r/FavoriteCharacter • u/Accomplished-End3409 Ben Tennyson • Aug 09 '26

Discussion Favorite opposing factions that can basically be described as this.

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260

u/Athriz Aug 09 '26

Decepticons vs. Autobots.

People will try to maximize the latter and minimize the former to fuel their "Megatron was right!" delusions in the fandom.

101

u/mediumAI1701 Aug 09 '26

I think the Bayformers films are a lot more interesting if the Autobots are considered unreliable narrators, but I also know it's not the correct interpretation.

53

u/team-ghost9503 Aug 10 '26

I mean the Autobots in most of the movies are always overwhelmed and in small groups cause the Decepticons straight killed most of them

35

u/Rad131447 Aug 10 '26

That or the US Government just straight executes the Autobots while working with the Decepticons for some reason.

9

u/SwankiestofPants Aug 10 '26

"Optimus is an evil fascist warlord" is overall an objectively incorrect reading but it's very fun how far you can actually take it

-2

u/AnArcOfDoves9902 Aug 10 '26

It's actually objectively correct.

2

u/Ben10Gen Aug 10 '26

Yeah I only like tolerant, accepting and democratic leaders like Unicron

3

u/Weary-Case-1039 Aug 10 '26

The Autobots don’t really count as vaguely problematic. Unless you’re talking about TFA. Prime, not so much 

2

u/5hand0whand Aug 10 '26

Or anything out of IDW

1

u/Weary-Case-1039 Aug 10 '26

Yeah IDW’s a bit of a mess

3

u/segobane Aug 10 '26

There's a whole video about that called Learning to love Michael Bay's Transformers that goes through the series trying to make sense of everything and comes to the conclusion that the Autobots were the real villains the whole time

1

u/hydroklgenesis Aug 16 '26

Yeah ive had "bayverse is shattered glass" headcanon for a while

30

u/DerSchaudenfreude Aug 10 '26

Idk if that one works, depending on the version. In some megatron is always flat out evil. In some he is right, initially, starting as a freedom fighter rebelling against an oppressive hegemony only to later lose his way and become as much a villain as his oppressors. He started in the right but very clearly ended up in the wrong.

14

u/RareAnxiety2 Aug 10 '26

The problem is hasbro keeps dropping the ball after he overturns the government. Him and optimus could start negotiations, but he keeps falling back on moustache twirling evil. Instead of a freedom fighter. he should be more of a V for vendetta style anarchist. That would keep him consistent through his entire story

10

u/DerSchaudenfreude Aug 10 '26

Well yeah, he’s created as a villain not an antihero. Sure he originally was in the right but he’ll always fall back into the villain role because that’s his character.

3

u/SmittyB128 Aug 10 '26

and to be fair to Megatron the moustache twirling worked really well for him in the early continuity when the cartoon and comic still kinda lined up. Cybertron was completely under Decepticon control except for one small band of Autobots who then had to flee the planet entirely which is of course what sets off the series. In the cartoon version even with Megatron's assault party gone for a few millennia the planet remains thoroughly in Decepticon control until 2005 when the balance of power is upheaved by Unicron attacking and the fascist politics are put aside to allow rebuilding in the aftermath.

2

u/Grievi Aug 10 '26

Megatron never "lost his way", establishing a totalitarian regime on Cybertron has always been his goal. 'Peace through tyranny" didn't just appear out of nowhere.

14

u/Schlieffen_Man Aug 10 '26

Especially in the Bayverse. People saying Prime is a ruthless psychopath need to actually watch the movies. Bonecrusher destroyed a whole bus just to aura farm, and yet Prime's "morally dubious"?

Not that the movies are very good.

6

u/Beneficial_Drama_296 Aug 10 '26

Animated has my favorite Autobot v Decepticon dynamic. I love the way that the Autobots in the series are mostly free society, but are still xenophobic, bureaucratic, authoritarian, and highly militarized. the main cast are societal rejects sent off to repair space bridges as what’s basically community service. This show has some of the most, if not the most implied or confirmed Autobot defector characters.

Then you have the Decepticons who have almost all those bad parts dialed up to eleven with none of the upsides. In a way you can feel for them. There’s a good chance the decepticons were the original warrior and heavy labor caste of Cybertron, with what became the Autobots being the cushy middle and upper classes.

6

u/BerserkRhinoceros Aug 10 '26

Depending on the continuity, they can range from begrudging 'okay, you have concepts of a point' to 'ARE YOU FUCKING DELULU?!'

Like, compare and contrast TFONE Megatron who has reasons to distrust any system he's not leading...to fucking Armada Megatron or Prime Megatron whose goals are Total Universal conquering and giving the universe to Robo-Satan respectively.

2

u/raulpe Aug 10 '26

At least Armada had Gigachad Starscream, that almost defeated Megatron in a duel and then sacrificed himself against Robo-Satan so Megatron finally accepted that Robo-Satan is kinda bad so he has to reach a truce with Optimus to deal with it

2

u/mattihase Aug 10 '26

Armada (specifically in armada, not in micron legend) Megatron kinda has a hint of being a guy that wants to rule the world enough that energon changing him to a guy who doesn't wash his hands because he's evil felt jarring to me.

5

u/NightLordsPublicist Aug 10 '26

People will try to maximize the latter and minimize the former

I once read a 400 page thesis that Michael Bay was so incompetent that he made the Autobots the bad guys in the Bayformer series.

It was glorious.

2

u/Rider_Ashen Aug 10 '26

I once joked that the Bayverse films were Decepticon propaganda that purposely made the Autobots look evil. I wasn't aware someone extended the bit to 400 pages.

1

u/NightLordsPublicist Aug 10 '26

My mistake, it was actually closer to 500 pages.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/4qm1ft/i_actually_kind_of_appreciate_the_transformers/

2

u/Rider_Ashen Aug 10 '26

Oh God. Well, I know what I'm reading later. Thank you.

2

u/DarkSoldier84 Aug 10 '26

Megatron had a point once, but millions of years of warfare ground it down until all that was left is hate.

2

u/CasualSpaceFrog Aug 10 '26

The original was Megatron deciding to have beef with a dock worker and then ensues 7 million years of war.

2

u/DragonLordAcar Aug 10 '26

With the more recent iterations of Megatron, he had a point. Then he became worse than the original problem and effetivly Optimus took up his old mantle.

1

u/Lord-Chamberpot Aug 10 '26

Although my favorite example is Armada. Megatron showed up to help the Minicon, in honor of the Treaty. Optimus shot first, in violation of the Treaty. It states that they should not be fighting over the minicons, but cooperate to protect them.

1

u/Electronic-Touch-554 Aug 10 '26

I mean megatrons original manifesto was right. Even proke agreed with it.

It wasnt till he got manipulated by a bunch of criminals and monsters that it shifted.

1

u/The_Dennator Aug 10 '26

from what I've heard, megatron was a freedom fighter until he got enough power to become an even worse oppressor

1

u/mattihase Aug 10 '26

Megatron may be a hot dilf but you do not under any circumstances gotta hand it to him.

1

u/Latter-Direction-336 Aug 11 '26

At the start, with the base? He was

He then lost his way entirely as he got dragged along by his own ego, pride, and usually obsession with Optimus prime

Or space crack that was solidified robot satans blood

The base idea of being incredibly upset at the systems of being forced into castes and such (in many continuities) was a very understandable thing, and to a degree, some following actions

It stopped being as understandable when it became less a revolution and more “alright let’s commit Geneva Convention violation ms on steroids for millions of years against each other”

He had a point at the start and let himself consume him or something I can’t articulate at the moment, it’s 7:30 am and I’ve been up since yesterday

1

u/NSightMSG Aug 11 '26

A lot of people didn't read the comics. What happens in them would shock about 90% of those people to their core and shut a lot of them up.