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Vector Sigma
Vector Sigma is the ancient mega-computer at Cybertron's core that gave every Transformer life, a glowing sphere in a chamber deep beneath the planet's surface.
The record
What it is
Vector Sigma is the most important place in G1 that is also a character. It sits in a spherical chamber deep within Cybertron, appearing as a vast glowing orb ringed by rotating bands, and it is described flatly as the mega-computer that gave all Transformers life. Reaching it requires descending through the planet's buried strata, and operating it requires the Key to Vector Sigma, a physical artefact Alpha Trion guards.
Its two-part debut, The Key to Vector Sigma, is the cartoon's most consequential story after the pilot. Megatron steals the Key from Alpha Trion, brings his newly built Stunticons to the chamber and has Vector Sigma imbue them with genuine personalities, turning empty shells into living Decepticons. Optimus Prime builds the Aerialbots in response, but Megatron leaves with the Key, and the Autobots find the computer dormant. Alpha Trion, himself a first-generation product of Vector Sigma sharing its computation matrix, merges his own lifeforce into the machine to reactivate it long enough to animate the Aerialbots. He does not survive.
Vector Sigma returns as the engine of the series finale. In The Rebirth, Part 2 Optimus uses the emptied shell of the Matrix of Leadership to reactivate it and speak with Alpha Trion, who reveals that Vector Sigma itself engineered the entire crisis around the Plasma Energy Chamber in order to bring about a new Golden Age. In Part 3 the released solar energy is channelled back into the computer, which uses it to re-energise the whole planet. Vector Sigma is not a tool in G1. It is the planet's will.
History
What happened here
| Event | Episode |
|---|---|
| Megatron steals the Key from Alpha Trion and brings the Stunticons to life | The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1 |
| Alpha Trion sacrifices himself by merging his lifeforce with the computer to animate the Aerialbots | The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2 |
| The Key is revealed to de-energize organic matter into lifeless metal, and Megatron tries to convert Earth | The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2 |
| Optimus uses the emptied Matrix shell to reactivate Vector Sigma and contact Alpha Trion | The Rebirth, Part 2 |
| Solar energy is rerouted into Vector Sigma, re-energizing Cybertron and starting a new Golden Age | The Rebirth, Part 3 |
Continuity
Comics versus cartoon
Marvel has no Vector Sigma at all; life on its Cybertron comes from the god Primus and is administered through the Matrix and the Creation Matrix, with Optimus Prime himself carrying the power to animate machines.
Detail
Trivia
- Vector Sigma is voiced by Corey Burton, who also voiced Spike Witwicky and Shockwave in the same series.
- The Key to Vector Sigma's secondary power, turning organic matter into dead metal, is introduced and destroyed within a single episode and never mentioned again.
- Beast Machines later revealed that the Oracle is Vector Sigma, or at least a shell program wrapped around it, retroactively connecting two continuities.
- A hollow plastic Vector Sigma with a removable Circuit Key and a hovering display stand was a BotCon 2007 exclusive, the only toy the location ever received.
- Alpha Trion is explicitly called a first-generation product of Vector Sigma, which is why his lifeforce is compatible with it.
Handle with care
Contested
Where the sources disagree, or where a name that everyone treats as original G1 actually arrived much later. We record it rather than smoothing it over.
- Whether Vector Sigma is a machine, a manifestation of Primus, or a Quintesson-modified artefact. G1, Marvel and the 3H comics each answer differently.
- Its location is given as the planet's core in the cartoon and beneath Iacon in later fiction.
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