#because I do firmly believe this narrative is mostly accidental and a testament to Sci-Fi and its G1 roots

[classychassiss]

omg hiii Earthstellar hiii *waves*

This is an excellent write up!! I'm so glad, its something worth exploring I think. I think once you start to examine the narrative through this lens, it highlights and shifts a lot of things in such a way that it starts to feel like you can't ignore those bits. I hope this summer I can really do the video essay I want to about this (and thank you by the way for your advice and links in the DMs, I apologize for not getting back sooner!) to go in depth about specific characters like Optimus and Megatron with some real world concepts and the Matrix as well and its treatment (and mistreatment) throughout, and the grappling of TF transformation being something both intrinsic but also tied to the Quintessons, and trying to navigate and reclaim that.

I do think part of the answer to my original query does come from both differing experiences of TF Fans and also the fact that Sci-Fi is chock full of colonization narratives and tropes that don't always get expanded thoughtfully (true for the first two novels I think because Woof)

I really love that you brought up the cycle of colonialism though I think thats really important, Aligned has a lot about cycles going on: cycles of violence, of abuse, of colonization, the breaking of cycles etc etc. Like, their Golden Age was only 8000 years long before the Age of Rust hits. Its one of the smaller details in the lore book that I think stands out, as often times the Golden Age in other continuities is far longer. 8000 years is a BLIP in history for many but I think it highlights just how much they not only rushed into this but a testament to how bad their decision was in choosing to keep things as they were , just shifting it for their own benefit as opposed to trying and deconstructing what was done from the jump.

The Quintus Prime involvement and how that gets treated is something I would like to see in Earthspark, and you make some really interesting points about that kickstarting what turns into a fundamental part of Cybertronian history and trying to grapple with that or even attempt to undo the harm. It will be interesting to see how thats handled, if its handled at all!

I was reading this post by @classychassiss and some good points are made– I almost never see anyone talk about the Quintessons in the Aligned Continuity, but they play a very important role!

Quintus Prime and the Quintessons: Quick Context  for the Aligned Continuity

Where do the Quintessons come from?

When the Age of Primes ended, Quintus Prime left and sought to use the Emberstone on other worlds to create more species which could potentially become allies of Cybertron.

He reached Quintessa, where he created the Quintessons himself– Who are believed to have then turned on him. It is implied that they may have killed Quintus Prime, but this is never outright stated.

Needless to say, this did not go well for anyone.

Why? Well…

Colonialism in Space: It Is Always a Bad Idea

So, of course, Quintessons are directly the result of more Primal hubris in this continuity.

But it’s interesting that we see colonialism and a sort of reverse-colonialism occur.

Quintus Prime went to a foreign planet as a being who is nearly outright a God himself, and in something resembling a “divine intervention”, created an entire species with the sole intent of making them to, in some capacity, serve a purpose for his own people.

This is a bad idea. The motivation behind creating an entire species of beings should not be “they can be useful for our own people”.

This is how you might approach making a toolset for a community workshop, not the way anyone should frame the creation of very much living, sentient life.

But this is also inherently a very coloniser mindset: “I will go to another place and massively, irrevocably change it in ways I feel will be good personally, in an attempt to benefit my own people. I see this place and its people as a potential tool.”

Did he consider what might be best for the planet Quintessa? How would introducing a new species affect the world itself? How would this impact any naturally developing life on this planet, even if he himself may not have immediately recognised it as “life”, as we know Cybertronians often struggle to value organic matter and lifeforms (and this attitude may well have extended to some of the Primes as well)?

Did he truly fully consider the implications of creating an entirely new race of beings? Did he have the means or ability with the Emberstone to inform their development beyond simply creating a lifeform that would then develop on its own, and if he did, to what degree did he manipulate the development of Quintessons (aside from bringing them into existence in the first place)?

Perhaps he believed that since he witnessed the creation of the Cybertronian people, that this could turn out the same way. But considering all the difficulty Cybertron had already been through by that time, was that ever a wise thing to believe? Was it ever sensible to think sentient life could be so easily made and worked out?

Throughout the Aligned timeline of Cybertron, we see that colonisation is a common element, and it leads to utter destruction EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Space Bridges and More Colonialism: Please Stop Colonising

As soon as Cybertronians developed the capability for interplanetary travel, they immediately started to explore.

Exploring is not inherently bad: It leads to further research and development of critical knowledge of the universe around you. It can inform everything from artistic creativity to scientific development. New discoveries could be genuinely revolutionary in many fields and with many potentially beneficial applications.

But we know that as soon as they learned enough to attempt colonising other worlds, they began to do so.

And in the process of fucking around and finding out, they discovered the Rust Plague.

The Rust Plague would have remained relatively isolated, had they not bridged bots from place to place (and planet to planet) with such aplomb that inevitably the plague spread as people attempted to flee afflicted colonies and abandon overwhelmed ships.

Their cavalier attitudes towards actively colonising every planet they could reasonably cyberform for their own use resulted in the ultimate destruction of their space bridges altogether in an attempt to spare Cybertron the same fate as countless others, thus cutting them off entirely from the stars they so fervently yearned for.

All that potential for valuable research and exploration lost, in the name of colonising.

By aiming at other worlds, they shot themselves.

Quintessons and Colonising: Nobody Learns Anything, Now Slavery Exists 

Naturally, as soon as they were capable of doing so, the Quintessons set out to colonise other worlds as well.

We can’t say that this wasn’t entirely predictable, as it seems most sentient lifeforms of all kinds in this universe have a desire to explore, even when they are not yet or no longer able to do so.

The thing about Quintessons, though, is that they don’t just love exploring.

They love slavery.

Quintus Prime created an entire species whose ultimate cultural export was the expansive development of an interplanetary slave network.

And when the Quintessons did eventually reach Cybertron, something Quintus Prime had hoped would benefit at least Cybertronians if not the Quintessons themselves as well– We know how that turned out.

Cybertron and its population was enslaved.

And owing to the nature of the Cybertronian species, this slavery extended to extreme modifications of their bodies for uses as seen fit by the Quintessons.

The Quintessons explicitly wanted to diminish any sense of individuality that Cybertronians had– A motivating factor for establishing what would become a strict class/caste system, to group bots in together based on physical characteristics that they likely altered further for this purpose (among others).

The Well of All Sparks itself was tampered with, the source of all Cybertronian life, to degrees that are not entirely known.

Cybertronians stopped coming forth from the Well with designations and no sense of self-identity, making it easier to stratify, alienate, and wholly manipulate them as a people. You get a number, you go over here, and this is your life now.

The establishment of Quintesson influence on Cybertron irrevocably altered the development and progression of Cybertronian society in every aspect, down to the people themselves, on a fundamental and often personally physical and mental level.

Simply put, the Quintessons did what the British Empire did: They found other people, set themselves in so fundamentally deeply that the environment, culture, and population itself was warped to their liking under their direct control, and everything from individual people to systems of government to the more core levels of societal development were skewed and manipulated for the central purpose of serving them in one form or another.

The Legacy of Quintesson Interference on Cybertron

We will never know what Cybertron may have developed as naturally, left to their own devices as a species.

Cybertronians themselves may not be able to identify any permanent or lingering changes brought about by the Quintessons, as these changes include alterations to the Well, and therefore they are “born” already altered. To what degree may be impossible to determine.

What changes were made, how extensively, how far have things and people deviated, can they even identify certain changes?

Orion Pax actively suppressed his memories of the occupation, to the degree that despite working with archives day in and out, he essentially entirely forgot about the entire species-wide ordeal. (Which also hints at potential information suppression in the archives…)  

We do know that Quintessons are the ones that introduced the concepts that would become the class/caste system on Cybertron.

They created a system of government which benefitted them, and continues on in a slightly modified form throughout all subsequent eras of Cybertron.

What is interesting is that we know some still-living bots were alive prior to the Quintesson occupation– I cannot imagine the horror of watching this happen, seeing new bots created with no designations, no identity or sense of self, diminished to the point of being service machines.

We don’t have a lot of details on the broader implications and realities of what Quintesson occupation was like or how severe things truly became, because this is still a franchise intended for generally young audiences, and I’m not sure Hasbro is ready to discuss the evils of slavery with children– Even though this and similar themes are often critical to the actual story and characters throughout the franchise as a whole.

I do wonder if bots created prior to the Quintesson invasion and occupation of Cybertron were subsequently modified by the Quintessons as well– I would imagine this would be necessary for the Quintessons to achieve their goals, although the other alternative is that many bots were simply offlined if they were not compliant enough, or if any forcibly made alterations were deemed too complicated/difficult to carry out on any resistant bots.

This gets dark very quickly– Again, it doesn’t surprise me that Hasbro probably backs down from going into any detail for a lot of reasons.

We know that a lot of frame alterations occurred, including the specifically noted alteration of bots with flight frames– Which instantly adds another layer of body horror, as these modified flight capable bots would have had to carry Quintessons around inside of themselves, against their will.

Even on a basic level without any further information, that is some truly horrifying shit.

I find the alterations to the Well to be among the most disturbing; The very way they come alive has been fundamentally altered. Nobody knows the true extent of those modifications. The implications of this, both the ones we actually see and what we can infer, are completely terrifying– And will potentially continue to affect the entire species for the rest of time. 

What Happened With the Quintessons Afterwards? Spoiler: The Colonisers Find Another Colony

And I do mean “find”, not “make”.

After the resistance on Cybertron built up enough to run the Quintessons off world, the Quintessons ultimately found an abandoned Cybertronian colony – Aquatron – and started making techno-organic lifeforms to subjugate.

On the up side, this does mean that merformers are canonically real, in one form or another.

On the down side, obviously this is fucked and evil, and once again, another world is added to the Quintesson Imperium– Essentially, British Empire: Space Edition.

Was Quintus Prime Right? From D-16 to Megatron: Overcoming the Legacy of Oppression  

In the most obvious sense, no, Quintus Prime was not right.

The Quintessons did not “benefit” Cybertron– Or really, anyone or anything else in the universe, either.

If we want to think about this in the sense of Quintus Prime being a Prime, and the fact that Primes seem to play a very, very long game (albeit with seemingly little understanding of how their ultimately desired goals might come about and how severely awful it might be/what the negative consequences of their actions could be)…

…It may be the case that if anything “good” came out of the Quintessons at all, it is that the Quintesson invasion of Cybertron was the catalyst for the development of a society so brutal and riddled with inequality that change was both necessary and inevitable. The world was forced to one day become what Quintus hoped it would be, due to the suffering which rained down upon it.

Which is completely and utterly fucked, and in fact, is not a “good” way to achieve this outcome to any degree.

Now, due to the obvious parallels to real life here, I want to make it very clear: There is no upside to oppression, occupation, colonialism, or slavery. Ever. I shouldn’t have to say this, but we live in hell, so I feel like I need to make this extremely, crystal clear. There is no “good” in this situation, either fictionally or in real life.

Quintus Prime was, in fact, wrong.

His intentions may have very well been “good” from his own relatively narrow point of view, but he completely and utterly failed to understand that his way of getting from Point A to Point B would result in the almost unbelievable suffering and destruction of not just the people he actually cared about– Cybertronians–but also countless other species throughout their galaxy.

We should still look at what happened as the outcome of Quintus Prime’s fuckery, and I think it hints at how deeply fucked up the Primes actually are.

Understanding this Primal “long game” approach to things requires looking at Megatron in this continuity:

Megatron came forth from the well as D-16.

Remember that it is the Quintessons who altered the Well to churn out bots without designations or a sense of identity. Megatron was a victim of classism which itself was the product of slavery. Megatron was born as close to being a tool, and not a person, as they could possibly have made him.

He became a fully realised individual despite the most adverse situation in life possible, became a revolutionary figure that was necessary to set off much needed change–

–And even if this spiralled into eventual war and the near-destruction of Cybertron itself, would meaningful change have been able to occur any other way?

Or would Cybertronians have continued indefinitely in the post-Golden Era haze of classist, caste-based oppression with nothing to spurn the population into action? Nothing that could overcome the fear and fatigue of a battered people and encourage them to actively work towards a better, more egalitarian future?  

Was revolution, war, struggle, all strictly necessary?

I would say that if that is the case, then it is almost certainly primarily because of the damage caused by the Quintessons. And the Quintessons are the fault of Quintus Prime’s meddling, regardless of his intentions.

So much suffering would not have happened, or at least would not have happened to this extent and would not have manifested in this way, had the Quintessons not laid the foundations for it and built upon it.

While the past of Cybertron is staggeringly bleak, and the present in this continuity is extremely dire, the future of Cybertron may well finally see the planet (and it’s people) achieving what the Primes had hoped for them in the first place.

That having been said, getting to this ultimate future outcome has been an utter fucking misery beyond all miseries for both the planet and it’s people.

And honestly, we don’t know how Cybertron would have developed socially, politically, culturally, or otherwise– The damage of the Quintesson oppression is so great that we can’t say if similar systems of oppression would have ultimately manifested on Cybertron in some form or another, even without Quintesson involvement.

But I think it’s very safe to say that it almost certainly would not have been to the extremes or in the exact forms that were forced upon people by the Quintessons.

Quintus Prime fucked up. Very, very badly. We can’t say what would have happened if he hadn’t created the Quintessons, but we do know what happened after he did in fact do so. And it was not good. 

The Fuckery of Primes: We Don’t Even Know How Bad It Is, Really

Primus, in theory, created the Primes to unify the various tribes of early Cybertronian peoples and to help cultivate the planet as a thriving entity for the sake of the then-developing species of Cybertronians.

Would Quintus Prime have had the forethought to imagine this potential path of events, would he have had the ability to understand what the outcomes of his actions would be? In and of himself, probably not.

But Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion have, essentially, powers of future sight to some degree. We know that in at least two different continuities (Aligned and Cyberverse), these two Primes very much do play the “long game”.

We know that the Primes degraded over time, falling prey to their own biases and interpersonal issues. Unable to mediate amongst themselves any longer and unable to progress beyond severe trauma and loss born of their own infighting and lack of trust, they broke apart.

We don’t know what they may or may not have talked about with one another, or how they individually or collectively may have planned or attempted to plan for Cybertron’s further development in their absence.

We do know that there was some of this type of conversation happening, as most Primes are depicted as having influenced or had personal interest in at least their own respective tribes on Cybertron. They did, at one point, actually do their jobs and serve their intended purpose.

We also know that the Thirteenth Prime was notoriously the only one who would actively engage in a more consistently diplomatic way with the other Primes, and that he also engaged with the general Cybertronian population at the time in a more compassionate and direct capacity compared to the others– And this is part of what was considered to make him so particular and special.

Which implies that at least past a certain point, the other Primes seemed to have withdrawn from the general population, while Thirteen did not.

As much as the Primes seem to have cared for Cybertronians, most of them don’t really seem to have engaged with the actual population very much– At least not beyond the very early years.

Quintus’ Call: You Can’t Fix a Mistake With Another Mistake

Perhaps Quintus Prime attempted to create the Quintessons out of a realisation that he failed his purposes as intended by Primus, that he let his population down, and wanted to rectify this so desperately that he did not consider the full implications of creating a species with another species’ needs in mind.

If this is the case, it may be understandable, but in no way excusable, that he proceeded as he did.

The Emberstone is his personal artefact, imbued with life-giving powers implied to have been gifted to him by Primus in order to help him serve his purpose as a Prime. He failed in this purpose, and may have felt that utilising the Emberstone was a critical part of his efforts to essentially repent for how the Primes had fallen apart and abandoned their people and their world.

Again, understandable, especially given the distress we know the Primes were all in at the time when they fell apart and away from each other. 

Understandable, not excusable.

People make bad decisions when under duress and emotionally fraught, and we know that the Primes are certainly not immune to this.

But Quintus Prime’s power to give life is extraordinarily powerful, and carries a significant burden of responsibility.

You do not create life on a whim– But that is what Quintus Prime did, in a moment riddled with grief, stress, fear for the future, and a sense of personal failure. 

The result of this, seemingly predictably, was horrendous. He may not have been able to see past his own turmoil by this point, or perhaps leaving Primes to their own devices is inherently not a good idea. 

Either way: His decision to create the Quintessons not only led him further into breathtaking failure to fulfil his intended duties as a Prime, but led to the destruction and loss of countless others. 

And this would have been impossible without the Emberstone. 

Primal Artefacts: The Emberstone

The ultimate outcome was such staggering destruction, loss, and suffering that I wonder if the Emberstone didn’t pick up on his feelings or state of mind during the creation of the Quintessons, and forged them from a place of inherent discontent.

We know Primal artefacts have the potential to react strangely and seemingly with some degree of awareness that operates beyond the Prime that wields them. 

Alpha Trion’s pen writes in languages nobody yet speaks, that he himself cannot yet read.

To what degree does the Emberstone potentially have something resembling sentience? 

What is the nature of the power gifted by Primus? It seems to vary from item to item and individual to individual, at least among the Primes. 

But we do not know how the Emberstone actually goes about producing life. We don’t know how it works, or what any implications of its function might be. 

Does Quintus himself know? Or it it an assumed, innate power to him? Something at least partially instinctive on some level, so familiar to him that perhaps such a casual use of it may not be so surprising? 

We don’t know. 

But I think the Emberstone itself is fascinating; It has some of the greatest power imaginable, to create living beings. To will a species into existence, to forge sentience. 

The only other things or beings we see actually produce complex, sentient life are Primus and the Well of All Sparks. 

We know that the Primes came about as unique individuals with unique abilities, intended to work together for the better of their world. 

Things did not work out as intended. Some events are unpredictable, and some outcomes are beyond anyone’s power. 

But we know very, very little about what power the Primes do actually have, really, in terms of their extent of application or how they work or why they work or anything else. 

The one we know the most about is Alpha Trion, and his Quill. 

But even then, things remain esoteric. Alpha Trion has foresight and the ability to alter events to some degree by literally editing and changing the narrative of life in real time and in future tense. 

Yet even Alpha Trion could not see the death of Solus Prime, and had withdrawn enough by that time to have no inkling of the real depth of Megatronus’ discontent. He did not expect the betrayal of Liege Maximo. 

There are clear limitations, when it comes to the Primes as people. 

The artefacts themselves, while connected to their respective Primes, seem to very well have their own thing going on at the same time– As independently operating esoteric items of power. 

All of this is to say, how much of the Quintessons are the fault of Quintus Prime’s personal hubris, and how much of it is the will of the Emberstone, if it does in fact have individual will? 

Can the Emberstone influence Quintus, in return? To what degree, if so? 

Something to think about. 

–

Phew, this was a long post– Thank you to anyone who’s bothered reading (or even skimming) all of this! :) <3 

I haven’t had much time to edit, so I apologise for any errors, repetition, etc. 

But I’ve wanted to talk about the Quintessons in the Aligned Continuity for some time, and I figured this was a good time to throw a bunch of my thoughts on it together– Especially as we know Quintus is involved in the Earthspark Continuity as well. 

(Also, I couldn’t find any Aligned Continuity illustrations of Quintessons, so I’ve used the classic G1 Quintesson Judge here.)