Character discussion : This Week 'The Quintessons'

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 2:24 am

Ah the cruel Quintissons...
An interesting race, both in comic form, or eugh, cartoon form.
Doomed to fail?
Or just didnt count on the old Matrix?
Guilty or Innocent?

This weeks topic brought to you via Shanti418

(nice link from last weeks unicron)

jboyler · Post by **jboyler** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 5:33 am

I always thought these guys were pretty cool. I always thought the five rotating heads was very original. Lots and lots of sweet potential.

And they really are one of the most memorable parts of the movie. "Feed him to the Sharkticons!" Bwahahaha!

The only question I have is: What was the meaning of the whole opposite day thing they have going on? Are they trying to make a mockery of law and order, or do they just want their victims to feel a bit of hope before they take the plunge? How did you guys interpret this?

-J

Post by **Best First** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:30 am

Interesting designs, but they reek of plot device to me.

The only time they came close to char development was in Space Pirate IMO.

They don't seem to have much actual point though - why are they the way they are? What are their goals? ideals?

"Hey! Guys! Why don't we, as a race, make life difficult for that race over there?"

"ok!"

Also the cartoon notion they once ruled the TF seems rather rubbish to me - they just aren't col or threaening enough to convicngly once have had dominion over the TFs.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:54 am

Was Unicron thier master in the comic aswell?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:03 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:Was Unicron thier master in the comic aswell?

According to the Universe profiles yes.

Post by **Best First** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:57 am

wa Uni theri master in the Cartoons?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:02 am

Nah, he was built by a monkey.

Post by **Best First** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:34 am

i don't think ill ever get over that...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:40 am

Unicron was built by a monkey?

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:02 pm

A little space monkey that wore a space helmet.

Umm, Quintessons. Nah, don't like 'em. Boring and always used pretty transparently to move the plot along. I don't even like their designs that much...I think the Allicon things and the spiky guys with no hands are kinda interesting to look at, but the floaty eggy faces don't do anything for me. Neither do Sharkticons, come to that.

edit: altho the concept that there's some kinda deluded race that trails along after Unicron and executes al that escaped from him has legs. Would have liked to have seen a bit more of that played up, a bit more doomsday cult and less cackling gimpery.

Stormwolf · Post by **Stormwolf** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:16 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:Unicron was built by a monkey?

Yes, nobody knows how or why

I mean, why would you want to build a giant robot that will destroy the universe?

Or even better, how was that monkey able to build Unicron in the first place, resource gathering and construction would take a few hundred thousand years when you consider that he only had one assistant

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:20 pm

Best First wrote:wa Uni theri master in the Cartoons?

The original script for The Movie says the same thing that was said about them in Universe profiles; they hunt those who escaped Unicron. That would explain why they held those funny courts in TF:TM. Of course, it was later retconned and Quints were made Transformers' creators and the courts didn't make that much sense anymore.

I liked them as one-time baddies in Space Pirates. But them as the guys that made Transformers... no, that doesn't hold the candle to the comic origin.

I admit though, they were occasionally funny in the cartoon. That dialogue with Kup in Five Faces of Darkness. Or, in Big Broadcast, when after diplomatic approach with Junkions hadn't worked, they decided to try more subtle means... and sent in the Sharkticons.

Their general weirdness sometimes made me laugh, too.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:56 pm

KingMob wrote:...the concept that there's some kinda deluded race that trails along after Unicron and executes al that escaped from him has legs.

Which is more than they do...

Señior's Covenant · Post by **Señior's Covenant** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 1:21 pm

I hate that monkey.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 5:02 pm

I think "Five Faces" was a Quint high point.

No, they're not very strong, but I can imagine Quints holding dominion over Tf on Cybertron using their henchmen and/or the fact that it took millennia for TF to develop emotion or the comprehension of the difference between freedom and slavery.

IMO, the cartoon Quints acted as both Primus (creator figure that gives a more grandiose, epic story arc) and G2 Deceps (a 3rd Party sent in to jazz up the Auto/Decep idea who thinks that Autos AND Deceps are kinda lame).

I didn't really realize it at the time, but at the time of "Five Faces," they were really trying to "grow up" TF. You had the Quints, so it wasn't just good/bad anymore. There wasn't just good/bad: There was the Quints, there was sympathy for the destroyed Deceps, there was the WHINY Rodimus and the CRAZY Galvatron.

And instead of an army of TF, they were trying to create a swashbuckling, Star Wars feel for the Autobots, with the headstrong "do it my way" Han Solo kinda guy (Springer), his g/f Leia (Arcee), the conflicted hero guy (Rodimus) who has some connection to some power like the Force except it's the Matrix, a joe average soldier (UM), and some comic relief (instead of Droids, we got Blurr and Wheelie).

But here's my REAL question:

Why do the Quints only blame the Autobots for the theft of Cybertron?

Señior's Covenant · Post by **Señior's Covenant** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 5:08 pm

Shanti418 wrote:But here's my REAL question:

Why do the Quints only blame the Autobots for the theft of Cybertron?

I would take their blame as a more general statement. Likely during the occupation of Cybertron the majority of Decepticons/military-hardware had better treatment as they were the brunt of soldiers, slave-drivers, and executioners employed by the occupying Quintesson forces.

Shanti418 wrote: ...and some comic relief (instead of Droids, we got Blurr and Wheelie).

I'd take a handful of droids over Blurr and Wheelie any day.

Those two should be thrown into a smelting pool along with Seaspray, Wartpath, and, oh, who else?

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 5:45 pm

Outback. And the Scottish Cosmos. And that Girl Who Loved Powerglide.

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:30 pm

And possibly Powerglide, too.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:54 pm

KingMob wrote:floaty eggy faces

EGG.
Dammit, I saw this topic and wanted to get there first with the 'egg' thing.
I always thought the Quintessons were rubbish - I groaned when they appeared in the Energon comic, and slapped my forehead at the Alpha-Q (say it fast!) character.
Transformers is TRANSFORMERS - we don't need any other things coming in to take away their story (like humans). I hated the idea of the Quints (almost pronounced correctly

) being the creator of the TFs in the cartoon - and all the 'monkey makes Unicron/Matrix is lab assistant' hokey rubbish. In fact the entire third season of the cartoon was dump because of the space-based angle - robots in disguise? For what?
The ONLY thing I liked about the Quintessons was that there seemed to be various types of species in their race - unlike most sci-fi aliens (not counting that Xindii crap in Enterprise - hurrah for the miracle of cancellation!).

QuintEGGsons. Pah!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:41 pm

jboyler wrote:What was the meaning of the whole opposite day thing they have going on?

buh?

jboyler · Post by **jboyler** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:22 pm

Rebis wrote:
jboyler wrote:What was the meaning of the whole opposite day thing they have going on?
buh?

What is the meaning of their 'court' in which they execute someone after declaring them 'innocent?'

-J

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:40 pm

jboyler wrote:
Rebis wrote:
jboyler wrote:What was the meaning of the whole opposite day thing they have going on?
buh?
What is the meaning of their 'court' in which they execute someone after declaring them 'innocent?'

Yeah, I got that question. They just do it for their sadistic jollies: You end up in their cells, you're going down, whether proven guilty or innocent.

Just didn't understand the particular wording you used - opposite day thing.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:47 am

Isn't Ghyrik's Matrix-affinity one of the most revealing features about the Quints? They're obviously tied in to the whole Primus/Unicron thing somehow, else he wouldn't have been able to tap its power.

Then again, that's not taking into account the Matrix abilities of Buster, or the Klud, or Deathbringer. Maybe there are Matrix-sensitives in every race and it truly is a universal thing. Or as Furman attibuted, the Matrix was always a bit semi-sentient and it had the ability to choose those it affected. Interesting that it would choose Ghyrik in this case, giving him a thousand times strength. As we saw with Galvatron, the Matrix isn't necessarily an instant power boost, and Thunderwing knew of his Matrix affinity, but the Matrix ended up using him...though it didn't have any noticeable effect on Bumblebee who had been carrying it just moments earlier.

So to sum up, Ghyrik's Matrix-influenced abilities put him in a class that includes a number of Autobot leaders whose names revolve around Prime, a couple of other Transformers, the gods Primus and Unicron, and quite a few creatures that aren't even Transformers at all, who either gain strength and wisdom/just the strength/taint it with evil/actually go and live inside it/become a mind-controlled zombie by it/gain extra life from it/turn into a weird Aliens-esque creature because of it/gain ability to levitate objects/create new Transformer life. Why Ghyrik? It would seem, why not?

The Matrix confuses the hell out of me.

Spoon/No Spoon

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:54 am

Damn Keanu Reeves.
And Scourge had Matrix-boosted fun in the third series of the cartoon too. It gave him acne, by the looks of it.
Actually, how often WERE the egg-shaped Quints in the comic? I don't remember seeing them that much - it was mostly Ghyrik or some Sharkticons. Did the eggies have much to do in the comic at all?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:05 pm

Autobloke wrote:Did the eggies have much to do in the comic at all?

Dunno...I think the few times we saw them were on command bases handing out orders to guys like Ghyrik, or in Big Broadcast of 2006. Not really a lot to go on, considering that was a fairy story.

...and Starscream, I forgot about Starscream, I ask you, why would the Matrix (supposedly a repository of wisdom, as well as the essence of Primus, a Gateway to the Allspark, Optimus Prime's Spark Container, insubstantial, solid and crystalline, then siphoned out) choose Starscream to be the repository of unimaginable power?

I thought those Trident ships were the business though.

The Quints really underestimated Soundwave, didn't they?

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:11 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Big Broadcast of 2006

That's the title I was trying to remember! Brain failiure!
It does seem that the eggies weren't in the comic much, doesn't it? Although they did crop up just before their planet went 'poof!'

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:13 pm

Marvelwise the Quints were only in UK issues 180 to 187, the Movie adaptation and a mention in the Universe profiles.

The only characters referred to by name were Lord Kledji (big egg), Sevax (little egg) and Generals Ghyrik and Jolup.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:18 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Jolup

Quintessons had names that sounded like someone vomitting. A bit like those aliens in Red Dwarf.
Question is, if the Quints were so little-used in the comics, do we really care if they slip away into the neverland ether? I certainly wouldn't miss 'em.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:20 pm

Well Space Pirates was such a wicked story, plus it had implications on the Transformers Universe as a whole (their planet was destroyed by the growing rift in space and time that would wreak such havoc later in Time Wars).

They don't add anything to the plot of the movie really though.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:24 pm

But considering the lack of actual eggies in SP, them being mostly represented by Ghyrik, we could have lost them completely and it would have made absolutely NO difference to the quality of the story.