Orion Pax and D-16 Are Dead and Gone and Nobody Even Cares
Nobody who created the film cares that D-16 is gone... they just want to replace him with Elita, Bee, and the Autobots.
They don't want people to feel the true weight of D-16's loss. They want to fool themselves and everybody else.
They just want Elita and Bee to replace the place that Dee had in Optimus' heart and separate them further to return to the sort of status quo of Transformers to attract old audiences...
Even Bryan Tyree Henry said he wants to see Megatron's descent into the dark side. He doesn't want a world where D-16 can stay as D-16. None of the people who worked on the film do… not really.
I bet Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Kegan Michael Key, Lawrence Fishburne, Evan Michael Lee, and everybody else have long since disowned D-16 and don't see him as family anymore, don't want him back. Everyone has.
But... here's the thing... I don't think the TF1 version of the Transformers stories can go back to the status quo even if it wanted to. At least not to the entire extent.
As a non-Transformers fan, I don't think most people, fans, and non-fans alike, realize just how much Optimus has lost, just how much Elita, Bee, and the cogless bots have lost after Megatron and the high-guard turned to the dark side.
The Cybertronian folk have done this countless times before for 40 years. Even with Transformers One, where Optimus and Megatron start off as friends, and them, Elita, and Bee as a chaotic, dysfunctional little family, with it all being a tragedy... people have seemed to take for granted this fleeting moment of beauty. Some people don't even think D-16 was good to begin with, was always bad, and that Optimus, Elita, and Bee are better off without him... It's almost like they want an eternal war to happen.
But... as a non-Transformers fan... as an outsider to all this... this isn't something someone should want.
TF fans, however jokingly, or genuinely, call it a story of how two shapeshifting robot husbands went through such a painful and messy divorce that they made it everyone else's problem, except here, it's actually true! And I think that premise, that idea, is... far more disturbing than people give credit for.
When I came into this film, I knew Megatron was gonna turn to the dark side since he's the villain of the franchise. I once accepted it. Now... now I can't... I knew Optimus and Megatron were going to become enemies. Now I desperately wish for them to be friends again. I knew Megatron was going to leave them, that it would just be Optimus, Elita, and Bee by the end... but any time I see such, it just feels... incomplete. Like a broken family. And I miss all four of them together so badly. I want to see them get back together so much, or at least miss each other.
It's like I just want to go home... but I don't have a home to go back to.
If a sequel ever does come... It'll be so hard to adjust without Megatron being there with Optimus, Elita, and Bee. I know that for the others, fans and even non-fans it'll be easy... they're used to it. For them, it's the same as it ever was. But for me, and for I think to that extent, the Autobots... it'll never be the same. Things are never going to be the way that they should be.
The fans are too used to the endless cycle of death and despair... uncomfortably comfortable.
Everyone is used to Optimus Prime and Megatron becoming enemies, the Autobots and Decepticons fighting... The reason behind them fighting may change, Optimus and Megatron's relationship before them becoming enemies and even meeting may change... and sometimes the war is necessary, or at least worthwhile. Like the Michael Bay stories, where the Decepticons caused the most heinous war crimes against the earth folk, leading Optimus and the Autbobots having to fight, not with honor or mercy, but having to fight hard and dirty, even kill. But in Transformers One, this time... this time is not like those stories.
Megatron is a good person who does bad things... He wanted to bring justice his fellow cogless bots and right the wrongs done on Cybertron. Both he and Optimus Prime equally wanted it, except one of them was actually qualified for it. He's not evil, he's mentally ill, and he never got the help that he needed. Just like the Autobots, the Decepticons also wanted to do good and save their world, but have clearly lost their way and never got the help or guidance they truly needed. They're going to fight an eternal war... and all for what?
There's also the fact that in the Michael Bay films, as well as other stories like the Transformers Prime stories, Optimus and Megatron started out as friends, making this war personal. But here, not only is it truly shown and not just told... Not only was Optimus friends with Megatron... Elita was friends with him, Bee was friends with him... the cogless bots were friends with him. If this war is really going to happen... then not only will this war be personal for Optimus... it'll be personal for Elita... for Bee... and even the Autobots to a certain extent.
I mean, really stop and think about it. Optimus Prime and Megatron, two best friends who love each other very much, have become enemies because they don't understand each other and can't communicate for shit. The mining bots have just lost one of their brothers-in-arms and they have a knew enemy who could strike at any time... one of their other brothers-in-arms, their new leader, is a husk of who he once was... and there's Quintessons about. That alone is bad enough. But imagine, they're grieving, however much time has passed, and not only their lost brother is back, but it's gotten to the point where it's a full on war... and they realize that things are never going to be the way that they should be...
I understand completely why Primus gave Optimus the Matrix, why he became a Prime, and I'm glad that at least he's still good... but... when you look at Megatron and why he turned to the dark side, and the Decepticons and how they never got the help they really needed, and the situation in its entirety... Optimus becoming a Prime isn't something someone should want. At least not like this. And the same goes for Megatron becoming evil. And them becoming enemies and making it everybody else's problem.
All that war... all that death... all that despair... won't fix anything!
There is, indeed, a world where D-16 could've stayed as D-16... or at least a world where Megatron can turn back into D-16. But only if the fans and the creators of TF1 really truly want it. I don't know if we'll ever get a trilogy or even a sequel for the Transformers One stories... but people should really take the time to really think about what it is they actually want if such does come to be.
If they really want Optimus Prime to be human which means being pushed past the breaking point, losing his kindness and hopefulness for a good reason, having undesirable human traits, and actually showing human emotions, or if they really want him to be a paragon, beyond all forms of corruption, being kind and hopeful even when it conflicts with reality, having only desirable human traits, and smiling through the pain.
If they really want Megatron to get better, atone for his sins and become good again, or to get worse, and descend into the dark side to the point where he becomes irredeemable.
If they really want a world where D-16 can stay as D-16, where Optimus and Megatron become friends again and truly unify Cybertron together, and break the cycle for good (or at least in the TF1 stories), or to return to the same old scenario of the divorced robot husbands fighting an eternal war, the idea of a unified Cybertron a myth, forever damned to repeat the same cycle of war, death, and despair in every new installment of Transformers for all of eternity.
If the Transformers fans and the creators really truly want a world where D-16 can stay as D-16, or at least just a darker, more nuanced and complex version of Optimus Prime and Megatron, of the Autobots and Decepticons, and of an eternal war in any possible Transformers One stories yet to come... well... they may have to abandon the idea of the status quo, or at least certain parts of it...
Because... in this version of the story...
...they're all going to burn! They're all going to die!!! THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!!!!!
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
origamiaround
pixelskylines
amandla
