Technorganic
| This article is about the part organic part mechanical Transformers. For the part organic part mechanical creations of the Quintessons, see Trans-Organic. |
Technorganic—or less often, techno-organic—describes certain types of beings whose physiology includes both technological and biological components melded at a cellular level.
Fiction
Beast Machines cartoon
The first technorganic Transformers were Optimus Primal's team of Maximals, who were reformatted by the power of the Oracle, using the organic matter brought back from prehistoric Earth by Primal's crew. The Reformatting No longer purely technology nor entirely organic, these new technorganic Transformers were, in Primal's words, "both, and neither"—a balance of organic and mechanical, combining the strengths of both. Though they still retained the ability to change between two modes, they had to re-learn how to transform by conscious thought and effort, a practice long since abandoned in favour of automating the process via the onboard computers their new bodies lacked. To do so, they practiced a mental discipline that saw them achieve an internal, zen-like mental balance, or "still point" as Optimus referred to it; Primal, Cheetor and Blackarachnia used the mantra "I am transformed" to help until they got the hang of doing it on their own. If this state of mental balance was lost, a technorganic Transformer in robot mode would revert to their beast mode. Master of the House Several later technorganics seemed to get the knack of transforming right away; Silverbolt, Botanica and Nightscream seem to master the process immediately. Forbidden Fruit In Darkest Knight Home Soil Their transformations had the appearance of fluid shape-shifting, generally accompanied by a burst of bright energy. Master of the House
Primal's techorganic Maximals were invisible to traditional scanners while in beast mode, no longer giving off an "energy signature" like ordinary machines. However, when in their robot mode, they were as readily detectable as any other Transformer. Fires of the Past
Technorganic Transformers appear to be highly resistant to injury with highly advanced internal "nanosurgical" healing abilities. Survivor
Optimus Primal's band of technorganic Maximals possessed powerful (almost supernatural) combat abilities. Seemingly all technorganics would have similar capabilities. Wreckers: Finale Part II Though powerful and durable, the technorganics were not invulnerable. Sufficient conventional firepower could render them unconscious Mercenary Pursuits or even physically damage them, and they were vulnerable to the same sort of Spark extractors which Megatron used on conventional Transformers.
On one occasion, ingesting a seemingly organic fruit caused Primal and his team to mentally devolve into primitives. When the tree that generated this fruit was slashed by Cheetor, it shattered into fragments, as if it were a digital illusion, and the fruit's effect was immediately undone. Primal concluded that the fruit's organic nature was devolving their bodies. Forbidden Fruit
Another vulnerability came from the Key to Vector Sigma, a device which converted organics into "technomatter". When applied to the technorganic Maximals, it caused them to convert to a metalized state, resulting in pain and hysteria; it could eventually have resulted in deactivation if its effects were not reverted. The Key
The technorganic ethos extended beyond the Maximals themselves, to new plant life Fallout, and eventually the planet itself. Cybertron had long been a planet of metal upon metal, "technology" alone. According to Primal's interpretation of the Oracle, the returning Beast Warriors brought with them organic components of the planets they had visited, allowing the Oracle to begin the process of reformatting the planet to be technorganic. The Maximals eventually discovered Cybertron's organic core, with deep sublevels composed of soil and containing organic fossils, such as the one scanned by Nightscream.
At the end of the conflict, Cybertron was reformatted planet-wide, creating a new Earth-like world, a mix of technorganic flora and fauna, oceans (presumably full of water), and vast cities of varying construction; some largely technorganic in nature Abduction, others retaining more "traditional" inorganic metal or stonework construction, depending on the part of the planet. Wreckers: Finale Part II
Dreamwave Armada comic
Predacon experimented on himself with "biomechanical" technology to integrate organic tissue into his Cybertronian robotics, something that most other Transformers were said to find repulsive. More Than Meets The Eye bio
Animated cartoon
When Elita-1 was attacked by alien spiders on the planet Archa Seven, she attempted to use her ability to download and replicate the abilities of other mechanoids on the creatures, which wound up mutating her into a technorganic form. Along Came a Spider Taking the name "Blackarachnia", she was initially revulsed by her unnatural new form—as were many around her—but she eventually embraced her transformation and sought to replicate it on other Transformers, successfully cross-mutating the fugitive Autobot Wasp with an actual wasp and creating "Waspinator". Predacons Rising
Technology and organics were also blended in a different manner when a Cybertronian protoform materialized in Isaac Sumdac's lab and scanned the scientist's DNA, rather than a customary mechanical alternate mode. The result was Sari Sumdac, outwardly an ordinary organic human by all appearances whose true nature was unknown even to her, but whose Cybertronian abilities were unlocked when she was upgraded by the AllSpark Key. TransWarped The AllSpark Almanac II
Shattered Glass Animated
As with the "normal" Animated universe, Isaac Sumdac discovered a protoform in his lab and touched it, the protoform absorbing his DNA becoming his daughter Sari Sumdac. Unlike in the "normal" universe, however, this Sari had a violent nature, and Isaac raised her as a slave for scientific experiments. Her true powers were unlocked by forcible implantation of AllSpark fragments, which continue to protrude from her body. BotCon 2011 attendee lithograph
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Jhiaxus modified the organic population of Gorlam Prime into mechanical beings. They first went through a transitional techno-organic state. Spotlight: Hardhead Spotlight: Sideswipe
Ask Vector Prime
In Primax 208.06 Zeta, the Oracle instead reformatted Waspscream, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, and Protoform X, granting them technorganic bodies and an immunity to Megatron's transformation virus. Ask Vector Prime
"Technorganic" in Beast Wars
Though Beast Machines introduced the term "technorganic" and used it to refer very specifically to living entities blending machine and organic at the cellular level, subsequent media under the Beast Wars banner has occasionally used the term to describe to pre-Beast Machines characters.
- IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook makes frequent references to characters possessing features like "technorganic musculature".
- The Ultimate Guide refers both to Optimus Primal's beast mode and all Transmetals as "techno-organic".
- The term bio-mechanical crops up occasionally in bios and reference books, used synonymously with this use of "technorganic" in reference to pre-Beast Machines beast warriors.
By all rights, this is incorrect in the face of the Beast Machines cartoon, since it would render the distinction, and thus their reformatting, meaningless. That said, it does remain unclear exactly what the Beast Wars-era characters were: The original Beast Wars cartoon never clearly explained whether their animal parts were composed of genuinely living organic tissue (making the Beast Warriors akin to Terminator-style cyborgs), or were alternatively made of faux-biological synthetic matter (akin to Data-style beast "androids"). Beast Machines itself would later canonize the former option, explaining that they had brought real organic matter back from Earth for the Oracle to use in their reformatting. Regardless, in either case, most evidence points toward their beast modes essentially being a fleshy "shell" or "fur coat" surrounding the inner robot à la Pretender shells, rather than the cellular fusion described by Beast Machines.
The terms "technorganic" and "biomechanical" have been used to describe characters from other, non-Beast Era Transformers franchises—generally characters based on redecoed Beast Wars toys such as Armada Cheetor. In the absence of a full backstory, however, the exact meaning of those terms in those continuities is unclear.
