War: The Humanity in Transformers

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your video and to voice Necrobot! I hope to get more opportunities to help you with your content! This is an incredibly entertaining and well put together video, and I'm happy to have had a part in it 😁

A soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him

"Why are we fighting to save the humans!? They're a primitive, and violent race!" "Were we so different?"

24:44 “The Decepticons are the bad guys because of what they believe in, and they believe in Megatron.” I got chills form that

transformers is actually kinda sad when you think about it a war that was so destructive it rendered a entire planet uninhabitable whilst leaving said planet nothing more then a giant graveyard this is made scarier by the fact humanity has the potential to suffer the same fate

Megatron, standing atop of sea of flowers to emphasize the countless bots who’ve died to him speaks so much, it didn’t matter if they were an autobot, a decepticon, the amount of flowers that stood to represent all of the fallen within megatrons reach. Man i regret not reading that moment LOL

The fact that Ratchet had PTSD flashbacks in a show aimed at children was pretty wild.

But Orion didn't mean to steal Megatron's thunder, he saw that the council wasn't listening to his idol and tried to help. And by the way, the Decepticons' acts of terrorist on Cybertron before the war may have been a necessary evil. Think guys, on Earth no governing structure responsible for revolutions was ever gonna give up their power just because you ask pretty please. Right?

The horrors of war... What have the Decepticons become??? Once a glorious and noble cause, what the hell happened?? Optimus Prime himself agreed with the Decepticon cause, right up until he saw how power-hungry Megatron had become ... Just answered my own question. Megatron both created and happened to the Decepticon cause

Arcee in TFP is such a tragic and beautifully written character. You really get the feeling that this war has broken her more than any of the others. The poor girl has obvious PTSD and it affects every action she takes. Every time Airachnid's name is even mentioned you can see her mood shift. When she finds out what Starscream did to Cliffjumper, something inside her snaps. Seeing her slowly, VERY slowly, heal from this trauma over the course of the show is such a heart-wrenching and well earned journey. In season one, she is jaded, bitter, and angry. By season three and Predacons Rising, she's the one giving counsel to others like Wheeljack and Miko on how to handle their emotions and not let their traumas rule them. She's my favorite character in any TF media because of just how well she's written.

The shot of Megatron in his sea of flowers gave me absolute chills. It makes me consider getting fully into IDW lore now that it’s reaching its end.

It continues to blow my mind how much of a well-written show Transformers prime was. The exploration of survivor's guilt, loss, and sacrifice was something I never expected from the show. Arcee's character arc in particular was always in tune with these elements in the story. You see how she is constantly haunted by the past, how it affects her decisions, and how it affects how she treats Jack. What a great show.

I love that you showed Megatron's Flower Field on Necroworld. That panel was the perfect start to Megatron's redemption in IDW. It fully outlined that "What have I done?" realisation moment for him.

I like how you give all the continuities a chance for a good quote.

I want to give a shout-out to Transformers Animated. For being supposedly lighter in tone than Prime and the movies, it doesn’t hesitate to tackle some serious stuff, particularly Ratchet’s backstory and how being involved in the war was probably the worst thing that could have happened to him. The young Optimus that we see is eager to hear and eager to learn what actually happened, and yet, once he starts to experience combat first hand, he gets it. Optimus now gets why Ratchet doesn’t like to talk about it. And it’s then, once Optimus realizes just how far from glorious war is that Ratchet actually starts opening up.

30:12 This scene truly speaks LOUDLY. That scene with Megatron's statue, and the field of flowers, its.. almost beautiful. And horrifying.

The section going over Optimus Prime was brilliant. He's actually the father figure that I haven't had my whole life. Just imagining him there next to me while recovering from hardships, hugging me or just rubbing my arm, makes me feel whole. Like he was that missing piece of a puzzle. Optimus has been my longest standing comfort character (from 2018-now) since most of them only last for a few months, a year if lucky. Transformers Prime was my first show. I absolutely despised Megatron and what he stood for while Optimus was the hero I looked up to. War is scary, especially since my brother has been in the Air Force. Optimus was my beacon of hope, my piece of clay, a character I can shape and mold to stories while still keeping that calm and collected yet silently worried and scared demeanor. One of the darkest points in his life was watching Elita, his own significant other (a.k.a., HIS LITERAL GIRLFRIEND SINCE, YES, TRANSFORMERS CAN GET MARRIED AND A SPOUSE IS CALLED A CONJUX ENDURA), die in his arms or finding her body and weeping over her, whether silently or in painful sobs. Except for Arcee, most of the female Transformers in the first episode of G1 were never seen again, meaning that Elita, Moonracer, Firestar, and Nebula died in the eluded battle with Arcee as the sole survivor of her group. Optimus is literally the only moral support the Autobots have. If not for Optimus, some may have disappeared or straight up died in battle just to get out of the war. Optimus Prime, whose voice is, I agree, is best done by Peter Cullen, is the reason there are so many Autobots. Spanning from quick-witted scouts like Bumblebee and brilliant inventors like Wheeljack to strong and determined second-in-command's like Ultra Magnus and willing and serious soldiers like Hound (John Goodman was the perfect fit in Transformers AOE and Transformers TLK). Sorry for the rant but I have to say something about Optimus's stoicness and nigh refusal to show weakness in dark times. ----If not for Optimus holding his composure and not breaking down due to stress or grief in front of his team is keeping them sane. But it hurts him more than it would hurt the others. Due to Optimus holding onto his tears or frustrations in front of his team and only lashing out or crying on his own (yes, Transformers can cry actual tears and it's most likely wiper fluid), the team won't know if he's panicked, having a depressive episode, in pain, grieving, or just downright ill if he can hide it. The Transformers Prime episode "Sick Mind" freaked me out the most because Optimus, from the last time I remember watching it, looked sad and, surprisingly, guilty while he's bed-ridden and literally dying thanks to the Decepticon bio-weapon, the Cybonic Plague (just as if not faster than the Bubonic Plague was here on earth). The way Optimus looked made me wonder if he hid illnesses he had as well. Did he hide a Cybertronian variant of a flu or cold at on point? Did he hide their equivalent of chicken pox somehow? How many illnesses did he have to hide in order for him to look guilty while he's dying of a LITERAL PLAGUE? Optimus is hurting himself more than he is others in the war. If someone close to him dies or gets severely injured, it's just another straw on the camel's back. One day, the dam is going to shatter and collapse and he'll just break down. Whether he's sobbing or screaming, he'll one day snap and it's all downhill from there. The team will be either mortified or shocked to see their leader, a father figure to many including Bumblebee, screaming at the top of whatever lungs he has left after having to shout over gunfire and explosions in the midst of battle or sobbing into his hands with the cries of a wailing father or, because he kind of was when he was chosen as Prime, a scared child. Optimus had the naïve mentality of a child during his clerk years. His demeanor and temperament was that of a teenager figuring out their place in the world. He had dreams of a better life, a life he hoped he would one day achieve. Losing friends, family, and his own s/o in war were just more straws on the camels back. Every time they came across someone dead or injured, every person that's starved or bled to death due to lack of energon, every home lost, every chance at returning to a warm bed or a good base lost, every person that has gotten sick and has most likely passed under his watch, just more straws on the camel's back. If there's one too many, the camel's back breaks, the dam shatters, or Optimus just cracks. Optimus hiding his weaknesses and focusing on everyone else's in order to help them improve is one of the RISKIEST moves a general or lieutenant can make. As far as we know, Optimus isn't taking care of his own mental health. If he's focusing on everyone else's mental heath, who is focusing on his?

“The Humbling River” hit way harder then it should have

The punishment story raised some good issues on morality when sandstorm started killing autobots for war crimes Some autobots killed aliens for helping decepticons and sandstorm killed them Sandstorm questioned Optimus on how much he knew and allowed to go on why am.o fighting Guzzle found out about prowl and kup and said they might as well wore a purple badge

To me, Megatron represents how a revolution can end up far worse than the system it overthrows, like The communists and fascists. They preached about the elites and class systems but once they gained power, both were far worse than the systems they replaced. Optimus represents the idealism and best of humanity, he fits right in with Superman and Captain America, right down to the Red and blue color scheme.