This is something that's being on my mind concerning the Prime linage in IDW. I've heard that it's only the Primes relevant to certain arcs and stories in IDW that are corrupt and horrible so does that mean there were heroic and noble Primes as well before Optimus came to the picture? I've heard Alpha Trion and Micronus were but are there any others?

Guess the reason I ask this is honestly I'm not a fan of the idea of every Prime that came before Optimus being messed up a-holes because it feels like a cheap way to make Optimus important and awesome like how making Optimus be part of the 13 in the Aligned universe is a lazy way to make him important when the fact that he was the first Prime in years to help get the linage back on track is enough to make him important.

If there are some things I missed or not aware of yet I'd like to listen.

 

The only "gap" where there might be additional Primes we've yet to hear about is between Nova and Nominus. Otherwise, it goes the Thirteen, Nova, Nominus, Sentinel, Zeta, and Optimus (and kinda sorta Rodimus for a short while).

We don't know masses about the IDW Thirteen, but it seems like the majority were probably okay people. Megatronus and Liege Maximo (unsurprisingly) seem to have been meanies, and Onyx Prime is being set up as a future antagonist for ex-RID/OP, but other than them they seem to have mostly been decent sorts.

 

It seems like even most of the Thirteen were questionable in their morals in this continuity.

Prima might have been a noble warrior, or he might have been a corrupt king who ruled in his large citadel. I'm cautious about Prima in this continuity mainly because one of his loyal minions was Nova Prime so, yeah we'll see.
Nexus Prime in his confrontation against Galvatron deemed that all non-Primes are below their masters so, in this continuity he was kind of a prick.
Micronus Prime seemed to be a bit of a coward from what we heard from Sentinel Prime. According to him, Micronus abandoned his Mini-Con tribe and the Titan Prion to the Black Block Consortia, an army of aliens who destroyed the world Micronus fled to after the war of the Primes.
Onyx Prime is being portrayed as a bit of a villain, the fact that his minions refer to him as having a "Black Spark" doesn't bode well.
Alchemist Prime might be a nice guy, but all we know about him is a time when he got really drunk.
Megatronus, well he's The Fallen.
Liege Maximo, still something of an Ultimate Evil I guess.

Solus might have been okay, I imagine Vector was okay too if he's anything like his Unicron Trilogy counterpart, we know nothing of Amalgamous or Quintus, but if Quintus again created the Quintessons in this continuity, he was either evil or stupid, and Alpha Trion we all know is an okay guy.

The final member of the Thirteen, The Arisen, we know nothing about, but, let's be honest, Optimus Prime is a reincarnation of this guy isn't he? Yeah I imagine it's just like the Aligned version only, executed better I guess. And after rereading Autocracy and reading All Hail Optimus, it is very clear Optimus is this Arisen character. Honestly, I remember being annoyed with the idea of Optimus being a direct descendant of Prima, but I would take that over him being one of the original Thirteen.

Nova seemed heroic at times, but that was just an act.
Nominus, honestly I would have liked to learn more about him. He seemed like just a puppet of the Senate but I kind of feel sorry for him after the Senate killed him.
Sentinel is just a minion of Nexus Prime, I guess that tells you a bit about Nexus.
Zeta, honestly he seemed like a nice guy at first, even when he became Prime there was still a bit of decency in him. But I guess all that power went to his head.

I guess overall, the only leaders of Cybertron who weren't so corrupt before Optimus came along, were the Knights of Cybertron, and we're still searching for them. But yeah, the concept of Evil Primes, it's a nice idea, but when nearly every Prime before Optimus is considered evil, why do they continue to exist? Perhaps... Megatron was right? (Shouldn't have taken the name of an evil Prime then)

 

I don't think The Arisen is Optimus. My theory is its either Rodimus (the obvious one so probably a red herring, but still possible Arise Rodimus Prime) or Megatron (he was contructed cold, but after Brainstorm killed him and Whirl brought him back his 'new' Spark was a one-percenter I believe. What if it was more than that).

 

I think Zeta and even the senate to some degree really tried to make a good job but a big problem was that Nova had made far more cybertronians than the planet could support (to act as a conquering army). So the leaders didn't have much choice but to get rid off millions or loose everyone (or they could have expanded or used Shockwave's regenesis plan) Maybe the early senate saw no other choice but get rid of people and mine deep energone but the later senate saw it as a way of getting rid of the “unworthy”. In the end the civil war also help with getting rid of excess cybertronians.
Wonder how Optimus or even Megatron had actually worked as political leaders had one won right away.

 

Why not?
IDW is using the Aligned Thirteen, so Optimus being the arisen is pretty much a no-brainer.

 

Well, I heard one theory on this site that, while it's kind of a cheap one honestly, it is kind of interesting. What if that spark Whirl placed in Megatron's body, was retroactively the spark of Megatronus? Like I said, it would kind of cheapen Megatron as a character making him a reincarnation of the Thirteen just like Optimus, but I kind of like it in a weird parallel universe sort of way by showing us that the entire Autobot and Decepticon war was between two of the ancient Thirteen Primes all along.

 

Megatron's failures are his own. Nobody reads this book and writes, gosh, that utopia would have been just around the corner if only he could have defeated the Autobots.

But people have written that Optimus's dream of a smoothly functioning liberal society would have come true if only Megatron hadn't stood in his way.

The difference between the two is that Megatron was struggling to become an ethical subject and took responsibility for himself as such, while Optimus was struggling to continue to live within ideological fantasy and needed someone to blame when that fantasy broke down.

 

I still think its fucked up that a lot of autobots where (and are) commiting warcrimes while Optimus is considered to have known nothing about it whatsoever and at best people act like its all Prowls doing.

 

Well, Prowl did cover up some of those war crimes honestly. COUGHCOUGH Aequitas COUGH.

 

I know, but common. It was a dirty war, i don't hold it against OP to not have been squeeky clean. He must have known at least some of the stuff that was going on or he was a shit commander. I think they should just own up to that in some way and have him aknowledge that he is trying to be as morally upright as he can now for the warcrimes commited by his army during the war. Or they shouldnt have written about Autobots committed genocide on a planetary scale while acting OP was completely in the dark about it.
I kinda hope when Impactor and the Mayhems reappear this will get adressed.

 

Did Punishment not do the exact opposite of saying Optimus was in the dark? He never denied Sandstorm's accusations that he knew what had happened when some Autobots wiped out a planet that helped Decepticons.

 

I just reread the end and he didnt denie Sandstorms accusations. He didnt really answer him either, but he cant afford to do offcourse for the same reason the Aequitas files coming under general scrutiny would be a social disaster and the worst possible thing to happen to the peace process.
But i would like the readers to get an answer. Punishment asked a question and there never came an answer.

 

Well you kind of lost this one; one of the more recent issues basically comes out and say's he's The Arisen.

 

There are characters who believe he is the Arisen, like the Mistress of Flame, but Optimus himself doesn't believe it, and there's yet to be any actual proof of those claims.

 

I could see that happening to Megatron.

Though it'd be a bit much.

 

Supporting evidence: He has a Titan, a Colony, and is recognized by the Matrix.

 

The Matrix also accepted Nova and Rodimus in the past, that doesn't automatically make you one of the Thirteen.

The narrative has thus far very deliberately avoided providing any cold, hard evidence either for or against him being the Arisen. The question of whether he really is gonna be one of the things the new OP ongoing will explore.

 

The Titan thing is a fair bit more exclusive, though. We've seen Titans respond to the Thirteen better than they do cityspeakers- an affinity Optimus shares.

 

Honestly, the only universe where the big OP was a decendant of Prima was in the Bay-verse

ALSO, he may not have a colony, but he sure as hell has a titan, for the plebs who don't know, in the storyline where he first beat Megs and became prime for the "first" time, Metroplex recognized him as his "old friend", if that sure as hell doesn't confirm the "Optimus is the Arisen" theory, I sure as hell don't!!!!