Optimus Prime

**Optimus Prime** (オプティマス・プライム, *Oputimasu Puraimu*), originally named as **Orion Pax** (オライオン・パックス, *Oraion Pakkusu*), is both a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the *DC* series. He is the legendary, awe-inspiring leader of the Autobot forces. Selfless and endlessly courageous, he is the complete opposite of his mortal enemy Megatron, the leader of the Decepticon forces. Originally a simple data clerk, he was chosen by the Matrix that he still carries within him to command, the first in a number of heavy burdens he has been forced to bear. Another is his bringing of the Transformers' conflict to world of human. The Autobots need a decisive, charismatic leader, and that is what he gives them. It was that leadership which turned the tide of the Great War.

Optimus Prime is the best leader an Autobot could ask for, and the worst nightmare a Decepticon could imagine. If you're looking for a hero, then he's the one with the wisdom. In other circumstances, he can combine with his fellow Autobots to form Optimus Maximus.

"*Freedom is the fundamental right of all living beings.*"

—Optimus Prime.

## Appearance

*Voice Actor*: Peter Cullen (English), Tesshō Genda (Japanese), (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Pekka Lehtosaari (Finnish), Not Known (French), Klaus-Dieter Klebsch (German), Marco Balzarotti (Italian), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Wan-gyeong Seong (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Poland), Dariusz Odija (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Andrei Yaroslavtsev (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Canadian French), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Blas Garcia (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Alfredo Martinez (Spain-Spanish)
*Voice Actor (Orion Pax)*: Laurie Faso (English), Masahito Kawanago (Japanese), (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Canadian French), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Not Known (Spain-Spanish)

### Biography

Optimus Prime is the heroic leader of the Autobots. He is both brave and compassionate, inspiring greatness in those who follow him. Optimus has a strong sense of justice and righteousness and has dedicated himself to the protection of all sentient life; he will battle his foes with unyielding resolve to uphold his belief. Even the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, begrudgingly admits his respect for Optimus Prime.

Once a simple data clerk, Optimus Prime was chosen, to his surprise, to become the leader of the Autobots. Optimus Prime believes that freedom is the right of all sentient beings. He uses his strength and bravery to rally his heroic Autobots to wage their battle against the evil forces of the Decepticons.

### Appearance

#### Robot Mode

Optimus has a gray face with a blue helmet and antennas of the same color, heavily detailed and designed with multiple plates and layers of pieces on top of each other. Optimus has two sphere shaped bases for his antennas, with dark blue coloring around it. He has windows from his vehicle mode on/in his red chest and a dark grey strip on both of his ribs.

Optimus has little similarities to his old form. His upgrade includes his windows in his chest, blue helmet and red color scheme all over his body, with the exception of his legs being gray like his face and hands.

#### Vehicle Mode

His vehicle mode on Cybertron was a Cybertronian Truck, when arriving to Earth he adapts the Earth vehicle mode of a tractor trailer.

It can attach a trailer to the back blue section. Optimus can go to Maximum Overdrive, which makes him go faster than a normal truck.

With his upgrade, he turns in an alt mode similar to that of an experimental all-terrain expeditionary fighting vehicle which was designed by the finest engineers in the army division.

* Hair Color: N/A
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Blue
* Age: Not Known
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Alpha Trion
* Autobots
	+ Zeta Prime
	+ Bumblebee
	+ Bulkhead
	+ Sideswipe
	+ Ratchet
	+ Arcee
	+ Prowl
	+ Drift
	+ Windblade
	+ Wreck-Gar
* Omega Sentinels
	+ Omega Supreme
* Mini-Cons
* Dinobots
	+ Grimlock
	+ Swoop
	+ Snarl
* Wreckers
	+ Ultra Magnus
* Cybertron Elite Guard
	+ Strongarm
	+ Jazz
	+ Blurr
	+ Safeguard
		- Jetfire
		- Jetstorm

### Enemies

* Decepticons
	+ Megatron
	+ Shockwave
	+ Blitzwing
	+ Lugnut
	+ Soundwave
	+ Swindle
	+ Airachnid
* Insecticons
* Seekers
	+ Starscream
	+ Thundercracker
	+ Dirge
	+ Thrust
	+ Sunstorm
	+ Ramjet
	+ Skywarp
	+ Slipstream
	+ Lockdown
* Ancient Decepticons
	+ the Fallen
* Unicron

## Abilities and Powers

Optimus, back as an archivist, he had yet full, military usage and had supportive tools for *only* certain combat purposes. His main one are his arm mounted grappling hook launchers, which Optimus use to swing through the air, or to reach things a distance away from him. The launchers in his arms can also shoot out bolas to tie up the legs of his opponents, fire retardant foam, and low friction gel.

Optimus wields a rocket powered axe. The axe can transform from a small hatchet into a full sized battle axe, and the handle can extend even further to allow Optimus to pole vault when needed. The rocket engine assists with swings to lend more power to attacks.

Optimus also exhibited an ability to tap into phone and radio signals, using an antenna built into his "ear piece" and also demonstrated an ability to track signals back to their origin.

Optimus Prime also possesses a retractable mouth-plate/battle mask like the other Autobots for battle mode purposes. He also has a retractable visor to survey an area, locating certain things, or some other computer-like means.

On top of all this, Optimus Prime has extensive Cybertron Academy training, before he became Zeta Prime's right hand man. In addition to his agility and Elite Guard-class skills, he has the tactical knowledge that comes with the role, such as tricking Knock Out and Lugnut.

Optimus Prime is one of the strongest Autobots alive, possesses a wide variety of skills and abilities, and a formidable opponent in battle. Optimus is armed with two arm blaster cannons and long blades. He also possess the Star Saber plus with the Matrix of Leadership, which makes him the strongest Prime alive.

After Unicron and Predaking, he is undoubtedly the strongest fighter in the series. This is shown by the fact that he is capable of defeating several Insecticons with little to no effort in both of his bodies. It should be noted that even Megatron struggled to kill even one Insecticon.

After being repaired by Forge of Solus Prime's remaining power, Optimus gained a new more stronger and powerful body with a jetpack and armed with an energon minigun. He also a new energon blaster and rockets in his vehicle form. After Optimus reclaimed his weapon and killed Megatron with the Star Saber, Optimus reclaimed his weapon though, it is not seen using it after that.

### Abilities

As the last of the Primes, Optimus is one of the most, if not the most powerful Cybertronian.

* **Master hand-to-hand combatant:** Optimus is shown to be an exceptionally formidable hand-to-hand combatant. In fact, the only ones that have nearly defeated him in combat are Megatron and Lockdown.
* **Master swordsman:** Optimus is shown to be a formidable swordsman. He was able to kill Megatron with only an arm and a battle axe within 15 seconds as shown is the third movie. Optimus Prime was also able to decapitate the drillerbot with his dual energon swords.
* **Master marksman:** Although he prefers hand-to-hand combat, Optimus is extremely proficient in the use of firearms.
* **Master tactician:** Optimus is shown to be a master tactician.
* **Master leader:** Optimus is shown to be a great leader.
* **Expert driver:** Optimus is shown to be an expert driver in vehicle mode. In the first movie, he was able to do a swift u-turn, while driving at a high speed and in the third movie, he was able to transform at a high speed in mid-air even with a trailer attached to him.
* **Cybertronian strength:** Optimus is shown to be strong compared to that of an average Cybertronian. He was able to take down Shockwave with ease in the third movie. He is capable of lifting over 2,000 tons.
* **Cybertronian speed:** Optimus is shown to be a fast compared to that of an average cybertronian. He was shown to outrun helicopters.
* **Healing Factor:** Optimus Prime has an enhanced healing factor, a badly damaged Optimus Prime was healing during the time the sword was removed from his chest.
* **Invincibility:** Optimus Prime has the matrix of leadership inside his chest. As long as it stays there, Optimus Prime has invincibility. He was able to survive a sword through the chest from Lockdown.

## History

### Past

#### Early years

In the waning years of the Golden Age of Cybertron, Orion Pax worked as an archivist and clerk in the Iacon Archives, and was friend to Ariel and Dion, mentored by Alpha Trion. His interests lay with the tales of ancient Cybertronian history, but the more he learned about the past, the more he grew concerned about the present. There was a disparity in freedom among the classes of his race, and the ruling class was corrupt and all-powerful. In seeking a solution to this inequity, Orion found inspiration and Dion found idolization in the words of a gladiator named Megatronus, that led the two joined forces to end corruption and bring equality to the masses. Orion and Megatronus became close allies, almost like brothers.

During a meeting at Maccadam's Old Oil House, Orion was drawn to the charismatic Megatronus' campaign for change so much, he assured Megatronus he would author the speech Megatronus was to give at their upcoming rally. At the rally, Optimus stood amongst Megatron’s closest allies as he unveiled the revolution movement. Though the rally was a success, Ariel wasn't so sure, having heard rumors that there had recently been secretive yet perpetrated attacks on an outer cities and Megatronus' growing power would begin to reveal darker shades of his personality and ambition. She warns Orion that Megatronus' ideas of revolution would be threatened to turn into war, Orion did not wanted to believe that at the time.

One day, both Megatronus and Orion Pax appeared before the Cybertron Council. However, when the pair presented their ideas towards the Council members, they discovered their ideologies were vastly different from each other, where Megatronus stated it was his intention to overthrow the Council by force and instate himself as the next Prime. But Orion however disbevieved in violence as a means of achieving justice - it was his speech that warmly touched the council and drew their attention, whom personally recommended to Orion that he should be named the next Prime. Driven by jealousy and hatred, this event caused Megatron to left angrily, cut of all ties with Orion and the council, and disappeared for six years ever since.

One day, Orion was heading to work as usual when at that moment, Dion and Ariel alerted Orion the Archives was under attack. Before long when the trio arrived, Orion was shocked when he was approached by Megatronus — now "Megatron" — had returned and began his conquest, with his followers, the Decepticons. Orion tried to speak to Megatron and try to peacefully resolve their issues. But Megatron was to infuriated to listen, Megatron declared open war on his old friend and his faction. When Orion took a shot down by a blast from the enraged Decepticon leader's cannon, Ariel tried to rush to his defense, but was hit by another blast from Megatron, and Orion and Ariel were severely injured.

While Megatron and his troops set about pillaging and destroying, Dion with the help of the five robots Orion had met earlier carried their bodies away, in hopes of finding someone to repair them. Alpha Trion took them to Alpha Trion, who brought them to the Cybertronian machinesmiths to help. The Cybertronian Machinesmiths: Nautica and Rung had reluctantly decided to subject Orion and Ariel to a new reconstruction process they had developed, which would rebuild the Autobots' frail bodies into battle-hardy configurations so that they could battle the Decepticons on even footing. Thus it was that they were rebuilt into Optimus and Elita-1 respectively.

#### Battles of Cybertron

##### Becoming a Prime

In the waning days of the war for Cybertron, Optimus spotted a little yellow Autobot in trouble, and defeated the surrounding drone forces. Ratchet arrived on the scene, and Optimus helped up the Autobot scout, who revealed his name was Bumblebee. Bumblebee informed Optimus that the Decepticons had taken control of communication relays, so that the only way to contact Optimus was by messenger. He also informed Optimus that their leader, Zeta Prime, was dead. Optimus suspected Megatron's hand, and was informed by Bumblebee that the High Council had gone into hiding because of this. Optimus believed that the Council would emerge during a safer time, and formed a team with Bumblebee and Ratchet.

They drove to the Decagon, where they found Ironhide battling the forces of Starscream. After assisting him in defeating Starscream's army, they confronted Starscream himself within the Decagon. After the trio combated and drove off Starscream, a hologram of Zeta Prime's face appeared in the center of the room, stating that he is being held in the Kaon prison complex. Optimus took Bumblebee and Sideswipe to the Kaon prison, allowing themselves to be captured so that they could infiltrate the facility. The Decepticons prepared to execute them, but Air Raid lent a hand so they could escape, though he himself was captured. While sneaking through the corridors, the three managed to free Air Raid, Arcee, and others. They continued through the hallways, and finally located the room where Zeta is being held, only to face Soundwave. The Decepticon cowered behind a force field, sending Frenzy, Rumble, and Laserbeak out to fight for him, only venturing out to administer needed repairs to his minions. As Soundwave's energy became low, he attempted to drain Zeta Prime, only to be interrupted by Optimus, who took a shot meant for Zeta. Though Soundwave and his minions retreated, the damage was done, and Zeta Prime died before Optimus could free him.

Optimus brought Zeta's corpse to the site of the hiding High Council, where he lay the dead body in the center of the room. Optimus stated that the Autobots craved their guidance, but Alpha Trion stated that their mission was to choose the Primes, not to lead them. He then told him that Optimus himself is a Prime, and that he had changed the lives around him. Alpha then reveals the Matrix of Leadership, which Alpha Trion had kept safe since Zeta left to face Megatron. He took this burden and accepted responsibility, it was relinquished and installed inside Optimus' chest. Reformatted into a new body, he has now became Optimus *Prime*, the last Prime and new leader of the Autobots.

#### During the War

At some point after receiving the Matrix, Optimus learned to live with the pressures that came from the responsibilities of leadership, even coming to respect this personal burden. During the great war, Optimus led an operation to capture the Decepticon spy Overburn. During the war, Optimus encountered Skyquake at the Battle of Technahar when the Decepticon was sent by Megatron to kill him.

As the war escalated, Optimus was captured by the notorious Shadow Striker who stashed him in an Energon warehouse. Before he could delivered, Optimus was rescued by Bumblebee and brought back to Autobot territory. Another adventure sometime later, Optimus and Bumblebee were being pursued by Starscream, Thundercracker and Nova Storm. After a short battle in the Grand Imperium resulting in the Seekers retreating, Optimus personally carry a wounded Prowl across a battlefield.

After learning that the Decepticons sought to use Vector Sigma to reprogram the AllSpark, the Autobots planned to keep the artifact out of Megatron's reach by sending it through a Space Bridge. Though the Decepticons put up a fierce fight, the Autobots ultimately succeeded in their goal, Decepticon firepower caused the Space Bridge to collapse after the AllSpark was sent through, sending it to parts unknown.

#### Preparing Departure

Over the following five million years of war of attrition on Cybertron’s current state, which resulted in countless casualties and left the Core of Cybertron itself poisoned, Cybertron was drained of almost all of its energy. Optimus reflected on how he had failed to account for the debilitating effects that the AllSpark's absence would have on Cybertron. This confirms the only solution was Alpha Trion and the Council are to shut down and reboot the core, which would take millions of years, during which the planet would be unusable, and Optimus realized the mistake he'd made in launching the artifact, the Autobots would have to leave their home.

In order to continue the fight, Optimus ordered the construction of a new *Vanguard*-class vessel so that the AllSpark could be located and retrieved.

When the *Ark* was completed, it launched from Iacon. Among the Autobots joining him was Bumblebee, who shared a heartfelt goodbye with Windblade before Optimus called him to the ship. Loading his best and brightest aboard a huge spacecraft, Optimus was stopped by a cry from Elita-1, who came running up to the launch platform and was intent on joining him on the mission. Optimus told her that he would return for her as soon as he could, but Elita was intent on joining Prime on the mission. No debate was to be had, however, as a Decepticon attack on the platform caused an explosion that seemingly destroyed Elita. Crestfallen, Prime boarded the spacecraft and ordered a take-off.

During their travels, the Autobots' spacecraft had a troubled flight. After navigating a treacherous asteroid field, the ship was caught up by Decepticons in a *Decepticon space cruiser* that had been shadowing them, under the command of Megatron himself.

## External links

* Optimus Prime *Wikipedia*
* Optimus Prime *Teletraan 1: The Transformers Wiki*
* Optimus Prime *Transformers Wiki*