Loki God Of Mischief wrote:lol. Roleplayers.
Also there's already an evil Decepticon version of Hot Rod.
http://www.tfu.info/2001/Autobot/HotRodBlack/hotrod.htm
I want it badly, but it's very expensive.
I got that action figure but never really considered it to be a Decepticon incarnation of Hot Rod. You know, like a Nemesis Rodimus or something. I did however, consider putting Decepticon symbols on him though.
Anyways, to the topic. I grew up with G1 cartoons, and as a kid I never gave much thought to how well written the stories were. I just sat back and watched them enjoying the fights, character development (yes, there was character development), and just overall loving the Transformers. In my opinion kids who get wrapped up in how well a story is written are kids who are growing up too fast and becoming too critical. Just enjoy the story for what it is. Entertainment.
Hot Rod/Rodimus, I think personified the burdens of leadership and the responsibility of dealing with them when you are not a natural born leader. Optimus Prime was gifted with the ability to lead and so, the burdens were not so obvious. Both of them made mistakes and both of them learned from them. I think the decisions Rodimus had to make were harder because he was not naturally gifted with leadership. If you read his tech spec it tells you he was gifted as a military tactician. Not necessarily the same thing as being the overall leader for the Autobots.
I have to agree with Loki, in Hot Rod's place I don't think anyone else would have done any different in an attempt to keep Prime alive. Some of you may say you would do something different, something more logical, but how many have combat experience to prove they would have done dfferent? I certainly don't. I would have done the first thing my fight-or-flight mindset would tell me to do: engage Megatron to get his focus off Optimus. Optimus Prime was by far worth more to keep alive then some low-ranking turbo-roddin' young punk soldier.