G1 Animal sidekicks - Sentient, Semi-Sentient or Drones?

[BigTransformerTrev]

(Note: I know there are tons more animal characters in the Japanese G1 Continuity but as I am not familiar enough with it, am simply discussing the American one. I'm sure someone else can add them to this thread )


Do people consider the G1 Transformers that only have animal modes to be fully fledged Transformers in their own right? Interested in others opinions. I've offered up three different classifications of how they could possibly be viewed:


Fully Sentient
As psychologically developed and aware as any other Transformer

Semi-Sentient
Comparable to a regular Transformer as a dog is to a human

Drone
No real cognitive thought. Under complete control of their handler.


Autobots
Steeljaw
Ramhorn
Lionizer
Sights
Top-Heavy
Tyrannitron

Decepticons
Lazerbeak
Buzzsaw
Ravage
Ratbat
Overkill
Slugfest
Beastbox
Squalktalk
Wingthing
Gatoraider
Catgut
Scorpulator
Razor-Sharp
Firebeast
Needler
Screech


For me, unless it specifically states otherwise, I like to think they are all pretty much fully sentient. Of course some are smarter or dumber than others. Also some talk and some don't. But there seems to be contradictory evidence on many levels:

Ravage:
Got a line in the original cartoon, making you think fully sentient. And talks in the IDW universe. But then also in the cartoon for the most part he just growled, Soundwave once patted him like a favored dog, and for the most part other Decepticons addressed Soundwave rather than him when wishing something of Ravage.

Laserbeak:
Never talked in the cartoon or in recent comics, but gets chatty in the Japanese cartoon. In FoC treated by Soundwave and Megatron more as a hunting condor than as a member of the army. (Megatron petting Laserbeak and laughing when nearly losing a finger was hilarious!)

Squalktalk & Beastbox:
Seen crop up in IDW a couple of times, but only combined. Does that mean they are not as fully sentient separated? But then Squalktalk's tech-specs bio discusses how he knows 6500 languages and talks all the time, more in the form of a human than a parrot.

Ramhorn:
Grunts constantly like an animal, then suddenly goes back in time and becomes chatty?! Simple beast or fully functioning bot?

Tyrannitron:
In the FP comics is talked about more like he is Snarl's pet that needs to be babysat rather than a member of the crew.

Animal Targetmaster Partners:
Many got their own sub-bio's in Dreamwave's MTMTE, making them sound fully sentient, but in the original tech specs hardly referred to more than a pet or a drone would be.


So what do people think. Can they all be classed as either fully-sentient, semi-sentient or drone? Or does it depend on the bot - is Ravage for example more sentient than Buzzsaw? Is Steeljaw more sentient than Lionizer? If so - why? They both turn into Cybertronian Lions after all. Yes - Steeljaw gets his own tech-spec and Lionizer doesn't. But then Lionizer turns into a Atom Smashing Blaster, a lot more intricate one could argue than a cassette (or data disk).

So, what do you think?

[Paulbot]

This is one of those things where it can depend on which continuity you're looking at (and sometimes which issue or episode).

As an overall viewpoint, mine is:

Cassettes - fully sentient Transformers that have animal-like robot modes (except in the G1 cartoon where they are semi-sentient transforming animals* - and in stories highly influenced by the G1 cartoon like Dreamwave's and All Hail Megatron)

Action Master partners - not enough in-use story of these but I've always tended to think of them as basically purpose-built drones with some level of artifical intelligence but not living beings. Not quite a drone but almost. (And I include things like Jazz's roller board and Bumblebee's helipack in the same category)


* I've always considered Ravage's one line to more likely be some sort of text-to-voice translation of geo-location data that Ravage's sensors recorded but wasn't audio. I recall an episode of Ramhorn going back in time, but I don't recall him chatting, but really I just generally don't feel any need to remember that episode.

[GoktimusPrime]

Ravage, Laser and Buzzsaw had more dialogue in the G1 comics - especially Ravage. It was Ravage who talked Shockwave out of his stupor after he had a mental shutdown because his mind couldn't process the wibbly wobbly timey whimey paradox of Cyclonus being in the past before he was created in the future. Ravage also had that cool Russian accent in Beast Wars. I'd say all the cassette TFs are fully sentient - as you said, their tech specs (which forms the toy continuity which is the core continuity of G1) suggests that they are sentient, even if other continuities may not portray them that way - like Raindance and Grand Slam... in the G1 comics they were shown to be nothing more than data storage devices, although they were explicitly referred to by their names and as "Autobots." Which leads me to another question - do you consider vehicular sidekicks to be sentient? Then there's Ratbat, who was Decepticon leader for a time in the G1 comics, and portrayed as a Senator in the IDW comics.

Having said that, I personally don't consider the Cassettes to be proper 'sidekicks'. They're fully independent and proper TFs in their own right who happen to be able to interact with Soundwave and Blaster. Action Master Partners on the other hand are very much sidekicks, much like say Nebulans. Are they sentient? Not sure as they barely made any canonical appearances. And why should the animal Action Master partners be more sentient than the vehicular ones? After all, Raindance and Grand Slam's tech specs suggest that they are sentient Autobots.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Which leads me to another question - do you consider vehicular sidekicks to be sentient?

And why should the animal Action Master partners be more sentient than the vehicular ones? After all, Raindance and Grand Slam's tech specs suggest that they are sentient Autobots.

Well, this is really more about the Animals than vehicles - maybe you could start another thread about vehicular ones (the opposite to the 'what alt-modes haven't been done yet you'd like to see threads we did ). But I'll address it as best I can.

The likes of Jazz's turbo-board and Bumblebee's helipack really serve no purpose other than to facilitate the transport of the user and to double as a weapon. If you move to the next stage up you could same the same for Gutcrunchers tank. The likes of Lionizer can prowl around, drink a saucer of energon, play fetch, bite Cons etc. For me the question is more is he A:remote controlled, B: just growl and prowl or C: Able to read from the Covenant of Primus and discuss mecha-soccer if required.

Raindance and Grand Slam can travel about of their own accord and get their own tech-specs so definitely fully sentient. They just need to combine if they want to open a door or wave hello

Maybe of interest would be some of the TF Wiki links - I'll put one up about Lionizer since I keep using him as an example:

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Lionizer

I also quite like to go by the Dreamwave MTMTE books, simply as it was the first time so many of these obscure characters got any fleshing out.

[Paulbot]

I also quite like to go by the Dreamwave MTMTE books, simply as it was the first time so many of these obscure characters got any fleshing out.

And those books are great for that, but a bunch of high level character profiles are too specific to the defunct Dreamwave continuity too and contradict the others, because there are few universal truths when it comes to G1 Transformers. G1 canon is it's own special thing like the mystery of the holy trinity.

Ravage, Laser and Buzzsaw had more dialogue in the G1 comics - especially Ravage. It was Ravage who talked Shockwave out of his stupor ...

You mean in the G1 UK comics. And weirdly also Marvel's GIJoe vs Transformers where Ravage shouldn't have been present at all... Most of the tapes forgot they could talk in the US comic after the original miniseries. Even when Ravage returned and was written by Simon Furman in the US comics he didn't chat. (Maybe he just didn't have anything to say?)

I reference Jazz and Bumblebee as those are two AMs I had a kid when these ideas formed. And taking Goktimus' point, the tech specs are all we had to go on. Jazz's bio calls "Tubro Board" "his partner" and "sidekick" so I assume that as a minimum Turbo Board has some artificial intelligence if you're calling it as more than "his vehicle" and "ride". Not sure what Gutcruncher's tech specs say about his tank. But I would never consider those partners to be "Transformers".

And so when it comes to ones who had animal like partners, like I had Jackpot and Sights, I never considered them as being a "Transformer" in the same way that say Laserbeak was. I think Sights could prowl and growl but it's got no spark or higher intelligence.

[BigTransformerTrev]

And those books are great for that, but a bunch of high level character profiles are too specific to the defunct Dreamwave continuity too and contradict the others

Jazz's bio calls "Tubro Board" "his partner" and "sidekick" so I assume that as a minimum Turbo Board has some artificial intelligence if you're calling it as more than "his vehicle" and "ride".

In total agreement about the high level character profiles from Dreamwave - it's certainly not taken as a universal truth that Shockwave gave Blitzwing his triple-changing abilities and that Punch has a personality disorder. But for the likes of the Micromasters, Target/Action Master Partners and so on I thought it was fantastic as they had never really had their own full characters before (though some MM kinda did in the old comics).

Had no idea Jass's turbo-board was referred to as his partner and sidekick in the original tech-specs. Hmmmm, that makes for quite the compelling argument for the likes of Sights to only be on the same level. Don't get me wrong, I still think Lionizer, Gatoraider etc are above them and should be pets at the very least, but now you've got me considering the validity of that position

[GoktimusPrime]

To me, cassettes are sentient. I see no reason to discern those with bestial robot modes (e.g. Ravage, Ramhorn etc.) over those with vehicular robot modes (e.g. Grand Slam, Raindance) or humanoid robot modes (e.g. Rewind, Frenzy etc.). A vehicle can still be sentient, such as Tardises (especially Type 102 Tardises).

I see Action Master partners as being non-sentient, and capable of possessing varying degrees of artificial intelligence, like say Artoo Detoo from Star Wars, K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, Jarvis from the Iron Man films or David from A.I.

"Nobody cares if you upset a droid." - See Threepio (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)