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What role do sparks play in Animated?


Aquarion

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In the premier movie, Prime makes some comments which seem to indicate that TF's don't have their own personalities but are programmed instead. Then there's the case with Megatron. It's obvious that his spark receptacle was destroyed since he's nothing but a head. Yet, Sari's key was able to revive him. What's more, it looked like the Key didn't give him a new spark so much as it just recharged his head. And that's another thing, it seems sparks are perfectly replaceable since at the end of the movie, Prime's spark was extinguished and the Allspark gave him a new one. Despite this, Prime seems to be exactly the same as he was before. From all this, it seems that Sparks and Allspark energy are merely a special fuel source that allows a cybertronian to be a self-sufficient life form. However, much like the "Real Gears" from the live movie, the cybertronians would probably act like mindless animals until they were properly programmed. What do you guys think?

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I would go with Pete on this but, it depends on the writers. If Prowl's spark were switched with Bulkhead's, I'll bet you $100 Prowl would sound and act like Bulkhead proving that Sparks must also hold a bot's personality. When Sari used her key on Prime, The Allspark opened and a joilt of energy shot out. I looked at that as Prime's spark leaving the Matrix and rejoining his body. Like all the BW/BM episodes did.Also, I never looked at Megs as being dead, ever. Her key just woke him up.Also I never looked at Megs as being dead. The key just woke him up

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I honestly don't think the issue is meant to be parsed in this much detail. Different Transformers shows have taken different approaches to this (meaning G1, BW and BM, the only ones that added significantly to the mythos). In Beast Wars, sparks were viewed more as power sources (which is how 1/2 of Rampage's spark could be used to power TM2 Dinobot, and how Maximal protoforms could be reprogrammed to be Predacons). But in Beast Machines, it was the sparks themselves that were the souls of the Transformers (as demonstrated by the ever-body-switching Megatron). So it's hard to say, based solely on past series and what little we know of Animated so far.

 

I also think there's a tension on the writers' part between wanting to view these characters as robots, and wanting to view them as people. So on one hand, you'll have them speaking of programming and memory glitches and what not, but on the other hand, they have this sort of inner life force that isn't so easily explained.

 

But clearly a spark is what gives a Transformer life, and without one, it cannot live. As we saw with Optimus Prime. And we also saw that a Transformer's identity can be erased without affecting its ability to continue existing (e.g. Arcee). So my preliminary guess (assuming consistency) is that a spark is not the sum total of what a Transformer "is"; there is more to it than that.

 

However, I don't think it needs to be that black and white, either. Just as with us -- our personalities are made up not just of our experiences, but who we inherently are as people. There's a sort of basal core to who we are that is then added to as we grow in knowledge and experience. I don't believe that the Allspark had to necessarily return Prime's actual spark -- I think that it could have made a new one, and that combined with the programming already existent in Prime's body would have resurrected him. And I only say this because the Allspark has not yet been defined as the afterlife-ish thing that it was made to be in Beast Machines. All we know for sure so far in Animated is that the Allspark can give life. We don't know if it can receive sparks back into itself. (My guess is that it doesn't, but that is just a guess.)

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programming = brain

 

spark = life force

That's pretty much what I'm getting at. Without programming, a cybertronian would probably act like Dew-Bot from the live movie.

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actually, the allspark is an own universe that is connected to all the universes, with certain objects granting access in certain continuities (matrix of leadership, AllSpark cube, animated allspark) (at least, i think i read that somewhere) also, i think that it is a little like "spark is personality and feelings, programming is knowledge and memories."

 

oh, and prime's spark simply returned to the allspark, then the allspark put it back to revive him.

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That's an assumption based on Beast Machines' interpretation of the Allspark... which wasn't a Matrix-of-Leadership-looking box ;)

 

However I don't think that automatically negates the idea. I'm actually wondering if the Allspark will transform itself into the Matrix at the end of the show, and Prime will get it as part of his transformation (pardon the pun) into the big kickass leader Optimus Prime we all know...

 

oh and his battle mask would become permanent too :)

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At the risk of introducing material that belongs on the general/political boards, it seems to me that the relationship between spark and programming is analagous to the human relationship between brain and soul. I mean, humans have this same dilemma between what parts of a personality are brain function and what belong to a soul, or life force, or qi, or whatever if you believe in that sort of thing.

 

I don't think the TFs or even the writers themselves would be able to accurately explain the difference since we aren't totally sure of the difference in ourselves.

 

(...Hoping I just didn't send the thread into death spiral and lock-dom.)

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