I am forced to agree with SithRaptor (An Autobot agreeing with a Sith, who'd have figured?). Devastator was originally brainwashed by Megatron, so the Autobots were pretty much restoring him to his old self. I have a question. In Beast Wars, Megatron used shell programs to turn Maximals into Predacons. Were the Maximals thus in the wrong for wanting to convert them back, and actually succeeding with Blackarachnia? There is always more to something than meets the eye.

Let me say, first of all, that you may have an opinion of your own -- and your opinion does indeed have merit. But... these essays wear on me considerably. I'll even grantyou commendation for never 'yelling' at the reader or coming off desperate to be heard; that's one sign of a good potential essay writer. But I say again: this wasn't thought *all* the way through.

I'm first to admit that Optimus was not a very, shall we say, 'consistent' leader. But much as I despise the guy, that's neither here nor there; the point can be found if you fast-forward to the episode, "The Secret of Omega Supreme", and I don't really care how high all you out there in Decepticonland are rolling your eyes -- the episode is canon, deal with it. Anyway, if we're to believe the narrative, the Constructicons were first reprogrammed by *Megatron*, and it can thus be reasoned that Optimus Prime was only correcting what he thought to be a social injustice by putting the Constructicons back the way they were -- which isn't to say this was the proper course of action, but Optimus never was quite 'proper'.

There are still holes in this theory(mostly the fact that the "The Core" came before "The Secret of Omega Supreme", but the episodes weren't always aired in chrological order), but it still attempts to balance the issue, while 'essays' like this do not try to sway the reader by logic, but are more of a blunt statement that could simply be voiced in a chatroom or message board. I have no problem with you wanting to believe the Autobots were slavedrivers, but essays should be done with far more impartiality if they are truly to be called such. Bias adds an edge that makes it hard for the reader to take it seriously, and the last thing we want to do is frustrate our readers by appearing obstinate.

However, I see a good potential essayist here, and we all enjoy seeing potential flourish. :)