case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2012-11-04 03:35 pm

[ SECRET POST #2133 ]


⌈ Secret Post #2133 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 083 secrets from Secret Submission Post #305.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
kamino_neko: Kamino Neko's evil icon. (Evil)

[personal profile] kamino_neko 2012-11-07 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think Prowl falls under the trope of the "Designated hero" because nobody actually thinks he's a good person.

Yeah, perhaps I could have worded that better. I agree he isn't a proper Designated Hero - like I said, Roberts et al seem to agree that Prowl's actions were Wrong, it's just that if they'd continued to present him as in the right after that, he would have slipped into the role.

I have, though, had an argument with a fan who thought that what Prowl did was a good thing (because if word of Flame etc's actions came out, then people would mistrust the Autobots, more than they do), which was mind-boggling since the story itself has been avoiding the idea quite well. Something of a fandom-only DH - since he's in the faction that's on the whole, the better one, he can't do wrong.

(Anonymous) 2012-11-08 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
I see what you mean, and I think that's a general (and very interesting, in a way) problem related to the Autobots. After all the Transformers were born as a cartoon with a very simple, b&w background: Autobots = Good, Decepticons = Bad. When you try to build a more realistic and complex background to the war they fought it necessarily clashes with much of how the factions have been perceived. I've been reading complaints about how in Transformers Prime the viewers are repeatedly told the Autobots are the good ones, period, even when what they do is morally questionable (even if justifiable in a war situation). So I think there still are a lot of people who try and justify what they do as good even if it isn't (it might be argued it was a necessary evil). I have friends who are angry at how Roberts and Barber write because they think the Autobots are shown as the bad guys, while in truth we're only getting realistic and complex characters, and that clashes with the Eighties Transformers mythos they grew up with.

Elaborating a little more on Aequitas, I'm ok with "extreme times call for extreme measures." I should have explained myself better, before: I'm not furious and disappointed in Prowl for a tactical decision to retrieve and hide evidence of the Autobots war crimes in that specific moment. I'm angry because he chose to destroy that evidence, going against what to me is one of the two main moral differences between Autobots and Decepticons: the Autobots put their own war criminals under trial and condemn them, the Decepticons give them promotions (the other difference is the fact Decepticons would wipe off organic races, judging them inferior (see Fulcrum's speech before the DJD)). He might have reasoned that was the safest option, but in truth it was an act of cowardice. That, to me is unforgivable, because of what the Autobots are still trying to be.