Quintesson Judge

The Quintesson Judges (alternatively known as the Imperial Magistrates) are a subspecies of multi-headed squid-like Quintessons.

"All shall be judged."

―The Quintesson Judges' motto

Biology[]

Anatomy[]

Quintesson Judges are built upon an inverted egg-shaped body which floats upon a beam of energy, with several wiry tentacles for physical manipulation. However, by far their most distinctive physical characteristic would be their five rotating faces, each one representing a different aspect of the Quintesson. However, there are conflicting reports as to what most of these faces represents.

The order of these faces is unique to each judge and consists of:

A green, almost skull-like face called the "Face of Death" or simply "Death". A mummy-like variant of this face also exists.
A yellow and green "suspicious" face called "Doubt" or "Judgement". A feminine variant of this face with a smaller gold headpiece also exists.
An orange and white "smiling" face called "Laughter", "War", "Wit", or "Chaos". A reddish-orange and blue variant of this face with googly bug-eyes also exists.
A green and yellow "grimacing" face called "Bitterness", "Wisdom", or "Ego". A variant of this face with a different headpiece also exists.
And a red and black "angry" face called "Rage", "Wrath", or "Cruelty". A feminine variant of this face with more black than red also exists.

While most judges appear to be of about the same size, smaller models such as Sevax and larger models such as the massive Lord Kledji are also known to exist.

In certain universes, Quintesson Judges are hybrid beings created by the Quintesson Scientist whose three heads are based on the native lifeforms of whichever universe they travel to. One notable Judge was the former Decepticon Seeker Starscream, whose other heads were of a Velgrox and a Grey.

Powers and abilities[]

Quintesson Judges share many of the same abilities as other Quintessons.

Weaknesses[]

Quintesson Judges share many of the same weaknesses as other Quintessons.

Culture and society[]

Quintesson Judges share a similar culture to other Quintessons. In addition to being the most prominent and infamous Quintesson caste, they are also the apparent leaders of their race.

Although a Quintesson Judge's primary function is to determine the sentences of their unfortunate victims in Quintessa's courtrooms, they also serve as the face of their many business and war excursions.

Gallery[]

Judge Faces[]

Notes[]

The Quintesson Judges did not receive any merchandise until the Cyberverse toyline in 2019, followed by the War for Cybertron: Earthrise toyline months later.
Regis Cordic is the primary voice actor for the Quintesson Judge, having first played the unnamed Judge featured in The Transformers: The Movie. Cordic later became one the primary recurring voices of the Quintessons in the third season of the Generation 1 cartoon, usually playing Judges.
- Other key voice actors for Quintesson Judges were Roger C. Carmel, who voice the Prosecutor in the same movie; and Jack Angel, who would normally be casted in certain episodes where more than two speaking roles were required.
- In episodes produced by AKOM, Cordic's Quintesson (usually designated "Quintesson #1" in scripts) would commonly speak from the Face of Doubt, while Carmel's ("Quintesson #2") used the Face of Laughter. Angel's intermittently appearing third Quintesson would most often use the Face of Death. But between Judges' natural ability to rotate between their faces and animation errors within the episodes themselves, these were not absolute rules.
- In episodes produced by Toei Animation, Judges usually spoke from the Face of Death regardless of voice actor.
Bizarrely, the Quintesson Judges depicted in The Transformers: The Movie are actually inaccurate to their character models. The Judges in that film have the faces of Wisdom and Wit on either side of Death, while the actual model has Wrath and Doubt in those respective places. Luckily, season 3 of the cartoon would get this orientation right.
- Meanwhile, the Judge design featured in the War for Cybertron: Earthrise toyline and Netflix's War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon would replicate the orientation used in the 1986 movie.
During the production of Transformers: The Last Knight, a Judge-type Quintesson was planned to serve as one of the primary antagonists before being replaced with the enigmatic sorceress Quintessa.
- Curiously, this "Judge" would have been at a massive size similar to Lord Kledji from the Generation 1 comics published by Marvel.

Face Identities[]

Out of the Quintesson Judges' faces, the only face identified during the run of the original Generation 1 cartoon was the "Face of Death", which memorably called out directly by the narrator of the Secret Files of Teletraan II.
The script for The Transformers: The Movie would utilize descriptors for the remainder of the Judges' faces. The red and black scary-looking face was "angry"; the orange and white grinning face was "smiling"; the green and yellow disappointed-looking face was "grimacing"; and the yellow and green skeptical-looking face was "suspicious". Artist Floro Dery designed the Judge faces to represent these emotions.
- The "suspicious" face has been identified as "Doubt" in fan-made translations created by Andrew Hall circa 2002 and the instruction manual for the War for Cybertron Trilogy Quintesson Pit of Judgement multi-pack. It has recently been identified as "Judgement" in Transformers: The Ultimate Guide and concept art for the Cyberverse Alpha Judge.
- The "smiling" face has the most alternate names, having been identified as "Laughter" in Hall's fan-made translations, "War" in The Ultimate Guide, "Wit" in the Quintesson Pit of Judgement multi-pack instructions, and "Chaos" in Cyberverse concept art.
- The "grimacing" and "angry" faces have been identified as "Bitterness" and "Rage" in Hall's fan-made translations; "Wisdom" and "Wrath" in both The Ultimate Guide and the Quintesson Pit of Judgement multi-pack instructions; and "Ego" and "Cruelty" in Cyberverse concept art.
The negative polarity Judge faces go as follows, the Face of Joy is designed to resemble popular depictions of The Buddha, the Face of Satisfaction is designed to resemble Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and coloured like Doctor Teeth from The Muppet Show, the face of Peace is designed to resemble Mahatma Gandhi, the Face of Love is designed to resemble John Lennon and the Face of Compassion is designed to resemble Martin Luther King Jr.
The first set of names for the other Quintesson Judge faces were found on a spread in the January 1987 issue of Japan's Comic Bom Bom would reflect this intent, using mostly direct translations of the English descriptors. However, these descriptors would remain unknown to Western audiences until circa 2002. When Andrew Hall provided a translation, he identified the "angry" face as "Rage", the "smiling" face as "Laughter", the "grimacing" face as "Bitterness", and the "suspicious" face as "Doubt". Of course, these translated designations were not prevalent in the fandom at the time.
- When author Simon Furman penned the 2004 book Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, he invented his own set of names for the Quintesson Judge faces: the "angry" face was "Wrath", the smiling face was dubbed "War"; the "grimacing" face was dubbed "Wisdom"; and the "suspicious" face was dubbed "Judgement". While he struck lucky dubbing the "angry" face, the others have no connection to the actual intent behind the Quintessons' design.
In 2020, the Quintessons made their big comeback as part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy franchise. The instruction manual for the Quintesson Pit of Judgement multi-pack using a combination of new and established names for the faces. These names were reinforced by their use in the War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon, which was released a few months later.
- During that same year, Quintessons appeared in the third season of the Cyberverse cartoon, with the Alpha Judge being modeled after the original Quintesson Judge design. The Judge's faces are identified on concept art made by Léo Chiola.