Sari Sumdac

Sari Sumdac is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes. She was first introduced in the Cartoon Network television series Transformers Animated.

Transformers Animated
The eight-year old daughter of Dr. Isaac Sumdac, Sari lived a sheltered life until she befriends the Autobots after they saved her upon their reawakening.

She is the primary source of information regarding Earth and its cultures and customs. The security key card she carries is a key shaped shard of the allspark and becomes a curative spark key after her encounter with the AllSpark, allowing her to heal Transformers. Her key can also detect Cybertronians. She is an intelligent girl, with a mischievous streak, but she also has a kind heart. She cares about her father, who works really hard. Though like most eight-year-olds, she has a fit when things do not go her way, and freaked out at the first sight of Autobots.

In an extended opening sequence, Sari is shown driving a bike which she uses her key to transform into a flight pack; however it does not make an appearance in the series. In the third season episode "Human Error Part 1" a similar pack turns out to be a Christmas present from her father.

At first Sari's only real ability was her "AllSpark-enhanced Key" which she could use to power-up, repair, or upgrade various devices and machines. Sari's Key was extremely useful in repairing injured Autobots (as well as being able to detect All-Spark fragments). However, her reckless and headstrong personality resulted in her using her Key irresponsibly causing all sorts of mishaps. Besides her Key, Sari has shown she is both sly and crafty, allowing her to outsmart both human criminals and even Decepticons. Due to her being the daughter of Professor Sumdac she is in a position to help the Autobots with occasional aid from her father and his company (the Autobots' base is one of her father's abandoned factories).

She also has received some Cybertronian martial arts training from Prowl (in order to better protect herself). She even manages to outsmart and defeat the Constructicons, when they stumbled onto the Autobot's factory home.

After her true nature as a half-human,half-Cybertronian hybrid is first revealed, some of her newfound techno-organic abilities and powers finally awaken. The first is when she angrily "evicts" Porter C. Powell and Henry Masterson from Sumdac Tower, transforming into a semi-robotic state and unleashing an energy shockwave that hurls them into an awaiting elevator. The second time is when she, Professor Sumdac, and Optimus Prime are attacked by the Headmaster (using Starscream's abandoned body); Sari discovers she can channel small white spheres of pure energy into the palms of her hands, allowing her to fire tiny white marble-sized energy spheres. These energy spheres are not very strong and powerful but can still cause minor damage.

Despite her newfound Cybertronian powers and abilities the Autobots still fear for her safety and want her to remain on the sidelines, mainly due to her inexperience with her new powers and abilities. Sari then uses her AllSpark-powered Key to upgrade and modify herself so she could finally fight alongside the Autobots. This causes her to transform and upgrade into a teenage robotic-armored form, also appearing to upgrade her physical appearance, giving her a slightly more teenage body possibly the appearance and exact height of a fourteen-year-old girl. In this new form, she gains several new-and much stronger and more powerful- powers, abilities, weapons and equipment - including energy-based rollerblades, tonfa-like energy blades and an energy-based sledgehammer, similar to Optimus' Battle Axe. Her new form also greatly strengthens and increases her natural abilities to superhuman levels, allowing her to make full use and proficiency of Prowl's Cybertronian martial arts training. In this form, she is shown to be extremely fast, agile, nimble, strong and powerful.

However, due to her inexperience and an overload caused by the energy from her Key, she temporarily loses control of her body. During her rampage, she demonstrates much stronger and more powerful powers and abilities, like firing white energy beams from her tonfa-blades and unleashing massive shockwaves of pure white glowing energy that are quite destructive. Eventually, her body absorbs all of the AllSpark-infused energy from her Key, rendering it completely useless and powerless. Sari's body was unable to contain this energy, forcing her to channel it into anything she touches, causing that object to explode. The Key's energy nearly kills her. However, the Autobots manage to stop her in time. Afterward, it is shown that the physical upgrade appears to be permanent and she now has the physical height and appearance of a fourteen-year-old teenage girl.

At this point in time, Sari shows far greater control over her techno-organic form and her white-colored energy orbs are now much, much larger, being the size of beach balls can now cause much more substantial damage and destruction. She is also immune to Soundwave's mind-control waves, due to her unique techno-organic nature. As of the end of the third season, most of her weapons appear to be unused or inaccessible other than her energy orbs. However she does acquire a new power and ability-Technopathy, the power and ability to scan any machine and determine what is wrong with them and how to fix the problem through physical contact with it.

Sari is unusual among Transformers as her alternate form is an organic human (unlike the Decepticon Pretender Alice, who scanned a human-looking automation).

Animated series
The truth of Sari's origin was revealed in "Transwarped". Professor Sumdac revealed that one day he discovered a "being of liquid metal". Sumdac touched it and passed out. When he awoke he found Sari and adopted her as his daughter.

In the episode "Transform and Roll Out", Sari meets the Autobots when they save her from a giant bug monster accidentally created by her father's company. When she finds the Allspark, her former key is transformed into one which will cure the Autobots. In effect, Sari is also chosen to keep the key.

In "Home Is Where the Spark Is", Sari finds an abandoned factory owned by her father as an inner-city shelter/base of operations for the Autobots so that they can stay there instead of always being on The Autobot ship beneath Lake Erie. She soon becomes fast and good friends with Bumblebee and Bulkhead.

In the episode "Sound and Fury", Sari's new toy musical robot, Soundwave, seems to have an evil streak - and the ability to control other machines - but Bulkhead was the only one who sees it. Under Megatron's command, Soundwave upgrades himself and kidnaps Sari, but is seemingly destroyed by Bulkhead.

In the episode "Survival of the Fittest", Sari is kidnapped by the Dinobots. Prowl and Bulkhead head to a mysterious island to investigate - with a highly suspicious Captain Fanzone on their tail. The orchestrator of these events is revealed to be Meltdown.

In the episode "Nature Calls", Sari, Prowl and Bumblebee get more than they bargained for when they head out to the remote woods to investigate a mysterious Cybertronian energy signal. The signal comes from some mutant barnacles latched on to Megatron's body. Before the barnacles are defeated, they infect Prowl, turning him into a zombie-like Transformer. Prowl ends up scratching Bumblebee somehow and infects him with the barnacles as well. Sari uses the water hose to save them, but later she catches a cold and she, Prowl and Bumblebee go back to the city.

During the two-part first season finale "Megatron Rising", Optimus Prime deeems that it is too dangerous for Sari to possess the Key anymore, and gives it to Ratchet. Ratchet is then attacked by Blitzwing and Lugnut, who steal the key and use it to revive Megatron. Sari meanwhile is captured by Blackarachnia, who also wants the key. Ratchet saves Sari from Blackarachnia's clutches. When Megatron boards the Autobot's ship and absorbs the Allspark, Sari, who manages to regain the key, convinces Optimus to use it on Megatron. The Allspark energy is dispersed, leaving the key - the most powerful Cybertronian artifact on Earth, and far to valuable for any Autobot to possess - back into custody of Sari.

At the end of the episode "The Elite Guard", when Porter C. Powell takes over Sumdac Industries following Prof. Isaac Sumdac's abduction by Megatron, it is revealed that there is no record of Sari existing - no will, no birth certificate, no adoption papers, social security number or any kind of record, whatsoever. She is cast out of Sumdac tower and is forced to move in with the Autobots.

During the episode "Return Of The Headmaster", Bumblebee and Bulkhead try to figure out why Sari has no documentation of being Professor Sumdac's daughter. Bumblebee suggests Sari is an alien while Bulkhead suspects Sari is a robot created by Sumdac. This leads to wondering who is Sari's mother.

In the episode "Sari, No One's Home", Sari is left alone in the Autobot base when the Constructicons Scrapper and Mixmaster stumble onto it. Initially frightened by their presence, Sari uses her key and the factory's assembly line to attack the two, eventually scaring them off.

In a cliffhanger at the end of the second part of season two finale, "A Bridge Too Close", Sari's arm is injured, with the most of the skin peeled back on her elbow, revealing what appears to be damaged, crackling circuitry.

In the three-part episode "Transwarped", Sari is at first angry at her father for not telling her the truth about her unique origin, but forgives him after he tried to protect her from the Headmaster, who has linked to Starscream's body. After the Headmaster is defeated, Prowl reveals that Prof. Sumdac came into contact with a "liquid metal body", which was a Protoform (the base of all technological life on Cybertron). He then explains that when Prof. Sumdac touched the Protoform, his DNA merged with it, resulting in the birth of Sari, a techno-organic (part-human, part-Cybertronian) being. Sari quickly comes to accept her robotic abilities and powers, but the Autobots suggest she take time to learn what her body is truly capable of. When the Autobots leave Sari behind to go and save Bumblebee (who had been swallowed by a rock-like alien), she decides to use her Key to upgrade herself. The Key transforms her into a robotic-teenage form with light blue eyes. After saving Bumblebee, however, the key overloads Sari's systems, causing her to go out of control. She loses control of her body, unleashing powerful energy waves and causing anything she touches to explode. The Autobots try to stop her without hurting her, but she accidentally stabs Bumblebee, critically wounding him. The other Autobots finally manage to remove Sari's key, but discovers that its AllSpark-infused energy had been drained into her. Out of options, Ratchet is forced to use his EMP-Generator on Sari, who pleads with him to stop her no matter what. After he finally manages to stabilize her, she wakes up and apologizes for her recklessness. Her father apologizes for not trusting her to handle the truth.

At the beginning of the episode "Human Error, Part One," Sari is shown to have fully recovered from the EMP blast. She now sports the appearance of a "Techno-organic Teenager" (a permanent result of her recent upgrade), and spent Christmas Eve with her Autobot friends. That morning, her father gives her a Soundwave toy (Powell stole the toy's original design from Sumdac before he was fired in "Transwarped" & marketed them as the must have toy for the holiday season, inadvertently supplying Soundwave with an army of miniature versions of himself) and a scooter which turns into a jet pack (which he likely developed). When she goes to the Autobots to show them her new jetpack, she finds the base empty. She traces their energy signatures to a hidden basement which she was unaware of. Upon further investigation, she finds Soundwave holding the Autobots captive and attempting to reprogram them into Decepticons. After Soundwave is wounded by Sari's energy orb attack, he uses Laserbeak to force her into a retreat, but she swears that she will return to free the Autobots.

In "Human Error, Part Two", realizing that she is no match for Soundwave on her own, Sari heads to Dinobot Island to recruit the help of the Dinobots. Grimlock and Swoop refuse to assist, though Sari does find Scrapper, who has taken Snarl as a pet. She also reluctantly takes up Wreck-Gar's offer for help. Her ragtag team, now dubbed as the 'Substitute Autobots,' engage in battle with Optimus and the other Autobots, now under Soundwave's control. Due to some quick thinking on Sari's part, and Prowl's 'processor-over-matter' capability, the Autobots are freed and Soundwave is defeated, though he escapes capture.

At the beginning of the episode "Decepticon Air," Sari ends the argument between her father and Bulkhead, by recalibrating the Space Bridge they had been working on. Apparently, due to her upgraded form, she is now able to interface and repair any kind of machinery, without the use of her Allspark Key. She also aids in building Prime's rocket pack in "Endgame Part 1." In "Endgame Part 2," Sari accompanies Ratchet, Bumblebee and Bulkhead to the moon in order to rescue Arcee and reactivate Omega Supreme. Her new ability to interface with machinery proves instrumental in restoring Arcee's memories and personality. After the final battle with Megatron and the Omega Supreme clones, Sari accompanies the Autobots to Cybertron, to give the fallen Prowl a proper burial, and to learn of her origins.

Fun Publications
Sari appeared in the 2008 BotCon voice actor play Bee in the City, voiced by Tara Strong. In this story, Prof. Sumdac attempts to create a teleportation system to send the Autobots to Cybertron, but an interaction with Sari's key ends up transporting Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Sari to Transtech Cybertron, where they meet Flareup and are detained by Shockwave. Bumblebee teams up with Beast Wars Megatron to free his comrades, but then must stop the Predacon leader from taking the key for himself. Afterward, the Autobots and Sari return to their own dimension.

Transformers: Timelines (Shattered Glass)
When Isaac Sumdac discovered and touched her protoform in his lab, she absorbed his DNA and attacked him, tearing out his eye. Her violent nature impressed him, and from then on, he raised her in a cage, subjecting her to constant painful experiments and upgrades. After testing the results of AllSpark fragment implantation, her true power was revealed. Now armed with a battle mode, she serves as a slave alongside the Autobots. While she enjoys the destruction and power, she's more of a prankster than truly evil. She hates her "creator" with every fiber of her being, and dreams of the day when she will be free to finish what she started all those years ago.

Shattered Glass Sari was first revealed in two posts on Derrick J. Wyatt's blog, and first officially shown in a special illustration Wyatt created for inclusion in Transformers Generations 2011 Vol. 1.

Transformers: Prime
The character named Miko Nakadai is appearantly based off Animated Sari Sumdac.