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- Sari Sumdac is a human from the Transformers Animated franchise.
Daddies, don't let your babies grow up to be Kiss Players.
Sari Sumdac, the daughter of robotics genius Isaac Sumdac, doesn't get out much. She spends all her time within her father's laboratories, receiving her education from robots. Despite this, she doesn't seem like a shut-in. She's curious, excitable, adventurous, and knows that crying can sometimes get her what she wants. She just doesn't know what it's like to be around other kids. Fortunately, she has Bumblebee and Bulkhead to help with that, and she claims that Bee is the best friend she's ever had. In fact, she's become very possessive of all her robotic friends.
The key around her neck has miraculous powers from the AllSpark, but her guardian, the robotic dog Sparkplug, thinks it's just another chew toy.
- "If the AllSpark chose you, it must have had a good reason."
- ―Optimus Prime[["Megatron Rising - Part 2"| [src]]]
Fiction
Animated cartoon
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- Voice actor: Tara Strong (English), Tanja Schmitz (German)
Yūki Ōshima is drooling as we speak.
When her pet robot dog, Sparkplug, stole her security key card, Sari chased it outside and was confronted by Bumblebee and Bulkhead, who spoke to her as if she were Sparkplug's pet. Naturally, she freaked out, but quickly befriended Bumblebee once he saved her from a giant bug that had grown from her father's nanite experiment gone awry. Stowing away on Bumblebee and coming aboard the Autobots' ship, she came across the AllSpark, which infused part of its power into her security key. This allowed her to heal Transformers, such as the injured Prowl, earning her brownie points with the 'Bots. She also managed to talk the police down from shooting the Autobots, saying they were friendly (except Ratchet, who was grumpy, but not evil). Sari later helped teach the Autobots about Earth and humans, explaining their method reproduction to a very startled Optimus Prime.
Prime was never the same after this.
During the unveiling of her father's new transit system, Starscream arrived and attacked. Bumblebee took a shot meant for Sari, allowing Starscream to capture him, Professor Sumdac, the Mayor, and Captain Fanzone. Sari came up with the idea to distract Starscream while she and Prowl rescued the others (even faking some tears to make it happen). Her key later saved Optimus Prime's life when she used it to revive his spark. Transform and Roll Out!
Sari would go on to be Bumblebee's usual partner in crime, encouraging him to engage in such questionable activities as high-profile wrestling matches Total Meltdown and installing rocket boosters to make him go faster. Nanosec Sari likely hangs out with Bumblebee because she knows she can scare the holy beprimus out of him. Along Came a Spider
Trivia: Transformers used to look like this.
On Sari's eighth birthday, the only other kids who turned up were the children of her dad's employees. None of them really wanted to be there and soon focused their attention on the Autobots. Sari was left alone and shunned along with Bulkhead, both morose that the kids didn't like them. Her father's present, a music robot called Soundwave, cheered her up, and she soon began neglecting her friendship with Bulkhead in favour of her new toy. Repeated uses of her AllSpark Key turned Soundwave into a malevolent, sentient being who tried to enslave Humanity, and she learnt she'd been wrong to ignore her friend. Sound and Fury
When the Decepticons Blitzwing and Lugnut arrived on Earth, the two Decepticons manhandled the Autobots. Although they survived, it made apparent the fact that more would come looking for the AllSpark, so the Autobots decided to repair their ship and leave Earth. Sari's reaction to this was displeasure (in the form of a high pitch shout of NO!). However, they needed Sari's key to assist Ratchet in repairing the ship. Sari was unwilling to help them leave, nor was she pleased to work with a grouch like Ratchet (who was not that keen on working with a protoform), but they managed to get her to the ship. While alone with the AllSpark, Sari decided to try and sabotage the ship, thereby keeping the Autobots on Earth (and dooming her species to enslavement and/or extinction) but the key repaired the damage. After that, the AllSpark showed her an image of a giant Transformer. In her panic, Sari opened the air lock, nearly drowning, but Ratchet saved her. Ratchet then explained that they were leaving because they couldn't risk anything happening to Earth or her. Swayed by his compassion, Sari used her key to reactivate the Autobot ship's decommissioned weapons, reducing Blitzwing and Lugnut to pieces. Lost and Found
Eventually, Optimus Prime decided that the AllSpark key was no longer safe in Sari's hands, and he ordered Ratchet to take it from her. Distraught, Sari ran off crying, only to be captured later by Blackarachnia, who was looking for the key herself. Sari basically told her "too little, too late," and the two seemed to have a heart-to-heart about their gripes with the Autobots. Megatron Rising - Part 1
While Sari was actually misleading Blackarachnia in circles around the frozen Lake Erie, she was grabbed by Ratchet as he brought the Autobots' ship out of the lake. She was ticked that Ratchet had lost her key and that her dad had helped rebuild Megatron, but the blame game ceased after the ship crashed on Dinobot Island. Prime told the Sumdacs to stay with the ship while they went to fight off Megatron. Fearing that they might die, Isaac Sumdac said that there was something that he needed to tell Sari, but she was more interested in finding something else the AllSpark could charge. The AllSpark refused to respond, other than cryptically displaying an image of a DNA strand. Suddenly, Megatron and Prime burst through the hull of the ship, and during their fight, the key once again fell into her hands. Sari tossed it to Optimus Prime, who used the key destroy the AllSpark and disperse its energy. Acknowledging that he had been wrong in taking from her, Optimus Prime gave the key back to Sari, saying that as the most powerful Cybertronian artifact on Earth, it was too important to be left in the hands of an Autobot.
Unfortunately, all was not well, for Sari could not find her dad...as he was now a prisoner of Megatron. Megatron Rising - Part 2
The tide has turned!
After her father's disappearance, Sari took over running Sumdac Systems. Board chairman Porter C. Powell opposed her, saying that she was too young and wasting company resources searching for her father. When the Cybertron Elite Guard arrived, Sari was cut off from the Autobots and her only source of emotional support. She soon needed them, as police drones coming out of a Sumdac assembly line began to malfunction, and Powell was unwilling to do anything about it. Sneaking aboard the Elite Guard ship, Sari put the fear of god into Jazz before Bulkhead explained that Sari was okay (and Bumblebee explained that Sentinel Prime was a jerk). With Optimus, Prowl, and Jazz's help, Sari managed to get into the plant's assembly line and shut down the systems. When she returned home, she found that she had been locked out of her office, as Powell was now CEO and Chairman of Sumdac Systems. Insisting that it was still her company, Sari was shocked when Powell revealed that she had no birth certificate, no adoption papers, and no social security number. Powell's smug revelation made Sari realize that not only was there no proof that she was Sumdac's daughter, there was no legal proof she even existed. The Elite Guard
After that, Powell kicked Sari out of Sumdac Tower, took Tutor Bot and Sparkplug, and gave her room to Henry Masterson as an office. With nowhere else to go, she went to Autobot HQ. Bumblebee and Bulkhead tried their best to cheer her up, employing such methods as loud music, inedible food, and unedifying teaching lesson. All they did was make things worse. Eventually, Prowl put the two bots in their place and told them to listen to her. Sari opened up about all her frustrations, such as her missing father, being kicked out of her home, her fear of Powell ruining her father's company, and the fact that there was no record of her existence. Bumblebee promised that they were there for her, no matter what, and Sari finally started to feel a little better. The Return of the Headmaster
And then Ultra Magnus decided that the Autobots couldn't be there for her, as the Decepticons had begun attacking the fringes of Autobot space, so Prime's crew were needed elsewhere. The Autobots decided that Captain Fanzone was the best human with whom to leave her. (Granted, their list of known humans was rather short and included Prometheus Black and Nanosec.) Before anything close to adoption could occur, they managed to convince Magnus that there were Decepticons on Earth (mostly because Starscream fell out of the sky and landed about ten feet in front of them), allowing them to stay on planet. Mission Accomplished
Sari amused herself after settling in with the Autobots by hooking up illegal satellite TV, which she used to watch pay-per-view races. (The races were also illegal, as the Autobots found out from Fanzone.) When Bumblebee wanted to join the races to compete against a mysterious blue car, Sari came along with him. Sari discovered that man in charge of the races, Master Disaster, had a remote control containing an AllSpark fragment, which he used to control the blue car. Blitzwing showed up to take the fragment, so and Bumblebee had to run for their lives. Eventually, she used the remote to get rid of Blitzwing, allowing the Autobots to get the AllSpark fragment. After that, Bumblebee severed her satellite connection, saying that he had to set a better example for her. Sari advised him not to try too hard, or she wouldn't recognize him. Velocity
Don't mess the 'do.
Sari was awakened from her night's rest by the loud cavorting of the Constructobots. A game of flattened-oil-barrel frisbee severed her trademark pigtails, which left her none too pleased. Rise of the Constructicons Subsequently she proved that she was still more mature than Bumblebee in a number of ways, warning him off of taking on villains solo just to prove a point. Sadly he wouldn't realize this until the Decepticon behind the villains' success, Swindle was revealed. By then it was too late, and she had to team up with those same villains to take his immobilized chassis to Sumdac Tower. Alarmed that the receptionist robot was now declaring it to be Powell Tower, she utilized her key to rectify that little situation before heading off and successfully disabling Swindle's technology jamming device. SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy
 Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details for Sari, No One's Home follow. |
A while after, Prowl and Sari were honing their agility using the factory's old assembly line. Sari claimed she could complete the exercise at full speed, like Prowl, but it was set to a quarter-speed, which proved to be too much for her at that and got a massive whack upside the head for her pains. After the Autobots discovered the return of the Constructicons (Animated), Sari was left at the base at the command of Optimus, who told reminded her that they had almost decapitated her Rise of the Constructicons|the last time they met]]. Also, he doubted she would be able to take on a pair of two-story robots. At first Sari sulked at her situation, before realizing that she was completely alone in the base and did what any eight-year-old kid would do in an abandoned factory: raid the vending machines, use cranes as miniature G-force slings and try to take on Prowl's obstacle course at full speed (which went as well as last time).
They're here to kick aft and drink oil. And they're all out of oil.
While listening to her music, Sari failed to notice the alarms going off, which heralded the invasion of the Constructicons who were looking for a drink. After the two louts accidentally crush her cell phone and leave her with the option of sneaking to the communications room to call the Autobots for help, Sari decides to take on the two bots using her trusty hockey stick (which shatters soon after she strikes them with it). She escapes and makes it to the communication room, contacting Bumblebee who tells her to hide and wait until they finish fighting off the recently appeared Blitzwing, who was also looking for the Constucticons. Sari concludes that it will be too long and sets up a trap for the two invaders, using three barrels of oil to trip them up and the plant's assembly line to knock them around for a while, forcing Mixmaster and Scrapper to flee. The Autobots return to find the place in ruins, but Sari shows them that she's alright. Optimus both apologizes for his previous comments and lauds her for her bravery and all is well for Sari. Now if she could just explain away the mountain of candy wrappers Optimus discovered... Sari, No One's Home
Trivia
NOT show accurate.
- A promotional image of Sari from the Cartoon Network Transformers Animated press kit showed her with different shoes, a different key design, and a slightly lighter skin tone.
- Unused animation from an early version of the opening credits showed Sari riding a tricycle that transformed into a jetpack. This device has not yet actually appeared in the series.
- Sari's pigtails do not grow back overnight... or do they?
Sari and fans
- Fan reaction to Sari has been mixed—some fans hate her, quite a few love her, and some are neutral. Considering the widespread vitriol heaped upon previous child characters in Transformers shows (e.g., Kicker), that means she's come off reasonably well.
- In contrast, her deus ex machina AllSpark key was initially less popular. However, later episodes in the first season showed it to have potentially disastrous effects when used frivolously (e.g., Soundwave), and hopefully, she will cease using it as the cure for all ills. In early Season 2 the key becomes less of a major plot device and Sari-plus-key is mainly used for quick repairs as the plots swing to revolve more around the Autobots fighting the Decepticons and/or villain of the week.
- Since virtually the première of the show, fans have been speculating whether there is "more than meets the eye" to Sari. Some theorize she could turn out to be a robot, though past events on the show have clearly marked her as at least partially organic (e.g., she deteriorates by anti-organic radiation in "Along Came a Spider", catches a cold in "Nature Calls", sets off the Elite Guard ship's organic contamination alert in "The Elite Guard", and is unaffected by the electronic shutdown weapon in "SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy" ). There is definitely something mysterious going on, though, as hinted by voice actor Tara Strong, who said in an interview that Sari's "entire identity might come as a surprise." In "Megatron Rising - Part 2", Isaac, believing they were both about to die, attempts to tell Sari "something important", only to have her run off before he can continue. Sari then asks the AllSpark why it chose to empower her in the first place, and its "answer" is to project a DNA strand surrounding a blue, glowing orb. In the following episode, "The Elite Guard", we find out that there is no legal documentation of Sari's existence, not even adoption papers, despite Sari's official character profile on the Hasbro website saying she is adopted. Though there is obviously much yet to be divulged, the implication is that there is something strange and unique about Sari. Although the writers gave no indication of what the truth was at a BotCon 2008 panel, they did remark that they were enjoying seeing all the theories about her. At least someone is...