#and the LL crew are brave heroes and friends making a last stand against evil

[lord-squiggletits]

Bolts upright from my bed

In an AU where Pharma lives the Adaptus thing and comes back on the Lost Light, wouldn't he find out that the crew had to deal with being cornered and nearly killed by the DJD and a bunch of other Decepticons?

And then Pharma could get to be like "oh I see :) you were under threat by the DJD :))) why didn't you just run? Oh you couldn't and had no means of escape? Funny :)))) didn't you call for help? Oh you did right??? And did anyone come???? :)))))) did anyone come in time to save you from the DJD????? DID THEY????? DID YOU JUST CALL FOR HELP AND RUN AWAY AND THE DJD JUST LET YOU GO????? :))))))))))) OH THE DJD BLOCKED COMMUNICATIONS AND HAD YOU SURROUNDED????? OH HOW TRAGIC I GUESS YOU COULDN'T ESCAPE AFTER ALL AND A LOT OF YOUR FRIENDS DIED :)))))))))))))))) AND THE ONLY REASON YOU WON WAS BECAUSE YOU HAD A LOT OF SUPERPOWERFUL FIGHTERS ON YOUR SIDE???? WOW IMAGINE WHAT MIGHT'VE HAPPENED IF YOU HAD NO FRIENDS AND BARELY ANY MILITARY SUPPORT AND THE DJD CAME HUH??? WOW WHAT A RELIEF THAT DIDNT HAPPEN"

-

In other words, I'm pretty much convinced that the reason Pharma is remembered as "the evil cowardly doctor that murdered innocents to save his own skin" instead of "the Autobot that got mindbroken by Tarn into thinking that making a plague and killing everyone was his only way to escape" is because he got introduced before the DJD were established as a pants-shittingly evil and sadistic group of freaks, and unlike Rodimus' crew he didn't have the luxury of being a main character whose thoughts and experiences were shown on screen. Pretty much his reputation as "crazy token evil Autobot" was sealed from MTMTE #5 and by the time MTMTE #50-something brought Dying of the Light, Pharma was a footnote in the story and never got to have this new information about the terror of the DJD factored into his own character.

#squiggposting #pharma apologism #i mean isnt there literally a scene in dying of the light where tarn talks about how drawing out his strike #makes the enemy suffer more from degradation and panic #and megatron says that he wrote the DJD manifesto to be about systematically isolating and tormenting targets b4 actually killing them #and when they send out an SOS its not received until literally weeks later #and pretty much the only reason most of them survived was bc of spark trauma magic #and having a mad scientist that could make super badass upgrades and weapons #but oh when PHARMA doesnt call for help and doesnt run away it's just bc hes evil and cowardly #i mean i know in the text he says that he just wanted to get away with his name cleared but like #how can you look at what the DJD did in future chapters and go oh yeah pharma did what he did #just because hes prideful and didnt want to ask for help or get caught for his misdeeds #like sure that's the only part the narrative shows but that's prolly bc pharma wasnt meant to be that deep #from a doylist view there wouldnt have been room in the story for this random side villain to get a sad backstory #anyways it just really. gets my goat lmao #the difference b/t pharma and the LL crew on necroworld in terms of audience sympathy #was basically just placement in the story and screentime #hence why pharma is just a crazy evil doctor who sucks at being an autobot #and the LL crew are brave heroes and friends making a last stand against evil #good for the LL crew that they could actually fight back but uh. pharma couldnt #abyways sorry for being weird about pharma on main it will happen again