The Great War - What's it all for?

[Verno]

Why did it start?

And why did it start?

What are they actually fighting for?

[Paulbot]

Take your pic of continuity. It could be: control of the AllSpark, domination of the universe, the right to break free of caste and choose your function, freedom of the mini-cons, energon supplies, to prepare the race to battle Unicron, etc

[GoktimusPrime]

To sell toys.

Otherwise yeah, like Paulbot said. I like what IDW are doing in adding more depth to the Decepticons' origins.

[Prowl]

Why did it start?

And why did it start?

What are they actually fighting for?

Megatron was like the lovable rogue down the pub always with a story & free with the laughs & energon drinks. Then along came Optimus Prime who wanted to everyone to bow to him & his evil plans for stopping people imbibing large amounts of energon for recreational purposes.

This egomaniac even went so far as to ban music & in particular personal recording devices (so he could not be recorded talking about his evil deeds & plans) he also stated that he was hereby banning personal flight abilities because since he was not talented enough to fly then no one else should be able to.

Needless to say Megatron changed from his usual jovial self & became quite upset. He refused to bow down to Primes demands & dared to question Primes motives. Prime in all his egotistical cocksure attitude declared that Megatron & all the fun loving bots to be deceptive & branded them Decepticons.

That is what started the war because Prime wanted to be Cybertrons dictator & Megatron had the balls to stand up to Prime.

Basically it is ALL Primes fault.

[tinyJazz]

Basically it is ALL Primes fault.

Prowl, what's got into you? Aren't you an Autobot?

[Hursticon]

Prowl, what's got into you? Aren't you an Autobot?

No no, he's just had the Autobot wool taken away from his eyes...

[Arcee]

No no, he's just had the Autobot wool taken away from his eyes...

Either Prime's just fired him or he's had another of his typical system paralysis due to emotional surge triggered shotcircuit. Bumblebee told me he and Rodimus just pranked Prowl again.

Awesome story by the way Prowl. Really made my day. I'm sure Prime now regrets and wants you back. Megatron is very pleased and wants you on board too. If you are to choose side, beware of a spy called Hursticon, sly and evil in every sense but very amiable on the surface.

[griffin]

I'm not a fan of IDW's war origin... trying to have us sympathise with Megatron as if he is like a freedom fighter and the Autobots are portrayed as suppressive capitalist elitists.

I much prefer the more traditional, dictator commanding criminals and bullies into a battle against a peaceful utopia. Cybertron was shown as a golden age before Megatron's jealous conquest began, destroying everything, forcing citizens to take up arms against him... most of which didn't do it by choice either.
Sympathising with Megatron is like sympathising with Ned Kelly or Hitler, or any other criminal that had ambitions of power & possessions.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I go largely by the G1 cartoon, which basically places it as the Decepticons are war machines programmed for war, and thus are hardwired for battle and conquest. It's not their fault, they're just programmed like that. The Autobots just don't dig being slaves, so they rebuilt themselves into semi-capable fighters, albeit notably less powerful (as a general rule) than their Decepticon foes. Hence also why the G1 Autobots tend to be more 'cowboy' than 'soldier' - they don't have the inbuilt discipline/obedience of the war machine Decepticons.
It's kinda determinist, sure, but it makes sense.

The Odieverse has a much more detailed plotline involving Primus using the Quintessons as unwitting pawns to create the TFs as a unified race to destroy Unicron, but that's just my own little microcontinuity.

[Hursticon]

Awesome story by the way Prowl. Really made my day. I'm sure Prime now regrets and wants you back. Megatron is very pleased and wants you on board too. If you are to choose side, beware of a spy called Hursticon, sly and evil in every sense but very amiable on the surface.

Hehehe - It's all in the Techspec.

I'm not a fan of IDW's war origin... trying to have us sympathise with Megatron as if he is like a freedom fighter and the Autobots are portrayed as suppressive capitalist elitists.

I much prefer the more traditional, dictator commanding criminals and bullies into a battle against a peaceful utopia. Cybertron was shown as a golden age before Megatron's jealous conquest began, destroying everything, forcing citizens to take up arms against him... most of which didn't do it by choice either.
Sympathising with Megatron is like sympathising with Ned Kelly or Hitler, or any other criminal that had ambitions of power & possessions.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to put Ned Kelly in the same category of criminal as Megatron or Adolf, but I can see the point you're making; I just think a better comparison would be say... Ivan Mallat than Ned Kelly.
(I don't think Ned had much power beyond that of will to rise up against British oppressors )

Though I've not read much of the IDW stuff at all, too busy making in-roads with the Marvel stuff , I like the idea of Megatron being a little bit more complicated beyond that of an 80s Saturday Morning cartoon villain ; though Marvel's treatment of him with an extremely short fuse I must say is highly amusing.

I go largely by the G1 cartoon, which basically places it as the Decepticons are war machines programmed for war, and thus are hardwired for battle and conquest. It's not their fault, they're just programmed like that. The Autobots just don't dig being slaves, so they rebuilt themselves into semi-capable fighters, albeit notably less powerful (as a general rule) than their Decepticon foes.

Hmm, see, I've grown over time to dislike the whole 'Programming' approach; mainly on the basis that a computer system is unable to operate outside of the parameters it's programming software dictates and hence IMO the Autobots would never rise to arms and the Decepticons would would never start firing upon civilian and their own supply vehicles.
(I too subscribed to the consumer goods approach for the longest time, I've since learnt there is so much more than... )

With all that being said though, one could argue the point of 'Alien Sentience' but I guess one could also look at how far/deep the programming actually goes baring in mind the Spark.