so far as i can tell the primary difference between autobot and decepticon shells is that decepticons are primarily military hardware and autobot shells aren’t and neither side actually understands the other anymore?? the autobots….civilian-ness (not exactly having weapon weapons just repurposed tools and personal mods/special powers) is a really deeply engrained cultural……thing now (at least, as implied by the allspark almanacs) but the question is did both sides of the allspark conflict reformat THEMSELVES into the modern physical and ideological lines or was the initial split mostly between the military and everyone else?
i’m so interested…….
at some point both factions apparently lost their knowledge of creating “autobot” or “decepticon” bodies or. something. as exemplified by “autobots don’t fly” and drifts symbolic shell swap, and a few notable instances of “experimenting with autobot shells”. hmmm.
So the heartbreaking thing about Animated Optimus being an utter aft in Megatron Rising part 1 is that he’s not being like that because he’s scared or frusturated–it’s because he genuinely thinks that it is how you’re supposed to lead.
Look at Sentinel. Look at the behavior of almost every other military caste Autobot we’ve met. Every one of Optimus’s mentors has behaved that way. He’d never expected leadership to mean anything else.
The High Council in Animated is made up of representatives from each of the guilds that govern civilian life on Cybertron. Perceptor is head of the science guild, Cliffjumper is head of the intelligence guild (taking the place of Longarm after he got outed as Shockwave), and other known guilds include transportation, entertainment, maintenance, and commerce; we don’t know who their heads are, but we do know Botanica is also on the council. Alpha Trion is the collective head of all these “domestic” guilds, and the acting Magnus serves as council chairman. The council is in charge of the military – not the other way ‘round, despite what Sentinel Prime would like!
This is the only continuity that this particular form of government has been seen in. Animated is a rather unique case, of course, since it represents a post-war Cybertron where the Autobots comfortably and safely rule the planet, and society ISN’T dominated by the need to fight Decepticons.
Cybertronian Database 