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Humanization - Transformers Wiki

  • ️Tue Nov 13 2001

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

You order a pizza?

Glandular, digestive, and respiratory

Sweating

LandsharkWOH-energondelivery.jpg

Coughing

Breathing

On Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was explained that the android Data's breathing served to cool his inner components, but mostly so that he doesn't appear unnatural to the humans he was designed to resemble. He also blinks for this reason. It could be argued that breathing serves the same "cooling" purpose in Transformers, as it is possible for their internal systems to overheat with use, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

  • In an Energon episode, Jetfire instructs Ironhide that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can Powerlinx.
  • At the climax of The Transformers: The Movie, Galvatron tries to strangle Hot Rod, complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
  • Cheetor, calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. Dark Voyage
  • Dinobot gags a bit when Rhinox lifts him into the air by his throat. When told by Rhinox, "I'm in a bad mood. Understand?" Dinobot responds with a weak, breathless "Uh huh." Aftermath
  • Bumblebee is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. Velocity
    • Blurr did the same thing when he had completed running all the way back to Cybertron. TransWarped
  • On the Nemesis, Megatron and Starscream's breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. Revenge of the Fallen
  • Kup breathes heavily as he runs in fear from Chaos and the slave mines on Dread. Chaos
  • Megatron is visibly breathing while in stasis. Deus ex Machina
  • "A Team Effort" confirms that Transformers require ventilation airways in their neck to prevent system overheating, as when Charger strangles Roadgrabber in a fit of rage.
  • When Vigil filled the atmosphere with a sleeping agent, Blades melodramatically held his breath until Chase assured him that the air was safe for Autobots to breathe. No Place Like Dome Air does not seem to be a requirement, however, as Rescue Bots operate perfectly well in space. Space Bots Unfinished Business
  • Megatron breathes heavily after exerting himself firing off the multiple blasts from Requiem Blaster in anger. All on the Moon by the way. Mars (episode)

Spitting

Crying

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Tissue: desired.

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My allergies are bad this year.

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Surf's up—and I'm talkin' up!

In the 2005 IDW continuity, authorial intent is that this is an overheating of the optical gauze covering their eyes.[1]

One-MegatronTears.jpg

Eating

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My knowledge of eggs is tremendously wide. I've eaten them boiled, I've eaten them fried.

Flatulence

  • In the Beast Wars episode "The Low Road", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
  • In the Beast Wars episode "Bad Spark", Cheetor also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his Transmetal body.
  • Just go watch Revenge of the Fallen. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.
  • One of the Mini-Constructicons "cuts one", causing the others to laugh and request someone to open a window in "Spotlight: Ramjet".
  • Fottle Barts farts. And farts. And farts and farts and farts...

Eructation

Urination

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Sorry, this was the best image we could find.

Defecation

Use of bathrooms in general

Blushing

SeaChange Seaspray Blush.JPEG

  • In the G1 episode "Sea Change", Seaspray has his whole face turn bright red, even before he jumps into the Well of Transformation and gets turned into a humanoid.
  • Transformers Animated Bumblebee has also been shown to be able to blush in a few episodes. Home Is Where the Spark Is Autoboot Camp
  • Transformers Cybertron Override blushes when speaking to Lori, which is an indication of the character's original male gender in Galaxy Force. Honor

Intoxication

  • In the G1 cartoon episode "Microbots", the Decepticons behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade energon. Powerglide refers to this as "over-energizing".
  • In the UK comic, the Wreckers frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called Maccadam's Old Oil House, where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. Dreadwind and Darkwing pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice Quickswitch fighting with some Mecannibals.
  • In Beast Wars II, Galvatron gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
  • In the Beast Wars II comic, Lio Convoy gets drunk once and messes up Apache's room.Recover the Bonds Lost!
  • The Constructicons in Animated, whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.
    • However, the Autobots did feel dizzy after a mini Soundwave spiked the oil nog. Human Error, Part I
  • Alchemist Prime is known for his love of alcoholic beverages. Some say that he came up with the legend of Cybertron's Chosen One after downing twelve drams of rancid Engex.

Miscellaneous

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You can't get the really good ones anymore thanks to Castrol.

Body parts

Mouths/teeth/tongues

Eyeballs/eyelashes

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Oh, my eyes!!

Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids; it's just artistic license.

  • The robots in the live-action film series have eyes designed to resemble cameras, enabling them to dilate and blink.
  • Animated Swindle has eyelids. He also blinks frequently.
  • The cyborg GoBots, as portrayed in the animated cartoon, do in fact possess eyelids (when the eyes aren't covered by a visor) and frequently blink. Some also have visible pupils.
  • Most robots in Prime possess camera-like eyes similar to those seen in the live-action films, which dilate, contract, and blink in a highly human-like fashion. Notably, they also replicate the involuntary saccades of the human eye when idle.
  • Likewise the robots in Rescue Bots and Rescue Bots Academy blink. Wedge once ruined a photo Hot Shot was taking of the recruits by blinking. Screen Time
  • TFTM Sludge Devastator.jpg

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    She puts it on with a paint roller.

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    About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.

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    Hey, wake up!

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    Got munchies?

Hair

  • Most of the Maximals featured in Beast Wars Neo feature hair on their heads in some fashion. In some cases it's isolated patches such as Heinreid's and Longrack's sideburns, whilst Break has an entire head of hair.
  • The original live-action iteration of Wheeljack sports hair-like wires protruding out the sides of his head.
  • In some cases, a Transformers' head will feature solidly-molded parts merely resembling that of hair. Such examples include Silverbolt's Beast Machines design which sports a metal top-knot, whilst most iterations of Windblade feature a head design shaped similar to that of a geisha's hairstyle.

Obesity

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Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

Masculine characteristics

Facial hair

Nuts, bolts, and screws

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Hit a Decepticon in its voonerables, he said, and you've killed it.

Feminine characteristics

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And her beast mode isn't even mammalian!

Breasts

Protruding chest areas are a common sight on Transformers, with characters like Prowl and Bluestreak wearing their vehicle mode hoods as huge "monoboobs." Female Transformers, however, will more often than not be designed with protruding chest pieces not as a consequence of alt mode, but deliberately to resemble a human female silhouette. Some even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. Blackarachnia, Antagony and Beta all fall into this category. One, Thunderblast, even has visible nipples. (You're going to look, aren't you...?) Meanwhile, Legends Arcee had partially visible cleavage as her armor is consumed by Kickback.

Lips

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Though not female, Silverbolt's got

sexy

nice lips.

Another common feature to denote gender in female Transformers is distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia's in Beast Wars. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker coloration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed female Cybertronians include Blackarachnia in Beast Machines, her Animated counterpart, and the G1 Female Autobots.

As far as males go, none of them have differently colored lips, but some do have noticeably thicker lips. Generation 1 Orion Pax, Silverbolt, Streetwise, Overlord and Shouki, for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does Animated Optimus Prime. Megatron in the War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon takes things to a whole other level.

Hips

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Much like humans, many female Transformers have a wider, more highly curved hip structure.

See also the Sexuality section below.

Questionable body parts

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  • Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, Beast Wars characters and movieverse Ratchet being exceptions. Noses are sometimes even implied to be there when not clearly visible, such as with Jetfire in the Armada episode "Mars". Movie Megatron also notes that he can smell Sam when the latter is trying to escape from him, and Ironhide remarks that he can "smell" Demolishor. This would seem to imply that movieverse Transformers have a form of olfactory systems. The idea of noses is somewhat 'fixed' in Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime by having the noses be a visible part of the robot's helmet as opposed to being part of their face.
  • At the end of the G1 episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide", Powerglide is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.
  • Although listed separately above, breasts and "nuts, bolts and screws" would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.
  • Rung has eyebrows. They're so prominent that "eyebrows" is literally his nickname.
  • Then there's the eyebrows in Transformers: Prime... my God, the eyebrows...
  • Transformers: Prime also has Megatron (and sometimes other Decepticons) referring to consumed Dark Energon "flowing through my veins!" Whether they were being poetic, or if it was part of Prime's attempt to redefine the technobiological nature of the Transformers, is unknown.
  • In Transformers: Animated, a clone of Starscream once asked Prowl if he didn't "have some Decepticon oil in his tubes." This isn't the only time when oil has been referred to as blood in the show, though it has some morbid implications, as it has also been used as an analogy for beer...
Brains

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Predaking: All brawn AND brains!

  • Predaking has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the Zone cartoon.
  • Unicron also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, Black Horizon Part 2. Later handwaved by explaining that the particular Unicron in the crossover came from the universal stream Gargent 984.08 Alpha and had taken on an organic brain in a similar fashion as the native GoBots.
  • Dark of the Moon's Sentinel Prime seemed to have something in his head resembling a brain after Optimus executed him.
Buttocks
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    Dan Reed, you perv.

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  • Mixmasterbutt.JPG

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    "911, what's the nature of your emergency?"
    "I'm looking at twenty tons of fat robot ass stuck in my window!"

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    Our editors went through great grievances to chronicle all this.

Other biological functions

Sleep

  • In the Marvel G1 comic, Trailbreaker plays a prank on Huffer while he is in "rest mode." Trailbreaker's Universe profile Ratchet falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare), an experience Prime refers to as an "involuntary systems shutdown". Back from the Dead Kup later attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up"—then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!" The Power and the Glory When Donny Finkleberg remarks that unlike machines, humans need to rest, Skids informs him Transformers need to as well to conserve fuel. Skids also has an on/off button in his dashboard. Heavy Traffic!
  • In the The Headmasters cartoon, Mindwipe is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep. In the Omni Productions dub, Grimlock notes the strangeness of a robot feeling sleepy.
  • This ability is also shown by Hellbat in the Victory cartoon.
  • In Beast Wars, it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
    • Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the Darksyde, while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
    • Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "Feral Scream Part 2", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
    • In "Call of the Wild", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
  • In Beast Wars II, Galvatron often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
  • In the Beast Wars II comic, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare at one point.
  • Armada Cyclonus is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. Scavenger does the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron is also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
  • Animated Ratchet enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. Transform and Roll Out
  • Also in Animated, when the Autobots feel tired after drinking an oil-nog (which Soundwave had spiked), they decide to go to sleep, pardon, to take a stasis nap. Optimus even yawns. Human Error, Part I
  • Nightstrike's screams put his victims in a sleep-like state, while also stimulating the "fear centers" of their processor and forcing them to have nightmares based on their worst fears. Even Robots Have Nightmares
  • Rewind falls asleep and has a bad dream about the Dark Dawn. The Custom-Made Now
  • The Lost Bots apparently sleep during the day in their alternate modes. Given BotBots in general are nocturnal, it makes sense the others in the mall may as well. (Never) Be Yourself
  • Bumblebee can be heard snoring after a lack of Energon caused him to pass out.Home, Part 2
  • D-16 is seen sleeping at one point before Orion Pax wakes him up. One

Aging

Main article: Life cycle

Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

  • Alpha Trion through the epochs.jpg

    Alpha Trion has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his character model undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.
  • The Overlord was so old that his body needed a regular energy supply to keep him functioning. State Games
  • Xaaron couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

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    Young and Innocent

  • In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.
  • Deathsaurus and Star Saber are depicted in flashbacks as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments. Star of Friendship, Jan and Star Saber!
  • Break and Longrack are aged and de-aged respectively in Planet of Time due to the planet Chronos' unique properties. Break's hair grows longer and he suffers from physical ailments commonly associated with old age, whilst the newly-young Longrack is reduced to a child-sized and drastically immature version of his usual self.
  • Colada is depicted as "child" in his flashback in the issue "A Battle Fought Alone".
  • Jetfire has a cane and is rusting. Some parts even fall off him when he transforms! However, he states that the reason for his decrepit condition is not just that he is very, very old, but mainly due to the fact that his Energon supplies are very low.
  • Side Burn claimed to have been a classic car when he was younger, and a tricycle when he was even younger in Sideburn's Obsession. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for Slapper. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.
  • Slipstream says he grew up on Luna 1 in the short "The Tragedy of Slipstream" and is even depicted as a child in flashback.
  • Stardrive mentions growing up faster than her friends on Elonia. Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor
  • Eons on Donnokt without sufficient energon caused Rodimus to visibly age. Transformers: Last Bot Standing

Sexuality

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Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and female characters and sometimes drops a hint Transformers may engage in (recreational) sex.

The original The Transformers cartoon brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including Elita One and Arcee. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Transformers. In contrast, such relations between two individuals of the same gender are virtually unheard of, outside of the 2005 IDW continuity, where it's commonly accepted.

Accents

Notes

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LMAO.

  • Mobage wound up on the wrong end of the "feminine characteristics" conversation over Elita One's character art in the Transformers Legends game. The initial art featured what can only be described as a "boobs and butt" pose, complete with shiny pink "underboob" and a very defined gluteal region. Following outcry from users, the game art was modified to a less obviously sultry version.

See also

References

  1. "When TFs get emotional, their optical gauze (the microfilaments over their eyes) overheats and you get the ribbons of light."—James Roberts, Twitter, 2013/11/01
  2. Grim Grams, issue 94