One would become Optimus Prime first then when they die, the other steps in as a replacement without anyone knowing.

Kinda like how Robin (whichever one it was) became Batman.

 

Orion and Optronix could be brothers....other than that I don't think so.

 

Sure, I guess you could make it a different character. Like a huge Optimus fanboy suffering from some major primus apotheosis.

(Is it just me, or is Optronix is a really doofy name?)

 

okay, i love this idea

 

I think they should just be the same person. maybe Optronix is an earlier name Orion Pax could have used when he had a different occupation. Maybe he was an archivist earlier in his creation. Optronix could have been shortened to Orion, like Magatronus became Megatron, and then the Pax was added because of his new standing in the Cybertronian Caste system.

 

Nah, but I'd change my mind if it was Orion and Smokescreen

 

Personally I've never been a fan of either of them so I don't think they should exist in any continuity, let alone in the same one.  

I suppose I could just about put up with them if neither of them became Optimus Prime and just existed alongside him, like how it's been attempted with separating Galvatron from being a future Megatron.

 

I was thinking of something similar, but the other way around:

As an archivist in the Iacon Hall of Records, he starts out with the name 'Orion Pax'. When he's forced to take on more of a soldier role because of the Civil War, he changes his name to 'Optronix'. Finally, he takes on the name 'Optimus' when the High Council names him the next Prime.

 

That's actually kind of a cool idea! Or how about both of them competing for the role of Prime, so you don't know who will become Optimus until it happens.

I'm fine with just 'one' Orion Pax though.

 

So who was Optimus Prime before he was called Optimus Prime?

Just 'Optimus'?

 

Or Bumblebee and Goldbug. Cyclonus and Scourge existing at the same time as the Seekers and Insecticons. IDW is doing really well with it, so I'm fine with all of them being different characters.

That's the way it was in WFC.

 

I like Gingerchris's way of having Optimus just be Optimus, but I'd probably recycle the names as relations or pseudonyms of his. One idea I posted a while back was having Optimus be the secret publisher of a series of essays denouncing Megatron during the war. Orion Pax would be his pseudonym, to make sure that his family doesn't suffer the consequences of his speaking out against Megatron.

Optronix, on the other hand, could be a relation of his, perhaps a father or ancestor.

 

Sure. Why not?

A soldier named Optimus rises through the ranks, proves his worth and eventually becomes a Prime. He just doesn't have to be somebody else beforehand.

 

Nah. Have them be parallel reality equivalents who have to team up at some point instead.

 

Yeah I was never a fan of him being someone else and then taking the name Optimus for no reason. It would feel really weird and unnatural to me for people who knew him the whole life to just suddenly start calling him Optimus Prime instead of say Orion Prime.

I don't mind it with say Hot Rod -> Rodimus Prime as it feels more natural to me.

If anything I like for Optimus to have the full name of Optronix Pax but that his nickname is Optimus and that everybody knows him as Optimus, but my fanfics don't really matter  

 

I see no reason why they could not both exist. Maybe even both have an equal chance of becoming Optimus Prime in their future - perhaps Alpha Trion or others knew that the day when "the greatest" Prime would be needed and were making sure to cultivate any who showed promise of achieving that greatness. Hence Orion, Optronix and any number of others might, potentially, have been carefully nurtured with a view to one of them becoming Optimus - which one it was varies depending on which parallel universe they happen to be in at the time.

One way to look at it with the modern series hammering home that Cybertron and Earth have been intertwined for millenia is that Latin is a Cybertronian dialect. Optimus = "best", on arising as the new Prime he takes on the mantle of being Optimus Prime to represent that he is going to be the best of the Primes, the one who carries the fate of the world on his shoulders. Or perhaps just outright the best hope for a peaceful cosmos.

The analogy would have worked a little better were it "greatest" but that'd be Maximus, strictly speaking.

 

And the optimus fanboys and fangirls just erupted into a killing frenzy upon the concept of an evil version of prime sharing the same universe as the being that they worship to the point of turning trucks into shrines.

 

Bleah.... except that "Rodimus Prime" is one of the worst, most uninspired and nonsensical names in the franchise. It's annoying that we're still stuck with that because of its legacy value.

Anyhow, I like that Orion/Optonix took a new name upon becoming the Autobot leader. It has a certain "Old World" quality, like monarchs or popes choosing a new name upon ascending to power.

Orion and Optronix could absolutely exist in the same continuity, you'd just need a good story to weave them together. You could either do an identity swap thing (one's a promising young cadet, destined for leadership, but dies.... so the other takes his place and get promoted to Prime, giving him maybe an undercurrent of insecurity and feeling like he didn't earn his place). Or, since they're robots, you could have Optimus built from the pieces of both of them. Or you could have them be relatives. Lots of ways you could do it... you just need an interesting story behind it.

 

Why not? It can't be any stranger than turning a truck into an ape. Try it and see what happens Hasbro!

 

I'd be okay with a character named Optronix existing but Orion Pax, the archivist, should be the sole Optimus Prime. Actually I wouldn't mind Optronix being the super cop.