Shockwave wrote:
I think I actually just prefer early season 1 Sunbow. When they just built them and that was it.
Easily the most un-convoluted idea so far. Doesn't involve holy grails, sparks, robo-sex, budding, or anything else. The resources involved and the technical skill required to build a new TF might be pretty steep, but at this point, it's the simplest and most consistent way to create a new TF. And you know, getting back to the Master Mold comparison, maybe this really is just the way it is for TFs. Building new members (protoforms) in a factory like The Pit or The Matrix may not fit the definition of life as we know it, but like the narrator said in "More Than Meets the Eye part 1", the Transformers are "
not life as we know it."
In fact, thinking of all the familial relationships throughout the TF universe (
And there's a lot ), it could be something as simple as people being built around the same design specs or coming online at the same time (twins?). Or even getting away from that, they may just form strong bonds over the millenia that approximate the kinds of relationships we have on Earth. Being an advanced society, the TFs have to interact with each other, and it's perfectly within the realm of believability that a mentor figure taking someone under their wing could be later seen as a type of father figure (just for example).
As to where sparks come from and how a factory can snag one and plunk it into a protoform, I don't know. But at this point, I'm not terribly concerned either. Maybe they have a spliced cable running from The Pit or The Matrix right to The Oracle/Vector Sigma, and they just siphon off new sparks whenver they need to. Who knows?
What I like about this:
- Such protoform producing factories are established in-canon.
- Both sides have access to this method of procreation, unlike the holy grail items, which are almost always held by Autobots.
- Off-world colonies could easily build their own protoform factories.
- Still rejects the idea of robo-junk. I'm willing to entertain the idea if it's thought out, but I'm still not a fan of it (or the ensuing fan art).
Problems with this?
- Children TFs?
This may not actually be a problem. As much as I hate the BotCon comics, Dawn of Future's Past, showed that AirRazor and Tigatron were active on Cybertron prior to coming aboard the Axalon. And. . . ugh, as much as I REALLY hate the IDW Beast Wars comics, even Grimlock was a protoform on the Axalon. Maybe passengers or crew travel in protoform state much like how the humans in the Aliens movies travel while in cryogenic sleep. So all the protoforms we saw during Beast Wars could have just as easily been fully active on Cybertron prior to the trip. Why couldn't any of them remember?
Tigatron and AirRazor- said to have had their memories badly damaged during the fight prior to coming aboard the Axalon.
Blackarachnia- Predacon reprogramming could have screwed with her memories. Just look at what reprogramming did to Rhinox, Silverbolt and Waspy in Beast Machines.
Inferno- His beast mode dominated his logic circuits. Went insane and forgot his previous life. Believes himself to be a real ant.
Quickstrike and Silverbolt- Their stasis pods were caught in the quantum surge explosion of the moon and screwed up the systems of the pod. It's possible their heads just got rattled and they couldn't remember anything. They couldn't even remember they were Maximals and you'll note that no one reprogrammed their pods. Which means Quickstrike really is that sick and twisted without the aid of a Predacon chip.
Rampage- Can remember his past!
Transmutate- too screwed up.
So the appearance of protoforms in BW doesn't negate all the images we've seen of TF children before. Maybe the factories really do build them in small, child-like forms and they grow into adult sizes. The hatchlings from RotF certainly grow bigger, I'm sure (yeah, sorry for mixing continuities). Besides, would Primal really want kids on his ship, when he's carrying Rampage around?
