In Siege, the first part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, Optimus Prime is a deeply flawed character–and an absolutely terrible leader. Even as the first episode of the trilogy begins, the war is already lost. Megatron’s offering of amnesty to all remaining Autobots is about the best end to the war anyone could hope for at that point. Unfortunately, Optimus refuses to stop fighting.
Hoping to end the war quickly, Megatron latches onto increasingly immoral plans and Optimus ends up sending the AllSpark–the living soul of Cybertron and source of all Transformer life–through a random wormhole to keep it out of Megatron’s hands. But, as we see in Earthrise, this act all but dooms the planet and everyone on it. Already pushed to its limits by the war, Cybertron is no longer capable of supporting Transformer life without the assistance of the AllSpark.
In Earthrise, Megatron continues down the slippery slope of evil. Back in Seige, he kept escalating–breaking his moral code time and time again–due to Shockwave’s repeated promises that this one last evil thing would bring peace to his people so they could begin rebuilding. However, after the final battle of Siege, rebuilding is impossible. His people are impoverished, starving, and stranded on a dying world.
Their only hope is to build a ship and escape the planet. Of course, if they don’t have the energy to feed themselves, building and powering a giant spaceship is all but impossible. However, there is one untapped power source on the planet, the robotic souls of the Transformers themselves. So first Megatron orders the deaths of all captured Autobots–and when that proves to not be enough, any non-essential Decepticons are harvested for their energy as well.
While horrible, this pragmatic plan does end up working. The ship is completed and the Decepticons are free to leave their dying world to begin again. Hope is not completely lost: if the AllSpark were to be recovered, new Transformer life could be created.
Unfortunately, Megatron is unable to accept the evil he has done to save his people. So when Optimus is discovered to still be alive, he gets the scapegoat his soul so desperately needs–and a goal that he knows how to obtain (revenge) rather than one he does not (the salvation of his people).
When it comes down to it, Megatron still sees himself as the hero of the people, the gladiator who rose up to topple an empire and bring freedom to everyone. He is incapable of seeing himself as the villain he has become. To compromise–to make peace with Optimus at this point–would mean that all the terrible things he did were not needed after all. It’s far easier to get lost in his own anger than accept responsibility.
But while Megatron spends much of Earthrise avoiding his guilt and deceiving himself, Optimus legitimately tries to come to terms with what he has done. Yes, he took the AllSpark from Cybertron to prevent the reprogramming of the remaining Autobots but the result of that act was basically the genocide of everyone else. Thus, he hopes that by finding the AllSpark and returning it that he can find some form of redemption–but the fact of the matter is that it’s already far too late.
It’s no surprise that Optimus is deeply divided. He wants to accept responsibility for his actions and mend his once friendship with Megatron–ending the war and saving their home. But when that proves impossible, he goes completely the other way–deciding he has to murder Megatron in order to save the remnants of his people.
The problem is that, deep down, Optimus knows this is immoral and unlikely to solve anything (especially once you consider that, without Megatron, the egotistical Starscream or psychopathic Shockwave would be leading the Decepticons). After all, Megatron made the evil choice for the “greater good” and it didn’t end anything. It just leads to more evil choices to reach a greater good that never comes to pass.
And that’s where things basically end up as their two spaceships tumble to Earth. Will Megatron devolve completely into villainy? Will Optimus Prime find the sweet spot between idealism and pragmatism? We’ll see how things end up in the final chapter, War for Cybertron: Kingdom, later this year.
I just wanted to give out a big thanks to Joshua Ott for sponsoring this review with his Patreon donation. (At the $60 a month tier, you are allowed to pick anything up to an including a 13ish episode series to be reviewed–which is released in addition to the one article a week I normally put out here on BiggestinJapan.com.) So thanks again!
Top image source: Netflix Anime U.S. on Twitter.
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