Spark

This article is about . For other uses of "Spark", see Spark (disambiguation)|The name or term "Spark" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Spark (disambiguation).}}

This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

Botanica is a Bellarian.

A spark is the lifeforce or soul of a Transformer. Each spark is part of the essence of Primus himself.

The spark is a physical entity which is safeguarded inside a Transformer's body. If something harms the spark beyond repair it is "extinguished" returning to the Transformer afterlife and the Transformer is considered dead. A Transformer is able to survive an enormous amount of physical damage. As long as the spark is somehow intact it is possible to repair or rebuild the body and restore the spark to it.

When a spark goes online, there is great joy. When one is extinguished, the universe weeps.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Rhinox being all mystical"The Spark"|Rhinox being all mystical{{#if:"The Spark"|, "The Spark"|}}|}}

Establishment in fiction

The animation of a typical spark. Shiny!

The concept of the spark as currently understood was introduced to Transformers mythos in the Beast Wars episode "The Spark" (though they are offhandedly mentioned in the earlier episode "Gorilla Warfare" without elaboration). In this episode little is explained except that each spark is unique and that every "Cybertron" (here essentially meaning "Cybertronian") has one. Gorilla Warfare The Spark

The later episode "Possession" dealt with the idea of sparks but the spark in question—that of the original Starscream—is established as being aberrant and thus properties it displays are not necessarily characteristic of sparks in general. However, "Possession" was the first time it was claimed that characters from the G1 cartoon series also had sparks rather than them existing in Beast Wars only. Sparks remained prominent throughout Beast Wars and events in seasons two and three further established the retcon that Generation 1-Transformers possessed sparks. Possession Optimal Situation Master Blaster

In Beast Machines sparks became central to the story as Megatron abducted the sparks from every Transformer on Cybertron. Revelations Part I: Discovery Megatron's own spark displayed unusual behaviors in this series and it is probable these behaviors do not apply to all sparks. Prometheus Unbound Spark of Darkness Still, Beast Machines contributed more information about sparks to canon than any other series.

Since the introduction of the spark concept in Beast Wars, sparks have become an integral part of Transformers fiction. They have been featured in new Generation 1-based series and subsequently-created continuity families from the Unicron Trilogy to the live-action movies to Animated.

Prototypical concepts

There do exist some concepts similar to the spark that precede its firm establishment in the Beast Era.

The original The Transformers cartoon occasionally referenced a part of Transformer physiology called a laser core which seemingly has a similar function compared to a spark. The tech spec bio for the Beast Rider Mechatron says that he is "outfitted with an upgraded spark-capture claw that can tear out the entire laser core of any Transformer defender." This implies that as some fans had speculated prior to Mechatron's release, the laser core may be some sort of housing for the spark. However, the inverse was suggested by the Story of Binaltech which noted the laser core was the literal core of the spark.

A more detailed idea was that of the "Life Spark", a life-force concept which appeared in early drafts of The Transformers: The Movie. "Life Sparks" resembled small glowing versions of the Transformers to whom they belonged. Per a draft dated to April 1985, Life Sparks depart the body of a Transformer upon death to ultimately dissipate into nothingness unless they are contained within another vessel. While Optimus Prime transfers his Life Spark into Ultra Magnus (essentially taking the place of the Matrix of Leadership in this version of events) Megatron requests to have his enshrined in an urn at the Decepticon Hall of Heroes only for his pleas to be ignored and for his Life Spark to drift into space to be recreated as Galvatron by Unicron. Although this idea was discarded from the finished film entirely, a vestigial reference to it persisted in the UK comic story "Target: 2006" where author Simon Furman read the draft and misinterpreted "Life Spark" as the name of a character who was rebuilt into Cyclonus.

Although the word "spark" does appear offhandedly in some Generation 1 comic stories (a "spark of life", a "life spark" and the phrases "Let no spark remain flickering in a single Autobot microchip!" and "For as long as a spark exists within a single Mechabot..."), these were clearly metaphorical statements. They may be retroactively seen as referring to the contemporary concept of a Transformer's spark but did not establish anything of the sort on their own.

Properties of sparks

The sparks of the reformatted Maximals took on unusual colors. Before their final battle with Megatron the sparks became visible within their bodies. They also lift and separate.

As seen in the image at the top of this article, sparks normally appear as semitransparent blue balls of energy with a pulsating center composed of smaller blue spheres. The center spheres are engulfed in a reddish glow while an ever-changing pattern of electricity-like lines travels around the surface and through the interior. However, in Beast Machines the sparks of the Maximal heroes who had been reformatted took on different colors (for example, Blackarachnia's was green). This was first visible in "Revelations Part I: Discovery". At the end of that series after being infused with extra power from the Matrix (cf. the Allspark and Oracle) their sparks became visible as if parts of their torsos were translucent.

Beast Era Transformers seem to have permanent "spark chambers" within their chassis where the spark can be seen simply by opening the chamber. Older Transformers within the same G1/Beast continuity family such as those who lived before the Great Upgrade do not seem to have this exact feature in most continuities. The G1 More Than Meets The Eye guidebook from Dreamwave specifically states that a spark is normally "suffused" throughout a Transformer's body rather than residing in any particular place. It may be that this is also true after the Great Upgrade and the spark chamber is merely a protected location for the spark to coalesce when needed or be safely contained during stasis lock. Meanwhile, making things more confusing is the cutaway diagrams of G1 Optimus Prime and Megatron in Transformers: The Ultimate Guide including spark chambers.

In the Beast Wars cartoon there were two cases of Beast Era Transformers temporarily housing sparks of Generation One Transformers in their own bodies while still housing their own sparks. In both cases, this resulted in the Beastie undergoing a mutation of sorts into a more powerful physical form: Optimus Primal upon taking the spark of Optimus Prime grew into his Transmetal "Optimal Optimus" body; Megatron upon taking the spark of the original Megatron obtained his Transmetal 2 dragon form. However, based on information from the series there is no basis for determining whether this phenomenon is a result of a single body housing two sparks, a Beast Era body housing a Generation One spark, a body being implanted with an especially "powerful" spark conceivably like those of Optimus Prime and Megatron or some combination of these. When the aberrant disembodied spark of Starscream had earlier possessed Waspinator the only physical change was the body's allegiance emblems shifting from Predacon to Decepticon. The Beast Wars comic miniseries The Gathering implies that Generation One sparks may be intrinsically more powerful than Beast Era sparks.

Although Transformer memories and personalities are generally treated as if they are stored within the Transformers' computer brains, repeated canonical instances have established that a spark will or can hold all of an individual's memories along with their "essence" or personality. Further, there is some evidence that sparks may even retain records of the Transformer's previous bodies (such as when Optimal Optimus, whose body originated with a blank protoform regressed into a copy of the original gorilla body Primal wore at the beginning of the Beast Wars). Revelations Part II: Descent A Transformer's behavior can be modified through programming of their mechanical body referred to as a shell program, but this is always a struggle between the programming and the "true" nature of the spark within. It may be that over long periods of time a spark may begin to internalize some aspects of a preprogrammed personality. Double Jeopardy Spider's Game Proving Grounds Crossing the Rubicon Revelations Part III: Apocalypse

Transformers such as G1 Sky Lynx, G1 Omega Supreme and the Duocons simultaneously inhabit multiple mechanical bodies and/or components. The character bio for Magmatron mentions this ability of his and categorizes his spark as a "mitotic spark" which is capable of splitting and sharing itself among his three beast modes. It is unknown if other multiple-bodied Transformers also possess mitotic sparks or are examples of something more mundane such as simple remote-control.

Some Transformers are able to sense and communicate with the sparks of other Transformers through a process that appears analogous to telepathy. According to dialogue from "Revelations Part III: Apocalypse" this ability is related to the sparks' mutual connection to the Allspark. Disembodied sparks are sometimes able to communicate through this same method. (See below.)

The radiation emitted by energon crystals is harmful to sparks even when protected and securely encased within a shell. Certain body types are better able to shield the spark from energon radiation. For example, the flesh-like beast modes adopted by the crews of the Axalon and Darksyde provided essentially 100% protection allowing activity in environments that were practically forests of energon crystals so long as those involved remained in beast mode. Direct contact between crystalline energon and a spark is highly dangerous.

In the Beast Machines episode "Spark of Darkness" Rattrap describes Megatron's disembodied spark as a ball of electrons. He goes on to say that normal sparks contain a large number of positrons. Based on this dialogue it is possible but uncertain that sparks are composed entirely of positrons; in other sources the existence and names of sparktypes suggests a more complex composition. Rattrap also indicates in "Revelations Part I" that when a spark is extinguished carbon scoring is typically left on or within the Transformer's empty chassis.

Nightscream's hands don't seem to touch the spark itself while pushing on it. Mind you, wouldn't you recoil from the guy too?

Regardless of their composition, sparks are not insubstantial energy but have some sort of physical aspect. This is clearly demonstrated in again, "Revelations Part III" when Nightscream is seen attempting to push Blackarachnia's spark back into her body. His hands press against some sort of surface or perhaps merely a force field in which case the spark could be entirely energy which is above the visible surface of her spark. Later in the series in "Spark of Darkness" Megatron's spark is also shown to have physicality. Further back, in Beast Wars, the spark of Rampage/Protoform X would respond to being "crushed" by Megatron by flattening slightly inside its energon-lined carrying case. And even the spark of G1 Megatron was "grabbed" physically by a tentacle-like appendage of BW Megatron's. While some of these examples may be special cases, as they deal with sparks that have unusual properties, those properties are unique to each spark. The weight of evidence, then is in favor of sparks being at least partially substantial.

In the Energon cartoon sparks were shown to have the ability to be somehow augmented by Primus to become a Combination Spark. This allowed two Autobots to powerlinx together into a new form, allowing one Autobot to take command of the fused body while the "pants" remained dormant. Without the Combination Spark, a powerlinx between two normal Transformers could not be completed. It is not stated whether the combiner teams Constructicon Maximus and Bruticus Maximus also possessed Combination Sparks or if their ability to combine has some other origin.

Disembodied sparks

Sparks are able to exist outside of a Transformer body but the parameters of this phenomenon are largely unclear. It is unknown for how long a spark can survive under such conditions although they are vulnerable to damage in this state. It is also unknown whether a disembodied spark is "conscious" and aware of its surroundings or whether it is capable of moving under its own power. (There are unusual cases as described under aberrant sparks.)

It is hard to imagine how a spark could be aware of its surroundings when stripped of all sensory mechanisms. Indeed, in "Revelations Part III: Apocalypse", while Blackarachnia's spark was outside of her body her consciousness did not remain in the "real world". Instead, she experienced a conversation with the meditating Optimus Primal—not a hallucination—which took place on an abstract "higher plane of existence" perhaps within the Allspark itself.

Most of the disembodied sparks in Beast Machines drift slowly and largely directionlessly. In many other cases, sparks seem to move with some sort of intent. However, aside from attempts of sparks to re-enter their "home" bodies, these are conceivably all "special cases" and may not be generalizable. In one example, the sparks of Tigatron and Airazor are seen following Tigerhawk to Earth in "Other Victories". While their sparks appear normal when this occurs, they later merge into a single white spark and then inhabit the then-empty Tigerhawk body. This is not normal spark behavior and may be related to the time they spent seemingly in stasis with the Vok. Also, in "Revelations Part III" when Blackarachnia becomes panicked during her telepathic conversation with Primal, her spark begins moving erratically and has to be chased down by Nightscream. However, it is unclear whether the spark was moving with intent—especially since Blackarachnia's consciousness was portrayed as still being on a higher plane—or simply zigzagging randomly. And again, a reformatted spark may be different from a normal spark anyway.

Absence of a spark

Strangely, it is possible for Transformer-related mechanical entities to remain online and sentient despite the lack of a spark.

The first example would be the original Diagnostic Drone in Beast Machines. While simply being a robotic aid and having no spark it showed a full range of emotions, the ability to reason and could be consulted by Megatron. In Animated Starscream, his clones, Soundwave, Wreck-Gar and the Constructicons each substituted AllSpark fragments or energy for natural sparks. Mission Accomplished Garbage In, Garbage Out Sound and Fury Meanwhile, Titan's tie-in comics would reveal that comic-original character Afterburn was really a sparkless drone despite having shown emotion, initiative and thought beforehand.

These instances raise questions about how necessary a spark really is and what properties it bestows that are genuinely unique.

Of interest is that when Afterburn was revealed to have had no spark, Optimus Prime immediately wrote him off as not having been a "real" bot and viewed it as pointless to mark Afterburn's death. Similarly, Prowl rescued the Dinobots upon sensing spark traces inside them and nobody seemed bothered by the Starscream clones dying or found it notable Starscream had created beings whose sole purpose was to be suicide bombers. In some continuities, it appears as if Cybertronian orthodoxy views the presence of a spark as the true indicator of life with emotion and sentience being seen as mostly irrelevant.

Aberrant sparks

Some sparks have exhibited properties or behaviors that do not seem to be generalizable to other sparks.

Starscream

As established in the Beast Wars episodes "Possession" and "Bad Spark," Starscream possesses a "mutant" immortal spark. Even when his body is destroyed, his spark is not extinguished. This explanation retcons the appearance of Starscream's ghost in some season three episodes from the G1 cartoon; the "ghost" was in fact Starscream's disembodied spark.

Starscream's spark was able to move under its own power and seemingly traveled not just across space from Cybertron to Earth, but backwards through time from 2006 to human prehistory. It may be that the time travel was accomplished by "falling" through the transwarp hole left by the Axalon and Darksyde when they arrived on prehistoric Earth—Depth Charge's ship arrived there by that method later in the series—but this is uncertain.

Additionally, Starscream's spark was able to take possession of other Transformers simply by entering their bodies. While in another body, Starscream's will completely dominates that of his host. When Starscream possessed Waspinator, Waspinator's voice even changed to sound like Starscream's and the Predacon insignias on his body changed to Decepticon insignias. Starscream either did not have or seem to know that he had this possession ability until he died during the events of The Transformers: The Movie.

Rampage/Protoform X

The creation of Protoform X was an experiment conducted by the Maximal Elders to attempt to replicate Starscream's indestructible spark. Although they succeeded in creating such a spark the Transformer, dubbed Protoform X and later taking on the name "Rampage" was unfortunately psychotic.

Like Starscream's spark, Rampage's could not be extinguished through simple destruction of his body. In fact, Rampage's body—at least the body he wore during the Beast Wars—had uncannily rapid self-repair functions. In one instance Depth Charge pierced Rampage's body from front to back with a spear and the damage disappeared in a matter of seconds once the spear was removed.

Megatron devised a way to split Rampage's spark by carving it with a blade of energon crystal. Amazingly, this did not destroy the spark, nor did it seem to weaken Rampage appreciably. Megatron kept part of the spark in a case lined with energon crystals. By squeezing the case, the crystals would pinch the spark fragment, and Megatron used this to torture Rampage into obedience.

Megatron later placed this piece of Rampage's spark inside his Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot who is usually referred to as Dinobot II. Dinobot II appeared to have a personality wholly independent of Rampage's although he was similarly brutal. Dinobot II's personality however, may have been imposed upon him through programming. Dinobot II could torture Rampage by compressing the spark fragment he held as Megatron had previously done. This did not seem to affect Dinobot himself.

Rampage's spark turned out to not be completely indestructible. Seemingly as an extension of Megatron's splitting of the spark with an energon blade, Depth Charge eventually destroyed Rampage by piercing his spark with "pure" crystalline energon. Normally sparks "extinguish" somewhat peacefully, but when Rampage's was pierced, a powerful explosion destroyed the bodies of both Rampage and Depth Charge. It may be that Starscream's spark would be similarly vulnerable to being cut/destroyed by energon, but this is mere extrapolation.

When Rampage's spark was destroyed, the fragment within Dinobot II did not explode. It may have simply disappeared, or it may have remained there. However, through a process which is not clearly established, Dinobot II at that instant "reverted" to the personality of the original Dinobot, and even had a vision of Dinobot's last moments. It may be that this reversion was related to events scripted for an episode which was never produced, titled "Dark Glass".

Rampage's spark never displayed the ability to move under its own power.

Megatron

In season two of Beast Machines, Megatron's spark does a number of unusual things.

As part of the battle between him and Optimus Primal at the end of season one during which the Key to Vector Sigma and Plasma Energy Chamber were pitted against each other, Megatron somehow was able to "split" his Beast body into two separate bodies, one entirely robotic and the other entirely organic. (Whether the Beast bodies of the Beast Wars characters had any true biological components or whether they were faux-flesh composed of nanites is not consistently established in either series.) Contrary to his intentions, Megatron's spark ended up trapped within the biological body which came to be known as Noble and Savage while his desired technological body appeared to have been destroyed.

It is unclear how a biological body was able to sustain a Transformers' spark. Indeed, even the Maximals were surprised when they realized what had happened. It could be argued, based on statements made by the Oracle in the first episode that all lifeforms in the universe have sparks, not just Transformers. However, this is never alluded to by any other canonical source so most fans have seemingly dismissed it.

As shown in "Prometheus Unbound", using the biological Noble/Savage body Megatron was unable to exercise mental control over devices in his citadel or interface with his control harness. Upon using a spark extractor on himself, however, his spark was freed and immediately flew to the harness, which it activated before "flowing" up to the ceiling through the harness's cables. His spark then took over the Grand Mal, an enormous, floating replica of his own head, as its new body and stayed there for part of season two. The Noble/Savage body appeared to be dead but recovered. After Megatron's spark had left it seemed to be a perfectly "normal" animal which had the ability to change between a wolf-like form and a dragon form, possessing little if any sentience.

As soon as his spark had been removed from Noble, it took on an unusual appearance, having turned entirely red or orange in color (perhaps a change similar to that of the reformatted Maximals). Megatron's disembodied spark also seemed to be able to speak even though it had no physical body. It may be that this speech was telepathic, but the spark itself pulsated in perfect rhythm with the words.

While inhabiting the Grand Mal, Megatron's spark was sometimes seen floating freely and under its own power through the construct's interior, particularly in a large space that appeared to serve as his control room. (It was here that he addressed his Vehicon generals, usually manifesting as a holographic projection of one kind or another.)

Megatron's spark ensnares and consumes other sparks from his collection.

Now enormous, Megatron's spark looms over Cybertron in the vicinity of his Big Floating Head.

Eventually, in the three-part "Sparkwar" story, Megatron's spark began consuming/fusing with the captured sparks of Cybertron's inhabitants. He claimed to have learned how to accomplish this after communicating with the Oracle.

To consume other sparks, Megatron's spark extended tendrils which ensnared victim sparks. These tendrils also had the ability to extract sparks from occupied shells much like a spark extractor. As each spark was absorbed, Megatron's spark grew larger in size.

Megatron was temporarily beaten when Nightscream attacked him with a sonic scream. The scream, according to Primal "depolarized" Megatron's spark. This caused him to lose control temporarily and allowed the Maximals to escape. In the following episode "Spark of Darkness", Megatron's spark exhibited additional strange behaviors which may or may not have been dependent on its depolarized state:

• It travelled very quickly and with great agility.
• It was able to "crash" physically into things to push them around. In particular, it repeatedly knocked the Maximals out of its way.
• It seemed to be able to cause large explosions simply by flying through other objects.
• It could inhabit and leave any sparkless body at will. This ability evidently differs from Starscream's in that Starscream never truly animated a vacant body and Megatron never dominated an occupied one. These re-animated bodies were able to remain functional even after suffering extreme physical damage.
• His spark was not detectable by his Vehicon generals' sensors and Primal was unable to "sense" his spark through the Oracle.
• The spark did not speak at all while depolarized, neither when in a body nor floating freely.

Rattrap was able to capture Megatron using a hand-held spark extractor and with a control panel on it "repolarized" and thus stabilized his spark. Afterwards, Megatron's spark remained red and just as fast and agile as before but became detectable by his generals' scanners again and was "trapped" in the next body it inhabited (that of a Diagnostic Drone). Upon entering this body, Megatron first declared, "I live!" before realizing the depth of his situation. This was the first time he had spoken since being hit by the sonic scream. This implies that something about his prior "destabilized" state may have prevented him from fully utilizing the bodies he had visited. The only other clue we have is that when Optimus tried to contact Megatron's spark inside the Grand Mal, he discovered that it "wasn't a sentient mind." Whether this is a result of trying to find a spark that was not in the expected location or because of its depolarized state is ambiguous.

Prime Spark

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The Prime Spark is a spark that is shared cross-dimensionally by at least three different Transformers. It was entrusted to chosen individuals by Primus himself. Prime Spark

Embers

The Shattered Glass universe seems to be more of a departure from the "regular" realities in the multiverse. In it, the semi-mystical ball of energy that gives the resident Transformers their lifeforce is an electron-charged "Ember". Aside from polarities, there's no other difference noted from the positron-charged spark Cliffjumper brings into that universe.

Fiction

Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

The Cyber Planet Keys each contained a tiny fragment of Primus's spark. Fallen

After being shot by the Requiem Blaster, Sacrifice ninety percent of Smokescreen's body was damaged beyond repair but his spark was intact allowing Red Alert to extract it and build Smokescreen a new body. Regeneration After his death, the Mini-Cons were able to summon Optimus Prime's spark back to the physical plane via the Matrix of Leadership. Miracle

After seizing the Omega Lock and three of the Cyber Planet Keys, Retreat Starscream began absorbing the spark of Primus into himself which eventually caused him to grow to titanic proportions and enhanced his physical abilities. Starscream

Once all four Cyber Planet Keys were placed in the Omega Lock, Primus's spark was fully restored. End

Movie continuity

Megatron devoured the sparks of fallen foes. Optimus Prime Versus Megatron Transformers (novel)

Sam Witwicky destroyed both the AllSpark and Megatron himself when he inserted the AllSpark into Megatron's exposed spark chamber. Transformers

I didn't need it anyway!

Megatron was revived when the Doctor pierced a shard of the AllSpark into the hole where his spark had been. Optimus Prime was stabbed and then shot through the spark chamber by Megatron using his fusion cannon and death-lock pincer but was later revived by Sam, who pierced the Matrix of Leadership into the empty chamber. Jetfire ripped out his spark to give Optimus his parts. Moments later, Optimus tore through The Fallen's chest and crushed his spark. Revenge of the Fallen

When cornered and brought down by Cemetery Wind, Ratchet was offered his life in exchange for Optimus' location by Lockdown. Ratchet spat in the bounty hunter's face and braced himself for the end. In response, Lockdown tore his spark out leaving the deceased Ratchet a mangled smoldering wreck. Optimus narrowly escaped a similar ambush in New Mexico and was later offered repairs by Cade Yeager. When Cade noticed a wound perilously close to his spark, Optimus explained that sparks contained a Transformer's memories and feelings prompting Cade to compare it to a human soul.

KSI produced their own Transformers albeit without sparks. Megatron's consciousness manipulated KSI into producing a new body for him and its lack of a spark proved an invaluable asset when he later fought Optimus as "Galvatron", suffering no ill effects when impaled through his chest by Optimus; this was also due to some improvements Megatron made to KSI's designs.

When the day was won, Optimus decided to depart Earth to confront the Transformers' Creators. Though he could not say if they'd ever meet again, Optimus asked his family on Earth to think of a star in the night sky as his soul. Age of Extinction

Animated cartoon

After falling a great height, Optimus Prime's spark expired before Sari Sumdac used the AllSpark Key in concert with the AllSpark itself to revive him. Transform and Roll Out

Megatron regarded the spark as the core of all Cybertronians and that compared to it, such things as armor-plating and servo mechanics were superficial. Megatron Rising - Part 2

When Yoketron was attacked by Lockdown and his spark began to fade, Prowl attempted to save him by transferring his spark to a blank protoform, though Yoketron admonished him for this and instead allowed his spark to fade. Five Servos of Doom

When he and Jazz used Processor-over-matter to summon together all the AllSpark fragments, Prowl recognized that they could not summon the totality of the pieces in time to save Detroit forcing him to surrender his spark back to the AllSpark, granting it the power it needed to protect the city. Endgame, Part II

2005 IDW continuity

Save the Spark. Save the World.

The spark is part of Rossum's Trinity with the brain module and transformation cog. The Chaos of Warm Things The light from a spark illuminates a Transformer's optics. Zero Point There appears to be at least eight known spark types in Cybertronians Twenty Plus One some more common than others, and a healthy Cybertronian can 'jumpstart' the faltering spark of another with the same type in a similar manner to blood transfusion. Before & After Some proposed spark types like estriol-positive have since been discredited and abandoned. After Megatron

Starting as you mean to go on.

A very small number of naturally-occurring sparks are Point One Percenters glowing green instead of the normal blue. Those who possess these sparks are usually a tier above regular Cybertronians, and include such prominent figures as Optimus Prime and Shockwave. The Chaos of Warm Things Sparks run on different frequencies; the frequency of a spark affects the color of the energon within a Transformer's body. While most Cybertronians bleed purple energon, Transformers from the colony world of Caminus evolved low-frequency Sparks to save energy and consequently bleed blue energon. The Last Autobot

Sparks once arose naturally from hot spots dotting Cybertron and its moons ignited by energy pulses from Vector Sigma. Once bright enough, these sparks would be harvested, nurtured and matured before being placed into a body. The Fecund Moon All Our Parlous Yesterdays The sparks would also have to be harvested quickly otherwise they would evaporate. The Sound of Breaking Glass Rarely, sparks could also be discovered buried deep underground. The only known case of this happening was a Point One Percenter that would become Overlord. Remembrance Day

Though most sparks emerge alone, occasionally two sparks emerge together. The resulting Transformers are considered twins and share a branched spark that allows them to feel each other's pain. On Cybertron, this was a very rare event that affected roughly one in every million sparks. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3 On the colony world of Devisiun however, unusual gravitational conditions (or other factors) affected the development of its Titan's hot spot and every newborn Devisien emerged with a twin sibling. Windblade vol. 2 #6

Vector Sigma's pulses had grown increasingly less frequent by Nova Prime's era, so to bolster the Cybertronian population he instituted a process called "spark-splicing" which used the energy of existing sparks to ignite new ones. The Fecund Moon That, however was a cover story for what Nova was really doing: harvesting the Matrix of Leadership to create thousands of new sparks daily. The Divided Self

Kup's sparkhousing was unstable due to age and radiation poisoning. He finally experienced sparkcore stabilizer failure which threatened to blow him up. Trailbreaker saved him by extending a force field around the crashing spark. Later, Kup recovered in a CR chamber fitted with a placeholder powercore to maintain his spark. Spotlight: Kup

While attempting to convince Stardrive to join the Decepticons, Starscream briefly explained sparks to the orphaned Camien. Shining Armor #4 After being possessed by Vekktral, Ultra Magnus managed to resist enough to open his spark chamber so Rom could kill them both. Shining Armor #5

Reminds me of the reptile cages at the zoo...except less stinky.

The Autobots kept some prisoners at Garrus-9 in spark stasis which entailed actually removing the sparks from their casings separating the spark from the body.

This process was not possible for Monstructor since the Autobots couldn't break through the destructive programming far enough to rehabilitate/reform the sparks as per Optimus Prime's orders and as such hadn't pulled the sparks from their frames.

Arcee found this limbo peaceful but was later reunited with her body. To control her behavior a "g-force crush" device was installed on or in her spark casing and could be operated via remote control. Spotlight: Arcee

After the war ended Scorponok utilized the Magnificence to create the Firstborn, a spark-powered organic capable of sexual reproduction that would reproduce with others of its kind and create new generations of Decepticon sparks. Kill All 'Cons

After Team Rodimus had opened twelve Matrices of Leadership at the hot spots of Functionist Cybertron, Vector Sigma shunted the excess energy to the orbiting Luna 1, reigniting the hot spot. A Spark Among Embers Over the following years, the billion new sparks, the Lunarians as they were called, were steadily brought online, with their generation noted for having an unusually high number of Point One Percenters, a term that would likely have to be changed in the future. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2

Sparks were not unique to Cybertronians with other mechanical species deriving their animating force from them. Upon meeting a group of Ammonites, Ultra Magnus asked if they were "warm-wired" or spark-based. Into the Abyss

The Quintessons had green sparks with Megatron managing to use Pentius's as fuel Prey and to revive Trypticon. Belly of the Beast Through this, Trypticon inherited some of the Quintesson's memories Primacy #1 before it was revealed that Pentius had become the dominant consciousness within the Titan's body. Primacy #3 Though Megatron attempted to manually remove the spark, the remnants of Pentius were burned away by the fires of the Matrix of Leadership. Primacy #4

The Junkions also possessed sparks but were capable of surviving for prolonged periods of time without them as demonstrated by the ever chipper and chatty Wreck-Gar being reduced to just a head for days on end. The Next Day, and the Next

Characters by spark type

Rewind's vitreous positive. It's a relatively rare spark type. One in 150, one in 200.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:|{{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

I'm V-positive.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:|{{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

I know.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:First Aid and ChromedomeBefore & After|First Aid and Chromedome{{#if:Before & After|, Before & After|}}|}}

Ferrum-Positive	Ferrum-Negative	Isomeric-Positive	Isomeric-Negative	Vitreous-Positive	Vitreous-Negative	Unknown shared type	Either Ferrum-Negative or Vitreous-Positive
Hound Huffer Nautica Swerve	Cyclonus Tailgate	Blaster Getaway Nightbeat	Dipstick Gears Highbrow Hoist Ratchet	Chromedome Rewind Riptide Whirl	Ammo Crosscut Skids	First Aid Fortress Maximus	Rodimus <ref group="idw">In "Elegant Chaos", Brainstorm's time-machine is coded for two spark-types: ferrum-negative and vitreous-positive, since Tailgate and Rewind can both use it. By extrapolation, Rodimus, Brainstorm, Megatron and Rung are either of those two.</ref> Brainstorm Megatron Rung

<references group="idw"/>

Aligned continuity family

As part of the Thirteen's plan to defeat Unicron, Optimus Prime exposed his spark, its frequency almost identical to Primus's own, to Unicron's Anti-Spark, the resulting interaction between the two knocking both beings into stasis lock. After being poisoned by Dark Energon, Primus inserted an untainted portion of his spark into the Matrix of Leadership which he bestowed upon Optimus Prime. The Covenant of Primus

Over the protests of Starscream, Megatron inserted a shard of Dark Energon directly into his spark. Darkness Rising, Part 2 The shard managed to keep him alive after being at ground zero of a Space Bridge explosion, Masters & Students before another shard, plunged directly into his spark, restored his body to full functionality. Out of His Head

After Megatron perished, Deadlock the lasting consequence of this was revealed with Megatron's polluted spark now severed from the AllSpark and bound to Unicron's Anti-Spark, allowing the Dark God to possess Megatron's corpse.

In order to prevent Unicron from devouring the physical AllSpark, Optimus Prime merged the AllSpark with the Matrix of Leadership and thus his own spark. Unable to separate the three, Optimus willingly surrendered his life to allow new generations to exist on Cybertron. The AllSpark rejoining the Core caused it to ignite and birth a multitude of new sparks. Predacons Rising

Before Optimus could pass into the afterlife, the Thirteen intercepted his spark and brought it to their realm. Decepticon Island (Part 1) To provide Optimus with the power needed to defeat Megatronus, the Primes bestowed upon him a portion of their power, directly from their sparks. Battlegrounds, Part 1 They later took it back but doing so left Optimus substantially weakened. Overloaded, Part 1

Regeneration One

When the Wreckers crashed on Earth, Megatron ordered his horde of zombie Decepticons to bring them to him in a state where he could see dread in their optics before he snuffed out their Sparks. Loose Ends, Part 2 When Optimus Prime later engaged Megatron in battle the Decepticon leader swore to open Prime's Spark Chamber with his teeth. His own Spark was ripped out of his chest and crushed seconds later by an apologetic Prime. Loose Ends, Part 5

After the Cybertronians had been separated from Primus and the larger multiverse, they lost their biological immortality. Millenia in the future, Rodimus Prime had become the last Cybertronian and when he finally died, the vestiges of his Spark energy served to ignite the birth of a new generation. The War to End All Wars, Part 5

Ask Vector Prime

Cy-Kill was fascinated by the concept of Sparks, noting that the Transformers were hybrids of machinery and energy in the same way that GoBots were hybrids of machinery and organic tissue. Renegade Rhetoric (1), 2015/10/15

Beast Wars: Uprising

Lord Imperious Delirious was not fascinated by Sparks at all; as a purely mechanical second-born intellect he considered the Transformers nothing more than mechanical sock puppets animated by energy beings, a concept that revolted him and drove him to attempt genocide on the Cybertronian race. Intersectionality Derailment

When Unicron attacked Cybertron, his efforts were thwarted by the Point One Percenters. Believing a threat would inevitably rise that would require such exceptional talent once again, Deluge dedicated himself to creating new generations of Point One Percenters. The Inexorable March

The original wellspring of Sparks on Cybertron had been Vector Sigma but the supercomputer was among the casualties of the Great War. As a result, the Autobot scientist Cerebros created the Energon Matrix to ensure a future for his race. Head Games Rather than create a new generation free of conflict, as Cerebros intended, his fellow Builders used it to perpetuate the Great War via the proxy armies of the Maximals and Predacons. After returning to Cybertron, Blackarachnia revealed the Energon Matrix to her people, starting the Grand Uprising. Broken Windshields

To save face after his ward had gone rogue, Eject created a clone with his own Matrix. The clone, Galva Convoy was influenced by a dark source and eventually utilized the G-Virus to corrupt the Matrix within him and birthed the Vehicons who had "anti-sparks". Micro-Aggressions Not All Megatrons

After the Grand Uprising, Rampage tracked down Deluge who explained his motivations for his Spark experiments before he was killed by his creation. The Inexorable March

Cyberverse cartoon

By Cheetor's account, his spark had been brought out of the AllSpark to serve as its guardian. Dark Birth

When Starscream had acquired the AllSpark and used it to birth a race of scraplets, Trials he believed that they held the sparks of the Ancients, Dark Birth though Cheetor would later denounce his creations as sparkless abominations. Starscream's Children

After witnessing Cheetor's affinity for the AllSpark, Starscream attempted to extract the guardian's spark and merge it with his own. When he tested the procedure on Bumblebee however, Cheetor managed to stop the transfer and escape with his friend. Spotted

Upon gaining full control of the AllSpark, Starscream merged it with his spark. His first act was to extract the sparks of his Seekers, merging them with his own. He would have done the same to the other Autobots and Decepticons before Optimus Prime managed to use the Matrix of Leadership to punch the AllSpark out of Starscream, saving everyone. I Am The Allspark

After Bumblebee and Cheetor had returned the AllSpark to Cybertron's core, Shockwave willingly extracted his own spark and used it to corrupt the AllSpark. Without hesitation, Cheetor did the same, his spark purifying Shockwave's malignant energies from the AllSpark. Battle For Cybertron IV

War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon

The sparkless sought to reanimate themselves by feeding on the sparks of the living. Siege episode 5

Notes

• It is possible there is some quantitative difference between the sparks of Generation 1 Transformers and protoform Beast Wars-era Transformers. G1 Transformer sparks are generally glossed as small fragments of Primus's lifeforce. Beast Wars-era Transformer sparks are generally considered to be the same, but writer Larry DiTillio has stated that he envisioned Beast Wars Transformer sparks as small fragments split from Nexus Zero. When a spark is split from the Vok nebula, a "good" one travels to the Matrix and an "evil" one to the Pit.<ref>Beast Wars Universe</ref>
• Despite the fact sparks are supposed to be pieces of Primus, numerous fictions depict Unicron, Primus's opposite as having a spark of his own.
  • The fact that in some continuities, such as the Aligned continuity family, Primus and Unicron were a single being before conflict literally tore them apart and that Primus based the Thirteen on himself and his rival may provide an explanation for this occurrence.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Spark (スパーク Supāku)
• German: Mastermodul (used in the German dub of Armada)
• Mandarin: Huǒzhǒng (火种, "Spark")

See also

• Death
• Transformer afterlife
• Spirit portal
• Branched spark
• Core consciousness
• Datatrax
• Laser core
• Spark crystal
• Mitotic spark
• Database
• Brain module
• Vector Sigma
• Omega Terminus
• Oracle (BM)
• Slaughter
• Digital entity frame
• Ghost
  • Data ghost
• Personality component
• Crystalline containment vessel
• Photonic crystal
• Electropulse
• AllSpark
• Prime Spark (Spark)
• Shell program
• Memory core
• Spark of Combination
• Matrix of Leadership
• Dark Spark
• Matrix of Conquest
• Linkage (dimension)

References

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