I am interested in what everyone's theories are on how a combiner's mind and personality work.

For me I like to think that it has to due with the teammates' and the actual combiner's minds merge. So I think that the teammates' minds join and then the personality of the actual combiner (separate from the teammates' minds) joins in the mix of minds.

So for Superion, the Arialbots get together well as a team, which means their minds merge well when they combine, but Superion's own personality of being bent on the destruction of the Decepticons overrides the Arialbots' minds. He is till a functional combiner, though, since the Arialbots' minds merge together so well.

For Menasor, the Stunticons all hate each other, so their minds do not mix at all. Add on to that the fact that Menasor's personality is crazy, you get a completely insane gestalt.

For Bruticus, the Combaticons' minds merge well because they act so well as a military unit. While most of the Combaticons are pretty smart, Bruticus's mind is not very intelligent. So end up with a combiner that follows orders well, but is to dumb to think for himself.

So what are your guys' theories?

 

I'm curious if the Combiner personality is an independent identify or a collaboration of the member components and their personalities.

 

I like to think that it is an independent identity that combines with the merging of the members' minds.

 

I like to think a combiner's personality is independent, but I also like the idea of each team member's mind and thoughts talking to each other, squabbling about what they should do.

 

Always thought of the personality of the gestalt the same as the physical, it's just a mind-merge of the components. Similar to Pacific Rim...the Jaegar doesn't have a personality that overmaps the two pilots'. It's just two pilots mind-melding to work as a single unit.

 

I think a lot of it is each combiner is slightly different because it's very hard to tell precisely what parts of everyone's minds will overlap. Hidden parts of the mind will sometimes be surprisingly important because they're similar across all, or parts that you'd hope would be there are drowned out because the other dominant parts are just too dominant.


In Combiner Wars, Starscream took an interesting step of adding in a bot with anger management issues in order to up the temper of Menasor and help make it easier to push over the edge, the first time we've seen such a purposeful personality adjustment (normally not as possible due to changing bots not happening often, but when possible, it makes sense).

 

I honestly never thought about this stuff ever, mostly because I'm not that fond of combiners outside of the Stunticons and Combaticons.

 

I see it as a new personality created from the combination. But the individuals all have their own memories of the time they were combined

 

my theory is that the the team leaders have a baseline matrix for the combined personality that the other members then "fill out." maybe something like 28% of the gestalt personality is from the leader, with the others supplying about 18%. there should definitely be some interesting results from combining with different bots, but the most basic personality would remain pretty much the same. that's the only way combiners like menasor could still be functional with so much disharmony in the team.

 

I think that the teams are put together in a way where they all have a common goal or interest to begin with. This most basic commonality then make up the majority of the gestalt's personality with a little different quirks thrown in there from the individual members. This means a wholly new personality is created upon merging but this personality still retains some of the individuals most characteristic traits.

This means that the Protectobots for example all have a deep seeded need to protect and make sure people and 'bots around them are safe, this would make up Defensor's main personality. But a big bot who's only going to stand there like a shield would be useless so that's why Blades is a part of the team, his ferocity in battle makes up a large portion of his personality and that in turn means that Defensor himself will become a great fighter. Hot Spot's will to lead and be in the forefront could also be part of Defensor's "offense is the best defense"-mentality.


The Combaticons are all soldiers and they know a good soldier follows orders, that's why Bruticus is so good at that.

The Predacons are the universe's greatest hunters and when they combine into Predaking he becomes greater than the sum of his parts in that aspect. He isn't a furious beast, he's a smart, calculating hunter with the muscle to back it up. Unlike Abominus who's nothing more than a monster since the Terrorcons are all that.

The Stunticons hatred for each other, and Motormaster in particular, makes up Menasor's main personality trait, he's ANGRY. But since Menasor can't just tear himself apart (something that he probably would do given the chance) he instead focuses that anger outward on his enemies.

Computron is a walking, talking, fighting computer, his tactical and mathematical comprehension is made up of the Technobots' knowledge in these subjects, but at the same time his parts are made up of true fighters, meaning that this also makes up a great deal of his personality.

These are just some examples I can come up with at the spot.