A couple of weeks ago I decided to make a draft where I write down fan-continuity-related ramblings, and sinceeee itt hass gotten veeerryy long and I'm not even finished with the section about sparks and long posts are trashy, I decided to release a part of allat rn. The sections begin straightforwardly and idk what to do about that.
If anybody could help with a term for a big-aah system located close to Cybertron's surface (but still buncha kilometers below it) responsible for the construction of Cybertronians—i.e. sth like a ""factory""—I would appreciate it sm 😭
Placing a cut. The first topic is the weaker segment, but whatever, I'm rlly into such behaviours in another thing of mine that's an AU of some continuity instead, lol
1. (Not too different from the usuals in the fandom) Cybertronians stretching. Except it's mainly like the equivalent of humans/cats stretching their back, but something like a reset of the transformation system/starter occurs, where the parts in the robot mode move for a few seconds a bit as if a transformation was initiating, but they fall back into place. As obvious as the previous sentences have been, a signal regarding that is sent to the systems in case a sensor detects that a part is starting to have a mild jam risk e.g. due to not having enough movement (could also be tied to chronic conditions, for example). However, this is not possible for mutated transformation systems (e.g. whatever Chromia has going on in the fan cont, triple-changers, multi-changers like Sixshot) due to their unconventional anatomy and reduced "compactness" in said system. (Lol to that I went: "and I Will insert this into the fan cont, because that one au has had enough of such elements/HCs 🫵")
2. Hardware placement. By that I mean Cybertronian equivalent of organics' "organs".
It's commonly thought that "a processor ought to be in a Cybertronian's head, of course!", which is typical of tying Transformers to humans (human anatomy). Frankly, I thought that it would make sense if many Cybertronians had their processors (motherboards, other processing units, le "brain things") placed in their torso, as the "head" could be the holder of their advanced optical systems. A Cybertronian with: a relatively enhanced sight; an abundance of additional features added to it (not just things like night vision, infrared); and² perhaps pieces of hardware that hold specific information and tie it to what's seen by the optics... could have it all located in their 'head'. Alongside that, perhaps their helmet could additionally be of a greater size (not just for protective purposes), for example. To me they already got the energon/material intake in there, too, da, so may as well not squeeze in the whole "computer", too. I feel like it should take up a greater amount of space, because why not fiddle with a Cybertronians' version of "pc specs"? A mere metal sphere like in IDW is quite disappointing to me, lol.
An addition to optical systems I want to mention is: visor vs no visor. Some Cybertronians naturally have those classic, two, eye-like optics (I often make them have more than two, though!), which most frequently come with fancy patterns inside of them that are the equivalent of an iris. Meanwhile, some cybertronians have visors and "nothing" beneath them; no chance of ""secretly pretty eyes!""; just optical systems, their 'guts'. Visors may also be an addition: appending filters (like informational ones) or to enhance precision or whatever. They could be used to correct vision in certain cases, too (some damages to the optical systems don't get fixed asap, so there may be a temporary visor usage). This section is not about optics, though, lol. More in another post.
Continuing the first paragraph (still regarding the "head"): you could have a Cybertronian who does not have any vital hardware aside from the optical one in their head. They may or may not have a larger helmet. You could slice their head off; you could rip it off if the whole-aah connections didn't go along with it like spaghetti (because then the motherboard-tied hardware could join in)... and such a Cybertronian would live. On the other hand, you could have a Cybertronian that does have vital hardware in their head... crush it and uhm. Death.
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I once have seen a post about the placement of sparks / spark chambers in canon Transformers media. Tooo beee frankk, I am not really a fan of, to provide an example, Omega Supreme's spark being located in his arm in one canon continuity. For some it may be the originality to strive for, but I limited my thoughts regarding that 🥀
Spark chambers of the fan cont have a "traditional location"—somewhere in the torso. Except, a stab (or an attempt to rip something out) in the approximately same location may vary in effects between Cybertronians, as these thangs do not always have the same, positional equivalent of e.g. human thymus, heart, duodenum or aortic bifurcation (I mean the height it's at, in human language 🙏). I will add that central placement is the better option, in my view, lol, even though off-centre one indeed could be arranged. Moreover, I don't feel like making them as massive as Starscream's in TFA, for example, nor very wee. I shall refrain myself from talking about sparks in this post, da.
Last part I will mention in this section are 'transforming modules' (of which 'transformation starters' are a part) (transformation cogs, t-cogs in common TF lingo), which are the core part of the transformation system. For some reason, frequently when I imagined a character having a massive pain related to it (due to its failure, for example) I thought of a placement like appendix or kidney 💀 I don't know why, lol. I watched TFP early on into the fandom, but I could not tell you where I think a t-cog would be. And a certain fan project of a season that I had watched had a two-parter in which the t-cog that had gotten damaged was in the location typically reserved for sparks in that same continuity... ANYWAY, BACK TO THE STUFF NOW.
In case somebody wanted to damage one by aiming a shot perfectly at its location, the knowledge of a particular Cybertronian's anatomy would be required, too! They are almost always placed off-centre, could be a wee more to the front or back, more to left or right, but especially—at different heights. It's still somewhere around the spark chamber and motherboard, though. It's an example of a major part which's location varies significantly.
Information regarding a particular Cybertronian's hardware placement and other details is located in their anatomical files, which can be easily accessed, as it was made to be so by Cybertronians ("operating systems" 🗣🔥) themselves so as to ease medics' jobs. Frequently it may be just stored in an outer database, too (smth like hospitals, when a citizen frequents them, or—during the Autobot-Decepticon war—it could be with a squadron's medic or even more generally: a centre that's responsible for a wee part of the army).
Idk
