also also FUCKYEAHJAZZ

It's weird how a lot of media mimics real-world systems of oppression in ways that seem (to me) obviously designed to make the viewer notice and understand them for what they are, but then don't really examine them or our complicity in them, like they use them as plot points and just move on. There are 2 examples in this episode; the first is Fanzone's anti-machine racism (informed by Fanzone generally being portrayed as a stereotypical bully cop throughout this series). Like it's exactly the arc of "I hate Y" adventures ensue "I am OK with The Right Y (the ones on my side)" and we're supposed to just go "oh ok racism solved now he just says racist stuff as a joke." You see this kind of thing ALL the time

The second of course is Sentinel Prime Sentinel Priming all over Cybertron; the propaganda and control piece for sure, but also in how Optimus treats him. In the next episode (I think) Optimus has a flashback that shows how he has always, always given Sentinel wayyyy too much slack bc Optimus has an overdeveloped sense of "responsibility". And when I say responsibility I'm putting it in quotes bc while yes being the lead or senior does mean you need to be accountable, part of that is teaching or enabling the people who are junior to you to be accountable, too.

Optimus is SO busy blaming himself and only himself for what happened to Elita that he just…lets Sentinel get away with everything, like he always does, even when Alpha Trion is like "but tell me who actually made the bad decision though." This kind of "moral self-centeredness" is usually cast as "good," but the question is, good for whom?

If Sentinel ever had to actually own up to the consequences of his actions, in the best case scenario he would become a better person; in the worst case the council would've maybe had the leverage to keep him out of power at least. So yes, there's the whole "The Autobots Are Supposed To Be Good, But Now There's Fascism, How Did That Happen, Weird" theme. But part and parcel of that is also how they pretend that only Sentinel Prime is responsible for that, not any of the individuals or institutions involved in enabling him for his entire AllSparkdamned life.

idk, it feels like they treat Optimus' extreme guilt complex as part of him being a "good person" when his moral self-centeredness is complicit in so much harm. It seems Optimus claims responsibility for everything BUT enabling every shitty abusive thing Sentinel does. And yes, the primary responsibility for Sentinel's crimes against circuitry lies at Sentinel's tires, but like…he didn't actually deserve to be given more chances, he never saw them as largesse but as weaknesses which he had no trouble exploiting.

Optimus and Sentinel are great examples of the ideological difference between "power = responsibility" and "power = ability to oppress", but Optimus' issues also showcase the difference between doing the thing you think will make other people think of you as "good," and the thing that will do more good for other people in the long run. (needless to say this also has a LOT of parallels to other issues people have IRL!!!)