This weekend I watched Dark Awakening and The Return of Optimus Prime on my PSP, and it reminded me that I always wanted to start a discussion on this. I was in 5th grade when The Return aired, and even as a kid I was like WTF. What inconsistancies did you guys notice in that episode as a kid? The first thing that stood out like a sore thumb was how badly Prime was damaged in the cockpit in Dark Awakening (hell he was missing an eye), and in The Return he looked as shiny as he did in the movie. I know this was due to the fact that during the time of The Awakening, there were no intentions to bring Prime back, so when they wrote the episode, they had to pull a reason why he survived out of their ass....but Damn!
In "Dark Awakening" the ship he was piloting was heavily damaged by the Quintesons an then supposedly destroyed.... In "The Return of Optimus Prime" the ship was pristene and on corse for a random sun.
First post: There was a Teletraan type computer on the Autobot's flag ship, "Repair! Repair!" It fixed him but he was already dead. Second post, Many Transformers only imagined what happend to Optimus Prime. From the Quint damage the T-type didn't get around to repairing navigation and the ship wandered into the path of a sun. Well, at least that's what I believe. LOL
I was pretty disappointed that Op was brought back. Couldn't they have brought in some new hero instead of bringing him back? Couldn't Rodimus finally become the hero he was supposed to? Or maybe Ultra Magnus finally being able to deal with something?
I've written this before but Optimus Prime should never have been killed in the first place. Hasbro was just trying to do some damage control from the 86 Movie but it wasn't enough to save G1. At least we got things like Action Master Optimus Prime and later Laser/Octane Optimus Prime, and Takara went the Star Convoy route, they brought Optimus back too at the end of their G1. Once again, too late.
Shouldn't have killed Op? I actually think it was a good move. I dealt with it just fine as a kid (after a cry or two). I think it would have been a lot better if he had gotten a decent successor.
Like Star Saber? Agreed on that point. Takara soon learned to retire their old leaders. Optimus could have survived and stood down for the new leader and remained as an advisor, as Victory Saber did in TF Zone.
I think the movie would have been a whole lot less of an impact if Op had lived. How can you say the movie had their darkest hour if Op had lived? Unicron would have showed up, the Autobots all look at Op and say "Hey, there's a huge planet that's gonna kill us all, take care of it, Ops!" and he'd say "Yeah sure, no prob, let me whip out this Matrix, something that I've always had!" Op dying put the Autobots, and ALL the Transformers, in a much worse position than if every other pre-movie Autobot had died. And I gotta say I'm glad Megatron finally WON, even if he get his ass kicked too.
I just imagined that Dark Awakening Prime was a clone or something used by the Quints to frak with Rodimus' head.
I simply accept the fact that the Return of Optimus Prime hadn't been planned yet when they made Dark Awakening and that all the inconsistencies were the result of trying to reconcile Dark Awakening's ending with RoOP. And I agree that Optimus should've stayed dead and the writers should have let Rodimus's character arc actually progress instead of replay itself over and over.
If you want a overarching story inconsistency. Why did'nt perceptor or first aid fix prime before the attack on the quintessons? It just seems I assume that prime is programmed to deny the help or that they would find the quintesson controlls and we would'nt have such a entertaining episode. I find it odd that medics would'nt try to help prime. Since he's been dead for over a year and parts are spewing out of his body. Wheelljack sparkplug and ratchet ran diagnostics on everyone before a battle in season 1 .
It's a poorly thought out story, especially the way they bring Prime back (Have a Quint fiddle around with him and put him in some big chair and push some buttons). However I love these 2 episodes for 3 reasons. 1) It brings back Optimus. Who should never have been killed off in the first place. He IS Transformers. 2) The Optimus vs Rodimus fight, Prime beats him down and takes back the Matrix. Wanted to see that since I saw the 86 movie. 3) Optimus opening the Matrix and lighting (Another) darkest hour. Preferred Prime's opening to Rodimus' in the animated movie (even though Roddy's was prettier).
Well, first off G1 was riddled with animation inconsistancies even within episodes... so I wouldn't expect them to get it right when tieing up 'loose ends' from other episodes. And it's not like story inconsistancies weren't common either. And, let's face it, when Dark Awakening was written TRoOP wasn't even planned for... it was thrown together as a summer special after all. Also, frankly, the episode dissapointed me because it totally devalued Rodimus Prime's great episode prior in Burden Hardest to Bare where he finally stepped up... wait... no it didn't. ALL of season three devalued any character development that Rodimus gained... he'd learn something and find his confidence and than the next episode he'd be looking for a corner to go cut his wrists in. The character had tones of potential, but it was sidetracked daily (or weekly deepending on how episodes aired for you) as each writer chose to bring him back to square one instead of thinking that he may have learned something about how to lead the Autobots. So, let me use this to say something I've wanted to say for awhile now... if TRoOP hadn't come along to devalue Rodimus' character (again) another episode would have done so... the proof is in the handling of the character all throughout season three. Also, to be frank, I'll echo the sentiments that I think it was a horrible mistake to kill off Optimus Prime. It didn't go well with kids, with parents... niether group was happy and while I dealt with it just fine as a kid (for some reason I'd already read about Prime's death in the comics before I saw Transformers The Movie... so I think I dealt with his death already by the time I saw it on the big screen... frankly I prefer his Movie death better as his comic death was totally pathetic) a lot of kids didn't. Thankfully Hasbro has learned from their mistakes, but they're only just learning that they need to give other leaders a chance to shine too so that the franchise doesn't get stale. That's one of the things I like about Animated... a concept with various different Prime's leading units all over the galaxy is definently awesome.
I agree with you, but bringing Optimus back destroyed any impact the movie's storyline had whatsoever. <---------Not a fan of Dark Awakening or RoOP in the least.
You can be a fan of Dark Awakening and not TROOP. Dark Awakening was a cool stand alone epidode and it showed that Prime, even in that zombie state still had the will power to save the day, and while the goodbye in the movie was enough, I really liked seeing the chambers with Iron Hide and Ratchet. The thing that SUX is that the Rhino DVDs showed the ending with the announcer mentioning TROOP, isntead of the just playing the original epsiode where they just say their last goodbyes.
As far as killing off Prime in the Movie goes... even the writers admitted that when the movie was written, they had no idea how big of cultural icon Optimus would become to an entire generation of kids. They said as much on the 20th Anniversary DVD interviews. They said when they were writing the script, he was just a toy character that needed to be replaced. If they knew he'd be as popular as he became, they never would have killed him off.
If not for The Return of Optimus Prime, we would not have had the movie 28 days later. Yes, but in 1986 money that was like $5,900,000. I was in high school when the movie and season 3 came out so I may have been a little more focused on the story and character development than the intended viewer. To me, Dark Awakening was great because it showed Optimus actually hand the Matrix to Hot Rod\Rodimus. In the movie, Prime's intention was to give the Matrix to Ultra Magnus. I was never into this theory that Hot Rod was simply "The Chosen One". In fact, until the internet I was never even aware of it. I always figured the Matrix knew the current Prime was dying and was in sort of an "imprint" mode to judge the next Autobot who touched it if he should be the next Prime or not. In my imagination, had Optimus not dropped the Matrix causing Hot Rod to touch it and therefore be imprinted, then Ultra Magnus would have indeed become the next Prime. (One could argue that was never the writers' intentions, but regardless that was my perception.) I totally identified with Hot Rod's doubts because I thought he was the leader by accident -and I assumed the character felt the same way. So, it was very resonant with me that Optimus unquestionably gave Hot Rod the Matrix in Dark Awakening. If that was not the most telling symbol that Rodimus Prime was a true worthy leader than I don't know what was. Then the Return of Optimus Prime aired and Rodimus goes back to being Hot Rod and he is all like "Yeahs! I's Hot RAWD!! PAR-tay PEOPLEZ!" -very disappointing. However, I don't hold the story creators or Hasbro at fault. This was the beginning of massive story arcs created for what is essentially just a child's plaything. Other cartoons at the time, like Superfriends, Johnny Quest, etc. pretty much showed the bad guys were bad because they were bad guys. The good guys just sat around until the bad guys did something evil and then they stopped them. Even Transformers' contemporary competition He-man, which was pretty heavy on characterization and morals, did not pursue motives, doubts and ambition on the level that Transformers at least attempted. I think that G1 (its shortcomings included) is one of the reasons we have such excellent animated shows today.
