Yup. I like Elita-1. No reason she can't become a Prime, or to have another Fembot become one.

 

Elita Prime or Windblade ascending to be the Mistress of the Flame would be pretty cool.

But I would be fine with OP being female. And Jazz too, while we are at it.

It worked with some DC comics in some aspects. I think it's DC Metal where a female version of Bruce Wayne (Bryce Wayne) kills Aquaman? But I dount a female OP would go Shattered Glass on us....

 

I dont think i would have problem with her as long as she was well written and just as noble

 

Much like with the Doctor, I'd smile and give a thumbs up and just tune out until OP is a guy again. I don't like genderswaps.

 

I would never go as far as to say it couldn't be done well. But I also can't think of a single good reason to do it. It would mostly just serve to stir up a bunch of controversy that could easily be avoided by creating a new female Prime character.

I think it would be especially tricky with Prime, because Cullen's voice has become a huge part of Prime's persona. Like, even when it's not Cullen, it's usually someone imitating him. I'd actually be curious to hear the female equivalent of Cullen's voice. Whatever the case, the voice would have to be able to capture the same feeling, it would have to have weight and gravitas to it. Otherwise it wouldn't really feel like the same character. Again, I would never say it couldn't be done, but it would be a lot trickier than just hiring any voice actress and having her voice a female Optimus. I would hold her to the same standard that I do any other Cullen replacement. And that's a pretty high standard.

Edit: The design would also be a concern for me. Female Transformers tend to be very...not subtle. I don't think you could just slap purple lipstick and high heels on Optimus the same way they do with someone like Lugnut/Clobber. A female Optimus would go mainstram, and something like that could easily be seen as stereotypical and more mocking than empowering. The design would have to be very tasteful.

 

Would absolutely love to see some evidence behind this claim.

 

Okay, so now we're pretending all the Optimus Primes so far were identical in background and personality. Let's see if that fools anyone.

And we've had drastic reimaginings of a good portion of the cast -- probably most of them -- at multiple points in time. Some cases where a character's name was the only thing to carry over from one version to another. But maybe you can explain to me why it would be so much worse in this case.

 

Other than subtle nuance every Optimus has fit a character archetype and general feel. If you sit there and make Optimus, say, a brooding loner who strikes from the shadows and keeps the heads of all his victims around his waist while trying to lead the Autobots to universal domination.

Don't attempt to make this about gender, this is about stupid change for change's sake. By all means I would love having a female character to lead the Autobots, but to do so by slapping a girl voice on Optimus is gimmicky and trite.

 

I would react with both excitement and concern...

Like G1Prowl said... This would end up as hollow pandering to web warriors whose self-worth is derived from what volume of vitriol they can vomit into the collective cesspool of strife-mongering social media. See what happened with Spider-Man: that went from progress to mess in a hurry.

 

You mean the guys who concern themselves with whether or not She-Ra is pretty enough for them? Yeah, those guys suck.

 

More like the clowns who carry their diversity checklist to grade anything that comes out insisting that anything that doesn't meet that standard needs a full dose of online harassment until the creators "get woke".

 

Funny, because it's usually the opposite way around.

I guess after "go woke, go broke" got disproved for the umpteenth time with She Ra lasting longer than the average Netflix production, that isn't as catchy a slogan.

 

Well, voice wise - Animated Optimus was certainly not an attempt at imitating Cullen. Gary Chalk and David Kaye both brought a unique performance to their takes on the character. Jake Tillman definitely was trying to emulate him but lets be honest, he'd be way better if he dropped the Cullen imitation. If a voice actress could bring the same gravitas as Cullen or the unique, memorable performance of Kaye and Chalk, I don't see much of an issue. I'd love to see more takes on Optimus whose voices aren't just discount Peter Cullen.

As for design...Pyra Magna. With some retooling her design would work fine as a female Optimus.

 

Elita-1. Enough said.

 

...

Lump it in with something like Ghostbusters 2016. Had they actually done some decent writing and made the protagonists likeable, it might have actually done well. Instead, we got "If you don't like this you're a misogynist homophobe racist thingie." in response to some very valid criticisms. Captain Marvel was a run of the mill Marvel movie but was fought over SOLELY based on Brie Larson's commentary.

Bring it back around to She-Ra. Is it well written? Yep. Are there weird incels that are going to lash out regardless? Yep. Are there trolls who live to simply upset everyone involved. Yep. Do I have confidence that a female Autobot leader could be well written? Yep. Is a two octave raising of Optimus' voice good enough to meet THAT requirement? Not at all, and it shouldn't be for ANY observer.

 

Ghostbusters 16 was bad. That doesn't mean that otherwise progressive fans aren't the tools of grifters like the Quartering with a regressive agenda to spread. Nobody is saying that if you don't like a thing, you're a racist or whatever. The Brie Larson commentary wasn't to say that. It was to say that there was a need for more diversity in film and film criticism.

And nobody is proposing a two octave raise of Optimus's voice.

Stop listening to grifters. They don't have your best interests or even your fandom at heart. They just want to turn back the clock.

 

If you're not fundamentally changing Prime's personality or character with the gender swap, then that is EXACTLY what you are proposing.


Also, grifters? Is it exhausting to run from imaginary bogeymen constantly?

 

Prime has been different across every incarnation, isn't the general assumption that a female Optimus would also be different from the rest in other ways? Like, meeting the general requirements to be recognizable as an incarnation of Optimus Prime while still being a unique take on the character?
Then again my approach is based on Primal and TFA Optimus, so...Whatever.

 

Why does she have to be a radical change? Just because she's a woman?

Why didn't you quote the rest of what I said?

It's almost like you're engaging superficially with my arguments. Also, what would you call people like Gamza and Arch otherwise? They are grifters, selling you patent medicine that has lead mixed in.

 

If Optimus is female and she opens her chest to pull out the matrix, would that be considered flashing?