I like the occasional eye change. Want more of it.

 

Honestly I rarely pay attention. In the case of the toys, pick something that will work with the color scheme.

 

I have never been too stuck on any particular eye color for any given faction. But, I do prefer that the more pure-hearted characters (Arcee, Bee, etc.) have the more innocent looking eye colors (blue, etc.).

 

I like it when bots have different eye colors. Makes them more memorable and less homogenized. Beast Wars and Armada were really good at giving bots unique eye color.

There's a distinct lack of green-eyed characters in this franchise though, now that I think of it. I can only think of BW Rampage & Airazor, Armada Demolishor & Cyclonus, Cybertron Ransack, and AoE Lockdown off the top of my head. What a shame. Green eyes would look so good on a lot of characters.

 

Unicron had green eyes. Wish Prime had Dark Energon in green instead of purple for this reason. Also ROTF Devastator had green eyes?

 

ROTF Devastator? That never happened. I dunno what you're talking about.

You're right about Unicron though, forgot about him. I usually remember Armada Unicron first.

I think Starscream should have green eyes. Green often represents envy in color theory, and Starscream wants Megatron's job, right? A more subtly villainous color would fit a sneaky, treacherous Starscream better than red too, plus green eyes have a certain egotistical cockiness that red eyes don't, also befitting of him. Plus it would look so good with his G2 colors which I love way more than red, white, and blue G1 Starscream.

 

It just a kind of loose rule. But yeah I generally prefer the red equals decepticons or blue equals autobots approach.

At one point during Armada they gave Optimus red eyes just before the series end after he got powered up and to me it just looks all kinds of wrong though oddily stil kind of badass

 

Yes, he does look quite badass with the red eyes. So did Powermaster Optimus Prime.

 

I prefer varied eye colours, and I like when both sides use all colours. Beast Wars had more heroes with red eyes than villains. Eye colour shouldn't determine whether a character is good or evil.

Well, at that point he had given into his rage and battle-lust to beat the shit out of Megatron, which was exactly what Unicron wanted. His colours (and eyes) went back to normal after Megatron and Unicron perished, and he remarked that he was undeserving of the Matrix due to how easily he gave in to his urge to fight.

So, yes, it looks wrong because it was wrong in the story. His whole colour scheme was darker and more sinister during that battle.

But it looks so. Fucking. Cool.

 

Oh, yea, I forgot about that! Armada was such an a great show, especially in the second half! Forgot about how awesome it was.

 

I think it should be more a guideline than a rule. I like how Grimlock has blue eyes, because he is clearly one of the most conflicted Autobots but it’s generally his compassion that keeps him from falling in with the Decepticons, at least long term.

 

I like the pretty eyes...

 

can i ask for more purple eyes?

 

Me realizing that Optimus Primal's first form had red eyes which is just strange in retrospect. Still cool.

 

I find the whole "good guys should have blue eyes and bad guys have red eyes" stance completely ridiculous.
Which one of you want to tell Shockwave his eye can't be yellow?
Or Magnus that his eyes can't be red?
Or Whirl? He'd thrash you for that.

 

In the PROPER dub (Micron Legend) he gets this deco right after Unicron calls him out for the hypocrisy of 'waging war for peace' nd says him and Megatron are 'the same' and their mutual hatred has fed him for eons, leading up to this critical moment.

So Optimus Prime TOSSES HIS MATRIX AT THE WALL and says 'Megatron I face you not as a supreme commander, but as one bot named Optimus' or something like that. The dub totally misinterpreted that moment.

And then they SLAUGHTER each other up and down Unicron's insides. Megatron laughs madly about how much FUN they're having. Then the camera focuses on those red eyes on Optimus and he responds with a battered, breathy "Yess this is fun, I hate to admit it."

So really Optimus is ashamed of his role in Unicron's war games and decides that if he and Megatron cannot coexist then one of them must CEASE to exist and that they've gotta settle their grudge match TODAY.

Eventually Megatron chooses to kill himself, seeing the unified Autobot/Decepticon Army fighting wild, thinking of Starscream most likely, deciding Optimus would make a a better leader for the future.

And this is why I do not count Energon or Cybertron in continuity no matter what language because they totally throw this exploration and deconstruction of the very IDEA of Optimus Prime right out the window.

The final line he has in Micron Legend is seeing the Matrix floating next to him in the void of space after Unicron disappears and lamenting "No, I am still not worthy of it."

So that's really a case of red eyes being used to show the darkness brooding inside of a heroic character. Not my favorite thing usually but in this instance I think it's very effective.

 

Oh yeah I used to have that figure. Totally forget it had red eyes

 

The cab bot was the first Prime made with blue eyes too!  

 

When are Magnus' eyes red? I can't think of anything where they are.

 

Agreed. The way I see it, optic color should just be whatever looks good with a given palette. Having all the good guys have blue eyes and all the bad guys have red eyes is awfully dull and limiting.

I could wax lyrical about the ending of Armada all day, but the funniest thing is I never really connected the dots of Optimus' color scheme in that episode with the overall theme it had and this only serves to make me love it more. (I was only thinking of it in the context of "god damn that deco is cool" and the prospect of Hastak being able to sell you the same toy you already own just with a really nice palette)