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Cybertronian Units of Time: a Guide

…concocted by me, via:

Canon Definitions

Most Common Terms Used in Fandom (that I have seen)

Most Common Interpretations of Aforementioned Terms

Math That Makes Those Terms Make Sense Together

Filling in the Blanks With What Sounded Good (to me)

So essentially I began with Cybertronian units with explicit definitions in canon that are also widely used in fandom (ie. Vorn = 83 years, Joor = 6 hours, Groon = 1 hour). I then worked my way out from those and tried to keep to rough factors of 6/8/10.

Some terms that did have explicit canon definitions had to be slightly skewed from their value (ie. Breem: 8 → 6 minutes, Klik: 8 → 6 seconds) if their definition contradicted another definition that made more sense/fit better. 

At any rate, obviously no one is obligated to use this standard, but canon Transformers content has been unfortunately… awful at establishing any universal units of time, their relationship to each other, or their equivalents to human units of time.

So this occasionally makes fanfiction an absolute nightmare for people like me with a crap memory who don’t want to constantly have to scroll through a thousand pages of the wiki to remind themselves what the hell a groon is.

So, naturally, I simply spent far too long whipping up this at-a-glance guide to keep track of it & on the off chance that the fandom might adopt it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

i love you all and i need you to stop writing trauma as a single breakdown scene in the rain after which the character is Healed and Ready to Love Again. that is NOT trauma :(

⊹ Trauma doesn't announce itself. it shows up as your character suddenly not being able to eat a specific food, or going very quiet in a loud room, or laughing at the wrong moment because their nervous system decided that was the appropriate response. it's mundane and weird and it makes no sense from the outside. the dramatic flashback sequence is the least realistic part. the most realistic part is your character suddenly needing to leave a grocery store for a reason they can't articulate.

⊹ The body keeps score and it keeps it in the strangest places. a particular smell. the quality of light at a certain time of day. a tone of voice that sounds like someone who hurt them. your traumatised character doesn't think "this reminds me of the bad thing." their heart rate spikes and they don't know why. they feel wrong and they can't locate the feeling. they're irritable for three days and only later, if ever, do they make the connection. write the disconnection. it's more honest.

⊹ trauma also does not make people universally sympathetic and wise. it makes some people controlling. some people funny at inappropriate times. some people very good in a crisis and completely unable to handle a normal day. some people are generously kind to strangers and absolutely terrible to people they love. trauma shapes behaviour in contradictory, inconvenient ways that don't resolve into a lesson. your traumatised character can be difficult to like. that's not a flaw in the writing. that's the WRITING.

Jazz: Repeat what I say

Jazz: wait NOT EVERYTHING

You are already familiar with tactical hand holding now behold. Tactical hugging~

Also haha yeah surprise-surprise hollow things can float in water:D This comic updates once in a million years so in case you forgot and now confused about what the fuck Prowl is doing imma just attach a reminder page below

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/slides you three pickles to elaborate on your previous tag

Yeah so.

IDW Prowl is a messy case of very inconsistent writing so I won't go into analyzing his every move and decision. Right or wrong or whatever, I am not talking about morals here.

The thing is. If you look at him from a general perspective. The guy is built differently from others. His processor works in constant calculated-predictions mode. All his life is basically an endless crunch of statistics and strategies because he is literally incapable of thinking any other way. His brain is different. And it is not even vaguely implied It clearly stated.

Therefore. Quite obvious parallel can be drawn to neurodivergence.

But then there's like. The way it handled in the story. Because Prowl is one of those people who you can make fun of and everyone would laugh in unison instead of giving you weird looks. There's sooo many jokes in idw about him being unpleasant to be around. Not only because of his crimes but because he is boring and weird and rude and whatever else. People don't like him they mostly just tolerate him because he outranks them. And I get them! I would be mad at him too if I was in their place.

So when I was reading I was like OKAY. This is an interesting setup. It's a good tragic point. HOW this situation is gonna be resolved? It has to be resolved somehow? Characters should change and grow and learn lessons and stuff! What is Prowl's personal growth timeline here? How is he going to get accepted by all those people?

And the answer is. Well.....he got hooked up to the brains of normal bots and for the first time in his life he saw how they see the world and immediately surrendered into "Oh no I realised my way of thinking is evil and wrong and your way of thinking is all emotional and good. Thank you normal people for showing me the truth."

Like. Bruh. I get what the writers tried to achieve there, I do. But really. Prowl doesn't have a personal journey where he learns to adapt and live comfortably with his otherness. Prowl doesn't get any real understanding (at least I can't remember) from other characters. Prowl just has this one big powerful scene where he gets told that the thing that's evil and wrong about him is also the only thing he absolutely cannot remove or change. His brain. Or processor. You get the idea.

Which is. Okay cruel. As well as extremely sad and unsatisfying ending for his character.

Which is why I said in that previous post that I prefer Blurr as a representative of neurodivergent people in idw. Blurr went through his personal growth journey and that journey was about him understanding other people's views and struggles without changing anything about his differently working processor. That is a nice and fairly satisfying ending. He can die in peace after that haha

While Prowl is kinda. Just stuck in this limbo where other people hate him for the way he is. And the way he is ...is because of how his brain works but he cannot do anything about that so he keeps trying his best for the Autobots cause because if he cannot be anything good then he will at least be something useful.

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As someone who's researched neurological conditions extensively and interviewed people with memory disorders, I'm begging fiction writers to please, PLEASE stop with the "bonk on the head = total life erasure" trope. That's not how any of this works.

⊹ Retrograde amnesia (forgetting the past) is rare and almost NEVER involves forgetting your entire identity while maintaining perfect memory formation going forward. Know what's way more common? Anterograde amnesia: you can't form NEW memories. Like the guy from Memento, except usually less tattoo-based organizational systems and more confused repetition.

⊹ Head injuries causing amnesia? Sure, happens. But it's usually the minutes/hours around the trauma that vanish, not your entire childhood, first kiss, and ability to recognize your spouse. The brain doesn't store memories in one convenient "delete this folder" location. You might forget the car accident but remember your kids' names.

⊹ What's weird about real amnesia: skills often remain. You might not remember learning piano, but your fingers still know the keys. Procedural memory (how to do things) lives in different brain areas than episodic memory (life events). Your amnesiac character might not remember their name but could still speak three languages, drive stick shift, or execute complex martial arts.

⊹ Another thing: amnesia from psychological trauma (dissociative amnesia) is controversial and functions differently than neurological amnesia. It's selective, blocking specific traumatic events while leaving other memories intact. And it doesn't typically include identity confusion unless we're talking dissociative fugue states, which are incredibly rare.

⊹ Recovery is unpredictable and often incomplete. Memories might return in fragments, dreams, or triggered by specific sensory cues, but they're often unreliable, contaminated by suggestion or false memories your brain constructs to fill gaps.