For me, it has to be when we see Silas die white light style. Humans have died in Transformers cartoons before, but they were always hidden by other things on screen. My mouth dropped.

 

In the cartoons? Honestly... not a lot. Probably Prowl's death in Animated.

Comics, on the other hand...

 

TFA Prowl dying.

Totally didn't like have my eyes water up or anything. Nope. Totally didn't.

 

Senator Shockwave.

 

Dinobot's death. Fucked me right up as a kid.

 

Primal's death at the end of BW season 1. I KNEW KNEW KNEW that there was no way he was going to die. The good guys always escape at the last second. ESPECIALLY when it's just a kids tv cartoon. Not even a movie. And up to that point in time, I don't think there had ever been a single major death in U.S. cartoon history. I kept scoffing at the dramatic music, and all the yelling and build-up. I was like- please. Just blast the door or something. And then he blew up, and I was like- Nah. He made it out somehow. But then they showed parts of him floating away and I was like - What the Fuuuuu?!

 

Dinobot from bw. It made dinobot2 all the more troubling to watch.

 

Seeing Megatron eating sparks in Beast Machines.

 

The Death of Optimus Prime in TFTM...that was horrible for me when I was younger. I nearly cried.

 

I think as a child what shocked me the most with the original cartoon was seeing an episode featuring Cobra Commander.

 

Pretty much this

 

Ratchet beating down Lockdown explicitly for revenge in Thrill of the Hunt in Animated surprised me, it's one of my favourite Transformers moments.

In comics, the Senator Shockwave reveal in MTMTE caused some serious shit flippage. I mean literally flailing off the sofa shouting "WHAT THE FUCK!?!". Good times.

 

When Optimus and Megs do it in a hot tub.. or was that in a fan-fic?
DAM YOU FAN GIRLS.

 

When Sari told Optimus where babies came from or maybe it was Optimus who was shocked

 

Where do human protoforms come from? Oh yes, Prime was definitely stunned when he found out....

 

Armada Sideways's betrayal.

 

If we had to go with just the cartoons in G1 the final unseen fate of Dr Arkeville (think that was his name) I found really cruel and upsetting as a kid even though he probably deserved it

If we extend to other stuff grindcore138's signature image is just a sample of the some of the wrong that takes place in the comics

And if we also extend it to the movies, the overtly sexualised and sexist portrayal of women in the movies aimed at a kids demographic is pretty shocking.

 

The credits.

 

Blurr getting cubed was unexpected, as I was so adament he would survive when everybody started speculating from promos that he may die.