Skip to main content

transformers - Why does only Hot Rod get magically reformatted by the Matrix of Leadership?


Here is a compressed order of events in the Gen 1 continuity:



  • Orion Pax is heavily damaged/killed

  • Alpha Trion rebuilds Orion Pax into Optimus Prime, presumably giving him the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. It could be argued that the Matrix was partly responsible for the upgrade, but this is never stated one way or another.


  • Optimus Prime is heavily damaged, and in his last moments, gives the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus. No change is made to Optimus Prime

  • Ultra Magnus inserts the Matrix into his own chest, but receives no upgrade.

  • Ultra Magnus is temporarily destroyed, and the Matrix is stolen by Galvatron, who wears it as bling.

  • The Matrix activates during the Autobot's "Darkest Hour™" and Hot Rod is upgraded into Rodimus Prime.

  • In three instances in Season 3, Rodimus removes the Matrix and instantly reverts back to Hot Rod. When he reinserts the Matrix after the first two removals, he is instantly transformed back into Rodimus Prime. The third removal is permanent, and he remains as Hot Rod from then on.

  • Galvatron inserts the Matrix into his canon and only gets visions of Autobots. He recieves no reformatting/upgrade like Hot Rod. This could be hand-waved away arguing that the Matrix only works on Autobots.

  • Scourge inserts the Matrix into himself and has his power levels increased, but goes a bit insane. He receives no reformatting/upgrade like Hot Rod. This could be hand-waved away arguing that the Matrix only works on Autobots.

  • Optimus is revived twice (once as a sort of Zombie-Prime). In both cases, when he reinserts the Matrix, he receives no new reformatting/upgrade.


Additional Info




  • In Beast Wars, Optimus Primal



merges his spark with that of Gen 1 Optimus Prime. When he does so, he is upgraded into Optimal Optimus. When The sparks are split again, he reverts back to Optimus Primal. Only Sparks are mentioned here, with no mention of the Matrix being specifically transferred.



So, after all that...


Why is Hot Rod the only one that is magically reformatted when he inserts/removes the Autobot Matrix of Leadership?



Answer



Another alternative explanation is:



The Matrix itself chooses who becomes the Prime


The cartoon G1 continuity is a cobbled up mess, but if we fill in the gaps with info from the other, better explored, continuities and extrapolate from there then we realize that the Matrix is a religious/mystical relic as well as being a symbol of leadership. The rank of Prime is equal parts political, military and spiritual. He's not only the leader of the Autobots he is also something much deeper. Primes are not elected or assigned, they are chosen.


Optimus was chosen by the Matrix in the comics continuities, and was reformatted accordingly. Cartoon Optimus' status in this regard is a bit murky. We witness his reformatting from Orion Pax to Optimus, but there was no Matrix involved, or at least we never saw such an interaction (real world explanation: the concept of the Matrix hadn't been created yet). Though the fact that the Matrix worked for cartoon Optimus after his resurrection reinforce the idea that he was indeed a chosen Prime.


Ultra Magnus was assigned leadership of the Autobots by Optimus, but the Matrix never chose him. In fact, the Matrix showed no affinity towards him. It never glowed, or opened for Ultra Magnus and simply stayed in his chest compartment doing nothing but looking pretty.


Hot Rod on the other hand showed signs of Matrix affinity early on. It seemingly fell into his hands alone when Optimus dropped it. It glowed brilliantly when Hot Rod held it. And finally, not only did the Matrix open for Hot Rod it chose him as the new Prime, reformatting him into Rodimus Prime.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more