Beast Wars - Integrating Bot and Beast, Processor and Spark: What Defines the Cybertronian Sense of Personal Identity? An Analysis
"Once, we were merely robots in disguise! But on this planet, we Maximals have become something more. Maximal programming was designed to block our beast urges, but that has proven to be an error.
Our beast forms are part of us. Fighting our nature only made them stronger. We must accept both beast and robot forms.
Feel your core consciousness, find the programming block, and delete it!
Bring your beast and robot forms together! Let them work in harmony! And let them both make you stronger than you were before."
-Tigatron, Call of the Wild, S1 E19 Beast Wars
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There isn't much elaboration as to what "core consciousness" refers to, but we can assume it's the core of a Cybertronian's being and contains the basest elements of their personality etc., which suggests this may be both spark and processor related--In humans, our frontal lobe is where much of our decision making and opinion forming takes place, and that can be a significant part of someone's individual personality!
In Cybertronians, in various continuities, it is implied that the spark contains one's unique personal elements, what makes you, you.
In IDW 1, the reason why mnemosurgery is so frightening (in part, at least) is because it can alter your personality via altering your memories or by otherwise influencing your thoughts from that point onward-- So that is perhaps equally as significant as the individual's spark, in terms of personal identity.
Your experiences as a person help form who you are as an individual, just as much as your unique "spark" does.
Your life is unique, and what happens in it, how you perceive and experience those events, how those things change you and grow you into your own person, are also unique to you. On a mental level, we are all unique. Even if many people experience the same event, each individual person may perceive that event differently, with different feelings and understandings of what happened.
Likewise, physically, we are all unique-- Even though we are all the genetic product of our parents and ancestors, with epigenetic elements factoring in as well, this only serves to further individualise us.
Personal identity is a complex subject, and we don't have much clarity in most TF canon as to how Cybertronians may experience, contextualise, or define this-- And when it is touched upon as a subject, it tends to vary from continuity to continuity in various ways.
However, with a focus on Beast Wars, Call of the Wild addresses a potential incongruity between Beast and Bot modes; There is a conflict between the Cybertronian aspects of self, and the Beast aspects of self.
An innate clash between organic and mechanical.
As Tigatron states, there is a coding component to this clash: "Find the programming block, and delete it!"
This suggests there may be difficulty integrating organic/beastmode sense of self (the more base, animalistic organic instincts) with the more complex Cybertronian thought processes,which are mechanical in nature.
Whether a Cybertronian's "core consciousness" may be defined as being spark based, processor based, or both is not entirely clarified; However in other TF continuities like IDW 1, special importance is placed on a spark's individual or unique properties-- Such as with the Point One Percenters, which are noted for having particularly rare or unique aspects to their sparks.
So it may well be a combination of both, although in Beast Wars this is unclear.
Either way, it seems (at lest in Beast Wars) as though bots with beastmodes may have some difficulty integrating their separate modes, mechanical root mode and beast alt-mode-- And if these two distinct halves of the self are not integrated successfully, this may lead to losing one's sense of self to one's base organic instincts: Going feral.
Tigatron's method of resolving this issue and what he recommends to the others suggests there is a conscious, mental component to this: One can fight through the haze of organic animal behaviour, and make an effort to allow one's
It isn't actually 100% clear what this means, though!
How do the two aspects of self actually integrate? What are the implications of this for the individual, how does this potentially alter the singular sense of one's self identity? Is a new "self" produced, one that is equally organic and mechanical? How might this change their perception, thought processes, behaviour, etc?
The implications of this are huge, which is why I find it so interesting.
Having a beastmode may in and of itself alter one's sense of self and personal identity all together; Thought processes may be unique, may not be entirely Cybertronian, may not be entirely organic, a special blend of two vastly different natures within a single entity.
It varies based on continuity: There are some bots who were forged or otherwise created with beastmodes. There are some bots from colony worlds in which beastmodes are the default alt-modes. And there are some bots who obtain beastmodes later in life, long after their initial sense of self has been developed.
The concern in Call of the Wild comes from the concept that the bots are losing their Cybertronian sense of identity and upper/complex cognitive processes, as their frames adapt and seemingly develop a preference for their beastmode base instinctual behaviours beyond their conscious control.
The idea that this is even a possibility for Cybertronians with beastmodes is fascinating, and how any ultimate internal resolution or cohesive integration of organic and mechanical aspects of self actually occurs (and the total impact of that on the individual) is left undefined in any further detail.
After this, mostly things return to normal--But Tigatron notes that achieving this integration is something that makes them stronger.
This is likely referring to both a physical and mental stability that occurs once a beastformer has reconciled the differences between their modes of being, but it's not 100% clear if this may have other implications-- For example, there may possibly be increased physical strength or agility when one is more in-sync with their beast alt-mode, or one may be better able to utilise their enhanced sensory suite (playing off of the traits of whatever their beastmode might be), and so on.
If one fails to integrate their different modes, it is implied that they are then resigned to acting out their most base organic/animal instincts, unable to access their higher processing or Cybertronian root mode functions.
Essentially, beastmodes can potentially go feral.
And that's pretty wild to think about.
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