Good Versus Evil
Or: Why Decepticons are awesome, Autobots not so much.
For reasons that I cannot explain, I have liked the bad guys more than the good guys in nearly every fandom. There are exceptions of course: Hellboy is one of them. This is probably because the protagonists are monsters and creatures just like the antagonists, it's just that Hellboy and his colleagues are more, I don't know, charming? Rasputin, Hecate and the Baba Yaga are some of the only reoccurring villains, and they are incredibly difficult to like.
I have agreed wholeheartedly with my sister that He-Man and the Masters of the Universe should just be called The Skeletor Show. That series has got the worst cast of heroes (Man-E-Faces? Really?*), but one of the best arrays of villains. I mean, come on, Skeletor. Not to mention Mer-Man, Evil-Lynn, Beast Man and, my favorite, Tri Klops. Then you have the Thundercats, whose villains were increasingly clever and entertaining as the show went on. The Lunataks had me at Alluro, and the pirates, oh my the pirates. Don't get me wrong: Panthro was and always will be my favorite character of that series, but I could never hate Mumm-Ra or the Mutants.
Back in high school, the first time I saw the 3-part More Than Meets the Eye, I really liked Hound - but I also really liked Soundwave. Once I got a hold of the first DVD set of G1 Transformers in college, I vowed to myself that for once I would like the good guys better than the bad guys. I tried. Believe me, I really, really did. I probably broke that vow within five episodes. Once the second season cast was introduced, there was no going back. Triple Changers and Stunticons and Combaticons - oh my!
May be they're appealing because they're flawed and unapologetic about it. After all, aren't we taught to be comfortable with who we are, and not let anyone else get us down about it? And who does that better than the Decepticons? Many of them have egos the size of Unicron, which makes for a very volatile cast, but watching them play off one another is half the fun. Sure, the Autobots have their own flaws, but they're nowhere near as entertaining as the Decepticons.
Everyone, 'good' or 'evil', has their own story to tell. It's partly why I plan on writing about the Terrorcons: they're sidelined characters to begin with, but once you scratch beneath the surface (I don't recommend doing this with Blot) there's an awful lot there. It's also why I wrote about Demolishor** and Sideways, and why I want to write more about Blackout, Barricade, Scorponok, etc. The story of the Good Guys gets rehashed a million and one times, but the Bad Guys are always forced to be left glaring at them menacingly from the shadows.
That's probably why I like the villains so much more: the fact that you don't know much about them, but you want to. Everyone else wants to see what happens to the Hero, but I'm curious about what makes the Bad Guy, well, bad. There are times, however, where I can enjoy the absence of a villain (a natural disaster, for instance), or a villain that's not so different from the hero***. A weak, pointless antagonist is partly why I found 9 to be so disappointing. The Machine was entirely lacking in motive; in fact, it was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing, and painting it as evil is somewhat heartbreaking. Added to the fact that it was essentially amoral****, and you have a misunderstood character painted as demonic.
Amoral does not equal evil. My dog is amoral and selfish; every morning he wakes me up wanting to be let out, wanting breakfast, wanting to play, chases the neighbors cat, pees on the flowers, wants this, wants that - it's all about him! But that doesn't make him evil; he's a dog for crying out loud.*****
To relate this to certain giant alien robots, there are a lot of morally gray areas when it comes to both factions. In the IDW verse, the Autobots don't exactly have a shining past: one could say the corruption of the Senate and exploitation of its people led directly to rebellion and revolution in the form of the Decepticon cause. Omega Supreme's involvement with Nova/Nemesis Prime earned him the eternal hatred of the Monstercons, who are more or less victims of cruel experiments and then were locked up in some interdimensional prison when they went nuts. Jetfire and Fortress Maximus make a pretty shifty decision about letting Arcee loose; and then lie about it to Prowl and Prime. Some role models you guys are!
The Decepticons aren't so concerned or guilt ridden about such things. Depending on what continuity you look at, many of them had it pretty rough, let down by the morals and standards the Autobots adore. Several continuities are unclear over why the war even started, or the reasons seem incredibly flimsy. I have a hard time swallowing the 'because one side is good and the other is evil' explanation. Don't get me wrong: at the end of the day I'd rather the Autobots win, if only because that means I won't die a horrible death at the hands of the Decepticons. It's just that I don't see pure Good and pure Evil being very clear, or realistic in this world, and that thinking crosses over into my fandoms.
Boy, that was an awful lot of words about something. So, uh, in conclusion, I like the Decepticons better than the Autobots. Phew.
*It would be entirely dishonest to say stupid names are the reason I can't stand the good guys. The Transformers are guilty of having some pretty bad ones, but I don't hold it against the character like I do with He-Man.
**Now with 100% more accurate spelling! I fail at being a nerd.
***Heroes' Sylar comes to mind, the insane murderer whose weakness is his own power, declaring: “I'm the real hero.”
****Assuming, of course, having intelligence but no soul is amoral, instead of immoral. I don't think the Machine had any idea that what it was doing was wrong; it was reacting to a shitty situation the only way it knew how.
*****If you're interested in emotions and 'morality' in dogs, I'd suggest reading Patricia B. McConnell's For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend. Having some background in Pavlov helps, but she explains it all very well. Wow, what does this have to do with Transformers?