I wanna know your opinion bc I'm kinda scared of telling the fandom my feelings, but is it bad that I kinda... Understand Sentinel better than Optimus regarding the Elita incident? I always felt respect for him for trying to go save her. Even if Sentinel is an asshat and a jerk and a biophobe, I specifically mean in this incident. I know eceryone blames him bc it's his idea but I feel like Optimus as the higher ranker should've put his foot down, yes the two persuaded him but he had the final say. I feel like all 3 of them share a responsibility for what happened, so I get kinda.. Mad? When people pin all the blame on Sentinel (or worse, Elita), when Sentinel would've 100% tried to go for her had Optimus not intervened. (And I am disappointed in Optimus for not trying to recover her assumed corpse).
I say this as Optimus's #1 spikerider btw. I literally have an Optimus shrine at home.
ooof yeah it kinda shows how part of the fandom can be brutal. I'm sorry you feel scared to be more open about it
Tbh I've always interpreted their old friend group as sort of messy? Like these guys were essentially college students dicking around. Optimus was the one with a lot more responsibility on his shoulders - and I still think he should have put his foot down. Idk, maybe he believed Sentinel and Elita would have gone there even without him. I'm just spitballing ideas here
I get why Optimus did the things he did, but oof bad call dude
Sentinel is a dick for everything he did afterwards, but I do believe his personality and poor decision-making is very much influenced by his trauma regarding Archa Seven and time in the Elite Guard. He's pretty maladjusted and keeps pushing everyone away. Dude needs to stop self-isolating and start opening up to others. But putting his guard down will take A WHILE
Okay this turned into me rambling abt sentinel
Archa Seven is so, so complicated truly. Optimus’ choice to only question what they’re doing once they get *on* the planet is certainly a choice, but one can also argue that he was also bringing up worries before the flight and on the way there and we just didn’t see it lol. But the whole part with leaving Elita is also really really complicated and it’s one of the biggest grey areas of the entire story. Sentinel wanting to save her, even if it is just returning her body to Cybertron, really shows his care for her and it is pretty understandable that Optimus pushing back on going back for her would shatter their friendship—but also from Optimus’ perspective, it makes sense that he would prioritize their survival, especially when it is confirmed right away that Elita has “died”. Sentinel blaming him isn’t right of course, but it’s also a wild high stress situation where Optimus was the last one with her when she fell. Everyone’s running on high stress and to them it just seems like Elita died in front of them.
Now, after we leave Archa Seven, it does become a little less gray. Optimus taking the fall makes sense, but Sentinel choosing to be a jackass when both their friend just died is very much on him and contributes to the destruction of what little was left of their friendship.
As a whole, Archa Seven is a tragedy. No one knew what could/was going to happen, the information they found only talked about the ruins and cache, leaving the spider’s unmentioned. Elita’s powers fail her twice, her copy of Optimus’ cable timing out when she needs it most and her use of it on the spiders changing her forever—literally her own body betraying her. Optimus is unable to catch her, and Sentinel, the most protective of the group, is literally separated away from Optimus and Elita until the point where there’s nothing he can do. Nobody comes out unscathed by it and it haunts them pretty much forever.
I personally think pinning the blame one specific bot ruins the tragedy of the experience, which is that they were dumb college kids looking to prove themselves, only to get hurt and be changed irrevocably. Trauma is messy and complicated and by the show letting the Archa Seven incident be the same way it really helps you to connect with the characters and see their personalities in their coping mechanisms (or lack their of.) Sentinel in particular has such an interesting look at his trauma that it almost makes me wish the show came out today so the fandom would psychoanalyze him because its just so fascinating watching him and Blackarachnia parallel each other as they isolate themselves and strive towards ambitions that won’t truly fix what’s hurting them.
Anyway, in short:
I think the problem is the writers
I never EVER like how they made Sentinel so nonchalant towards Blackarachnia
You telling me the same bot who would get terrified by a kitty yet CALMY tells BA to kill herself
If you ask me, I feel like this was a rather plot device than expanding Sentinel's complex writing
Listen, we know oplita/oparachnia is Canon
So I realize they're going the fuckass girl realizes her popular jock boyfriend is a jerk and realizes the unpopular need guy is a nice guy trope. So yeah, I firmly believe this was to push the oplita agenda than focusing how this interaction will impact Sentinel and Blackarachnia
I'm not surprised Sentinel told BA to kill herself, my problem is that he was SO calm about interacting with her
He should have been more dramatic, like Sentinel drastically change because of her after Archa 7 and you're telling this is it?! He should have crash out immediately
And maybe I sound insane but I often feel like the writers aren't sure if they're making him an interesting complex character or a just pure asshole to make Optimus look good (Sentinel is the foil to Optimus but I am disappointed the writers just make it so simple and not more deeper such as Sentinel and Optimus perception to the protection of Cybetronian)
I often theorize Sentinel's character is soooo complicated because the writers aren't either interested much in Sentinel and just need him for the plot to move on
Listen, I love Optimus but I hate Sentinel is constantly used as a example to make the audience see "Hey! Look Sentinel did a bad decision! Notice how Optimus didn't make that decision? Isn't Optimus great?"
Like nothing wrong but it is so obvious, it has become irritating. I prefer Optimus to make mistakes and become better by not needing Sentinel to fail so he can look good
It could have been really great depth to both of their characters where Optimus and Sentinel had valid points like whether Megatron deserves to live or not
It could have been very interesting that for once Optimus was wrong and Sentinel was right about a certain situation like maybe Starscream wanting to redeem but in the end betrays the autobots but Sentinel manage to stop Starscream before the seeker could harm Optimus
Like give me more than just "Jerk Sentinel making Optimus look good"
I remember a Tumblr blogger was complaining where apparently Bulkhead stated Wasp was cruel or something like that in the tfa series and I was baffled cause deadass are we seriously having Wasp be compared to war criminals which even the Tumblr bloggers agree to my comment