I've touched on "The Secret of Omega Supreme" before, in
the course of one of these babblings, but only for the sake of
dismissing it as "never having happened." I mean, it was quite obvious
to me: not only did it contradict the Constructicon origin that was
shown in "Heavy Metal War," but it introduced a concept so ludicrous
(the "Robo-Smasher") that the only rational response was to laugh it
off and resume regularly scheduled programming. When part of the
story doesn't fit the previous continuity, one is perfectly free to dismiss
it. Right?
Well, sometimes. The Movie/third-season universe, for
instance, runs so decidedly counter to what I perceive in the pre-Movie
universe, that I feel entirely justified in relegating it into its own lesser
little alternate continuity. Beast Wars is careening headlong in the
same direction. In the case of "Secret of Omega", however, I've since
come to realize that this would be a lazy way out, one that lacks
creativity, and one that isn't warranted. At some point, one has to draw
the line and be consistent with what one will and will not regard as
"canon", and only in the most dire circumstances should it be
permissible to cut bits and pieces out of the larger context. If the pre-
Movie cartoon universe is going to be my "canon," for instance, then
the events of the pre-Movie universe, as shown in the cartoons, are
"what happened." Not to say that they are all that happened to the
characters during this timeframe in their history, and the events that
were shown are not always to be taken entirely at face value when it
comes to interpretation (remember that it's still steeped in pro-Autobot
propaganda, any way you look at it, despite being a thousand times
superior to the Beast Wars approach) - but the events that are shown,
must be taken to have occurred in some manner none the less. Or else
one's own basis for continuity becomes arbitrary and decidedly
weakened.
What of the Constructicons, then? There's an apparent
irreconcilable contradiction between "Heavy Metal War," where
Megatron states they were just then built in the caverns of Earth, and
between "Secret" where they're shown to already exist on Cybertron
many millions of years earlier. Grounds for cutting "Secret" out of
continuity? Not really; perplexing as it seems at first glance, this is
really the easy question. We might assume, for instance, that "built in
the caverns of Earth" actually meant "rebuilt", that their minds were
stored (much as the Combaticons were) for easier transport, and they
were re-awakened when their bodies were rebuilt again on Earth.
Prime does at one point claim that the Constructicons traveled to Earth
on their own to rejoin their leader, in which case they might have been
damaged in a crash and thus had to be rebuilt - or, he may simply not
have known what he was talking about, and made an assumption (a
common practice for him), while in fact they were deliberately taken
along on the Decepticon ship from the beginning. In any case, as I
said, that's the minor issue - easily explained if we remember that
plenty of events must have occurred in the lives of the characters that
weren't shown.
What of the truly preposterous notion that the Constructicons
were violently brainwashed into becoming Decepticons? Is the
Decepticon cause so unappealing, and its leader a megalomaniacal
madman who would have to resort to such measures in order to gain
troops, because no one in their right mind would willingly join him?
This is certainly the impression that "Secret" attempts to leave us with.
Never mind that a Transformer is a complex living being, whose
entire personality and ideology can no more be permanently
"reprogrammed" by a bit of foreign input, than a human can be
permanently warped by a single session with a malevolent hypnotist.
Never mind that the Decepticons, as courageous individualists, would
have precious little use for warriors who weren't willing and proud to
be part of the cause of their own accord. Never mind that. It was
shown in the episode, and by the argument I've made above, I
should be compelled to accept it as fact.
And if you think the story ends here and is entirely that
simplistic, you haven't been reading Con-Quest very long. The forcible
brainwashing of the Constructicons was in fact not shown. The
entire sequence was a flashback, a story told by Omega Supreme, with
much leading-of-the-witness by Optimus Prime. Omega, consciously
or unconsciously, had motive to skew the story - because he couldn't
accept that those he'd previously considered decent, friendly
individuals, would voluntarily join a cause that he himself found
deplorable. Surely they couldn't have joined Megatron because they
realized his way was the right one, the way that appealed to them
personally and offered them the greatest opportunity - surely
something had to have been "done to them" in order to force them to
that point. At least, so was the fuzzy reasoning of Omega Supreme.
And over the years, he surely came to believe this himself. All it took
was a little prodding from a commander who himself subscribed to the
same biased mindset ("No decent, friendly, honorable individual
would voluntarily join the Decepticons"), and Omega told exactly the
story that both he and Optimus wanted to hear.
Ever heard of False Memory Syndrome? With the right
urging, supposedly repressed memories of alien abductions, childhood
abuse, violent crime, etc., come back to the surface, in such detail that
the person is convinced they're true memories. Except that, on
investigation, very often they're not; there have even been studies in
which the process was undergone experimentally, knowing from the
start that the suggestions given had no basis in fact - and still they
resulted in what felt like "true memories" to the subjects. In the case of
Omega Supreme, we have Prime saying, essentially, "Come now,
Omega - you're grim and dour and stand-offish; something horrible
must have happened to you to make you that way. (Implied but not
spoken: something obviously having to do with the Decepticons, since
the source of all evil comes from them.) Won't you tell me about it?"
And that's all that was needed to spark an old lack of understanding
into a tale of gruesome violation.
It could be much simpler than that, of course. Have you ever
gotten together with an old friend whom you haven't seen in years,
and started to reminisce - and then realized you were remembering the
exact same events totally differently? Perhaps even getting into an
argument over it - "Hey, I remember this like it was yesterday, and I
never said that!" Have you ever had a dream that you later were
convinced had actually happened to you, until you were presented with
evidence to the contrary? Have you ever felt a sense of deja-vu, an
absolute certainty that you'd experienced something before and
remembered seeing it, maybe even convinced yourself it was a "past-
life flashback" or some such improbability - and later realized it was
something you'd read in a book or seen in a movie? Happens all the
time. Memory is fallible, and eyewitness reports (when held in
memory and recounted later) are fallible. Memory is filtered through
the prisms of our own views of the world and of ourselves: those who
have a positive outlook will remember more good events than bad,
regardless of what really happened to them; those with a pre-conceived
bigotry against a certain person or group, will recall the unpleasant
encounters with them but not the happy ones, or will recall entirely
neutral events in a decidedly negative light. This, it seems, is what
happened to Omega. He had to build a story in his own mind, to
explain events he couldn't otherwise come to terms with and accept at
face value; he had to take what was essentially a neutral occurrence,
and turn it into a reason for sustaining his hatred for his enemies. The
"Robo-Smasher" apparently did exist as a weapon of some sort, since it
was referenced later in a non-flashback part of the episode - but to
assume that it was an "instant brainwashing machine" is to stretch the
bounds of logic to the breaking point, and to contradict everything we
know of the universe and the characters involved.
"Secret of Omega Supreme," then, is not an example of
Megatron's depravity and the horror of the Decepticon way - but an
example of Autobot skewing of the facts, to themselves, to each other,
and in the story as a whole. An example of False Memory Syndrome
that was so casually accepted that no one thought to question it,
because the story harmonized with a powerful pre-existing bias. As
such, there's no reason in the world I should ban this episode from my
own personal "canon" - because it is such a shining example of what I
keep trying to point out.
Watch the shadows......
Raksha the Plumed Serpent
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