When Optimus started scolding Ratchet about torching the minercon, I noticed that he said absolutely nothing about the act itself- which most definitely counts as brutal torture- but was in fact more pissed about the minercon's status as a 'civilian' and Ratchet having gone at him anyways. Either Optimus got cut off from saying something about 'torture is bad, mmkay' or.. *shudders* I mean, I suppose we should expect 'enhanced interrogation' from both sides- it is a war after all- but I don't think any other TV series has ever even hinted that the Autobots do it.
Thought the Autobots sometimes did torture (in the IDW comics I'm thinking, can't remember exactly)? It's probably something that the Autobots don't exactly talk about publicly...probably would hurt morale.
Bear in mind that Ratchet was under the influnce of the syrum at the time so it only made him more agrrisive of getting info. The Autobots never said they were against forceful interrogation but I they are very much against using violent torture. Even Arcee who's been known to be brutal in combat wouldn't resort to such measures. Normal Ratchet would also never go that far the same goes to Bulkhead and Bumblebee.
If you don't like shades of grey in Transformers, never watch Animated! I quite like subtle acknowledgements that just because one side is 'good' it doesn't mean they're 'nice'. And vice versa, with 'Bad Guys' doing nice things, evey so often. More believable, that way. Prime is still behind Animated in that regard though, it's much less explicit than Animated's WMDs, inhumane experiments and 'victory at any price' attitude. (And that's just the Autobots!)
I think it was just the first thing to jump to. Rather than debate battlefield ethics with someone who is under the influence of a mind altering substance Prime just went for the most obvious point to try and get Ratchet to stop and think about what he was doing. Whether Prime approved or not at that point Ratchet would have no problem using torture and would argue the point aggressively, so Prime tried shut the situation down by saying regardless of what your limits are for interrogation, the enemy in question wasnt a combatant so it should have totally been off limits from the start.
I think it was really the fact that Ratchet was about to kill the Eradicon miner even though he'd already given him what he knew that got Optimus particularly.
You try being at war for four million years and not doing some morally ambiguous things. I don't think Optimus is proud of it but I find it highly unlikely the Bots, maybe not necessarily these ones but Autobots in general, never tortured someone for information.
Yes, this is more true than Optimus having a problem with the torture, methinks. Before this even happened, Ratchet had tackled a vehicon in his ambulance mode and then transformed, stabbing it in the face (first person view...so it was US who was getting stabbed) and no one had a problem with it...it was the attempting to kill an opponent who wasn't a high enough class to fight back
