If the Matrix was not passed, if the next Prime did not rise, if Unicron was not stopped...

So Hot Rod can stop Unicron, but friggin' Optimus Prime can't? This has gone WAYYYYY to far!

The Hot Rod character is the archetype of the young, inexperienced, anxious, and eager youth who undergoes a coming-of-age experience and something of a trial by fire. Its the same as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars and Lt. Falcon in G.I. Joe: The Movie.

 

As we all know, in Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi died in battle and it was up to Luke to destroy the ultimate weapon and save the galaxy. Luke always dreamed of getting out of his one-horse (or in his case one-speeder) town and "looked away, to the future, to the horizon."* Adventure and excitement were his priority, until he was called upon to "rise from [the] ranks and... light [the heroes'] darkest hour."**

 

In G.I. Joe: The Movie - for those of you who kept up with that - Lt. Falcon was the previously unseen half-brother (what a coincidence!) of Duke (the leader) who joined G.I. Joe but really didn't take his responsibilites seriously. Because of Falcon's blundering Duke dies at the villian's hands, however it was rewritten so that he merely went into a coma. Falcon takes the reins after most of the team is captured and/or is battling a new major villian (sound familiar?), goes toe-to-toe with the baddie, and saves the day.

 

Personally, I think we could all live w/o Hot Rod, Hot Shot, Cheetor, Inferno, or whatever they're calling him nowadays.

 

Optimus Prime could have made the big decision of shooting around or through Hot Rod. I think the movie took itself seriously enough that this would not have been pushing the envelope too far. Megatron still falls and is reformatted. Optimus Prime then destroys Unicron. But would it have made as interesting a story? Would there have been that journey of the main character (Hot Rod) for us to follow along with and relate to? Probably not, at least not without some creative writing. It's a marketing tool for the storyline to pass from one "generation" to the next. Most spin-off's are created this way. Hasbro was not expecting the strong negative fan reaction to Prime's death, or he would have survived as Duke did in the G.I. Joe movie.

 

*Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

**Optimus Prime, Transformers: The Movie

Very nice rewrite 'screamer. Would love to read the fanfic. :thumb

 

 

How would I feel if Prime shot through Hot Rod to kill Megatron?

 

Well, pretty good. Not that I hate Hot Rod, I just really disliked Prime. It wasn't until the movie and seeing Prime really go straight through the Decepticons like there's no tomorrow made me finally get some respect for Prime. OP willing to shoot a fellow Autobot for a good chance to take the most dangerous decepticon of all out, would only ellevate him to me. He would then be willing to take the hard route to victory.

 

As I said, seeing Prime in action during the movie really made me like him for the first time and seeing him as a capable leader. Prime refuding to take the shot because Hot Rod got (very partially) in the way, was a big downer.

 

BTW, as said before, Optimus is one of the best shots among the Autobots, so why didn't he take the shot. There was plenty of target area left for him. After all he "can burn a hole in the nosecone of a Decepticon jet fighter at a distance of 30 miles, aided by his outstanding visual acuity".

hmm...ok, who ever turns this into a fan fic, just give me credit.

yo i gotta admit - that would be uber-cool. kudos.

 

(also would add that other comment (i forget who posted it) with Megatron having a "well beyond WTF look on his face"... when i read that i was LOL. that woulda ruled.)

Very nice rewrite 'screamer. Would love to read the fanfic. :thumb

 

 

How would I feel if Prime shot through Hot Rod to kill Megatron?

 

 

 

BTW, as said before, Optimus is one of the best shots among the Autobots, so why didn't he take the shot. There was plenty of target area left for him. After all he "can burn a hole in the nosecone of a Decepticon jet fighter at a distance of 30 miles, aided by his outstanding visual acuity".

yeah i agree with you (sharpshootin' OP). (hey that sounds like a hick-line of TFs... new this week, it's Sharpshootin' OP! complete with moonshine bucket and banjo of leadership.)

 

Optimus Prime...who can fry a ham sandwich from halfway around the world... couldn't've made that shot? Hell, he had no qualms shooting Spike's seat belts off of him when the tyke was headin' over the space bridge. and a ROBOT can be REPAIRED.

Optimus shooting Hot Rod? Talk about wrong. Just wrong.

 

Of course, you guys *do* realize that they originally weren't going to have Prime die in the movie, but they liked the plot structure of the GI Joe movie (which came first) and copied it for TF:TM.

 

That showdown with Prime and Megatron completely encapsulates both of their natures. Optimus Prime selflessly disregards his own safety for the sake of the Autobots ("Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost") and allows himself to be shot, rather than potentially harm a fellow Autobot. Megatron fights dirty and will use anything (or anyone) at his disposal in order to destroy his enemy.

 

Remember that this was originally going to be the last hurrah for both characters. It was therefore fitting that the essence of their personalities come forward in this final conflict. IMO the Hot Rod thing served to dramatically underscore the differences between Megatron and Prime (as well as set Hot Rod up for later redemption). It needed to be there to "complete" the scene.

 

So the whole question of "should Prime have shot Hot Rod" totally misses the point. If he had shot him, it would have been a complete violation of everything Prime was, and what he stood for. Remember "freedom is the right of all sentient beings"? Remember all those times in the show when Prime wouldn't attack because humans could have been injured or killed (and he often had to tell the rest of the Autobots not to fight)? This is what it means to have principles. If they can be easily jettisoned when circumstances dictate it, then what's the point of having principles at all? More to the point, what's the difference between Prime and Megatron? There would be none.

...

But that's the idea of the post...

 

What would happen.

Not, "should" it have happened.

 

The writers could have in just this ONE swift move have totally changed the character of Optimus Prime for the purposes of the story. They did afterall just wipe out a nice handful of G1 Season 1 cast just to emphisize that Megatron was waging war upon them.

 

Not to be tooooo drastic, but think of Austin Powers 2. At the begining with Elizabeth Hurley being a Fembot. The writers of Austin 2 just threw away all that Austin 1 tried to establish with building her character just because it furthered the plot of Austin 2 and introduced a new chick.

 

The writers of TFTM could have take Optimus Prime saying "No Matter What the Cost" in a TOTALLY different direction. They didn't. They chose for OP to stand his ground, stick to his character, and die a hero... but they didn't have to. This was Transformers THE MOVIE back in 1986. The new toy line was coming... OP and crew where going out of style (so they thought) they technically had the freedom to do anything they pleased with him. Thank goodness they didn't... but the idea of the thread is, at this turning point of the movie, what if they had??

All right then (given the fact that the fembot thing in AP 2 was teh lame)...

 

I guess it just depends how far you wanted to push the story. Is it not enough to kill off Optimus Prime? Try to imagine that for a moment as if it hadn't happened yet, and we were all still safely in Season 2 of G1. That in itself is a big shock. I mean, you don't kill Optimus Prime! That's like your dad dying or something. (If your dad was a 20-foot-tall robot that turned into a truck, that is...)

 

So then, instead of killing Prime, they would have him go all "morally ambivalent" like in Superman III or whatever...? I still have a hard time imagining the writers doing this. I mean, it would have been better for him to die a hero than to live in moral compromise. Remember that this was a kids' show in the 80's. Things were pretty clear-cut then. And you didn't have an anti-hero as the leader of the good guys (that would be the 90's). It's just so.... wrong to imagine Prime doing something like that.

 

I personally think that the outcry would have been even greater if they had made Prime shoot Hot Rod. Moms were upset about their kids' hero getting killed; imagine if their kids' hero saved his own ass by taking down one of his own men. I mean, that is SO very "WTF" that I just don't imagine it ever happening, or working.

If optimus had shooteds on HR, G1 would still be around...

 

 

 

HOt rod Killed g1

Well... if Optimus Prime was such a good shot, why didn't he just 2-hand the gun and headshot Megatron? Also, Megatron only has the gun on Hot Rod for a short amount of time before pointing it at Prime. If Optimus Prime had a brain, he would have shot at Megatron's gun, since even if it did go off, it wouldn't have hit Hot Rod.

Well, the shock would completely stop him from taking that chance. And as for the headshot idea, you guys didn't have the ominous Counter-Strike voice saying "HEADSHOT!" :tflaugh

 

Yeah, don't ave much to say here. Oh and by the way, nice re-write Starscreamer. :thumb

It was an Unreal Tournament voice!

 

But still. Prime could have shot through Hot Rod to get to Megatron. Then take them both into the City, and repair Hot Rod and not repair Megatron!

 

How about this? Why didn't Kup shoot Megatron or Hot Rod? He had a better angle (more of Megatron exposed to him) than Optimus had.