What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

* [[Transformers|Optimus Prime]] has a very clear opinion on this, with his famous "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" motto. The series, though, have sometimes defined sentience in an unsatisfying way - [[Our Souls Are Different|not having a spark]] renders you a 'drone' even if said 'drone' clearly thinks and feels. In a non-canon series of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' comics (with a few [[Out of Character]] moments, though mostly confined to Megatron being generically evil instead of a [[Magnificent Bastard]]) Bumblebee is told by Optimus not to mourn for {{spoiler|Afterburn}} because he was a sparkless drone, and it's not clear who is right ( {{spoiler|Afterburn}} appears to think and feel, and Bumblebee cared about him and it sure seems a [[Jerkass]] move to callously tell him that the friend he just saw torn in half was just a drone and thus not worth any worry, but he ''was'' a {{spoiler|Decepticon infiltrator, only pretending to be friends with Bee or ''anybody,'' was killed by Megatron in a [[You Have Failed Me]] moment, and could ''well'' have been acting according to the "make nice with the mark" programming you'd expect an advanced but nonsentient infiltration-bot to have. And since whether he was real or not, any friendship he had with the Autobots clearly wasn't, he kinda ''isn't'' worth crying over either way.}} Still, be nice to [[The Woobie|poor Bee]], huh?)

* Human characters who don't regard ''[[Transformers]]'' as sentient beings are, in general, not treated sympathetically by any series in the franchise. However, it's apparently okay for younger viewers to see a Transformer die, even in a time slot where killing off a human character would bring down the wrath of the [[Media Watchdog|Media Watchdogs]] upon all involved. This may be more of a method of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].