I heard something like this too but I’ve never been able to confirm it

 

I did like the Animated version (one of the few things I liked about the show), but not because it was a good Optimus, but because he just made me think Rodimus more than Optimus. He has insecurity, shows doubts and has a much more fallible nature than other versions of Optimus.

Plus, I always personally pictured Rodimus as someone who suffered from PTSD and was actually kicked out of the finest Cybertronian force, so seeing Optimus being a renegade just made me think "man, why couldn't this be Rodimus?".

 

I've heard other people say similar things, but I'm never really seen it. Animated Optimus is just a younger version of Optimus. He doesn't have Hot Rod's recklessness or disregard for authority; there really isn't much of a resemblance between the two excluding that they're both young leader types.

Animated Optimus is much closer to Optimus Primal, I feel.

 

The aerialbots abd stunticons in “The secret to omega supreme” 2 parter.......?

How odd is it that fans usually have a better handle on what a creator actually created?

Anyway thanks

 

Optimus Primal was also kinda reckless at times.

Plus, I felt he did have the doubts and insecurity that Rodimus did have, so at least in essence, he was like that. Plus, he did show some signs of an excitable nature (like when he got his Wingblade upgrade, he started yelling with joy and excitement, which to me, always was a Rodimus-esque trait).

Plus, I do think Animated Optimus disregarded authority when Ultra Magnus told him not to be a hero and he just decided to take matters into his own hands because he knew that Magnus' move wasn't smart, which is something that I think Rodimus would do (if he was ordered to do something and he disobeyed, it's because he felt there was a better strategy). Plus, lots of disregard towards Sentinel over the whole series, not only from Optimus, but from his whole crew.

The whole "It's not on your programming" aspect is also something that I feel works better for Rodimus, because it would make you understand the constant self-doubt he has, because he always had these superiors telling him that he never was hero material and he just believed them, crippling his self-esteem. The fact that he lost someone close to him (the whole arc with Blackarachnia) is also something that I see crippling Rodimus' self-esteem even more.

 

I don't think Primal was that reckless. He might've had a more unconventional approach to planning ("sometimes, crazy works") but he never seemed to charge into a situation head first without thinking.

Having doubts and insecurities aren't at all exclusive to Rodimus Prime. Giving paragons like Optimus doubts and insecurities is just a simple way to humanize them. In the comics, Optimus has had doubts in insecurities since 1984 with stories like "Crisis of Command", and Simon Furman later made Optimus a much more brooding and weary commander in the latter part of the original series. It makes him more similar to Rodimus, sure, but that doesn't mean they're close to being the same character.

It is true that Animated Optimus did disregard authority in that instance - there might've been a few other instances where he disagreed with his superiors, but I can't name any off the top of my head. The difference between Animated Optimus and Hot Rod, though, is that Hot Rod doesn't really think things through. He's reckless, but Optimus isn't; disobeying orders doesn't automatically mean that a character is reckless.

As per Hot Rod's profile:

This implies to me that Hot Rod has a more lax demeanor, that he's more loose and free-spirited than Optimus is. He's the type to disobey rules because he feels restricted and chafes under them. That isn't at all who Optimus Prime is, even when he's disobeying his superiors.

Optimus Prime doing what's right even though his superiors are ordering him otherwise is actually a great way to highlight one of his functions as a character: that he will always do the right thing. Optimus isn't ignoring Ultra Magnus' orders because he wants to, but because he knows that they're not the best course of action. He's thought the situation through and considered the possibilities, and he's able to recognize that if he doesn't act, the Decepticons will get ahold of the Allspark. He's not acting first and asking questions later like Hot Rod would. He's doing the right thing even though it isn't convenient.

Really, it's just a good way to build drama out of him doing the right thing.

That's actually why Optimus being told that he isn't a hero works well too. Even though Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime think Optimus isn't a hero, Optimus proves them wrong by doing the right thing and giving it his all. He's not perfect, but he learns to become a hero through trial and error. He keeps on growing and becomes a better hero with time, experience, and determination, and in the process proves that he is a hero to everybody else even though we already knew that.

Animated Optimus Prime is definitely more humanized than a lot of other incarnations of the character, but he still embodies the character at his roots.

This is getting a little bit off topic, however.

 

Well, when Primal was getting the visions from the Oracle, he did make some rather reckless actions which almost destroyed Cybertron (but he learned from these actions).

Yeah, I know it isn't exclusive to Rodimus, but personally, I feel like the hero's journey works better for him than Optimus. Optimus did have doubts in the Marvel comics, but he already had established himself as a leader after billions of years, so I do think it worked because they weren't the kind of doubts of a newbie at the job. Animated Optimus' doubts are the doubts of someone young who didn't have a lot of experience, so that's why I feel he was pretty similar to Rodimus. Maybe not totally similar, but the youthful demeanor was almost the same.

I dunno, let's just say that the Optimus overuse really soured me towards him and I just wish for Rodimus to take center stage again.

But yeah, I do think we're going a bit off-topic with this, so... sorry about that.

 

Oh boy... I’m not sure if my version of Prime would be accepted here, but I will explain anyway.  

For a twist for my version, Optimus starts off as a small time thief as part of a gang, and he is named Optronix. Now, don’t get me wrong, he still shows parts of the compassionate mech he is, but as a thief who has to steal to survive, he is more jaded and not willing to trust others much.

When Optronix gets caught by the cops, he is sent into the military to learn to respect others, because it is initially assumed he thinks little of authority. Optronix’s past is touched upon slowly during his time in the military, revealing he only resorted to thievery to keep his carrier alive.

Now, due to being a convicted thief, Optronix is not trusted at first, but he will slowly earn that trust and learn to trust others in return, and he will slowly rise through the ranks, proving that he is a competent commander as well.

However, while some of the troops are willing to trust Optronix more, the higher ups do not because it is known to them that he was a thief. This makes him the target of their ire, and they want to prove he is always going to be a no-good thief, so they try to blame him for things going wrong, etc. This is will test Optronix’s beliefs about others as he learns to trust those around him, and as he learns who he can trust and who he cannot trust.

Optronix eventually becomes a unit commander, but due to the higher ups not liking a thief being in command, will not promote him higher.

But things change when his unit is assigned to guard the Council building when the Civil War breaks out. Optronix and his team are guarding the main building when the Decepticons attack, and try to breach it. Optronix proves to be a creative and competent commander, holding out for longer than anyone expects. More units for the defense of the council begin to fall, but Optronix’s team provides a rallying point for them because that team has not yet fallen. Most survivors from the other units arrive and join Optronix’s command, proving that the former thief can in fact be a good commander.

Events force Optronix’s team, with the survivors from the other units, to retreat into the council building, where Sentinel Prime demands to know what is going on.

As the battle wages on, Optronix tries to plea with the Prime to retreat, but the council and Sentinel do not believe him, for why should they trust the word of a mere thief?

Optronix doesn’t back down, and tries again, but to no avail. Then, the council gets killed by a sneak attack, one that Optronix didn’t see coming. Sentinel is wounded grievously, accusing the former thief of being behind it.

Sentinel tries to pass the Matrix to another mech, but it instead picks Optronix. The former Prime declares a no good thief will never make a good Prime and then dies.

Due to Optimus Prime’s past as a thief, many believe Sentinel’s last words, but many others are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

So, despite being the Supreme Commander, Optimus will still experience distrust amongst his men, and still has a long way to go to earn that trust.

 

I think that, to varying degrees, everybody is posting about the ideal origin for their version of Optimus Prime, so your post is more than welcome here. It's a pretty neat origin too.

 

Pretty much. If my version of Prime didn't get any strong blowback, I think you'll be okay.

 

Thanks! :3

Good to know.  

 

Honestly? If we're in a thread discussing canon backgrounds and someone starts in with their fanon, I simply gloss over and bypass the entire post. No disrespect for your own personal world, but it will never be any sort of canon so is irrelevant to a discussion like this. At absolute worst it'll be on the same level as that Wheeljack marries Taylor Swift thing from a few years back.

 

This isn't really a thread exclusively about canon backgrounds, though. I basically said as much in the original post.

Also I'm hoping nobody posts anything as bizarre as Wheeljack marrying Taylor Swift in this thread.

 

To be frank, I'm glad you weren't there for the original run. Brrrrrrrrrrrr...

 

The original post pretty much asked any responders how they'd do it. And yeah, the Wheeljack/Taylor Swift thing sounds like something a middle schooler came up with and is now probably cringing over years later.

 

So... Optimus is basically Aladdin?

 

Hey, since we were talking about Pax/Optronix/Whoever earning his right to be Prime, how exactly should he earn the role?

 

Rise through the ranks like literally every other non-hereditary leader on the planet, or elected.

 

Elected, being chosen by an inanimate object is a dumb way to select leaders.

 

If we're going for a civilian leader version of Optimus, then yes. For a military leader, rising through the ranks on his own merit is the way to go.

Edit: And while we're at it, his name should just be Optimus before he's made a Prime. I'd spin Orion Pax off into a separate pacifist character.