Hate Plague

You've got red on you.

Wretched scumbags! Before you die an agonizing chainsaw-related death, you're gonna hear about the Hate Plague! This insidious, maddening blood-red malady was one of the few capable of affecting those disgusting rust-bucket Transformers. Any filthy organism infected turns bright red like freshly spilled gore and displays incredibly high levels of SHUT UP AND DIE toward everything and everyone. Now get on your knees and pray, because it's all over!

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

With blood and rage of crimson red.
Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead.

Long ago, the Hate Plague ravaged the universe, but was contained by a wise man using sheer wisdom. However, nobody was wise enough to completely destroy the plague spores, so they were simply sealed inside a star. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2

Eventually, the star went supernova and exploded while being studied by human scientists Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford, covering their spaceship in Hate Plague spores. Taking them back to Earth, Gregory studied the spores with his colleague Mark Morgan and learned of their properties. Jessica was later injured in a scuffle between the Autobots and Decepticons, prompting the two men to trap various Autobots and infect them with the spores. However, the Hate Plague spread like wildfire, infecting Transformers, humans, and aliens alike. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1

The newly resurrected Optimus Prime was tasked with curing the disease. Not knowing what to do, Prime dove into the accumulated knowledge of the Matrix of Leadership to question the spirits of leaders before him about the matter. Eventually, the mysterious It informed him of the Hate Plague's past and its weakness to pure wisdom. Going back to the real world, Prime opened the Matrix and unleashed its accumulated wisdom unto the universe, eradicating the Hate Plague. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2

Known infected

Beast Machines

mfw you don't wash your hands

Megatron used a new variety of virus based on the Hate Plague in an attempt to destroy the Maximals. Nightscream compared it to the original Hate Plague. The Maximals were ultimately able to overcome this new strain of the Hate Plague by working together and purging the infection from their systems. A Wolf in the Fold

Animated

Surgeon General Arkeville suggested that Ding Dongs might be an effective remedy for the Hate Plague. The AllSpark Almanac

Beast Wars: Uprising

Deluge listed the Hate Plague as one of many bygone Cybertronian crises that few spoke of in the 24th century because of information creep. The Inexorable March

Of Masters and Mayhem

Given Firecracker's temper and unusually bright red colour scheme, Punch suspected that he'd contracted a permanent, non-communicable strain of the Hate Plague and had decided to own it. The Truth We Make

2019 IDW continuity

The Hate Plague was vanquished ages ago, to the point that Orion Pax thought it a half-legend in the era before the Great War. When Pax bonded to the Matrix of Leadership, he witnessed a fragment of the Plague within the Matrix, the Mediator software informing him that an echo of the Plague's contamination survived in the sparks it had claimed but that it could not harm him. Prime

War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon

BABUM

While in the Dead Universe, Megatron was tutored by a mysterious being on how to harness his rage while in the psychically-receptive space, where conventional weapons were useless. Indicating this was a power the being knew of, but was unable to harness against his master, he directed Megatron to channel his wrath into a "plague of hate". Erupting in crimson energy, Megatron was able to use it to fire on the Autobot ship, though Sky Lynx intercepted the blast, which utterly vaporized him. Earthrise episode 5

EarthSpark

A Quintesson shapeshifter infected one of Robby Malto's caps with Hate Plague. The sickness did not affect humans or Terrans, with them merely acting as carriers, so the plague was easily passed on to Bumblebee who began to act uncharacteristically aggressive while driving around Witwicky. The Truth Is Out There He eventually returned to the Autobot base and confronted Optimus Prime, infecting the other Autobots when they tried to subdue him. The affected Autobots began to glow red. Megatron and Optimus attempted to keep the sickness contained, but when Optimus was infected as well, Megatron was forced to use the Hypershuttle to escape with Twitch to a G.H.O.S.T. base in the Arctic. They were followed by Optimus, who infected Megatron, though the Decepticon leader was well acquainted with hate and managed to resist the Hate Plague's effects. Once they discovered that the plague was effectively cured by freezing temperatures, Hashtag hacked the Autobot base's system and lowered the ambient temperature, curing everyone. Fire and Ice Nightshade was able to rig up a small drone that could instantly cure the Hate Plague by spraying the victim with freezing gas. The Truth Is Out There

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Eons ago, an unknown villain first unleashed the Hate Plague on the universe, a malevolent nanotechnological fungus that drove entire worlds to madness. However, an ingenious bio-alchemist was able to find a cure and reverse its effects until only a small handful of spores remained. The last remaining samples of the disease wound up in a sealed vault that orbited a local star—however, many millions of years later, the star went supernova, and the explosion spread Hate Plague spores across the universe. While most of the spores drifted aimlessly through empty space, a handful hit an advanced human research vessel; when they returned to Earth, they inadvertently spread the Hate Plague across the planet. Fortunately, the newly returned Optimus Prime used the Matrix to contact Alpha Trion, who informed him that the "light of wisdom" contained within the Matrix could permanently destroy the plague spores. Prime did so, and the Earth was saved. Transformers Roleplaying Game bonus material

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Uchū Pest (宇宙ペスト Uchū Pesuto, "Space Plague")
• Mandarin: Chóuhèn Bìngdú (仇恨病毒, "Hate Virus")
• French: Maladie de la haine (Generation 1 cartoon, "Hate Disease"), Peste de haine (Beast Machines cartoon, "Plague of Hate")