#Like guys you didn't have to keep Megatron's origin story the same as the comics. This is not a requirement.
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"*scoffs* "There's no propoganda in Transformers One, what are you talking about? It's not that deep! Megatron is totally a villain; he's not justified in any way for killing Sentinel, and it fact it's bad that he killed him. TFOne has no propoganda in it at all except as toy advertisement!"
The "unjustified villain" in question, in one of his evilest moments after he's gone "fully evil" according to this "propoganda-free movie" :
[ID: A screenshot from Transformers One, showing Megatron standing on an arch over a cheering crowd of hundreds of bots, both of his arms raised in the air as the people gleefully cheer him on, shouting "Rise up!" to the crowd of formely-enslaved workers. End ID]
If you think a movie that is literally doing textbook propaganda "can't possibly have propaganda in it because its for kids" ..... idk what to tell you except that's not how that works, and is, in fact, how propaganda itself works.
If you can acknowledge the deep-seated problem with Marvel movies and shows having their villain be "People who want to make the world a better place and do so with Clear Leftist Politics like Inclusivity, Diversity, and Mutual Aid like Arthur Harrow in Moon Knight with his Walkable Neighborhood, Safe Space and Vegan-Friendly Multicultural food nights.... and he also Wants To Kill Babies and Little Old Ladies",
but you refuse to see this level of propaganda when its staring you in the face and shouting in your face what the message is??
Like, why are you even trying to argue with anyone if you can see the message in the movie but still deny and complain that people are going to be on Megatron's side because Orion is trying to maintain the status quo and that the movie is upholding the divine right of kings? When that's literally what it's doing?
Like, it's perfectly fine for Orion and Bumblebee to go around violently slaughtering guards, because just like in Marvel, the little guys don't matter, you can throw those grunts out of five story buildings or slam them through concrete walls all you want, or chop them in half and stab them through the head with a knife-hand on screen as long as you're framed as being either cool or silly and excitable while doing it:
no one will bat an eye and will in fact find you slicing someone in half vertically amusing and light hearted!
but if someone wants to kill the Big Bad Himself?
The literal Baby-Maimer In Chief ?
Oh, no, suddenly, you can't do that!
That's what villains do! Only evil, corrupt, power-hungry people go after the literal fascist dictator who's kept everyone as slaves for their entire lives! /sarcasm
Megatron is one of the only characters in this film voiced by a Black person. He is an enslaved worker finding out the truth and leading a rebellion against a fascist dictator, and when he successfully kills that dictator (despite the best efforts of his so-called friends), and when he wants to tear down the monuments to this Fascist Dictator Baby Maimer in Chief, he's described as "wanting to kill everyone".
Like. Okay. So Bumblebee can go around deliberately terrorizing people and destroying important infrastructure for funsies because he's on a power trip from killing half a dozen guards,
but the second Megatron, who has just killed the Slaver Baby Maimer In Chief wants to destroy the monuments to that fascist?
Oh, suddenly, this is horrifying and destorying the city and 'going to kill everyone!'
As though this is not a clear and direct parallel to monuments to racist, slave-owning "war heroes" in the south being torn down by activists, and the framing of such action as being terror attacks and "wanting to destory the city and their heritage" ?
Yeah, Megatron shooting the monument to a fascist dictator causes stuff to fall and make random bystanders flee in terror...... because it has to, because that is part of the propaganda that tearing down monuments to fascists makes you just as bad or worse than the fascists.
Optimus even flat out says the above in the movie:
We were given the power to change our world, and you chose to destroy it. Just like Sentinel
Optimus literally, flat out, explicitly says that Megatron is just as bad as Sentinel Prime, because Megatron
killed the fascist slaver dictator in question in one-on-one combat no less, just minutes after Sentinel got done branding him like a slave
wants to tear down the monuments to said dictator.
Yeah, sure, Megatron shot Optimus........only because Optimus literally jumped in front of the bullet meant for the Literal Fascist Dictator.
If Orion hadn't of done that, and simply let Megatron kill the Literal Fascist Dictator like Orion and Bumblebee were going around killing guards left right and center, they would never have split factions, or caused a ~civil war~ or had The Divine Right Of Kings choose a new Godly Appointed Dictator of the Entire Planet.
They would have simply started a rebellion and succeeded, and could have rebuilt Cybertron together, for all.
Instead, Optimus decided to jump in front of a bullet to save a Fascist.
And we're supposed to see this action as heroic and for the Greater Good, because while it's apparently perfectly fine to go around killing lowly nobodies (nameless guards), it's the Ultimate Evil to kill Fascist Dictators. 🤦
Oh, and for anyone who missed it, everyone was cheering on Megatron for killing Sentinel Prime.
Everyone except for the three protagonists.
The entire enslaved-miner, noble, and working classes of Cybertron was united in their hatred and loathing of Sentinel Prime and were united in their newfound freedom from a fascist dictator...
... except the heroes of the story, who are terrified and dismayed to see their fellow workers cheering
"Rise Up! Rise Up! Rise Up!"
And, of course, our heroes are rewarded for their Hard Work of Stopping A New Evil Dictator by.......
becoming the new Godly Appointed Rulers of the entire planet with no one else having any say whatsoever in this decision:
The people of Cybertron chose Megatron as their leader, for leading them to freedom and killing the man who kept them enslaved and mutilated them before they were even alive.
The Divine Right of Kings said "no", and instead forced them by Divine Will to have a new leader who thinks that, actually, killing fascists is bad when other people do it, and only they themselves are allowed to go around indescriminately slaughtering people they view as dangerous.
Hey. Do you see any real-world parallels in the messaging and all here?
Does "The people choose one thing and a system designed to take choice away from the people takes that choice away from the people" ring any bells?
Does "It's okay for US to go around killing Nameless Evil People Who Are Evil but if you try to go after A Literal Fascist Dictator, you're actually the real terrorist and you're secretly a dictator here" ring any bells??
anyways as a parting shot I'll just leave you this.
Meanwhile, 5 minutes earlier...
*Brutally eviscerates a bunch of guards, laughs about it while joking about brutally killing some more guards, then abandons D-16 to fight Sentinel Prime on his own without a thought*
#tfone spoilers#tf spoilers#no id#long post#transformers one spoilers#transformers one#Hey guys do you think the movie that cost 147 million dollars to make might have some messages baked into it?#Like guys you didn't have to keep Megatron's origin story the same as the comics. This is not a requirement.#Why are you in 2024 making a movie where the villains origin story is that he's a slave fighting for freedom#and is evil for killing a dictator and tearing down monuments to slavers?#oh wait we know the answer
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