We can have both.

 

I don’t mind whatever the creators of the fiction choose to make his origins as it’s not what you do that matters but how well you do it that truly counts.

 

The Matrix is literally the will of Primus, though.

 

Cop-out answer, but his origins should be whatever best serve the interest of that particular story.

soldier who rises through the ranks?
hero specifically built to take the mantle of leadership?
mythological chosen one?
total nobody who is thrown in the deep end and succeeds beyond expectations?
pacifist or non-combatant who finds a reason to fight and the courage to stand up for his convictions?

Any or all of these can work as long as they fit within what the story is about, where it came from, and what it's trying to accomplish. Optimus isn't Batman or Superman or the like where his origin is inexorably tied to the finished product of his character. Possibly because he quite literally didn't have an origin when he was initially conceived (at least one that we were privy to) so Optimus Prime the character is the sum of traits that were then back-engineered into any number of possible origins. And therein lies the flexibility, because each origin can contribute something to the fully realized Optimus while a well-written backstory can allow him to come across the other traits organically. And then in the end from a half dozen different starting points you can still end up with a final product that is more or less just as on point and on brand as any other iteration (with a few small exceptions that I'm not going to get into because it's not the point of this thread)

 

I don't care how the lore tries to explain it, I think its a dumb concept.

 

I find that to be depended on the continuity

 

Yeah, I acknowledge that lol. In American G1, it's merely the accumulated soul-stuff and wisdom of the Autobot leaders. Same diff, if you ask me.

 

I just prefer to think of him in his pre-Prime days as a humble bot working as a clerk as far away from the spotlight as possible with no dreams of greatness only to have leadership thrust upon him. I rather think of him of gradually having to learn the ins and outs of becoming a great leader instead of suddenly becoming a great one overnight.

 

I was talking about it being the “will” of anyone other then it’s own

 

I'm not the biggest fan of the whole Orion Pax and Megatron friendship. On the other hand, I love the War Dawn Optimus origin. The idea of Megatron's inadvertently and unknowingly creating his own rival, and the fact that his rival was a nobody who used to worship and look up to him is more narratively interesting to me than the over used "we used to friends and now we're not" cliché.

 

Lately, I've been thinking that it'd be interesting if Optimus' backstory was loosely inspired by Abraham Lincoln's life before he became President. Admittedly, I only really thought about this because Optimus' original profile describes him as having "the personality of an Abraham Lincoln," but there might be some potential to the idea.

You may have seen this image before:



Obviously, doing a 1-1 recreation is both silly and also kind of unnerving, but I think there's some potential in Optimus being neither an uber-perfect hero nor a completely unqualified rando. There are a lot of experiences and skills that Optimus has that could really make for an interesting backstory if you actually delved into it.

Thoughts?

 

Some may disagree, but in my optics the idea of Optimus Prime being one of the instigators of the revolution is engaging and logical. Optimus, the mech who's all about the "freedom as a right of every sentient being" wouldn't stand for injustice that pre-war Cybertron usually is. Whether he's a quite off-the-radar clerk as he is in Aligned or the de-facto second-in-command of the revolution as he's implied to be in Cyberverse, it... fits, if you want to tell an epic story that the tale of Optimus Prime usually is, start with his humble beginnings it may.
Of course, it would necessitate a pre-war relationship between Optimus and Megatron with how Megatron usually spearheads the revolution, however, it seems that no one considered that they may not necessarily be friends, rather than... "allies", with a sense of camaraderie, perhaps? Mutual respect, say, especially if Optimus shows the strength of his convictions.
Honestly, Orion Pax could be anyone: a data clerk, a cop, a teacher... however, once the injustice gets to him, he would find a way to start to fix it with what he had. Data Clerk Orion would dig up information, Cop Orion would arrest people, Teacher Orion would teach his freedom ideology. And, of course, there would always be great speeches. Optimus and even Orion are always great at speeches - "great speeches are a right of every Optimus Prime/Orion Pax". Speeches that would make people pay attention to him, leading to him getting in thick of things, one way or another.

 

Most important parts for an Optimus Origin Story to me:
1). Starts off as an average Working Joe. Not any kind of noble or even someone with the authority of a cop.
2). War Dawn relationship with Megatron > Aligned relationship to infinity and beyond.
3). Having given him an origin point and an inciting incident, allow him to rise to the title of Prime slowly over the course of the war. No chosen ones, only proven ones.

Beyond that I'm pretty flexible.

My own version is a Topsy turvy of old IDW. He's the blue collar worker (trucker) who becomes the voice of the revolution of a corrupt caste system while Megatron is the captain of the (secrete) police who upholds the status quo until replacing the old order with his own.

"Primedom" in my continuity is more like a sainthood + medal of honor so Optimus is already a big hero by the time he's officially a Prime.

 

I feel the "archivist/librarian/file clerk" background for OP is a stretch, and worse, has been overused. I believe it started with Aligned but I've been annoyed to see it adopted by later continuities such as Cyberverse or IDW2.

This background for Optimus just never made that much sense to me. I much prefer him starting out as a tough cop (IDW1) or an elite cadet (Animated), that sort of thing -- something physical and active, and even better if that previous job allows some opportunity to show some early leadership skills. These are the key aspects that would make any background for OP believable to me. Hell, he could even be the captain of a football (Cube?) team.

I can totally picture a file clerk/librarian/archivist becoming a behind-the-scenes military strategist, or the head of intelligence, or an armchair general. But it feels like too much a stretch for that person to become the frontline military leader who always leads the charge and kicks ass, and then takes on Megatron, the world's greatest gladiatorial champion, in one-on-one physical combat and WINS.

 

My Optimus starts out as Orion Pax, a politician. A senator who advocated for the government to benefit the people and get them what they want. The Matrix selected him as one of 13 candidates to become Prime and he won the debate and was selected to be Prime. Unfortunately, soon after the beginning of his Primehood, war broke out. Megatron was his idol as Megatron was a military leader and general who advocated for military bots to get basic rights, as they were treated like drones. Many city states were in Megatron's favor and formed the Decepticons, but many ignored Megatron's other statements on the treatment of organic species in Cybertronian territories(The man was a fascist!)

 

Actually it started with Dreamwave

 

Ah thanks, must have slipped my mind (I’ve read War Within but it didn’t particularly stick with me).

In that case, the “librarian totally beats up MMA champion” thing has been going on even longer than I thought...

 

This. 100% this.

IDW Prime worked as a beat cop who'd forgotten he was Robo Jesus because the story was about a deeply flawed character, who struggled to change. Since the whole point of the series was exploring the tragedy that immortal beings capable of transforming to adapt to their worlds, but who couldn't actually change in meaningful ways, it worked great.

Similarly the new relaunch where he's a doe-eyed senator working with Megatron plays well, because it's a prequel explaining how two friends end up not just apart but at war. If you went with the tough as nails prime approach from pre-retcon it wouldn’t work at all. That Pax was so much less inflexible because he needed to fit the narrative that all of Cybertron is too set in its own ways to do anything but breed a cycle of violence.

I think what we've gotten about him in the Netflix series plays amazingly well in the Universe that they're building too. That's also only because everything is so bleak though. He's allowed to stumble along the way (in ways Rodimus was roasted for) because he isn't supposed to be perfect. He's just supposed to provide a spark of hope and courage to the hopeless. He's really good at that, but gets questioned left and right in ways G1 Deus Ex Prime never would.

I kind of feel like this is really a "what's your favorite Transformers series" question. We're restricted in our arguments to only using Optimus to defend the position. Which, for me, that's always gonna be pre-retcon IDW. Even though I loathed the 13th Prime bit, it was still nice to have a fallible Prime. In the end he was still the hero, but it was nice to see how many bots, often times for very good reasons, had lost faith in him.

 

Did they mention in the Netflix series what Optimus was doing before he became leader of the Autobots? Please remind me.

I appreciated the portrayal of Optimus in the Netflix series too. With the war going as badly as it was, I thought it was pretty real how some of his people appeared to question his judgement and even he himself wasn’t always so confident inside despite having to act like he totally knows what he’s doing in front of his troops. That’s exactly what happens at work when you’re managing people and things aren’t going great.