“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” But freedom has its dark side, too, which is anarchy. If people are given freedom to do whatever they want, then it’s bound to end in chaos and disorder. In fact that would be an interesting angle to look at: an anarchist antagonist to the Decepticons, either someone who wants freedom like Optimus but is wilder about it, or Optimus himself trying a bit of freedom-anarchy (a la Alan Moore’s V).

Besides that, what about freedom of choice? Optimus fights for the freedom of people, but doesn’t that include the right to side with the Decepticons, the right to be evil, the right to completely mess up your own life? Would he actually fight for those rights, even if they seem to go against what he personally ? It’s interesting because without the Decepticons to be tyrannic enough to combat his belief in freedom makes him look rather revolutionary and anarchist.

What would Optimus do if faced with freedom’s dark issues? Would he be able to reconcile them with his own belief in freedom?

 

The total-freedom-leading-to-anarchy you're describing is pretty much what the Decepticons are all about. I should be free to take whatever I want, free to hurt whoever stands in my way and free to oppress whoever I can.

Clearly that isn't the kind of freedom Optimus is advocating though. As a counterpoint to the Decepticons, Optimus and the Autobots champion the cause of freedom from oppression more than anything else. It's a trivial matter for someone like Optimus to distinguish between personal freedom, and the personal freedom which is actually just a means of oppressing others. That's why he's always striving to protect innocent bystanders while actively opposing the Decepticons. It makes for a relatively easy and straightforward dichotomy and is why the Autobots are "heroic" and the Decepticons are "evil".

 

Well there is the argument that being ruled by evil, selfish motivations is a form of slavery, rather than freedom.

 

Unfortunately, the possibility of deep philosophical discussion on the nature of choice and freedom are usually beyond the scope of a children's cartoon.

 

You don't need much. Fraggle Rock did quite well with, "I guess some slavery feels like freedom."

 

I always assumed that the decepticon's version of 'freedom' was either anarchy, or oppression, that way they would be free. I also assumed optimus's idea of freedom was basically ours, that we can be free without infringing on other peoples rights or freedom.

 

Fraggle Rock was way ahead of itself in terms of message though, even by today's standards.


How about this, Optimus Prime has been an Autobot his entire life, and upon ascending to the leadership role, became imbued with the essence/knowledge of previous Autobot leaders, and arguably, Primus itself. As a result, he basically doubled down and entrenched himself ideologically with respect to "traditional" cybertronian values. His idea of "freedom" is the freedom to follow the old ways, to carry out the "will" of Primus, to live according to the status quo before the war. Anything that gets in the way of that status quo, that "divinely inspired" way of living is, in his eyes, tyranny. For cybertronians only, of course. Since other races aren't tied as creations of Primus, he looks on their ways with a much more laissez-faire, "let them choose for themselves" way of thinking.

 

I think this is a simple matter where opposites do define each other. Optimus's definition/conception of freedom is probably freedom from tyranny.

 

Freedom to make your own decisions and live your life how you want to - but the decisions you make come with a responsibility. Optimus isn't really promoting anarchy, nor do I think he's a hypocrite.

 

Not if media made for children is intended to educate. Well, it's gonna teach them things no matter what anyone wants, so applying some intellectual and moral rigour to the writing isn't an alien concept.

The problem is that telling children things that are true is often something a major company doesn't want to do. Some things are avoided because they're controversial and might possibly hurt sales (like "queer people are also human") while other things challenge the fundamental power structure that the company is built upon (like "poverty is unjust").

Transformers could be used to pose any number of questions about the state of the world but it just aint going to come from a company that is concerned only with making lots of profit by selling toys.

 

I've seen "liberal" points of view presented in children's shows many times, including the idea that poverty is unjust. Wealthy studios aren't above being a little hypocritical, hehe.  

 

How many of them called for a radical restructuring of the global resource allocation system?

 

I would say the over whelming majority of children's shows advocate sharing resources and saving people in need from greedy villains.

 

The russian and north korean ones, because the moral and intellectual content of a work, aimed at children or otherwise, will be tied to the cultural context of it's origin/target both in terms of geography and time.

 

But not beyond the comics. Which would be a good place for Optimus to face this issue on. If he hasn't before.

You're right. And like I said, without the bad guys to oppress there's no good guys to fight for freedom from them. The civil war polarizes, and divides people into black and white, good and evil.

As the IDW comics has shown, a post-war era has people are still finding their own path. It won't be long before another conflict appears to create a schism and set the war off again (only with the troops rearranged). As I see it, the Great War made things simple, to the point where the Transformers can't seem to function adequately outside of it.

 

Was it irony that most of the fraggles' wisdom was dispensed by a "Trash Heap"?

Has Optimus ever done anything in the comics besides expound on the notion of freedom? That's pretty much his whole schtick isn't it?

 

Ironically, I think the Fraggles learned that lesson on their own in that episode, lol.

 

Well anyone can interpret freedom in their own ways. I do think Optimus understands what freedom is and what problems it can bring. That's why they have a legal system including a prison system. Heck even the Decepticons have the DJD (Decepticon Justice Division) and have Kaon Prison. How I interpret freedom according to autobots is mainting the peace and Cybertronian/human rights. According to IDW, Decepticons were formed because they felt oppressed from Autobot rules and the status quo (granted many of the Autobots in high positions were corrupt) so that's why Megatron hates the Autobots and wants his version of freedom on Cybertron, "Peace through tryanny." Tyranny towards the Autobots, but then somehow the idea is thrown around that Megatron became drunk in power and now became a super villain. I think this thought is thrown around just for the idea of good v. evil.

 

I've always thought freedom as (and take note, I am no smart cookie) You're free to swing your fist around, but as soon as you hit someone, you're in trouble.

You're free, as long as you don't hurt someone else with your freedom.

I THINK that's what Prime aims for, but again, I'm not that bright. I'm sure smarter people like you guys can argue this out.

 

This is pretty deep....
There's flaw with his statement anyway, should a sentient murderer be free to carry on or detained in a cell to protect other sentient beings.