When a Prime dies and he's about to pass the Matrix to his successor, how does said Autobot knows he's the chosen one and next in line of becoming the next Prime and the bearer of the Matrix? Does the dying Prime knows who's his successor is going to be, does he get a like a sign? or does he randomly picks one like he picked Ultra Magnus in TF:TM 86.

 

Sometimes the Prime choses, though more often than not the Matrix choses. In the case of TFTM, Prime intended Magnus to receive the Matrix, but it determined for itself that Hot Rod was a more worthy candidate.

Or in Prime, Optimus sensed through the Matrix that Smokescreen was a worthy individual, in spite of his own misgivings about Smokescreen's inexperience and relative immaturity. This was confirmed while Optimus conversed with the spark of Alpha Trion.

 

I've always wondered if it had something to do with Hot Rod touching(like the golden snitch from the Harry Potter series) it first in The Transformers The Movie. That's why it wouldn't do anything for Ultra Magnus?

 

I can't see why it would have anything to do with who touched it first besides it would then be an extreme conveniet coincidence that Rod just happened to be there when the Matrix needed to be open

 

The Matrix chooses its the next Prime

 

In Transformers the movie, the appearance that I get is that Prime seemed to just feel that Ultra Magnus was the best candidate.

 

I think it's one of those matters of "fate". Ultimately, who the Autobot leader declares to be a successor almost doesn't matter, it's the Matrix's will, and the Matrix will always end up where it wants to be. Maybe in some cases the Autobot leader will be correct in naming his successor, but like with the example of the movie, I'd say Hot Rod was chosen and was destined to end up in his hands.

 

Amusingly, Optimus knew better than the Matrix who to choose as the next Prime. By his own admission, Rodimus was a shabby leader.

 

He did end a eons long war......

 

Optimus put himself and his crew into stasis for 4 million years.
He was shown to shoot the seat belt off Spike in one episode but couldn't hit Megatron when he had Hot Rod subdued.

Rodimus Prime reclaimed the Matrix from Galvatron. Got himself an upgrade and defeated Unicron. Then became leader of Cybertron, ending the war. All in one day.

 

I was so disappointed Smokescreen didn't get the Matrix considering he was Hot Rod in everything but name and colour scheme.

Smokescreen was a very appropriate name given all the misleading signs.

 

If the prime randomly chooses then that means there could be a hoistimus prime or arceemus prime, which would be great

 

did he?
Really?
if anything it really was the matrix that did all of that, he just happened to open it

And the more promptly restarted in what seemed like only days later

 

the crash did that

He was tired

Roddy by luck of “myth” was able to access the power of the matrix, Buy absolutely no worth of merits or hard work , Got himself a “magical” upgrade , Again by sheer luck and not any worse, uses the matrix to defeat Unicron and became leader of Cybertron, ending the war. All in one day.......And within a week or so the wat was restarted with a new enemy at to the battle field

 

I always looked at it as the Matrix choosing the one who's most worthy of carrying it which happens to be Hot Rod.

 

Rodimus didn't end the war, you silly goofballs. Not in the cartoon, not in the comics.

 

I still prefer Rodimus to the unrealistically perfect Optimus.

To Altered Prime, Optimus deliberately made the Ark crash in the G1 comic And cartoon.

On the subject of Primes, I hate that Alpha Trion has retroactively been made a Prime and that all the previous Primes in IDW are villains.

I also hate that Idw dropped the whole Optimus isn't a true Prime thing to say nothing of the Godawful artwork in the story where he did find the Matrix.

IDW also showed Hot Rod to have an affinity for the Matrix but then had him pass it back to Optimus.

IDW also ruined the original villainous Prime, Thunderwing by presenting him as mindless super weapon and ditching the Matrix Affinity that originally made him so interesting along with his concern for his troops.

 

right but for practical reasons not because he just wanted to give up

 

Fair point.

 

Well, a lot of IDW's comics are fanfic-level garbage, in my opinion.

I'll be the first to scorn Pat Lee, but I liked Dreamwave's comics a lot better than IDW's. Much better stories, characterizations, and all that gorgeous DON FIGUEROA artwork! (sob)