The torque converter is a "fluid coupler"
Very simplified, think of one fan facing another fan, if you turn on one fan the air flow will cause the other fan blade to turn, but only if air flow is high enough from the powered fan
The Engine powers the one fan, other fan is connected to transmission input shaft inside the torque converter
When you stop you don't have to take the transmission out of gear because at idle RPMs engine is not "spinning it's fan" fast enough to FORCE the transmission fan blades to spin
As you increase engine RPMs fan spins faster and so transmission fan spins faster, and you start to go/move
But.....................this is a poor way to transfer energy, direct drive, like a manual transmission has, is way more efficient
So torque converters will "lock" both fans together for direct drive at some point, but that point is tricky because it makes changing ratios(gears) in an automatic harsh, not smooth, because its direct drive, like shifting gears in a manual without the clutch, and without RPM matching, lol
So the very first transmission solenoid that was added to vehicles when they had to get computers for Fuel Injection(EFI) was the TCC solenoid, torque converter clutch solenoid
TCC locks and unlocks the "fans" based on speed, engine RPMs and "ratio", and it can unlock to "shift gears" so smooth shifting and then lock again
This drastically improved MPG in automatics, 15MPG jumped to 18MPG because less fan on fan transfer of energy, direct drive was possible much sooner, and could be turned on and off based on driving conditions as computer sees it