that, via a trap involving Arcee
, they could take the Matrix from him; they also contacted the Decepticons to tip them off about the Autobot City attack, causing the Decepticons to go out in force to Autobase on Cybertron and thus run right into a Quintesson ambush designed to massacre the Decepticon army. While on the verge of victory, they were undone by Hot Rod unleashing Metroplex
, Soundwave
unexpectedly calling the Autobots for assistance in defeating the Cybertron-based Quintessons, and by Wreck-Gar broadcasting their plans to every planet they'd intended to colonize. The Quintessons were seen vowing to attack Cybertron again but this never occurred (presumably they were left unable once their homeworld was destroyed). The Quintessons showed a sadistic side in this story, stringing up deactivated Autobots on the walls of Autobot City for no purpose other than to demoralize Rodimus & his team.
's comic book series, manipulating events behind the scenes, at one point providing Megatron with a massive army of Seeker clones to subjugate Cybertron, although Dreamwave's bankruptcy meant this story was never finished. They also appeared in Dreamwave's G1 ongoing series, where they were manipulating events behind the scenes, including engineering discord between Hot Rod and Arcee
, as part of a scheme to seize the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. This story was also never completed.
In the "Botcon" comic line, the Quintessons formed an alliance with the Predacon scientist Cryotek, a former mentor of Megatron
. They worked together in attempts to cement their rule over the galaxy, attempting to destroy the powerful Transformers dispatched by the Oracle. They succeeded in the case of the Mutants and the Dinobots
, but proved unable to defeat the Wreckers before the comic’s cancellation.
downloaded information on the history of Cybertron
from Soundwave
. Mentioned among that information were the Quintessons, Alpha Trion
, Megatron and Soundwave, the planet of Junk, a warrior named Optimus Primal
and the Matrix of Leadership.
energy. Most distinctively, they bear five faces, each representing a different emotion. The original script to the movie identifies the faces as "smiling," "angry," "grimacing," "suspicious" and a "death's head," and the faces were designed to represent these emotions. Only the "death's head" was identified in the cartoon series, where it was named the "Face of Death," but an article in the Japanese magazine, Comic Bom Bom, later did the same for the other four, dubbing them the Faces of Laughter
, Rage
, Bitterness
and Doubt
. Transformers: The Ultimate Guide published by Dorling Kindersley
created a new set of names for the faces other than Death — War
, Wrath, Wisdom
and Judgment
— but the later IDW Publishing
book, The Ark: A Complete Compendium of Transformers Animation Models, returned to using the original names.
In their courtroom proceedings, other types of Quintessons were employed, including snout-faced "bailiffs", an "executioner", who threw the switch to drop victims into the Sharkticon (see below) pit, and multi-tentacled "prosecutors" (known as the "Aliens
Reject" to the fans). To carry out their executions, the Quintessons used Sharkticons, unintelligent, rotund robots that could transform into amphibious, fanged monsters. Other transforming servants used by the Quintessons could assume alligator-like forms, though they were never given an official name besides "Quintesson guards". They have, in some fan circles, been unofficially named Alligaticons, Gatorcons, and, by Dreamwave
Comics, Allicons. (The Alligaticon name is disputed by the fact that a construct built from Optimus Prime's body — minus his head and rifle-wielding right arm — by the Constructicons
in the cartoon episode City of Steel was called an Alligaticon.)
Additional unique breeds of Quintesson include a single-faced scientist called Inquirata, who sought to prevent the rebellion in the past by altering history, and another scientist of the same body type who captured Ultra Magnus
, Cyclonus
, Wreck-Gar
and Marissa Fairborne for study. A completely unique, multi-faced Quintesson scientist was also introduced as the creator of the Trans-Organics, the Quintessons' first attempt to create a subservient cybernetic life form. Also of note was the Quintesson criminal, Mara-Al-Utha, who was convicted of the crime of practicing sorcery
, and banished to the mystical other-dimensional realm of Menonia.
, features a character named Alpha Q, short for "Alpha Quintesson". Similar in appearance to the G1 Quintessons in that he has tentacles and four faces (modeled in part on the faces of the G1 Quintessons), he is not a "true" Quintesson identical to those featured in the movie, but rather, a being from a planet consumed by Unicron who built a new body for himself while trapped within the planet-eater.
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
universe. Within the TV series, they are the creators of the Transformers
Transformers (toy line)
The is a line of toys produced by the American toy company Hasbro. The Transformers toyline was created from toy molds mostly produced by Japanese company Takara in the toylines Diaclone and Microman. Other toy molds from other companies such as Bandai were used as well...
, although in most other fictional universes
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
featuring the Transformers, they have no such status. Although they have several body types, the name Quintesson focused on the "judge" Quintessons who have five (quint-) faces with five unique personalities.
Animated Series
Twelve million years ago, the alien race known as the Quintessons used the planet of CybertronCybertron
Cybertron is a fictional planet, the homeworld of the Transformers in the various fictional incarnations of the metaseries and toyline by Hasbro. In the Japanese series, the planet is referred to as "Cybertron" pronounced as セイバートロン Seibātoron...
as a factory to produce cybernetic lifeforms. Their early experiments in fusing organic and technological components into one being resulted in the creation of the "Trans-Organics," which proved too primitive and unstable, particularly a living energy siphon named "The Dweller", and they were all sealed away in the lowest levels of Cybertron.
Subsequently, the Quintessons turned to pure robotics for their creations, and produced lines of consumer goods and military hardware robots—which would eventually become the lineal ancestors of the Autobot
Autobot
Autobot, a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, are usually the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, graphic novels, paperback books, cartoons and movies first introduced in 1984. In all but one Transformer story, the...
s and Decepticon
Decepticon
The Decepticons are usually depicted as the antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers stoyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots and the University of California Davis Aggies...
s, respectively. Forging their bodies in the Plasma Energy Chamber, the Quintessons programmed their robots with intelligence using Vector Sigma
Vector Sigma
In the fictional universe of the first Transformers animated series, Vector Sigma is the "mega-computer" that gives sentience to non-sentient robots, and is used by the Quintessons to endow their robotic creations with the true life that eventually leads to their rebellion...
, to allow them to carry out their tasks on their own, thereby leaving the Quintessons to do nothing other than live in leisure. However, what they failed to realize was that their robots had developed true sentience and real feelings — after a million years of slavery, they could now feel and know the difference between it and freedom, and they struck back against their masters. The Quintessons fought back against the rebellion with their Dark Guardian robots, unconcerned and thinking themselves untouchable, but when the Coda-Remote, a device created by the rebel leader, A-3
Alpha Trion
Alpha Trion is a fictional character in the various Transformers universes. Alpha Trion is one of the Thirteen Primes, thus all his portrayals are considered to be the same individual. He is generally depicted as an ancient mechanoid with a link to Optimus Prime...
, was used to shut down the Guardians, the robots got the upper hand, eventually forcing the Quintessons to flee Cybertron. They scattered through the galaxy until they became largely forgotten by the Transformers.Transformers and Philosophy by John R. Shook, 2009, page 170
The Quintessons took up residence on a world they named Quintessa, although it is not clear if the entire race relocated to the planet, or just one group. Here, they eked out a bitter, resentful existence, putting many unfortunate robots they captured to trial, subjecting them to a twisted form of justice as they sought retribution for the "theft" of Cybertron. Innocent or guilty, the sentence was always the same—death, in the jaws of their monstrous (new) servants, the Sharkticon
Sharkticon
-Transformers: Generation One:The ravenous Sharkticons, the most famous and deadly of the Quintessons' slaves, are rotund robots capable of transforming into ferocious, amphibious creatures...
s.
At least one group of Quintessons also took up the role of weapons dealer to the galaxy. They would often supply arms for both sides of a war, such as the war between Xetaxxis and Lanarq. They would aid in escalating the war to line their pockets. They chronicled the sale of their arms transactions in a holographic tube which they called their Journal. They kept this Journal safely hidden away, until the destruction of Quintessa sent it hurling through space. Its existence was unknown to all races until the time of a peace conference (in 2006), when it was recovered by the Autobots and used to help bring peace to the embattled Xetaxxis and Lanarq.
The modern Transformers' first encounter with the Quintessons came in the Earth year 2005 (during the events of The Transformers: The Movie
The Transformers: The Movie
The Transformers: The Movie is a 1986 animated feature film based on the animated series of the same name. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986 and in the UK on December 5, 1986....
), when Hot Rod, Kup
Kup
Kup is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universe. All are older Autobots who are members of the Elite Guard. Wired Magazine once nominated him as one 12 most ridiculous Transformers of all time...
and the Dinobots
Dinobots
Dinobots is the name of several teams of characters in the fictional Transformers Universe. The groups are made up of several robots, each of whose transformed mode is that of a dinosaur or similar prehistoric animal. They are called Dinotrons in the Japanese version; and ' in the Japanese dub of...
were stranded on the planet and faced Quintesson justice, only able to escape when Grimlock
Grimlock
Grimlock is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. He is usually portrayed as a tough leader who turns into a mechanical dinosaur...
intimidated the Sharkticons into revolting, and Wheelie
Wheelie (Transformers)
Wheelie is the name of two different fictional characters in the Transformers series.-Generation 1:The first Wheelie is a young Autobot who turns into a car. He has a distinctive style of speech, in which he rhymes his sentences while speaking in a high pitched voice, making him sound like a child....
led the marooned Autobots to a Quintesson ship to allow them to get off the planet. After the destruction of Unicron
Unicron
Unicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also...
, the Quintessons launched an all-out assault on the Transformers, in an attempt to reclaim Cybertron. They first attacked the First Galactic Olympic ceremony on its opening day and kidnapped Autobots Kup and Ultra Magnus
Ultra Magnus
Ultra Magnus is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers storylines.-Transformers: Generation 1:The greatest Transformer of them all. A commander could want no finer a soldier than Ultra Magnus...
as well as human Spike Witwicky. The Autobots, commanded by Rodimus Prime rescued their companions. The Quintessons, believing that if they could destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership it would divide their enemies and eliminate half of their resistance, detonated their home planet of Quintessa. The Autobots managed to escape the destruction of the planet. Frustrated and outraged at their strategic failure, they realized the best hope was to forge an alliance with the Decepticons. They even promised Galvatron the non-existent Decepticon Matrix of Leadership. While the two sides battled each other, the Sharkticons were sent to activate a failsafe that will freeze all Autobots and Decepticons. However, their plan was foiled by Spike Witwicky.
The alliance between the Decepticons and the Quintessons proved to be unholy to say the least, with both sides betraying one another on numerous occasions. Separately from this sporadic arrangement, the Quintessons also seemed to utilize the Predacons as agents.
In 2006, assorted groups of Quintessons would plot various schemes to destroy both the Autobots and Decepticons alike. Some of the most noteworthy schemes involved creating a "Time Window" to go back in time and kill Autobot A-3
Alpha Trion
Alpha Trion is a fictional character in the various Transformers universes. Alpha Trion is one of the Thirteen Primes, thus all his portrayals are considered to be the same individual. He is generally depicted as an ancient mechanoid with a link to Optimus Prime...
, reviving Autobot legend Optimus Prime as a zombie to kill his fellow Autobots, sending Galvatron
Galvatron
Galvatron is the name of several fictional Transformers, most often the recreated version of Megatron, the Decepticon leader. He was voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the 1986 Transformers movie, and then by Frank Welker in season 3 and 4 of the animated television series. Since then, other Transformers...
to a planet that would kill him, and unleashing the Trans-Organics on Cybertron once again. As beings of logic and statistics, the Quintessons' primary weakness is non-linear thinking — the Quintessons blame Earth's humans and their unpredictability for the corruption of the Autobots that prevents them from accurately deducing their movements. Their initial scheme was, in fact, directly foiled by Spike Witwicky when the Quintessons failed to account for his presence. They later attempted to use this indefinable factor for themselves by harnessing the nightmares in the mind of Daniel Witwicky and turning them against the Autobots.
The Quintessons were known as the most untrustworthy creatures in the galaxy, until the Hate Plague. Quintessons were, at the time, hiding on a planet in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. One, who was fleeing infected Transformers, was rescued by Sky Lynx to restore Prime to working order and sanity and other Autobots who weren't infected.
Marvel Comics
The Quintessons did not appear in the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book series, aside from in the comic adaptations of The Transformers: The Movie and the episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006". They did, however, feature in the Transformers Universe profile books, where they are implicated as being servants of Unicron. However, this was based on the original script of The Transformers: The Movie which was changed later but was too late to amend in the profiles, and certainly does not apply to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comics, where the Quintessons were featured in the story Space Pirates (which stated Big Broadcast had been completely made up by Wreck-Gar
Wreck-Gar
Wreck-Gar is the name of two characters from the Transformers universes. Both are unpredictable good-aligned characters who provide comic relief in their series.-Transformers: Generation 1:Wreck-gar is the idiosyncratic leader of the Junkions....
). That story saw their homeworld threatened by a growing timestorm, and so, having been compiling a list of metallic planets intended for conquest & colonization, they targeted Cybertron for emergency colonization. In a two-pronged attack, they attacked Autobot City to draw out Rodimus Prime so that, via a trap involving Arcee
Arcee
Arcee is the name of a fictional character in the Transformers franchise. She is a female Autobot, usually pink in color. Being the most famous of the Female Transformers, she has two primary forms...
, they could take the Matrix from him; they also contacted the Decepticons to tip them off about the Autobot City attack, causing the Decepticons to go out in force to Autobase on Cybertron and thus run right into a Quintesson ambush designed to massacre the Decepticon army. While on the verge of victory, they were undone by Hot Rod unleashing Metroplex
Metroplex (Transformers)
Metroplex is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers series.-Transformers: Generation 1:Metroplex is capable of transforming into a battle station or a giant robot...
, Soundwave
Soundwave (Transformers)
Soundwave is the name of several characters in the various series Transformers series. His most famous disguise is that of a microcassette recorder and has an iconic voice done by a vocoder.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
unexpectedly calling the Autobots for assistance in defeating the Cybertron-based Quintessons, and by Wreck-Gar broadcasting their plans to every planet they'd intended to colonize. The Quintessons were seen vowing to attack Cybertron again but this never occurred (presumably they were left unable once their homeworld was destroyed). The Quintessons showed a sadistic side in this story, stringing up deactivated Autobots on the walls of Autobot City for no purpose other than to demoralize Rodimus & his team.
Dreamwave Productions
The Quintessons have also appeared in DreamwaveDreamwave Productions
Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996 and is best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
's comic book series, manipulating events behind the scenes, at one point providing Megatron with a massive army of Seeker clones to subjugate Cybertron, although Dreamwave's bankruptcy meant this story was never finished. They also appeared in Dreamwave's G1 ongoing series, where they were manipulating events behind the scenes, including engineering discord between Hot Rod and Arcee
Arcee
Arcee is the name of a fictional character in the Transformers franchise. She is a female Autobot, usually pink in color. Being the most famous of the Female Transformers, she has two primary forms...
, as part of a scheme to seize the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. This story was also never completed.
3H Enterprises
The exclusive Wreckers comic book for the Official Transformers Collectors Convention accomplished an uneasy merging of cartoon and comic continuity by presenting the Quintessons as minions of Unicron, employed long ago to seek out Primus/Cybertron. Upon locating Cybertron, instead of informing their master, they took it over and enslaved the inhabitants. The Quintessons created a shell program for the super computer Vector Sigma called the Oracle, and through it attempted to influence the development of Cybertron. The series also had the Quintessons later colonize another planet, which they named New Quintessa.In the "Botcon" comic line, the Quintessons formed an alliance with the Predacon scientist Cryotek, a former mentor of Megatron
Megatron (Beast Wars and Beast Machines)
The Beast Wars and Beast Machines version of Megatron is the main antagonist from the aforementioned parts of the Transformers animated series, toy lines, and multiverse...
. They worked together in attempts to cement their rule over the galaxy, attempting to destroy the powerful Transformers dispatched by the Oracle. They succeeded in the case of the Mutants and the Dinobots
Dinobots
Dinobots is the name of several teams of characters in the fictional Transformers Universe. The groups are made up of several robots, each of whose transformed mode is that of a dinosaur or similar prehistoric animal. They are called Dinotrons in the Japanese version; and ' in the Japanese dub of...
, but proved unable to defeat the Wreckers before the comic’s cancellation.
Devil's Due Publishing
The Quintessons made a cameo appearance in Devil's Due comics. In the third volume of the Devil's Due comics G.I Joe vs the Transformers comics, the android SerpentorSerpentor
Serpentor is a fictional character from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, a line of military-themed toys created by Hasbro. The character was introduced in 1986 as a toy with an air chariot and included in the animated series that same year.-Toys:...
downloaded information on the history of Cybertron
Cybertron
Cybertron is a fictional planet, the homeworld of the Transformers in the various fictional incarnations of the metaseries and toyline by Hasbro. In the Japanese series, the planet is referred to as "Cybertron" pronounced as セイバートロン Seibātoron...
from Soundwave
Soundwave (Transformers)
Soundwave is the name of several characters in the various series Transformers series. His most famous disguise is that of a microcassette recorder and has an iconic voice done by a vocoder.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
. Mentioned among that information were the Quintessons, Alpha Trion
Alpha Trion
Alpha Trion is a fictional character in the various Transformers universes. Alpha Trion is one of the Thirteen Primes, thus all his portrayals are considered to be the same individual. He is generally depicted as an ancient mechanoid with a link to Optimus Prime...
, Megatron and Soundwave, the planet of Junk, a warrior named Optimus Primal
Optimus Primal
Optimus Primal is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline, and the leader of the Maximal forces and the main protagonist in the Beast Wars television series. He is sometimes called Optimal Optimus...
and the Matrix of Leadership.
IDW
Although it was originally stated that the Quintessons were not present in the IDW Transformers universe, they have since been seen in an ominous mural in the Wheelie Spotlight.Types of Quintessons
There are several different types of Quintesson, but the most commonly featured are the Judges — round, egg-shaped, tentacled beings, whose bodies are supported on beams of anti-gravityAnti-gravity
Anti-gravity is the idea of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift...
energy. Most distinctively, they bear five faces, each representing a different emotion. The original script to the movie identifies the faces as "smiling," "angry," "grimacing," "suspicious" and a "death's head," and the faces were designed to represent these emotions. Only the "death's head" was identified in the cartoon series, where it was named the "Face of Death," but an article in the Japanese magazine, Comic Bom Bom, later did the same for the other four, dubbing them the Faces of Laughter
Laughter
Laughing is a reaction to certain stimuli, fundamentally stress, which serves as an emotional balancing mechanism. Traditionally, it is considered a visual expression of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy. It may ensue from hearing a joke, being tickled, or other stimuli...
, Rage
Rage (emotion)
Rage is a feeling of intense anger. It is associated with the Fight-or-flight response and oftentimes activated in response to an external cue, such as the murder of a loved one. The phrase, 'thrown into a fit of rage,' expresses the immediate nature of rage that occurs before deliberation. If left...
, Bitterness
Resentment
Resentment is the experience of a negative emotion felt as a result of a real or imagined wrong done. Etymologically, the word originates from French "ressentir", re-, intensive prefix, and sentir "to feel"; from the Latin "sentire"...
and Doubt
Doubt
Doubt, a status between belief and disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of a perceived "reality", and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for...
. Transformers: The Ultimate Guide published by Dorling Kindersley
Dorling Kindersley
Dorling Kindersley is an international publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 51 languages. It is currently part of the Penguin Group....
created a new set of names for the faces other than Death — War
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, Wrath, Wisdom
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
and Judgment
Judgment
A judgment , in a legal context, is synonymous with the formal decision made by a court following a lawsuit. At the same time the court may also make a range of court orders, such as imposing a sentence upon a guilty defendant in a criminal matter, or providing a remedy for the plaintiff in a civil...
— but the later IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
book, The Ark: A Complete Compendium of Transformers Animation Models, returned to using the original names.
In their courtroom proceedings, other types of Quintessons were employed, including snout-faced "bailiffs", an "executioner", who threw the switch to drop victims into the Sharkticon (see below) pit, and multi-tentacled "prosecutors" (known as the "Aliens
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
Reject" to the fans). To carry out their executions, the Quintessons used Sharkticons, unintelligent, rotund robots that could transform into amphibious, fanged monsters. Other transforming servants used by the Quintessons could assume alligator-like forms, though they were never given an official name besides "Quintesson guards". They have, in some fan circles, been unofficially named Alligaticons, Gatorcons, and, by Dreamwave
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996 and is best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
Comics, Allicons. (The Alligaticon name is disputed by the fact that a construct built from Optimus Prime's body — minus his head and rifle-wielding right arm — by the Constructicons
Constructicons
right|thumb|Scavenger, Bonecrusher, Longhaul, Scrapper & Mixmaster - five of the original six Constructicons The Constructicons are a group of fictional characters from the various Transformers continuities...
in the cartoon episode City of Steel was called an Alligaticon.)
Additional unique breeds of Quintesson include a single-faced scientist called Inquirata, who sought to prevent the rebellion in the past by altering history, and another scientist of the same body type who captured Ultra Magnus
Ultra Magnus
Ultra Magnus is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers storylines.-Transformers: Generation 1:The greatest Transformer of them all. A commander could want no finer a soldier than Ultra Magnus...
, Cyclonus
Cyclonus
Cyclonus is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:The tech spec from the box art of the Cyclonus toy describes him as a compassionless Decepticon air warrior and saboteur...
, Wreck-Gar
Wreck-Gar
Wreck-Gar is the name of two characters from the Transformers universes. Both are unpredictable good-aligned characters who provide comic relief in their series.-Transformers: Generation 1:Wreck-gar is the idiosyncratic leader of the Junkions....
and Marissa Fairborne for study. A completely unique, multi-faced Quintesson scientist was also introduced as the creator of the Trans-Organics, the Quintessons' first attempt to create a subservient cybernetic life form. Also of note was the Quintesson criminal, Mara-Al-Utha, who was convicted of the crime of practicing sorcery
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, and banished to the mystical other-dimensional realm of Menonia.
Transformers: Energon
The 2004 animated series, Transformers: EnergonTransformers: Energon
Transformers: Energon, known in Japan as , is the 2004–2005 Transformers toyline, animated series and comic book series, another co-production between Hasbro and Takara and a direct sequel to Transformers: Armada...
, features a character named Alpha Q, short for "Alpha Quintesson". Similar in appearance to the G1 Quintessons in that he has tentacles and four faces (modeled in part on the faces of the G1 Quintessons), he is not a "true" Quintesson identical to those featured in the movie, but rather, a being from a planet consumed by Unicron who built a new body for himself while trapped within the planet-eater.