Optimus Prime (War for Cybertron trilogy)

Optimus Prime is the main protagonist of the Transformers franchise. Sadly, he was butchered badly in Netflix's Transformers: War for Cybertron trilogy. He is voiced by Jake Foushee, who also voiced Nemesis Prime in the same series.

Why Cybertron Doesn't Need What He Views to Be Freedom, Nor Does He Deserve the Touch, and Should Have Died Instead of Either Elita-1 or Ultra Magnus
'Note: This will only apply to his War for Cybertron'' trilogy counterpart, as the original G1 Optimus Prime is likable. This will also be a composite of both his characterizations as Nemesis and Optimus Prime respectivly, as they are technically the same character.'''
 * 1) For starters, this version of Optimus Prime can't make up his mind about anything.
 * 2) Supposedly he is meant to be "a desperate leader" kind of protagonist. However, because of the poor writing and characterization said below, he comes off as incredibly unsympathetic.
 * 3) *If anything, many of his actions will make the audience root against him instead.
 * 4) Optimus Prime suffers from a prime (pun intended) example of character derailment. He was derailed from a noble, selfless, responsible, competent, and likable leader who cared deeply for others into an egotistical, selfish, incompetent, irresponsible and extremely unlikable leader for the Autobots.
 * 5) He is a terrible leader. Even Unicron Trilogy Optimus at his dumbest was still a good leader.
 * 6) His infamous line, "We are not the Decepticons!", due to how cringey it is.
 * 7) Speaking of poor leadership, he literally has to beg his Autobots in order to trust him, how pathetic.
 * 8) In the first episode, he was quite weak as a fighter as he just got himself overpowered by Megatron.
 * 9) He never listens to his fellow Autobots, even to his "lover" Elita-1.
 * 10) He also cannot take criticism as well.
 * 11) He is extremely egotistical, as he constantly believes he is in the right and as said earlier, never listens to the other Autobots.
 * 12) He trusts Bumblebee way too quickly.
 * 13) He even willingly leaves some of his Allies, including Elita, to die on Cybertron, which was ultimately for nothing.
 * 14) He ultimately and irresponsibly dooms Cybertron by sending the AllSpark into space.
 * 15) *While his Transformers Prime counterpart did send the AllSpark into space, it was justified since he and Alpha Trion created a vessel for it and have it ejected to be in a distant sector to be kept safe from Megatron's hands and after Cybertron was poisoned by Dark Energon and forced to shut down to purge the effects for millions of years until its restoration by the Cyber-Lock and Optimus risked his life to reunite the AllSpark with the core to restore life of Cybertron. However, the difference is that this act by Optimus in the War of Cybertron trilogy proves to get Cybertron in a worse condition which would have been used to restore Cybertron, yet he just sends it off into space, showing how he is too incompetent and delusional to even save his homeworld.
 * 16) * While his Micheal Bay counterpart also sent the AllSpark into space, it was justified because the Decepticons wanted to use the AllSpark to conquer and destroy other lifeforms, and to create a new army for that purpose. For example, at the end of the Decepticon campaign in Transformers: The Game, after Megatron killed Optimus, he merged the AllSpark with his chest to exterminate humanity. Optimus also felt extreme remorse for sending the AllSpark into space and after it's destruction at the end of Transformers (2007), he wanted Earth to be a new home for the Cybertronian race. The difference is that the act by Optimus in the War for Cybertron trilogy proves to essentially doom the Cybertronian race, showing he is too incompetent and delusional to even save his own species.
 * 17) Viewers are supposed to root for Prime and root against Megatron, but his actions make him come off as an incompetent, unsympathetic, and delusional egotist who is practically and nothing more a hopeless nitwit and Megatron being a responsible, smart, competent, and honorable leader. In fact, Megatron even says to Elita that she'd be a far better leader for the Autobots than Prime. Long story short, we are rooting against Prime and admiring Megatron instead of the other way around.
 * 18) He's the reason for Ultra Magnus's death and use as a host for Shockwave's virus.
 * 19) As said earlier, he's the reason for not only his supposed lover, Elita-1's death, but the deaths of Red Alert, Chromia, Sideswipe,and Jetfire.
 * 20) He's the other reason why Megatron was forced to shut down Sector 12 and forced to sacrifice his own minions and even other Autobots to depend on Cybertron's survival and the construction of the Nemesis as another result of sending the AllSpark to deep space.
 * 21) He got himself and the other surviving Autobots, including Bumblebee, captured by Deseeus and in so putting himself and his allies he brought with him on the Ark in danger when he arrogantly drove Deseeus insane.
 * 22) He stupidly almost got many of his Autobots and himself, including Megatron and some of the Decepticons killed when he shoots at an explosion charge on Scorponok which would have destroyed them all. (Though to be fair, he did know that they needed more firepower against Scorponok.)
 * 23) During Earthrise, he questions Megatron what happened to Elita-1. When Megatron tells Prime she died, Optimus tries to kill him. The audience is supposed to see the pain he has gone through, but then again, he brought it onto himself, as he was the one who left her to die.
 * 24) For some reason in the future after failing to retrieve the Allspark and getting himself killed, he was resurrected into Nemesis Prime by Unicron and just committed treason by betraying the Autobots and every single Cybertronian and teamed up with Galvatron, who was Megatron and HIS archenemy. From this pointer on, this makes him even worse as a villain than who he was before.
 * 25) *While one could make the argument that he was resurrected/reformatted by Unicron, characters who have been reformatted by Unicron still do have some free will in them. For example, in the 1986 film, Galvatron turned on Unicron because he was about to destroy Cybertron. Another example is that Galvatron in Predacons Rising redeemed himself even though he was controlled by Unicron. Both of these examples show that Future!Optimus joined Unicron and became Nemesis Prime not because he was corrupted by him, but out of his own free will.
 * 26) Again for some other reason as Nemesis Prime, not only does he and Galvatron choose to betray Unicron by finding and using the AllSpark for themselves against Unicron which is a petty move from the fact that he is literally THEIR creator. Their motive of betraying Unicron is not very fleshed out at all either. This further shows that Future!Optimus chose to join Unicron and become his Herald.
 * 27) *Plot-hole: If the wanted to betray Unicron that badly, why didn't they just use the Matrix of Leadership? The Matrix of Leadership is the only thing that can kill Unicron and Megatron already had it on his chest, and it would've been far more easier for them to use the Matrix instead of trying to find the AllSpark.
 * 28) He was at first in denial that he wasn't even Nemesis which makes him a complete idiot of not realizing it until he finally met his future self in the final episode. This shows just how narcissistic this version of Optimus Prime is.
 * 29) Idiotic Move: As his future self, Nemesis Prime, he chose to destroy his past counterpart which is an idiotic movie because if he does kill his past self, he would have never even existed in the first place, which would have caused a time paradox.
 * 30) His defeat as Nemesis Prime was very anticlimatic.
 * 31) Nemesis Prime can easily be compared to Nuclear Man from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Both are generic doomsday villains, both names start with a "N", both were created by another villain(Nemesis Prime's creator is Unicron and Nuclear Man's creator is Lex Luthor), and both of their defeats are quite bad. The only differences are that Nuclear Man is a Kryptonian and that Nemesis Prime is a robot. The only other difference is that Nemesis Prime is a future version of the hero while Nuclear Man isn't.
 * 32) At the end of Kingdom, he ultimately gets completely scot-free for everything he'd done up to that point, thus making him a huge Karma Houdini.
 * 33) Also, he didn't even use the AllSpark to bring any deceased Autobot and Decepticon back to life, although this depends on your view.
 * 34) Somehow the Maximals and the Predacons still existed which is obvious that he never fully saved the future because the Maximals and the Predacons, including his future self, Nemesis Prime, were an example of his poor leadership and petty betrayal and even when the AllSpark was used to restore Cybertron, somehow both the Maximals and the Predacons still continued to exist.
 * 35) As Nemesis Prime, he and Galvatron somehow still exist even after Cybertron was restored and both of them ended up being reformatted by Unicron at the ending scene. This ends the trilogy on a massive cliffhanger and most likely only existed to serve as sequel baiting. Since the Transformers Legacy pitch was rejected by Netflix, the ending scene will now stay a cliffhanger for good.
 * 36) His motive of "Cybertron needs freedom" is an extremely shallow excuse, as he dooms Cybertron, and gets many of his own troops killed, all of which are his fault. Let's not forget that this is a sign of his hypocrisy.
 * 37) He wouldn't offer peace with Megatron, who is supposedly the "villain", and would rather get himself and the other Autobots killed in their darkest hour. Worse, we are expected to root for him because of that.
 * 38) *While his Bayverse counterpart killed Megatron even when he was offering a truce at the end of Dark of The Moon, the difference is that the Autobots had basically won up to that point, while War for Cybertron Trilogy Optimus refused the truce even when his Autobots were clearly going to lose the war, showing that he is too incompetent as a military leader.
 * 39) And the other worst result of his defiance of peace, he's also the reason why the entire Autobot race would have been reprogrammed into Decepticons with the AllSpark's power.
 * 40) His "tell me you forgive me?" scene is also very cringey.
 * 41) He is extremely selfish to the point of refusing to accept any sort of responsibility for his actions, as he told the Maximals, who were rightfully upset at him, that he threw the AllSpark into space just because he thought he did what he had to do.
 * 42) Much of the conflict that happens in the story can be linked to his actions during Siege and Earthrise.
 * 43) His reason to continue his war against the Decepticons was so petty that it was all literally just because of Alpha Trion's death by Megatron. While it is sad that Alpha Trion died by Megatron's hands but Optimus took it way too far. This makes him a complete psychopath who only wanted revenge, making him similar to his Michael Bay counterpart, but much worse.
 * 44) *Worse, we are supposed to not only root for him, but sympathize with him because of that!
 * 45) *In other words, he was the one who started the war instead of Megatron!
 * 46) Jake Foushee tries too much trying to impersonate and imitate Peter Cullen. While his voice isn't too bad in particular, it can come off as cringey at times, as said earlier.
 * 47) He can easily be compared to Superman from the third and fourth films. Both are red and blue, both are the main protagonists of their series, both are aliens, both have been derailed, and both are complete idiots who went against the things that their original characters stood for. The only difference is that Optimus Prime is a robot from Cybertron and that Superman is an organic from Krypton.
 * 48) He was ultimately turned into a complete joke and then into a generic doomsday villain as his future self (Nemesis Prime). While his Bayverse and Unicron trilogy incarnations did a lot of stupid things, they were never incompetent nor irresponsible.
 * 49) Due to all the actions above, he's better off being the antagonist than the protagonist.
 * 50) Overall, this Optimus Prime destroyed everything that the original Optimus Prime stood for.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) His design is cool and somewhat faithful to G1. His alt mode is also very faithful to his old alt mode as well.
 * 2) His toy counterparts are quite good.
 * 3) He does get some character development, though it does not redeem himself for his actions. He also became more stronger as the series progressed.
 * 4) He still retains some, although an extremely slim, care for Elita-1 and many of his Autobots, including Bumblebee, as he did mourn Moonracer after her death by the hands of the Sparkless. He also did mourn Elita as well.
 * 5) He also still retains some traits from his original version, such as some morality, as shown in the "tell me you forgive me!" and "we are not the decepticons!" although the two scenes are still very cringey. He also retains his bravery as well, and is willing to risk his life multiple times in the series
 * 6) He did save the future and prevented himself from becoming Nemesis Prime.
 * 7) Speaking of Nemesis Prime, he was able to put up a fight against Megatron during the series finale. He also cared about Galvatron too.
 * 8) He was a lot more competent as a leader in every other piece of Transformers media.
 * 9) One could root for and sympathize with him to an extent. It is quite sad for him to lose Elita-1 and he did try to retrieve the AllSpark from Earth to save Cybertron, which he suceeded in.
 * 10) There are a few scenes where he's decently voiced.
 * 11) Perhaps this is the best example on how not to write Optimus Prime.

Trivia

 * 1) Nemesis Prime in the trilogy is actually an evil Optimus Prime from a bad future where the AllSpark never returned to Cybertron
 * 2) Jake Foushee previously voiced Optimus Prime in Cyberverse, and in Rescue Bots Academy.
 * 3) This is the longest Transformers page on this wiki.