Aquarius is a Quintesson from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

Like, taste the rainbow, man.
(Face of Joy pictured)

Like, Aquarius isn't the same as his fellow Quintessons, man. While the rest of his race harp on great care in dealing with other races, Aquarius moves to the beat of a different drum, you dig? He loves to explore other races and cultures; the years of study and meticulous guidance of a planet's culture and spirituality that normal Quintesson protocol insists upon just isn't his bag. Aquarius wants to share enlightenment with other species through righteous hands-on interaction, and he's gotta do what his heart wants, even if the Man ain't copacetic with it.

Aquarius is a strange kinda cat, possessing a consciousness that's been split into five distinct and independent, yet highly co-operative personalities: Joy, Compassion, Peace, Love, and Satisfaction. He's got some pretty far-out powers to go along with them, too, including teleportation, the projection of trippy telepathic visions and illusions, and the ability to groove on the language of 98% of all known species. To use his powers to the fullest, though, he's gotta be feelin' good vibrations; bad karma can seriously harsh his mellow, y'know?

Fiction

Fun Publications Shattered Glass continuity

When Heatwave was sent on an involuntary trip through a stellar spanner to Cybertron, he had odd sensations of joy, happiness, compassion, love, and satisfaction. He also could see rainbow colors, and a message to "Keep on Truckin'", all connected to a summoning program Aquarius had activated. Blitzwing Bop

DUUUUUUDE......I CAN LIKE, TASTE SOUNDS, MAN........

Some time later, elsewhere on Cybertron where the others the program summoned—Landquake, Topspin, Breakaway, and Skyfall's body—were hiding from Alpha Trion, Aquarius activated a "slow time" pocket to act without external interference, and approached them to reiterate what they had heard often lately: that they had "big responsibilities". Aquarius explained it was he, rather than Alpha Trion, who had brought them to Cybertron, and informed them of Optimus Prime's latest and deadliest project: Omega Doom. Aquarius also told them that, in order to stop Omega Doom, they would need to talk to Megatron to find their last member, Heatwave. Before he could give them any further information, his slow time bubble expired, and Trion's lackey Computron came smashing into the building. Reunification: Part 3

Aquarius ended up finishing his explanation as they ran for it: He had discovered that the Omega Terminus was linked through a multiversal network to another computer called Vector Sigma, which had a recall program for a weapon/warrior. Activating the program had brought the gestalt members to this universe's Cybertron.

Eventually they reached the Decepticon base and were granted sanctuary from Computron's pursuit. After Landquake explained their situation and they were introduced to Heatwave, Aquarius agreed with Megatron's hope that there could be a beneficial alliance between the Quintessons and the Decepticons. Unfortunately, further negotiations and explanations were cut short when Cyclonus shot Megatron on Alpha Trion's orders. Reunification: Part 4

Fortunately, the five Nexus Prime members were able to undergo reunification and resurrect Megatron into Galvatron, Reunification: Part 5 and ultimately succeeded in fulfilling Aquarius's goal of stopping Omega Doom. Aquarius then chose to accompany Nexus in a trip through a Stellar Spanner the Decepticons had confiscated from Alpha Trion's laboratory. He warned that the open channel could send them anywhere, but Nexus trusted in fate to guide them both on the next leg of Nexus's personal destiny. Reunification: Part 6

Nexus's personal journey ended up taking him and Aquarius from one universe's Cybertron to the next. In one destination, they found themselves surrounded by Decepticons as they arrived—Decepticons who didn't approve of an Autobot traveling around with a Quintesson.

As the two defended against the attack, Aquarius mused to himself about their journey so far, going over in his mind the events that led to Nexus becoming whole again, and their current search for Primus-knows-what. He also lamented the fact that Nexus preferred to hide his powers and identity and fight as if he were a normal Transformer, as the peaceful Aquarius found his kind were frequently not welcome, and he tended to get stepped on as a result.

Eventually Nexus sent the Decepticons packing, and he decided to finally let Aquarius in on what they were searching for. Aquarius listened and offered groovy questions and words of reassurance as Nexus explained about the artifact he needed to find, and how he'd been drawing a blank on how exactly to go about finding it.

But then a chance spotting of a special symbol jogged his memory, and Nexus explained that he now finally knew for sure where to look next. Aquarius was totally copacetic on following Nexus wherever their journey would lead, though he did lament that none of the bots who wore the special symbol were around any longer to share their stories with the duo... The Coming Storm: Part 1

While perusing information on Quintessons from the Axiom Nexus Cybernet Infocore at Axiom Nexus, Aquarius took delivery of a shard of the "Cosmic Blade" that Nexus Prime needed, and promised the courier that he would help her get home. Transformers I.Q. last issue review

To Aquarius's surprise, they instead ended up back in Primax -408.24 Epsilon. Just as he was about get Nexus Prime on the horn for an explanation, Ultra Mammoth arrived with the Origin Matrix. Transformers I.Q. trivia bonus #12 As Aquarius explained the nature of the Origin Matrix, Ultra Mammoth refused to hand it over to an intermediary and promised to hold onto the Matrix until he could return it to Nexus Prime himself. Falling into Place

When the Earth of Primax 207.0 Epsilon found itself in Aquarius's native reality, Cybertron transformed into Primus who sought to eradicate this extra-dimensional addition to his perfectly ordered universe. As he began destroying the planet, it transformed into Gaea, who alongside the Knights of Unicron, defeated the Order Bringer and transformed into New Cybertron. Setting up residence on the planet, Aquarius bore witness to Gaea, speaking through Nova Prime, declare a new age of peace and later eagerly recounted these events to a traveller at a swap meet. The Future Buried...

The AllSpark Almanac

Aquarius was one of ten figures that made up the Cybertronian zodiac. His associated aspect was "peace" and assigned orbital cycle was Bahneon. His constellation forms a star. The AllSpark Almanac II

Notes

• Aquarius's faces are based on those of real-life individuals particularly famous for the values the visages represent. The face of "Joy" appears to be the based on the face of Buddha, while the other faces are easier to determine; "Compassion" is Martin Luther King Jr., "Love" is Beatles singer John Lennon (who professed that it was "all you need"), "Peace" is Gandhi, and "Satisfaction" is... sort of the odd one out, as it's Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia, and it is named for the band's song, "Satisfaction". Satisfaction's colors, however, are a direct homage to another groovy bearded musician, The Electric Mayhem's keyboardist Dr. Teeth from The Muppet Show.^[1]
• Aquarius's name derives from the "Age of Aquarius", the hippie era of the 1960s, as well as the song named after it. The "Shattered Glass" Quintessons are designed entirely around the hippie culture, from their pursuit of peace, love and enlightenment to their abandonment of the concept of property and ownership to their rainbow-colored energy beams; all of which is, of course, a complete inversion of the traditional greedy, materialistic Quintessons. Even Aquarius's psychedelic holograms could be based on the heavy drug use associated with the time. Dude, that's like, totally far out.

References