Transformers: The Lost Light

[Cynical Cat]

You may have a point there, Frig. Optimus was very happy to return to being Orion Pax, if he had the chance. Decepticons, however, were always fighters.

Most origins have a substantial number of the Decepticons being low class civilians. I would say that the Decepticons embrace war while Autobots are largely reluctant fighters (Whirl is an outlier).

[frigidmagi]

Whirl is a Douchebag, who surprisingly on rare occasions does things I have to respect (saving rewind's life for example). Still while I deeply dislike the bot, I have to admit... He likely would have been an okay cluncker if everyone had just left him the fuck alone in his watch shop. I would still push him out an airlock though.

You know the Decepticon's post war are a fucking issue. To be blunt a large number of them are guilty of warcrimes, crimes against Cybertron, etc and can't be left to walk free (looking at you Starscream, Shockwave, etc) some form of punishment/rehabilitation is necessary. Phase Sixers and DJD types I think I would honestly stand up against a wall and shoot them. Bluntly the phase sixers were genocide machines and the DJD exists to torture other cybertronians to death. Yeah, that's right I would try them for torturing other Cons to death and shoot them. Other Decepticons were just though (Deathstrike, Dirge and the scavengers for example) were just soldiers in a war, a war that occured due to society being fucking disfunction to the 9th degree. By the time the Cons became what they were it was really to late for most of them to back out. Plus... Look man, this was a society that okayed pit fights to the death, it's not gonna breed "nice" revolutionaries. Those guys should be allowed to walk.

That said... After 4 million years? Bots and Cons aren't gonna be able to share the same city. A new settlement should be built for them and they should be allowed to govern themselves (after agreeing to a basic charter of rights and such, a Constitution as it were) with oversight to ensure they're not building the New Model Decepticon Army to start up The Great War v2.0 electric boogaloo. Other factions get the same deal. You can live here under an Autobot government or live over there in your own settlement. Each settlement sends a representative to a council of some sorts that decide issues that effect more then one settlement. Everyone agrees no fighting, no slaving, and free movement, you get to pick where you the individual lives. Here's the thing, every bot, con and NAIL has to be promised an equal share of resources. With the massive amount of work ahead, Capitalism simply won't work. You need a working economy for Capitalism. Everything has to be rebuilt from the ground up!

Keeping everyone in a single city simply isn't gonna work, the wounds are to deep and to fresh. Distance and time is required. Alot of it maybe. That said, you can't cage up everyone who was a Decepticon and never let them be normal citizens, because that just lays the seeds for another war. You gotta at some point wipe the slate clean for most of them and let everyone move on. Well almost everyone.

Here's the problem, this solution? Requires an insane amount of backbreaking work and effort and still might not work. There's plenty points for failure. This isn't a great solution, it's simply the best and most moral solution I can come up with. Some of the others include "Kill all cons" which is a nonstarter for moral and practical reasons.

[Dark Silver]

To be fair, there's plenty of AUTOBOTS guilty of War Crimes also - not every Autobot is a Optimus Wanna-be. Prowl himself has manipulated the war effort the entire time - had Perceptor stick Kup in a body, alter his mind, and addicted him to that Cy-gar just so he could pull the strings and control Kup, and through him, a lot of other Autobots (including Springer). There was a entire computer built in the middle of the Autobot Prison Garrus 9 which (aside from judging those who were sent to the Prison for their sentencing) was built to HIDE the evidence of Autobot War Crimes - not only against Decepticons, but against the Universe at large.

The Autobots are not saints here either - at 4 million years of War, it's hard to call either side the good guys. Cyclonus said it best "Both sides wanted change - they just disagreed over the nature, scale and purpose. One side rose up against a corrupt Senate and sought to Emancipate the people. The other side, while superficially oppossed to the ruling elite, were terrified of revolution. They wanted a orderly transition from one system of Government to another - provided they remained in control of course. One side swept across the planet, liberating province after province. The inhabitants were expected to help their liberators overthrow the old order. The other side swaw this as an act of coersion and vowed to kill the Uprising. The Senate fell, the War continued."

From a outside perspective, that's exactly what happened. And you have Autobots like Whirl, who are literally walking WMD's even on Cybertronian scales, who will gleefully murder just for the kicks of it. Then you have Decepticons like Dirge - who believed in what the Decepticons stood for, in the beginning, but just want the killing to end and for their lives to go on.

[frigidmagi]

The Autobots are not saints here either - at 4 million years of War, it's hard to call either side the good guys. Cyclonus said it best "Both sides wanted change - they just disagreed over the nature, scale and purpose. One side rose up against a corrupt Senate and sought to Emancipate the people. The other side, while superficially oppossed to the ruling elite, were terrified of revolution. They wanted a orderly transition from one system of Government to another - provided they remained in control of course. One side swept across the planet, liberating province after province. The inhabitants were expected to help their liberators overthrow the old order. The other side swaw this as an act of coersion and vowed to kill the Uprising. The Senate fell, the War continued."

Yeah, Sorry, but that's utter bullshit. One side had genocide as S.O.P. One side sought out planets that had nothing nothing to do with the war and brought murder and slavery on a planetary scale to them... As their mission statement and the other side tried to stop them. The Autobots punish most of their war criminals. Do they keep it secret? So did the Allies turning world war II. Phase Sixers and the DJD are glorified by Megatron. The Decepticons with the K Class literally turned their own into Cybertronian bombs. Hell to use an example from the comic, the Decepticons were the ones who decided to grab a bunch of unoffending organics and literally melt them down into engeron (aka pink alchemy). Are the Autobots perfect? No, but they don't have to be, to be very recognizable as the good guys. And Cyclonus was peddling a version that was very much not objective. Here's something that has alot more to do with actual history. Let me point something out here. Deathstrike invaded a planet, brutally conquered it and had the population worship him as a God-King. In most settings this makes him the Big Bad! In Transformers... THIS MAKES HIM THE NICE DECEPTICON!

"The Decepticons rose up in response to an oppressive and brutal regime. The Autobots served as the police force, which was heavily corrupt. At first non-violent but in response to the overreaction of the regime forces (note: The Senate had non-Autobot enforcers, Whirl was one of those) became a paramilitary group that quickly embraced terrorism. Megatron went from a bot preaching reform to a bot preaching little more than a change of the elite. His envisioned tyranny state would be at least as oppressive as the Senate Regime. Remember he himself told Prime that his plan would erase freedom from the very language of Cybertron. When the balance of power shifted enough partly due to Autobot mutinies (see Autocracy where Orion Pax SUPERCOP leads his units in an attack on Zeta Prime) the Decepticons moved to open military confrontation. A combination of Autobot mutining units and Decepticon units overthrew the old order. Then the Decepticons turned on their allies and attempted to wipe them out. The Autobots rallied and pushed the cons back. In territories that fell under Decepticon control those who did not enlist were enslaved, much as many of the Decepticons had been. Meanwhile in Autobot territories not only was there no real movement to force enlistment, many Cybertronians were allowed to leave the planet entirely. The war would spread across large chunks of space with the Decepticons attempting to conquer an interstellar empire often by wiping out species and whole ecologies to Cyber-form planets with the Autobots attempting to stop them."

Is it has short? Well no, but shorter versions of history are very often the wrong versions of history.

[Dark Silver]

I'm not saying the Autobots were as evil as the Decepticons - the Decepticons were undoubtedly the bad guys of the story, and complete assholes about it, but I'm also saying the Autobots aren't saints. Their hands are dirty as well.

I just happen to like the IDW view of the War, where things were not always so very clear cut - you had some decent enough Cons, and not every Autobot was a good guy - some where dicks (like Whirl and Pharma) but on the most part, the Autobots where better than the Cons by a country mile or 100.

[frigidmagi]

While I agree that the Autobots aren't saints and even have their share of outright thugs and criminals (any organization does I've found once you get past 20 or 30) the war still remains clear cut. If one side wins hundreds of races are gonna find themselves marked for extinction by giant mechanical warmachines on a crusade because they're organic. If another side wins... You'll never be bothered by them because they just want to go home and dick around on their planet.

For me the damning moment is when Zeta Prime is overthrown. There was a chance for every complaint to be address, for the Cons to be considered heroes and be brought in as part of the power structure but Megatron said fuck that, I don't share power.

[Cynical Cat]

Megatron is cool. Darth Vader is cool. They're both bad guys. Deathstrike can argue the cause well, but the Decepticons are still the bad guys.

And finally the first hug is thrown.

[SirNitram]

Charismatic villains are best villains. Just because you can sympathize or agree with them on points, doesn't stop them being villains. It just makes them /fucking compelling/ ones.

[Dark Silver]

Had a surprise call out for a job last night.

I'll get a GM post up in a day or two.

Just a heads up - the GM post will be a few more NPC introductions and the launch of the Lost Light. Just so ya'll know what's happening. I suggest finding Habitat Suites.

[LadyTevar]

So.. how'd Outrunner reach the bridge? LOL!

[Cynical Cat]

So.. how'd Outrunner reach the bridge? LOL!

By driving at ludicrous speeds through narrow hallways? Besides Magnus had time to go from the embarkation ramp to the bridge so Outrunner had time to do a loop around the ship and then reach the bridge first.

[Dark Silver]

It was a small bit of a time-skip, a few hours, (maybe I didn't make it clear enough, if so, my apologies).

[LadyTevar]

I'm trying to play Pathfinder as warring with his long-time respect/hatred of Deathstrike as a enemy with the current situation of Deathstrike as a de-fanged, multilated, prisoner in a joke of a body. It's not helping that Deathstrike's kept most of his dignity.

let me know if I'm getting that across.

[Hotfoot]

I now present to you Hornet's art project for the duration of the trip....

Transformation is Magic

You're welcome.

[General Havoc]

I now present to you Hornet's art project for the duration of the trip....

Transformation is Magic

You're welcome.

This just in: Hotfoot is an asshole.

That is all.

[frigidmagi]

Tev, Hornet is 10ft tall. Stop calling him a mincon, he's about the same size as Bots like Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.

[General Havoc]

Well... he's a only a little shorter than Bumblebee, but Bumblebee's considerably stouter and sturdier than Hornet is. He's fairly wiry and on the lighter side, even relative to his size.

[Dark Silver]

I'll be putting a GM post up soon, sorry guys. Got home from a job Sunday, and Mom went into the hospital yesterday.

I'll get around ASAP, I promise. Just running around at the moment RL.

[LadyTevar]

Sorry, Hornet

[General Havoc]

Sorry, Hornet

...

Is... there something I should know?

[Dark Silver]

I feel so so sorry for Breakout and Pathfinder.....

[LadyTevar]

Between Hornet and Swerve, its' going to be an Interesting Time. *sigh*

[General Havoc]

"I hate being short. I'll be back in a minute or two."

HORNET IS PLAYING YOU THE SMALLEST VIOLIN!

[Dark Silver]

And since it's in hornets hands, you know it's gotta be a small violin.

[LadyTevar]

**POKE POKE POKE***
RP ya rusted-out clanks!