Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #19 - "The Divided Self"

[arbre_rieur]

The surprising truth about Ultra Magnus...



Minimus Ambus explains that he wasn't the first person to go by the name Ultra Magnus...







It seems that Star Saber character is something of a famous figure in Cybertronian history. He's infamous as a religious crusader, in the worst sense of that word.



Meanwhile, Chief Justice Tyrest explains to Ambus just what's going on. It all has to do with how new Transformers are made...

Comments

[md84]

So the DJD are a bunch of sadistic loonies who use the Decepticon cause as an excuse to get their kicks while the Autobots' Chief Justice and his staunchest supporters are loonies who think that the younger generation of Transformers all need to die.

If it weren't for the fact that police brutality and such has been a part of Transformers since forever, I'd think that the current writers have issues with authority.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, when even the G1 cartoon has the Cybertronians being, more or less, rebellious household appliances and military hardware, there's too long a history of escaping oppresive authority for this to be new.

[q99]

Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime both stand out as shining positive examples of authority, and the federation of other species (founded to keep the Cybertronian war off their worlds) seems alright too.

So it's not like authority is *just* bad. There's bad authorities and good ones.

[md84]

Optimus was a shining example. Until he left Cybertron, using "exile" as an excuse to get some much needed "me" time. Even then, his vacation is being interrupted by that jerk Jhaxius.

[the_phantom]

What? he left because the NAILs didn't want he there, he left so the Autobots could stay on their home planet

[md84]

His internal monologue revealed that he didn't want to be the Autobots' leader anymore. He was sick of being a soldier and wanted a chance to be Orion Pax again. That's why the title of that story was "The Death of Optimus Prime". He even called his departure an act of supreme selfishness.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

He called it being selfish, but come on, this is Prime. He's always been harder on himself than he's ever been on his soldiers. He's like a reverse drill sergeant

[the_phantom]

He just ended a war that he had been fighting for 4 million years!... he's allowed to take some time off.

[sharky_chan]

Also (just my two cents), a big theme from MTMTE is the psychological toll four million years of war has taken on the species. In some ways, that toll is even bigger and more painful for "authorities" who have not only their actions to account for, but the actions of all those beneath them.

While the DJD are almost hilarious in how well-adjusted and enthusiastic they are about their sadism and psychopathy, I find Tyrest more pitiable for his brokenness rather than "super-villain evil." Even if mass genocide is unquestionably evil, he's a much more complicated portrayal than "authority is bad."

[q99]

Ah yes, Jhiaxus. Whatta jerk.


And even aside from Optimus, Dai Atlas isn't too bad, Bumblebee's been a pretty good leader, Senator Shockwave definitely had his good moments, etc..

[kamino_neko]

I don't think Bee was a very good leader.

Even ignoring the Prowl/Screamer/Arcee conspiracy getting away with murder (literally!) under his nose and the lose/lose situation he had with the 'Cons, he failed at the most important job he had as leader - convincing the neutrals to follow him. That Screamer, who everybody in all three factions knows to be a selfish bastard, did a better job of uniting the factions than he did is a pretty screaming indictment of his leadership.

[q99]

Screamer was very much only able to do so only due to Megatron's attack and being able to play on Metalhawk's death.

Metalhawk and others were still reasonably well-disposed to Bee, but he was too caught in fire-fighting and things hit the fan before there was a chance for election or such.

[icon_uk]

I am consistently impressed at how simultaneously convoluted and explicable this series is. References laid down as throwaway remarks issues ago come back and have greater context in meaning, sometimes the bafflegab gets a little OTT, but it's building on solid foundations and the payoffs are great.

"I thought it was an imperative, it was actually a name"... well, that's the sort of thing you have tolearn to deal with in a society where names like Getaway or Runamuk are the norm.

[md84]

It's kind of depressing that even after millions of years of warfare, the problems that started it all -- police brutality and oppressive authority -- are arguably worse than they were before.

[q99]

The weird thing is I'd say they're overall *better*.

The old leadership really sucked. Just ask Zeta Prime.

[md84]

Wow, how bad do you have to be for Starscream to be an improvement?

Edit:

Just looked at the Shadowplay arc again. Yeah, Zeta Prime's tenure really sucked.

[terrykun]

Shadowplay was during Sentinel's time in office, after Nominus' death. Zeta came next.

Sentinel I think was an example of a military commander being unprepared to deal with political station, while Zeta was a more straight example of he who fights monsters. The Decepticon situation got worse once he succumbed to senatorial pressure to enforce the caste system

[icon_uk]

And the psych conversion thingies that happened, like the mildly rebellious Senator who got turned into Shockwave... talk about a punishment regime coming back to bite you on the ass! (If they y'know... had teeth... or asses worth writing home about)

[md84]

Ack, my mistake.

[q99]

Of the Pre-Optimus primes, Nova was involved in unethical experiments although also an expansion/exploration program (finally leaving with the first arc due to scandal from backing Jhiaxus's experiments such as the creation of the first combiner who was insane. Still, not near the worst, for most bots this wasn't a horrible era), Nominus set up an apartheid (wherein there's division based not only by construction method- either the old forged method or made using Nova's 'spark splicing' method, but also on one's transformation mode, including the 'disposable caste'), Sentinel was just heavy-handed and a pawn for the corrupt senate interested only in their own power, and Zeta believed the way to deal with growing unrest was to... well, you saw Shadowplay? That's got *nothing* on what he does in Autocracy, Shadowplay is before he really gets out of hand.


So yea, two of them were *way* worse than Starscream, and two more weren't exactly great in themselves.

[md84]

Man, no wonder Megatron was able to gather so much support for his cause.

[q99]

Yes. It's been brought up that, while the Decepticons were bad, the old system *needed* taking down.

[beoweasel]

So, they killed off Ultra Magnus again? I liked Minimus-Mags! D:

[q99]

I know! D:


Though I have a suspicion that the armor is going to be re-activating, and I think I know on who.

[beoweasel]

Yeeeah, I'm starting to guess who it might be too.

Gods, I want to punch Tyrest in the face, AND Pharma.

Poor, poor Ambulon.

[q99]

I really liked Ambulon :(

He was a leg and a doctor!

[sharky_chan]

It won't be the same if it's not Minimus inside :(. Who's going to be Verity's uncle now? *sob*.

[q99]

Prowl?

[sharky_chan]

I'm...just gonna keep sobbing over here :Pb.

[skemono]

Okay, he crushed Minimus Ambus's head, but the 'stache survived, right? ...right??

[q99]

No! D: D:

[skemono]

*Darth Vader yell*

[the_phantom]

Star Saber going from Autobot leader (Japenese G1 cartoon) to being a religious nut... makes a lot of sense! Why? Well Star Saber is not just a name of a bot... its the name of a weapon (The Sword of Primus). So if a Transformer names themselves "Star Saber" which is the "Sword of God" they're gonna be on the nutty religious side of things.

[ozaline]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBOLauLIU94

"Did Star Saber ever wet the bed and get scolded?" NO STAR SABER IS THE WILL OF PRIMUS, die heretic!

Sorry just the first mental image that popped into my head at the idea of Star Saber being a Religious crusader type.

[starwolf_oakley]

A post from a while back had Megatron talking with Optimus Prime about how the old government of Cybertron was literally social engineering, with form deciding function. The problem was, Megatron had so much hate over being forced to work in the mines he eventually became genocidal.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3526918.html#cutid1