#without megatron no one would oppose against what was happening on cybertron sure hes important but there were others like soundwave

[novafire-is-thinking]

First Contact

OP: In my caste, I may read and I may index, but I am forbidden to analyze.

M: How do you know where to index if you don't analyze first?

OP: I try not to ask myself questions that don't have answers I can do anything about.

M: Who has told you that you can't do anything about the answers? I never even had a name. I went out to die for the pleasure of strangers. Now I am Megatron, and I will fight when and where and for what reasons I please.

OP: Fight who?

M: Those who would tell me... like they tell you... that we do not have the right to determine our own fates. Interesting that even in Iacon my words are being heard.

OP: It is my task to hear all words.

M: But you don't answer all of what you hear. And surely you don't answer all of what you hear on channels that you hide for fear of being eavesdropped on.

OP: No.

M: A great many Cybertronians would love to have Iacon as their home. Yet you are there and still unsatisfied. What does that tell you?

OP: We should meet.

M: Should we? Why would I meet you?

OP: If you have goals beyond Kaon, you’re going to need to tailor your message so it will resonate beyond the castes who smelt ore and die in the pits.

M: Or the rest of Cybertron should learn to understand those castes. Even you do not, and you consider yourself one of us.

OP: Then show me what I do not understand.

The above is the first conversation between Orion and Megatron over the Grid. This conversation in Exodus occurred right after the oft-referenced moment where Orion gets upset about the fact that he does not have free access to Six Lasers—an amusement park reserved mostly for the highest castes. More than one fan has found this laughable and used it to point out how Orion was blinded by his privilege, and while I agree, I also think it’s important to not stop there.

In the above conversation, Megatron called Orion out and put him in his place. Orion could have responded defensively, but he did not. He asked to be shown what he did not understand. His open-mindedness impressed Megatron.

However, I will also point out that Megatron spoke of his personal ambitions more than about the collective goal of his group at the time. There’s a passage in The Covenant that I believe provides excellent evidence that Megatron saw things as him against the world from the start as opposed to him having the mindset of a benevolent revolutionary. I may or may not get around to sharing it in this series.

Motives and Methods

He understood Megatron’s reasons, and perhaps even more than the gladiator did Orion Pax wanted the freedom and initiative that would come with the end of caste and Guild.

Where they differed, Orion Pax suspected, was in method. He believed the change could be created through political means: spreading new ideas, watching them catch fire, attracting enough followers to their vision that eventually the High Council and Sentinel Prime would have to take notice. That was the vision of Orion Pax.

Sometimes he was concerned that Megatron did not have as much patience as he did.

Yes, you read that right. Orion once thought he desired the downfall of the caste system more than Megatron. It seems arrogant, but consider young Orion’s original dream from The Covenant. Without destroying the caste system, there would be no expansion outward. No opportunity for the exploration and discovery he so desired—not just for himself, but for others as well.

What did Megatron want? He wanted to fight. Alpha Trion said in The Covenant that Megatron was “of the line of Megatronus” and that “he was, at heart, born to revolt.” Megatron desired to conquer and control. To fight someone. Anyone. As long as he could fight against something. It just happened to be the caste system, and if others came along to benefit from his revolution, so be it. Meanwhile, Orion wanted there to be a collective, collaborative effort to destroy the system for the sake of moving forward and upward as a species.

So, I don’t think Orion was correct in thinking he wanted to rid Cybertron of its caste system more than Megatron. It’s just that their motivations and methods for doing so happened to be different.

A Social Strategist

“I don't need you to tell me what's easy and what isn't,” Barricade said. But he was already moving to go back inside. Perfect. “Lugnut,” he added with the door open. “Don't let this mech go anywhere.”

Mech, thought Orion Pax. He’s got to put me in my place. Gladiators wore their emotions on their sleeves, it seemed. He wondered if he should have reacted to the insult, or if a reaction would have been too provocative. Then he started thinking that he was being too deliberative, overthinking everything he did, overanalyzing everything others did.

Notice how Orion so quickly came to his conclusions with very little prompting. Typecasting can be an issue, but it’s impossible to navigate life without making some assumptions. In this case, I believe Orion’s assumptions and his gift for analyzing and reading others helped him to understand Megatron’s passionate nature and his tendency to provoke for the purpose of testing another—incredibly useful for strategizing later during the war.

Seeing Clearly

Entropy, or the consciousness of it, was my other companion. This was one reason why Orion Pax, with his dedication and tireless focus, stood out from the other clerks. He seemed to resist the robotic monotony of the data-harvesting enterprise; instead the size and scope of the task invigorated him.

Yet it was not for this that I came to realize that he was to become the next Prime.

It was a combination of observation, research, and raw... it is difficult for an archivist such as myself to say this...

Intuition.

Orion Pax seemed different. He was humble but certain, rigorous in completing his assignments yet unafraid to deliver results beyond or contradictory to the stated parameters.

And when he first began to discern that a few gladiators in the forgotten savagery of Kaon’s pits were beginning to grow into something more—Orion Pax might have been expected to do one of two things. He might have ignored the data as irrelevant, thus confirming the caste bigotry that those gladiators hated. Or he might have passed on the information without comment to his superiors, who might also have ignored them out of caste bigotry or suppressed the dissent without investigating its origins.

Orion Pax did neither of those things. He investigated, analyzed, synthesized—and when that still did not satisfy him, he went to those who were dissatisfied. He learned.

He empathized. Unencumbered by the prejudices of his age, he chose to see clearly.

Again with the intuition and empathy. Orion chose to look behind the curtain and allow his natural curiosity to take him places his peers never dared to go. He didn’t set out to lead a revolution. He didn’t waltz in and play savior. Orion merely followed his curiosity and realized he had the means to help Megatron’s movement in specific ways. He said through his actions: “Okay, I see where this is going, and I’m here. Show me what I need to know so that, perhaps, I can make this easier for all of us.” Orion never implied that they owed him for his contributions to the cause. It was his hope to make a difference and prevent a violent uprising by showing Megatron and other lower-caste bots that he, as an upper caste bot, was willing to use his higher position to work toward the common goal of societal change.

However, he was just one guy. It wasn’t enough for Megatron and the others, and Orion had to learn that the hard way. It’s not that he failed. He followed his intuition and did his best. It’s just a fact of life that, oftentimes, one person’s best isn’t good enough.

Librarian to Luminary

As he left my study, we were both stunned to see that the data clerks had come to the atrium outside, every single one of them. They stood in a double row, perfectly silent, having come just to see their former colleague and to pay their respects to what he had become.

For Optimus Prime it must have been a moment of intense and conflicting emotion. He has not spoken of it to me; since he left at that moment, he has been absorbed in the skirmishes around the perimeter of Iacon. The clerks glean every bit of data about his actions hungrily, as if it were Energon itself that they might nourish themselves with. Some of them would get up and fight if it were permitted, but as I have written, they are all either created not to fight or have been so damaged that field repairs cannot refit them for the battlefield.

If Soundwave had been present during this moment and read Optimus’ thoughts and feelings, I think Cybertronian history might have taken a much different path. Optimus did not choose to become a leader or a figurehead. Perhaps that made him weak in the eyes of those like Soundwave and Megatron, but Optimus was able to see what they could not—that the conflict was likely to end in a Pyrrhic victory.

Megatron charged forward with overconfidence in himself and expected everyone to fall in step behind him. Meanwhile, Optimus walked forward with caution and humbly accepted that many saw him as an inspiration and the keeper of Cybertron’s future.

In the end, both were necessary to wipe Cybertron’s slate clean, but Optimus desperately hoped it wouldn’t have to result in so much destruction while Megatron never really cared how he got his way.

Megatron was destined to be the revolutionary.

Optimus was meant to be a luminary.

✧ ✧ ✧

series master post

[swervesfirstblaster]

thinking about how idw soundwave was the last true decepticon and cbv soundwave was the perfect decepticon. both of them sacrificed themselves for the greater good using the faith they had in themselves and in others