#sparkbots

So... The Cassettes and the Sparkbots...

In the original Kiss Players, the Cassettes have some personality to them, but aren't all that special, and the Sparkbots are just so barebones in personality and lore, they're just reduced to "party drunks" and "very evil".

Now, aside from the banter, what or who are the Cassettes and Sparkbots in your rewrite?

Ah, yes! The Cassettes and the Sparkbots! Now this is some good shit... Anyway, so, before I discuss both subjects, I must have to address my personal elephant in the room:

So, you know how Rosanna and Angela are automatically the cassette and sparkbot of Marissa? And we know that from both Rosanna's and Angela's color palette, in comparison to Marissa's, right? Well, I thought that was simple for the other two, but apparently, not so much.

Glit and Zangetsu are both white (or off-white since, in some art, they have a blue or purpleish glow, blue for Glit and Purple for Zangetsu), and I personally thought that those two would be Atari's just by color palette (and also because Zangetsu is a Japanese name and the idea of Glit being Atari's kitty-cat medic), but nope, both of them were Shaoshao's. But do you know who is actually Atari's cassette and Sparkbot? Sundor and Star Dust. Neither of them is even the same color palette as Atari, Sundor's orange, and Star Dust's green. What do they have to do with Atari other than that Atari's voice actress designed both of them? Well. I found a solution.

And that's where I am getting to.

THE CASSETTES IN THE KISS PLAYERS REWRITE LORE!

= = = =

MARISSA FAIREBORN'S CASSETTE AND SPARKBOT

Rosanna - The famous Autobot popstar who can transform into a cassette-playing karaoke machine or just a plain cassette, she, in the rewrite, is an icon in both Cybertronian and Earth spheres. Mainly recognizable by humans for being the star robot form for "Cassette Girl Rosie", which leads to both Marissa and Rosanna being a good match, as Marissa is a massive fangirl and Rosanna is her idol.

Angela - The Sparkbot Lion, she's basically Marissa's pet lion while also being a connoisseur of, what Angela puts it, "the most girliest human fashion ever", that being an avid reader of Japanese fashion magazines, avid player of dress-up games, and just everything girly, even owning a few Polly Pockets or some other girly toy at the time. While Rosanna is potentially a representation of Marissa wanting to be not just a famous popstar but a famous Robot popstar at that, Angela is potentially a representation of Marissa's personal journey to achieving it, or just a representation of Marissa's stereotypical love for pink and girly things, especially from the 2000s.

SHAOSHAO LI'S CASSETTE AND SPARKBOT

Glit - The Decepticon-turned-Autobot kitty-cat medic who can transform into a cassette head cleaner or just a plain cassette, he, in the rewrite, is formerly the medical assistant to a lot of medics, both Autobot and Decepticon, and is only with Shaoshao as she found him in a Cybertronian alleyway and decided to take care of him. Despite his medical profession, Glit wouldn't hesitate to try every alcoholic beverage Earth has to offer, because, according to Glit, compared to Energon wine, if a Cybertronian were to try a human alcoholic beverage, it wouldn't make them drunk, so it's technically safe to drink. Contrary to his belief, he does indeed get wasted off of those things, leading to Shao and Dinobot having to sober him up 24/7, so that's a bummer... ANYWAYS-

Zangetsu - The Sparkbot Falcon, much like Angela, he's basically Shaoshao's pet falcon while also being an expert in Japanese mythology, because, funnily enough, before I handed the Sparkbots to the girls, he wasn't originally going to be Shaoshao's but in fact Atari's, but Shaoshao got to him first, leaving me with no choice but to give Star Dust to Atari, but that's just a bit of Hanenohara banter for you, do ignore unless you're that into the lore. But aside from that, too long; didn't read, Zangetsu is Shaoshao's (and also Dinobot's) Japanese history teacher.

And now, we get to some rather disturbing territory, as this involves an infamous character from the More Than Meets The Eye IDW Transformers comics... BE WARNED.

ATARI HITOTONARI'S CASSETTE AND SPARKBOT

(Instead of the Cassette-Sparkbot order, Atari's a special case, as she, in this post, will have the Sparkbot-Cassette order. Not because she obtained her Sparkbot differently compared to the others, no, no... It's because of the "cassette" she was "partnered" with...)

Star Dust - The Sparkbot Insecticon (surprisingly), he is not just a Sparkbot given by me to the girls to enhance their powers; he's also a fragment of Starscream's good soul given form and power, meant to give Atari a form of comfort and confidence while she fights monsters and threats beyond human comprehension. And the thing about Sparkbots in this rewrite, they're not servants of Unicron as they were in the original; they are creations of Spark and Aspect, or a fragment of someone or something, made by me, Arita Hanenohara, as essentially "magical girl upgrades", like how in some magical girl anime, the girls get new magical items to achieve greater power and also cuter outfits/forms. But that aside, Star Dust is a Sparkbot made of Spark and Starscream Aspect, all rolled up with some bug matter to create Star Dust.

And now... We get to the most disturbing bit of lore this rewrite could ever offer, outside of the Legion's parasitism on Starscream and the body horror that may occur, the abuse Atari went through at the hands of Amao Hitoshizuku and Ringo Shizuma, and everything else that was yet to be written, but this?

Oh, Prime, bless our souls...

made these guys bc they're monsters of the week in s1e04 that i realized i could check off my list quickly

Vector is a fool about many things, but here at least he tells the truth—or at least, a white lie. Unicron lacked even a hint of a creative spark; his one great creation was the Mini-cons, but even they were originally envisioned as existing in his image, like Dead End. Now with Vector's knowledge banks, I can see that pattern repeated throughout the cosmos: the Egg Beasts, the Sparkbots, the Cyclone Mini-Cons... it speaks to a perverse form of narcissism.

His one attempt at creating his own "Dark Prime" ended up a sparkless beast, and even that was a mere copy of Optimus. No, when Unicron wishes for a servant, he will always corrupt rather than create, molding a Nemesis Prime servant from a former Autobot "hero"—this has been known since the tales of old, but I see now that the likes of the Fallen are more than just legends.