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Humanization

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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.

Contents

[edit] Glandular, digestive, and respiratory

[edit] Sweating

  • In issue twelve of the original Generation 1 comic, Rumble is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with Shockwave (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
  • Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, Kup can be seen "sweating".
  • Robots in Disguise and Armada featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.
  • Wing Saber sweatdrops upon seeing a particularly scary expression on Lori's face. Ambush
  • Leozack sweatdrops oil when Landshark attacks him. Wings of Honor

[edit] Coughing

[edit] 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 its 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 powerlink.
  • 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
  • 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.

[edit] Spitting

[edit] Crying

Tissue: desired.
Tissue: desired.
Surf's up—and I'm talkin' up!
Surf's up—and I'm talkin' up!

[edit] Eating

Probably contains energon goodies in the shape of a happy face.
Probably contains energon goodies in the shape of a happy face.

[edit] 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".

[edit] Urination

[edit] Defecation

[edit] Blushing

  • 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

[edit] 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 manga, 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

[edit] Miscellaneous

Bet it's imported from Cubatron.
Bet it's imported from Cubatron.


[edit] Body parts

[edit] Mouths/teeth/tongues

Main article: Teeth
Main article: Tongue
Main article: Mouthplate

[edit] Eyeballs/eyelashes

Oh, my eyes!!
Oh, my eyes!!
  • Most Transformers have eyes. They see with them.
  • In the episode "Auto Berserk", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.
  • While dying from life force depletion, Elita One occasionally closes her eyes. The Search for Alpha Trion
  • Arcee and Springer clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by a claw. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1
  • Cyclonus also closes his eyes when Galvatron is about to go through the Alya treatment and he cannot bear to watch. Webworld
  • Lyzack sports some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the Victory manga. So does Esmeral. Heroic! The Victory War
  • In Spotlight: Hot Rod, Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that 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, back-and-forth movements of the human eye when idle.

About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.

Hey, wake up!

Got munchies?

[edit] Obesity

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

  • In Grim Grams #94, Grimlock mentioned that Ultra Magnus weighs a little over 90 tons and "could stand to lose a little around the fuel storage system".
  • Shockwave complained that the Decepticons had grown "fat and complacent" under Scorponok's rule. Surrender!
  • Bulkhead is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
  • Much the same could be said of Omega Supreme. Being big-chassised is no excuse to let yourself go.
  • Animated Ratchet has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala Trailbreaker), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably lacks said paunch.
  • Gnaw. Well, all the Sharkticons, really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly-poly.
  • Leadfoot has a set of metal plates that form the front of his Alt-mode forming a sort of "beer gut" on his abdomen.

[edit] Masculine characteristics

[edit] Facial hair

Main article: Facial hair

[edit] Nuts, Bolts and Screws

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

[edit] Feminine characteristics

I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.
I'd tap it like the fist of an angry god.
Main article: Female Transformer

[edit] Breasts

Some female Transformers, such as Arcee and Elita One (not to mention the other Arcee and Elita-1) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their alt mode kibble, but bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob", if you will. Some females 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...?)

[edit] Lips

Though not female, Silverbolt's got sexy nice lips.
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 femmes include Blackarachnia in Beast Machines, her Animated cousin, 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 Shōki, for instance, have lips that can easily compete with the females', as does Animated Optimus Prime.

[edit] Hips

Dan Reed, you perv.
Dan Reed, you perv.

Alike to humans, many a female Transformer has a distinctly more curving hipstructure.

See also the Sexuality section below.

[edit] Questionable body parts

Not Astroboy, we swear!
Not Astroboy, we swear!
  • Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, Beast Wars characters and movieverse Ratchet being exceptions. 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.
Brains
Predaking: All brawn AND brains!
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.


[edit] Other biological functions

[edit] Sleep

  • In the 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 manga, 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

[edit] Aging

Main article: Life cycle

Some Transformers have been depicted as aging.

  • 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
Young and Innocent
Young and Innocent
  • Xaaron couldn't transform anymore because he was old.
  • In an issue of the Marvel UK G1 comics, Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old.
  • Movieverse 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 younger. While he was lying, his story was plausible enough for Slapper. On the other hand, Slapper is an idiot.


[edit] Sexuality

Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.
Sorry, Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.
Main article: Transformer romance
Main article: Reproduction

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 Generation 1 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.

[edit] Accents

Main article: Accents

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Humanization"
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