Topic Meme...now let's see, where was I?
Jan. 18th, 2014 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pockysquirrel Oh yes. angel_negra , Transformers, and sentient Zords.
Gonna interview myself again, since that seemed to work really well yesterday.
Q. So I guess the obvious place to start would be, ARE the Zords sentient?
A. Many of them are, some more obviously than others. While I'm nowhere near having a comprehensive theory on the matter, I'm more or less convinced that sentience in Zords is evolved over time. Other than that, though, it sort-of correlates to all kinds of other things including form, time active vs. time dormant, and even the relationship between the Zord and its assigned Ranger. The assumption from there being that the Galactabeasts, the Wild Zords, the Folding Zords, etc., assume a greater degree of sentience because they've been online and actively interacting with each other and with humans over the course of decades, if not centuries. It also seems like the animal-form Zords are more likely to achieve sentience than vehicle-form Zords, although that may also be because they're generally older and/or because humans are more likely to treat them like living beings because they look the part.
...Which is not to say either that some of the other Zords AREN'T sentient, or on the verge of becoming so. These ones may just not have yet developed a means of indicating their self-awareness in a way we as humans can recognized. But there's already a very sophisticated telepathic interface involved when a Ranger pilots a Zord, and I imagine there gets to be a point where you spend enough time talking to your Zord that you start thinking you can hear it talk back. And you may or may not be right.
Q. Wow, that was...a lot of words. But wait, then. If your Zord is sentient and you're piloting it, then who's controlling who?
A. Both. And neither. It's more like you and the Zord are mind-melding and acting as a single will. And as if that wasn't trippy enough, it also takes a level of telepathic interface between individual Rangers to control a Megazord. (Ever wonder why there's so much speaking in unison that goes on during the Zord fights?) So when you have a team like the Galaxy Rangers at work, there needs to be a mental network established between the Rangers and the Galactabeasts AND each other.
It's like the Drift on steroids, man.
Q. And Transformers?
A. Are completely autonomous and fully sentient individual mechanical life-forms and VERY rarely form the type of partnership with humans you see between Rangers and Zords.And when you do see it, it's usually a sign that shit's about to get weird. They slightly more often form combiner bonds with each other, and the resulting gestalt fully merges the minds of the individual component bots into one identity.
Q. What do you suppose they'd make of one another?
A. Depends on the continuity? G1/TFA/Prime-verse Transformers would probably find the Zords a little perplexing. The Beast Wars bots are much more used to technorganic life-forms and mechanoids with animal characteristics. The Zords would be on the defensive at first - usually anything that shows up that's even close to their size is an enemy - but as long as the Transformer doesn't show any aggression, they'd be cool.
Q. Who would win in a fight?
A. OK, so I once had to actually answer this for the one and only crossover fic I've ever written. In that case scenario, the Zord involved absolutely trounced the Transformer. Why? Scale is why.
Take Optimus Prime, not only your quintessential Autobot but also usually one of the larger Cybertronians to appear in a Transformers series. Depending on what continuity we're looking at and what scale we're using (scale not always being the most consistent thing in TF), Optimus in robot mode stands up to 13 meters tall, though most estimates put him at much less than that.
Now take MMPR season 1's Dinozords. Tyrannosaurus ALONE is 27 meters tall. The combined Megazord? 41. Any way you slice it, the Zords consistently outmass the Transformers, hence Thunder Megazord unceremoniously bitch-slapping Blitzwing out of the sky in "Ranger Up and Roll Out".
I'm not going to say that this formula always holds, since there is a REALLY wide size variation between Transformers and because it's not unheard of to see a smaller Cybertronian beating a much larger foe. (Unicron, anybody? Bitch was literally the size of a planet.) But all other power and weaponry factors being equal, I will usually bet on a Megazord over an average Transformer.
...And that's all I'm going to say about it, because the idea of my fandoms fighting makes me sad. Why can't we all just get along?
angel_negra , Transformers, and sentient Zords. Gonna interview myself again, since that seemed to work really well yesterday.
Q. So I guess the obvious place to start would be, ARE the Zords sentient?
A. Many of them are, some more obviously than others. While I'm nowhere near having a comprehensive theory on the matter, I'm more or less convinced that sentience in Zords is evolved over time. Other than that, though, it sort-of correlates to all kinds of other things including form, time active vs. time dormant, and even the relationship between the Zord and its assigned Ranger. The assumption from there being that the Galactabeasts, the Wild Zords, the Folding Zords, etc., assume a greater degree of sentience because they've been online and actively interacting with each other and with humans over the course of decades, if not centuries. It also seems like the animal-form Zords are more likely to achieve sentience than vehicle-form Zords, although that may also be because they're generally older and/or because humans are more likely to treat them like living beings because they look the part.
...Which is not to say either that some of the other Zords AREN'T sentient, or on the verge of becoming so. These ones may just not have yet developed a means of indicating their self-awareness in a way we as humans can recognized. But there's already a very sophisticated telepathic interface involved when a Ranger pilots a Zord, and I imagine there gets to be a point where you spend enough time talking to your Zord that you start thinking you can hear it talk back. And you may or may not be right.
Q. Wow, that was...a lot of words. But wait, then. If your Zord is sentient and you're piloting it, then who's controlling who?
A. Both. And neither. It's more like you and the Zord are mind-melding and acting as a single will. And as if that wasn't trippy enough, it also takes a level of telepathic interface between individual Rangers to control a Megazord. (Ever wonder why there's so much speaking in unison that goes on during the Zord fights?) So when you have a team like the Galaxy Rangers at work, there needs to be a mental network established between the Rangers and the Galactabeasts AND each other.
It's like the Drift on steroids, man.
Q. And Transformers?
A. Are completely autonomous and fully sentient individual mechanical life-forms and VERY rarely form the type of partnership with humans you see between Rangers and Zords.
Q. What do you suppose they'd make of one another?
A. Depends on the continuity? G1/TFA/Prime-verse Transformers would probably find the Zords a little perplexing. The Beast Wars bots are much more used to technorganic life-forms and mechanoids with animal characteristics. The Zords would be on the defensive at first - usually anything that shows up that's even close to their size is an enemy - but as long as the Transformer doesn't show any aggression, they'd be cool.
Q. Who would win in a fight?
A. OK, so I once had to actually answer this for the one and only crossover fic I've ever written. In that case scenario, the Zord involved absolutely trounced the Transformer. Why? Scale is why.
Take Optimus Prime, not only your quintessential Autobot but also usually one of the larger Cybertronians to appear in a Transformers series. Depending on what continuity we're looking at and what scale we're using (scale not always being the most consistent thing in TF), Optimus in robot mode stands up to 13 meters tall, though most estimates put him at much less than that.
Now take MMPR season 1's Dinozords. Tyrannosaurus ALONE is 27 meters tall. The combined Megazord? 41. Any way you slice it, the Zords consistently outmass the Transformers, hence Thunder Megazord unceremoniously bitch-slapping Blitzwing out of the sky in "Ranger Up and Roll Out".
I'm not going to say that this formula always holds, since there is a REALLY wide size variation between Transformers and because it's not unheard of to see a smaller Cybertronian beating a much larger foe. (Unicron, anybody? Bitch was literally the size of a planet.) But all other power and weaponry factors being equal, I will usually bet on a Megazord over an average Transformer.
...And that's all I'm going to say about it, because the idea of my fandoms fighting makes me sad. Why can't we all just get along?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 06:15 pm (UTC)If you've ever watched Michael Bay's Transformers movies or the Transformers: Prime cartoon, you're familiar with the versions of Bumblebee who speak in a series of R2-D2-like bleeps and boops (or pithy radio clips, in a pinch). I'd like to think Storm Blaster and Lightning Cruiser use a similar mode of communication and that, with a bit of effort, the Rangers are able to learn that language and 'decode' what the cars are saying.
...Rats, now I want crossover fic in which Justin and Raf from Prime have a heart-to-heart about learning to speak robo-car and being the youngest people on their respective teams. LOOK WHAT YOU DID.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 06:19 pm (UTC)...Actually, it might be too late.