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).

[Verno]

So he was Convobat, but also:

Taken from TF Wiki, in regards to the 3H Comics:

After the Great War, Optimus Prime disappeared with other legends into the mysterious location on Cybertron dubbed J'nwan. When the warlord Shokaract, powered by Unicron's Dark Essence, traveled into the past to secure his own future, a Predacon named Sandstorm traversed the confusing mists of J'nwan to seek out its occupants to help. Sandstorm prevailed and brought Optimus, Megatron, Soundwave, and Grimlock with him to prehistoric Earth during the time of the Beast Wars where a battle with Shokaract had already begun. When Sandstorm (secretly Scorpius) and the rest of the Covenant arrived to vanquish the Dark Essence and defeat Shokaract, Optimus Prime and the others escaped through portals as that timeline was paradoxed from existence.

Through a Portal? He could be anywhere!

[Hursticon]

after a life time of war.. i imagine it would of been hard for some autobots to readjust... i do see prime handing over leadership but then i see him boarding a space cruiser with a few other bots... lets say Jazz, Grimlock and the dinobots and a few others and ventures off into space looking to round up the last of the decepticon element on the outer reaches of space... or any fight they find along the way.. prime couldnt rest without knowing that the entire universe was free of the decepticon/cybertronian menaces...

Primes out there. telling stories to the dinobots and dishing justice out galaxy wide..

I like this idea, Optimus sort of obtaining Kup's role though a little more active than the old-timer - It gives him a purpose without him being front and center all the time, a retired heavy gun that is otherwise no longer needed and to entertain his time he goes off on wild adventures.

This gives me a vision of Optimus Prime, strung up deep in the dark centre of Cybertron like the Queen in Aliens, laying new Protoforms from the back of his trailer.

That is a horrific image though

Though a horrendously funny one!

Originally he wasn't a Warrior, I'm sure he could adjust to mainstream life and settle down with his G1 counter part(can't remember her name Starfire)

This has intriguing narrative possibilities too, Fembot and Kidbot's daily struggle with PTS-Optimus.

Through a Portal? He could be anywhere!

Yeah, with the amount of Universal loose ends on this guy it could actually be here for longer than 5 minutes :




...That, or he spiralled into another universe and ended up as this guy :

[loophole]

probably dead after a big battle that ended all battles

[Lord_Zed]

Optimus Prime was reformatted as a Maximal known as Convobat. It says so in his tech specs (sorry, can't find an English translation atm - but the first sentence says that he was "the famous tractor trailer truck called Optimus Prime"). You guys can make up whatever alternate fan theories if you want, but that's the official story.

Yep Optimus must fight eternally to generate money for Hasbro. Poor guy, at least Rodimus and the others get days of.

[GoktimusPrime]

So he was Convobat, but also:

Taken from TF Wiki, in regards to the 3H Comics:

Okay, but remember that the whole Shokaract story arc occurred between and beyond several dimensions beyond time and space -- and ultimately the plane of existence where everything came together ultimately collapsed anyway... the Shokaract who was empowered by the Matrix of Conquest and yada yada yada ceased to exist (and instead we see a Shokaract in a parallel universe failing to make contact with Unicron's Dark Essence).

Also, the Optimus Prime who appeared in "Reaching the Omega Point" was plucked from J'nwan - a reality "beyond" or "outside" realities... so who knows which dimension (not to mention point in time and space) that Optimus Prime might have originated from. He may or may not be the same Optimus Prime who exists in Beast Wars as Convobat.

In any case, you also provided another answer to your initial question -- evidently some time after the Great War (possibly after the events of the Beast Era), Optimus Prime ended up in J'nwan.

Through a Portal? He could be anywhere!

Let's say he ended up in Eternia and accidentally stepped on Orko...

[Hursticon]

Okay, but remember that the whole Shokaract story arc occurred between and beyond several dimensions beyond time and space -- and ultimately the plane of existence where everything came together ultimately collapsed anyway... the Shokaract who was empowered by the Matrix of Conquest and yada yada yada ceased to exist (and instead we see a Shokaract in a parallel universe failing to make contact with Unicron's Dark Essence).

Also, the Optimus Prime who appeared in "Reaching the Omega Point" was plucked from J'nwan - a reality "beyond" or "outside" realities... so who knows which dimension (not to mention point in time and space) that Optimus Prime might have originated from. He may or may not be the same Optimus Prime who exists in Beast Wars as Convobat.

In any case, you also provided another answer to your initial question -- evidently some time after the Great War (possibly after the events of the Beast Era), Optimus Prime ended up in J'nwan.

Let's say he ended up in Eternia and accidentally stepped on Orko...

Wow! , now I can see why Hasbro wants to move the franchise forward with rebuilding/recreating the TF Universe/Back Story, this Alternate Dimensional Time Travel crap is just ridiculous.

Honestly Gok; how anyone less versed in the lore than yourself could ever hope to properly grasp everything it contains, thus far, is beyond me.

[Quickstrike]

I accept the idea that Convobat is G1 Prime about as much as I accept that the original Optimus Primal toys (Bat and Gorilla) are G1 Prime. So, not at all.

[Verno]

I accept the idea that Convobat is G1 Prime about as much as I accept that the original Optimus Primal toys (Bat and Gorilla) are G1 Prime. So, not at all.

+1

[GoktimusPrime]

I accept the idea that Convobat is G1 Prime about as much as I accept that the original Optimus Primal toys (Bat and Gorilla) are G1 Prime. So, not at all.

Erm, but officially this isn't the case because unlike the original Optimus Primal toy specs as Optimus Prime, the Convobat profile:

a/ Was written after the cartoon was written (whereas the Optimus Primal original tech specs were written before), and thus...

b/ Have not been retconned as being non-canonical. We know that toy bios written after the cartoon followed cartoon continuity, and thus bios for subsequent Optimus Primal toys were written portraying Primal not as being Optimus Prime.

c/ Convobat was explicitly written to be G1 Optimus Prime whereas Convoy (Optimus Primal) was written to not be Optimus Prime. Because the Convobat (and Megalligator) profile was written after the advent of the cartoon, Takara knew that Convoy would not be Optimus Prime; and so they intentionally wrote Convobat as a separate character from Convoy and portrayed him as Optimus Prime with Convoy as Optimus Primal.

So I don't find this to be a reasonable comparison -- while it's true that the early Optimus Primal tech specs (and indeed pre-show Beast Wars continuity itself) portrayed Optimus Primal as Optimus Prime, it occurred under completely different circumstances from Convobat.

I can accept that Optimus Primal isn't Optimus Prime, because of canonical retcon. There has been no such retcon for Convobat AFAIK.