The Energon Pub

I've just started watching Generation 1, season 3 on DVD again, and having only recently watch the '86 movie for the billionth time, one thing is apparent, the series 3 script writers have done Rodimus Prime a great dis-service, and it's almost insulting.

At the end of the '86 movie Rodimus seemed almost invincible, having destroyed Unicron, vanquished the Decepitons, recaptured Cybertron, unified the Autobots. He was clearly a leader worthy of the name Prime.

Then arrives 'Five faces of darkness', and somehow in the five year period between the battle for Cybertron and 2010, it appears that Rodimus has suffered some kind of mental and physical regression. He's no longer the strong, assured leader portrayed in the movie, but in fact he's been turned into a complete train wreck of an Autobot.

Unable to live up to the highest virtues epitomized by Optimus Prime. His irresponsible, erratic and petulant behavior is somewhat of an embarrassment to his fellow Autobots, and his inability to command effectively has given his Decepticon foes the opportunity rise again.

My question is WHY?, has anyone got any ideas?

I'm sure there will be a host of opinions more informed than mine, but from what I understood, the downsizing of Rodimus had more to do with opening the way back for the return of Optimus, particularly the Power-Master Optimus toy.

Whatever the case, his portrayal was a total disgrace; it demeaned the wonderful and timeless coming-age message in Hot Rod's/ Rodimus's story in the '86 movie. I blame the writers, and I blame Hasbro as it's one of those unfortunate instances of capitalism trumping and quashing artistic integrity.

As far as I'm concerned, the story of first generation finishes right when the credits role at the end of the 86 movie. Rodimus remains the true leader of the Autobots for the new era. End. Everything after that in terms of story is garbage. Not worth my time.

I´m having a Déjà vu: hot-rod-alright-rodimus-a-blasphemy-t67888.php

The only thing I can think of is they were wanting to show the problems of a new leader who went from a young hot shot to leader of an entire race of Transformers.

I also second that. Even his stats reflect this, his Cavalier and Protector stats were all up to the 9 or 10 then when he became a Targetmaster....a sudden drop, poor guy.

Despite Hotrod being such a polarizing figure, he does remain fairly popular. Just see how many times he's been re-issued or re-molded(is that a right term?)

It is especially funny how parodies of him (especially ones by Dr.Snoov) really put him down,

MightyMagnus78 wrote:My question is WHY?, has anyone got any ideas?

Bipolar disorder.

TulioDude wrote:I´m having a Déjà vu: hot-rod-alright-rodimus-a-blasphemy-t67888.php

I know, right? Rodimus turned into a total wimp from his first line in FFoD. It was a disgrace to all Transformers everywhere.

One tiny correction: Season 3 takes place in 2006. Only Japan has the year 2010. Look at Daniel and see how much he has aged

And I'm sticking with the "sudden unwanted growth spurt" idea, coupled with uncertainty of living up to Prime's name. All for the sake of making him more appealing and identifiable I guess.

Ultimately though, it all came down to this:

Kids: "We want Optimus Prime back!"

For that matter, look at Wheelie:

Kids: "We want Bumblebee back!"

Wheelie was just annoying. Bumblebee had spirit and then they had to change him to Goldbug.

US Wheelie never annoyed me the way Bumblebee did.

On topic, it's the writing. I liked Season 3 but some of it was terrible. I'll never understand why it gets so much hate though while the mostly abominable Season 2 gets so much praise.

The UK comic went down the self doubt route but did it well. I always liked Furman's Rodimus.

Windsweeper wrote:On topic, it's the writing. I liked Season 3 but some of it was terrible. I'll never understand why it gets so much hate though while the mostly abominable Season 2 gets so much praise.

I've heard/read this said a few times as of late on different treads/sites [I'm guessing by the same user]

Now while I agree season 2 was a bit cammpy at times, it was far from abominable.It at least was more constant then season 3.


Please tell me why you think s3 was superior.

Well Sto Vo Kor, loathe as I am to admit it, the Quintessons were better villains than the Decepticons.

I may be biast against S2 because I hated things like Lord Chumley and Kremzeek. Believe me, the crap human villains of Animated have knocked it from the top spot for me too.

But what really irks me is that terrible cliche, Alpha Trion. I'm sorry but a robot with a beard just looks silly to me.

I loved Season 1, especially the 3 part pilot which gave us all the memorable characters that G1 is known for, a fantastic voice cast and overall, a good story.

I'm sorry but even as a kid, I was moved by Huffer's line "But we're not fighters like they are, Prime!" It's the first time I remember seeing a superhero cartoon where the heroes didn't seem perfect, that the Autobots were victims, with war forced upon them.

I also liked the portrayal of the Decepticons as they attacked the various energy sources. They weren't the generic thugs that we seemed to get more of in later seasons. They weren't out to hurt the humans, just steal their fuel and pretty much ignore them.

Season 2 also went more with the corny scheme of the week which I hated. Even as a kid, I was more into the mostly intelligent writing of the comics, having no real interest in the corny cartoon.

Some of the voice acting seemed forced in Season 2, lacking the heart of earlier performances.

I've always been a fan of Rodimus Prime so seeing him animated elevated S3 somewhat in my eyes. I never liked Optimus until the live action movies. I really loved Money is Everything, Dweller in the Depths and Dark Awakening.

You see, to be fair, I didn't see a lot of TF cartoons after S3 as a kid so perhaps watching the boxsets as an adult has coloured my views. Season 3 does seem darker, more adult than S2, a lot of which seems goofy to me, though to be fair it's not without it's own flaws, not least of which is the portrayal of Galvatron. Having grown up on the movie and Target 2006, where Galvatron was an intelligent, cunning vilain, the crazy version of Season 3 disappoints me.

That's it really. Furman's intelligent writing of the Marvel comics got me used to serious TF storytelling so when I see the goofy stuff, I just don't like it.

That's why I have problems with S2, Animated and ROTF. Hope that answers your question.

I know I've bemoaned S2 a bit lately and to those fans that do like it, I apologise for any offence. To each their own.

No need to apologize,I just wanted a better understanding of your feelings twards season 2.

And while I sahe many of your complaints, I tend to look at things as a "whole".

And as a whole, I feel season 3 had far more negetives then season 2 did.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

No worries.

Rodimus the Prime wrote:As far as I'm concerned, the story of first generation finishes right when the credits role at the end of the 86 movie. Rodimus remains the true leader of the Autobots for the new era. End. Everything after that in terms of story is garbage. Not worth my time.

Even the japanese portion of G1? IMO Super-God Masterforce,Victory and Zone are the best G1 has to offer in terms of story...

Rodimus didn't seem to have an alpha persona in the cartoon. He seemed on par with his companions, especially Ultra Magnus, and especially in that episode in which he entered the matrix.

Being that this is a topic that I've given much thought to, I feel that I am qualified to given an adequate albeit wordy answer. When Hot Rod and Kup finally reconnected with the rest of the Autobots near the end of the movie, they were nearing a crisis. Points like that put many things into focus, a focus that we didn't see in the begining of the movie from Hot Rod. Given Rodimus' statements of admiration of Optimus in Season 3, it's extremely likely that he's always looked up to Optimus Prime for many many years (hence, why he interfered in Prime and Megatron's fight, to win the approval of his hero by saving him from Megatron's sneak attack...well, we all saw how that turned out). Well, towards the final scenes of our beloved movie, Hot Rod is not across the room facing Galvatron (who happens to be a reformatted Megatron). At this point, adrenaline (or a Transformes version of it) is probably pumping and things like this also brings a heightened sense of focus and clarity. Being the "chosen one" when he grabs the Matrix of Leadership, he is able to react to it, and it causes him to change into Rodimus Prime. There he's hyped and pumped on fresh Matrix energy and the statement of approval which was "Arise Rodimus Prime!". From here, it's easy to see him giving Galvatron the old heave ho out of Unicron. Think about it. He was fighting Galvatron before hand. It's just that his transformation gave him the extra power to get the job done. The courage and bravery was already there. From there he did what he was chosen to do and used the power of the Matrix to light the Autobot's darkest hour. After all of that, it was a simple matter to lead the Autobots out of Unicron (he was about to explode after all), and give his final speech at the end of the movie. Now season 3 takes place after time has passed. Leadership brings pressure, stress, and headache. Hot Rod may have turned into Rodimus Prime, however he was still Hot Rod on the inside (as dealt with in Season 3 episode "The burden hardest to bear".) For one who loved recreational activities such as fishing, racing, and target practice (the rebirth), it's not hard to see the stress of leading an army and leading Cybertron to be enought to cause the mindset of wanting to return to his former life of leisure. Think about it. Hot Rod had no noticible rank or leadership status before the Matrix changed him. Ultra Magnus, Springer, and Kup all seemed to have more clout. I think that Rodimus' change, although annoying was a natural one, that would have gotten better and better the more he gained experience. Remember, Optimus Prime had millions of years to perfect his leadership style. One could reasonably imagine (especially considering Kup's statement in the Burden Hardest to Bear) that Optimus's first years could have been similar. Also let's take into account that Alpha Trion changed Orion Pax into Prime. We don't know what kind of personality modifications he utilized. This was not Rodimus' case. I agree with Ulta Magnus, that given enougt time Rodimus Prime would become just as great a leader as Optimus Prime. To bad that kiddy letters and complaints wouldn't give us a chance to see it. I guess I'll have to stick to my fan fic to see Rodimus comfortably lead the Autobot team.