Matrix Dragon
Well-known member
It's a messy one, to say the least. Back in the 80s, the G1 cartoon had the Decepticons as the military bots that decided to rule the world with an iron fist, and the Autobots were the civilians alt-mode bots that were forced to fight back. The G1 comics had the Decepticons as one of dozens of nations on Cybertron that decided to conquer the world, with the Autobots simply one of the other nations that managed to fight back to some extent.
In the 2000s, especially with Transformers Prime and the IDW comics, they went with a more consistent approach, in that Cybertron had a very repressive caste system, with everyone having their assigned places in society. The IDW comics had religious beliefs called Functionism that insisted your alt-mode dictated your role in society. And when you transformed into mining tools or a vacuum cleaner... In these continuities, Orion Pax and Megatron both initially played a role in taking a stand against a broken system. Megatron was a miner/gladiator, while Orion was a simple archivist/low ranking cop. The difference was that Orion believed the system could be reformed, while Megatron eventually decided it needed to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
I've always been troubled with this approach to some extent, especially since in this day and age, portraying those that are willing to use violence against a broken system as 'falling into endless violence' strikes me as a troublesome attitude that can easily be twisted to dismiss protests.
Amusingly, RWBY actually does portray it somewhat better there, given how Blake's arc in the first five volumes had her dealing with a violent maniac that would steal the movement to satisfy his murder-boner, and yet she's still willing to take up arms against a corrupt government at the end of volume 7, after giving it so many chances to prove her wrong.
That said, with the WFC continuity here...
As for why RWBY fandom makes noise about such things compared to the TF fandom? Too many people made their online reputations hating everything in this show and complaining about it no matter how illogical they might be. Transformers fans have a long history of remembering it's a show about kids toys, and a few... interesting examples of people that treat it too seriously.
In the 2000s, especially with Transformers Prime and the IDW comics, they went with a more consistent approach, in that Cybertron had a very repressive caste system, with everyone having their assigned places in society. The IDW comics had religious beliefs called Functionism that insisted your alt-mode dictated your role in society. And when you transformed into mining tools or a vacuum cleaner... In these continuities, Orion Pax and Megatron both initially played a role in taking a stand against a broken system. Megatron was a miner/gladiator, while Orion was a simple archivist/low ranking cop. The difference was that Orion believed the system could be reformed, while Megatron eventually decided it needed to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
I've always been troubled with this approach to some extent, especially since in this day and age, portraying those that are willing to use violence against a broken system as 'falling into endless violence' strikes me as a troublesome attitude that can easily be twisted to dismiss protests.
Amusingly, RWBY actually does portray it somewhat better there, given how Blake's arc in the first five volumes had her dealing with a violent maniac that would steal the movement to satisfy his murder-boner, and yet she's still willing to take up arms against a corrupt government at the end of volume 7, after giving it so many chances to prove her wrong.
That said, with the WFC continuity here...
We often see Megatron hesitating at moral boundaries, considering them, then proceeding onward regardless. His orders to Shockwave regarding Magnus, then later murdering him, having the virus devastate the planetary networks despite Soundwaves warnings of the damage it would cause to the Decepticons... I can't help but think of Adam once again, with Jetfire and Impactor as something of the Blake of the situation.
As for why RWBY fandom makes noise about such things compared to the TF fandom? Too many people made their online reputations hating everything in this show and complaining about it no matter how illogical they might be. Transformers fans have a long history of remembering it's a show about kids toys, and a few... interesting examples of people that treat it too seriously.