Compared to other characters in the various Transformers series, Vehicons and Autotroopers are treated like generic drones. But it's clear that they are just as sentient as 'Named' characters such as Optimus and Megatron. So what makes them so disposable? Thoughts

 

The G1 backgrounds Seekers were similar.

 

essentially, they are the foot soldiers of the Decepticon armed forces, the "uniformed services" if you will.
but then, we don't have the equivalent Autobot version. i guess it's alright, but if you have that with the Decepticons and not with the Autobots, the fight I would imagine would be lop-sided, especially that there already are a number of Decepticons.

At least in G.I. Joe, you find a same similar uniformed force compared to the Cobra foot soldiers.
But I suppose it could be explained that the Vehicons/Autotroopers are combat clones (like the clone troops in Star Wars). That's another angle they could be effectively be approached.

 

The Autotroopers, as they were originally introduced in KISS Players, were sparkless drones.

The Vehicons, as they were originally introduced in Beast Machines, were sparkless drones.

 

This.

 

But what about in Animated, Prime or WFC/FOC where they are clearly not sparkless

 

In Animated or Prime, they dehumanize them to keep the show from getting dark, or having kids and their parents think too deeply on the implications of military violence. It's kind of a compromise between realism and the old 1980s solution of having every character have terrible aim.

 

Are we certain they have sparks in Animated, Prime, and WfC/FoC? Is it possible they're sparkless robots with moderate AI capabilities (like Teletraan-1 or something)? I don't know, I'm honestly inquiring.

 

Well in TFP they are killed by the Spark Extractor so at least in the Aligned universe they do have sparks

 

Well the reason for this is to try to make the two warring factions competent without killing off any of the main characters. (Unless the character is no longer deemed worthy of sales or the writers just do it despite new toys coming for the character.) The nameless characters can be killed off in any number of quantities with no worries of it affecting the main characters. That way it would prevent the implication of these two factions fighting for such a long time, yet some how not managing to kill one person. An example would be back all the way in G1, pacifically the episode "War Dawn." To demonstrate Optimus' new strength and battle prowess from being rebuilt by Alpha Trion, he was featured gunning down tons of generic Decepticon soldiers.

Some writers will try to give these generic characters tidbits of personality to give the feeling of loss from the tragedy of war. But yeah the characters purpose are only to be killed off just to make it look like the good and bad guys are doing their jobs.

 

I'm referring to what makes them different in universe

 

Maybe its sorta like Destiny and its Exos/Frames? The Exos were fully sapient and seen as equals, while the Frames were more traditional robots that (as far as was shown) were specified for one task, such as managing a bounty board or operating the mail service. 'Bots like Optimus were fully sapient members of the species, while the Vehicons/Autotroopers were just semi-autonomous combat drones.

Or, for some robo-Body Horror, the Vehicons/Autotroopers are made from the recycled corpses of fallen Transformers, which were pieced back together based on a standard design and given basic combat software.

 

Well, it depends on what you mean by "different." I guess we've established that, at least in some stories, Autotroopers and Vehicons do indeed have sparks. So let's refer back to your first post.

I don't think there actually IS an in-universe reason -- I mean, not an official one. Any reasons we might come up with would be conjecture at best and pure fanfic at worst.

The bottom line is this: we're talking about living, full-fledged individuals who are treated like weapons, tools, objects. In other words, slavery. This behavior isn't too hard to accept for Decepticons -- all sorts of atrocities could be committed in the name of their war effort. However, it's tough to square such a practice with the Autobots' values. Optimus "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" Prime would definitely not be okay with this.

Perhaps the key difference is that these expendable troops are alive, but are not actually sentient? Maybe their sparks come from Cybertronian animals (that is, lower life-forms, like Turbofoxes) and they are enhanced, modified, or otherwise "uplifted" to have intelligence without true sentience? I dunno. [shrug]

Like I said, conjecture or fanfic.

 

The Prime continuity vehicons, they were never really clear how they sentient they are.

 

As far as the Vehicons go, the wiki says this:

Vehicon (Prime) - Transformers Wiki

As for Autotroopers, I see no evidence that the Autobots treat sparked ones as disposable drones. They may be utilized as "generics" for the purposes of storytelling, but I haven't found anything to suggest the slavery I described in my previous post. In continuities where they're sparked, they're individuals with full rights who all just wear the same body type; in continuities where they're disposable cannon fodder, they're sparkless drones.

 

My theory:
The Vehicons/Autotroopers do have Sparks, but as the war waged eternally onward, unique bodyshapes and personalities became less and less important. So a uniform standard bodyshape that could be assembled with cheap materiels was conceived and the most basic of programming was given. The nature of sparks being what they are, individual personalities would still emerge, but with the limited programming and experience, the personalities would often remain as shallow cannon fodder soldiers. (Thus the vehicons difficulty with construction work in Predacons Rising)

 

The fact that they were that series' "red shirts"?   IJS

 

My take on it: the nameless "drones" all have sparks but must earn their names through valor. Once that happens they get to become unique, named bots/ cons.

 

I always see them as two sides of the same coin - the faceless, generic meatshield fodder whose appearance and demeanor often - but not always - depend on which side despite serving in similar roles.

Canon does generally support this - every single character with a name and tech spec, etc. also notably have special abilities and powers unique onto them, or are otherwise skilled leaders. Everybody else are insignificant and disposable soldiers in the greater picture of war unless they prove to possess more unique attributes.

Take the generally canonized origin of Megatron at this point - he started life as a generic miner who didn't even have a name, just a alphanumeric designation of 'D-16' (which was his G1 Takara ID product number for those curious). When some asshat senator decided to automate the mining system and put the purpose-built workers out of a job, D-16 rebelled and attacked, landing himself instead in the gladitorial death tournaments of Kaon. Except he did pretty damn well there and at the pinacle of his newfound glory he took on the name of Megatron, after the fallen member of the Thirteen. And he's still kind of the same guy, since his signature weapons were only later additions after he grew into the tyranical leader of the Decepticon uprising and he doesn't actually have special powers like forcefield generation or in Prowl's case a genetic ability to be a prick 100% of the time.

Every named character who takes part in fighting is in one way or another either an elite soldier of their side - basically Wreckers, Dinobots, Seeker commanders, handpicked Ark crew etc. - or a tangentally related rebel who isn't part of the core groups - Wheelie, Gnaw, Wreck-Gar (since Junkions are not specifically the same race as Cybertronians), technically Animated Soundwave. The lesser Vehicons and Autotroopers are merely the rank and file uniformed soldiers, the Imperial Guard to the Autobot/Decepticon Space Marines to use a 40K metaphor.

 

They are still expendable, just that their expendability becomes more horrific (if you're inclined to think that much about it) because they are sentient in this case.

Plus it's war. Not everyone can be a general, and cannon fodder is there to be thrown at one's enemy.