#TFP was great but they had wasted potentials scattered about

[mann-walter]

I want to start this off by saying that I’m a big fan of Optimus Prime and Transformers; Prime as a whole. I loved them then, I love them now. But there is something that tickles me until today about the two. Yes, this is where I’ll be discussing what I hate most about the series in general and Optimus in particular: his lack of action against Megatron.

For all of us that have watched Prime in its entirety or majority, it became clear rather quickly that Optimus was cast as this saintly model all creatures should be striving for and should admire. He was wise and refrained from frivolity, calm even in the toughest of times, brave, selfless, strong, gentle, and forgiving. On the surface, one might conclude that his only fault was mortality.

But what if I tell you that all of these qualities, in certain times, can turn into deadly vices?

Now, after you’ve accustomed yourself to the show, I think you’d notice another thing about Optimus: why hasn’t he tried to kill Megatron?

We know that most of his decisions were built upon ideals: that violent resolutions should be a last resort, that death is unconscionable, that every being deserves a second chance, and that everyone has the capability to change. But, apparently Optimus had never heard that there is a season for everything. There’s a time to kill and a time not to. With Megatron, it certainly was a time to kill. Not out of revenge, but in order to prevent more destruction, to protect those that can’t fight for themselves.

It is darkly funny actually that after eons of war, after Megatron had made a living hell for so many Cybertronians (the only group of people Optimus is legally obligated to protect), committed so many crimes, he’d be swinging so many times if he were a human, Optimus decided he had had enough and was now out for blood because Megatron unintentionally (although he was all jolly about it) hurt a human boy. It’s actually a very interesting aspect of his character, how he held on to his ideals so tightly that he’d sacrifice so many lives for it. Alas, it was never acknowledged as such by the writers. There actually were dissenting opinions in-universe, usually coming from Ratchet—and weren’t they very valid points—but at the end Optimus was always portrayed as the correct one, that his decisions were all good.

Speaking of Optimus and his ideals, I now really wish they had ventured into those darker implications of Optimus stubbornly, even fanatically, holding on to them. It could’ve been a really great nuance to his character: sometimes, a hero’s sins can have roots in his own goodness.

#I wish they had explored that!!! #TFP was great but they had wasted potentials scattered about #I heard that RID had the Decepticon's ruling Cybertron after the war and there they revised the war's history #Making Optimus out as the responsible party for Cybertron's destrcution #Only thing is there is truth in that and many Cybertronians I believe feel that way #But ehhh it was a kid show #I heard they made the population brainwashed or something #tfp optimus prime #tfp megatron #tfp autobots #tfp decepticons #tfp #transformers; prime #Cybertron #Transformers #transformers aligned continuity #character analysis #Mann Walter

[saltysaltdog]

As a Megatron (aligned/tfp) fan, I have to say, I'm not a big fan of fics where Megatron beats up Starscream for literally no reason.

Yes, Megatron is completely unhinged, but he's not a monster. He's a paranoid drug addict who jumps to the worst conclusions and uses that to justify violence.

(Which, admittedly, with enough imagination any situation requires violence.)

People make fun of him for shoving the Nemesis full of Dark Energon, but what was the alternative? The autobots had the spark extracter (he knew this, they stole it from him) and the Nemesis couldn't hide itself. If he didn't, everyone would die. The only alternative would be calling for everyone to evacuate, leaving however many dead with no centralized system to contact other bases, no ground bridge, no maps, with all his forces scattered, leading to more deaths from starvation or autobot intervention. So you know, only most of them die. Not a great alternative, right?

Megatron has an order to his violence.

Don't kill if you can maim.

Don't maim if you can hurt.

Don't hurt if you can threaten.

Don't threaten if you can manipulate.

And don't manipulate if you can just order it.

As Megatron is always intimidating it's hard to tell what is him threatening or just being him, but there are hints. The first stages we can mainly only see with Orion. After successful manipulation Megatron reverts to ordering him around, when manipulation fails he resorts to threats, and then those fail he resorts to physical violence.

With Starscream we see the higher end. After Starscream gets beaten for attempted murder, he continues to plot, leading Megatron to escalate to murder. With Starscream under a rock pleading for help and claiming he came to rescue Megatron it bumps with his scaling because (attempted) murder worked, now starscream is at (potential) maiming (bc of the rock), and letting him squirm is causing him pain (hurt).

Completely unintentionally Starscream has bumped himself back down into threaten territory as soon as Megatron saves him.

You can also see this with "Thirst". Megatron threatens the pair, starscream lies, Megatron escalates to hurting him.

However, I did imply Megatron has an actual reason for violence, and in this case he does. 1) Half his fighting force is dead. But not just that, because, well, war. Bad decisions getting lots of people killed happens all the time. It can't just be that. 2) the other half of it had to murder their own friends/coworkers. And that... that's a bit harder to fix. Assuming the worst case scenario: the vehicons lynch those responsible, they then go on to become more rebellious bc Starscream and Knockout are dead, leading to wasted time and the decepticons lose the war and everything sucks for them forever.

With that as our worst case, if beating the absolute hell out of someone saves them from dying Megatron will do it. So he does. Ideally the vehicons will be manipulated into thinking "slag, I couldn't beat up screamer that bad" and will return to following orders, forgetting the fact Knockout is right there and just as culpable. Knockout of course has to repair the vehicons and will regain thier goodwill that way.

In the other three occasions of death the Megatron scale of violence doesn't work so well but eh, nothing's perfect.

Dreadwing. Worst case scenario: Dreadwing knows everything. He is no longer loyal and is about to murder Starscream. He will betray the decepticons to the autobots and ruin everything forever. vs. Starscream has done something else to piss off Dreadwing and is tricking Megatron into killing him.

No contest, Dreadwing living has the worst potential outcome, he dies.

Airachnid. She's already abandoned the decepticons once before and suggested leaving him to die. Worst case scenario: Airachnid sabotaged the equipment that indicated Megatron was alive because she wants to take over herself. She's going to take all the decepticons off earth and leave Megatron to die. May or may not try to fight the autobots and just become a band of pirates. Autobots win the war, bad times forever.

Kill the spider.

Random flightless vehicon. Accidentally thought he was a flier, turns out he's a car.

Megatron apparently feels bad enough about this he starts painting the fliers silver/allowing alternate colour set ups.

Postscript: The exception is Optimus prime. I ain't touching that one.

#Megatron #transformers #maccadam #character study #transformers prime #tfp