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yvannairieI woke up thinking about how, post-war, there would probably be a concentrated effort to "rehabilitate" Optimus and return the lineage of Primes through him back to legitimising the pre-war social hierarchy, because even while he was no Megatron, Orion Pax was still openly a reformist, and having someone like that spiritually legitimised when he took on the Matrix really fucks with the conservative conventions of Cybertronian society.
Which, inevitably, would mean that the personal relationships he had with his team would either get wrapped up in the rehabilitated mythos, or conveniently brushed aside, depending on how well their opinions lined up with the narrative a conservative religious institution would want to push. Ratchet's experiences, for example, are extremely easy to co-opt because he might talk shit to Optimus' face, but he is quite literally loyal to the death. Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus, likewise, and I want to say that Smokescreen would be super easy to elevate into an apostle figure, but Smokescreen's own slipperiness might make that a hard sell.
Also -- I don't think it matters if Optimus himself is alive for this process to take place. I mean, it will certainly be easier to reduce the very real friendships he had to some form of pious commitment if he's gone, and to make statements about how the people who knew him didn't really know him, but it's entirely possible to do the same if by some force Optimus is isolated from his team. It's easier to convince someone that they're idolised, not loved, if you're the one controlling how their relationships present to them.
Which, inevitably, would mean that the personal relationships he had with his team would either get wrapped up in the rehabilitated mythos, or conveniently brushed aside, depending on how well their opinions lined up with the narrative a conservative religious institution would want to push. Ratchet's experiences, for example, are extremely easy to co-opt because he might talk shit to Optimus' face, but he is quite literally loyal to the death. Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus, likewise, and I want to say that Smokescreen would be super easy to elevate into an apostle figure, but Smokescreen's own slipperiness might make that a hard sell.
Also -- I don't think it matters if Optimus himself is alive for this process to take place. I mean, it will certainly be easier to reduce the very real friendships he had to some form of pious commitment if he's gone, and to make statements about how the people who knew him didn't really know him, but it's entirely possible to do the same if by some force Optimus is isolated from his team. It's easier to convince someone that they're idolised, not loved, if you're the one controlling how their relationships present to them.
