#like holy shit lmao literally everything idw optimus did in that entire part of the story makes perfect sense in context

[lord-squiggletits]

Speaking of the Metzen trilogy and people not liking it for bizarre reasons, one time I saw a conversation here on Tumblr where someone claimed something along the lines of “During Monstrosity, Optimus tried to arrest the Dynobots instead of letting them leave Cybertron to manage their condition and that’s why I think he’s an asshole.” And that’s just not fucking true because it takes a bunch of individual events out of order and completely warps the context just to make Optimus look like shit lmao.

The Dynobots were trying to leave Cybertron because of their uncontrollable, violence-/rage-fuelled alt modes, but the only people who knew that were the Dynobots themselves (and us, the readers). The reason Optimus tried to arrest the Dynobots is because they were raiding one of the last large-scale energon refineries on Cybertron that was still functioning AND which was the only source of fuel for actual millions of people. The situation from Optimus’ end was that he got an emergency broadcast from this very fucking important refinery that it was under attack by Decepticons (since they also showed up to raid the same refinery). So like, no fucking shit Optimus tried to arrest the Dynobots, he’s the leader and head of security of the Autobots in the middle of a full blown civil war, trying to defend one of the last stable food sources for millions of people, and he had literally no way of knowing that the Dynobots were only raiding it to get enough money to flee Cybertron so that they wouldn’t put people in danger.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

When Grimlock decided to say “fuck it, I’m a monster, I’m going to just blow up this refinery since I’m just such a horrible and violent person that everyone expects the worst of” in that very same scene, Optimus is the one who talked Grimlock down from it by saying that Grimlock may be hurting, but blowing up the refinery would hurt innocent people, and Grimlock doesn’t want to do that. AND IT LITERALLY DOES MAKE GRIMLOCK STOP (although the refinery is blown up by Skorponok anyways because he’s a chaotic evil dumbass but I digress)

And then Optimus doesn’t even stop the Dynobots (or anyone else, for that matter) from leaving Cybertron! He does digging into the Dynobots’ case files from when they were members of the Primal Vanguard. He asks Kup about what they used to be like. He ignores the suggestion that it would be easier to kill the Dynobots so they don’t harm anyone and instead directly approaches them to say “You don’t have to quarantine yourselves on a random planet out of fear of your alt-modes. I have scientists on my side who can find a cure for your condition.” The Dynobots appreciate Optimus’ offer, but leave anyways (with Optimus again doing nothing to stop them btw) and only return later as surprise reinforcements in the battle against Trypticon, no doubt convinced by Optimus’ faith in them when even they didn’t have faith in themselves.

And by the way, the following story (Primacy) shows that Optimus did keep his word and instruct his scientists/medics to find a cure for the Dynobots, which succeeds.

Optimus was literally one of the only people helping the Dynobots during that entire arc. He’s only antagonistic against them for the first ~3 pages they interact with each other because he met them in the middle of a crisis they were partially responsible for, but from the time he talks Grimlock down onwards he’s basically the only person that cares about telling them they don’t have to be/see themselves as monsters. The interactions between him and the Dynobots are literally a shining example of Optimus being the optimistic, never-gives-up-faith, willing to give anyone a chance hero that he IS and that people want him to BE. But somehow people found a way to twist that into him being an asshole anyways???