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    Incredible Characters Wiki
    Optimus Prime (G1)
    "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings!" - one of Optimus Prime's iconic catchphrases
    Gender: Male
    Type: Leader of the Autobots
    Age: Immortal
    Species: Cybertronian
    Portrayed by: Peter Cullen
    Status: Alive (has died many times before)
    Media of origin: Transformers


    Optimus Prime is the main protagonist of the Transformers franchise.

    Why He's Got the Touch

    1. Optimus Prime in the Generation 1 cartoon is one of the most iconic and beloved fictional characters of all time and he was loved by kids who grew up in the 80s.
    2. He is a great leader of the Autobots and is very responsible.
      • Prime is also a good role model for kids as he has what every hero needs, and he doesn't feel one-dimensional.
      • G1 Megatron is still awesome and iconic, but some aspects of him haven't really aged well, as he is a Saturday morning villain who is undeniably incompetent; these are traits some of the later versions of Megatron would improve and even the character's personality would be humanized more.
      • G1 Optimus Prime on the other hand, feels so fleshed out and human, even more than a lot of actual human characters in cartoons.
    3. Despite his serious nature overall, Prime can be quite funny many times and he can sound cheerful, particularly in his earlier appearances.
      • "Save the war stories, hot shot. Just remember, there's a thin line between being a hero and being a memory."
    4. He is amazingly voiced by talented voiceover artist Peter Cullen. In fact, Cullen became best known for playing Optimus Prime, especially after reprising his role in many of the later versions of Transformers.
    5. The toys based on him are great.
      • The original G1 Optimus Prime toy is a classic set that is very interactive and the actual figure himself looks similar to his design in the cartoon, even though the toy actually came first. Optimus Prime is one of the characters who's original toy and cartoon design look similar.
      • The MP-10 Optimus Prime is considered by many as the best Optimus Prime figures ever made with a streamlined design and amazing engineering. It's also a huge improvement over the MP-1 and MP-4, though they're still good figures. The company also made the MP-44 (which tried to capture cartoony look he has in a lot of shots).
    6. His design is creative, cool, and memorable, yet simple, and has been the basis of almost all of his other incarnations.
      • Prime's designs in the Transformers reboot films are basically modernized versions of his classic G1 look, which is nice. Of course, Michael Bay's Optimus Prime looked less blocky and more realistic, and the design in his 4th and 5th movies look more knight-like and humanoid. However, Prime's design in the first 3 films wasn't bad at all and was actually considered one of the better redesigns in the Bay films.
    7. His death in the 1986 film was quite sad.
    8. His appearance as a zombie in "Dark Awakening" is terrifying and disturbing.
    9. He is very patient with others.
    10. The rivalry between him and Megatron has always been extremely iconic, and their fights are awesome.
      • Their first fight in "More Than Meets the Eye"
    11. The origin story of how he became Optimus is very cool, as he used to be called Orion Pax but after being crippled by a Decepticon attack led by Megatron, he was rebuilt into Optimus Prime by Alpha Trion.
    12. The relationship between him and Elita-1 is very sweet.
    13. His famous iconic lines such as "One shall stand, one shall fall." and "Till all are one."
    14. His two other incarnations of him are great in their own way.
    15. His comic book counterparts are also great takes on his character, and the IDW Optimus helped Unicron's creator redeem himself.
    16. He made a great guest appearance in Beast Wars and was the reason of Optimus Primal to be inspired to be a great leader of his crew of Maximals.
    17. "Amazing, a booby trap that actually catches boobies"

    Bad Qualities

    1. He's been flanderized a few times, such as in the Bayverse Pentalogy and Unicron Trilogy.
    2. Sometimes, he can be a Gary Stu.
    3. While Prime's death in the 1986 movie was sad, it was really just done to blatantly replace him with Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (even though he's not a bad character overall). However, he was eventually brought back in season 3 of the series after being killed off a second time.
      • At the time, Hasbro viewed Optimus as nothing more than a toy; they didn't think his death would really mean too much for kids, which would eventually be proven wrong because many were heartbroken in an unsatisfied way when Prime died, especially in a very horrid and disturbing way.
        • The death scene has also become very controversial for being extremely dark, cynical, morbid, horrific, and disturbing, even for a kids' movie. It's not like some kids' movies where the emotional moments are meant to be sad and emotional because Prime's death in the 1986 movie was literally made with disturbing imagery and scary music that can leave many feeling emotionally drained, depressed, and even traumatized.
      • His death in "Dark Awakening" was even more graphic and disturbing (despite his appearance there still being an interesting concept), and naturally, it did receive backlash from parents once more, with their kids getting horrified and devastated again. Prime was eventually brought back in "The Return of Optimus Prime", but Hasbro still received criticism for killing off Prime again in an even darker way.

    Trivia

    1. He was originally going to fall apart after his death in the 1986 film.
    2. In Japan, he's called Convoy as Japanese children would find it difficult to remember and pronounce his American name.
    3. Him dying became a common joke in the Transformers fanbase.
    4. Peter Cullen didn't know how famous Optimus Prime was until he saw the number of children who were leaving the cinema sobbing from being painfully traumatized by Optimus Prime's morbid death scene in the 1986 movie. Additionally, his agent showed him all the hate mail angry parents sent to Hasbro for doing something too serious, even for a kids' film.

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