Where is Optimus Prime?

[GoktimusPrime]

Live a little Gok, voice an opinion or theory, this is a discussion of ideas, not canon.

Okay, opinion: I don't like fan theories that conflict, contradict or completely disregard official canon. I prefer those that can work within existing canon because it makes them more "believable" to me. It's like say science fiction elements which don't directly contradict reality, like Dark of the Moon's explanation for the Moon mission. That's a cool sub-plot because it actually matches historical events and "makes sense" within itself... as opposed to say Spider-man 2's premise of Doc Ock creating nuclear fission with a single atom of tritium -- which is just downright impossible. <---Just my opinion

Hence I just sit out of any discussion about canon which conflicts or contradicts official canon. I'm not discouraging anyone from having such discussions (although perhaps it might be better suited to be posted in Grapples Creative section?) -- you're more than welcome to have them -- but I personally have no interest in it, so I choose to sit out of them. In answer to the question of what happened to Optimus Prime after the Great War... well, the official answer is that he was reformatted as a Maximal. I mentioned this in response to the following comments in Post #1:

but by the time we get around to Beast Wars, we can assume that Optimus Prime isn't around.

So where is he and what happened to him?

Assume no more. We know that he is around.

We have to delve into the realms of the non-canonical and conjecture.

You don't have to because a canonical explanation already exists (you may create alternative non-canonical explanations if you want, but I wouldn't say we "have" to).