Title says it all. With the plot of AE hinging on the events in Chicago in DOTM, I've gotten to thinking about it again, specifically how Optimus handled the attack. Perhaps this is flogging a dead horse, but it's been a few years, and perhaps perspectives have changed. Some people think that the way Optimus phrased his speech when he entered Chicago, that the Decepticon attack was to teach humanity a lesson, implied that he could've prevented it. But could he? Personally, I'm of the opinion that there was no other way to handle it. The Autobots had to comply with the order to leave,even if they planned to fake their deaths and escape. Fighting off the humans to escape would lead to the Autobots likely having to kill humans themselves, and marking them criminals immediately. And of course, directly killing humans isn't very Autobot. From the coast, the Autobots then had to surface, escape undercover, and drive all the way from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Chicago, Illinois. For reference, that's an 18 hour drive under human circumstances. The movie Autobots have no alternate method of transportation, no space bridge, no Jetfire to hitch a ride on, and now no space ship. Optimus has his jetpack, but who knows if that can support all the Autobots? And from what we've seen, the Autobots, in car form, are still somewhat limited to how fast their car modes are. They're top-of-the-line in terms of their car parts, but seemingly limited to what regular cars can have (as per Mikaela checking under Bee's hood in movie 1. Even if they could push that limit, it's still a really long drive, and likely on roads with humans driving on it. So, what are your thoughts? A deliberate, avoidable act, or just a poor choice of words on Optimus' part? Was there anyway to do things differently, or prevent human deaths under the circumstances?
The way I see it is this: OP's options: disregard the human order and stay, likely to be killed by the humans. just leave. fake the Autobots' deaths. In the novel of DOTM, it was made quite clear that the governments were listening to Sentinel, and if the Autobots had stayed, they would have been hunted down and killed, if not nuked. The Autobots would never just leave humans to the Cons' mercy, they will always fight back. That's what makes them the good TFs, defending the innocent worlds like Earth. Faking the Autobots' deaths was the best way to go without leaving the humans to fend for themselves. The Autobots had the element of surprise to retaliate against the Cons. However, it would have greatly helped if they knew where the Cons would attack, as the drive was long and there was no other transportation, as was already said. The strategy was far from perfect, but it was the best they had.
I don't think there was any other way. Considering how powerful the Decepticons were at that point, they didn't have much of a chance but to comply, but then attacking back. It's sad that the humans turned on them after that. I think that decision was just done for the sake of story-writing. I still don't understand how all of a sudden the world population could just be against the Autobots.
The lesson Optimus was trying to teach Earth was that they needed help - which becomes the focus of AOE where the humans are trying to branch off effectively saying the don't need Autobots as they are creating their own robots to help (The Vehicons) In DOTM the only option for them was to fake their departure as they knew the Decepticons would likely try and kill them - and even if the Decepticons didn't do anything they knew they would be better staying on Earth protecting the humans. Though Optimus's speech makes it sound like he intended to let Chicago get blown up before returning as the Earth's saviours.
