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This article pertains to a Pure Good with more than one version who is Pure Good! |
| “ | All these long milennia, we Autobots fought to uphold a crumbling system that had forgotten it's most sacred truth. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. Freedom from oppresion. From fear. I see now that if our people-our society-is to survive, we Autobots must change what we've been fighting for...not the rule of law, but for a better tomorrow. And that change must begin within me. So I will lay down my life...my identity for my people. Orion Pax is no more. I...am Optimus Prime. And I have a world to set free | „ |
| ~ Orion Pax's reflection as he is chosen by the Matrix and becomes Optimus Prime, choosing to sacrifice his own past in order to build a better future for all Cybertronians |
| “ | Freedom is the right of all sentient beings- even me. And for the first time ever, I am free. I am responsible for no one. I am beholden to no one. More than that I am changed. I no longer carry the Matrix. I no longer command an army. Optimus Prime is dead...and Orion Pax is reborn | „ |
| ~ Optimus Prime achieves his own personal freedom |
Orion Pax, rechristened as Optimus Prime is the main protagonist of the entirety of the Transformers 2005 IDW Comics. He is a former police cop who worked with Senator Shockwave in order to combat the corruption in Cybertronian Society who was later assigned by Zeta Prime as the leader of the Autobots once Megatron and his Decepticons declared war.
According to John Barber, Optimus' lines were written with Avery Brooks' voice in mind.
What Makes Him Pure Good?[]
In General[]
- He easily sets the admirable standard for the continuity, being responsible for saving the whole universe more than once and preserving the Transformers race as a whole, allowing Cybertron to thrive in the future and inspiring thousands across the galaxy.
- Most like many versions of Optimus, this one has no notable qualities that make him fail at qualifying. While he does have his fair share of lethal moments such as killing Galvatron and Nova Prime, all of these instances are completely justified given that he was fighting megalomaniac warlords who wanted to bring ruin to the universe as a while, not to mention that in nearly all of this situations he tried to dissuade the situation and spare their lives, trying to convince them to change for the better.
- While he does have a moment where he socks Rodimus for trying to stop him from threatening Nightbeat, it was later revealed that he was distracting him long enough for him to gain the advantage and was trying to keep Rodimus from blowing their cover, apologizing in advance for it. Any other possible jerkish qualities he had while he was Orion or in the early days of the war have been long since subverted by the time of the Dark Cybertron Arc and even more by the time of his conclusion.
- He attempted to negotiate with Megatron several times throughout the war and at some point even succeeded in having a civilized conversation with him, where both parties lamented on the loss and death that the war had brought and Optimus even offered Megatron to end the war right there. All of his attempts would ultimately prove successful as Megatron did redeem himself and changed for the better.
- His forgiving nature has helped greatly throughout the series as he believes there is good in everyone and often tries to give second chances to all his enemies, regardless of their past. He succeded in ending the war and remaking a new society in Cybertron free of corruption where Decepticons and Autobots coexist.
Background[]
- He convinced Ratchet to open a clinic in the lower sectors to help the unfortunate and begin his professional career as a medic.
- Working as a Police Officer, he actively stopped criminals on Cybertron and once saved Drift's life from two thugs while he was overdozing in circuit boosters, bringing him to Ratchet in hopes to save his life.
- When Megatron was unfairly arrested for assault, Orion who had read his poems and treatise investigated and was able to bail him out after discovering his innocence and had Whirl arrested for abusing the miner while he was imprisoned. Afterwards the Senate sent a group to kill Orion and bail Whirl out which finally made him realize the corruption amongst the council, as such he took them down and then forced himself into the Grand Imperium where he challenged the council. His words managed to inspire Senator Shockwave into action who began working with Orion to expose the corruption within the Functionist Council, a butterfly event that led to the founding of the Autobot cause.
- He assembled an Autobot army with Kup's help and after being called out by Ironhide for not using actual soldiers and for not having any "real" experience on the field, instead of punishing for talking out of line, he asked him to teach him in order to learn to lead.
- He led a group of Autobots against a Decepticon riot and after encountering Blurr, he was able to see past his arrogant demeanor and understand his inner struggles, sympathizing with him and convincing him to use his speed to stop the assasination team against Zeta, enlisting him in the Autobot cause.
- After being betrayed by Zeta Prime, he chose to team up with Megatron in order to usurp him and and reclaim the symbolism of the Autobot cause. After succeeding and being betrayed by Megatron, Orion was found by the Matrix of Leadership which bonded with him through the cavity that Shockwave had built into him, as such Orion chose to sacrifice his life and identity and become Optimus Prime in order to save his world, transmitting a message throughout all of Cybertron in order to recruit others to his cause and join the fight against the Decepticons as Megatron had crowned himself ruler of Cybertron.
- He continued to lead the Autobots throughout the war often scoring victories like managing to have an entire Decepticon squad surrender without firing a shot and constantly risking his life for the greater good.
Story[]
- He led a team of Autobots into the barren Cybertron, including the Wreckers in order to take on Bludgeon's forces after they had ressurected Thunderwing with Ultra Energon, rescuing Jetfire and his crew from being used as the source for the Polymerical Grafting and later leading an army of Sentinels and Autobots against Thunderwing, gunning him down with all his might while expressing his sorrow for their lost home, finally ending his threat once and for all.
- He kept Grimlock from pursuing vengeance against Shockwave and hired Nightbeat to arrive to Earth to use his detective skills for the faction.
- After being contacted by Ironhide regarding the initiation of the Decepticons' Siege Mode on Earth, he headed right over and acquired a vehicle mode in order to blend in. After arriving he had the humans that were in base sent back to their homes as to not risk their lives in the conflict.
- When Sunstreaker was apparently killed, he oversaw the operation to retrieve his corpse in order to prevent humanity from discovering the Cybertronians’ presence on the planet.
- He led the Autobots in an attack against Megatron’s forces to retrieve the facsimile at play and use him to locate and decommission all of the Decepticon facsimiles on Earth. During the fight he took on Megatron by himself to distract him while the Autobots retrieved the facsimiles and nearly died in the process, only surviving due to transferring his consciousness to his trailer.
- After the battle, he had Prowl and Nightbeat scan the Earth in search for the missing Ironhide, oversaw Kip’s recovery after Springer’s successful rescue mission, had Ratchet checked the humans for possible side effects of the exposure to an unknown gas and also checked in on Ultra Magnus and Hound’s reports.
- He seeked out Omega Supreme for answers after sensing Nova Prime's presence when he was in a "limbo" like state during his battle with Megatron, questioning the titan on the possibility of Nova's survival as well as his motives and how he might have changed in the past centuries. Subsequently, when Monstructor attacked Omega with killing intent, Optimus quickly rose to his defence and tried to shoot the Combiner off, before shooting the port to space open, giving Omega a small fighting chance.
- Though he was understandibly angry after finding out that Omega had forcibly imprisoned Monstructor's six components in a dimensional prison to leave them to rot until their unnatural existence ended, he still chose to protect him from the creature's wrath and took his advice on how to neutralize and defeat the Combiner, and even before that, he tried to peacefully talk him down and offer his help in fixing the wrongs commited against him. Even then, after defeating them, he entrusted the six of them to Omega and Jetfire to see to it that they would get the necessary help.
- He and Prowl moved the Ark-19 under Nightbeat’s recommendation, as to not be surprised or attacked by the same humans that had abducted Sunstreaker, Hunter, and Ironhide. Later when SixShot shot the ship down and nearly had them crash into a human population, he had the emergency thrusters used to get the ship to the nearest coastline and had Ratchert leave with the humans on an escape pod, transfering everything and everyone onboard to Ark-32 before having the Ark-19 self-destruct in order to trick the Decepticons into believing them dead.
- Upon emerging from the crash site, he saved Ratchet from being killed by SixShot and lead the Autobots to defeat him, and he didn't have them use lethal force until it was made clear that the only thing SixShot wanted was to cause devastation per Megatron's will. Afterwards, upon being informed by Ratchet of an incoming air strike, he had Nightbeat transfer every Autobot and Human on the area to the Ark-32, with the exception of himself as he stayed to fight.
- He heeded the call for aid in Garrus-9 to keep the reinvigorated Thunderwing in place after Galvatron had stolen his remains and Cyclonus reactivated him, calling the Wreckers and all available troops to contain the mech.
- When Nemesis Prime arrived in Garrus-9 to take care of Optimus after the brainwashed Nightbeat failed, Optimus had Fortress Maximus recall all his men as to not have innocent lives lost, choosing to face Nemesis on his own. Before the fight, he tried to appeal to Nova and question what happened to him, stating things don't need to be this way.
- After Galvatron shot down Nemesis and caused the Darkness to be transferred to Optimus, he ressisted it's control before Galvatron gave him the option to either kill himself by jumping into the solar pool or surrender the Darkness to him, to which Prime chose both by transferrig the Darkness to Galvatron and quickly throwing him against the pool.
- He kneeled in respect to the seemingly dead Nova and lamented that he couldn't save him, stating that the good part of the Prime died the moment he turned towards the darkness.
- After returning to Earth, he monitored the planet for signals of Decepticon activity and upon being informed by Mirage of a possible power struggle, he led the Autobots to finally defeat the Decepticon and upon being ambushed he rallied the Autobots before Devastator arrived and he was deactivated.
- After the Autobots were vanished to Cybertron, he sacrificed himself to destroy the Decepticons' space bridge, being knocked into a coma in the process and saving the lives the lives of all Autobots.
- After awakening from his coma, he rallied the Autobot forces on Cybertron boosting the non-existent morale and calming the tensions (mostly between Ironhide and Mirage). He then organized the Autobots and succesfully organized a stand against the Swarm before Omega Supreme came in. Afterwards, he led the Autobots back to Earth to take on Megatron.
- Upon arriving, he succesfully organized the Autobots to take on the Decepticons and had Omega Supreme take Devastator away to avoid further destruction to New York, also inspiring the Human Forces upon realizing that the Autobots were on their side.
- He took on Megatron by himself and justified humanity's right to live, managing to rip off his fusion cannon and use it as a melee weapon agaisnt him. When Spike managed to shoot Megatron in the face with a weapon made of Shockwave's arm, unlike the other celebrating Autobots, he quickly checked on his former friend, worried for his life.
- He had the Autobots stay on Earth to look out for possible threats, though they were forced into hiding for two years due to Spike Witwicky having begun to hunt down and capture all present Cybertronians, regardless of allegiance.
- After Prowl was captured, he had Wheeljack construct a counter measure against Skywatch's inhibitors and upon being called out by Hot Rod, agreed to let some troops conduct an undercover rescue mission to bring back all the captured Autobots.
- After Ironhide was killed during the rescue attempt, Prime swore to never forget him and choose to renounce as Leader of the Autobots, acknowledging that he was no longer fit to lead them in the current situation and going out to surrender himself to Skywatch in an attempt to make peace with humanity.
- When Galvatron crashlanded in Vegas, he tried to stop him from any possible attempt to re-initiate the Expansion and after noticing the curse of the Unlife spreading, he had Wheeljack set up a forcefield around ther city to prevent the infestation from spreading through the globe and agreed to work with Galvatron to take it down.
- He agreed to leave containment to help take down Monstructor and then helped the Autobots in an uneasy alliance to take down Decepticons that were allied with countries like China and North Korea.
- Upon being called by the ressurected Megatron, he headed out to meet him and try and negotiate peacefully while defending the value of Earth and it's people. Then as Megatron revealed his mass produced guns from his old body in the hands of humans and had intended to let the Autobots and humanity destroy each other, Prime sent Spike and his troops with Jazz to contain the situation. He then let Megatron's ego chat continue until he was able to shoot Soundwave in the face, releasing Ultra Magnus and gaining an upper hand.
- He went to the Decepticon HQ to face Megatron himself and managed to hurt him with a kinetic harpoon before trying to fight him himself. After Megatron surrendered to Autobot custody, he tried to chat with him and after being informed of Spike's true agenda, he had Prowl begin to investigate the man.
- Being informed by Rodimus of Galvatron's growing army on Cybertron, he accepted the Matrix once more and returned to Cybertron along msot of the Autobots to take on him and reclaim their home.
- After Megatron surrendered, he had Ratchet and Perceptor inspect him for possible weapons or dangers, and then went in by himself to have a chat with Megatron, releasing him from his binds and allowing him a seat, in turn allowing the two leaders to have a civilized and friendly converstaion for the first time in milenia, remembering their old friendship and all their previous fights, with Optimus even trying to convince Megatron to end the war right then and there, under peaceful conditions.
- Though he did snap at his Autobots and angrily dismissed them all, it was fully justified as Rodimus revealed that all of them had eavesdropped on his conversation with Megatron, completely disrespecting his privacy and clouding his judgement.
- Not wanting to kill Megatron, he asked him if he felt any remorse, and upon discovering he didn't, he chose to shock him in a retribution for the past four million years and even then, he felt extreme guilt for his treatment of Megatron, outright losing trust in himself and his judgement so he temporarily gave the Matrix to Ratchet to see if he was still the same person as Orion Pax. He ultimately chose to give Megatron the chance to choose his own fate after Tyrest deemed him guilty.
- Upon returning to Cybertron where Galvatron had taken full control, Prime refused to surrender to his rule and coordinated an Autobot responsive attack while heading alongside some troops to the depths of the planet to confront Galvatron.
- When the D-Void made itself known and converted all the Decepticons into a giant entity known as Deceptigod which Megatron fought. While this happened, the D-Void revealed it’s plans to destroy Cybertron in order to complete i’s full emergence into the normal world. To stop this and save their home planet from total annihilation, Optimus threw himself into the depths of Vector Sigma and unleashed the Matrix’s power in order to purify it and stop the D-Void.
- After awakening in the now “rebooted” Cybertron and being confronted by the NAILS who demanded that both Optimus and the Autobots leave as they symbolized the war, Prime stopped an uprising that brought chaos across Iacon by declaring that he himself would leave (as he was the figurehead of the war) in exchange for both Autobots and Decepticons being allowed to stay in the rebuilt Iacon. He then split the Matrix in half and gave it to Rodimus and Bee, departing once again as Orion Pax.
- He fought Nova Prime while in the Dead Universe (which already gives him a massive disadvantage) and despite being on the losing side for most of the battle, after being inspired by Rodimus, Orion rose and reaccepted his role and duty as a Prime, and took on the shapeshifted Nova by tearing of his arm and punching a hole through his chest, destroying Nova once and for all and allowing Orion to fully accept Optimus.
- He tried to get Shockwave to get rid of the Shadowplay in his mind and redeem himself instead of killing him when he was about to crumble all of reality through a black hole. He teamed up with Megatron and together they managed to break though Shockwave’s brainwashing by reminding him of the kind senator he once was, and then Optimsu sadly complied with Shockwave’s request to give him a mercy kill in order to stop the Regenesis ores and the time machine, saving the entirety of their world from being destroyed.
- He later accepted Megatron’s change of heart and was willing to help him change for the better, hosting a fair trial for him as chief justice and shutting down Starscream’s and others’ efforts to ensure he gets executed, later accepting Megatron’s plea to be judged by the Knights of Cybertron and making him Co-Captain of the Lost Light, at long last making amends with his old friend.
- In his final battle, Optimus chose to accept his role as The Arisen (though whether or not he actually is The Arisen’s reincarnation is left ambiguous, with the message being that it didn’t matter and what did was the way Orion lived) and jumped right into the heart of Unicron after the talisman but not before saying a final goodbye to his Autobots. He then met the Antillan that created Unicron and tried to peacefully approach him before being attacked. Ultimately after Soundwave’s sacrifice which linked Optimus to the Afterspark, he found the necessary valor to stand up and fight though instead, Prime chose to talk with the Antillan and get him to remember who he once was, getting him to recall his daughter and her demise which led him down a spiral of destruction in the first place. As such, Optimus hugs the alien and comforts him in his true moment of acceptance, getting him to finally abandon his hatred and cause Unicron to begin collapsing which finally put an end to the Death God and saved the whole of both Cybertron and Earth. In his final moments, Optimus reflected on his life and passed content that he’d managed to make a difference, yet still regretful that he’d used his cause to promote freedom, ultimately dying a happy bot due to the knowledge of the impact he had and that his story would inspire generations to come.
Trivia[]
- Whether or not Optimus truly is the reincarnation of The Arisen is ultimately left up to the reader's interpretation, with Arcee concluding that it didn't matter and what did was the way Orion Pax chose to live his life.
- Although almost all the versions of Optimus Prime are Pure Good, the only ones that would not be qualified are:
- Bayverse version, he brutally kills a Decepticon and shows no remorse.
- Transformers Reboot Films version, he can be a Little Rude to Bumblebee.
- 2021's Shattered Glass version, he is a pure evil villain who rechristened himself as a Prime to wage war against the Decepticon resistance in hopes of overruling Cybertron and Earth just because of his lust for power.
External Links[]
- Optimus Prime on the Heroes Wiki
- Optimus Prime on the TFWiki.net
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 Pure Goods
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