Was Lio Convoy really a hero?
Synopsis
Some thousands of years after the Grand Uprising, Hatchet, Second Professor at Sistex University, has prepared a paper analyzing in harsh detail the actions of Lio Convoy and his Resistance. Topics include the true nature of "Protoform X", Convoy's dubious decisions, and those of his inner circle, discussions about the very nature of Lio Convoy himself, including whether the mythical Maximal was indeed a Titanmaster, or part-Vehicon, and whether the Builder Assembly had been forced to unleash the First Vehicon Apocalypse in response to his actions.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
Notes
Continuity notes
- This story is a revisionist history report on the Uprising... one written by someone who blames that nasty, horrible Lio Convoy for pretty much every bad deed, like starting his rebellion by executing people on live TV, wiring innocent troops into k-bombs to force the Builders to surrender, using combiners, forcing beast modes on people, trying to weaponize Targetmasters, trying to unleash bio-weapons in an innocent sports event of some kind, and every cyber-kitten stuck up a tree, the villain. Maybe the Vehicons were a logical response to such fiendishness, eh?
- A bunch of this is implicitly down to old records being lost and facts getting messed up over the centuries. However, the writer's jabs at "simplistic" takes on Lio Convoy as a hero and visionary also imply a lot of his murkier acts had been airbrushed out or were never spoken of by firsthand witnesses. Certainly Lio Convoy's self-imposed exile, done as he was exhausted and realised he was too divisive a figure in peacetime, is remembered as him wisely ensuring he could not become a dictator; the events of "Trigger Warnings" are only known due to MCSF logs being dug up; and there's merely "strong evidence" about Grimlock's G-Virus plan, rather than eyewitness accounts. All of this leads to future generations being puzzled by various events and how/why they happened. Hatchet also refers to historians trying to argue Lio Convoy was distanced from the nastier acts of people like Grimlock and claim they were done without approval—Hatchet is right to diss this view, as Lio Convoy did indeed approve many of them.
- The Maximal Command Security Force (MCSF) is retroactively known as the Maximal Commando Separatist Faction.
- Historians—or at least the admittedly biased Hatchet—apparently attribute the development of beast modes, and the horrific experiments that preceded the Beast Upgrade, to Lio Convoy. We know that they were the product of collusion between the unaligned Megatron and the ex-Builder Leatherhide.
- During "The Inexorable March", mankind of the 24th century was having some internal difficulties. This story goes further on the Terran Confederation's decline, saying mankind would eventually fall into a new dark age and brutal infighting: "the Fall of Man", a reference to the mythological transition from human innocence to guilty disobedience.
- The Monster GoBots are wrongly remembered as a Resistance group, their alien origins only rumour.
- As to what becomes of Galvatron and his generals, the cybertronix text refers to the Vehicon Apocalypse as the First Vehicon Apocalypse. Galva Convoy and "Galvatron II" are also mistaken as being the same person, and so history remembers Galvatron as a Lio Convoy clone.
- Historians seem confused as to Lio Convoy's nature, mistaking him for part-Vehicon, or thinking his triple-changer form came after the Uprising. Mention is made of him taking a Titanmaster partner named Moon.
- On the other hand, it's noted that he never evidenced triple-changing abilities over the course of "Derailment", and he does get partially converted into a Vehicon. It is entirely possible that Lio Convoy was, indeed, part Vehicon following his ordeal. Due to the issues of unreliable narrator present in the history, it's difficult to know for sure.
- Lio Convoy isn't the only one tarred. "Black Arachnia" gets blamed for the murder of Supersonic, and for trying to capture "Oversurge", who is misremembered as a "Titanmaster", when she'd been after Twirl, and hadn't know about Overrun to begin with. "Ciphershark" is remembered as a callous black-ops director who cared nothing for the people under his command—uh, well, in all fairness...
- Elsewhere, Protoform X (alternately "Ex") gets remembered as a polarizing figure, everyone certain there was no way he could've survived the K-Bomb blast, and so there must have been more than one of them. A fellow calling himself Rampage is quoted as swearing up and down that there never was a regenerative Protoform X, and the Resistance would just draft some unfortunate soul and called him that to cover up their crimes. Hmm.
- "Pontiff General Rampage" is said to be a noted historian, extensively researching this period, and someone the writer talked to. Uprising Rampage loathed Lio Convoy and saw him as a callous manipulator. Double hmm.
- Tarantulas is remembered, but somehow has wound up being remembered as Lio Convoy's chief science officer, and liaison to the Predacus (note the spelling) Secret Police.
- Optimus Prime gets a nod, but by the time of the writing, he's just barely remembered as a mythical figure who might not ever have existed at all. And they can't even remember he was a Prime in the first place, calling him Optimus Convoy.
- The Grand Uprising has become known as the "Unification War", which is a reference to "Pax Cybertronia", the final issue of the 2009-2011 The Transformers comic series from IDW Publishing.
- At the conclusion, we learn the name of the author, and it's Hatchet. Explains a lot (a "hatchet job" is an unfavorable treatment or work of criticism designed to destroy a reputation).
Transformers references
- The title of the story is a reference to Megatron's original motto, "peace through tyranny".
- The paper is intended to be presented as a lecture at the Heinrad Institute for Historiographical Science on the anniversary of U Day, some 10,000 years after the conflict. (This was the time the story told us the recording of Stiletto would last till.) Note that Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo took place tens of thousands of years into the future of the 3rd millennium C.E.
- The paper uses the Cybertronian dating system introduced by Nick Roche and James Roberts for Last Stand of the Wreckers.
- "Titanmaster", the mistaken name for the Cyberdroids (Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters), is a modified spelling of "Titan Master", the concurrent Titans Return toyline's trademark-mandated name for Headmasters.
- Lio Convoy possibly having a "Titanmaster" partner is a reference to his Legends toy body utilizing the Headmaster feature characteristic of Titans Return molds. How this would have worked out in the Uprising continuity is unclear as all known Cyberdroids were the same size as Lio Convoy, though Full-Tilt's Powermaster upgrade indicates that a non-Cyberdroid can undergo a -master modification.
- Hatchet's notes mention that Cybertropolis contained data on the Vehicon Apocalypse, referencing the city that first appeared in Beast Machines. While the city didn't appear in the main timeframe of the Uprising narrative, Beast Machines showed that the city was constructed over the ruins of Iacon... and in "Derailment", Iacon is obliterated by hordes of Vehicons.
- Going by the human dating conventions established in "Micro-Aggressions", Hatchet's paper is published 11984 years after the Stellar Cycle of the Ark. Oy.
Other franchise references
Real world references
- A "hatchet job" involves polemicizing someone through the written word.
- Hatchet notes mankind went through a period of civil wars known as the Saeculum Obscurum, Latin for "dark ages".
Errors
- As in the main story, the term "proto-former" is rendered without the dash. But seeing as Hatchet wrote it, maybe it was his mistake!
Other trivia
References
