Something that occurred to me is that, what if they’re playing with an “Injustice” type scenario? Optimus Prime (possibly under some subtle corruption he resisted in established continuities) takes a step farther than he did before SOONER, and destroys Megatron earlier than “normal”. Or kills him instead of arresting, something like that.
Without Megatron to hold the various Decepticon factions together, the war gets messier, with more collateral damage and Optimus Prime keeps upping the ruthlessness to fight back?
It becomes a “For the twist of fate, goes thee” scenario instead of fridging a character (like Elita 1) or “Optimus was always corrupt on some level”.
My mind is cooking on this, I’ll have to do a brain dump tonight. This could lead to some interesting angles, especially now that Generations is FAR less restrained to existing media looks.
"Injustice" is not my favorite comparisons, but mostly because I'm not a fan of the execution of that, or really the core concept. (Odd that I'm okay with the Autobots being dirtied up a bit, but Evil Superman rankles as just THE most tired cliche to my mind. I guess that more traditional side of superhero comics has just gone through enough deconstruction for my tastes, and the comparatively younger Transformers brand is still just kind of exploring pushing its narrative boundaries.) But as a shorthand to get the broad strokes across (and you did say you intend to avoid the fridging that happened there), I get it.
This got me thinking, it might be interesting to have Optimus do something like this -- but also
immediately get taken off the board. IDK, do what every 1986-stuck fan has been whining about for 40 years and have him shoot a surrendering Megatron dead, only to get taken out shortly after. Rumor has it that Megs was reaching for a hidden pistol, but nah, that's just something weak Autobots tell themselves to avoid sullying their memory of their precious fallen leader, virtuous to the last!
A chaotic power vacuum
on BOTH sides could be interesting. Decepticons splintering into factions led by Starscream and Scorponok and Straxus, with Soundwave quietly putting one together that triumphantly reveals an (impostor!) Megatron to lead the uprising. The Autobots could have more aggressive-minded leaders take charge, citing Optimus' final actions as THE long-awaited taking it to the next level needed -- and that's what won the day, wasn't it? "Even Optimus had to go beyond his patronizing speeches."
Even as far back as Budiansky the fiction did dabble a bit with having some such sketchy personalities on the Autobot side anyway. (I wish he'd had more complexity with the cons too, more conflicted or disaffected characters.) But this time have the gray on both sides from the get-go rather than having a Phase 2 shoehorn it in to limited effectiveness (too much to need to undo or handwave away at that point).
Honestly, I'm less interested in the Super Cool Evil Heroes and more into the possibilities of the freedom-fighter Decepticon movement. Especially if you have some POV characters in there who drank the Kremz-aid and are starting to panic because the leadership and the big guns on the team are kinda more than they bargained for.
But lol, we're not getting any of this, are we. It's fine!
