Because nothing says "great leader"...

[dragovianknight]

...like physically altering people by force and against their will.






Mostly, I wonder if tumblr fandom would be as uncritically "awww yis, Megatron is an awesome badass leader" if instead of curing alcoholism he was enforcing celibacy. "No more impure thoughts for you! *smack*"

Edit: *sobs* This is the most recent not on this particular photoset: "Aaaall of this. In the brief glimpses we’ve seen of Megatron on the Lost Light so far, he’s already looking like a far better captain than Rodimus ever was. Then again, Megatron is a seasoned leader— whereas Rodimus is still very naive and inexperienced in many ways."

Tumblr fandom...and possibly other parts of fandom, IDK...genuinely sees this as GOOD LEADERSHIP on Megatron's part. I can't even.

Edit: Found a spoilery review of the issue in question. Still not feeling the "Megatron is a great leader" vibe.

Comments

[hagar_972]

*twitch* Yeah, how about no.

[dragovianknight]

I mean, okay, it's Tumblr, but I've seen one too many reblogs of a comment chain that ends with "But I think this scene seriously endears everyone to the idea of Megs actually being a good captain." and barely anyone going "OMG WTF NO!" (I did have a convo with someone who said the Decepticons are the good guys and only LOOK evil because they'll do anything to win, but in tracking back notes I've seen ZERO objection to Megatron doing this.)

[recessional]

(I did have a convo with someone who said the Decepticons are the good guys and only LOOK evil because they'll do anything to win

*opens mouth*

*gives up, closes mouth* my head hurts now.

[dragovianknight]

Yeah, pretty much. She kept saying they were "misguided, maybe" and "had good intentions" and "but their goal of a just and equal society is great!" and not understanding that their methods DO NOT LEAD to that outcome, no matter what they supposedly are fighting for.

[recessional]

/o\

.....hopefully she's one of the teenagers just trying out the idea of moral complexity.

[dragovianknight]

I have no clue. But it reinforces my "oh, god, TUMBLR" reflex.

[hagar_972]

Framing. Megatron is posited by the narrative to be the Good Leader, and most people stop thinking and start interpreting everything he does through that angle.

I'm having this issue with the Haven fandom, where the show surface-presents a certain relationship as romantic (I'm hedging, because the narrative is more open and layered than people take it), and the fandom seems to ignore that Partner A has significant chronic sensory deprivation and identity-important aspects of his life are falling apart on him one by one, and Partner B can provide temporary solace from the sense dep and has all the charm of a serial killer who had centuries to hone her craft.

[dragovianknight]

In this case, I can see that, but the Megatron apologists are pretty rampant even when narratively he's posited as the villain.

And oh lord, Haven. I had to stop reading comments on Hulu for that series (not that comments on Hulu are ever a good thing.)

[hagar_972]

At which point I'm going to give up and point to "cultural narrative of glorification of raw-power-based or positional Authority", because I ran out of more proximal explanations.

God, Haven. Love the show, give the fandom really shitty looks. PoI fandom at least tries, though people miss the fucking point as often as not. Haven fandom... I can't be the only person creeped the fucked up by Nathan/Audrey and thinking that Nathan is... well, let's call it "has privilege and interpersonal imagination issues" and leave it at that.

[dragovianknight]

I haven't kept up with Haven, but at no point did I think we were actually supposed to buy Nathan/Audrey as a Great Romantic Couple. Or at least, I hope the writers don't expect us to. The fact that so much of fandom thinks they ARE just makes me shake my head.

[hagar_972]

I'm not suee at what point you quit, but at the end of S3 Nathan does something Greek Tragedy levela of stupid over Audrey, and S4 is all sorts of bent around those two as a result. I'm iffy on what the writers‘ position is because on the one hand they don't seem to lick the glorification of Audrey-and-Nathan, but on the other th L-word gets applied to them a lot anddeliverance through Love is definitely a Thing on this show. Just... Even the Nathan/ Audrey and OT3 people! God, how about no. Duke, like any decent human being, deserves better than the way either of then treats him.