The death and return of Optimus Prime

This first clip is the death of Optimus Prime from "Transformers: The Movie" from back in 1986...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_ULg4RSy5Y
Your heart has to be made of stone not to find this sad. Stone and ice!

This next clip features the rude awakening of the fallen hero. Be forewarned: there is adult language in this clip...but it sure is darn funny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1_6D9QS9Y
If you don't crack up from watching this clip, then you were born without a sense of humor!

Yeah, I cre as a kid watching that clip... heck I cried just now.

And that second clip is just priceless! I do have one bone to pick with it though. Obviously the maker of said spoof was pointedly anti-Hot Rod.

I'd like to pointout two things from that first clip:

1. Optimus grants the matrix to Ultra Magnus who says "Prime, I am not worthy."

2. Do you see they way that matrix GLEAMED when Hot Rod catches it? And where's Ultra Magnus? Still standing there like the gump he is? It's almost like Hot Rod is the only one who cares enough to keep it from smashing to the ground below!

ANd if those two points of argument are not enough to solidify the fact that Hot Rod was a better leader than Magnus could have ever been, I submit the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJgtV_gih-I

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81n7nyB3uCk

Nobody will argue that Optimus Prime was the best. He was the most courageous and also the strongest autobot ever. Yet the strong part doesn't seem to matter does it? Ultra Manus is strong, but he's a complete weenie. Hot Rot has half the strength and easily twice the courage. Rodimus Prime was an inevitable solution to the matrix equation.

Magnus sacrificed his life to save his comrades. I see nothing belittling about that. Hot Rod never did anything as heroic.

Face it my man, Hot Rod just opened the matrix and got juiced up on steroids...sounds like a cheater to me. Magnus kept it honest and worked with what pitiful resources he had available to him at the time.

Also, let's not forget, Rodimus Prime (aka Hot Rod) was shown as pretty ineffectual as a leader all thru season 3. Heck, he even LOST the Matrix of Leadership a couple of times!! And how much whining did he do?? Ugh.

You need a better choice for leader dude.

Okay, for those of you who don't know, this is basically an online re-hash of the same debate me and Bill have been having for years, and I doubt it will get resolved here... (or maybe ever.)

So to cater to both sides of this roaring debate, I thought I would post the following two links to give Hot Rod bashers and Magnus bashers their respective last laughs.

Hot Rod bashers: Galvatron puts the choke down, remixed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnDsGtJRmZ8

Magnus bashers: Optimus and Magnus merge to form Omega Prime, but... Lol, take special note of the replys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THsjlkIWzPU

Meh... for the benefit of all us Transformer geeks, I'll throw that one in there too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJBgWNftOsQ

What exactly was galvatrons plan with choking Hot Rod? I mean, Transformers don't breathe! Maybe Galvatron just wanted to pop Hot Rods head off his body?

Besides that, I don't count toy reviews and stuff from Transformers: Armada, Energon, Robots in Disguise, the movies, or anything that isn't the original deal...Generation 1. So Hot Rod is still the whiny teenage Autobot.

Well, you raise a valid point there. Galvatron's first words were "I will rip open Ultra Magnus and every other autobot until the Matrix has been destroyed!"

I wish I had a clip of that to play just prior to the choking scene. I'd play the vow, then the choke, then the vow, then the choke, then Rodimus Prime throwing Galvatron through Unicron's butt... and end with some text on a black screen that says "See what happens when you don't stick to the original plan?"

And secondly, you know what the difference between Hot Rod and Magnus is? Hot Rod takes charge on the field and doubts his management capabilities. Magnus stakes his whole career on he hope that people will listen to him and is rarely ever seen doing any fighting. Really neither autobot was ever a fitting replacement for Prime, and could never pretend to be. But as for me, I'll take the one who's in the battle, taking on a maniac like Galvatron who is twice his size hand-to-hand... and not getting blown-up by some fledgeling Sweeps!

Hot Rod is a soldier and Ultra Magnus is a leader. That's really all there is to it.

Optimus Prime was a battlefield general who would be on the front lines giving orders while fighting. Ultra Magnus was the kind of battlefield commander who gave orders from the rear so he could see the field of battle and plan accordingly. There's no real right or wrong to either style...it's just preference.

Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime just ran into situations with no plan. He relied upon firepower and brute force and would use the Matrix to bail his butt out when he really got in over his head. Not the makings of a good leader at all.

At least he had work ethic.