Y'know, I actually forgot about something. While it's up in the air if Dark Energon still works, Synth-En, of which Knock Out was able to find a sample, could be a way of controlling Optimus Prime.

When Ratchet was infused with Synth-En, he did not listen to reason and acted without thinking. All Megatron would need to do is put a hell of a lot of spin on the situation and convince Orion the Autobots are evil, then dose him with Synth-En so he's too damn hyper to think twice about what he's doing.

Druggy Prime would be born!

 

That's a really interesting thought. I could really see Megs just turning Prime into a drugged weapon and unleashing him on the Autobots. It also somewhat gets rid of the factor "Orion Pax is still Orion Pax thus he won't be evil/violent."

 

And- if Dark Energon still warps brains like mad, he could also spike the synth-en with a little bit of the purple stuff, seeing as how Prime's been exposed to enough of it that it doesn't quite affect him badly. Insta-mental-destabilization, along with hyper battle powers.

 

And since Orion Pax knows Megatron as "Megatronus," we know his memories don't extend much past Megatron becoming a politician, so this Orion Pax has no memories of Megatron ever betraying him. Orion Pax trusts Megatron completely now and in a drugged state would be willing to do everything Megatron commanded.

 

*rubbing hands together in a evil, Megatronly fashion*

He'd have to take baby steps in making Orion truly evil, of course. Can't just send him out there to shoot at bots he may possibly recongize at any time (memory is fuddy like that, dontcha know).

 

Especially since "evil is a point of view." If Megatron can, in a subtle way, convince Orion Pax the ideals of the Decepticons are noble, he may have a zealot defending him. Megatron could even spin the whole "I infected Cybertron with Dark Energon" thing in a positive light if he says he was manipulated by Unicron to believe doing so would truly resurrect all the fallen of Cybertron.

 

Oh my frag. They must do this. It would propel the series past "cartoon" and into "introspective look at morals disguised as a cartoon".

 

Animated sort of did that. It turned out good.

 

I've heard Beast Machines kind of did that, too.

 

Those are some great ideas I can see used. I thought of the same thing where Synth-En and Dark Energon can used to control Orion Pax and turn him into a killing machine, but you beat me to it on writing about it. Megatron, Soundwave, and Knock Out will most likely influence Orion the most while his memory is screwed up. And if that happens the Autobots will lose even more hope for their leader. Such a evil, effective, and believable plan.

 

The only issue now is if Megatron can pull it off in the small window of opportunity he has.

 

If Orion, for some reason probably pertaining to "i didn't stub my big metal toe and take it to a brand-new doctor named Ratchet yet", does not recongize Ratchet, then his window of opportunity becomes wide and sparkly-kleen.

 

The Autobots will try to get him back. Megatron has to be prepared to cast EVERYTHING Orion sees in a Decepticon light.

 

He did that when he didn’t respond to his more recent name, Optimus Prime.

Megatron may have been good, but not that good. Orion didn’t side with him the first time around, and neither did the Council of Elders and all those who followed Optimus Prime.

How do we know that synthesized Energon made Ratchet do the wild things he did? I don’t see it that way at all. Ratchet, who was filling the best he had felt in years, decided to take matters into his own hands—his previous victory over a bunch of Decepticons while saving Arcee only made matters worse.

Ratchet’s ego + hard times + and high power readings = Angry arrogant Autobot.

 

^ Sounds exactly like what mind altering drugs can do to impair someone's judgement.

 

Not that hard to do if you are selective with what sort of information someone gets.

If you only showed an alien species Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr those aliens might think humans are such a nice peaceful species. If you only showed that same alien species Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin they might think humanity was such an evil violent species.

I'm sure that Megatron will only remind Orion Pax of the things they fought for together back on Cybertron while leaving out the bits about all the bad things the Decepticons have done to achieve their once noble cause.

 

I'm pretty sure that whilst he may be manipulated by Megatron in terms of good vs bad, it's probably going to come down to a similar sort of situation of when Megatron was speaking to the council (aka, Megatron has a slip up and OP finds out his true colours).

At one point or another, Optimus will notice what his "new friends" are doing and try to find out what's really going on. Whilst "Orion Pax" might be quiet and more nervous than his old self, I have no doubt he'll go through a process of rediscovering himself. :>

 

I see no logical reason to think thats likely.

I find that debatable.If the show really draws from Exodus then Orion has his doubts about Megatron and how far hes willing to go.

 

^ I never read Exodus.

 

To make it short, in ther bookj they were friends because they shared similar ideas and golds.

But Orion was weary of how far Megatron was willing to go to achieve he golds.