Self-indulgent headcanon of the day is that sparkbonded mechs can eventually learn to “ride along” each other’s sensory feed, even over long distances. It’s most likely to occur when one of them is in recharge (lack of other input), and the other one awake, so most don’t realise that’s what’s happening b/c at first the differences in sensory input parsing leads to an incoherent, dreamlike experience.
Over time, sparkbonding causes various subsystems to synch up, which will make the sensory experiences easier to parse, and may even lead to “phantom limb”-like sensations whle awake, especially between bonded pairs of different frame types and classes. The sensation source is rarely aware of the connection – for some people it can lead to feeling like they’re being watched, but even that is usually hard to distinguish from the general mutual “awareness” typical of a sparkbond.
Sensation transfer while awake is rarer, but it’s known to occur with sudden spikes in sensory or system activity, and the frequency at which they happen has a rough correlation with the percentage of system synch-up the bonded pair is experiencing. Data compression artefacting and junk data synch while in recharge (”dream sharing”) is considered a separate phenomenon from sensory transfer, and is a lot more common even among newly-bonded pairs.
Tag: spark
I wonder how Transformers handle the death penalty when it comes to spark-bonded individuals. A spark bond entwines the participating parties’ sparks. If one person was to die, there’s a high chance the other may as well from the trauma induced over their spark bond.
If a spark-bonded mech was sentenced to death, would the system legally allow it? If the other bot was innocent, not involved at all in the crime, can they honestly kill this mech and risk killing an innocent in the process?
In several comics and shows, cybertronians have been able to detach their minds from their bodies (ex. in prime megatron used bee’s body). How does this work if they are no longer connected to their spark when their spark is supposed to be who they are at their core?was there ever any explenation for this?thanks for answering!
This is a tricky one, and one that forces us to loosen up our thinking a bit. Because the Transformers are robots, and because the spark is a tangible concept, we expect their mechanical biology to be more explainable, but really – it’s not.
Think about a human being. It’s an endless and unanswerable philosophical debate over what the difference between the “mind” and the “soul” are, and if those things are, or are not, distinct and separate from the ideas of the “consciousness,” and exactly what relationship they have to the physical “brain.”
Well, Transformers are the same. The spark is the “lifeforce,” the animating energy that makes them actually living creatures and not just machines, which as a tangible concept is more “knowable” and “provable” than the ethereal concept of a human soul. But they also have brain modules that contain the programming that is their “mind,” called a “core consciousness” in Beast Wars that was a concept distinct from a spark, which made up who they are as a person.
And the relationship between the two is just as undefinable as it is for humans. Even in Beast Wars alone, seemingly contradicting what we were told about core consciousnesses, Optimus Primal’s disembodied spark was transferred from one body to another alone, taking his mind and all his memories with it – but that happened in the same story in which Rhinox was able to project his core consciousness – his mind, not his spark – out of his body and into the Matrix. And then later in Beast Machines, we’d see multiple sparks moved from body to body, consciousness travelling with them each time. So where does consciousness lie if both these things are possible?
Presumably, the spark is what “fills” the brain module with that personality programming upon a Transformer’s activation. But, it is just programming, and it can be overwritten – Beast Wars used shell programs, while in Energon, Megatron could do it himself, and did it to Inferno, who only escaped by destroying his physical body and having his spark – unaffected – moved to a new body.
And how connected the mind and spark are once that initial birthing is forever in question. If you can alter a mind without altering a spark, must they then be considered separate concepts? In Binaltech, for example, Wheeljack was able to “resurrect” the dead Prowl by loading the programming from his mind into a new body, and using the lifeforce of Chip Chase in place of a spark. And it’s possible to have robots who have “just” programmed minds – no sparks – who are totally indistinguishable from normal Cybertronians in all cognitive functions, appearing just as sentient and alive as anyone else (Beast Machines’ Diagnostic Drone, Afterburn from the Animated comic) – but who are just considered… not, purely because they don’t have sparks.
So you see, sparks and brain modules co-exist with these philosophically-intriguing overlapping qualities, and exactly which truly makes a Transformer who and what they are is…. open to interpretation. When Megatron transferred his mind into Bumblebee’s, he was essentially moving programming from one piece of hardware to another. Did he remain “alive” in Bee’s brain because of Bee’s spark, providing animating force to his body? Or was it because his own spark remained alive inside his own body, his intangible “soul” transcending any kind of physical limitation, in the more abstract sense we might think of if a human character were to do the same?
These are the questions…
The importance of the Brainmodule and the Spark
A headcanon post by moi, and relevant for one of the fics currently on my poll.
When it comes to fanfiction, oftentimes the Spark is the most important aspect of a Transformer’s existence. Without it, they would die. It is insinuated to be the source of a Cybertronian’s sentience/sapience/intelligence, and it is often compared to the human Soul.
At the same time, there’s been instances of reprogramming ( in both fic and canon ) which forever altered the mech in question. The destruction of a brainmodule has been shown to be almost the same as death.
Rung, with his brainmodule having gone through some trauma, was completely unresponsive and near comatose. Nautica held onto Skids’ brain module, in the hopes that his spark could be rekindled in some way.So, even though the details are never explained in canon ( how wonderful, plenty of room for headcanoning!) we know that the brainmodule is at least equal to the spark in importance.
My personal headcanon, is that the spark is what generates emotion, attachments, and feelings. And that the Brainmodule is necessary to interpret the signals of the spark, and to translate outside events to signals that the spark can understand.
They work in tandem, and develop set patterns and ‘shortcuts’ so as to say, as the Cybertronian grows older and has more life experience.With that thought in mind, I wondered… What would happen if the sparks were swapped, but the brainmodules were not?
Say, perhaps, a Pre-War Jazz and Prowl?
A shiny new version of my old spark spectra headcanons. I wanted an easier-to-read graphic, and the changes just kept coming from there…
+ Disclaimer: This is the system I’ll be working with for most of my TF works, particularly those set in Book Of Hours. It’s completely headcanon’d, meaning I make shit up and wave at canon as it flies past, so don’t take it too seriously.
+ References:
- Basic Spark Structure
- Ramblings on TF ‘Gender’ and Pronoun Usage [slightly old but still more or less relevant]
Spectral Classification—
>> The internal temperature range at which the spark burns plasma, which determines the charge output, cyclic and pulse rates, apparent colour, and resonant affinity of the spark. An important marker of identity for virtually all Cybertronians, due to the spark's status as the giver of life for all.
Cybertronian Database 