The Rise of the Functionist Cybertron, and the rise of Megatron’s Decepticons.
Survive and Thrive, the main mantra of Cybertronian Religion. Given that those words are associated with Primus, The Primus that birthed the Guiding hand, it is safe to assume that several Cybertronian religions use that phrase in one way or another.
And these are words to literally life and die by in the Functionist universe. These three words are what makes up the Functionist Cybertron and how it operates.
The problem is that it circling the drain, the whole race and culture dying off. We have in fact seen it before.
However, despite it’s outward appearances, the Functionist Cybertron is surviving and thriving, if you stretch that meaning of the word. They deal in absolutes and rule with an iron fist without mass-scale violence on Cybertron. They compromise and give in outside of Cybertron. They pay for peace, to be left alone.
Because that’s the only option that they have.
The rest of space was ready for them. They knew how to deal with mechanicals, they had formed entire bureaucracies in response to mechanicals that could spill over. So even if the Functionist Cybertron wanted to stretch out to gain more resources or bigger borders around them in space, they were slapped down.
But if that fate befell the Functionist Cybertron, why is it exactly Megatron that elevates the Cybertronian race to a force to be fearful of and respect?
It comes from the flawed way that the Functionists fight dissent.
By removing words.
It is a very effective way to fight. The ability to listen to others is very easy to use and accept. The ability to speak and convey ideas is very important when it comes to going against someone, to have the right words, which is a very effective tool. The Functionists believe that by attacking words they are attacking the root of the problem, crumbling down the foundation of something bigger that can overcome them.
The attack on words has even evolved and been made both better and more efficient in the millions of years that has passed. Going after the words is their main method of fighting.
And trying to do the same to alien species isn’t going to work. So there are compromises, the wish to be left alone, to be isolated. Because there is no way to fight against the words of aliens.
The fundamental flaw of this kind of fighting is the failure to acknowledge what lies beneath the words. Because words is not what comes first. It is the meaning of them, what lies beneath.
Because even when Functionist Cybertron Rewind loses hope, the concept behind the words is still there.
And that is what the Functionists overlooked.
Because when Megatron loses his words, but his conviction and the knowledge of the unjust world is still in his mind, he has one tool left for disposal, one thing he can use when words are lacking. Violence. Direct physical violence.
However the use of violence is very hard to direct. In fact others can easily use it and manipulate it for themselves. But what Ratbat failed to account for is whom he sent to manipulate the violence and direct it for his own gain.
Soundwave with his ability to read emotions and know how hard life is in the underground seems like an ideal candidate to negotiate with Megatron, to supply him with the weapons while knowing exactly what to say to him by reading his emotions. But by doing that, the words are stripped away and the underlying meaning stands bare for Soundwave.
Meaning and gestures is also a very powerful tool. It’s subtle, hard to use compared to the written word or to the sharpened sword, but it is still a way to show empathy, even if it is shown in small doses because it is hard to do something stirring emotions in millions of beings. But it is still a viable tactic to use.
Especially when the words are gone.
And from Cybertron arose a new type of Cybertronian species. Someone that does not manipulate words, but uses force first and foremost. Cybertron exploded into space in violence, and continued to use said violence as a default interaction with anything.
Megatron even does not allow anyone to be able to use words or violence against them as he strikes before anyone would even have the chance.
And yet, both Cybertron worlds are going by the words, Survive and Thrive. Functionist Cybertron does it by paying for peace while keeping the energon shortage at bay by reducing the demand for Energon. Megatron’s Cybertron does it by rapid expansion, making sure that nothing will be able to stand in their way or to rise up against them. Nothing can slap them down with a simple gesture, a single battle or with law, the Cybertronians are too great of a force to be just pushed aside and be forgotten.
Cybertronian Database 