Optimus Prime

Character
Name:	English: Optimus Prime Orion Pax Japanese: コンボイ (Convoy) オライオンパックス (Orion Pax) (more on TFWiki.net)
Occupation:	Autobot leader
Relationships:	varies by series
Fandom:	Transformers
Other:
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Optimus Prime is a prominent and popular character in the Transformers franchise. He leads the heroic Autobots in the majority of Transformers continuities.

Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, is seen as his arch-enemy and moral opposite.

Canon Background

Optimus Prime is the wise and noble leader of the Autobots in the 1984 original cartoon series. He was originally named Orion Pax before gaining the title of "Optimus Prime" from the Matrix of Leadership, which sits in his chest. He can turn into a six-wheeled truck and has a bed that can transport the other Autobots around.

Infamously, he was killed during the series' 1986 movie, and his role as Autobot leader was replaced by Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. This was very controversial. Many of the children watching the original series considered him a surrogate father figure, which added to the audience-traumatizing nature of his death in the movie. This set a precedent for Optimus to die in canon, often to be revived shortly thereafter. For more information, see The many deaths of Optimus Prime on the TFWiki.

Beast Wars introduced Optimus Primal, the descendant of the original Optimus, who transformed into a gorilla. This sparked significant fan ire at the time, mostly by those already opposed to Beast Wars as a concept.

Other canons interpret his position differently, but keep his personality largely the same. Optimus in Transformers Animated is not an Autobot leader, with "Prime" being an actual military rank which was below "Magnus." Optimus in Transformers: Prime is the leader of the Autobots, but only a handful of them, as the war for Cybertron had utterly devastated their planet and its population.

Major Appearances

• The Transformers TV series
• The Transformers Generation One Marvel Comics
• The Transformers Generation One IDW Comics
• Transformers Beast Wars
• Transformers Robots in Disguise (2001)
• The Transformers Unicron Trilogy
• Transformers Bay Movies
• Transformers Animated
• Transformers Aligned (Prime) Continuity
• Transformers Cyberverse
• Transformers Earthspark
• Transformers One

See Optimus Prime (disambiguation) on TFWiki.net for more of his appearances.

Popular Tropes & Fanon

• Parent "Dadimus" Optimus Prime: where he's seen as a father/mother/parent figure. He's typically seen as a competent dad and like an "ultimate" or "best" dad in even a group of dads. This is a very diverse trope, as this fits with his characterization in most canons, covering:
  • being a father figure to all Autobots. This is considerably more common than the Megatron/Decepticon equivalent.
  • being Bumblebee's father figure in particular. Ratchet is often the "other dad."
  • Adoptimus Prime: where he leads a found family, consisting of his squad in Transformers Animated or his squad in Transformers Prime most often.
  • Awkward and Tired Dad: seen as being in character within Prime's canon. Related is Team Dad, seen as an equivalent to the common Team Mom trope.
  • being the "sire" (aka father) or "carrier" (aka mother) in mechpreg/mpreg works.
• Protective Optimus Prime: where he's very protective, usually over humans and Earth life. Works focusing on this aspect of him may be character studies.
• Hurt Optimus Prime: as the selfless Autobot leader, he goes through a lot. Seen in hurt/comfort and angst works. Related is the Optimus Prime Needs A Hug Archive of Our Own tag.
• Optimus Prime Lives: often canon compliant. If not, then this is a fix-it where he's revived after dying or never died in the first place.
• Optimus Prime Can't Catch A Break: usually from Megatron and the Decepticons, since he's almost always the one "continuing" the war when Optimus hates having to fight him off. Optimus feels it's his duty to protect others, so common fanon/implied canon is that he works himself thin.
• BAMF Optimus Prime: he's known to kick ass. The Bay films' line from Optimus, "Give me your face," is often quoted and seen as a badass moment.
• Possessive Optimus Prime: often works alongside other tropes/genres such as spark bonds (where two or more TF characters have a sort of soul bond, thus Optimus is more protective than usual of his partner,) and Shattered Glass, a canon alrernate universe where Optimus leads the evil and violent Autobots.
• Decepticon Optimus Prime: most common in Megatron/Optimus Prime works. If he is a Decepticon, he almost always joins it pre-war rather than any time after that.
• Feral Optimus Prime: where he's somewhat out of character due to extraneous circumstances. "Feral" OP behavior is usually acting out on impulse, for example, though it may mean he is exceptionally violent, as seen in some dead dove works.
• Optimus Prime is Bad at Feelings: typically because he's so high on the Autobot social latter that he's seen as unapproachable. This makes his social skills rusty at worst, since he wasn't very social pre-war in almost all canons. Related is Oblivious Optimus Prime, where he has no idea other characters are attracted to him since he's mostly preoccupied by Autobot leader duties.
• Dark Optimus Prime: typically associated with dead dove works.
• Megatron and Optimus Prime are Siblings: seen mostly in the Bay films and Transformers One fandoms, where canon implies they were part of the same bot batch or were literally related.

Subjects of Fannish Interest & Meta

Optimus Prime has become emblematic of the franchise. While Bumblebee has usurped this role to some extent since 2007, with the first Micheal Bay Transformers movie and other TF media such as Transformers Cyberverse, Optimus is still a highly recognizable character.

Relationships

Popular pairings with Optimus are Optimus/Megatron and Elita One/Optimus Prime, which pairs him with Elita One and is canonical in the 1984 original cartoon series. Other common pairings vary greatly depending on the canon.

This is purposefully an incomplete list, as Optimus Prime is shipped with many of the other Transformers. He's also popular for self-insert shipping.

Please add any notable relationships in fanworks if they are missing.

Primary Canon	With...	Who is a(n)...	Full Label	Type	Ship Name(s)	Information
various	Megatron	Decepticon	Megatron/Optimus Prime	M/M	MegOP | MOP | メガコン | コンメガ | メガオプ | オプメガ	Enemies and moral opposites; may start as rekindled friends
various	Megatron	Decepticon	Megatron & Optimus Prime	Gen	(n/a)	Often former friends both in canon and in fanworks
various	Ratchet	Autobot	Optimus Prime/Ratchet	M/M	Optiratch | RatchOp | オプラチェ | ラチェオプ	Loyal to one another and often very close
various	Ratchet	Autobot	Optimus Prime & Ratchet	Gen	(n/a)	Often old friends both in canon and in fanworks
G1 Cartoon	Elita One	Autobot	Elita One/Optimus Prime	F/M	Oplita | コンエリ | オプエリ	Canonical in the 1984 original cartoon series
G1 Cartoon	Starscream	Decepticon	Optimus Prime/Starscream	M/M	Starop | オプスタ | スタオプ	Starscream defecting to the Autobots AU is common
various	Bumblebee	Autobot	Bumblebee & Optimus Prime	Gen	(n/a)	Most common Bee relationship
various	Bumblebee	Autobot	Bumblebee/Optimus Prime	M/M	Opbee | コンバン | オプビ	Close allies
Bayverse	Cade Yeager	Autobot ally	Cade Yeager/Optimus Prime	M/M	Yeager Program | Barn Husbands	Close allies
various	Prowl	Autobot	Optimus Prime/Prowl	M/M	Prowlop | オププロ | プロオプ	Close allies
various	Jazz	Autobot	Jazz/Optimus Prime	M/M	Jazzop | マイコン | コンマイ	Close allies
various	Jazz	Autobot	Jazz & Optimus Prime	Gen	(n/a)	Close allies
various	Jazz, Prowl	Autobot x2	Jazz/Optimus Prime/Prowl	Poly	Jazzprowlop	All three non-poly versions of this ship are popular
IDW Comics	Shockwave	Decepticon	Optimus Prime/Shockwave	M/M	ShockOp	Former friends in the IDW canon before the war
Prime	Soundwave	Decepticon	Optimus Prime/Soundwave	M/M	SoundOp	Can be interpreted in many ways depending on the canon
Prime	Ultra Magnus	Autobot	Optimus Prime/Ultra Magnus	M/M	MagOp | OpMag | Magnimus | MagnusOp	May be superior/understudy depending on the canon
G1 Cartoon	Ironhide	Autobot	Ironhide/Optimus Prime	M/M	IronOp | OpHide	Loyal to one another and often very close
various	Megatron, Starscream	Decepticon x2	Megatron/Optimus Prime/Starscream	Poly	Megastarop | Megopstar	All three non-poly versions of this ship are popular
Prime	Smokescreen	Autobot	Optimus Prime/Smokescreen	M/M	SmokeOp	(n/a)
Bayverse	Mikaela Banes	Autobot ally	Mikaela Banes/Optimus Prime	F/M	(n/a)	(n/a)
various	Elita One, Megatron	Autobot x2	Elita One/Megatron/Optimus Prime	Poly	Megoplita	Combines the popular Megatron/OP and Elita One/OP
Animated	Blackarachnia	Decepticon	Blackarachnia/Optimus Prime	F/M	OPBA	Variant of Elita One/Optimus Prime in Animated
Beast Wars	Dinobot	Maximal	Dinobot/Optimus Primal	M/M	Doop | ダイコン | コンダイ	(n/a)
various	Nemesis Prime	Decepticon	Nemesis Prime/Optimus Prime	M/M	(n/a)	(n/a)

See List of Transformers Relationship Names for more.

Notable Optimus-Centric Fanworks and Communities

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fan Communities/Fan Events

• TrueOptimusprimeFans, ^{Archived version}, a club on DeviantArt
• preggyop, ^{Archived version}, a club on DeviantArt

Wikis

• コンボイ on PixivEncyclopedia
• 実写オプティマス on PixivEncyclopedia
• オライオンパックス on PixivEncyclopedia
• Optimus Prime on the TFWiki
• Optimus Prime on Wikipedia

General Fanworks

Fan Mixes

• War Without An End by PrimeFromAnotherTime, ^{Archived version} (2013)

Memes

• Fan Comic by wolverineburger, ^{Archived version} (2018)

Meta

IDW

• how JRo’s and Barber’s respective portrayals of Optimus end up influencing their framing of Shockwave by decepti-thots and quetzalpapalotl, ^{Archived version} (2024)
• It makes sense for IDW Optimus as a character to believe he could’ve prevented the war, but when you look at the actual timeline and the other circumstances at play(...) by lord-squiggletits, ^{Archived version} (2022)
• It really annoys me that a whole segment of fandom treats Roberts’ take on OP as ‘the real one’ compared to everything else in IDW1 by decepti-thots, ^{Archived version} (2024)