#i wrote this on lunch break so sorry it's so off the cuff klfjsdfs i had like 15 minutes

[decepti-thots]

Hello! So, I had a dream in which instead of Megatron it was Optimus/Orion who joined the Lost Light. And I’ve been thinking about it... how different would everything turn out? Megatron staying on Cybertron and confronting decepticons (because I believe he would have joined the autobots in this AU?? too) and maybe even going to Earth along with Prowl, Arcee and co, his conflict with Starscream (and Windblade?), his conflict with humans after AHM (awkwaaaard), trying to redeem himself but kind of failing (like remember Optimus annexing the Earth?).

And Orion (who may or may not become a co-captain) dealing with his deeds (because he, too, directly or indirectly killed a lot of people), Brainstorm maybe actually trying to kill him instead of Megatron, Rodimus vs. Optimus, Getaway’s conflict with him (he (believed) that he was “worthy” of the Matrix, after all).

There’s just so much that can be explored!

first off, you guys continue to have way cooler dreams than me, and i continue to be jealous.

second of all, i get that you probably meant this from an in-universe perspective, but my brain immediately jumps to 'what if Megatron was in exRiD and Orion was in MTMTE/LL', which tbh is something i have thought about before, haha. the way the storylines on Cybertron vs the LL go is so tied not just to in-universe plot events but also the genres those comics are in and the approaches they take, it's hard for me to imagine without considering that element.

some not-very-connected thoughts i have, given all the above:

barber is a loooot less sentimental than jro about many TF characters. i don't say this as a value judgement, just an observation. in particular, his approach to OP as a Big Iconic Character TM in exRiD is to make OP central to the lives of other characters and explore his impact on them, rather than necessarily making OP a very conventional protagonist. which definitely fits with a ton of what you bring up here, and ESPECIALLY the stuff re: humans on Earth if Megatron was there, rather than off in space. the entire element of what atrocities Megatron committed during the war mostly being towards non-cybertronians by numbers that gets brought up in EC becomes a lot less hypothetical and lot more immediate with Megatron on Earth. i think that's a storyline for Megatron that would have a very ambiguous tone and be a lot more about how other characters feel about him than in MTMTE/LL, where much of the focus comes from his perspective more directly.

i think megatron-prowl would have been a FASCINATING parallel in this context btw. AND megatron-arcee. honestly, i think megatron would have fit into exRiD surprisingly well thematically. arcee, prowl and megatron in IDW all represent different questions about surprisingly similar themes IMO: culpability, change, agency over your circumstances and actions, and exploitation vs. being explioited. and prowl-megatron especially is very personal, and really brings into focus the 'war left every side with dirty bullshit to deal with', versus arcee having been largely uninvovlved and having a very different outsider perspective, so.

by contrast i feel somewhat less enthusiastic about OP in the LL? partly because I am not sure jro is great at committing to IDW OP as flawed. i won't get too into it here because one day i really want to write meta about it, but the backstory jro fleshed out for OP (the 'one good hero cop' stuff we see first in Chaos Theory and then in Shadowplay, etc) has always been one of the weaker parts of phase two for me. also, I don't think OP fits as well into the themes of MTMTE/LL as megs does for exRiD… there's a lot about what it means to make significance in your life when you have become insignificant, but OP never actually becomes insignificant in IDW. he sort of… tries to, and the issue he has is that he fails. imo anyway.

still, there's definitely some interesting possibilities. for a start, the rodimus-OP stuff would be WILD. the chance to really address some of that Autocracy stuff is so tantalizing, and something there was just never room for anywhere else. likewise the Getaway stuff you mention, especially regarding the MTO subtext coming full bore with the guy who approved that for the autobots right there. OP is not just the guy who has the matrix, he's ALSO the guy who approved the program which created getaway AND the guy who presumably approved it being so… you know. awful and a war crime and all that. (i would totally love a version of events where getaway preys on roddy's insecurities re: OP to depose him, only to turn on roddy himself.)

anyway jkfhjss yeah it's very interesting!! i will say, i didn't mention the starscream-windblade stuff because i genuinely am not sure where i think that would go... mostly because there are kind of two versions of those plots in idw and they have, imo, very different starscreams in particular. barber and scott were kind of telling different stories, especially re: that history with starscream, so... idk.

#i wrote this on lunch break so sorry it's so off the cuff klfjsdfs i had like 15 minutes