...

I actually haven't seen that episode, but I take a crack at it anyway.

 

Perhaps Prime thought that he may not be walking away from this battle alive, so he passed it to someone else for safekeeping?

...

No... he said something along the lines of

"I'll fight you here not as Optimus Prime, but as leader of the Autobots and all that is good"

Or something like that... and then just kinda flung it into space. It floats around a bit... Megatron I don't think makes any moves for it. There battle is bad ass and the senior artists where in on alot of it... at the end of the battle after Megatron (Galvatron scheme) falls inot Unicron you don't actually see Prime even make an attempt to get it back, although in Energon he I believe does have it.

I see. Sounds cool. hopefully I'll see it when Part 2 of Armada comes out on DVD.

...

Battle summary (I hope it is pretty accurate, also it has speculation of which fans have deemed to be acceptable from what I have read around the Internet).

 

In order for Unicron to be defeated, hatred needed to be around. Optimus Prime, which Megatron so kindly said, hated Megatron the most out of the two of them. So he flung the Matrix aside, and fought Megatron teh way it was meant to be. If he had killed Megatron with his bare hands Unicron would have been very powerful. Instead, Prime doesn't want to kill him, but save him. Mainly because he would still have an enemy to fight against. But Megatron is the wise one here. He realizes that Unicron feeds off of hatred. He yells at Prime to let him go, and that Unicron would be stopped. But Prime is stubborn, and in the end Megatron cut his tread and fell into Unicron. Thus Unicron was defeated for now.

 

I'll have to watch the episode again (which is somewhere in my stack of tapes) in order to accurately say why Prime tossed the Matrix aside. At least why I think he did.

Probably not the same kind of Matrix as it was in G1.. to be honest, I have no idea what that thing does, other than serve as a nifty homage.. didn't also revive him in one episode? But here's some possiblities

 

a)Didn't want to get Galvy guts all over it

b)Didn't want it to get damaged in the fight

c)Incase they both fall into Unicron someone can take over in his place (5 guesses who that would probably turn out to be... and the first 4 don't count)

FOOLS!!!!!

He felt that He wasn't worthy of the Matrix now that he reliesed that he felt Bloodlust for Megatron. I have no Idea why he as it again in Energon

FOOLS!!!!!

He felt that He wasn't worthy of the Matrix now that he reliesed that he felt Bloodlust for Megatron. I have no Idea why he as it again in Energon

He came to his senses since Megatron was gone?

Perhaps he needed to take the Convoy Test again :lol Paralell Parking in a Semi must be tough!