Spoilers ahead to those who haven't seen AOE yet. "In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith. Days when our allies turn against us... but the day will never come when we forsake this planet and its people." —Optimus Prime's closing narration in Dark of the Moon I rewatched the first three movies before going to see #4 and I ended up thinking of Prime's closing narration here when I was in the theater. It seemed interesting to me that 1. Prime's allies very much did turn against him in AOE and 2. Optimus was absolutely going to leave Earth to wallow in its own filth. Intentional or not, I think this really shows how big of a difference that 4(5?) year gap between DOTM and AOE made. I'm sure some other posters here can dig deeper into this and come up with some way cooler things than I could, but I just wanted to share this little observation.
No, he wasn't leaving Earth to fall, he ordered the Autobots to stay and defend. He left precisely to protect Earth from whoever was hunting him.
No, he said they were going to leave Earth after he killed the human responsible for killing Autobots. This was before the big China battle. Something about "Earths fate will be its own..." or something to that effect.
He was planning on leaving Earth and humanity to their own fate, though. Granted, he said that out of anger and after being told to his face that his protection was no longer needed or wanted.
Absolutely I've been itching to talk about the darkness in the Movie prime. Just in the context of this new movie He's a dangerous man that practically died. While his friends were being hunted and horrificly melted into scrap for KSIs technological greed, and the benefit of a deluded black ops director with a grudge against transformers. Optimus Prime feels that the betrayal and homicide/ attempted genecide acted against his autobots and himself. Leaves a party responsible. promising to break his moral code to kill the man in charge of this. Prime belives that he is in the right. That these humans are pursuing to kill him and enciteing war with him. He will stand up and protect the humans that aided him as part of his family. He will protect and lead the Autobots to certain victory against Overwhelming odds. against KSI, Galvatron, lockdown and the Creators. This Optimus Prime can often be an Embodiment of Rage against Tyranny in all its forms. he will not be imprisoned. I believe sums up this prime perfectly. And tapping into that rage and power he persevered to bring the legendary knights back to his thrall by force. Killing both lockdown and the human responsible for the Deaths of so many Autobots. He sets his sights on the Creators that hired lockdown to bring him to them. Because they were wrong to bring another war to him and his family. ---- Its not like he just became this way with this movie either. In the first one he murders bonecrusher, but he was a enemy soldier in the war they have been fighting for centuries on a world Optimus Prime hoped to prevent from decepticon incursion as cybertron had been. A world of innocents that deserve to be free from Megatron's Tyranny. Note that he efficiently beheads bonecrusher. In the end of revenge of the fallen. Optimus Prime, is pleased to vanquish the decepticon god the fallen, and critically wound megatron, the decepticons plot to harvest the sun for energon is shattered. Optimus Prime has protected the Earth as the Autobots new home. Dark of the moon Optimus Primes mentor and former prime sentinel betrays his moral code and makes a deal with Megatron. A code that violates primes ideals of protecting the innocent, and granting humanity freedom. trading all these innocent lives for the restoration of cybertron and a end to their civil war was to high a price. Optimus Prime kills Sentinel Prime. Then Megatron, the source of the war. The leader of the decepticons. Now a kind of barely functional mess after being wounded last time attempts to barter a position of power again, to make peace. But to Optimus Prime, there can be no piece with megatron. He must be destroyed. He must be ended for all the pain he caused. Prime has this murderous justification to him. And it all kind of lines up to a character that believes his views are correct and his rage is being placed against those that want to imprison him his allies and the innocents that he feels he must be the instrument of justice for.
