Buttz wrote:I know Michael Bay wasn't concerned about continuity or lore or anything like that, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that permanently destroying a spark was a very very very difficult thing to do. Like you'd practically have to blow up a chunk of the planet that the transformer was standing on in order to destroy its spark. Does that mean Jazz didn't really die? If so why didn't Ratchet repair him?
An ordinary spark seems like it can be extinguished if the body takes enough damage(or goes to join the Allspark, though that may be a mute point in the movie), and doesn't get into statis lock. I sort of suspect Jazz's body was just too heavily damaged for stasis to be a possibility. If memory serves, in the original script, Megatron tears out and maybe even devours Jazz's spark. I do think the less brutal demise DOES give them an out to bring him back, though.
Also, Starscream was considered a "mutant" because his spark was indestructible(this was how Beast Wars explained his ghost from Season 1). They created Protoform X, AKA Rampage in order to duplicate it. *Beast Wars spoiler to follow, just in case you haven't seen it...* I think the amount of damage you're thinking of might've been based on how Rampage was finally offed. Depth Charge shoved a piece of raw energon into his chest, and ignited his spark, which caused a massive explosion.
...the sad thing is, all that, yet I can't remember the quadradic formula. =p