#and the government who arose in its place didn't continue killing people just like they killed the previous government?

[lord-squiggletits]

When I think about it it’s actually kind of weird that JRO retroactively wrote in that around the time Megatron killed Sentinel, he was still trying to convince the populace to be on his side (”trying to convince the populace” as in caring about the people rather than fighting for its own sake as established in Dark Cybertron).

I mean when I think about the fact that Megatron had the entire Senate massacred (bar a few random Senators), that’s not exactly a move that inspires confidence broadly in a population? Maybe I’m coming at it from a privileged perspective but I feel like in any given society, massacring the entire standing government is a move that WOULD appeal to radical elements (aka the people that probably already stood with Megatron), but it would definitely not inspire confidence in the Decepticons to literally anyone else. The Senate being evil or no, a rebel group that kills (or arranges to be killed) the entire standing government body isn’t exactly a group that most people would look at and go “hmm they will definitely stop killing right at this point and they will definitely not continue to use violence as a form of political action and control.”

#squiggposting #jro being on his megatron apologism as usual i suppose #inb4 someone calls me a centrist for this take lmao #can you think of a single event in history where an entire government was murdered #and the government who arose in its place didn't continue killing people just like they killed the previous government? #if you can then please tell me because i'd love to know #i think the only saving grace of this is that there was no actual footage/proof captured of who killed the senate #but also megatron was dueling sentinel in the open and then killed HIM so i feel like it's fairly obvious to the populace #that the decepticons were behind the senate murder even if there's no 'proof' #there's no other political party on cybertron with enough political or military clout to pull off something so ambitious #like idk sure the government is evil and most if not all of them deserved to die #but also straight up murdering a whole government doesn't really prove that you will be a good government in turn you know what i mean #i'm not sure how megatron expected to win the populace of cybertron to his side by demonstrating that he and his followers #primary tactic is violence #it's like okay you destroyed the evil government so what are your plans for like restabilization and creating some sort of mechanism #for representation? the work doesn't just stop with killing people #but if you just straight up kill all of your political opponents... that doesn't really inspire confidence in the ability to rule #given that war is politics and politics requires things like concessions and trials and some sort of you know #not just killing all of your enemies #anyways i do appreciate the added depth to megatron but like #i'm pretty sure that addition to the plot was 100% JRO retconning things to make megatron more sympathetic #i suppose i can buy that at that point in his life megatron viewed such violence AS a way to express his care for the people #but just because that's what he THINKS doesn't mean the rest of the world would see it as such