The Basics On The Essential Elements Of The Transformers

Recently I did an article going over how I’d combine the various origins of the Transformers, mainly the Quintessons versus Primus. I’ve been wanting to continue that idea, focusing on early life on Cybertron before the Great War as I really don’t like the current concept, and then later going over what cause the war itself and so on. It will never be canon but it’s the closest I’ll ever get and I haven’t flexing my storytelling brain cells enough lately.

However, before I go over life on Cybertron I need to better understand the various takes on what a Transformer, what a Cybertronian, is. A bit more recently, Chris McFeely did a compilation and update of previous videos discussing the various aspects of Transformers. In the video below, slightly under an hour in length, he goes over protoforms, which I already worked into my TFU originwise but not in general society, sparks, the “soul” of a Cybertronian, the art of transformation itself, and the basic fuel source of Energon, which I also gave an origin to.

I’m not just posting this video but going over it as I tried see how it will work in my take on life on Cybertron, which once I’ve worked the various bugs scrapmetals out of I’ll post in the future. Some of the original videos I posted as daily or filler videos, but these are updated with new information as new media–comics, an animated movie, and more cartoons–have come out since then with different takes on various aspects of Transformer life. With this new data I can form my own continuity and explanation, even if it only benefits me in getting my storytelling skills active and creating a Transformers lore that has what I see lacking in other media. I’ll watch each segment, think about how this affects or could affect my overall ideas, and post will be written as I watch the video. You can read the whole thing, or jump back and forth between the video and my ideas. Or ignore one or the other. Or both if you don’t like what you’ve seen in the intro. So let’s watch the video and see what it inspires.

So how does this information affect my personal Transformers continuity?

Protoforms

In my concept, protoforms were the creation of the Quintessons, liquid metal programmed into a base robot form, with Cybertron being the birthplace of a reconfiguration design series. Instead of being fully formed with a predetermined alt mode, my idea is that they were formed into a particular robot body design, explains why so many figures have similar transformation patterns even when they don’t form the same vehicle. To use G1 toy examples, Prowl and Bluestreak share a body type which forms the same alternate mode so it’s not surprising they share the same transformation pattern. Meanwhile Bumblebee and Cliffjumper have different alternate modes and features but share a transformation pattern, as both toys were engineered with the same conversion style, which would also include a third toy to pad out wave one that was sold in Bumblebee and Cliffjumper packaging despite only having the same transformation pattern but a different face and vehicle mode. (It was a different Micro Change figure that just shared their basic design.)

Protoforms in my TFU are programmed in body, while the spark forms a unique personality (more on that in a moment), the metal and internal components based on a predetermined design, like various model cars on Earth. Rather than the protoform forming unique bodies they have a particular model that the protoform is programmed into forming, and new models would be formed as the Transformers themselves improved on what the Quintessons were forced to abandon when they were run off of the planet. This leads to further advancement in engineering, various components, new types of transformation, and what they could transform into as they later became part of the wider intergalactic community. Each Cybertronian has a set body design, which had alternate modes they can adopt and mode they can’t. You might even have two of the same vehicle, animal, et cetera with completely different transformations and robotic forms based on what model was used for the base body. I’ll work on this as I watch more of the video.

Sparks

This is one of my bigger deviations from multiversal lore but still fitting into multiversal continuity. My sparks were a combination of two things: a portion of the “All-Spark” copy of Primus’ lifeforce (Primus himself is essentially the “spark” of Cybertron) and the computer lifecode known as a creation matrix. I took the idea from the original concept of the Creation Matrix pre-Furman (which I actually mentioned in the comments of the video), a computer program that was responsible for Transformer life in the original US Marvel comics. Furman decided to retcon that by fusing the Creation Matrix and Matrix Of Leadership, and the various artifacts of Cybertron is one of those things I need to plan out in my TF Universe. Basically, the creation matrix is encoded into a piece of the All-Spark, formed from Energon initially if you didn’t read my previous article. I guess we can call that a “laser core” to give it a proper name. The creation matrix is somehow encoded into the laser core, thus forming a proper spark, which is then inserted into the protoform and giving it life.

Just as Primus is the power of Cybertron, the spark is the power source of the Cybertronian. Energon maintains the laser core part while the creation matrix part forms the basis of a Transformer’s personality in the same way organic lifeforms develop personalities and morality. The brain module collects the memory, information a Transformer collects throughout his or her life cycle, and if the spark has to be transferred to a new protoform (which or may not be the same model as his or her old body) that data must be copied or transferred as well or they may not be the same bot in the new bodies as they were in their old ones, which is accessed by the creation matrix to maintain the same or similar personality. That information can be stored in other devices, and we’ve seen a few in G1, from personality components to those crystals the comics used once. All three things: the two parts of the spark and the mind of the robot, form the basis of Transformers life in my concept.

The goal with this is to make a mechanical lifeform operate similar to organic life, but in a way that is still very much machines. I want to set machine life separate from organic life as much as believably possible while still calling them lifeforms. The only thing I really need to reconcile is the concept of brothers and other family relationships. Quickswitch was the son of Sixshot, Rattrap mentioned his great aunt Arcee, Lioconvoy had Liojunior, and of course you had the “fraternal” twins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker while later G1 toys including identical twins with different alt modes, one pair for each faction. How does that tie into robots that share a model but no family relation, like Prowl and Bluestreak or the Seekers. That’s going to be a challenge as families form an important basis in human cultures and while the Transformers will have their own culture they’re still LIVING robots. Clearly I need to think more about spark forming in this society as much as I do the artifacts that create sparks.

Transforming

My TFU already established that the Quintessons created transforming, a way to double their profits with a single machine. Protoforms are not like the T-1000 from the Terminator series. In my version a protoform is programmed to form a particular body, which has to be designed and the Transformers themselves will advance the technology. Remnant of the metal will form the “kibble” that forms the alternate mode’s outer form but internal mechanisms rather than being built are grown. They can be repaired either through using the remnant metal to cause “natural” healing or through the usual methods. Unsparked protomatter can be used to replace certain mechanisms like the transformation cog, but it has to be designed for that model and any old fashioned models they don’t use anymore will have a harder time being repaired in this manner.

When it comes to forming alt modes, as mentioned earlier, what forms one can take are limited by the model, each body tooled by the forming of the alternate mode. Transformers are “born” with the ability but need to have an alternate mode programmed into the body, and that mode can be altered. Since transformation and reformatting alternate modes are abilities they have from the start, the whole caste system is rather useless, and since I hate that system and how it alters pre-war history anyway, I don’t care. I’m happy to ditch it. The ability to choose alternate modes (which will be done with external devices in the early days, built-in reformatting of the remnant metal being a later innovation) and how a robot chooses that mode will be part of Transformer society, choosing an alternate mode like a new car or a new outfit. Transformer economy will in part come from purchasing new alternate modes, and there will a way to include things like customizing. Renovation probably not so much.

Energon

I need for energon to NOT come from Primus or Unicron. The Transformers need to be able to get energon on other worlds, including ones that don’t have a multiversal entity at their core. So energon needs to be an existing element elsewhere, like in the Unicron Trilogy (especially the fittingly named Transformers Energon). I also need to be able to easily create “artificial” energon like we saw in the original cartoon for planets without energon.

This is also why I can’t have sparks coming from Primus’ own lifeforce. I want to be able to create Transformers on other worlds. So the core of a spark is energon, and that spark also powers a Cybertronian. In turn, Cybertronians need a regular infusion of energon to keep the spark from being extinguished. Lose the laser core and the creation matrix is lost. If the core of the spark is diminished enough part of that matrix is lost, and this is when the Transformer truly starts dying with potentially unrepairable damage unless the missing parts of the lifecode can be re-encoded without overwriting existing code. Even then the Cybertronian will be diminished as a lifeform, at least until his or her memories reconnect with the matrix, which requires the core to have enough energon to sustain it. The larger the Transformer the larger the core needs to be, like with the titan “cityformers” (Metroplex, Trypticon, and so forth), and thus the more energon is required to operate it. This is why titans stay in “city” mode, to reduce energon requirements as much as possible to maintaining the spark. Plus they’re really big and cause a lot of damage.

So I need energon to exist on multiple worlds but in what form? Natural energon is shown to be mined or collected, often in an ore or crystalline form. Then it gets processed into a sort of liquid. I’m thinking my version of energon should be like plutonium or uranium. It would also explain how too much raw energon could damage a Transformer if I go that route with my take on Beast Wars. I’ve joined the theory that the korlonium crystals from the G1 episode “A Prime Problem” could be unstable energon, as seen in Beast Wars, although that would be a fan retcon. G1 would also give us crystals that could be used as a power source, the original miniseries including a battle over the ruby crystals of Burma. So I’m going with a crystalline take on energon, but still being a radioactive type element, making it the fuel source the Quintessons used for their Cybertron project and whatever I’ll have them doing with Unicron.

So that’s what I have so far on those four topics, which will be integral to forming the lives and culture of Cybertron after the Quintessons and before the Great War, as well the origins of the Great War, as I use elements from an unrelated essay on how I see Transformers factions and ignore the whole forced caste system. The culture will revolve around being robots that convert into other forms for their chosen function or for fun, the need for energon to maintain their spark’s laser cores, and how those sparks and protoforms are created. It’s also how I’ll tackle the powers of G1 Transformers, multiple modes, combination, and other elements. I’m hoping Chris does an update on Transformers artifacts because I could use help thinking about how to integrate those, and then there’s the original 13, established thus far only as existing or having had existed in the early days of Cybertron. A lot to consider, but that’s part of the fun of worldbuilding.