Not Sure What Else To Tag - Blog Posts

Altmodes and sense of self

Hi there. I'm not exactly sure how to Tumblr, but hey, I have to start somewhere, haven't I?

I have recently created this guy as a bit of a proof of concept: it's possible for a cybertronian of a right size to take not a new altmode, but a different robomode. Well, it involves some Fallout, but for those that don't know -- top right is an assaultron, a relatively common enemy and sometimes ally in the series. Sorry for a messy pencil drawing, it was intended to be an inside for-roleplay thing.

Reineke has two alternate stories -- a damaged synth replacing parts with an assaultron armour or a stranded beastformer minicon. Both have a bit of an issue with what they are, but it's easier when your mask is just a mask, not your literal body parts.

Imagine being able to change your body to blend in (the existence of that blending in ability in cybertronians raises questions of their own, but of more or less ecological regard), and you change your face, too. Is that still you? You interact with other beings, trying to provide expected behaviour. Eventually this pretending becomes a second nature. Your character drifts and changes under the circumstances. Radiation can damage some circuitry and knock memories out of place. When you look into a mirror, you don't remember how you were before. Is that still the same you that took a different face some time ago?

Humans have strong connection between their "self" and their looks. New clothes might be wearing you, and I sometimes wear my favourite shirts as a little confidence boost despite nobody being able to see them under my jacket. Would that also be true for cybertronians? Would an earthen altmode affect the self-interpretation, since the root mode changes with new kibble, too?

Also, I know there is a distinction in IDW between "cold construction" (they can only assume alts similar to their natural one) and "forging" ("natural" way with an unrestricted altmode choice), but it's not true for every continuity (TFP Starscream implies that Knockout chose a grounder alt, and Skyquake's everything also implies not having wings to be an option despite being rather plane-shaped; he and Airachnid honestly imply that they didn't have an alt before, I think -- but I know that alien alts in the show would be costly). So in some continuities bots can, in theory, change alts and kibble drastically as often as they want. Would it be something frowned upon? Something "childish", what you do when you aren't sure what you want to be? How much your altmode defines *you*, and how much you would pick an alt because of who you are? Can "dramatic altmode change" be the same as human "dramatic hairstyle change" trope?

And then there are multiple alts and oddballs like Skylinx. I think they deserve a separate rant with questions.

Some tests I did with the sdv font

(i also made his sprite too :3)