I still don't think he actually wanted Optimus to have it: I distinctly heard "take my parts", and the device is notactually integrated into Optimus.
yeah, i heard parts as well, though i have a feeling i heard parts and spark, i cant quite remember...
the reason he ripped his spark out is because 1. Optimus could have used it and 2. by killing himself, he practically forced Optimus' hand. Like, as long as Jetfire was 'alive', Optimus could and would say no, im not going to end your life to improve mine (or something to that effect), but with Jetfire already being dead, the ethical dilemma is removed.
Actually, provided that that thing was his "soul" it would make perfect sense: Jetfire was falling apart, he's been stuck in the air&space museum for years, and he is missing a large portion of his chest area. So, he takes his "soul" out of his decrepit old body, and transplants it into a new one- Optimus Prime's.
It could also be a sort of a thing where the old warrior sacrifices himself to further the cause (like Obi-Wan in Star Wars 4 or 5 whichever it was, he was reaching the end of his effectiveness/usefulness, so he did the last helpful thing he could and distracted Vader while everyone else got away). i dont think Transformers can die of old age, just Energon deprivation. So maybe ripping out his own spark also let him finally die.
in your opinion a heart is a manifestation of a soul - your heart whithers away and dies when you do, so i think your heart is just your heart, not the manifestation of your soul. I believe that i am a soul and in control of the soul that i am, and i get a body. when the body dies, i believe that i'm still a soul and am still in control of the soul that i am
no, in my opinon, if a soul does actually exist, i guess it would reside in the body? Popular culture placed it in the heart specifically. As for the heart degrading an all... well. a house degrades does it not? just because you live in the house, doesnt mean you will die when the house does... unless the roof falls on you... but yeah, i dont think a soul would be connected to the body/heart that way, the body is more like a vessel than a manifestation
AH HA, i figured out why it seemed more like a soul than just a power source. They called it the All Spark right? It creates life? Each Transformer has a spark in his/her chest?
Its a spark of life. Thats what made me picture it as more than just a power source or counterpart for a heart, because a heart is just a pump moving blood around, whereas the spark is what gives the Transformers life in the first instance... idn, its kinda hard to explain...
