#I mean he kind of does in TFA with Prowl and the Yoketron thing

[quibbs126]

So I'm trying to think of something to do with Jazz in my AU, since I like him and he's supposed to be a prominent character, but I don't actually know what to do with him

Don't get me wrong, I love Jazz, but I feel like I still don't know him that well, despite me having watched g1 and Animated, where he has plenty of appearances

Like I can tell you that he's chill, tends to be high in Autobot ranks but never too high, likes Earth and likes to jam to music, but that's about it. And I kind of can't have that third thing in my AU since it isn't really viable

I don't really know what Jazz has going on other than being Optimus' close confidant/friend or being put together with Prowl. And I don't want to put Prowl in this, other than maybe making him a design because I think Quint's head works perfectly with him. I don't really know why I don't want Prowl, but I just don't, or I don't want him with Jazz (I can only assume it's because I still don't really get jazzprowl outside of TFA, which is I assume because I haven't seen their canon material yet). Prowl, Ratchet and Wheeljack are all like on a list in my head of characters I don't want here; I don't know, I think my brain just finds them overexposed or something

But yeah, I really don't know what to do with Jazz. What lore do I give him? What does he do in the story outside of his literal job? Optimus doesn't really need a confidant, he's already got Megatron and Elita he can rely on for that (though I mean, he'd probably still go to Jazz for advice or to talk probably). Best I can think of is him having a history with Soundwave, but even then, Blaster would probably be more suited for that

[autobotministerofscience-blog]

Brains and Sparks and Percy

// Under a cut because I’m rambling and this is going to be long and messy. Basically: Things do not work like they do with humans (at least in tfa) and sparks are super important and brains are, well, pretty important, yeah, but not in the same way.

// So I’m trying to figure this out. The emotions thing with Percy is kinda weird because Cybertronians have both the spark and the brain, and supposedly the spark’s got something big to do with personality and memories and junk, and the brain,,, doesn’t???

If I remember correctly, when Yoketron died, Prowl just grabbed up his spark and stuck it in a fresh protoform, and he woke up. Same guy, no problem. Died right after, because he wanted to, but it can be assumed that that could have worked. 

And then you’ve got Starscream doing stuff with the clones and replacement bodies, but the Allspark bits were involved so that might be different. Also one may assume that Starscream would make clones with brains like his IF that is how it works, which it might NOT be. Unknown as of yet.

But then CNA, which is stored in the spark, is their sourcecode and determines pretty much everything that their being is based on, and it’s also what they use for clones. So????? How important is the brain (processor), really????

Humans are like this: The brain is the all-important thing that stores all of what makes a person that person (only not exactly because the body plays a role and the chemistry is important and there are hormones and stuff and basically if you lop off a limb or remove some organs you not only make the body work less well, but also screw up the balance of Stuff and the brain is affected and the person is actually Not exactly the same, but that’s just what I’ve heard and I don’t even remember where) and the heart is just the thing that makes the rest of the body go. More or less.

Replace the heart and person A is still person A. But the brain, move that thing around and the person goes with it. Mostly. Er, well, we actually don’t do that, for the most part. But basically that’s it. There’s a whole When Are We Not Alive/Not Human/Someone Else/Etc Etc Whatever debate in here but I’m not concerned with that now.

Cybertronians are different. (talking strictly TFA here) The spark holds the personality, memories, CNA, and??? We don’t know what else. Maybe information in general too, because why not, and because Yoketron and Starscream had zero trouble remembering things, despite having no transference of files from processor to processor.

This also kinda explains how Starsceam’s personality was able to take over the simulation in Rise of Safeguard (tfa comic) when they took his CNA and got his decepticon code from it. Soooo idk maybe they got excited and just stuck his CNA in there wholesale instead of splicing it up and taking the useful bits. Ergo, a fully formed Starscream personality within the simulation, wreaking havoc and strong-willed enough to take over the computer until it was weakened in-sim and then they got control over the comp and his program again out-of-sim. Nice going Percy. I wonder if they kept that sim. Probably did. Probably have a diced up version of Starscream’s personality in there, just conscious enough to exist as an entity within the computer, but not enough to resist. Cool. Yeah, or not, whatever--not important; getting off track.

So sparks have a ton of stuff in them. So then what about the brains.

The brains are the interface for the spark, they connect the spark to the body. Yyyeah. The spark in part powers the body, which in turn powers the spark... I guess? maybe not? The...brains...act as an emulator? Eh. The brains interpret the data in the spark and realize it. Yyes? The brains....

Gah, I don’t know. Maybe all brains are essentially the same, and it’s the spark that makes them different. So with a Cybertronian, you could do a brain transplant and be chill; the bodies still have the same personalities and stuff as before, like human with a heart transplant. But change the sparks and you take everything that makes a bot that bot and move it. So frame/body/shell changes aren’t too hard. Only the spark is essential. That would explain Yoketron, Starscream.. even the Jettwins-- Jetfire’s head was gone. Also the Stunticons, Drift maybe... hm. Yeah.

So there are places where we do know stuff about brains, so I might have to disagree with stuff I’ve said above now. Or not! Hopefully not. Arcee’s brain was damaged by the EMP, deleting her memories and rendering her comatose. But that changed. The Omega Sentinels were created with simpler processors. Derek J Wyatt’s wording on Percy was that he deleted his emotions to clear room in his hard drive for more science. I’m thinking this isn’t how computers work, and the wording and specifics were changed anyway so it’s.. mostly moot? It’s moot.

So I’m thinking brains are, for the most part, blanks. Generic. Pretty much all the same. The brains actually go with the body/shell/frame/whatever, and are primed to take care of that body, regardless of what spark it has in it. It’s kind of like the nerves and spinal cord and brain stem and such in that it is integrated into its body and meant to keep that functioning.

Crud, the whole headless thing though. Oh my goodness, how the heck does that work. Crap. Uhhh... A wireless connection? Sure why not. Ok so if the brain and body are in proximity they can still communicate... Spark to brain, brain to body, body to brain, brain to spark, etc. and the bot can still move around comically unless another brain unit hacks in and takes control of the body. Like in the show. Ok. That works.

Blast a bot’s head off, destroy the brain, and the spark can still survive. It might sustain trauma from the loss of the brain, but it’s still alive. For a while anyway. It could fade pretty soon after. Important point is that without the brain, the spark cannot control the body. The brain is what does that. The brain acts as a conduit between the spark and body. Destroy the brain (or completely sever the wireless connection, or block it) and the living spark cannot move the body. It can keep it powered for a time, but can do nothing.

But if you get a new brain in time, things are ok! Like a heart transplant! Connection restored, and things are working again! As long as the brain is compatible with the body type/size and spark size/power output, things are great. So like Arcee couldn’t be a brain donor for an Omega Sentinel, but an Omega Sentinel could be a brain donor for another Omega Sentinel. They���re compatible. They could also probably just. Build more brains. The spark’s the important bit, so there wouldn’t really be a moral issue.

So basically the spark can’t communicate directly with the brainless body. Doesn’t work. Spark is funky energy and data, and needs translation into stuff the body can do. The Brain does that. Spark can give power to body, keep it alive and “on,” but even base functions won’t run without a brain. (Why? because aliens. Because robots. Because whatever. Because if the spark acts like a brain, what point is there in having a brain. None. But they do. So I make up nonsense like this.)

It would be interesting if a bot had multiple processors throughout the body. Backups. Blow their head off and chest brain 2 powers on. Headless but not hopeless indeed. There’s probably a drawback to this, or at least a taboo, but I imagine it could be made to work. Sweet.

Mm and I guess another thing on brains, they are interchangeable to a degree, but CPU speed is another difference that would have to be taken into account, in addition to size and such. The spark-compatible speed may or may not be determined by CNA--so a bot with lower CPU speed wouldn’t do well with a transplant of a higher-speed brain. Probably. I don’t know computers.

Oh, and of course the brain takes in data from the body and processes it and sends it to the spark. When a bot sees something the optics send the data to the brain which sends it to the spark where it becomes part of a memory and other stuff happens too, and the spark sends its reaction to the brain which sends it to the body. ....Sure.

Okay, Now Arcee and the Omega Sentinels. Arcee got blasted with EMP and as a result lost her memory (but it came back later) and went into a coma (but she woke up later). Percy told Ratchet that the damage to her processor was irreparable. Evidently he was wrong or lying. So if we take that at face value, the EMP fried her brain. If I’m right, this means that her spark was fine, and her memories and all were intact there, but that the damage to her processor prevented her from accessing them. And further, the damage incapacitated her--she was still alive, but her brain didn’t work well enough for her to get up and walk around and talk. She was in a coma. 

The scientists and medics did what they could (or did they) and still she didn’t recover. They kept her for some reason; guess they don’t kill/let die coma patients? I image they’re easier to keep alive than human ones. So after she was captured by the Cons she woke up and remembered Ratchet and was able to function a bit.., Shockwave digging around in her head didn’t help--or maybe it did? Maybe the events of her capture jostled something in her brain into the right place and from there she just had to reboot and restore stuff back into her brain from her spark. Took a while, hence the kinda slow recovery of her mind. I think Sari helped? Maybe? Or Bee? I don’t remember.

The Omega Sentinels. Created with, according to Percy, very simple processors, so that they comprehend the repercussions of their actions in the war less, and question orders less. Yeah pretty sure that was it. So okay! A few possibilities. 

Their sparks are normal sparks and the brain is normal, but has (potentially removable) blocks and mental barriers coded into it so that they question orders less.

The sparks are normal but the brains have been directly (and slightly more permanently?) altered so that a bit less communication happens between the spark and brain on specific data channels, resulting in less questioning orders.

The brain is actually pretty normal, entirely normal even, but the spark was messed with so that they question orders less. Percy just said that it was the processor that was altered because... reasons.... I don’t know.

Both brain and spark were altered. Spark was messed with as in 3, and the brain was messed with as in 1 or 2.

I don’t see Percy or the Autobots having much of a problem with any of these tbh. So I’m going to pick the one I like best and say they did that until I get info that supports one over the other. I think for now I’ll go with 1, until I psychoanalyze everyone involved in the decision and figure out that I’m totally wrong. Hey idk maybe I’m right, 1 is the easiest and they are kind of trying to get things done quickly.

Anyway, so that takes care of Arcee and the Omega Sentinels. Aaand it seems like my idea of sparks and brains holds up! Mostly! If you tilt your head and close one eye! Now for smaller and less plot-relevant details that could still unravel my theory.

The Jet twins. Jetfire’s head was blown clean off. Both bodies were reformatted into ones capable of flight. Both had flyer code taken from Starscream added in so that they could fly. It was taken from Starscream’s CNA, so it stands to reason that it was integrated into their CNA--put into their sparks. Jetfire got a new brain, and both bots were fine after everything. Same personalities and memories; the only difference was that they could fly. This goes fine with my theory.

Perceptor. “Deleted personality subroutines” is the canon take on it, though this is in Shockwave’s words, which is maybe relevant. There are a few possibilities:

He deleted standard brain programs that dealt with parts of emotion and personality; his spark was the same, but the personality data that was sent to the brain was not processed, or at least wasn’t processed the same way. Thus freeing brain space for other data and possibly speeding up processing. I have no idea if computers actually work like this and will have to ask someone to confirm or debunk this.

He left the brain alone and messed directly with his spark and CNA so that the coding for personality bits was erased, freeing up spark data space for science. I don’t think sparks work like this.

He created blocks or paths in his brain that redirected emotional/personality data to other parts, away from the CPU, so that he would be less biased when doing science. This one makes sense??

Number 3 but he can turn it on and off. He does science a lot and likes to be unbiased, so the block/redirection is mostly on, but he turns it off when he can’t otherwise come to a decision, or when he knows that he needs emotions to plug into a certain situation. Or when he realizes that it would make an experience or social situation work better. Or when I want him to have emotions. After so long without emotions, they can be terrible and fantastic.

Something else.

I really like 4. Even when redirection is on, his spark would still feel things in reaction, and his em field might even do stuff to show how he feels, depending on how those fields work exactly--emitted by spark and dampened by brain?--and he could even store the emotions he’s not actively feeling alongside memory, so he’d have copies with and without. Yeeah I like this but idk if I’ll actually use it..... .....Yeah I probably will tbh.

Eh, and whatever he did, he messed something up and his voice became flatter. That’s right, it was just a mistake. Ha. Yeah this isn’t certain either I could still change my mind on this or change it

Wow. This is a mess. If anyone actually reads this, I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have!