Wow, this reminds of a thread I made years ago, so I'll post it again from memory:
Top ten reasons why Optimus Prime, despite the way he is presented/written, is no better than Rodimus:
10: Optimus led the war for so long that his homeworld actually became a burnt out husk where it got so bad he had to make the Ark, or else make his most loyal followers die by starvation.
9: The end result of Ark's maiden voyage: He crashed on earth and was out of play along with the best troops that remained in the Autobot army for 4 million years, which basically meant he concede Cybertron to the Decepticons, er, I mean Shockwave and his crack team of idiots drones that got best by Spike and Carly.
8: The end result of that is that he brought his war to Earth, where he had to stay to protect it. Also, at that point Cybertron couldn't support his troops anyway. Which brings me to....
7: so he sticks to earth, and every trip he made to Cybertron he basically leant no long term support for any Autobot resistance cells still fighting for his home. The one time he did, it was to basically say, "Hello girls, your boyfriends are alive! No, we don't have any Energon to give, but I help you punch one-eye just this once. Okay, bye now!" Granted he did get the moons back.
6: Also, if Ark and the Nemesis weren't the first mass exodus to leave Cybertron, why didn't he seek out others for help? Surely there must have been at least one Autobot colony that remained unmolested by warfare for the 4 million years he was on earth.
5: So if Optimus Prime had all these space adventures, why didn't he get more non-transformer allies? At that point, he basically just focused on containment, little of anything else. Well... he did get that giant space alien kid to help him out once, but I don't think the kids parents would let Prime take him back to Earth.
4: I swear that must have been at least a handful of episodes were Prime was taken out easily. Like house of cards easy. Did I mention TFwki.net has a whole listing of the many deaths of Optimus Prime?
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime3: Wheeljack: "Hey Prime, I'm gonna build this super-powerful Autobot to help us, but he's gonna be dumb as hell and pick fights with you. Is that cool?"
Prime: "Sure, better make 5 of them."
2: I assuming that the only reason why Megatron and his Decepticons made it back to Cybertron for 1986 movie is that they successfully ransacked the earth for enough resources to not only finish taking back Cybertron but also have enough Energon to hold up there as well. Otherwise why return to a dead world that can't sustain you and your troops? Speaking of dead worlds....
1: Ultimate Doom: So Prime gets blackmailed to pulling the lever which brings Cybertron to Earth's orbit. Yay, Cybertron, a dying world, is saved, meanwhile 1984 gets to experience the movie 2012 (or The Day After Tomorrow) first hand.
Wow... I think I just painted Optimus Prime as the George Bush Jr. of the Transformers.... I need to lie down now.