#they’re capable of warfare on a scale that would have nova and kree shaking in their boots

[darthkvznblogs]

Wait... what would a reignited Great War look like? What glorious tribute to Unicron could the Autobots and Decepticons unleash if the fighting picks up on a galactic scale? (And would D&R think it better that the Cybertronian crossfire burns away the Black Order or just retcon Cybertron out?)

It would be like the difference in scale and intensity between the Galactic Civil War and the Clone Wars. Not to belittle the Autobot-Decepticon conflict at all, but I think that even though it’s not a bloodless (energon-less?) conflict in the slightest, and despite the bitter grudges accrued and held by both sides, an outside observer could fairly easily glean that the two factions are not actually trying to exterminate the other. I think you’d be able to tell that, even through the hatred and rage, both Optimus Prime and Megatron still hope to lead/rule an unbroken people.

The conflict is, at its core, about uniting the entire species under one single banner, one ideology. That’s not the sort of war you win by simply throwing warships and hordes of troops at each other. There’s constant skirmishes all over, to be sure, and now that the Decepticons have “won”, the Autobots are persecuted all over the galaxy, but there’s as much (if not more) propaganda and winning over the hearts and minds of unaffiliated Cybertronians as there is shooting blasters and punching the headlights off a bot with the “wrong” insignia.

If the Decepticons and Autobots ever truly gave up on that hope, they would unleash their worst weapons of war, conscripting and fielding untold numbers of troops, subjugating the colonies into one final, devastating match-up. The war would rapidly spill beyond Cybertronian borders, as such a change in the war would quickly consume their already dwindling resources, forcing them to seek - or more practically, convert - energon out in the wider galaxy, ripping through comparatively fragile organic civilizations and forcing the galaxy’s major factions to respond in kind. It goes without saying for Optimus, but even Megatron, tyrant that he is, doesn’t want that kind of future. It’s something that they could never come back from as a species, regardless of the outcome, and they both know it.