Combiner Identities
A random thought entered my mind as I was posting a bit I wrote featuring Grand Slam, Raindance and their combined form of Slamdance (if you're not a reader of my main fic blog, it will make no sense, but it's today's entry at headlinefics for reference).
The narration of my fic-bit is split among the two halves of Slamdance and the combined form, so as I posted a link to it elsewhere, I said it was made up of all three of them "trying to shout each other down... or should that be trying to shout himself down?" And that, combined with a Doctor Who novel I read not that long ago, got me thinking about how mechs might prefer to be identified - like how people prefer specific ways of referring to their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and so on.
Continuing that line of thought, and assuming that combined forms have their own personalities and therefore their own wishes/desires, there seem to be a few different ways in which the combined forms might want to be identified: "he", or "she", or "they" - I think "it" would be an insult, but maybe not. Which combined forms, then, might want to be considered male? female? multiple? none of the above?
To follow on from that, how might it impact the way a combiner team works - if at all - if the combined form of several male bots decided she was female? And might Devastator's thought process be affected not only by the competing minds of the Constructicons, but by calling themselves multiple rather than a single entity (as in "Devastator are on their way to the Ark, and they will crush Optimus Prime in their bare hand")?
The narration of my fic-bit is split among the two halves of Slamdance and the combined form, so as I posted a link to it elsewhere, I said it was made up of all three of them "trying to shout each other down... or should that be trying to shout himself down?" And that, combined with a Doctor Who novel I read not that long ago, got me thinking about how mechs might prefer to be identified - like how people prefer specific ways of referring to their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and so on.
Continuing that line of thought, and assuming that combined forms have their own personalities and therefore their own wishes/desires, there seem to be a few different ways in which the combined forms might want to be identified: "he", or "she", or "they" - I think "it" would be an insult, but maybe not. Which combined forms, then, might want to be considered male? female? multiple? none of the above?
To follow on from that, how might it impact the way a combiner team works - if at all - if the combined form of several male bots decided she was female? And might Devastator's thought process be affected not only by the competing minds of the Constructicons, but by calling themselves multiple rather than a single entity (as in "Devastator are on their way to the Ark, and they will crush Optimus Prime in their bare hand")?