Unicron War

The Unicron War refers to Unicron's attack upon Cybertron and his efforts to destroy Primus. Unicron's threat is successfully repelled by a joint effort between the Autobots and the Decepticons (but mostly the Matrix of Leadership).

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The Unicron War spun directly out of the events of the Battle of Autobot City. The planet-eater Unicron was first drawn to the Transformers on Earth and Cybertron when the dying Optimus Prime bequeathed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus. Unicron recognized the Matrix as the only thing capable of eliminating him and so, seeking a means to destroy it, began what would be known as the "Unicron War".

Following the Battle of Autobot City, Decepticon leader Megatron and several of his injured subordinates were thrown out of Astrotrain and set adrift in outer space. Unicron sought to use these discarded Decepticons as his servants. Upgrading Megatron into Galvatron and the other Decepticons into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps, he charged them with the mission of destroying the Matrix.

After a brief trip to Cybertron to reassert his authority as leader of the Decepticons, Galvatron then led his forces back to Autobot City on Earth. Now under the command of Unicron, Galvatron's single goal was to destroy Ultra Magnus and the Matrix within him. When Ultra Magnus and several other Autobots fled in shuttles, Galvatron and the Decepticons gave chase, shooting one shuttle down on the planet Quintessa, and seemingly destroying the shuttle piloted by Ultra Magnus. Galvatron, thinking his mission a success, returned to Unicron.

It was a ruse, however, and Ultra Magnus and his Autobots had escaped to the Planet of Junk. Informing Galvatron of his failure, Unicron dispatched his servants to Junk to finish the job. Galvatron was more successful on his second attempt, blowing Ultra Magnus to pieces and stealing the Matrix for himself.

Galvatron, desiring freedom from Unicron, attempted to wield the Matrix against his master. Unfortunately, he was not capable of opening the device and was promptly eaten. Enraged by his servant's behavior, Unicron transformed to robot mode and swore to destroy all of Cybertron in retaliation. Shockwave quickly ordered all Decepticons to engage in a counterattack on their foe, though their firepower proved ineffective.

The Autobots, both those who had been stranded on Quintessa and on Junk, arrived to aid in defending Cybertron, joining forces with the Decepticons in battle. Several Autobots invaded Unicron by flying their ship through his eye, though were met by his inner defenses. The Autobot Hot Rod became separated from his teammates and ran afoul of Galvatron (still carrying the Matrix). Galvatron initially asked for Hot Rod's aid in destroying their common foe, but still under Unicron's control, was forced to fight his would-be-comrade, instead.

The battle continued until Hot Rod removed the Matrix from Galvatron's possession, transforming himself into Rodimus Prime. Throwing Galvatron into deep space, Rodimus Prime then opened the Matrix, causing a devastating chain reaction within Unicron's body. Rodimus and the other Autobots escaped just as Unicron's body exploded, with only his head left to sightlessly orbit Cybertron. The Transformers: The Movie

Following the end of the Unicron War, the Decepticons, who had previously been in control of Cybertron, were driven from the planet by the Autobots. The Decepticons would eventually seek asylum on planet Chaar. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1

Galvatron would eventually crash-land into a plasma pit on the planet Thrull. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2

Unicron's head would continue to orbit Cybertron for many years, causing various sorts of trouble. Ghost in the Machine Grimlock's New Brain

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

The energy released by his destruction would be known as Angolmois Energy. It would eventually be used to resurrect the planet-eater, who would make a second attempt to destroy Cybertron many hundreds of years later. Unicron Revived!?

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

After Primus had inadvertently been awakened, Unicron became aware of his brother's location and set course to finish their duel. The Primal Scream The Transformers scrambled to find the lost Creation Matrix to destroy the Chaos Bringer, Bird of Prey! A group of Autobots tracked down the talisman to the moon of VsQs where they found that the Matrix had developed sentience without a host and encounters with alien lifeforms had turned it evil. As such, the Matrix latched onto Thunderwing, Dark Creation forcing the Autobots to send it adrift once again leaving them with no defence against the coming of Unicron. All Fall Down

A temporally displaced Galvatron knew however that Unicron could also be felled if all Transformers were united as one and convinced Primus to recall all his creations back home. Out of Time! After the Transformers had dealt with the Acolyte of Unicrons, Unicron himself arrived. The Void

The sheer size of the Chaos Bringer threw the Transformers into a panicked frenzy requiring Galvatron to mount a lone attack to rally his people into battle. In spite of this unity, Unicron still murdered millions of Transformers, even banishing Primus from the physical plane, before the corrupted Matrix returned and attempted to destroy Unicron. Bereft of its virtuous nature however, it was no threat to the Chaos Bringer who swatted it aside with ease.

After that, Unicron decided to simply devour Cybertron in planetary mode before G.B. Blackrock managed to rally Circuit Breaker into unleashing her full power on the Chaos Bringer temporarily stunning him. This bought Optimus Prime the time he needed to purify the Matrix and open it within Unicron destroying the dark god. On the Edge of Extinction!

Though Unicron was vanquished, it had seemed he was ultimately victorious as Cybertron threatened to tear itself apart in a series of planetary quakes. Still Life! It was later revealed however that the Matrix had sacrificed itself to destroy Unicron and had released a wave of healing energy onto Cybertron, the quakes being a side-effect that were eventually quelled by the Last Autobot, a contingency Primus had placed in the event he was banished during Unicron's attack. End of the Road!

Classics

In 2012 when facing off against his negative polarity counterpart, Octopunch boasted that he had survived the Unicron War. Invasion

Regeneration One

Though he was resurrected after destroying Unicron, Optimus Prime carried lingering trauma from the Unicron War. Even twenty-one years later, he was still haunted by visions of the Chaos Bringer returning. Loose Ends, Part 1 This trauma snowballed into an aggressive form of pacifism with Optimus adamantly refusing to believe the Decepticons were returning, confident that the Unicron War had been the end of the Great War. Counterpoint

Ask Vector Prime

In a hybrid universe created by the machinations of Sideways and Gong, the Unicron War incorporated the GoBots. After a few quantum destabilizations—first pitting the Autobots against the Renegades, and later the Decepticons against the Guardians—the reality coalesced into an amalgamated universe that incorporated both GoBots and Transformers. In this strange timeline, Leader-1 perished at the hands of Megatron, passing the Guardian Matrix of Leadership on to Major Mo. Unicron reformatted Megatron into Galvatron to seize the Matrix, with Fracture and Deadlift in place of Cyclonus and Scourge.

Kup, Hot Rod, and the Dinobots crashed on Antares III, where they battled Master Renegade and his Monster GoBots, while Springer, Arcee, and Major Mo encountered and allied with the Rock Lords on Quartex.

During Unicron's final assault on Cybertron, Vector Prime managed to intervene from behind the scenes. The two universes were set back on their correct courses, allowing Hot Rod to open the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and save the day. Echoes and Fragments

In Primax 490.0 Gamma, Unicron managed to destroy Cybertron. This act caused the essence of Primus to be diffused among the remaining Cybertronians, turning the once amoral Cybertronian Empire into a force for good. When Unicron re-emerged and began attacking the cyberformed planets in the Empire, Jhiaxus united the surviving Autobots and Decepticons. The united Cybertronians fought valiantly against Unicron, and even Liege Maximo sacrificed himself to permanently expel Unicron from this reality. In the aftermath, the Cybertronian Empire and the Confederation of Terran Worlds became steadfast allies. Ask Vector Prime, 24/06/2015

Beast Wars: Uprising

Unicron attacked Cybertron during the height of the Great War. Autobots, Decepticons, and even Neutrals came together to defeat the Chaos Bringer but thousands upon thousands of them perished under his heel. With the Matrix lost to the Cybertronians, Unicron was brought down through the actions of a select few. The scientist Deluge took note of this fact and endeavoured to create additional Point One Percenters in the future. Peace reigned for a time following the Chaos Bringer's destruction before the war inevitably restarted, more violent than ever.

By the 24th century, information creep had caused memories of the attack to become distorted, some doubting Unicron had ever even existed. The Inexorable March

2005 IDW continuity

Many sects of Cybertronian religion spoke of Unicron, the uncreator, the diametric opposite to Primus, with both acting as a natural counterbalance for the other. In these stories, Primus, either alone or with help from the Titans, banished his foe and brought life to Cybertron. One version of the story, however, predicted that the Chaos Bringer would return one day but that the Arisen would lead Cybertron's defence and slay the monster, bringing peace to the universe. You, Me, and Other Revelations All Good Things Origin Myths Last Stand

This dreaded prophecy was fated, however, to become far more than a mere story. In the year 2013, the Decepticon Shockwave attempted to enact the Dark Cybertron prophecy but lost control of his chronal drive, ...And the Damage Done sending him hurtling back to Cybertron's prehistory, after the Knights of Cybertron had left the planet. After years of aimlessly wandering the wilderness, Shockwave chanced across a shepherd named Onyx whom he slew before appropriating his identity. As "Onyx Prime", Shockwave manipulated events to bring together the legendary Thirteen Primes together before pushing their leader, Prima, to enact a galactic expansion he dubbed the "Pax Cybertronia." Inspired, Prima commissioned a mighty fleet, led by the Titan Nemesis, to conquer the neighbouring world of Antilla. Though the Antillans fought back against the invaders, they failed to match the might of the Transformers, bringing them to the brink of extinction. One Antillan, despondent at the death of his daughter, created a machine that sterilized the blighted world before refashioning it into an ultimate weapon of retribution against the Cybertronian race. Returning to Antilla years later, Shockwave discovered the dormant superweapon and conspired to use it as part of his goals to ensure a perpetual Cybertronian hegemony. The First Who Was Named Our Finest Road's End

In 2017, the Prysmosian sorcerer Merklynn would unwittingly activate Unicron during his creation of New Prysmos within Cybertron's underground. First Strike #6 When the Cybertronians clashed with the Prymosian squatters, the Talisman sent out another summons to its creation, dubbing the monster planet "Unicron" after the Cybertronian legend. As its first act, Unicron assimilated the black hole it had once orbited so as to exploit its quantum tunnels as a power source. The Curtain Our Darkest Unstopped and Unstoppable Assembly Historia

Though Shockwave intended that Unicron devour all of the Cybertronian colonies, growing stronger by the assimilation of the Regenesis ores seeded on those worlds, before ultimately consuming Cybertron, its magic-tainted energon killing the weapon from within, Last Stand Unicron was driven by the spirit of the Antillan that had created it, and was thus guided by a vengeance that Shockwave had not anticipated for. Ceremony

The opening week of the "depressingly asymmetrical" war saw Unicron consume the vast majority of the Regenesis worlds before it was joined by the Maximals, the betrayed servants of Shockwave, as it consumed Devisiun. Unstopped and Unstoppable With this army acting as its heralds, Unicron attacked Caminus, having the Maximals attack the Autobot fleet, ultimately consuming the planet. Last Stand Unicron's position was tracked down by the Decepticon Vengeance Division, an impromptu Decepticon fleet, whom Starscream ordered to destroy Unicron at G Nebula 89. Though the fleet possessed enough firepower to destroy dozens of planets, Bludgeon betrayed them to Unicron, who warped them via Ore-11, into its new heralds for its attack on Cybertron. Stranger Eons

When Unicron arrived at Cybertron, now having gained a robot mode, it physically tore into the planet, Our Finest before the magic of the Spectral Knights teleported the populace to safety. With no opposition remaining, Unicron ripped the empty globe in two, effectively destroying Cybertron. Though Shockwave had intended for this to be the end of conflict, the teleportation wave had brought the Talisman to Earth, leaving Unicron free to follow the Transformers there. Road's End

Unicron was soon assaulted by the combined forces of Cybertron, Earth, and Elonia while Optimus Prime and Arcee fought their way to the monster's core via a path cleared by the Talisman. At the core, Optimus followed the Talisman into the black hole, emerging in infraspace where he was confronted by the spectre of Unicron's creator. Though the two initially came to blows, Optimus was able to convince the ancient scientist to abandon his vendetta, causing Unicron to collapse in on itself and ending the battle. Ceremony

Notes

• In Japan, the term "Unicron War" was coined by the writers of the Transformers 2010 story pages (most likely by Masumi Kaneda) as a means to describe the events of The Transformers: The Movie, which would not be released in Japan until 1989. With the events of the Unicron War being referred to extensively but never seen, it gained a mysterious and almost legendary quality, both among the characters in the series and the audience observing the fiction. The term was also used in multiple episodes of the Transformers 2010 dub, often by the narrator at the start of episodes like "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2" and in Secret Files of Teletraan II segments, and is still used in Japanese fiction to refer to the conflict to this day.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Unicron Sensō (ユニクロン戦争, "Unicron War")