Random thoughts on Cybertronian reproduction - a personal headcanon

[wyntir_knight]

Apparently James Roberts once intimated that the holoavatars in IDW represented the Cybtertonians chosen gender. This meant that Cyclonus is female, as are Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, and Bluestreak. Of course, I can no longer find this tweet or the Tumblr post where I originally saw it, but it got me to thinking. What if the only reason why Cybertronians have been consistently referred to as “he” is because of a limitation of language (after all, people in the West tend to fight back against gender neutral third person singular pronouns) and the fact that male is the cultural default. We see this when Caminus is introduced and the Caminans (Caminusans? Camis?) refer to everyone as “she” because that is their default gender. Now I will admit, I don’t like the Left Hand of Darkness thing that IDW then went on to do - the literal Men are from Cybertron and Women are from Caminus explanation, but we’re talking about my personal headcanon here and, thus, I will ignore what I damned well feel like ignoring!

 

Reproduction

So, Cybertronians (and this includes all the colonies and offshoots) are hermaphrodites. They all have ports and cables. They also have several sexes (note: sexes not genders), because there is absolutely no reason why a cybernetic and silicone species would use bi-sexual (?) reproduction. So here’s my thoughts on the matter:

Note: I know I need better terms for all of the below

1. Carriers - Carriers have the ability to carry a spark to term; meaning that they have the equipment to do so. Carriers are then split into two groups:

   1. Carriers - Those who can only carry and do not have the ability to split their spark. These Carriers generally need to be part of a Trine to procreate. Vosian Seekers are often part this reproductive system.

   2. Carrier-Splitters - Those who can both carry and split their spark. These Carriers generally procreate with one other individual.

2. Sires - Sires have the needed equipment to provide the coding to complete a Cybertronian’s CNA and allow the spark shard to grow and create a protoform. As with Carriers, Sires are split into two groups:

   1. Sires - Those who can only provide the data portion of the CNA. As above, it is traditional for such an individual to be part of a Trine to procreate.

   2. Carrier-Sires - Those who can carry and provide data. This is very rare, but not unheard of.

3. True Carriers - These individuals are true hermaphrodites who can split their spark, fertilize it, and carry it. Soundwave and Blaster are two such individuals.

4. Splitters - Those who can split their spark but cannot carry or fertilize them.

5. There are those who cannot carry, fertilize, or split. Praxians tend to be like this (at least this is what they are told). In such cases either there is no procreation at all or the data and shard are mechanically/medically extracted from donors and combined in a nursery facility.

6. Primus granted sparks - These are now incredibly rare. It is said that Primus himself created the first sparks of life and those Cybertronians were forged from the planet itself (or, in later cases from the Matrix). These would be collected and cared for until the protoform had settled.

So, onto the actual reproduction process. The Carrier-Splitter and Sire will interface (involving a cable entering a port and spark merging), and at the point of overload the Carrier-Splitter’s spark will create a shard and the Sire will deposit the CNA data in the form of transfluid. When the data and the shard merge the shard will move to the gestation chamber to meld and produce protomatter harvested from the Carrier’s body. Once the protoform is ready to produce a solid shell, the Carrier’s chamber will open and the new sparkling will be “born”. In theory it is not possible to accidentally get sparked, but in practice if a Cybertronian is unknowingly a Carrier-Splitter who interfaces with a Sire and they share sparks it is possible to become unknowingly sparked. This is incredibly rare.

Note: Cybertronians will often (but not always) produce transfluid, but only a Sire will have CNA data in it and there will only be fertilization if there is a shard produced.

In the case of a Trine, the Splitter and the Sire will interface as above, and then the Splitter and the Carrier will share their spark and the newly fertilized shard will be passed to the Carrier’s gestation chamber. This is a far more involved process with a far higher likelihood of failure. In theory the transfer could be forced onto an unwilling subject through mechanical/medical means but this is even more likely to produce a failed gestation. Carrier-Sires have to reproduce in a similar manner with the Splitter producing the fertilized shard and then having it transferred into the Carrier-Sire’s gestation chamber.

In the case of True Carriers the Cybertronian in question will split their spark and fertilize the shard internally.

Rarely, a protoform will split after formation to produce identical twins. It is far more likely that the Splitter will produce two shards or that the initial shard will split before fertilization. These two cases produce fraternal twins.

Gender

Gender isn’t as clear in Cybertronians as it is in humans. Or at least, there is less of an issue regarding it. Some Cybertronains identify as female, some as male, some as neither, and some are far more fluid in their interpretation and personal gender choices have nothing to do with procreation. This also applies to attraction. Some cybertronians are interested only in Carriers, some only in Splitters, some don’t care one way or another. Due to the limitations of the English language I will be using male, female, and genderless pronouns and view the characters as male, female, agender, and fluid. There is no Cis or Trans in Cybertronian society because there is no line to fall on either side of. This will change as soon as the Cybertronians arrive on Earth and are faced with human beliefs and prejudices.

Each Cybertronian chooses the gender of their holomatter avatar based on their own preferred gender or based on what they want to accomplish. For instance, Onslaught has a female avatar because she has always viewed herself as female. Smokescreen has a female avatar because they felt that a female would be the most distracting, thus allowing them to do their job more efficiently. Smokescreen could have just as easily chosen a male avatar and their current form is easily adjustable with binding, prosthetics, and makeup. Optimus Prime has a male avatar because he has always viewed himself as male.

 

Hopefully I will be able to get all of this across well and without offense. Please feel free to comment. Especially if you are not cisgender, because I can only imagine your point of view of this and I want something less offensive than is often seen (and yes, I am looking in the direction of Furman). Also if anyone has any thoughts on gender and holoavatars that's be great. So far my plan is to go with what has been presented in IDW, but I'm making it up for those who haven't been shown yet. So far I am focusing on the Combaticons and making Onslaught and Vortex female and Blast Off, Swindle, and Brawl male.