Is Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime Really That Bad

[Winter]

So, fun story about my family life my Sister is a HUGE Transformers fan, especially when it comes to Generation 1 and Beast Wars. And her favorite character in the series is Hot Rod aka Rodimus Prime. For her RP is the best character in the series and has told me why she thinks that for various reasons and one of those reasons is because she loves how flawed he is and the arc he has.

Now as many of you are no doubt aware Rodimus wasn't exactly popular when first game around due to him being the replacement for the Popular Icon Optimus Prime and many blaming him for getting OP killed. However, as time has gone on it seems most fans have soften up to Rod and from what I understand he's actually hugely popular over in Japan, even beating out Optimus and being brought in for a number of series. I wouldn't say he's become a fan favorite here in the states but he does seem to be more of a base-breaking character rather then the full on replacement scrappy he was when he first came in the series.

Just as an example, Linkara recently reviewed Transformers: Deviations which is a What If story that asked "What if Optimus Prime didn't die?" and the answer to that question seems to be "Nothing really, I just want to express how much I hate Hot Rod and want to kill him and just about every character introduced in the film whom I also hate."

The comments for this video are rather interesting in regards to HR because it seems like most if not all of them are in Defense of the Replacement Leader of Optimus with many pointing out that Optimus himself was partly to blame because he wasted time taunting Megatron instead of just shooting him, that HR's going to help was perfectly valid and that even if he was responsible in the end he later proved that he did have what it takes to lead the Autobots.

Even Linkara, who said he wasn't a fan of the character, stood up in defense of HR and pointed out that many of the Take That's towards the character were needlessly mean and that he didn't deserve even half of what happened to him. And as Linkara and Chuck have both pointed out Optimus has died so many times the original death of the character has lost a lot of its impact and as such dwelling on said death is kinda meaningless.

So, with all that in mind is Hot Rod as mad as the What If Comic says he was or does he deserve more respect as the successor of Optimus Prime?

[CharlesPhipps]

I feel like Hot Rod gets a lot of hate because he got Optimus Prime killed but if TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE was the last G1 thing ever, it's a fine ending to the story as Optimus may die but Hot Rod kills Galactus, I mean, Unicron and ends the war.

[sayla0079]

I'm not a fan of Rodimus though I love him as Hot Rod. I say he deserves a bit more respect. Yes, he makes mistakes but who doesn't?

[stryke]

Hot Rod's got the touch. I never once considered this to be a question.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think the fact they lost his rights to the name for a while didn't help.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think the fact they couldn't use the name hot rod for 15 years really help anything.

[MightyDavidson]

I feel like Hot Rod gets a lot of hate because he got Optimus Prime killed but if TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE was the last G1 thing ever, it's a fine ending to the story as Optimus may die but Hot Rod kills Galactus, I mean, Unicron and ends the war.

It didn't really help Rodimus' case that Optimus got the most awesome moment in the entire movie and Rodimus never got an equivalent moment. Hard to take to the new guy when the movie makes it seem clear that he's not as cool as the original. That being said, I do like Rodimus.

[Winter]

I feel like Hot Rod gets a lot of hate because he got Optimus Prime killed but if TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE was the last G1 thing ever, it's a fine ending to the story as Optimus may die but Hot Rod kills Galactus, I mean, Unicron and ends the war.

It didn't really help Rodimus' case that Optimus got the most awesome moment in the entire movie and Rodimus never got an equivalent moment. Hard to take to the new guy when the movie makes it seem clear that he's not as cool as the original. That being said, I do like Rodimus.

I don't know, taking on an army of near unstoppable robot sharks, fighting Galvatron one on one (and winning) and of course BLOWING UP A LOVECRAFTIAN ROBOT MONSTER THAT EATS PLANETS are all pretty awesome moments that can be seen as awesome as Optimus' final battle with Megatron. Even the What If comic that spent most of its time $#!ing on Hot Rod basically went, "Yeah, even we think that moment was awesome and we won't take it away from HR."

[Thebestoftherest]

Again I think that if he had more e appearances outside of g1 and comics he might have been forgiven sooner, but was compromised due to copyright.