Can you really call a character a \u201chero\u201d if they once yelled \u201cGive me your face!\u201d at their enemy right before going all Ed Gein on them? Asking for Optimus Prime.<\/p>\n

The leader of the Autobots definitely started out as a good-guy robot in Michael Bay\u2019s 2007 live-action movie Transformers<\/em>. A common complaint thrown at the Optimus Prime of that film is that, in his quest for the all-powerful All Spark, he took the Autobot-Decepticon war to the streets of Mission City, risking countless human lives. But that decision was actually made by Josh Duhamel\u2019s Captain Lennox, and as soon as Optimus arrived on the scene, he tried to get the All Spark and lead the fight away from humans. He even offered to sacrifice his life and merge with the All Spark to destroy it \u2014 that\u2019s hero behavior right there. <\/p>\n

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\nIn space, no one can hear you scream \u2014 but that doesn’t stop an evil-doer from trying. This week, Polygon celebrates all forms of sci-fi villainy because someone has to (or else).
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And yet\u2026 even back then, there were some concerning things about Optimus Prime\u2019s behavior. <\/p>\n
For one, he allowed Bumblebee to be captured by Sector 7, sacrificing him to a shadowy, torture-happy government organization because he didn\u2019t want to risk losing the All Spark. And when OP gets informed about the death of his comrade Jazz, who was ripped in half <\/em>by Megatron, his reaction was little more than \u201cOh no! Anyway\u2026\u201d You can try and excuse this by saying that Optimus was fighting a war, which can desensitize people and robots alike. The problem, though, is that Optimus, an eternal veteran of the bloody<\/s> oily war for Cybertron, is always<\/em> in War Mode. And that makes some of the things he did in the live-action movies essentially war crimes.<\/p>\n
In the 2009 sequel Revenge of the Fallen,<\/em> the Autobots team up with humans to hunt down all remaining Decepticons on Earth, like Demolisher, who Prime executes with a point-blank headshot after <\/em>he\u2019d already been disabled and posed no threat. That had to contravene some kind of Robot Geneva Convention about POW. <\/p>\n
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Bleak<\/figcaption>Image: Paramount Pictures<\/cite><\/p>\n
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Throughout the film, all Optimus seems to care about is killing Decepticons, perhaps to go out in a blaze of glory after the All Spark was lost, taking with it any chance of saving Cybertron. And halfway through the film, he gets his wish, dying at the hands of Megatron.<\/p>\n
Later in Revenge of the Fallen<\/em>, Optimus is brought back to life with the Matrix of Leadership. Resurrections are often a tricky business. Sometimes, when things come back\u2026 they come back wrong. Add to that the fact that Optimus Prime was then augmented with parts from the Decepticon Jetfire (who supposedly changed sides, but still) and suddenly the scene of Optimus going all deli slicer on the face of the Fallen, the original Decepticon, makes a lot more sense.<\/p>\n
Optimus would continue down this dark path in the 2011 follow-up Dark of the Moon<\/em>, <\/em>where he\u2019s betrayed by his mentor Sentinel Prime, causing something inside him to just snap. In the very same movie, he allows Decepticons to stage an attack on Chicago that results in 1,300 deaths, all to prove that Decepticons are a threat to Earth. Sentinel actually accused Optimus of not prioritizing the needs of the many over the needs of the few (cute, since he was voiced by The Wrath of Khan<\/em>\u2019s Leonard Nimoy). But it\u2019s Optimus who was the real Number Cruncher of Doom in the movie, deciding that over a thousand innocent deaths was an acceptable sacrifice to save the rest of humanity. Although, you do have to wonder how much him getting to slaughter his enemies again factored into his decision\u2026<\/p>\n
In fact, when leading a counterattack on Chicago, Optimus doesn\u2019t give an inspiring speech like \u201cLet\u2019s save Earth\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s honor the sacrifice of those lost here,\u201d but rather says: \u201cWe will kill them all.\u201d Though that\u2019s not totally accurate, because Optimus doesn\u2019t \u201ckill\u201d Megatron in the movie. He performs a Mortal Kombat fatality on him by ripping off his head and spine.<\/p>\n
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