Transformers Medical Analysis 2: Cybertronian Cultural and Medical Distinctions Regarding the Physical Form
Back at it again with another Transformers essay; Going to try to keep this one shorter than usual as I spent all day doing more healthcare training (weekends don’t exist when you are Ratchet-like in your intensity regarding patient advocacy, I guess lmao)
Organs Versus Parts: What’s the Difference?
Transformers Prime: T-Cog versus Vocaliser
In TFP, Ratchet states in Operation: Bumblebee that he cannot build a replacement T-Cog, and this combined with Bumblebee’s damaged vocaliser implies pretty clearly that there are components of a Cybertronian that cannot be effectively repaired and cannot be fully replaced or manufactured.
Ratchet: “Miko, a T-Cog is a biomechanism, not a scrapyard find.”
Where part or organ replacement is an option, transplant may be possible, but of course, that depends on a lot of things, such as there being a viable donor in the first place, as well as the availability of any medicines or surgical supplies etc.
But we can reasonably infer that the T-Cog is a unique component that seems to be in some way nearly irreplaceable, either due to lack of availability of donor replacements or the lack of ability to construct a T-Cog from other materials.
In regards to Bumblebee’s T-Cog surgery, Arcee describes the T-Cog specifically as “the organ that allows us to transform”.
This hints at a clear physical (and possibly cultural/linguistic distinction as well) between components that are considered “parts” and those that are considered “organs”.
Based on Ratchet’s statement, we can safely assume that part of this distinction in general is medical, with basis in physiology. Some parts may be relatively easy to replace or swap out, while others may be more particularly sensitive or unique to an individual Cybertronian (such as the protoform, which is almost always depicted as being a unique element of each bot that cannot be replaced or easily repaired).
The medical distinction between organs and parts may be the difficulty in building replacements, or may refer to parts that cannot or generally are not replaced for various reasons:
For example, the way Ratchet alludes to Bumblebee’s vocaliser damage in at least a couple episodes (albeit briefly), he discusses it in the framing of being unable to repair the vocaliser in a way that suggests the vocaliser is deemed a part and not an organ.
The “organs” may be core components one obtains with their first frame or as their spark/protoform develops, and “parts” may be anything that can be swapped out (like frame armour, which undergoes routine upgrades or repairs as needed).
This may have implications regarding the vocaliser as a component that is deemed a part and not necessarily an organ, but again, it could be down to level of repair potential that at least partially defines the difference in categorisation.
This would explain Ratchet’s distinction of “organs” as being biomechanical, as opposed to “parts” which might just be manufactured from various Cybertronian metalloids as needed.
IDW 1/IDW 2005 Transformers: Forged versus Cold Construction
The cultural distinction between the supposed quality of forged versus cold constructed components may be based in Cybertronian cultural lore or some degree of theological/historical mythos, as well as social codes.
For example, in IDW 1 (2005), there is a serious cultural distinction between forged components (viewed as natural, innate) and cold-constructed components (viewed as artificial, manufactured).
This also seems to have some medical implications as well, with Ratchet stating his belief (which again, seems rooted in cultural and social elements which likely existed in some form pre-war and may have been adapted over time to apply to cold construction specifically) that forged components may be more reliable or better in quality overall.
However, we don’t see much hard evidence of this, and it may be a hold-over concept from the pre-war cultural environment rather than anything based in solid medical fact.
(Which makes it interesting that Ratchet is the one who brings this up, and it may in fact be an expression of his own anxieties regarding his own health problems which he does his best to ignore, which is likely rooted in several thought and perception processes and biases. I could do a deep-dive on Ratchet-specific psychology at some point in the future, honestly…)
Alternatively, as Cybertronian medicine is still not really explored in-depth in any TF media to date (in terms of what is clinically factual in-universe, essentially), it could be that there are some notable medical or physical property differences in forged versus cold constructed components, but the specifics of this aren’t really mentioned in canon to any significant degree and as a result are almost entirely unknown or unconfirmed in canon.
However, in the context of parts versus organs, this brings up a lot of potential ethical and practical (including physiological) questions… I’ll probably do another post specifically about cold construction in the future.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The cold construction/forged social distinction, if not any formal medical distinction which may exist as well, can be interpreted as a Cybertronian form of ableism due to how it impacts the lives of cold constructed bots.
Whether or not there is any verifiable medical differentiation present between forged and cold constructed components or the overall entity of the individual themselves (which gets into some serious territory conceptually), that does not legitimise the ableism cold constructed bots very much seem to deal with.
We do see elements of different kinds of ableism in Cybertronian society pre and post war, both in-universe and sometimes as a result of missteps by various authors/show writers/etc., so I want to to a write-up specifically about that at some point in the future as well.
It does raise serious ethical questions, though, and if this post weren’t already so long, I’d pull out the Biomedical Ethics legislation as defined by the ECHR (you can see some of their example case studies in bioethics here) and a whole bunch of other resources to back up my interpretation of things, but that will be in the eventual cold construction specific analysis!
Transformers Animated: (Body) Parts Shop
In TFA, we get a hint at this organ/parts distinction to some degree, when Ratchet loses his cool over a second-hand shop display.
There’s a notable distinction implied between more casually replaceable parts (“scrapyard finds”) and actual Cybertronian core components (“organs”):
Ratchet: “It’s barbaric! There oughta be a law against it!”
Optimus: “It’s just an auto supply store, Ratchet.”
Ratchet: “You mean they actually sell spare parts on the open market?!? What kind of malfunction would be crass enough to buy this stuff?“
Ratchet is genuinely upset about seeing spare parts in a store window, and the implication is that Ratchet may be interpreting this auto shop display as a kind of black market organ trade type situation.
He does still refer to them as spare parts, not organs, although in TFA there is less distinction made about this and we can reasonably assume that “spare parts” in this context is essentially in reference to both innate (organ) and replaceable or manufacturable (part) components.
Interestingly, Optimus is not as upset about the display; This may be because Optimus is slightly more aware of human culture than Ratchet is, or possibly because Ratchet is older, has seen more of the war overall, and may have actually experienced an organ black market bust or similar previously…
Ratchet carries significant trauma as a veteran front lines medic, and what happened to him and Arcee during the war can be interpreted as differing types and severities of medical torture (including, depending on your interpretation of events, organ/part theft).
As a result, it may be the case that Ratchet’s unique traumatic experiences may then lead him to conflate parts and organs perhaps moreso than other Cybertronian medics might, although we don’t see enough of Cybertronian medicine or other Cybertronian medics or medical details in TFA to say this for sure.
We also don’t know if this part/organ conflation is only something he does casually (immediate reaction/possible PTSD like reaction versus how he might identify these things in a medical context).
TFA seems to often conflate and associate parts/organs as interchangeable for the most part, so this may also be down to TFA’s writing style and preferences for dialogue and so on.
Either way: Parts versus Organs! Interesting Cybertronian medical distinction (or conflation)!
I hope this was an interesting read, and thank you to anyone who actually read through all of this! <3
EDIT: I keep adding to this lmao I need to get some self control!! There will be more in this Cybertronian Medicine Analysis series soon! :’)
