*sees opinions about the origins and differences in culture and programming between Autobots and Decepticons*
*trying to keep my big mouth shut so unsolicited headcanons don’t come pouring out*
hnnnnngh
“NO SHARE OPEN THE FLOOD GATES let us swim in the glorious tide of headcanons”
“*grabby hands* Headcanons should be shared! You might inspire people and start a whole new thing. ^_^”
“Go ahead and say them!”
oh god
(I apologize in advance)
ok so it’s always sort of been my headcanon that Autobots and Decepticons are distinctly separate. Not necessarily called Autobots and Decepticons, but definitely a species split in two, if that makes sense. The origin of their split depends on the universe of course. Some universes they just naturally developed, divergent or covergent evolution for lack of better terms. Other universes, Decepticons were purposefully developed for warfare… or more accurately, defense.
In a majority of the TF universes, Cybertron has been attacked by invaders in its past. And for reasons I’ve yet to fully dissect, I really reallylike the idea of a weaponized class of Cybertronians fed and supported by a civilian class. I love the whole concept of co-dependent Cybertronian cultures. Civilian class bots needed weaponized bots for protection, weaponized bots needed civilian bots for energon, goods, etc.
Now, in a system like that, you’ve basically got one really specialized class (Decepticons) and a generalized civilian class (Autobots). That explains the way their war tends to play out – with Decepticons unable to adapt and be self-sufficient enough to create the goods and fuel necessary to survive, while the Autobots who have a much more varied set of skills, non-specialized programming and alt-modes, are better able to adapt to new roles… including the role of soldiers. They’re not as good at that particular function as Decepticons of course, but they can do it and their civilian functions. It’s a skill set that most Decepticons lack… and without any allies, Decepticons are forced to rely on their tried-and-true methods of conquering and plundering to fill that gap in their resource gathering.
Of course there are exceptions. Warpath and Powerglide are two Autobots who I consider to be part of that weaponized class for… obvious reasons. And while I can’t think of any G1 Decepticons I’d consider more civilian (Swindle?) I’m sure they’re there too. Factions are choice, programming is not.
But it’s my headcanon that Cybertronians, as a species and society, literally cannot function properly without both sides cooperating. Militarized mechs need something worth protecting (i.e. not a dead planet) and need the thriving economy and all that comes with it that only civilians are really equipped to build. Civilian bots, while they can fight, don’t enjoy it in any great capacity and are reluctant to eliminate threats, and a little too eager to shrug off their duties in that regard. Guard duty? Patrolling? Routine defense maneuvers of any kind? No thanks. (While weaponized mechs don’t exactly enjoy these things either, they’ve got a higher tolerance for it… and a much healthier respect for orders.)
Yeah. I’m an idealist and kind of romantic. I just want everybody to get along. >_>
It also doesn’t help that I am a sucker for cross-factional relationships.
(More because I can’t stop)
This whole interdepence thing is also kinda why the war (in most continuities at least) isn’t as brutal as it technically should be. Sure, there’s been plenty of killing on both sides. But it really seems like most deaths occurred at the beginning of the conflict… and most of it was indirect violence. Building sabotages, bombings, etc.
Of course most of this was from the Decepticons (though the Autobot-run government at the time did retaliate with violence of its own, but I digress). The thing is, I… don’t think the Decepticons are ones for indirect anything. Think about it. These are bots built and programmed for defensive – and later offensive – campaigns, and the way most Decepticons talk about Cybertronian superiority, had a lot of success in those. When we see Cybertronians on other planets, it’s pretty clear that Cybertron has a reputation for not only being massive dickwads, but friggen powerhouses that are able to wipe the floor with most other species.
So really, while there are brilliant Decepticon strategists, the bulk of their military planning was probably in positioning everyone just right to completely smear whoever their opponent is at the time. Make sure they can’t get a counterattack going, that sort of thing. Given how overpowered Cybertronians are compared to the rest of the galaxy/universe…? Their strategies probably involved just… waves of brute force repeatedly battering the opposition into submission.
So we see some of this strategy come into play during the early stages of their civil war. What’s the best way to take down your opponent (in this case, the entire structure of oppression on Cybertron)? Take it out at the knees, demolish it completely, and completely crush the smallest lingering resistance. BUT rather than use their usual smash-and-burn techniques… we suddenly see a lot of sabotage, an uptick in the use of spies, and a lot of attacks from afar (planted bombs, assassinations of specific mechs, etc.)
[Quick note, this doesn’t apply for canons like IDW where as far as I can tell this wasn’t necessarily a military thing but more of a marxist “rise against the elites who keep you down” thing. This is just me rambling about STUFF.]
My theory is that this is a combination of practicality – in the beginning of the war they didn’t have enough bots for full frontal assaults – and sentimentality. The Decepticons hated the system, not the bots within it. Unless they were the politicians who reinforced that system. But you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs, so they did what they had to and hoped that the rest of Cybertron would see that they were right.It didn’t work out that way.
Only problem is, it’s really hard to justify what you’re doing when you’re looking right at the Cybertron you’ve been programmed to protect while opening fire on it. So, the indirect dismantling of Cybertronian society.
So now, with both sides entrenched, there’s not really an indirect way to clobber the Autobots. They’ve gotta play this campaign like they did against alien enemies… and that is extremely hard for a good chunk of the Decepticons.
It was the absolute worst when Autobots started bringing minibots onto the field. How the frag do you shoot at that? It’s so small! It’s so vulnerable, what is it doing out on the battlefield? You can’t take that seriously – and then it shoots your engine out and goes screeching off on its itty bitty wheels while honking at you rudely.
Basically, it’s adorable and kind of hot and that was when Decepticon leadership started having trouble with bots having vivid fraternization-with-the-enemy fantasies.
It wasn’t more than a morale problem until some geniuses decided to kidnapliberate some cute sassy minibots and brought them into the base. The minibots in question were surprised and pissed off to varying degrees – the ones that didn’t outright escape or get rescued/traded wound up stealing valuable intelligence before they beat it out of there, leaving a trail of broken-hearted Decepticons.
*sees opinions about the origins and differences in culture and programming between Autobots and Decepticons*
*trying to keep my big mouth shut so unsolicited headcanons don’t come pouring out*
hnnnnngh
“NO SHARE OPEN THE FLOOD GATES let us swim in the glorious tide of headcanons”
“*grabby hands* Headcanons should be shared! You might inspire people and start a whole new thing. ^_^”
“Go ahead and say them!”
oh god
(I apologize in advance)
ok so it’s always sort of been my headcanon that Autobots and Decepticons are distinctly separate. Not necessarily called Autobots and Decepticons, but definitely a species split in two, if that makes sense. The origin of their split depends on the universe of course. Some universes they just naturally developed, divergent or covergent evolution for lack of better terms. Other universes, Decepticons were purposefully developed for warfare… or more accurately, defense.
In a majority of the TF universes, Cybertron has been attacked by invaders in its past. And for reasons I’ve yet to fully dissect, I really reallylike the idea of a weaponized class of Cybertronians fed and supported by a civilian class. I love the whole concept of co-dependent Cybertronian cultures. Civilian class bots needed weaponized bots for protection, weaponized bots needed civilian bots for energon, goods, etc.
Now, in a system like that, you’ve basically got one really specialized class (Decepticons) and a generalized civilian class (Autobots). That explains the way their war tends to play out – with Decepticons unable to adapt and be self-sufficient enough to create the goods and fuel necessary to survive, while the Autobots who have a much more varied set of skills, non-specialized programming and alt-modes, are better able to adapt to new roles… including the role of soldiers. They’re not as good at that particular function as Decepticons of course, but they can do it and their civilian functions. It’s a skill set that most Decepticons lack… and without any allies, Decepticons are forced to rely on their tried-and-true methods of conquering and plundering to fill that gap in their resource gathering.
Of course there are exceptions. Warpath and Powerglide are two Autobots who I consider to be part of that weaponized class for… obvious reasons. And while I can’t think of any G1 Decepticons I’d consider more civilian (Swindle?) I’m sure they’re there too. Factions are choice, programming is not.
But it’s my headcanon that Cybertronians, as a species and society, literally cannot function properly without both sides cooperating. Militarized mechs need something worth protecting (i.e. not a dead planet) and need the thriving economy and all that comes with it that only civilians are really equipped to build. Civilian bots, while they can fight, don’t enjoy it in any great capacity and are reluctant to eliminate threats, and a little too eager to shrug off their duties in that regard. Guard duty? Patrolling? Routine defense maneuvers of any kind? No thanks. (While weaponized mechs don’t exactly enjoy these things either, they’ve got a higher tolerance for it… and a much healthier respect for orders.)
Yeah. I’m an idealist and kind of romantic. I just want everybody to get along. >_>
It also doesn’t help that I am a sucker for cross-factional relationships.
Not the way human-built planes do it, no. We can transform, so all we had to do was land on the back of a carrier or transport, take fuel ingots from the supply they carried, and take off again. Sometimes the larger plane would be a giant Seeker, even bigger than Jetfire, but there were also non-sentient transports built. I preferred having the extra help of a big Seeker looking out for us, and the ability to call them in as backup once we’d landed and needed to secure an objective.
We could refuel several Trines and the units under their command in the time it takes one Earth jet to refuel, though I must give credit to the human pilots who can do it. It takes very precise flying. Not many humans impress me, but fighter pilots are better than most.
– Optimus was one of the original 13 primes but chose to be reborn with the new bots they created
– Megatronus was generally a Good Dude, even if he was technically closest to Unicron in nature, and he killed Solus Prime in self defense during a fight that they were manipulated into by Liege Maximo
– Megatronus became the Fallen by choice in honor of the friends he lost, and then swore to go around the universe protecting other species
– Optimus is older than Predaking by at least a few days
– The original Predacons were wiped out during a massive… solar events of sorts caused by a passing star that made their solar system go haywire. They were either too big or too proud to hide deep underground and go into stasis like the smaller bots, and thus didn’t survive
– Reflector and Preceptor created the first star map together
– the Quintessons showed up and kicked the Cybertronians’ evolution of knowledge into high speed, but as a result they created a caste system with bots most useful to the Quintessons at the top, and bots stopped caring to greet and name newly born sparks from the well
– Sentinel Zeta was elected as Prime during Quintesson rule in a very clearly not rigged election– the Quintessons were too proud and too confident to even bother to rig it
– Sentinel Zeta Prime eventually gathered together a secret task force full of scientists and sneaky bots and discreetly overthrew the Quintessons and kicked them out, but then didn’t bother to fix the caste system or really any major political problems beyond the invaders
– all of the bots in Aligned are genderless, they used to use only one pronoun before they started interacting with gendered foreign species and found adopting gendered language allowed them to better relate
– the easiest way to split themselves into 2 groups was by processor type– bots that were created in the image of Solus Prime had processors like her, meant for complex and abstract problem solving. Since she was only one of 13 primes, the gender division is 12:1
– there was a prewar bot named Cogwheel who was an Arachnicon like Airachnid, but she was a medic who trained Ratchet and used her many thin limbs for precision surgery and her webbing as bandages
– Alpha Trion describes himself as not understanding the point of romance, when close companionship seems more beneficial and less complex. Basically he’s aromantic
– Megatron’s first memory was watching a sunset alone right after he was born from the well, with the knowledge that he was going to immediately go into the mines afterwards and most likely never see the sky again (and then vowed to not accept such a fate)
– Combiners, when combined, are referred to by it/itself pronouns
– Alpha Trion has the world’s biggest hate boner against Shockwave and will routinely go out of his way to insult Shockwave whenever he’s brought up in conversation (and sometimes when he isn’t)
– The vast majority of bots right before the war were Majorly Racist towards minicons, thinking them untrustworthy, creepy, and suspicious. Both Megatron and Optimus shared this feeling towards minicons, ironically enough
IDW’s given us more several examples of characters who have renamed themselves (Gentius>Brainstorm, Tumbler>Chromedome – nicknames gained from their work together at the Institute), but historically there are a variety of stories behind TF names. In one of the earliest looks at the subject, it was noted that the names WE know the Transformers by aren’t really their names at all:
Being named by someone else is common enough: if one Transformer builds another they’ll usually give them a name (for instance, the Dinobots in the G1 cartoon). In Animated, this happens for Autobots at boot camp, where their names are chosen by the drill sergeant based on their attributes (”Ironhide” for his ability to transform his armor into super-hard metal, “Wasp” for his stingers, “Longarm” for his extending limbs, “Optimus” for his optimism, “Hot Rod” for the flames on his chest, etc). It’s never stated but presumably they must have names before this that they subsequently discard.
Other times – and this is probably how it is for a lot of ‘bots – Transformers spring into being with an innate knowledge of their own name from the moment of their creation. When the Aerialbots and Stunticons were created in the G1 cartoon, they introduced themselves by name, for example. And when Silverbolt joined the cast of Beast Wars, he pondered for a moment, then said:
((Been wanting to do this headcanon for a while. Pretty much a compilation of the various methods on interfacing used in the Transformer’s universe, as I know some people are a little confused on how some of them work.))
Ai’ight folks I’ve seen lots of fanarts of Cybertronians blushing and they’re cute. So fragging cute I love them all.
But they bring a headcanon of mine to mind so I’ll share it with you all.
Cybertronians don’t “blush” like we do their facial plating is too thick to show a change in energon flow even if it’s flexible. Instead, they have energon surges and the lights on their bodies glow brighter. Humans would probably miss it but they’re likely just as confused like “why in Primus’s name are you changing color???”
As promised, here’s my interpretation of what Plug and Play might look like! I didn’t look up any references, my only knowledge about PnP are the very basic idea of it (cables, plugs, non-sticky) and one or two pictures I’ve seen at some point. But this is what my idea of it was when I first heard the term. Now, because I don’t know shit about PnP, I don’t know how common this interpretation is and/or how similar it is to other ideas (I do remember one of the few pics I saw had the cables around the chest area, which was basically my thought of it as well).
This thing basically consists of four cables, two with plugs and two with receivers for each bot. They’re kept inside the chest, the smaller two can be extended through two small openings on the underside of the main chest plate. The bigger two cables can only be used when the whole chest is opened, which only happens for the more intimate spark interfacing. In that case, the main chest plates either fold back into the side of the chest or can be disassembled and reveal the inside which is made of several, insect-like platings that are usually intertwined and shield the spark. These platings now fold up and intertwine with the partner’s to resume a shield for the sparks so nothing from the outside can hurt them (there’s gaps for the cables to extend on the underside). I’d have to draw some variations on that too, you can choose how snug together the chests are for this.
Yeah that’s basically it, I don’t know how basic and common this interpretation is but this is my pretty much non-influenced take on it :’D
y oooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Oh man would you mind if others drew this???
OH SHIT no I wouldn’t mind at all!
Feel free to use this headcanon as you please, I am very honored if you like it enough to do something with it! By all means, go ahead and have fun with this!
Yes, the energon in my universe was blue as well. But… Oh, Soundburst. The war has ruined the young like yourself.
You see, before the war, energon crystals could be found in several varieties. Here, I’ve listed some for you.
Blue Energon or regular energon. The most commonly found and most abundant.
Green Energon. Not to be confused with synthetic energon. These were very mineral rich and made some of the best all natural medical grade energon. This was not an energon open to the public without first seeing a medic. To a healthy system, the richness of the minerals could cause excess build up in lines and even sickness. The medical grade we have now is not derived from green energon crystals but regular energon that has been processed and nutrients and minerals added to it.
Pink Energon. These were used for some of the finer high grades.
Purple Energon. Not to be confused with Dark Energon. Purple energon was generally used as a new sparks or sparklings/younglings drink. Very flavorful and very sweet. Though created for the young, many adult cybertronians enjoyed this as well. Kind of like soda is here on Earth.
Red Energon. This is an energon that is actually a temporary system enhancer. Can boost speed to unbelievable levels. This too was not open to the public. In fact, they use to test racers to make sure their systems were clean of any diluted version of red energon.
White Energon. Extremely rare even back on Cybertron. I’m almost sure it no longer exists anywhere today. White energon was rumored to have near magical rejuvenating qualities. Could bring a spark back from the verge of flickering out. I’m not sure I believe it. Certainly no scientific proof to back the claims. This was something you’d only find in the servos of the ultra rich.
And there were other kinds as well. I’ll have to flip through my files and see what other examples I can give you.
I think Cybertronians who have been around the galaxy a bit can recognize what planet someone’s been to based on their alt mode and kibble.
Like they’ll see the style of someone fenders or blades and go “Ah, how are the Vok doing lately?”, or “Don’t you think Earth creatures have the best rotor craft?”
I think once Cybertronians start returning to the planet, there will be a lot of different styles, and some will be really exotic, from planets not many people made it to, while others will be staples. Once the space bridges get up and running and Cybertronians get out into the universe again, some people might import stylish alien vehicles to scan. Big cities might have boutiques where you can browse all sorts of beautiful machines from all over the universe and adapt your appearance.
Cybertronian Database 