Autobot Racism

[Best First]

http://www.smactalk.com.au/?p=306#more-306

I wanted to play with that idea and reveal the Autobots to be capable of a sort of racism towards the Decepticons. For that I needed an Autobot that was previously a Decepticon and Drift seemed the perfect choice, a clean slate I could use to make that point clear.

Right.

Two things.

Firstly, is disliking a group you have been at war with for millenia 'a sort of racism'? This seems similar to the sort of racisim inherent in not liking Pat lee's art. Is there something clever here i am missing? That the good guys might not immediately cosy up to a former bad guy?

Second - does anyone recall this, IN ANY WAY, coming across in AHM? I not remember thinking "gosh that seems a bit like a... sort of racism"

gah.

[Kaylee]

He *may* be delusional about the quality and scope of his own work. Much like David Hasselhoff thinks he helped bring down the Berlin Wall...

[Brendocon]

I vaguely recall some throwaway line in one issue that was an Autobot making a snide comment about Drift based on his past or something.

But to be honest I don't really remember or care enough to go and check.

[Professor Smooth]

Second - does anyone recall this, IN ANY WAY, coming across in AHM? I not remember thinking "gosh that seems a bit like a... sort of racism"

gah.

Drift said something about "being true to who we are," and Hot Rod countered with, "The last thing any of us need is YOU being true to who YOU are."

Although, that's assuming he meant, "a lousy Decepticon" and not "Deadlock, the guy who butchered hundreds of Autobots."

The "racism" thing would only work if there were large groups of "casual Decepticons." Decepticons who wear the symbol, but don't fight. I don't think that's been established in IDW's continuity. Even then, it's not "racism." It'd be akin to anti-religious sentiment. Drift/Deadlock wouldn't fit into that category, anyway.

In Drift/Deadlock's case, it's exceptionally daft. The guy killed however many Autobots. He was, apparently, the "go-to" guy for that sort of thing. It'd be like if Osama bin Laden changed his name to Henry Diesel and tried to join the US army. Throwing his ass in jail to await execution would be the obvious decision. And NOBODY would call it racism.

Hell, the fact that most of the Autobots trust Drift (according to AHM) speaks to the exact OPPOSITE of racism. "Yeah, you killed a ton of my friends and comrades, but I guess anybody can change if given the chance."

That's tolerance, acceptance, and (like a lot of things these days) UTTER STUPIDITY!

[Professor Smooth]

Oh, and as for that "large group of non-combatants who identify with a faction thing." It's been done. In Beast Wars. With Rattrap and Dinobot. There'd been peace on Cybertron. There were, apparently, about a dozen Predacons with overtly nefarious motives, and yet Rattrap can't shut up about "lousy, stinkin' preds."

Now that I think about it, Drift is seriously starting to come across as a really poorly done Dinobot clone. I'm probably the last one to come p with this, but give me a break here.

Thing is, IDW's made the same mistake that George Lucas made with the Star Wars prequels. If you want to have an evil character redeem himself, you can't have him do unforgivable things. Slaughter an entire family of people, an entire building full of children, or scores of Autobots. Those actions are not "forgive and forget" types of things.

[Brendocon]

that bit with Hot Rod is what I was thinking of.

Anyway, the whole Carnivac plot from Marvel was better. OBVS.

[EDIT]

Thing is, IDW's made the same mistake that George Lucas made with the Star Wars prequels. If you want to have an evil character redeem himself, you can't have him do unforgivable things. Slaughter an entire family of people, an entire building full of children, or scores of Autobots. Those actions are not "forgive and forget" types of things.

Agree with that. One of my favourite redemption storylines is Angel... solely because it's recognised by the character that nothing he does will ever make up for what he did before. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't do what he can anyway.

[Yaya]

http://www.smactalk.com.au/?p=306#more-306

I wanted to play with that idea and reveal the Autobots to be capable of a sort of racism towards the Decepticons. For that I needed an Autobot that was previously a Decepticon and Drift seemed the perfect choice, a clean slate I could use to make that point clear.

Right.

Two things.

Firstly, is disliking a group you have been at war with for millenia 'a sort of racism'? This seems similar to the sort of racisim inherent in not liking Pat lee's art. Is there something clever here i am missing? That the good guys might not immediately cosy up to a former bad guy?

Second - does anyone recall this, IN ANY WAY, coming across in AHM? I not remember thinking "gosh that seems a bit like a... sort of racism"

gah.

I think the attempt of creating racial tensions amongst the Decepticons had to do with the Seekers disliking the Insecticons or something.

Whatever it was, it was lame.

[Metal Vendetta]

I'm may have blocked this from memory, but doesn't Bumblebee say something vaguely unpleasant and judgemental about Drift at some point? The idea being that even friendly little 'Bee doesn't like this guy because he's a MASSIVE RACIST?

[Jack Cade]

Sorry - you don't need AHM out in front of you at all, do you? You just need that one quote from Shane. What a fist-chewingly, head-on-desk, brain-liquifyingly stupid idea.

Two factions. Of the same race. Who've been fighting for millions of years. One of those factions are made up of mostly psychopaths and peace-through-tyranny types. So let's play with the idea that distrusting members or recent ex-members of that faction is *racist*.

What does he even think racism is? When a white Australian punches another white Australian in the face?

No wonder it didn't come across. You'd have to literally have a character say, "I'm racist towards Decepticons!" to even hint at the idea, and even then you'd just assume that character had gone crackers.

[Shanti418]

You know who did Transformer racism right, IMO? Furman in G2, with the Jhaxius Deceps racist against the "older generation." Although I suppose that was more ageist than racist. Again thinking of G2, if IDW had brought up the idea that Primus made Autobots and Liege Maximo made Decepticons, perhaps the idea of racism in TF wouldn't come across as poorly conceived with an even worse execution.

[Best First]

i think that would be awful as well to be honest - the bad guys are bad because they are the bad guy race, the good guys are good because they are the good guy race.

ugh. bit too quint like for my liking.

[Sunyavadin]

See, in G2 it ACTUALLY MADE SENSE as racism.
The cybertronians following the Liege Maximo had generations of isolation from the Autobots and Decepticons. And it shows in the parallels to Earth history. When Jhiaxus and his cronies (Europeans) returned to Cybertron (Africa) they considered the indigenous population to be primitive, less evolved savages, and themselves to be the superior, more evolved race.

[Kinf Og The World]

Yeah, it's 'tarded. The Insecticons bit felt more like elitism, but again, this was a McCarthy Special - 'Hey, it makes sense in my head, why bother telling the readers!'

When Bee was all like, 'Drift, you pretty much still shot all those guys who I used to knock back Kremzeek's with in the trenches - no matter how stuck up and superior and swordy you are now, so do one, prick.' I felt like, 'Hey! An Autobot with a brain module!' rather than slapping him for besmirching a poor set-upon space samurai unicorn princess's noble honour. Still, Roddy stood up for him. But then he's been full of dumb ideas of recent. So's BB. Maybe we can recon it as hanging around on Sunny Radioactive Cybertron rots your brains?

Bot racism though? Gah. Does this mean by going from 'Con to 'Bot, Drifty's basically put on blackface? Or is it the ol' 1940's lampshade, joke teeth and fingers on squinty optics? Is Drift #1 really just White Chicks put through a robot-to-car-to-robot-again filter?