hey so the more i think about what the cybertronian government in tfa must have been like the more fucking terrifying it becomes
(this is from what i remember of the show itself, don’t quote me on the specifics of what was said/not said about cybertron’s wartime government)
– during the decepticon war, it’s likely the government was converted by the elita guard into something like a military state the same way the roman empire was under caesar, meaning the autobot army ruled the planet
– this would mean the ENTIRE PLANET was run by autobots – that’s not equivalent to anything we have on earth, that’s an entire population being comprised of one faction in a galactic civil war, that’s a planet made up entirely of one unified army
– whatever legislative body cybertron had was itself not made up of any decepticons during this time (obviously), so it’s power may have been extremely limited under the magnus, or disbanded altogether. there’s no evidence to my knowledge that ultra magnus just made decisions unilaterally, or was the final opinion in the wartime government
– from what we know about the decepticon army, most of their ranks came from laborers, construction/demolition, anything that required large frames, decepticons being buy in large an order of magnitude bigger than autobots – all of this to say, there must have been a MASSIVE energon shortage when the majority of the farming/mining/laboring population of cybertron joined the decepticons
— (this may have actually contributed to instilling the stereotype of small autobots and huge decepticons, because a cybertron with limited energon supply couldn’t have been able to produce and maintain massive war machine soldiers en masse the way the nomadic decepticon army could)
— further, this must have significant implications for autobots like bulkhead, who is not only a former laborer (an energon farmer), but incredibly large for an autobot – this may be why he was treated with more derision than other cadets at the academy, on top of being seen as a “hick”
– a military government on cybertron would most likely mean the judicial system would be almost entirely military tribunals instead of civil courts, or else civil courts run by members of the Elite Guard
— (further, it’s seems unlikely because of chronology, but conceptually there’s nothing stopping animated’s cybertron from having a system like idw’s aequitas, which was notoriously a moral pothole. a military-run cybertron, however, i have no doubts would pounce on the idea of a computer built to detect guilt, and combined with the types of experimentation shown to be done by autobots in tfa, that idea might be taken even further)
– a civilian population would be converted into autobots pretty much entirely in this case, with government being made up of higher and higher ranking members of the military, judicial courts converted to tribunals
– would democracy even function in this case? a world run by a single government system headed by a caesarian ruler with the entirety of what is now a population made exclusively of soldiers as subjects, any kind of power checks eradicated or made inert in favor of following a military chain of command? private industries most likely nationalized to aid the war effort, recruitment on a planet-wide scale, those who chose to remain neutral shunned, those born in the wrong FRAME TYPE stereotyped as decepticons/decepticon sympathizers. what is there to vote for when your planet is autobot controled, autobot run, and autobot populated?
– in the line of succession, sentinel prime would most likely take on the mantel of magnus next, meaning whatever government cybertron adopted/was converted into during the war, sentinel prime would be the one to continue that legacy. and with his xenophobic attitude, it stands to reason a post-war cybertron like the one hinted at by season 4 might be even worse than a wartime cybertron
Kindling is difficult and always comes with the risk that the growing newspark will overexert the host, killing them either through siphoning too much energy off their spark, overtaking them in their need for energon and raw materials, or simply endangering them by placing them in a more vulnerable state.
When multiple bots really wanna go through the arduous process of creating another Cybertronian in a taboo and dangerous fashion, they have to first figure out if one or two or any of them (a “typical” cybertronian relationship has 3-5 members rather than 2) are capable of kindling, and from there it’s a long process of repeatedly attempting to sparkmerge into creating a new spark- a rare and energy-heavy process. Frome there, the newspark has to be fed, sheltered, and will slowly grow a body bit by bit as the host’s own nanites and energon feeds it.
Eventually, it forms it’s own pre-shell, an “egg” or perhaps more appropriately a “seed” which is removed and implanted in a fertile environment- the surface of Cybertron is ideal for this, but failing that somewhere with sufficient metals and available energy can be created artificially. The seed grows for several weeks to several months, depending upon size and available resources, generally resulting in smaller and less developed individual in resource-poor conditions. This continues to grow until a young Cybertronian eventually emerges from their now-depleted pod!
The remains of the pod are generally consumed immediately after. “Newborn” Cybertronians are not like human infants nor human children, rather they’re closer to fully developed animals in most respects. While their processors are still developing and they’ll eagerly learn everything presented to them, they are ultimately creatures of instinct- they’ll eat just about anything and they are absolutely voracious. Typically they’ll be able to find sources of necessary metals and energon nearby, being provided by their creators/caretakers, but otherwise pods naturally develop in resource-rich areas or if there are other pods/younglings in the area it’s not uncommon for them to resort to cannibalism if left to their own devices.
Kindling is seen as taboo at best, always dangerous, and for most it’s seen as sacrilegious and as an offense both to the perceived “natural” order of things as well as being a legal offense across most of Cybertron. Kindling is perceived by the common public as an out-of-control potential for population growth, as an act of defiance in the light of Primus (After all, real Cybertronians come from Cybertron, not from other bots) and generally as just kinda icky.
It doesn’t help that most Cybertronians would have no ability to kindle newsparks without extensive modifications, save for a few select subtypes of Cybertronian- most notably the Insecticons (who not only kindle but tend to produce clones of themselves or drone units prodigiously), Predacons (who are seen as violent animals for the most part), and “Walkers” – a lower class of Cybertronians with native animal lifeforms as their altmodes.
Kindled Cybertronians commonly won’t admit to their heritage for means of survival, and are commonly using forged or stolen identities to pass as Forged or even Cold-Constructed mechanisms.
There are rumors that kindled and kindling-capable mechanisms disappear off the streets in some cities and are never seen again. That they wind up in Institutes, or are disassembled for experiments.
Say you’re a bot on the Lost Light and you wanna tell your friend something. Lucky you, you’ve got a lot of options!
Hook up a brain-to-brain cable and share info directly from your brain to theirs
this is a cerebrostream of supercompressed visual data
Meet up in person and talk – in Neo-Cybex, Old
Cybertronian (if your friend is Rewind, Cyclonus or otherwise super
ancient) or Hand (if your friend is Drift, Getaway or otherwise speaks
Hand)
Engrave your message onto your body and stand in front of them (character limit fairly low)
Send info from your brain directly to theirs over the internet (what could possibly go wrong?)
This is called a remote upload, but you’re gonna need to get your friend’s neuro-coordinates first.
Put your information on a datastick. Give it to your friend and have them plug it into their head. Problem solved!
Alternatively, they can take the data stick home and look at your message on the console in their habsuite.
Write them a memo. Send it. (This is basically email)
May seem kinda stodgy unless you’re sending official ship’s business. Rodimus never reads these.
Write them a message and send it. (This is basically texting)
Comm them. (This is basically calling, I think)
now with extra bonus communication method: acquiring paper and writing that shit longhand!
Program a message into one of your datapads and have someone deliver it. (Great option if you’re shy!)
Inter-Autobot Radio
Only gonna work if you and your friends are autobots, though. I think that all autobots within range who are monitoring the frequency will be able to overhear. What is the range? who knows
Subspace Messages – a great option if your friend is on Cybertron whilst you’re in space.
Upside: you get to wear awesome headphones that make you look like you’re a podcaster/professional radio host. Downside: subspace communicator frequently broken, you need their personal hailing frequency.
Just get some paint and write them a friendly note on their door! Note – you may be cited for vandalism.
yeah, a nice, friendly, fun message between pals. Just like the example below.
Assemble a video for your friend, give it to Rewind and ask him to project it for your friend. (you may have to buy Rewind a drink, he’s a busy guy. But if you’re talking history or old cultural shit he’ll probably do it for free)
did I miss a thing? I probably missed a thing.
things I haven’t seen evidence for in mtmte but come up in fics: actual telepathy (that’s only soundwave, right?), empathic field reading, transmitting messages via visual glyphs telepathically
weirder options:
You and your buddy join The Big Conversation, AKA Decepticon Reddit and pretend to be Cons. Talk there while doing your best Decepticon impression.
Become a mnemosurgeon. Inject into your pal’s mind and have a conversation inside their mindscape, just like pals do.
Is your friend Drift? Tell him a story by modulating your optic colors.
Is your friend Rung? Make a new edition of his favorite book with the words of your message selectively removed.
Is your friend Red Alert? Whisper to yourself what you wanted to tell him. He’ll hear you.
Have you considered coded messages on digital clocks?
Time phone.
Become DJ at the next dance party and use the playlist to send a message to your pal.
Sabotage your life-support equipment such that the medical readouts display your message.
Bang a gong.
New banner up in Swerve’s
Submit your message to the Lost Light Insider. However, first you must discover who writes the Lost Light Insider.
Tell Swerve whatever you need to tell your friend, but inform him that it’s a secret.
I want to believe that Vos has a very eastern aesthetic. Bells, ribbons, flags and wind chimes being heavily utilized. Any things that moves and flutters in the breeze. Emphasising wind and air, two things seekers are very familiar with.
Towers would be decorated with tassels and ribbons during festivals and celebrations.
Dancing, flying, and singing are very admired in this culture. There are entire districts dedicated to expressing and perfecting the vosian aesthetic.
When it comes to music, i feel wood wind instruments, there were a variety of large and small drums, gongs, chimes, flutes, and stringed instruments, such as the imported mandolin-like biwa, the flat six-stringed zither, and/or the thirteen stringed koto. Drums would be used to represent sonic booms created by jets surpassing the sound barrier. Their music could be light and airy or thunderous and loud.
Most seekers are painted to standout in the crowd but not to be garish. They follow color theory and tend to choose complementary colors.
Depending on the circumstance, Picking a new paint could be a casual affair or a political statement.
For their military personnel, they are painted with camouflage in mind. A light underbelly and a dark top, they would be difficult to see from above and below. Certain colors were only allowed to be used by active service members such as red accents and yellow for the Sky Lord.
When it comes to Vos’ overall architecture and design it’s very similar to Art Nouveau, very decorative and filled with curved and twisted motifs that mimic the movements of an aircraft in flight.
But less gold. It’s more Silver.
Expects skylights and colored glass to be prevalent. Fliers do like to have an unbroken visual of the sky. And lots of colors.
Yup! And, on the Autobot side, there’s the irony that a lot of Autobots, like Prowl, are devoted to fighting for order, but their entire faction is a chaotic mess of Leeroy-Jenkins-style meteoroid-surfers and loose cannons with their own agendas, without an actual ordered vision of the world they want after the war.
Mmm. I had thoughts about this a day or two back.
Being a good (ideological) Autobot is “heroic nonsense before following orders”. See; everyone who doesn’t listen to their superior and ends up saving the day. Ironically enough, Getaway is doing just this (though through less heroic means to a heroic end) and he is a schemer. Being a good literal Autobot is doing what’s good for everyone, Prowl.
Meanwhile ideological Decepticon is “be your goddamn self wake the fuck up” and honestly, Starscream is perfect. He questions, has ambition, and sticks out. But being a good literal Decepticon is fitting the hell out in the war machine. You’ve got your role, stick to it or you’re repurposed.
Autobots also have thought police, Shadowplay, Institutes, binary guns, idea bullets. Decepticons have thought police that kills or harms you to make you change your mind. Overlord and Trepan fascinatingly show off these differences, and play off each other well. Overlord manipulates and scares mechs because of what he does to the outside, that affects the inside. Trepan is feared because what he does on the inside, affects the outside, everything.
Just, Cons and Bots, man. Cons and Bots.
Okay, I LOVE this. I think this split between being a good ideological fit with your faction and being a good literal fit with what your faction needs to win is perfect, and really well explained! It makes a lot of sense that for both sides, the ideal is more independent and more individualistic than the actual level of cohesion needed to win a war.
I’m also struck by the fact that Megatron actually calls Starscream the “Decepticon ideal” in All Hail Megatron. He’s strong, fierce, ambitious, and has clawed his way almost to the top. It supports the suggestion that there’s a division between the kind of Decepticon Megatron wants to foster (liberated, individualistic, free to pursue their ambitions as far as their strength and talents allow) and the kind of Decepticon that the pressures of that particular military culture tend to produce (are you actively challenging for leadership? No? Then get back in line!). See also: Megatron’s decision to spare Deadlock after he was sentenced to death for rebelling against his commander. Megatron likes ambitious, independent people, but the faction’s structure does not naturally reward those things.
My only quibble, really, is that I see Getaway as falling much more into the good (literal) Autobot category – he’s trying to do something he sees as a small sacrifice for the greater good, in a very Prowl-like way, in contrast to Rodimus’s “heart over head, every time” heroism.
The differences between the Autobot and Decepticon thought police are also pretty striking, because I think it’s very fitting for the Autobot focus on community that if you’re doing something that’s not for the good of the community, they’ll change you to fit in. It’s really chilling. Whereas the DJD don’t actually try to “fix” people who are being “bad” Decepticons. They punish them, brutally, yes, but in a very weird way, there’s a certain respect for Decepticon individuality in that. “I understand that this is what you have chosen to do/be, and you will not change, and both of us cannot coexist, so prepare to die.” Yes, part of the point is to scare other Decepticons into not trying it, but they never attempted to, say, reprogramme Overlord or Black Shadow.
The Decepticons use mind control on their enemies, but only the Autobots use it on their allies.
I want to believe that Vos has a very eastern aesthetic. Bells, ribbons, flags and wind chimes being heavily utilized. Any things that moves and flutters in the breeze. Emphasising wind and air, two things seekers are very familiar with.
Towers would be decorated with tassels and ribbons during festivals and celebrations.
Dancing, flying, and singing are very admired in this culture. There are entire districts dedicated to expressing and perfecting the vosian aesthetic.
When it comes to music, i feel wood wind instruments, there were a variety of large and small drums, gongs, chimes, flutes, and stringed instruments, such as the imported mandolin-like biwa, the flat six-stringed zither, and/or the thirteen stringed koto. Drums would be used to represent sonic booms created by jets surpassing the sound barrier. Their music could be light and airy or thunderous and loud.
Most seekers are painted to standout in the crowd but not to be garish. They follow color theory and tend to choose complementary colors.
Depending on the circumstance, Picking a new paint could be a casual affair or a political statement.
For their military personnel, they are painted with camouflage in mind. A light underbelly and a dark top, they would be difficult to see from above and below. Certain colors were only allowed to be used by active service members such as red accents and yellow for the Sky Lord.
In a human? Pretty much nothing. Organics barely register as “people” to most cybertronians, and since there’s no instinctive recognition of “normal human” vs “aberrant human” you could be sprouting horns and breathing fire and they’d be like nah, nah, that seems legit, that seems normal. Humans do that, right?
Humans who are, say, under control of certain malevolent or otherwise unusual forces that cybertronians can pick up on would have some features that other humans might actually not pick up on, conversely- or there are even energy-based beings that can effectively “hide” as humans- generating their own holomatter avatar in order to interact with them. Humans who give off a notable cybertronian EM field would unsettle a cybertronian, and ones with EM fields that fall into a sort of “uncanny valley” effect for them would do so even more, or ones who give off a dangerous-coded EM field.
Buster, for example, can startle or unsettle bots- even though he basically outputs an overwhelmingly positive/pleasant/caring EM field and when he uses his powers with visual effects, the register as more or less the equivalent of “angelic” or otherwise benign, wondrous things to Cybertronians. But it’s still a human doing that, and that can weird them out.
(Think of a bot’s EM field/sparkfield as a sort of additional layer of awareness or sensation- it’s part of how they express emotional state, as an extension of body language.)
Of course, as for cybertronians- they find aberrant or otherwise unusual EM fields to be one of the first signs, and this can also indicate that a bot is sick or otherwise suffering some sort of spark-based malfunction. Other signs that would make them unnerved or frightened;
Unlit optics and unlit biolighting – A cybertronians optics almost always give off at least a dim light, unless they’re using shielded lenses, but a cybertronian with unlit or camera-like optics is considered very unsettling. Similar to entirely-black eyes would seem to humans. Sometimes referred to as ‘dead optics’ seeing as unlit optics often indicate when a bot has died completely.
A lack of a healthy paint layer –cybertronian ‘paint’ is continually refreshed by nanites- think of it as the outermost layer of their skin that helps to protect them. An unhealthy paint layer may be patchy, peeling, absent, or have a dusty, ashy gray color that leaves residue when touched- cybertronians who have died fade in coloration to varying degrees as a result of mass nanite death. Unicronians themselves have a ‘tarnished’ and ‘oily’ effect because their paint layer is maintained by unicron, as they have no more living nanite colonies.
Visibly exposed internals and damage would also be a strong sign that something was wrong- for the same reason it would be so in humans. While Cybertronians care capable of surviving with incredible amounts of damage, it’s still painful and uncomfortable and they’ll go out of their way to repair or at least cover exposed areas as soon as they can. Someone wandering around with a huge hole in their torso seemingly okay with it is…unsettling. Not necessarily bad, considering that they may be ignoring the pain in order to continue tasks or even unable to feel it at the moment, but still. That’s guts!
Actively ‘decaying’ metal goes with the one right above- not only does this mean rust or tarnish, but cybertronians contain nanites that help to upkeep them, but these nanites also are responsible for cleaning and removing waste material from the body- these nanites can turn on the body and begin consuming nonessential resources (such as armor) in order to repair or fuel systems, or as a result of tampering or illness. A cybertronian covered in small, oddly organic-looking holes and ragged edges is like seeing someone with chicken pox.
Unusual energon coloration or consistency might require someone to be injured, but a healthy cybertronian’s internal energon will generally be in a pink-to-violet range, or occasionally blue. A cybertronian with green, yellow, orange, etc etc energon is almost a sure sign that something is wrong, and that goes double if it seems to be leaking from them. Similarly, leaking coolant or oil (especially if they are also miscolored) is unsanitary and unsettling. Unicronians lack actual energon in their systems, and instead they tend to “bleed” a thick, black, oily-sheen sludge. And when they’re in particularly bad straits, this may also leak out the optics, intakes, basically everywhere. It’s vvvvvvv. gross.
Cybertronian Database 