How critical was the first death of Optimus Prime?

[GoktimusPrime]

It set the precedent of Optimus 'dying' and coming back to life a couple of years later, letting the heroic spotlight fall on someone more fallible and therefore story-wise more interesting during that time. Imagine how happy all the different TF comic writers over the past 28 years have been to know they could do that! Hell, Prime has risen from the grave more times than Zombies, Jesus & Shannen Doherty's career combined

TF comics frequently showed leaders other than Optimus Prime and Megatron. Often those who were quite flawed, which made for some interesting story telling. Take Grimlock's first reign of the Autobots. He was initially reluctant to lead the Autobots, but they all insisted that he lead them - so in essence he was unanimously elected into the position. But absolutely power corrupts absolutely, and Grimlock became a horrible tyrant oppressing those under his rule who soon grew to resent the self-proclaimed king (who even had a crown and throne fashioned for himself). Except for his fellow Dinobots - they all thought Grimlock was brilliant. On the Decepticon side you had Ratbat leading the Decepticons, a fuel auditor. During this time it was as if the Decepticons were under the corporate control of a CEO, who ran their organisation in some ways like a business. Heck, the Decepticons even turned their headquarters into a thriving part of the hospitality industry!

No matter how much I hate ROTF and how many holes I can poke in DOTM I'm still going to see the very first showing of AOE in 3D.

Same here! (only in 2D, I'm personally not the biggest fan of 3D moofies )