by LotusGenie13 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:06 pm
On the TF wiki, I noticed people questioning the end of the Transformers: Victory manga and its revelation that Deathsaurus' floating fortress doubled as a city for Decepticon civilians. Seeing how the Decepticons were "military hardware" that automatically led to an instinct to fight and conquer, it is hard to imagine that it is a race with any civilians. Here, I want to explore for a little bit the possibilities and reasons for the existence of Decepticon civilians.
While the cause of the ongoing Cybertronian civil war was not deeply explored in theh G1 cartoon, the reboots in the various comic continuities establish the origin of the war as an enery crisis. After millions upon billions of years, Cybertron was running out of energy--and the ways of the Autobot senate were doing nothing more than making it worse. Unlike other planets that had a solar system, Cybertron had no solar energy, hydroelectric energy, nor wind energy, leaving its inhabitants to find only energon within the planets' subterranean areas. With that energy running out, everyone was, frankly, screwed. The Decepticons, under Megatron, were the first ones to come up with an idea to solve the energy problem: simply raid other planets and drain their energy dry. The Autobots naturally objected to this plan, and began a war to keep peace for Cybertron as well as all the other planets out there that would have been vulnerable to Decepticon attack. The resulting war only exacerbated the problem and drained Cybertron faster than ever.
It is at this point that the civilians, especially the pacifist ones, faced a problem. On all sides, there were mechs shooting at each other; it was impossible to avoid getting caught in the conflict. Some of those pacifists probably joined the Autobots as scientists, medics, historians, conscientious objecters. However, others might have taken the other route. Why? Well, they were caught between a rock and a hard space, and the third option of becoming an empty wasn't exactly appealing. On one hand, the Decepticons were nasty motherfraggers who wouldn't hesitate to rob or murder, but at least they had some sort of plan to get energy so people on their planet wouldn't starve to death. The Autobots were mostly nice guys, but they were more interested in shooting at their neighbors to "keep the peace" while having almost no ideas about how to replenish their planet. For those pacifists who turned to the Decepticons, they probably thought that if they needed to choose which side to help shoot up their fellow Cybertronians, they might as well as choose the side that could get more energy for their planet so at least some members of the species could get out of this alive. In other words, why help shoot your own brothers when you could be out helping to shoot some other species? While it would have still been a horrible thing to even help kill other sentients, at least it wasn't one of their relatives, one of their friends, one of their own species. It wasn't their fault that the Autobots had to get in the way every single time. There might have even been some that thought by raiding energy from other planets, they would solve all of Cybertron's problems and the silly war would stop. A deluded hope, but still a comforting one.
When Deathsaurus built his fortress, he made it into a floating city. Given his sophisticate planning and tendency to try to avoid the mistakes of other leaders, he probably staffed it in that way so that he could colonize the worlds that he conquered, given that they were lucky enough to survive destruction at the hands of his cannon. With not only soldiers but civilians residing there, it would truly become part of the Cybertronian empire. While the troops that he planned to use in conquering those worlds stayed and fought alongside him, the civilians were kept in the fortress. So, what sort of "civilians" did he put in this city?
Esmeral: Deathsaurus' wife. Esmeral was probably a Warlord and a governor (alright, stop laughing at that sentence--I'm serious). By Warlord, I didn't mean a madman and tyrant like Straxus or Trannis. I meant a calmer, more logical guardian like Shockwave: more of an enlightened despot. Being Deathsaurus' wife, she was probably also a high-ranking Decepticon who showed deadly competence at her job, as well as loyalty (but not fanatical) to her leader. She probably also needed special skills and a smattering of ambition (but not too much) to boost her into a leadership role to begin with and catch the eye of someone like Deathsaurus. She was probably one of those leaders who knew when throwing the dog a bone was more useful to her than slagging anyone on sight (If the rest of the Decepticons were like European imperialists, then Esmeral would have been like the Persian Empire). She was also pretty much the "spokesman" for the fortress, thus it is possible that she was the leader. She was probably installed as governor of the city to keep an eye on its residents, as well as give Deathsaurus a hand with his administrative duties if required.
Bodyguards: Being that Esmeral was the consort of Deathsaurus and probably a warlord in her own right, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that she had bodyguards. The only reason that nobody was shooting the Autobots on sight was probably because of two reasons: first, they had no energy to spare shooting at Autobots, and second, because they recognized Deathsaurus, their leader.
Maintenance staff: A base that big does not maintain itself. Scientists, engineers, and medics were probably on board to make sure that the ship was running at tip-top shape. Those were probably the "pacifists" that were discussed, as they performed roles that kept them out of direct combat. Weapons specialists were probably also around to help out with the huge cannon. While they didn't need to carry massive firepower themselves, they could help with the construction, physics, and power of the weapons on the base. Other, less obvious jobs would have been navigation and programming to help steer the ship and target the correct planets
Security staff: Like the maintenance staff, a security staff would have also been needed to guard the ship. While they didn't need to have many members, they probably had a few guys making sure no Autobots were trying to sneak on or break into the fortress. They would have counted as civilians because they were not in direct combat. Again, they were not shooting on sight because they had no energy to do so and/or recognized their leader.
New recruits: Including newly sparked Decepticons, younglings, and sparklings (budded or otherwise), Deathsaurus probably included them because he would need more soldiers to replace his elite if anything unexpected were to happen. Those new recruits, including the sparklings and younglings, were probably also brought along to have their first taste of combat--namely, seeing how their emperor displayed an example of a Decepticon fighting by crushing an Autobot officer (too bad it backfired).
Trainers: Along with the new recruits, the base would need people to train these recruits. This is where the trainers would come in. While some would be the sadistic Decepticon version of boot camp drill sergeants, some would be the pacifists (If you can't do, teach. In this case, teach someone else to go out and fight because you don't want to), and some would be in the middle as normal infantry soldiers who just happened to help churn out other soldiers.
Families: Like Leozack's sister or Deathsaurus' wife, several Decepticon soldiers had their families brought on the ship to help them establish colonies on conquered worlds. While many of the family memebers no doubt doubled in another position to help with running the ship (new recruits, trainers, maintenance etc), some would have simply been along to help establish the colony. Since they were called "civilians," they were possibly not in combat roles, or being up in space removed them from the areas of their expertise.
I know this theory has plenty of holes, but this is the best explanation I can give for Decepticon civilians other than the fact that the manga artists was humanizing Decepticons too much. Please respond and tell me what you think of this theory, or if you want to improve on any sections.
