Dominic wrote:As I said above, there is more than one way to eliminate dissent. Killing dissenters is one way. Getting everybody on one side is another. The latter would be a better choice, given the fragile state the Decepticons were in.
And as I've said a few times, given the evidence from the story, clearly Megatron wasn't going for the "come on now guys, let's be one big happy Decepticon family" approach. His portrayal in the IDW continuity has always been more... action oriented. And the Decepticons were hardly in a "fragile" state. They were on top of the world for their defeat over the Autobots.
Megatron killing his own troops bevause he is a bad guy Decepticon would work in the old cartoon. But, McCarthy was writing above that level. Megatron may not be a nice guy, but he is not a lunatic. He may not be as rational as Shockwave, but that does not make him a homicidal maniac.
McCarthy was certainly not writing above that level. Seriously, look at what the Decepticons were doing in this story. Attacking a relatively defenseless planet, with no real reason or purpose given behind the attack. This is not a rational strategy if there is nothing to be gained from it and shows the Decepticons were most certainly cast as homicidal maniacs by the actions and enjoyment they got out of it (for a time at least). And again, this Megatron isn't above killing his own troops who step out of line.
If nothing else, Megatron would need to be careful with the fratricide card at the point AHM is set. If nothing else, fostering Decepticon on Decepticon violence would likely destry everyrthing Megatron had built. (So, what does a radical labor leader do when he has ousted the corrupt power structure?)
You seem to keep ignoring the fact Megatron himself says in AHM that he
is trying to kill this incredibly ruthless army he built in order to remake them into the force he originally intended them to be. No infighting, no dissent, only "perfectly controlled peace through unparalleled strength".
The political and morale costs of killing his own troops, or letting dissent go unchecked, would be to high. (Again, Megatron screwed up by letting them idle on Earth for so long.)
Again, your assuming idling that long on Earth wasn't part of Megatron's plan. And again, Megatron was leading them to believe the humans were going to nuke them, which was true, although he was leaving out the part that one of their own had confiscated the nuke. Had the Autobots not interfered, and Megatron allowed to continue his plot, I think the Decepticons would have been more motivated than ever before to conquer Earth and believe even more in Megatron's leadership. The only downside being he may have had to sacrifice a few dissenting Decepticons to accomplish it.
The situations with Starscream and Ramjet were different. They were both acting completely out of order, not the least of that being that they were scheming behind Megatron's back when they should have been working on other things.. In the case of Ramjet, not only did he screw up on something big recently, but nobody even liked him. If anything, killing Ramjet would be a win.
How are those situations different? They were both plotting to overthrow Megatron, rebelling against his authority as Decepticon leader. AHM is only different in that it wasn't just one 'bot Megatron needed to put back in place but the situation is essentially the same. Rebellion against his leadership. In those cases, Megatron brutally reminded them why he is leader, nearly killing Starscream and seemingly killing Ramjet. Why would this situation be any different?
