My fondly-remembered high school Latin teacher used to point out that it's no insult to be called ignorant. "Ignorance" merely means "not knowing," and we're all ignorant about something or other. The real shame is in being unwilling to do anything about it - either because we're too complacent to dig up the facts, or too comfortable with a viewpoint we've formed on incomplete or biased information. I see a great deal of ignorance out there when it comes to the topic of Nightbird, and a great deal of unwillingness to educate oneself. After all, it's "just a cartoon," so why put so much thought into it? And yet, there is such a thing as a fact even in fiction. So I address this essay to the ignorant - to those who "don’t know," merely because they haven't had the opportunity to encounter all the facts. In the sadly insufficient space of one page, I will attempt to remedy.
I'll start with an easy one. I've often heard mocking comments about the Decepticons' "secret base" in the Nightbird episode. Here is a "secret base" marked by a great big purple Decepticon symbol carved into a mountainside. Not very subtle, is it? Silly, even? Well, watch the episode instead of repeating what you may have heard from others. In fact, what Megatron said was "this new base is only temporary." Never once is the word "secret" or "hidden" used. It's likely that the very deliberate obviousness of the base is what made it temporary. It was intended as such all along - a visible symbol of pride, a slap in the face to the Autobots, and a laying-claim to the surrounding mountainside. Not a secret staging-ground.
Then there's the concept of Dr. Fujiyama building a giant ninja robot. Sounds a little absurd at first glance, doesn't it? An easy target for ridicule - but such ridicule only shows the lazy-minded ignorance of those who engage in it. Place yourself into the world of the TF cartoon universe. This is a world in which giant alien robots from space are real. It's eminently logical that the competitive scientific community would wish to prove that humans, too, can create something to stand on a level with (or above) the highly-advanced aliens. Rather than letting himself be intimidated or feeling hopelessly out of his league, Dr. Fujiyama decided to "demonstrate to the world the limitless capabilities of technology." The existing Transformers served as the inspiration, but the resulting Nightbird was not a mere imitation. Dr. Fujiyama added his own unique additions into the mix, resulting in a creation that was in many ways superior to the original. That's a pervasive Japanese cultural talent - to take an existing idea, and improve upon it to make it uniquely theirs. In a world whose reality includes giant alien robots, it would have been far-fetched if such a project had not been attempted.
Now we get to the more weighty matters. The question of Nightbird's sentience has a blindingly obvious answer - and yet for some reason people repeatedly miss the point. To the extent that I wonder what conscious or subconscious ulterior motives there must be, to willfully cling to the ignorance (in every sense of the word, now) that Nightbird is not sentient. Her every action, and every reaction by the other characters toward her, is ample evidence of her sentience and sapience. For space reasons I will list only a few examples: Nightbird responds to what is said to her and about her (punches Starscream when he insults her; retrieves her sword in an unexpected manner when taunted by Prime). She reacts to the changing situations around her in a considered and intelligent manner (bypassing the new Autobot security system; playing "robotopossum"). She shows emotional responses. Watch the part where she leaps up the cliffside and away from the Autobots who smugly thought her trapped; she pauses for an instant and looks back, her whole stance and expression saying "Ha!" A non-sentient drone would have continued its "escape routine" without any evidence of triumph. And of course at the end, when she's locked away into a living death, her expression of anger and outrage is unmistakable. I can picture numerous humans who don't show this much evidence that there's a thinking intelligent mind within the physical form!
The other robots in the episode, too, are completely clear on the fact that Nightbird is a sapient being. The most obvious example, of course, is Megatron. He has a great interest in Nightbird right from the start, snapping at Bombshell for his disparaging remarks, and being pleased at Nightbird's assertive response to Starscream's insults. No wishy-washy demure female for him! By the time he's watching Nightbird fight the Autobots, it's obvious to any onlooker that he has fallen in love with her. Even Starscream acknowledges Nightbird (albeit with disgust) as Megatron's "precious ninja." Megatron reacts with dismay when the Autobots contain her in an energy net, and immediately resolves to rescue her - using that exact word, rescue. One does not rescue a non-sentient tool or drone. Furthermore, he's far more interested in rescuing Nightbird than in retrieving the original intent of her mission - the World Energy Supply Chip that she obtained from Autobot base. This item, incidentally, he vows to retrieve. Note the difference in terminology. Once at the battle site, the World Energy Chip, as valuable as it could be to the Decepticon cause, is almost an incidental matter - and the anguish in Megatron's tone as he calls out Nightbird's name when she falls, is unmistakable.
It doesn't take the brilliance of Megatron to recognize Nightbird as a real-live intelligent being. Even a dullard such as Prime has no trouble figuring it out; he addresses Nightbird directly, tries to reason with her, and apologizes for getting ready to fire on her. (The hypocrisy of these actions will be explored momentarily.) Bombshell's tune changes drastically from his initial, critical evaluation ("This is child’s-play") to an unabashed admiration ("She is magnificent!"). And most telling of all, Starscream becomes jealous of Megatron's obvious affection for Nightbird - following his old pattern of resenting most the individuals whom Megatron especially values. You'll note that Starscream did not physically attack Megatron when he said "You’re definitely on my replacement list, Starscream." By that point Starscream had already come up quietly next to Megatron and was just standing there. But he swung the punch when Megatron said "She's everything I've always wanted."
So, if it was obvious to every robot in the episode (we don't really know what the humans thought) that Nightbird was a living, feeling, thinking, sentient being - what does that make Prime? Perhaps here is a hint to the stubborn ignorance of so many TransFans on the nature of Nightbird. Because here is Prime trying to drag a living sentient being back into slavery. He considered this intelligent, independent female to be the "property" of Dr. Fujiyama. He even had the nerve at one point to say, as he was trying to con Nightbird into lowering her guard, "We've come to help." To help!! Perhaps in his own misogynistic view (see the way he treats his own mate), he considered it a female's place to be enslaved and unable to make her own choices. Ah, but there's the rub - because her choice was to join the Decepticons. And so all notions of "freedom as the right of sentient beings" fly out the window, and all unspeakable cruelty - murder and beyond - is justified. At the end of the episode, Prime states that Nightbird has been "deprogrammed and neutralized" - a horrific euphemism if ever there was one. In truth he sanctioned either outright killing her, or destroying her mind. If he was aware that in fact Nightbird was still alive and conscious (and this, we don't know for sure), then his crime is even worse, for he stood there in self-satisfaction and condemned her to the eternal hell of a living death.
Nightbird is, when all is said and done, the single most important female Decepticon role model in the whole of the TF universe. We see other females on fleeting occasions (yes, even other female Decepticons - look for the "Lady in Purple," the unnamed female seeker, in the third part of MTMTE) - but only Nightbird is showcased as a strong and independent and intelligent individual - one worthy of Megatron's affections. Of those who still wish to cling desperately to ignorance, I would wonder: do they demean Nightbird because her existence shows Prime to be a slaver and a hypocrite? Because her existence proves that Megatron can feel love? Or because she's a powerful and self-sufficient female character? Regardless of how threatened some may feel by all these facts, they still remain facts. The most wishful thinking, and the most malevolent slander, will not alter them.
--Raksha the Plumed Serpent
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