I'm asking this because I just watched "The Secret of Omega Supreme"..... (Lets not get in the constucticon orgin thing again and stay on topic)...
Since Optimus Prime knows that Megatron used the Robo-Smasher to swell the ranks of the Decepticons.... Doesn't that mean basically Megatron got half of the Decepticon army he wanted from brainwashing them?
So if Optimus Prime is truly good why isn't he trying to save the brainwashed transformers?! Or should we just ignore that whole plot of this episode and try to think of it as if nothing ever happened with this Robo-Smasher?

 

Good question. It could be very well possible that Megatron -- and perhaps even Shockwave -- managed to brainwash a number of Transformers in order for the Decepticon army to grow large.

Though, there's quite a number of things in the G1 cartoon that never really made much sense to me. Case in point, Constructicons were built on Earth at the end of the first season and yet in the second season they suddenly originated from Cybertron.   Makes me wonder if the cartoon's writers wrote things on a whim and never bothered keeping things consistent and coherent story-wise.

 

Ya, I can see Shockwave doing something like that....
And the Decepticons that follow Megatron (The top ranked ones like Starscream, Soundwave, Skywarp, so on) are following Megatron at their own free will but the drones on the other hand are brainwashed.
Remember what people said about the Constructicons... They may of been rebuilt on earth!
Remember, they had no idea that transformers would be come giant!
But either way, they should of kept track of what they were doing when they were writing the stories... So they didn't get everyone sooooooo confused!
We

 

It can vary as the mythology varies but most of the time it ends up being Megatron is just so damn manipulative.

It seems like most cartoon and comic book leaders get built upon the same things that put human dictators into power in the real world. They manipulate pride, fear, envy, patriotism, or any other strong emotions they can latch on to get a fanatical following behind them. Once they have enough of a goon squad behind them they can repress any voices of decent.

I think some of the later comic books even explored that perhaps Megatron wouldn't be such a bad guy if you were a Transformer. The planet is dieing and here is a bot that will do whatever it takes to make sure Cybertron can get the energy it needs.

 

The writers never thought about the mass fandom we have today. They never would've thought that we'd be so picky and detail-oriented about what happened when, why, and to whom.
They just wrote something that sounded good at the moment for that particular episode.

 

apply that to the majority of the Sunbow cartoon and you'll live a happier life

 

Being 3/4ths though Exodus, I like how everyone chose sides in that, they either joined the Bots or Cons depending on how they felt the best way to reach the goal was. However, the book makes it clear that many joined the Decepticons to avoid being killed then and there.

 

Prrrrrrrretty much.

That said, it sure seems like there's some level of blind obeying/brainwashing going on in the Decepticon ransk. How else could a leader who keeps losing continue to recruit new soldiers?

 

With anything, I'm sure there's a fair amount of "brainwashing" not necessarily via a machine or anything technological, but by psychological effects; making it seem like the Decepticon perspective is the right one. Megatron could have just been a very persuasive dude who was good at convincing people, though I suspect he's more of the JOIN OR DIE type. Plus I'm sure most Decepticons are bots that already felt that way, hence why they joined.

It definitely implies that somehow you're born good or evil with very little room to change. But I'm glad Beast Wars opened that up a bit.

 

There's a good number of the Decepticons that are just... assholes. They like Megatron because they have an outlet for their violent tendencies.

 

I do believe that was covered in the episode.

Prime mentioned that Megatrons reprogramming was not reversible.

Built isint always synonymous with created

Thats obvious.

 

Assholes, con artists, megalomaniacs, homicidal artists, sociopaths, you get a nice mix in the Decepticon ranks.

 

If Beast Wars is taken into consideration, then you would have two types of Decepticons: 1) The ones that made the choice, and 2) The ones that were altered to become Decepticons (via a Shell Program). I guess the Constructicons would fall into the latter category. But it brings up the topic of when a shell program can be used - protoform or full-fledged Transformer?

 

Ive always thought this was the reason:



Makes sense, like Fosterlager said, some people are just assholes. That's probably why I'm more of a Decepticon fan.  

 

Make a fanfic/comic for it that explains it. And ends up with the freed slaves being Autobots or somethin.....

edit: better yet, the freed slaves were the Junkions, but their minds were damaged by the long term exposure to Robo-Smaher effects, founded the planet of Junk, yada yada, whatever

 

Let's not forget that in the cartoon, or at least according to "The Five Faces of Darkness" The Autobots are descended from hardware, while the Decepticons are descended from the military line of Quintison built slaves.

 

I seem to remember a novel called "Legends" where Starscream had amnesia. If I remember correctly - and it's been a while - Ratchet found some programming in Starscream that hinted that he me have been brainwashed or whatever the Cybertronian equivalent is.

 

That is my most favorite picture ever now.... Starscream (My favorite transformer) throwing Bumblebee's (my most hated transformer) head...
=-D

 

Even after the Great War was over and Cybertron moved on the Beast Wars era some robots were just assholes and bullies. Any time you have a leader that will come along and let you behave badly you are going to have the assholes flock to that banner.

Megatron's great ability seems to have been that he could somehow forge the scum of Cybertron into an army. Which is actually a pretty amazing thing if you think about how hard it would be to forge gangs, sociopaths, megalomaniacs, homicidal lunatics, pyromaniacs, ninjas, and an assortment of other criminal like elements together. Sinister Six, Legion of Doom, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, those are nothing compared to what Megatron was having to deal with.

 

Yes.

Megatron's not the only born-nasty robot on Cybertron.