You're probably right.

I always like to assume that the rules of reality only apply to the bad guys in Bay movies, though, so I figured that the people who were blasted in the air, and flung through cars either died horribly, or at the very least ended up paralyzed.

 

I'd say it's the only time I recall him purposefully killing a human.

I'm sure there have been a few thousand humans indirectly and unintentionally killed by his actions one way or another in each universe.

 

Probably not. I'm sure all the autobots have each killed a few humans here and there throughout those big battles. Can't see every little human around when you got bad guys shooting at you.

 

Seeing how Optimus has tackled trucks, I think not.

 

Optimus probably has. TFTM in particular finds him and Megatron battling in the city. They fly through populated buildings. There's a really good chance humans may have been caught somewhere through those buildings. The chances are pretty high.

 

It is the first time I have seen Optimus kill a human and it be focused on.

Here is the thing: I am not sure if Optimus knew Attinger was behind Cemetery Wind and the killing of his friends. In the film, Optimus makes his "Whoever did this is going to die" speech right before they infiltrate the KSI base and confront Joshua. This seems to me to imply they thought that he was the one behind it. Prime spared him and, unless I missed a scene, did not get the information on Cemetery Wind.

As for the killing itself, looks to me that Optimus shot the ground near the Cemetery Wind leader. The shot was accompanied by a shower of earth. He was knocked back, likely from a shockwave which could have killed a man and was showered with debris. We have seen the effects of Transformers weapons on humans; the humans were turned to mist and bone and these were standard issue grunt guns which I figure would be a bit weaker than a gun used by a Knight or Prime. I am not even sure if the death was very on purpose or just something he did in quickly because of the heat of the moment needing to save Cade.

 

I'm pretty sure the people in that Cemetery Wind SUV that Optimus jumped on died.

 

Attinger was the first human Optimus wanted to kill. Not needed or accidentally. Wanted.

 

In Transformers Prime Optimus tosses the deactivated Nemesis Prime at Silas to crush him. Silas actually survives because his men revive him, but Optimus intended to kill him and for all intents and purposes everyone believed that was what happened until a few episodes later.

Again, Silas butchered Transformers for parts, nearly killed humans allied with the Autobots several times, built a fake Prime to sully his good name, and was a renegade terrorist in the eyes of the earth government. And he was building an army of his own for his own powers sake, to the point that Optimus pointed out on more than one occasional Silas was starting to remind him eerily of Megatron back in the day and he feared he'd plunge humanity into their own version the Cybertronian great wars. So it's not like he was an innocent. In fact he was arguably worse than Attinger.

 

What's funny is how I still have a huge beef with Man of Steel for the ending, because it seemed like both a total inconsistency for the character and totally unnecessary in the situation for Superman to kill Zod.

Yet in Age of Extinction, the circumstances which led Optimus to kill Attinger (literally a last-second save for Cade) did not bother me in the slightest, and I totally understood why it had to happen. And Optimus did get his justice/vengeance, yet he didn't actively do it with the notion of vengeance as his reasoning, he did it to save another human.

Actually, they went out of their way to specifically show how Optimus was super careful while fighting Megatron in the middle of a city. When Megatron shoots him into a wall, he holds himself against the wall before falling to the ground so the humans beneath him have time to run out of the way.

 

Dude. You're right that they showed him being extra careful in that particular scene but what about the flight through the building? There's a shot in the film which shows Optimus holding on to Megatron as they flew through a populated building. With the speed they were going, someone could have been killed especially since they "can't see through walls" if you know what I mean. It would have been unintentional of course and many argue that off screen kills don't count unless there's proof of an actual kill, but that shot maaan.

 

In the words of bender......kill all humans! I would love to see a attiger-down of some kind.

 

Those were standard issue Decepticon grunt weapons. Autobots have no "grunts" per say, so they all have unique weapons compared to each other, and none of them are an energy based blast (aside from Bumblebee, but his is more a fireball) that would disintegrate a human like the Decepticon weapons.

Also, I guess we're all forgetting about the big hole in Attinger's chest too?

 

I'm pretty sure if either bumblebee, ratchet, Ironhide or sentinel were to shoot a human directly, they'd either vaporize or be completely destroyed without a trace. Optimus shot at Attinger's feet, meaning the sheer force of the ground beneath him being blasted killed him.

 

I see a dark circular blood stain, but no hole. I don't even think his shirt is ripped there.

It really doesn't look like the damage one would see from a Cybertronian arm cannon scoring a direct hit.

 

I just watched it in slo-mo. Optimus clearly shoots him dead-on. I don't see any pile of dirt: just sparks exploding from Attinger.

More importantly, any shot to the ground would have killed Cade, too, since they were standing so close.

 

It's unusual, because I understand Superman killing Zod and have no problems with it (I believe in Lex as Supe's archenemy not Zod, so I guess it works out okay for me), but I have issues with Optimus killing Megatron or a human villain.


He's a warrior not a saint, he has no issues killing Decepticons; I wish he wouldn't kill Megatron, but when he does it's situations where things have been pushed too far (TFTM 1986, DOTM 2011) and demands a final solution.

Killing humans is another story. Optimus Prime is an ally to humanity, his killing humans, the people he's protecting from the Decepticons, comes to me as way off and totally unlike the character.
The thing is it's not his fault though, Prime is simply reacting to these circumstances that humans target the Autobots for their own reasons. Which means humans should step in to deal with their own affairs, as the Autobots' responsibility is to hold the Decepticons off.


It would be nice to see a story that features a softer Prime, or a storyline that involves him granting mercy to a Decepticon and earning trust, where the values of compassion and mercy can work out (like what Primal did in BW with Dinobot). But these are harsh times: if Optimus has to be tough enough to put down enemies (even human ones), then that is what he has to be, and he gets cheers for it.

 

He killed the spec ops guys at the farm battle scene

 

I'm pretty sure he didn't. It's ambiguous, at best, since they're shown flipping away from what are clear ground shots.

 

Bumblebee would definitely do some serious damage, and I could see Ironhide and of course Sentinel's weaponry disintegrating someone. Ratchet however seems to use bullets, so he would probably leave behind holes and wounds.

Someone else already cleared up where Optimus shot by watching the scene in slow motion, and he hits Attinger dead on.

Look closer then. His shirt is definitely torn in other places, and to me at least it looks like his tie isn't following the curve of his body, but rather sinking in a little bit into the dark spot because of the gap.

And maybe it doesnt look like the damage we expect from a Cybertronian cannon because Optimus switched to a smaller caliber to prevent killing Cade as well?