Sonata

Character Biography & Profile

Sonata is a millipede Insecticon with a train form from the steam age. He once was part of the High Guard, defending Cybertron against the Quintessons. He was badly injured in the second Cybertronian war, and was left permanently stuck in train form, unable to transform due to critical nerve damage. There is more information about his train form under “How the train works.”

Sonata once had a large robot form, but now only sees the world through his small conductor form. The conductor form is a small, slender robotic figure attached to the wall of his engine room. It has four arms and a long, train-like head. The left hands are thin and wiry with tile-shaped fingertips for pressing buttons, and the right hands are highly articulated for grabbing wheels and levers. The room’s controls are designed with this in mind. He sometimes wears a uniform when he has company, but normally wears nothing as it gets very hot in the cabin. Eight thin exhaust pipes stick out of his back.

Being an older Insecticon, Sonata requires sleep to function. He coils up into his sleep chamber at the back of the room to sleep. He is nocturnal, so while he sleeps during the daytime, his apprentice Harley conducts the train.

Abilities & Locomotive Systems

As long as Sonata remains on the train tracks, he can run nonstop all day and night. He can manipulate the car interiors, rearranging seats or changing the layout. He can’t see the insides of the cars, but can feel people walking, and can memorize footprints of frequent passengers.

He can divert off the track by uncurling the wheels and walking with millipede-like legs, but it’s slower and highly energon-expensive.

Weaknesses & Worldviews

Sonata is hardheaded and stubborn in many ways. He can’t leave the engine room, so he doesn’t get much socialization and is very stuck in the past.

He has old worldviews about Cybertronians, such as believing in an outdated hierarchy system based on vehicle function. He pities non-flying Cybertronians and those he believes to be of “less valuable” function, which is one of the reasons he likes to ferry them around. He pities them in a way that he unfortunately sees them as inferior. He also detests sigil branding, and treats those with a sigil differently than those without.

How the Train Works

Anatomy

Sonata is the name of the Cybertronian, but it’s also the name of the train. Sonata, the train, circles a train track around and throughout Iacon City. It has a locomotive, a coal car, eight passenger cars, a dining car, a sleeper car, and a crew car. The order is as follows:

• Car 1: Locomotive (engine) and conductor’s room
• Car 2: Coal car
• Car 3: Crew car
• Car 4: Dining car
• Car 5: Sleeper car
• Cars 5-12: Passenger cars A-H

The locomotive at the front is where the steam engine and Sonata’s conductor body are. At night, he controls the train manually, and in the daytime, he coils up into a back chamber to sleep while Harley takes control. He’s unable to leave this car because he’s affixed to the back wall. The diagram here shows the conductor’s room and firebox.

Technical Layout File: Conductor's Cabin Room & Firebox Diagram

The coal car is where the coal is stored. The crew car is where the service mite Insecticons sleep, and switch shifts with one another. Harley’s office is on the second story of the crew car, and the dining car is where food is served. The sleeper car is where passengers can rest, and the passenger cars are where people get on and off. There are 8 passenger cars, and they have a wide variety of seat sizes for Cybertronians of all sizes to wait comfortably. Some seats have wing rests or tire bumpers, and there are earpieces on the wall to listen to music.

Fuel

Sonata needs energon to stay alive, but the train’s movement is fueled by steam. Very little energon is used when Sonata is asleep, and he spends more energon when awake. His engine runs normally while he sleeps, as long as someone is there to conduct for him.

Tech

Over time, Sonata has been required by the district to implement technology to address safety concerns. He now has speakers and cameras in every car and a microphone in the conductor’s room to announce stops. Since Sonata helps protects rogues like Highbeam from Decepticons, security footage is stored locally onto secure hard-drives, not uploaded online.

Radio

Each train seat has an earpiece on a cord that plays from a few channels. One channel is Sonata’s own station, where he or Harley talks about current events and topics with advertisements interspersed. Sometimes they introduce guest speakers.

Sonata’s voice has been described as soothing, and even people at home like to listen to him. Listeners like Sonata’s radio show because he’s eloquent and speaks differently than most Cybertronians. He speaks slowly and in an old Cybertronian steam age accent, which is mostly extinct by now. At times he’s said some outdated things though, which he’s been temporarily taken off the air for. Harley and the crew try their best to educate Sonata with politically appropriate terms. The other two channels are music.

Artist Design Notes

Early Design: Sonata was the first Transformer character I ever designed, and he was inspired by the African millipedes I kept at the time. African millipedes are sometimes also known as "train millipedes," which made me wonder what a millipede-themed train might look like. He was also inspired by the Hearts of Steel Transformers figure series, and the concept art for them.

Electromagnetic Field: Sonata's electromagnetic field has two silver rings with twelve spokes around them. I wanted it to look like a cog, or a wheel on a ship.