ok so going off of this post (with excellent additions by others) ive been thinking of moments that elita could have had in tfone that would have made her stand out a lot more as her own character.
but first off though i dont even think bee should be a major character in tfone. like i get the endgame is to sell new toys and bee is popular but if that was really all that the creatives were interested in they could have done the bare minimum for a cash grab, shoehorning in some fart jokes for the child audience, and be on their way. the fact that the story is good means that there was thought and care put into all of this, so it's a shame that elita almost feels like an afterthought, and sometimes even feels overshadowed by bee. i would either remove bee entirely, or keep him in as the revelation that sub level 50 exists (aka he is the first sign that something is amiss, that the miners are being lied to) but not let him join team orion until the very end, when post-cog orion goes back to free and rally the other miners. maybe bee has become so traumatized by being in sublevel 50 that while he is overjoyed at seeing pax and dee, two real, living beings besides himself, he is also extremely afraid of leaving his post. what if there are further sublevels? what if he can't bring his friends with him, imaginary or not, if he gets in trouble and transferred again? like bee can still have the same humour and charm, but the story could be structured so that he serves more as a reminder for orion that they need to succeed on this mission, that they'll be back for b-127 even if they don't find the matrix. with this change elita gets more screentime with orion and dee.
for the first of my headcanon-y changes, it would be great if elita had just one conversation with dee early on in which orion isn't physically present. even better if the conversation built on the first conversation that orion and dee have in the movie, when orion asks dee if he ever wanted to choose his own path. maybe dee is ruminating on the question and asks elita, who is initially somewhat offended at The Audacity (isn't it clear that she is choosing her own path? she's going up in the food chain, duh) but this ultimately causes her to start looking inwards. is she really going to be happy working at the same level as someone like darkwing, if attaining that kind of position was even possible? there must be some cutoff for how high a cogless bot can go---would that satisfy her? but what other option does she have? and then maybe those doubts turn into frustration against dee, with elita snapping back and telling him to stop parroting whatever stupid question or plan orion comes up with (this has unintended consequences, as dee quite literally takes this to heart during his crashout at the cave). i think even additional offhand conversations/comments would help solidify the pax-dee-elita dynamic and flesh it out more.
second, i think dee should have tried to win over elita's sympathies following the cave scene. elita should initially side with dee and push for violence against sentinel and airachnid on the way back, before they get captured by the high guard. dee should be hyping himself and elita up, saying stuff like "we can fight, elita can get the other miners into shape, im going to drag sentinel down in the tunnels and bury him alive," basically showing us that despite the out-of-pocket plans he's making, dee understands the value provided by others and its relation to his own goals (e.g. elita's leadership and extensive knowledge of the mines from being team lead), he doesn't just value physical strength, but ability. it'd be a good setup for the balance of rage/vindictiveness and cunning he has as megatron later on. and maybe elita's still angry and playing off of the hype too, like "yeah sentinel's going to waste management next." this leads orion to try and bridge the ever-widening rift between him and the others by appealing to reason and their sense of justice (or the sense of justice that orion thinks they should hold). elita could be the one who "reassures" orion by commenting on how the least he can do for them after dragging them out to the surface is to let them hate on sentinel for a bit. and when orion keeps pushing for an answer on whether she thinks sentinel should be killed, like dee had suggested, elita should reply with smth like, "well i dont know if i would--if i could--do that myself. kill someone, that is. maybe i won't, maybe i just want to kick his aft. but if jazz had died in that blast? if dee had died? do you think that you'd be able to do it then?"
i think the optimism speech could still be kept in but toned down a bit more, like have elita admit to pax's optimism being like a pinprick of light in a dark tunnel without outright just saying "you have hope and that's what makes you special." it'd be cool if we circled back again to orion's question of "don't you ever want to choose your own path?" like we're slowly seeing elita working through her process of choosing her allegiances.
im a bit at a loss at this point for what elita's "turning point" what be to side with orion instead. maybe it's not just seeing dee's fusion cannon, but seeing how reckless he was with it--how it wasn't just about putting up a good fight or even self-defence anymore but being indifferent to endangering everyone around him, good or bad, like the indifference of mechs like darkwing to the miners. maybe it's just the act of seeing dee let orion go from the tower, that if dee of all bots could sacrifice his other half so easily--the hopelessly stupid and understanding and compassionate other half named orion---then what difference is there between him and the bots who have caused so much misery in her own life? idk if we have a sequel please let me get more juicy characterization please
