As a long-term defender of the Decepticons, I am faced repeatedly
with gross misinterpretations of who and what the Decepticons are,
from official sources as well as from fellow fans. No great surprise,
perhaps, since a great number of fans were inspired in their views by
the deliberately biased official sources. But cut out all the "evil" labels
in the comics and on the toy boxes for a moment, and filter out all the
voice-overs on the cartoon that begin "In their relentless quest for
energy, the evil Decepticons have come up with their latest
depraved plan", etc. etc. ad nauseum, and let's take a look at what
we really have here.
The Decepticons are a warrior species. As such, they've long put
me in mind of another famous warrior species, Star Trek's Klingons.
There are a great many similarities. Both seem savage, uncultured,
and mindlessly cruel and violent to outsiders - until you take a closer
look. More on this in a moment. Both have their own very strong
internal brand of honor. What's truly interesting in the comparison,
however, is that we didn't hear a peep about Klingon honor until The
Next Generation rolled around - and now suddenly Klingons were
Federation allies, nominally "good guys," and suddenly we're deluged
with all this emphasis on Klingon warrior-honor. I remember the Star
Trek conventions during the Age of Reruns, before there was so much
as a whisper in the works of a new series, and I remember the general
sentiments of the fans - the Klingons were "evil, honorless bastards",
the ultimate embodiment of the enemy. How different things are
today. And what changed? Not the Klingons themselves, surely.
(Okay, so they look a bit different than they did in the classic series,
but their nature remains very much the same.) What changed was the
perception of their nature. No sooner are we told that the Klingons
are now "our allies," than the whole attitude shifts - suddenly you're
actually shown the other facets of their lives; suddenly it's okay to
write about them as protagonists; suddenly the fans can see their good
points, can admire their fighting spirit and delightedly embrace, even
demand, the emphasis on Klingon honor.
It is not, by any means, the same as the current, culturally-
accepted notion of human honor (provided such a thing exists as more
than a pretty abstraction). These Klingons are conquerors, empire-
builders; they're honor-bound to repay violence with violence, kill the
murderers of their loved ones, and are morally obligated to assassinate
their superiors if they show signs of unseemly weakness or
incompetence.
Hmm. Where have we seen those concepts before?
They also exist in the wilds of Earth in a rather more
straightforward way. Take wolves. Powerful, intelligent predators
who are very devoted to their pack, their family members - who
diligently care for the young, the old, the sick, yet who are lethal
enemies to their prey. On the hunt, their interactions are
choreographed cooperation. At rest, they're playful and affectionate
among each other. There is also a definite rank-order among them,
with subordinates continually testing the leader for signs of weakness.
And if such signs are found, the leader is displaced, driven away, most
likely to die, or sometimes even killed. Rather a contrast to the warm,
nurturing family-pack, isn't it? That's the surface impression,
anyway. But consider. The pack leader has to be the absolute best, the
most skilled, the most intelligent, the strongest. If not, he or she will
lead the entire pack to oblivion. Nature doesn't play games, and
survival is harsh business - there's very little room for sentiment here.
You either maintain the strongest individual as leader, or you forfeit
the entire pack.
Sounding familiar yet?
It all leads back around to the Decepticons. A warrior species
who preys on those around them much like a wolf pack preys on the
surrounding herbivores, taking what they need to survive, to expand,
to grow. Their methods, both within their own ranks and to those they
encounter, may at first seem harsh to outsiders. But here again, the
universe is a dangerous place. If the strongest, smartest, and best was
not in command, such a species would surely perish outright, or be
corrupted by others and sell out its collective soul, becoming
something it was never meant to be. So we have underlings
continually testing their superiors, who must keep their battle instincts
honed, keeping them at their best - and we have commanders keeping
underlings continually aware of their own power. Even among
wolves, much aggressive confrontation is bluff - if one wolf can make
another think he can tear him to shreds, and the other backs off,
then there's no need for actual combat and a valuable member of the
pack is not lost or injured. We see such interactions quite often among
Decepticons too.
Wolves have long been miscast into the role of malicious,
slavering monsters in the mind of human fear and ignorance.
Fortunately, that image is slowly being dissipated by the facts - that
here are animals like any other that require certain resources from
their environment, that strive to reproduce themselves - animals with
good, logical survival reasons for every part of their lifestyle, without
any deliberately vicious intentions against the world. Slowly, slowly,
people seem to be waking up to that fact. And like efforts to bring the
wolf into a more realistic light, the crusade for the Decepticons is
taking the same slow, tedious path - in a gathering of facts and a
presentation of them, over and over again in the hope that one of these
days, it'll sink in.
The Klingons, on the other hand, have gotten an instant fair break
after 25 years of being maligned. What's still ironic to me is how
drastically the fans' attitudes shifted as soon as it was "officially
sanctioned" that it was okay to root for the Klingons now. Suddenly
their "barbaric, honorless viciousness" became "simply another,
equally valid way of looking at the universe, one that displays its own
version of honor and dignity as soon as one takes a bit of time to
understand it, from their own point of view." All that, with a wave of
the hand from the late, great Gene Roddenberry.
Wouldn't it be nice if someone would do the same for the
Decepticons some day?
Watch the shadows......
--Raksha the Plumed Serpent
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