i think i'm the only person in the universe who cares about the origins of triple changers but i'm gonna make a thread about it and no one can tell me not to

so there's 6 primary triple changers, 3 decepticons and 3 autobots, as well as sixshot who has six modes. and it's obvious that they're uncommon, shown when whirl generalizes that cybertronians are "bimodal," implying that triple changers are outliers

blitzwing was forged and was a member of the triorian guard, who were the guards of the senate and nominus prime's body. this nomenclature is based on the roman praetorian guard, who were specifically a small group in charge of protecting high-ranking officers and whatnot

the triorian guard existed before the war started, and since we know blitzwing was forged, we know that his alt mode was developed naturally. sixshot is a point one percenter, which explains his six alt modes, but none of the triple changers are point one percenters, which is

what i'm implying here is that triple changers weren't actually forged with three modes. they're just as rare as point one percenters, but they decidedly are NOT, which makes me think that triple changers are created rather than forged

prewar: blitzwing was forged and in the triorian guard, we don't know atrotrain or octane's history, broadside was at least present for the beginning of the war, sandstorm was forged and defended iacon, and springer was a WHOLE other deal, being artificial and whatnot

so at least 2 of the multi-mode bois are outliers (sixshot and springer) and from what else we know, every other triple changer has been forged. which leads me to believe that all non-outlier triple changers were forged and later turned into triple changers

my thought: the senate created triple changers as a specific response to functionalism, and probably in secret. blitzwing and "overcharge" were part of this guard and they were all triple changers, showing that the senate was already predisposed to functionalism as a whole

triple changers always have two "good" alt modes, and if they were created, that makes sense. because why would the senate make triple changers with alt modes that they thought were stupid or useless?

the triple changers were the total opposite of the disposable class, with 2 spicy alt modes, which would make them easy figureheads for the senate. the senate/nominus are protected by these bots with LOTS of good alt modes, further separating the d-class from the other classes

non-outlier triple changers are almost always described as "bullies" or being thrill-seekers (or both,) which to ME, implies shadowplay. every triple changer has, like, NO sense of fear whatsoever, and they're usually extremely violent.

this is a long way of saying that i think triple changers were created specifically to serve the senate and were purposefully dumbed down so they would unquestionably follow authority. megatron was able to get some on his side because of this

and that's really fucked when you think about it because they had their bodies and brains messed with to become "ultimate soldiers," which begs the very sad question of "what would they be like if they hadn't had their brains poked at"

i mean, hasbro created the whole concept of a triple changer because they wanted to sell cool toys with cool modes. even recent toys are often triple changers, even though nothing in canon implies that they had more than one alt mode

(this is also why i'm excluding the live action movies from this analysis, because alt modes just flew out of everyone's asses, and it makes everything way too annoying)

i'm also not going to go into the horrorcons or anything from headmasters/the unicron trilogy, because again, that just gnarls the timelines and i only have so many braincells that can work at the same time. the toylines also screw around with timelines a lot, but whatever

but like i was saying, hasbro themselves made triple changer toys because they thought they were neato and kids would like them. i'd bet anything that the senate did the same thing, creating triple changers because they were neato and the working class would want to be like them

which is pretty gross when you think about it? the senate took these bots and reformatted them into their depiction of "ideal," manipulating them into beating down anyone who was a "troublemaker." yucky. very yucky.

tl;dr, triple changers are the sad result of a government that wanted to push their idea of perfection without considering the free will of their citizens, and the decepticon triple changers were drawn to the faction because deep down, they craved the free will they never had

in conclusion: