| “ | Zeta Prime: Sentinel, why? Sentinel Prime: For all the power of Cybertron. |
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| ~ Sentinel as he executes Zeta Prime and revealing his true colors; his most famous quote. |
| “ | Sentinel Prime: Oh, Megatronus Prime. Of course you're a fan, Megatronus was the coolest Prime! The biggest, the baddest, the toughest! That's why after I killed him, I took his cog for myself. D-16: He was greater than you'll ever be! Sentinel Prime: I don't know, I'm pretty great. But I can understand why you'd want to wear his face over mine. Here. Let's make sure it doesn't come off. |
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| ~ Sentinel sadistically confessing that he took Megatronus' T-Cog after murdering him to D-16 before carving Megatronus' face on his chest. |
| “ | D-16: Where's Sentinel?! Sentinel: You pathetic little twits! Did you really think that you could knock down everything I've built?! Orion: It's over, Sentinel! You can't escape the truth! Sentinel: What truth? That I plucked the cogs from your newborn chests? Forced you to mine so that I could pay off the Quintessons and live like a king?! None of that matters! Because the truth... Is... What... I MAKE IT. |
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| ~ Sentinel's breakdown as D-16 and Orion Pax confront him, also the same speech that exposed his true nature to everyone in Iacon. |
Sentinel, falsely known as Sentinel Prime, is the main antagonist of the 2024 animated science fiction action film Transformers One, which is based on Hasbro‘s Transformers toyline.
Formerly the chief aide to the original 13 Primes, Sentinel betrayed and personally slaughtered each of them to rule Cybertron on behalf of their ancient enemies, the Quintessons. In turn, he took the title of a Prime for himself. Thereafter he ruled Iacon, the capital of Cybertron, for over 50 years cycles. During his reign, Sentinel imposed his reputation as a fair and benevolent ruler in order to prevent the entire populace from finding out about the extent of his selfish nature.
Consequently, the impact of Sentinel's treasonous actions would prove to be devastating as it spurred the once-friendly D-16 into a darker path; upon realizing the pain he had felt as an enslaved miner who merely amounted to Sentinel's self-serving goals, D-16 became the ruthless tyrant known as Megatron and broke his friendship with Orion Pax before the latter became the heroic Optimus Prime - thus making Sentinel responsible for destroying Orion's friendship with D-16 and thereupon indirectly triggering the future war between Optimus and Megatron as a result.
He was voiced by Jon Hamm.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- His motive is not only a mere lust for power, in which he will gleefully have everybody else suffer simply so that he can personally live as a king, but also because he personally found being an honorable and ethical individual to be boring.
- One of the reasons he even betrayed the Primes was because he was simply annoyed by their constant heroic speeches of determination against the Quintessons, this reveals that he was so arrogant to the point that he didn't want to receive advice from anyone, not even from his friends.
- While he does express his belief that the Cybertronians would have eventually lost the war against the Quintessons, it only shows how little he believes in his own kind, and it is heavily implied to be a case of Sentinel only having a self-serving memory as with how Alpha Trion recounts it, the 2 sides were on a stalemate in which what could've been an attack on the Quintesson Commanders' meeting would've led to them defeating the Quintessons for good.
- One of the reasons he even betrayed the Primes was because he was simply annoyed by their constant heroic speeches of determination against the Quintessons, this reveals that he was so arrogant to the point that he didn't want to receive advice from anyone, not even from his friends.
- Despite being their most trusted ally, he callously betrayed the 13 Primes to earn his way into the Quintessons' good graces by selling out Cybertron to them in exchange for ruling it on their behalf.
- He told the Primes about a secret meeting with Quintesson Commanders in a cave, luring them into an ambush. Then just as it seemed they finally won the battle, Sentinel swopped in to personally kill all of them in cruel ways, except Alpha Trion, such as literally stabbing Nexus Prime in the back, decapitating Megatronus Prime and using Nexus's blaster to shoot Solus Prime where she was stabbed in the chest and shoot Zeta Prime in the head before taking away the Matrix of Leadership in order to become powerful, although this backfired due to Primus seeing Sentinel unworthy of it due to his power-hungry and treacherous nature.
- Even worse, he desecrated Megatronus Prime's corpse and stole his transformation cog to boost his own power.
- Furthermore, it’s noted that the legends about the Primes and the Matrix are recorded using Alpha Trion’s voice, implying that Sentinel used a replica of the Prime’s voice to push his own agenda and make himself look more trustworthy, making him even more despicable for misusing the legacy of his former allies.
- He told the Primes about a secret meeting with Quintesson Commanders in a cave, luring them into an ambush. Then just as it seemed they finally won the battle, Sentinel swopped in to personally kill all of them in cruel ways, except Alpha Trion, such as literally stabbing Nexus Prime in the back, decapitating Megatronus Prime and using Nexus's blaster to shoot Solus Prime where she was stabbed in the chest and shoot Zeta Prime in the head before taking away the Matrix of Leadership in order to become powerful, although this backfired due to Primus seeing Sentinel unworthy of it due to his power-hungry and treacherous nature.
- When his actions caused Energon rivers, which sustained life on Cybertron, to dry up, he enslaved the next generations of Cybertronians for the next 50 cycles (equivalent to 50 years), to be miners to work in dangerous and unstable Energon mines that can easily crush them to death, all so that he can pay up Energon as tribute to the Quintessons and live like a king.
- Although he is loyal to the Quintessons, it is only out of pragmatism as it benefits him to live like a king as long as he gives Energon to them.
- He made a protocol to abandon everyone who all could not make it out of the mines whenever they collapsed, with death or severe maiming/crippling being a common thing. By handing over the Energon, he knowingly deprives his kind from their source of living and condemns them to a slow death.
- What is worse is that to ensure they can be enslaved; Sentinel removed their transformation cogs for all these generations from their newborn bodies - thereby crippling all of them. When faced with such a revelation, characters are in complete disbelief that someone can even be evil enough to mutilate and cripple generations of unborn Transformers.
- He only selected a few Transformers to get their cogs back, but only to manage his enslavement campaign for his own end and do the Iacon 5000 to boost morale and make the miners oblivious to their oppression and suffering. Furthermore, him not taking away the cogs of a few people is only to give out the impression that those that are loyal to him will be "Rewarded" with something they're always meant to have so they would remain on his side.
- Through unknown methods, he convinced the entirety of Iacon that people who lacked cogs were simply citizens of lower status. Given how the idea of cogless cybertronians did not exist prior to Sentinel's regime, this essentially means that he outright invented classism on his planet. As many "normal" citizens like Darkwing were shown discriminating against people who couldn't transform.
- Given by how "came online" is the Transformers counterpart of "being born", this would mean Sentinel didn't just remove cogs of children and mutilate them, but he also did it while they were in the womb.
- Despite being aware that it was a heartless decision to take their cogs away, as evident in his breakdown scene when he was about to lash out at the heroes for getting in his way, he makes it clear that he did not care and was alright to have newborn bot cogless for his own self benefit and claim that "the truth his what [he] makes it".
- What is worse is that to ensure they can be enslaved; Sentinel removed their transformation cogs for all these generations from their newborn bodies - thereby crippling all of them. When faced with such a revelation, characters are in complete disbelief that someone can even be evil enough to mutilate and cripple generations of unborn Transformers.
- To ensure the truth about his betrayal is kept secret, he suppresses any and all dissidence and opposition, including trying to find and wipe out the High Guard, who knew of his true nature and wanted to put a stop to him.
- The deception and torture he has inflicted upon D-16 is what causes him to snap and become the vengeful and ruthless tyrant Megatron, who founded the Decepticons.
- This would also lead to Megatron breaking off his friendship with Orion/Optimus and becoming his arch-nemesis, thereby making Sentinel responsible for the creations of Megatron and Optimus Prime as well as their organizations of the Autobots and the Decepticons.
- Furthermore, and worst of all, Sentinel would be indirectly responsible for triggering the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons that would prove devastating for many cycles.
- Additionally, his actions toward D-16 is what that lead to his hatred toward the Primes, which is only made worse by Sentinel not being an actual Prime.
- This would also lead to Megatron breaking off his friendship with Orion/Optimus and becoming his arch-nemesis, thereby making Sentinel responsible for the creations of Megatron and Optimus Prime as well as their organizations of the Autobots and the Decepticons.
- It is implied he was the one who sent B-127 to sub-level 50, which caused the latter to become lonely and create his own friends from garbage until he met Orion Pax and D-16.
- Unlike D-16/Megatron and the Decepticons, who had sympathetic and tragic reasonings of becoming villains and still had redeeming qualities, Sentinel is nothing more than an uncaring egomaniac who will condemn his own kind to a slow death simply for the sake of his selfish ambitions as well as displaying an unhealthy annoyance with heroics and nobility.
- While he possesses some comedic moments, such as his reaction upon seeing Orion and D participating in the Iacon 5000 despite them lacking a cog and laughing hard when Orion and D-16 believed that they're going to be demoted after their participation in the Iacon 5000 Race, which prompts Orion, D-16 and even Airachnid to nervously laugh along with him (which is something his Bayverse counterpart doesn't have for obvious reasons and the fact that Transformers One was a Kids movie rather than a PG-13 movie), most of these were only when his true nature wasn't reveal, and when it eventually was, he is played very seriously by everyone in-universe (with not even Bee, the comic relief of the film, viewing him as a joke), and his worst crimes are played for horror and drama, with most of them showing how self-serving and deplorable he really is.
- Although he was originally affable and kind towards Cybertronians, it was all an act to hide his true nature, as deep inside, he couldn’t care less about his own people. And he does little to nothing to stop his bots like Darkwing from bullying and harassing the Miner because they can't transform.
Transformers One[]
- While he was genuinely impressed with Orion Pax and D-16's participation in the Iacon 5000 Race and was planning on promoting them, even telling D that he was a great miner before he was about to execute him, it was completely pragmatic as their actions inspired the miners to mine more Energon than usual.
- Not to mention, it was all a complete lie, as he would secretly have Darkwing send them to sub-level 50. As they outlived their usefulness.
- When his Energon payment to the Quintessons is running short due to the Energon mines nearly running out and having to leave some Energon for Cybertron's population to survive, Sentinel has the miners' workload triple to harvest all the Energon of the mines and deprive his kind of the very fuel they need to survive, all just to save his skin and remain a king.
- While he was shown being tortured on screen by the Quintesson High Commander before he ordered this, it doesn't make him a scapegoat, nor does it justify this action.
- He even states that if this increase in workload will work the miners to death, he will let it all happen.
- When Alpha Trion defiantly foretells his defeat, Sentinel executes him, by decapitation, out of mere annoyance of his defiance and for doing a "heroic speech", and even hypocritically views it as disrespectful.
- When his right-hand lieutenant Airachnid captured dozens of High Guard members, as well as B-127 and D-16, Sentinel planned to publicly execute them while framing them for his crimes. When B-127 and D-16 angrily point out that the real truth is that Sentinel is the real traitor, Sentinel smugly twists in his own words that "the truth is what I make it".
- When D-16, completely disillusioned with Sentinel by this point, refused to bend his knees to him, Sentinel gloats about how he ruined his life before beating him down and gleefully tortures him by painfully carving a mockery of Megatronus' face onto his chest with a blowtorch. And all the while taunting him about how he took his idol's cog to boost his own power.
- He would later try to personally execute D-16 after the latter still remained defiant.
- After D-16 cripples Sentinel once his back was turned, the latter cowardly begs for his life and tried to convince D-16 that they could rule Cybertron together.
- Although he showed shock over his Trackers being killed by Megatron in front of his face, it was out of fear of being killed himself.
- While his death of being brutally ripped in half by D-16/Megatron was horrific, it's not played for sympathy at all.
- For one thing, nobody mourns his death. Many civilians, most notably Elita and B, were only shocked by his murder due to the sheer brutality of it and their only dismay they felt about the entire scenario is how D-16 ended up losing his moral compass and self-control in the process of executing Sentinel. Meanwhile, members of the High Guard were outright cheering over it.
- While Orion does try to save Sentinel, even directly taking a fatal shot for him, it was because a public execution would leave a bad impression for the future of Iacon and because he didn't want D-16 to lose his moral compass to become just like Sentinel, not because he pitied him. After Sentinel is killed and Orion is reborn as Optimus, the newly reborn prime showed not no empathy for his death, not even in his final moments after banishing Megatron and rebranding the Miners as Autobots, with the only time he ever addresses him is when calling out Megatron's hypocrisy and telling him how he became just as bad as Sentinel, if not worse.
- Not to mention the fact that Sentinel showed no gratitude or gratefulness for Orion saving him as he only saw it as an opportunity to escape from D-16 wrath, showing that him is a truly and utterly ungrateful person.
- Overall, this proved that Sentinel truly deserved to die considering what he did to all of Cybertron, as well as for being the irredeemable greedy and spineless monster he really was.
- Though this relies on Fridge Horror, Sentinel Prime had one last laugh in his final moments; his murder at hands of D-16 allowed him to bring whatever secrets Quintessons shared to him to his grave, ensuring his employers had certain advantages against Cybertronians despite having Optimus Prime on their side.
- Although Sentinel Prime had nothing directly to do with the birth of the Autobots or the Decepticons, his actions posthumously caused conflict among the two groups, dividing Cybertron and causing another war that will inevitably cause the planet to descend into chaos overtime.
Trivia[]
- He is one of two versions of Sentinel Prime to be pure evil, alongside his live action counterpart.
- He is shown to be far more vile and evil than his live action counterpart, this is because the film's version of the character was at least trying to save Cybertron in spite of his unacceptable actions and selfish motives, whereas the animated movie's counterpart here was simply power-hungry to the point of betraying Cybertron as a whole, so much in fact that the animated version even went as far as to strip newborns of their ability to transform, which is something the live-action counterpart never extended to do when it comes to their crimes.
- He, along with Airachnid, are the only characters from Transformers One to be Pure Evil.
- Usually in many Transformers continuities, Megatronus Prime betrays the 13 Primes for the sake of power, therefore becoming the Fallen, and he was the basis of the Decepticons (and even its secret founder). However, in Transformers One, Megatronus is heroic and never betrayed the Primes, and he was murdered by Sentinel. Due to his betrayal of the 13 Primes, Sentinel can be considered to be the Fallen of this continuity, not Megatronus.
- Sentinel Prime's Aligned Continuity counterpart was also a false Prime and a pawn of the Quintessons, however unlike that version where he was an unwilling puppet of the Quintessons that breaks free from his masters to save the Cybertronians, this version is a willingly servant of the Quintessons and remains loyal to them.
- The scene where Sentinel confronts the captured High Guard and D-16 was originally going to be much darker, as he would have executed some of them by shooting them to death. Had this been kept, Sentinel would have been a lot worse.
- There's also another cut scene where Sentinel would have beheaded Alpha Trion onscreen.
- Two of his rivals, Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and Alpha Trion are Pure Good heroes
- Given by how there's no one outside of the High Guard who were born before Sentinel's betrayal and never followed him, this could mean one of two things: Either Sentinel slaughtered all of them, or he offered them to the Quintessons as a down payment. Regardless of which, it would mean Sentinel also committed genocide.
External Links[]
- Sentinel Prime on the Villains Wiki
- Sentinel Prime on the Hate Sink Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
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Animation Comics Fanon See Also | ||
