That’s a really interesting observation, Anon. I’d never connected those two things, but that makes a lot of sense. TFA Optimus still thinks like an Elite Guard, and can make battlefield decisions, whereas Optimi from more civilian backgrounds can freeze up sometimes (witness The Transformers: The Movie and Optimus’s unwillingness to shoot his archnemesis if there was even a chance of hitting Hot Rod) or get too attached to the idea that, surely, there must be a way to save everyone, no matter what the situation.
Wait so a Cybertronian’s consciousness can be separated from their spark? So their sparks aren’t indivisible souls that are numerically identical with their being and they are thus subject to the same existential angst that plagues us meek little fleshbags? Ha, suck it.
Can we talk about how Starscream’s response to total failure (of the everything’s-burning-down-around-me variety) is to get on the ground and shut down? He’s done this at least three times so far.
(This is usually the part where someone shows up to beat him unconscious)
I thought of something even worse, and it’s that all the cold-constructed have a base-level behavioral loop that goes something like, “I see you’ve fucked up everything! Stay still and someone who knows what they’re doing will be along to deal with you shortly, you miserable failure. :)”
Cybertronian Database 