Hmmm I would like to see a version of Rodimus actually be banned to another universe, than landing in the Shattered Glass universe and grow into a warrior. Than coming back via time travel and getting up to Megatron say "Give me your face!" leaving Optimus just like "WTF?"  


edit:
Uh should in Shattered Glass not Megatron be killed by Optimus and Cyclonus becomes the new leader of the Decepticons or something like this? This could be another "What if...?" story...

 

i say guilty of being an ineffectual leader but innocent of primes death. while it could be argued that without his involvement prime would have survived, hot rod acted in good faith in his attempt to save prime. he didnt jump in randomly to steal glory, it was only when prime was in real danger that he acted.

as hot rod he was a reckless warrior and as rodimus he was an uncharismatic and unsympathetic figurehead. he needed magnus for constant emotional and tactical support. however its hard to find him truely guilty taking into account the 'arise roddimus prime' quote. optimus obviously accepted hot rods actions as a mistake and something he shouldnt be held legally accountable. free him, but have sixshot rough him up a bit first.

 

Optimus was already dead and part of the Matrix with that quote. If Hot Rod had been truely forgiven, then why did he contiune to feel such guilt as evidenced in TROOP part 1? Not the brightest bulb in the pack? Guilty!   Oh and as mentioned above, I do blame Hasbro more than Hot Rod . Hasbro didn't know they were killing an Icon. Now that was dumb. Optimus was on night lights, tooth brush holders, even a cookie jar. No wonder kids locked themselves in their rooms. I still feel some of that looking at MP-4S all these years later. I was in my 20's in 1986 and I was shocked when Optimus died. You wouldn't believe how quiet a theatre of children got when that happened. Even Starscream's death got a big "AWE!" I digress. However even then the kids were questioning why the guy who helped get Optimus killed got to be the new leader. It was the start of the end of G1.

 

I beg to differ. In the grad scheme of the Autobot army, Kup would most certainly be Hot Rod's superior officer. Therefore he did indeed disobey and order.

Heroes are not defined by their actions, they are defined by who they are. Hot Rod was doing the "heroic thing", you're right about that. But that is the problem.

More often than not, people who try to be heroes usually only succeed at one of two things. And that is to either get themselves, or somebody else killed. And that is exactly what Hot Rod did isn't it?

Like other have stated, he could have done many other things to prevent Megatron from shooting Prime, but he wanted to be part of the big moment, the big fight. He wanted to be able to say that Prime was able to defeat Megatron because he (Hot Rod) prevented Megatron from shooting him by wrestling his gun away.

Some hero.

 

Rodimus was a promising leader in the Movie. Unfortunately, he got derailed into a big time whiner in the third season. He's still a cool character, and he did what any turbo revvin' young punk would have done. Unfortunately, it ended up killing OP. I say he's innocent. He meant no harm, he's just ahot-headed doof like Hot Shot.

 

I say Guilty.. let him be mech fish food!!!  

 

I dont know, the same guy that caught the Depticons early from look out mountain early, the same bot who brought thought of the way to get into Autobot city for Kup. The Same bot the Matrix picked to succeed Prime.

Man, he seemed like a hero to this 10 year old at the time.

 

Well, Optimus can be considered a hero...he SAVED Duke from dying!

 

I don't understand how Kup would most certainly be a superior officer? If you are reffering to his age, I disagree. Kup may be more experienced, but his rank is not based on age.

I think it's just easy to blame Hot Rod because the result of the fight was a legend dying. I truly believe Optimus Prime would have done the exact same thing.

Why can't we blame Optimus for not taking the shot when he was giving his "sterner stuff" speech? Or perhaps he should have taken the shot when Hot Rod was in a head lock?

 

OK, this is where I draw the line. Hot Rod was a lot of things from a hot tempered, rash, impulsive, idiot but one thing he most certainly was not was a glory hog. Hot Rod jumped into the fight because he genuinely thought Prime needed his help, not so that he could claim some kind of credit alongside him. Was it stupid? Yes! Was it unnecessary? Yes! Was he not thinking? Yes! Was it done for selfish reasons? Most definitely NO! Your argument here has no basis in actual merit beyond anti-Hot Rod bias.

 

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion, if we want to blame some fictional character, it should be Optimus himself. He got killed because he would never kill Megatron or risk hurting or killing another innocent person in friendly fire.

 

I think that H.R/Rodimus is guilty

 

Yes and Hot Rod helped him do just that. Optimus may have died anyway, but he may have taken Megagtron with him. Anyway, like others have said, I too don't believe Hot Rod was looking for glory, he was just being his usual stupid self. To think he had the gaul to later call Grimlock a Bozo.

 

That's the way I've always seen it. Megatron is still to blame for taking advantage of that weakness and shooting him though. Hot Rod knew he was trying to exploit that weakness. His plan to stop Megs backfired in his face though.

 

This is so much better than the previous thread, we should have more public executions.

Next week: The trial of Bob Skir! Thumbs up to spare his life: Thumbs down to hurl him into the techno-organic core

 

I dunno, even his tech spec says he dreams of being heroic and important, and achieving glory is a quick way to do that. Saying Hot Rod was ambitious or a glory hog is not that far a stretch.

 

Exactly my point. Hot Rod thought Optimus needed HIS help. None of the other bots present thought that Optmus need any help at all! They knew that Prime could defeat Megatron. Who knows, maybe without having to suddenly worry about Hot Rod being Megatron's hostage Prime more than likely could have dodged Megatron's attack with the found gun.

Optimus was no fool, he would have known that Megatron was up to something by grovelling and begging for his life. This was Megatron after all, not Starscream. He would not have been unprepared for a renewed assault from Megatron.
Hell, his "sterner stuff speech" could've simply been to goad Megatron into making his play.

 

ALSO! The fact that he no longer goes by "Hot Rod" and goes by the name "Rodimus" seems suspicious. Why the name change? Seems like he has something to hide. Hmmmmm...

 

Doing something dumb is not a crime, otherwise three quarters of the world would be in prison. No matter what else happened, Hot Rod had no malicious intent when he went to try and help Optimus. He actually thought Optimus needed his help. What he did may have been stupid and contributed to Prime's fall, it wasn't totally without merit. I would point out to you in the Marvel Comics version of the Transformers: The Movie (which could also be considered cannon), Hot Rod wasn't even present at that moment, nor did he interfer and Optimus Prime stilled died.

As to the change in name, I blame WitSec (aka Hasbro Copyright Division).

Out

 

He totlly knew Prime wasn't goona kill him..Prime would of walk closer giving his speech and Blaamo, Megs would of shot him regardless of Hot Rod.
He was gonna shoot prime with or without a body sheild.

Hot Rod made a mistake, but the Matrix still chose him to lead.