One thing that I liked about when they brough back Prime was both in Rebirth and Headmasters he wasn't exactly quite right, like there were side effects of the revival process.

 

This topic is one of the reasons why I don't really like the idea of sparks though. It makes everything to easy. In Beast Machines, and AEC it was like the bodies didn't even matter.

 

I guess I'm just saying I liked it better when the components were more vital to survival, and not as expendable.

On my shelves, only Maximal/Predicons and new gen Autobots and Decepticons have sparks. Otherwise the bots have components charged with a special static when they're built. While a body can be upgraded, those components remain key to the bodies character.

 

I also like when dead Transformers turn grey.

Well, the thing about Sparks is that they don't really reside completely in the Spark chamber. It suffuses every cell in the transformer's body. The Spark chamber is more like the heart, essentially pumping the Spark throughout the body. Thus, it is an essential component.

yeah but it kinda turned into the only essential component, and that never sat well with me.

I like the thought of The Spark or Soul of the Transformer. It does give rise to the thought of their mortality. Although it isn't mentioned, I do think that Cybertronians live age and even without the influence of violent means, can eventually die. Their life span may me more millenial but I do believe that there's a stopping point ...like Jetfire in Transformers 2. He was finding it hard to keep his parts intact and was falling apart at the seams. So maybe they do have a breaking point or an aging point where their Sparks cannot fullly sustain a body no matter how many times you switch forms.

yeah but it kinda turned into the only essential component, and that never sat well with me.

No. Far from it. The brain casing is also a very essential component among others. Like I mentioned before, if you destroy the brain casing, you kill the Transformer. Damage to the neuro-circuitry is life-threatening, just as much as damage to our nervous system and brain is life threatening to us. I also mentioned that immense amounts of damage over a sustained period of time is also life-threatening. Something like what happened to Jazz in the 2007 movie is an example of that. Most damage though, will usually only cause temporary stasis lock to allow the body to repair itself. This was even the case during the old cartoons and comics. Transformers have always been hard to kill, but it can be done. and not just be destroying the Spark chamber/fusion core.

well yeah and I understand that, and in all honesty it's how it should be.

But then you have Beast Machines (which I liked mind you) where sparks are just flying around all over the place.

Granted there was an extracter used, but what about containment? These things were just out and about, didn't seem to need anything at all to keep them going.

 

Then in Armada, Smokescreen gets blown up, next episode, all you see is his spark waiting for a new body

Energon at least had a decent loophole for bringing back Starscream, but when Demolisher got destroyed they litteraly showed just a tiny speck of his spark in Megatron's hand and that was all that they needed, same with Inferno.

Now I know Demolisher didn't come back exactly the same, but Megatron said that he did the same as SnowCat and altered their memories. Inferno on the other hand just took a new name.

 

All that just kind of made the critera for dying pointless, and while I liked Movie Jazz, I'm glad he remains dead otherwise it would be just one more event of undermining consequence.

 

I don't mind a spark as a core essence after all they were just devised in Beast Wars so they could explain how these guys kept coming back. It got out of hand though when they started becoming the only thing needed to keep these bots going even if the body was completly destroyed.

 

Not to get all G1 here, but I liked it when they had to do stuff like repair a body and make emergency runs for cosmatrons and stuff.

well yeah and I understand that, and in all honesty it's how it should be.

But then you have Beast Machines (which I liked mind you) where sparks are just flying around all over the place.

Granted there was an extracter used, but what about containment? These things were just out and about, didn't seem to need anything at all to keep them going.

 

Then in Armada, Smokescreen gets blown up, next episode, all you see is his spark waiting for a new body

Energon at least had a decent loophole for bringing back Starscream, but when Demolisher got destroyed they litteraly showed just a tiny speck of his spark in Megatron's hand and that was all that they needed, same with Inferno.

Now I know Demolisher didn't come back exactly the same, but Megatron said that he did the same as SnowCat and altered their memories. Inferno on the other hand just took a new name.

 

All that just kind of made the critera for dying pointless, and while I liked Movie Jazz, I'm glad he remains dead otherwise it would be just one more event of undermining consequence.

 

I don't mind a spark as a core essence after all they were just devised in Beast Wars so they could explain how these guys kept coming back. It got out of hand though when they started becoming the only thing needed to keep these bots going even if the body was completly destroyed.

 

Not to get all G1 here, but I liked it when they had to do stuff like repair a body and make emergency runs for cosmatrons and stuff.

Sparks can't survive indefinitely without a body. Only aberrant Sparks, such as G1 Starscream's, which are indestructible, can. A short period of time, yes, they could maintain cohesion, but not for too long without proper containment, and most of the disembodied Sparks in Beast Machines were held in a containment field. Otherwise they would indeed have dissipated and become one with the Allspark.

Again, thats what it's supose to be, but it became to convenient.

That's because a lot of it had become lost in translation. Remember, the Japanese were using the same animation but not the same script. That's why Energon screwed things up at some points. It isn't the issue with Sparks, it was simply poor writing.

As for how long can they live, we can say that as long as they receive maintenance, they can keep on going indefenetely, otherwise friction/rust/decay will do the job. [Do we count stays lock as alive?]

We can use Kup as one example, we was very roughed up in his spotlight, but he finally got upgraded and was out and about with the young ones. As for movie Jetfire, he was simply lacking maintenance.

Which would open the question... when they scan a new form, can that repair some amount of damage? Or even serve as maintenance? It is a change, and it would kind of work like Mystique's shape shifting abilities.

 

The only way I can think to make sense of the deaths and not deaths would be (putting Starcream's spark as the exception)... The spark is the soul, and it also acts as blood carrying the energon get to all the Transformer's body. Then, some wounds leak out some spark, some don't; so loosing limbs is not life threatening (probably some fail-safes that cut supply lines) but damage in a "main line" left unattended or lacking an energon supply proves fatal, that why Prime's death in the 86 movie, was because they didn't repair soon enough his spark leaking woulds and didn't give him a constant feed of energon like in All Hail Megatron. In the same movie, Ultra Magnus just fell apart from the shot but was fixed fast enough. But if a body is destroyed, the spark can be kept within a containment field, otherwise after a time it will vanish due to leakage.

 

For Animated, a "dead" spark goes to the well of all sparks, and the All-Spark can bring them back. A spark can be transferred to a different body or protoform. Megatron has his spark chamber in his head.

 

For the movie, the All-Spark can take life or give life back, and the Matrix can also give life back... as long as you have spare parts around and the spark chamber is not beyond repair.