Quintesson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quintessons are fictional aliens from the Transformers universe. Within the TV series, they are the creators of the Transformers, although in other fictional universes featuring the Transformers, they have no such status.
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[edit] US cartoon history
Twelve million years ago, the alien race known as the Quintessons used the planet of Cybertron 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 produce lines of consumer goods and military hardware robots—which would eventually become the lineal ancestors of the Autobots and Decepticons, 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.
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 servants, the Sharkticons.
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, 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 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 subjugated the Sharkticons, and Wheelie led them 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 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 statistical failure, they realized the best hope was to forge an alliance with the Decepticons.
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. 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 A3, 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 in the far end of the galaxy.
[edit] 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-gravity energy. Most distinctively, they each bear five faces, representing a different emotion—Laughter, Rage, Bitterness, Doubt and the infamous face of Death (however, the Ultimate Guide book released by Dorling Kindersley claims that the faces other than Death represent War, Wrath, Wisdom and Judgment). However, only the Death face was explicitly named on-screen, so neither set of names for the other four faces are canonical.
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.” 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 Alligatorcons, Gatorcons, and, by Dreamwave Comics, Allicons.
More 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 Fairbourne 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.
[edit] Comic appearances
The Quintessons did not appear in the American comic book series, aside from in the comic adaptations of 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 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 & colonisation, so them target Cybertron for emergency colonization. In a two-pronged attack, they attacked Autobot City to draw out Rodimus Prime so, 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 colonise. The Quintessons were seen vowing to attack Cybertron again but this never occured (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 than to horrify Rodimus & his team.
The Quintessons have also appearance in Dreamwave’s comic book series, manipulating events behind the scenes.
The exclusive Wreckers comic book for the Official Transformers Collectors Convention accomplished an uneasy merged 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. 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.
[edit] Energon
The 2004 animated series, Transformers: Energon, features a character named Alpha Q, or “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.
[edit] Devil’s Due Comics
The Quintessons made a cameo appearance in Devil’s Due comics.
In the third volume of the Devil’s Due comics, the android Serpentor downloaded information on the history of Cybertron from Soundwave. Mentioned among that information was the Quintessons, Alpha Trion, Megatron and Soundwave, the planet of Junk, a warrior named Optimus Primal and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.
