>>7429705I was never a fan of the individuals-riding-a-tandem-bicycle style of approach for Combiner consciousness.
I liked IDW’s (sometimes) take on it, where, with the exception of OG Menasor who was assembled using boot-leg tech, Combiners generally require an initial shared thought or mindset to bring their minds into alignment ant form a single collective gestalt conscious. Notable Ex’s:
>OG Devastator: Likeminded thuggish love of destroying stuff>”Decptigod”: Belief in the Decpticon cause>Prowlastator: Prowl and constructicons hatred of Spike>Optimus Maximus: Mutual incomprehension of worldviews? (Not really clear, writing was a bit shit)>Victorion: Desire to protect the Enigma and general religious devotion And without said unifying thought/belief the combiner ends up stuck in indecision. If something causes sufficient dissonance between the component’s viewpoints the combiner becomes confused and less mentally coherent, potentially even resulting in decombination. (Seems a bit like how Steven Universe treats fusion)
I always felt they set up a bunch of cool stuff with combiners, like the collective loss of individuality between the components and the vestiges of former or even dead members thoughts and personalities effecting fellow members even after they’re no longer combined, but never sufficiently followed through and properly explored that stuff.
Also Galvatron’s complete 180 on Combiner bigotry was total bullshit writing.
