Life, Death, Heroes, Villains, and Optimus Prime
| 13 February 2010
A warning...to the people...the good and...the evil. This. Is. War.
You know, for a song that embodies the warning we should have had during the series and movie this article tends to cover, it has a really nihilistic ending. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, however.
On August 8th or 9th of 1986, depending on where you lived in the world, there came a movie to the theatres that etched it's mark upon the soul of the men and women of my generation and is the subject of much discussion even today. That movie was Transformers: The Movie, one of the many film entries into the toy/cartoon marketing craze that was all the rage in those days. Back then the whole toy/cartoon tie in was beginning due the relaxing of certain laws which limited such practices, so we wound up with all sorts of new and exciting shows aimed at little girls and boys as retailers and marketers experimented to see what worked. You won't find too much in the way of such variety now, and often what variety you do find has been imported and localized from our esteemed neighbors in Japan…though they too are falling into this trap. Back then was a golden time for such local entertainment, and never shall we see its like again.
However, one of those properties was The Transformers, a show about two factions of living machines, the Autobots and Decepticons, locked into a civil war that had raged for eons beyond counting being marooned here on this world only to continue their fight here. I'm not going to go into how the property came to be, but if you're curious, the Transwiki has all the information you could ever want on the subject; I will however provide a brief overview of the 'gimmick' of the story. One of their main weapons, both for disguise and armament purposes, was the capability to reconfigure their bodies into various forms, which invariably took on the look of vehicles, both benign and military. As time went on, newer adaptations and configurations were adopted and newer technologies developed which fits right into that old concept of wars that continue for several years: that of escalation. In the middle of this conflict were humans, most of whom would side with the Autobots, who were portrayed as freedom loving, on the side of good, but a few siding with the Decepticons and their lust for power and domination.
This is an epic sci fi story, with characterization and complexity far outstripping much of the mindless 'toon fare we were subjected to up to that point, and even still are if you turn on the likes of Cartoon Network. For those of us who were boys back in the day, we rushed home every day after school (or even got up early before school) to watch what happened on the next episode. It had captured our attentions and our imaginations, and with the toys we could act out the episodes, much to the detriment of our parents' wallets…if you were lucky and if you could FIND your favored characters. I envied those next to a Toys 'R Us. In truth we loved the Transformers; for the story yes, but more so for the characters, and none so much as the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, given life and breath by a voice actor for whom I wish I could have shown appreciation when I was a child, Peter Cullen.
Here's a link to the bio of Optimus Prime, but in truth it doesn't capture the effect he had on a good lot of the boys of my generation (and more than a few girls, heh). He was a hero to us; we looked up to him, and were inspired. He would fight the good fight no matter the when, no matter the where. He cared for those under his command and his sense of honor extended to his treatment of everyone, including those who were his mortal enemies, the Decepticons, and their leader, The Slag Maker himself, Megatron. Often it was shown that though these were his fundamental strengths, they carried with them an inherent weakness in that he could be outmaneuvered by those who did not place the same value on honor and compassion like he did, though in the end it was always vindicated and why it was that we should strive to be like that. This was another father figure for us, in some cases the only father figure, who taught us right and wrong and why this was so. We idolized him; we wanted to BE LIKE him, and represent the ideals he so very much embodied.
Because the reason that you loved him, was the reason I loved him too. He never wondered what was right or wrong, he just knew. He just knew.
And so, on that fateful day in August, Transformers was to get the big screen treatment like a few others had, such as Rainbow Brite, He-Man, Care Bears, and My Little Pony. I wish I could have been there for that, I truly wish I could have been there for that. For through that summer, I had been seeing promo after promo on TV for that movie, and though most of the details escape me, the one thing that stuck in my mind from them was the voice over by Victor Carolli going, "Does Prime Die?" and Megatron's cracked, shattered, and bleeding face stating in pure evil smug satisfaction, "It's over, Prime."
Nobody dies in Transformers. Nobody dies in GI Joe. Even the one time we saw Skyfire died in Transformers, they wound up retconning it and digging him back up again (literally). Of all the greatest disservices that those pansy ass mother fuckers who run the Ministry Of Truth otherwise known as the FCC did concerning children's entertainment is insulate them from the realities of things such as war and fighting. It had no real effect, I mean, we'd watch our cartoons then turn on Cinemax and watch Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back where shitloads of people bleed and die. It was a feel good knee jerk that continues even to this day; one would think our generation would have been SICK of the hypocrisy of it all, though judging by the way things are going now, we learned NOTHING from watching our elders fuck shit up. Thing is, once you remove the story from the protection of day time 'child friendly' TV, it can truly become the story of war that it needed, and always should, have been…and it did. Thing is, that even though we knew of things like blood and death, we never expected it where it should have been. There was no warning here, but this was war.
That was the true shock, I think. We had been treated to an idealized world, where lasers fly all over the place, but nothing of note really happened because of this. No one gets too hurt, not permanently anyway, no one bleeds, and no one dies. People bail out of their planes in parachutes, and when someone is standing in front of you, you can't seem to shoot them right in the face. It had really become an overglorified wrestling match where the good guys always win, and the bad guys run to fight another day. In the end, nothing truly changed, and nothing was solved. Consequences were not explored, not really. So imagine our surprise that day, when so many of us saw what we'd been missing.
As for me, I didn't get to see it, much as I wanted to. I had decent parents, make no mistake, but my obsessions they never did get. I learned quickly on that if I really wanted something, and I mean really wanted something, they weren't going to be capable of understanding enough why to get anything but the smallest token of it. Today I provide for my own obsessions, as I started to when I got my first part time job in High School. So because of this, I was not there on that day, with so many. No, I had to wait a few months into the October time-frame. By this point, Season three of the series had rolled around, and I was forced to endure the knowledge that Optimus was gone without having actually witnessed it myself.
The knowledge of what was coming did not lessen the impact when I finally saw it in that packed theatre in Mountain Home Air Force Base, that cold October night in 1986.
One of the primary reasons for that being, that even though I knew Prime died, I didn't realize how many others were about to buy it too. Imagine if you will, a child of about ten years old, who watches Unicron descend upon a planet who had thus far been shown to be of idyllic utopian peace, and in slow motion, devour it and damn near every single sentient being on it, while you see the fear and horror in their faces as they run futility for their lives. Not pausing for a moment, you then find yourself on a shuttle where the Decepticons break in and brutally slaughter every single occupant with nary anything of what could be called a reasonable attempt at retaliation. They were taken by surprise and killed near just as quickly. One of which, Ironhide, whom you get slow motion closeness in his last great act of defiance, where he clutches at Megatron's foot in a vain attempt to stop the tyrant. The audience is then treated a look down the barrel of Megatron's fusion cannon, and in the same tone one might use when swatting a bug, "Such heroic nonsense," Megatron shoots him point blank right in the face.
Folks, in a more recent vernacular, this shit just got real.
I seem to recall a great deal of cussing at this point, but I can't be sure as I was in a mild form of shock at bearing witness to the actual consequences of what I now realized was war. People die when you kill them, apparently, and the cognitive dissonance I was living in concerning my favored series was brutally stripped away. This only intensified as I watched Optimus Prime and Megatron beat each other to death, there at the end to watch Megatron as he used Hotrod as a living shield, so that he could put several holes through Optimus Prime with a recovered laser gun. Oddly, through the whole gruesome ordeal, I realized that, yes…this is what Megatron would do. "I would have waited an eternity for this. It's over, Prime." This is who he is. This is what he is. I then saw Optimus Prime, in a scene I can replay perfectly in my mind, show Megatron and us all, who he is and what he is when, in a final mighty blow and a cry of righteous rage consisting of only, "NEVER!", knock Megatron off a precipice they had been fighting along side.
This day we saw heroism and villainy. We saw the fall of both the righteous and the tyrannical. We saw ruthlessness on both sides of the conflict, and oddly even compassion both from the Autobots from whom we've come to expect it, and from the Decepticons as they retreated carrying their fallen whom they could have just abandoned, and eventually did. But the Decepticons didn't leave them behind enemy lines, and I think that says a lot more about them than what came next…which was also so very much what they were. Things weren't quite as…simple as we'd been led to believe.
There at the end, we were right beside Optimus Prime with the others in that medical ward. We listened to his final words and shared the grief of his soldiers who knew what was coming. Then…his life flickered…faded…and then he was gone. Daniel was every boy and man in that theatre. And it was quiet…so very quiet.
Let me get something out of the way right fucking now. I am sick to fucking death of hearing the usual caterwauling about what happened, "Hotrod killed Prime!" For near on twenty-five YEARS I've heard nothing but this…LUNACY! Anyone with half a brain should have realized Hotrod did not kill Optimus Prime. Hotrod's only crime was foolish youth. Actually believing that somehow he had what it took to take on a monster like Megatron right then right there at his most dangerous. He jumped in the middle of that fight, not realizing he wasn't needed and with no concept that of what could have happened and what DID happen, as what happens with so many things the young do. This wasn't even one of those annoying children in movies whose sole purpose is to be the meat shield for the villain and provide drama for the hero at the end. Hotrod was a soldier who'd already seen a good lot of combat. Hell, I'd say his only real sin may have been thinking that even the mighty Optimus Prime could be killed, and his concern perhaps even his righteous fury, caused him to pull something that not even Ultra Magnus was prepared to do in case someone had to step in. So, Megatron grabbed that foolish boy, picked up that gun, and as he did with millions of other Transformers, a few likely the very same way he did right there, and shot Optimus Prime to death. It's disingenuous and idiotic to place the blame for what happened on a kid being both brave…and stupid, and seemingly the only one willing and ready to act if needs be. I'll repeat: Hotrod. DID. NOT. KILL. OPTIMUS PRIME! Megatron killed Optimus Prime. Period. Because that's what Megatron does.
Here we come at last to the main point of this talk. The death of our hero. The death of one who'd been another father to us all. The death of Optimus Prime.
It was a tremendous shock to find out that one whom we'd revered as a god, was in fact, mortal. I hated the movie for this, for taking my hero away from me…for in effect stripping me of my illusions and innocence. I was not alone, to be sure. To this day I'm learning more and more about what occurred back then for many. One of the best stories is one that the writers and producers shared on the 20th anniversary DVD extras. There was actually one kid who actually locked himself in his room for a couple of weeks after he watched the movie. I'd rather like to meet this guy, and both shake his hand and punch him in the face. My own father once confessed to me that it was at that point he realized I didn't quite understand the difference between reality and fantasy, and he felt a small failure as a father because of this. He was right, of course, but not in the way he thought he was. He considered it from the point of view of that I didn't know that there was a difference between the world I lived in and the cartoon world of the Transformers. In other words, he felt I believed I could head over to Colorado and walk up to Mount St. Hillary and say 'hi' to Optimus Prime himself. I suppose it was the only way a man, like so many of his generation, could interpret the loss of a hero, since he had none.
No, it wasn't that; not even close. We had just been bludgeoned with the enlightenment which should have been a lesson to us by right since day one. We knew of war, of death, of suffering, but, for far too many of us, never on a personal level. To so many of us, this single act was the first real taste of loss we'd ever truly experienced. It's not something he could understand, in that how could we actually love the life of something that was not truly real. He had no idea of how one could love a story and its characters. I'm saddened to this day that men like him never had a hero like that, who could teach them what that means. Back to the main point though, suddenly the world wasn't the same place. How were we ever going to live without Optimus Prime to show us the way?
It's a question that haunted many of us, and the betrayal, hurt, and resentment that hit us all at that point burned itself into so many men of my generation, that to this day I hear the vitriol leveled at the usual suspects in ways only about twenty-five years of learned distillation could produce. It honestly didn't help that the writers of the comic book, specifically Simon Furman, and the various writers and directors of the TV series couldn't handle it in a more adult manner either. Though I suspect even if they could, and I'm fairly sure they couldn't, the censors of the time wouldn’t have allowed the stories to air, being too 'mature' for their target audience. This actually happened in an episode of Beast Wars, depending on who you believe.
You see, Transformers: The Movie, despite the true lesson it imparted to us, a lesson it took me near twenty years to sink in and I'll get more into that in a moment, is basically a text book case of doing the right things for the wrong reasons. The writers, the producers, and the execs at Hasbro were also living in a state of disconnect of their own. They realized that in order sell products, they had to make the children care about their toys. In order to do that, they commissioned for the children a story of grand epic scope that made us care not just about the toys, but the characters they represented. We wanted these 'idols' because they were personifications of the people and situations we'd grown to love and care about. Those same people had no idea what it meant to do this; they were still stuck in the idea that children go for any old shiny thing, and once they had all the current shiny things, they'd need to market new shiny things. Thinking we'd put the old shiny thing down and pick up and care about the new shiny thing once that story was done, they told their tale masters to spin the appropriate yarn about how they all died.
To their credit as writers, they did a decent fuckin' job, all things considered. But that was simply their excellence AS writers, and not any real attachment to the story or characters as LIVING THINGS in and of themselves. They had the same idea, basically kill off the old product to introduce the new product. The DVD interviews see us watching them semi-seriously jokes about how they actually had one scene planned where the Decepticons had forced the rest of the first and second season Autobots into a kill gauntlet during the attack on Autobot City, and just massacred them. This was not put in the movie due to time and budgetary constraints. However, you can see that they were operating under the same assumptions that the corporate execs were operating under when they made this call.
Silly soulless adults. You made us CARE! You made us GIVE A DAMN! What the fuck did you THINK was going to happen? You made us give a shit about them, and then stripped them from us without even bothering to wonder what you would do if you cared about something that strongly only to have it smashed to pieces. You forgot we're people, not just the thing you trade lumps of plastic to for our money and the cash of our parents so you can buy another yacht.
If anything, this is a tribute to the stellar voice cast and direction that they could bring our heroes and villains to life in the face of such cold indifference. Outside of that, it was only the writers' work ethic that kept the series as strong as it was, though even that was subject to corporate meddling and the occasional terrible script. It's not like those in charge cared one whit about continuity after all.
Herein we now come to the powers that be's second largest crime against the series. It wasn't that they killed Optimus Prime, Megatron (sort of), and the rest, no it was their complete lack of understanding that in doing so we would now have to explore the ramifications and consequences of what had just happened. This would have to be done in a logical and directed manner. We needed a moment to take stock. A moment to understand the lessons we'd just been taught. A moment to grieve, and time to remember.
We needed a wake, to be honest. We needed…closure.
Instead, we're tossed into season three as if it were a continuation of the adventures we'd had before, just with the new shinies, and nary a reference to everyone else we loved who'd made it through the massacre that was Transformers: The Movie. I call this situation "New Cool Thing" syndrome; I know tvtropes has a better name, but I'll be damned if I could find it right now. Never more was it apparent that they just didn't understand what was going on. They were treating this as a toy advertisement without understanding that by making us care about these characters, we were going to form attachments to them. We were already not too thrilled with Rodimus' behavior as Hotrod in the movie, now this fucker is taking Optimus' spot? The fuck is everyone else doing? I found myself often asking, "I wonder what Skyfire is doing right this moment?" It's a problem that those who write the cartoons have not found a way to understand, even to this day, though they know it happens and understand now there are consequences. Since they're incapable of understanding, work-arounds had to be discovered and implemented, because they DO understand lost sales. The simplest work around was to have a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This provides that all important closure, so even if there's a sequel, everyone goes, "Okay…that story ended. We can move on with this one." It's what you'll see in the current crop of Transformers stories from Hasbro and Takara/Tomy.
Oddly, many of the writers DID understand that something needed to be closed. Too bad it backfired right in their faces, since there was no clear direction on how to approach the situation, but then actual direction in this series has been tossed to the curb in season 2. This would be their gross mishandling of the character of Rodimus Prime.
Rodimus was a whiney little cunt in both the comics and cartoon, but at least in the cartoon he could actually FIGHT and LEAD, which is not something he could ever do in the comics (thank you ever so much for THAT Mr. Furman). Still, there were eps after eps where we'd have Rodimus Prime angsting over not being as good as Optimus or for failing Optimus or for…well, you get the point. In any event, the episode would wrap up with him the epiphany that he was worthy; that he had talent; that he was the guy who could truly do the job and get things done. Hell, Optimus Prime even said it to him personally! Problem is next ep, he'd be doing it again, and we're back to learning something we'd learned previously all over again. This had the effect of turning Rodimus Prime into a pathetic bitch, and the Matrix/Primus into the universe's biggest DUMBASS for thinking this guy could be the Prime of all Primes.
Finally, this led into the largest crime that all the authors have perpetrated on this franchise at one point or another: They bring Optimus Prime back to life in a couple of eps they really should have worked harder on. This goes ahead and spawns the same sort of behavior in the comics...several times, I might add, over the course of the years and decades to follow. I know what some would be thinking about this point, you wanted him back...so they brought him back. This is what you wanted, why are you being all uppity? There's a simple answer to this question. Hell, if you've read this article closely enough, you already know the answer.
Optimus Prime died. The world was not the same. It had changed...WE had changed. Inherently we all know that when you die, there's no coming back. Optimus Prime knew this, but it never stopped him from doing what was right. And that folks, is the final, and greatest lesson Optimus Prime taught us. It was the one that took me nearly twenty years to sink in. One that influenced my decision to join the Navy, and one I know influenced so many others to do similar. I hadn't quite realized what it was that he'd done until one day, so many years later, in the Navy, I watched the movie again. I realized as Optimus Prime fought, and died, that he'd shown us what it truly took to be the kind of man who stands up and says, "No. Not on my watch. You shall not pass. You shall not win. I will not falter. I will not give in. I will not surrender. No matter the cost." He would never bend and he would never break; he always knew what it took because at the end of the day he was a fighter. Optimus Prime knew the score, he knew what he was putting on the line, and more, knew what it was he had to protect, and was willing to put everything he had and more on the table to do it. He taught us right then what it meant to be a man, and what we should aspire to be. The writers did us a great disservice to both us and themselves by not truly exploring this final lesson, but more importantly, they committed a grave literary sin by cheapening his sacrifice and his life by bringing him back when so many others died defending those same ideals too. Optimus Prime is not the man who says, "And now no force in the Universe will stop me." Optimus Prime is the man who says, "Megatron must be stopped. No matter the cost." And then shows us exactly what that means.
Afterwards they didn't show us men who took those ideals to heart and did everything they could to be worthy of Optimus Prime's legacy and sacrifice. No, we were shown men who were too busy sniveling in the corner because they didn't feel they were as good nor could be as good as he was...when being as good as he happened to be was never the point. I'll never be as good as he was; there's not too many who would be. But, again, that was never the point. It was never about being as good as he was, it was about becoming everything you possibly could to be worthy of the same ideals he embodied. It doesn't matter if others do it better; there will always be those who are better at fighting, better at leading, better at...well, everything you or I do. What truly matters is if, at the end of the day, you're willing to pick up whatever weapon you have, even if it's just yourself; put yourself in the path of the oncoming onslaught that seeks to destroy you, your home, and your family; and fight...even if it leads to your death. For you either fight, or you don't. You're either a soldier, or you're not. You're either a man, and thus, worthy of what you love, or you're a chicken shit, and not worth anything at all. This is something we can all embody in the very same way Optimus Prime did.
Honestly, now...the way he's constantly killed and brought back to life sickens me. I'm numb to it now, and I shouldn't be. For everyone that dies in that story, I should be reminded that there was only one person like them in all the universe. They saw what was needed, saw what they would have to give up, and considered it a bargain. Because the ideals of freedom and life for myself and my loved one is worth fighting for and worth dying for.
Optimus Prime died on that movie screen near on twenty-five years ago as of the writing of this article. However, what he was and is lives on in those of us who took the lessons he taught to heart and live our lives embodying the same ideals he did. I'm okay with it now...and more, proud of it.
In the end, it's up to each of us to search our souls for what we should be. We can be the one who fights to protect the freedom and lives of ourselves and those we love, no matter the cost from whatever it may be. Perhaps from an internal threat. Perhaps an external threat. Perhaps just facing our own lives as we're currently living them.
Or not.
After all is said and done, freedom is your right if you choose to take it...and so...the choice, and their consequences, are yours. Will you be that person? Or not?
Choose well.
