So, I've been keeping up with IDW for a while and have been enjoying their take on the 13.....mostly.

I am not a fan of their insistence of Optimus being the 13th Prime, somehow reincarnated into the "Modern Age". I don't like this for two main reasons: 1. We have never had any other occurrence of true reincarnation in the Transformers mythos (correct me politely if I am wrong, and back up your claim with proof) in IDW's timeline, if not the franchise's entirety. 2. I'm just sick of everyone using Optimus as a "Chosen One" figure, it's amusing and interesting with someone like Starscream who believes his own hype but not someone as clear-cut and straight-laced as Pax.

What I think makes more sense is that one of two other slightly overlooked characters make better sense for the 13th and for both "The Arisen" makes much more sense as their title.

1. Rung: I know what you're thinking, "Rung? Really? Why Him? He has done almost nothing! He's just sat around and watched others do stuff!" And you're absolutely right. Which is why I thought of him in the first place. He's seen it all, he's meet them all, he's been there and is still kicking around. His serial code is 100000000. He's served on at least 9 different Arks. In an alternate reality he was worshiped as a god. No one know what his alt-mode does. Everyone knows him and yet most still seem to forget his name, but not his eyebrows. When he faced his possible death at the hands of the DJD and Deathsaurus he didn't care if he died, just that his corpse couldn't be used. In his own words he requested "Just put me beyond use." This is the mark of a complex story we don't have the full script for, and potentially he could rise up beyond his status of universal background character and show the rest of us what he's made of.

2. Soundwave: Now this theory is both more believable and more biased. For starters in IDW we know that Soundwave does not remember his whole history, in fact several of the recent issues of Optimus Prime we have been given glimpses of some of his earliest memories...which aren't from when he was a protoform. It seems odd that the writers at IDW would be so specific with a character's backstory as to make sure it was known that he didn't know it all. Throughout the comics he has dealt with many Primes and dislikes to outright hates most of them, two major exceptions being Alpha Trion, and his student Optimus. He has worked multiple times with Optimus toward a shared goal albeit grudgingly as his history has made him wary of any who bear the title Prime. Soundwave also has a direct link to a member of the 13 from one of it's variations: Logos Prime. Who was in fact operating under the name SoundBlaster. Finally, and here's where the bias comes in, I think this just makes for better story telling. SW is a character who has always been somewhat of a servant to what ever character is deemed the protag. of his side. I think it'd be really cool for him to suddenly be on equal if not higher footing than Optimus and be thrust into the spotlight and deal with what it means to be a member of the 13 and deal with the oncoming threat of Unicron. For someone who has been ruled by Primes all his life to suddenly be one opens a lot of possibilities.

All right, I've ranted my points long enough. Let's hear your side of it. Am I right? Am I full of $#!%
Does reincarnation actually ever happen in a way that makes sense in a narrative? You tell me.

 

My theory for a while now has been that the Arisen didn't actually exist as a person back in the tribal era, and that the thirteenth tribe instead believed in a prophecy that a new Prime would "arise" someday.

I think the chances of Rung being the Arisen are exactly zero, considering it's a concept solely from Barber's work. There's clearly some great significance to Rung, but he ain't the Arisen.

 

Soundwave just fits it really well. It's a perfect irony to have the guy who hated the oppression of the Primes so much to end up as one himself.

 

I’m not sure where exactly IDW is going with this whole “Arisen” thing, but Onyx sure made a point of calling Optimus by that name. Considering he’s likely in league with the Liege, I’d say it’s an attempt at misleading the population away from the true identity of the Arisen. Not sure how I feel about Soundwave being the Arisen, but I see great potential in playing him off of Maximo. One is the Prime of lies and the other has the unique ability to discern the truth.

 

Didn't metroplex greet optimus by saying 'we have met before, in a past life' or some such?

 

Let's be honest, it's probably Windblade.

 

I was going to vote Soundwave after reading the new issue of Optimus Prime.

But seeing as how you have an entire poll option specially for me...

 

You say that, but I keep having this feeling that you just get a notification of whenever I make a new thread. You always seem to find them a day or two after I post them. And yes this week's issue of OP was definitely a factor of this thread.

 

I think the "Arisen" One could be Optimus Primal, because of the upcoming toy.

 

Bob. It's Bob. Nobody else but Bob.

 

I've been assuming it's NOT Optimus for quite some time now.

Given Soundwave's origins are straight-up "came from nowhere with no memory" he's a definite candidate.

Mind, the REAL answer may just be "there is no Arisen; it's just people reading into a prophecy the Primes made up."

 

Its Megatron or Rodimus. Although I do like the Soundwave theory

 

It's Optimus. IDW ripped their list of Prime's straight from Aligned, which seems to be Hasbro's go to list anyway, so I don't argue against it.

That leaves just one correct answer:

Blow up the moon!

 

Or ‘Commander Nickel’.

 

It's Buster the Dog.

 

Obviously it's Getaway!

 

Hey, maybe it’s Pyra Magna? She seems to think she’s Prime material.

 

There is also a good chance it's no one at all and like most of the stories told about the Primes, it's horseshit, probably made up by Onyx

 

I must say that I'm quite intrigued by this, nice job! Personally I liked the angle of Soundwave probably being the Arisen, but I want to add this:

Since the last post on this thread was in March, I hope most people already know that the "Arisen" was an actual being as we saw in Shockwave's flashback. I'm not ruling out the reincarnation possibility since we only saw a glimpse of the guy, and there are still a lot of things unexplained.

PD:

Glad I'm not the only one. Genrallly speaking I prefer way more the fact that Orion was the first Transformer since the original 13 worthy of being a Prime, it is much more meaningful to me. And while there's nothing we can do anymore as far as canon goes, I will be happy with my TF's fanfiction for my own take on the "Arisen".

 

With the demystificstion of the thirteen I’d argue there was never a 13th prime in the old days with the arisen always having been a reference to Optimus