The Undead

[Neon]

So, the title pretty much explains itself, but I was wanting to ask if it was possible to take the dead 'body' of another transformer, and with a 'harvested' or 'bot-made' spark, be brought back online? I have this idea for a transformer along the lines of that, but I want to get the go ahead before I start on the history. It would make no sense for me to go through all the trouble just for it to be turned down.

As a further note, if I am allowed to do this, I want to know if the history can switch between points of view, beginning with the 'creators' and slowly transitioning into the 'created'.

I do believe that is all the questions I have for now, but I will pop in if I have anymore. I'm looking forward to your answer and feedback!

[Zercon]

Greetings Neon!

First off welcome to the forum and for giving us a look! I do got to warn though that I am a very wordy individual and am just vomiting out all my thoughts on this question as I go.

I think the idea of taking a dead body and re-animating it in a different way than seen in the show with Dark Energon ((which wouldn't leave much of a character at all)) opens up a lot of questions and forces the forums to settle down and write concrete history for a Cybertronian's anatomy and how their sparks function.

Is the spark simply an energy source to animate the body and give it life? Or is it their soul and overall essence? Does it hold memories of any kind and core concepts that are reflected in the user? Or is it blank? It is implied to be a lot more important than just a mini reactor burning away in their chest, but the definition and how far it goes seems to be wishy-washy from what I have seen. There also is the clash with the processor itself and defining what role it plays with the spark.

Spark core transfers have been shown in the Generation 1 continuity family, however they were transferring the spark into a fresh new body, and not one that had previously been in use. This seemed to imply that all that they are, and all that they have in memories and soul is located in the spark, and can be put into new bodies. If the risky process is done RIGHT? Then it is just a body hop, leaving the Processor as an arbitrary mechanism to control body functions.

There are a couple instances shown in Beast Machines and Animated that reveal that an individual's body can still function without a spark for some time however. Whether or not this is true for a Prime Universe ((which I would lean towards no due to the end of the show where there was only a few flickered moments of realization)) it could be argued it implies sparks are more or less just power sources and all that a character is, is in their head which contradicts.

In additional contrast, in a comic where I source one of my characters, Arcee's own spark is split up and infused into three bodies, and she ends up able to control and manipulate them, to act as one unified entity. This implies that everything they are, is located in the spark, and the processor may not play as much of a role as one would think. OR it implies that the spark and processor work and 'talk' to one another enough to bridge through the spark to speak to the other frames.

In another example of confusion, Starscream in Transformers Prime finds some blank protoforms that he infuses his own Energon into to clone troopers for his armada. Issue is, this not only implies the individual's schematic is located in their Energon like DNA, but somehow implies that all of their knowledge, ambition, and personality can also be found in their metaphorical 'blood'. This leans things in the direction of the spark being just an energy source, and weirdly implies that they have an 'organ' that writes memories and experiences into their Energon...? Despite it being a part of the show that this site sees as official 'law' for continuity, I lean in the direction of forgoing this blood memory and pretending that detail never happened to clarify things.

In two more confusing examples, in Transformers RID, Starscream decided to do an entirely new body overhaul, which could have even been a frame transfer which can be common at times as the Wiki states? While people in IDW or RID comic if I can recall right were using other’s bodies as vacations to experiment and see what it was like to be a flyer, or a race car, and other things.

As you can see there is a lot of contradiction to contend with for your question.

Taking a step back to look at history, the one thing we do know as fact however is the idea that new sparks can't be created since Optimus threw the All-Spark off into the depths of space to be hidden from Megatron. This means your character's swap, would need to happen before that. If it was pre-war, it brings up the question WHY an old body would be desecrated, and why they wouldn’t use a new protoform to bring a new individual online. If it happened after war was underway and manufacturing was scarcer, it probably occurred no later than the time Vehicons were being mass produced, and the frame had to be valuable enough to want to bother being kept alive.

Now, for me, just Zercon the administrator and not the entire Admin core, logically to me it sounds like if this was possible, the body was valuable part and they couldn’t afford to lose it. But here's where the big questions come in. Would a new spark animate the old memories and give them their soldier back? Or would they be taking a gamble on the new spark actually thinking on par with the same team? If memories of the new individual were in control, why not use a living soldier that they KNEW was on their team, and put THAT in the body? This I cannot answer, due to the contradictions listed above. To try to get around the above contradictions, they'd have to do a simultaneous processor and spark transfer, but you can't do that with someone whose spark was just pulled from the well, and it'd just be a huge ordeal that would take a lot of time and effort during the war.

Or maybe it was common and I am uneducated?

As with many more risky or 'gimmicky' concepts in an application, in the end it can boil down to how the player presents it, and if they can convince the Administration team of its logistics. If this idea ends up being a large portion of their personality, and shapes the character as a whole, it is more apt to be an accepted thought. If you are using this just to be a zombie and the rest of the profile is detached and this attribute seems tacked on as an afterthought? Then it probably won't soar very far. That said, maybe the entire idea will be disproved by other Admins in general, and my suggestions are mute points?

With something like this, I would lean towards aiming for something different. But if you truly have passion for the idea, than bring it on! Show us what you got and we can see how the team as a whole feels over it!

Once more I apologize for my lengthy response that dives into too much detail, but I wanted to get my thought process out there so you can understand the hurdles this can present. If you have further questions feel free to ask them here, and another Administrator or myself will do our best to reply and help.