#how he views orion as a deeply flawed and naive person who let his people get harmed

[they-hermes]

ok so here the deal between the autobots and decepticons in tf hyperlink:

originally orion goes from dock worker to archivist (well more of manual labour with his alt mode to justify his new line of work) by senator shockwaves sponsorship at the archives in iacom run by his sister codexa. and orion quickly realises the shit conditions he lived under back as a dock worker were not unique and in fact a system based problem due to uim facing the same problems as an archivist (with added on discrimination because of his alt mode, isolation from his peers etc) and just "oh fuck this functionism shit is hell for everyone. i hate this"

then he hears about gladiator megatron in kaon who delivers poetry and speeches denouncing funcionism and the gov, advocating for a new world where bots could choose their destinies beyond their alt mode, and reaches out to him. orion finds his writing extremely compelling and righteous due to himself suffering under the same conditions (with his current job and past dick worker experience) and megatron invites him to start the revolution with him (as one does) and orion accepts

they create the deceptobots, and quickly start to gain traction not only orally but also by extreme acts of violence. orion is pressured by megatron to believe that violence is necessary for their cause, and actually starts to believe and inciate this violence "for the greater good" although he carries massive guilt over it. they're not really friends, outside of their political views they have little in common yet stay together as like partners and figureheads of their movement. their movement gains a massive following and follow megatrons plan to take over cybertron by taking over each city state, starting with kaon.

the thing is orion and megatron have vastly different views on the end goal, megatron throughly believes functionism is wrong not because it infringes on a persons individual freedom but because it infringes on what he deems an inherit right to commit violence. megatrons worldview is very militaristic and "survival of the fittest", the senate is inheritly wrong because they are weak and holding back cybertronians from their potential, which is to be a conquering self sufficient species. otherwise, they're just tools to be conquered and enslaved like the quintessons did a long long time ago. so by that logic megatron should be leader of the world bc hes the strongest and he'll prove hes the strongest by killing sentinel prime

the longer it takes for the deceptobots revolution to take over, the more orion realises that this wasn't the future or freedom he wanted for his people. the nail in the coffin is when ariel and dion, civilians and unaware of orions involvement, are severely injured in a raid. he starts to push back against megatron and makes his own allies in the deceptobots to help him take over from megatron. he largely talks and offers aid to civilians who didnt join the deceptobots bc they did not fuck with megatrons vision and he just burries himself with more guilt and shame that he did not recognise sooner of megatrons true intentions. he was never going to free the cybertronians he was going to lead them into a cruel dog eat dog world and lock them in a more violent and destructive cycle than the one they were in.

then finally comes the take over of iacon, the last city state. megatron knows of orions planned mutiny and betrayal but bc hes a freak he still makes orion hold his gun form to finish off sentinel after he fights him. its this weird power play + control over orion bc he knows orion hates sentinel but needs to use megatron as a weapon to kill him, thus reinforcing megatrons view of "all cybertronians need to rely on strength only". jokes on him orion hates himself just enough to kill sentinel and then fight megatron. dramatic battle ensues and orion is killed, body thrown over sentinels body as a last "fuck you" from megatron.

but as megatron leaves to deal with the traitors in his faction a very not dead orion takes hold of the matrix from sentinels body and opens it. and thus is born optimus prime, who now comes back to beat megatrons ass in front of everyone else and is like "ok everyone who doesn't like megatron come with me" and thus i s split the autobots vs decepticons

ill do a part 2 on the autobots and decepticons specifically bc this was just orion/optimus vs megatron