What the title says.

 

I find him boring, but he's alright, and he still has a few moments I remember fondly.

Although compared to the other major Prime incarnation coming out at the time, his character writing is masterful.

 

Yeah basically the same. He almost never stops with the lofty airs and epic speeches. As a result, he comes off as one of the most distant and detached Primes. I give him props for trying to reason with his enemies in the hopes of finding a way to end the war, even if it never paid off. At least he tried. Even with Unicron.

But yeah: mostly I think he’ll be remembered for talking in a slow monotone, feeling generally lethargic, lacking energy, lacking personality, never turning off speech mode, and as a result he tends to come off as fake, when he talks about what a tight family his Autobots are.

He benefits from having Peter Cullen’s voice (even though he’s not expected to emote or show any range this time out), being surrounded by a cast with a lot of personality to help play off his dry, straight-man routine. The animation allows him to look good & at the time I preferred his stoic level-headed ness to the psychopathic tendencies of Bay-Prime.

But those are all external benefits. It sucks that I don’t have much good to say about Prime himself.

…. his toy is cool.  

 

Prime's version of Optimus was a little on the boring side. But to be honest, that's what I've come to expect from the character. Really the only time that Optimus Prime has shown a great deal of personality was in Animated. And because of that, some people say that in that show he's Optimus in name only.

 

It's less the fact that he had emotion (since Optimus has emotion in G1, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, some of IDW) but more that some think his story in animated closely resembles that of Rodimus's. But since Animated takes place post-war and said war isn't just a retelling of a very familiar story again, I still think it's a pretty good interpretation (that and Optimus sells far more than Hot Rod/Rodimus).

 

He’s boring, bland, and monotonous. It’s difficult to even call him a character.

What’s worse is that basically every Optimus since has followed this one’s lead to some degree or another. I miss when Optimus was fun, when he actually had a personality. Yes, as the leader he needs to be serious at critical moments in the story, but he can (and should) have more going on than that. Let him be a pseudo-father figure, let him be caring and understanding, let him be funny and know how to chill out, let him make mistakes and own up to it. In short, let him be more human.

 

Prime Optimus was a cardboard cutout. The character is physically there, but it lacks depth. It does all the things we expect Optimus Prime to do: grandiose speeches and wrecking Decepticons on the battlefield. But it doesn't do any of the things that Optimus Prime should do.

 

He is the absolute most distilled embodiment of the biggest stereotypical aspects of Optimus: stern, stoic, unemotional, almost reverent distance from everyone else while dispensing cliched statements about honor and goodness and whatnot and occasionally demonstrating that he is a scarily dangerous warrior if not for his unbending commitment to pacifism.

Someone once said that his characterization is kind of like what you would get if the writer's research into Optimus Prime was based entirely on having watched Transformers: The Movie as a kid, remembering his like 10 minutes of screentime in it, and then putting 20+ years of distance between that point and crafting the Prime characterization. I agree with that.

It flies in the face that basically every other Optimus Prime (or Primal) up to that point had been more like an actual person with dimensions. Fun and flippant when the situation allowed, supportive and brotherly when it was beneficial, and stern and fatherly when required. G1 Optimus played sports with Spike and the Autobots, made jokes about booby traps catching boobies, admitted to his troops that he didn't always have a grand plan in mind during a fight, and bonded with everyone around him on a personal level. Prime Optimus was like he was standing behind a velvet rope with a sign that said "look but don't touch" while reciting from a book of heroic speeches.

Having watched basically every Transformers series from G1 up to Armada over the last two and a half years or so, I'm constantly struck by how often I think to myself "man, I miss Optimus being a fun character like this" for most incarnations to that point. Because Prime Optimus is Robot Jesus as his Robot Jesusiest.

 

Boring, flat, made the show so damned tedious. Ponderous Prime, Cardboardimus Prime. @Liege Nemesis is right in that he's the embodiment of every stereotype of Optimus Prime. In a BAD way, too. he's not my least-favorite Optimus Prime, but by god is he down there!

 

what is your ranking of Optimus Primes favourite to to least favourite?

 

Hopelessly boring and soulessly corporate, as if he was designed and written for by some committee at Hasbro headquarters.

 

Agreed but what would you suggest as a solution to make sure an Optimus as badly written as this one doesn't make onto screens big or small ever again?

 

Duh, the answer is to actually include some character when writing Optimus Prime. It's entirely on the writers for how much personality they give to their characters.

 

i know that but how do we enforce good writing if not enforced the writer would be able to purposely write characters poorly for the sake of SuBvErTiNg ExPeCtAtIoNs.

 

We can't. There is no way for us to police the writers of Transformers series. The next best thing is fanfiction in that scenario, and that's a whole different can of worms involving amateur writers who think they're being clever, when really, they're being cringe.

 

Honestly at this point i would prefer that to the writing transformers has now at least cringey fanficitons are so bad they're hilarious if there's anything i've learned from the Disney star wars movies (except rogue one) the J.J. Abrams star trek movies TFP the bay movies and various other things made from the late 2000s onward it's that there's something worse than being cringe: being soulless.

 

Okay I take exception to the accusation that every movie made since 2010 has been “soulless.”

 

i never said every movie made since 2007 is soulless but it seems the most successful ones are.

 

“Most successful” and “soulless” don’t quite belong in the same sentence unless “usually aren’t” is between them, in my opinion. There are exceptions but you’re overgeneralizing regardless.

 

perhaps it's just movies like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Rise of Skywalker have been pumped out nonstop since 2007 and corrupt corporations such as Google and Disney dominate the world i would go into more detail but doing so would break board rules.