No, in the SG Universe they are evil. Really, I think they are. They tend to protect life, while the cons would kill off an entire planet to get what they want.
Truly, just like how Ultra Magnus said, "I've never seen anything this beautiful in the entire galaxy.... All right, give me the bomb." Then proceeded to blow up an entire planet to keep it out of Decepticon hands. Or how they left one of their comrades buried in ice until they needed to use him as a Taxi. Then Prime patted him on the nose like a pet. Or how they were dissatisified with their newly created Autobots so they deactivated them and put them in storage. And so forth.
"Good" and "bad" are entirely subjective. Autobots =/= good Autobots = Fight to protect Decepticons =/= bad Decepticons = Fight to contest
The Decepticons are formed in Animated when they are denied basic civil rights as the soldier class that other classes enjoy. In fact, just for asking for it, they are forced to register themselves. Then as they fight the war the Autobots create weapons of Mass Destruction and force the Decepticons to leave their home planet in exile. The Decepticons in Exodus are formed when the labor class whose lives are meaningless to the upper echelons and are used essentially as slave labor grow tired of this arrangement. Megatron starts a movement that attracts even the likes of Orion Pax to because of these injustices and the lack of any sort of choice or equality in their lives. How monsterous, asking for the same basic civil rights that others enjoy frivolously, then when they are denied time and time again that they rise up to grant it to themselves and force change.
I love this thread. Let's not forget the movie Decepticons. Basically trying to save their race from extinction.
To start with i would like to say ALL HAIL MEGATRON now that is out of the way g1 cartoon megatron was played as a classic villain but if you go into the comics you see that the deceptecons where basic slaves and all they wanted was there rights beast wars megatron has the most character out all the megatrons to me and he defentely was a villain of course he is a predacon and at this point the decendents of the deceptecons thought that there only goal was to take over everything R.I.D well this is hard cause i cant remember most of it actually any one know how to watch this unicron trilogy lets see starts as catching little creatures to draining the universe to becoming so powerful that he can destroy it animated the deceptecons have been pushed away from there own home world and there angry about it they have full right to take it back as long as they let the autobots live there to in the movies they are the good guys they want to bring there planet back to life simple and easy transformers prime its to early to tell
For a long time I've stopped thinking of the Decepticons as evil, and more morally ambiguous. They essentially have 'good' intentions (especially Animated), but a fairly ruthless way of going about it, while the Autobots aren't above doing something completely underhanded to achieve their own ends.
Actually I just thnk Transformers Animated was morally ambiguous. I miss the days of G1 when right and wrong and was as clear as black & white. Today there's so much liberal rubbish in the media. You have to identify with the "bad" guy. Bull.
Both sides are fighting for a good cause. The Decepticons are fighting to protect their race and make sure it survives, but they dont care about other races (humans) and they will destroy other races to protect theirs. The Autobots are fighting to protect the humans. I tend to think that Decepticons are fighting for a good cause but in the wrong way.
I try to steer away from such black and white concepts of Good and Bad, Each side has their own goals and agendas. The Autobots just so happen to coincide with the "Good guys". Mostly because the Decepticons want to steal out stuff to get what they need, and the Autobots wants to stop the Decepticons regardless of what they are doing. If the Decepticons held an all galaxy spelling Bee to raise credits for ophan skuxxoids, Prime and chums would show up, construct and excuse to stop it and blow it up.
The autobots are the good guys from OUR SOCIETY point of view, they want to keep Decepticons from taking over, and rule over cybertron supposedly to conquest the universe. Now if our society was something like the fallen USSR, or far east extremist cultures, then the AUTOBOTS would be EVIL, because they stand against everyone's desire for conquest and domination of the weaker by brute and military force.
You know what ask me 15 years ago and I would of without a doubt said yes the Autobots are a shining example of good... But in recent years it's pretty clear there's been a conserted effort to shift the Decepticons from being the ultimate bad guys and the Autobots from the goody two shoes heroes and attempting to put both somewhere in the middle. It seems to mainly stem from the origins of one robot: Megatron, in the newer retellings of his beginnings (Dreamwave, IDW, Exdous) he seems to cut the figure of a tragic anti-hero one who started out with goals just and fair but was corrupted by the power he gained along the way, the very same can be said for the Decepticon cause itself. He is almost always shown to come from an impoverished background, being one of the many victims suffering under Cybertron's arrogant and coprrupt ruling elite (which are shown to be largely Autobots or Autobot affiliated). And most importantly he is pushed into action rather than starting it himself, in Dreamwave's story line the Ancients tried to have him killed because he knew too much, in IDW's he was defending his fellow miners who were being slaughtered by Autobot guards. It definitely does seem that the Autobots are no longer the saints they were once considered, and that the Great War is as much a result of Autobot corruption and complacency as it is Megatron and the Decepticons supposed war-mongering.
I think I've only got a chapter or two left in Exodus, which I'm loving for the simple fact that it does a great job of defining the differences between Autobot and Decepticon philosophy in a somewhat mature manner. Both started out wanting exactly the same thing, but had slightly (at first) different views on how to go about obtaining it. And because I can't resist I'm going to address Backscatter's comment - I've often wondered who conservatives side with when they watch these cartoons. I mean obviously helping those-in-need is the right thing to do, so do conservatives think Decepticons are the good guys? On a political scale, Optimus Prime is probably somewhere to the left of Jimmy Carter.
There certainly seem to be fewer homicidal maniacs and sociopaths on the side of the Autobots, so I'm going to say they're likely at least "good-er".
