MovieChat Forums > Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Discussion > Anyone else bothered by Optimus Prime's ...

Anyone else bothered by Optimus Prime's hypocrisy?

posted 13 years ago by GrifterZed
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm not going to go in depth until I hear some feedback, but... He states that the Autobots will not share their technology for weaponry because of our capacity for violence. Yet, it is HIS race that has waged war for millenia on each other, in a civil war, mind you. Killing their own kind. "Evil" as SOME might consider the Decepticons, justifying the Autobot's intentions, their battles on what amounts to MANY, MANY planets bearing life over the years stands to reason THEY have caused much more loss of life than humans have ever even had the CHANCE to! Homo Sapien Sapien has only been around for 100,000 years. I don't care if we had actually killed off half of the population everyday for our entire existence, there is no way that it would remotely equal the amount of death following their war for 2 million years. Especially with their lack of "discretion," as it were... You know, with the massive destruction of skyscrapers and the like in major metropolitan areas. Oh, and let's not forget the carnage personally inflicted by the Decepticons themselves in an attempt at either some sort of apathetic genocide or coercion, not just collateral damage done by the Autobots. Thoughts?

[–] JeSouhaite1013 13 years ago

I don't think he was being a hypocrite. He never said that humans were violent and that the Transformers weren't. He didn't even say that humans were more violent than the Cybertronians and he didn't deny that the Transformers were just as violent, or even more violent, than we are.

It's just that he knows that we are violent and does not want to give us access to greater weapons that can be used to harm other humans and to cause even more destruction.

He knows that the Transformers are very violent and he knows of their destruction and wars. But he has said that he doesn't want Earth to suffer the same fate as Cybertron so why would he give us advanced weapon technology so that we could continue the violence on a larger scale.

I would have done the same thing in his position. I mean he has watched his home planet destroyed by war by his own race so he probably won't want to do anything to help his new adopted planet be destroyed by human war either.

Of course that doesn't solve the problem since Decepticons may continue to attack Earth in which case it would be useful to have more advanced Cybertronian weapons in the military.

But at the time Optimus was acting out of compassion since he saw it as us using Cybertronian weapons against ourselves and not just having them in store if Megatron and Co return.

[–] Abuhin 13 years ago

why would he give us advanced weapon technology so that we could continue the violence on a larger scale.

Yup. Every other weapon designer in real life human history said it was in the name of peace. He wanted to make something so awesomely terrible, everyone would want to avoid war. How's that worked so far?

In the first movie, Optimus calls humanity "a young species." Not ready for all the advancements that Cybertronians could offer. If I gave a child a gun, I share responsibility if the kid shoots anyone.

I admit I think it's odd that by third movie, we don't see more of them trying to integrate into civilian life and industries. They were already exposed, after all. I remember in one of the cartoon remakes, a few Autobots became trains and actually worked at a passenger line. The only problem is when they were called away for duty and the commuters complained about the delays.

[–] Zero_Wolf 13 years ago

His hypocrisy did not bother me.

The idea that Optimus wouldn't simply loan a small group of trusted humans some fancy guns to help everyone out was just more stupidity in a very stupid movie. His explanation for his lack of faith was just "blah blah blah" in my ears because really who cares at that point?

[–] Dachunde 13 years ago

He originally said 'You AMERICANS' and your capacity for violence. But they dubbed it.

IMDB - Because some trolls need more than just a bridge

[–] 13 years ago

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