#but i guess we can't let him evolve any further than Funney Dad Lol

[lord-squiggletits]

Mmm one of the amazing things about IDW Optimus is that he feels like a real person to me. And imo, that's because instead of being portrayed as this universally benevolent and kind leader who always has a noble response to everything... He actually reacts to stress and makes bad decisions and loses his cool a lot of the time. It's just sad because almost, if not every time IDW OP does something "jerkish," there's literally a perfectly logical reason behind why he would feel/react the way he did, except the fandom either simplifies it to "he's an asshole" or straight up repeats/believes in outright misinterpretation or ignorance of the actual facts of the story. :/

But annoying fandom takes aside, I do just feel like... It's not that the "quietly sad, forlorn, lonely Optimus" characterization is bad, because IDW OP is very much like that too. I just think that his anger and righteousness and fuck-ups make him much more endearing because... I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but it's because real people are complicated. Real people aren't always diplomatic and kind. Real people snap under stress and lash out. Real people get into arguments with others about how far they're willing to go for their beliefs. Real people make mistakes and/or have backgrounds that haunt them for the rest of their lives.

And quite frankly, I think it's cool as fuck how IDW Optimus has some bite to him when he interacts with others. For example, I like it when IDW OP gets pissed at Dai Atlas for leaving Cybertron and abandoning the war (Monstrosity) because his anger and frustration reveals things about him. How much he cares about Cybertron as their homeland. How much pressure he feels to be a perfect leader and protect everyone. His bravery and responsibility making him feel that the right thing to do is fight for what's left, not cut their losses and leave. Also Dai Atlas is a hypocritical cunt and I will stand by this as far as his actions during the Metzen trilogy lmao, but that's besides the point.

But what I'm saying is that that conflict with other characters reveals things about Optimus' character: his history, regrets, values, goals. And if you reduce those complicated actions to just "he's an asshole", or outright ignore/remove them as fandom tends to do, what you end up with is a flattened character. A character having a strong personality/motivations/beliefs/etc necessarily means that they have conflict with others. Conflict is what makes stories interesting. IDW Optimus has conflicts with others and with himself and that's why he's cool as fuck. Because I came into IDW expecting just, "oh Optimus is the cool leader guy, he's iconic, he's heroic" and what I actually got was a character who's all of those things, but also conflicted, tragic, and controversial in relation to the people and environments he's surrounded by.

Because what some people think is "being an asshole" is what I'd rather call "having perfectly understandable emotional reactions under the given circumstances and ending up conflicting with people because that's how life works."