TRANSFORMERS: THE BASICS on THE PRIMES

With POWER OF THE PRIMES on the way, it's time to get The Basics on the THIRTEEN, the original PRIMES of Cybertron... plus, just what IS a Prime, anyway?

Big thanks to Liam Shaloo for our new logo!

Chinese subtitles provided by Freccia Wu and LamAtek.

[rayray]

He may not be the wisest, the bravest, or the mightiest and far from the noblest. But Amazon Prime makes the most $$$ bar none

[TheUrDragon]

So you are telling me Optimus is basically robot Jesus?

[joshuapratt]

I'd always thought that Prime was a title. I remember reading a story once that Optimus never wanted to be a"leader" of any kind. He was a librarian and happy... Until the matrix of leadership chose him.
I always thought that was cool, like the mantal of leadership forced onto the unwilling hero. Optimus was humble.

[appleacc]

I love how Optimus disagrees that he’s the last prime, considering his look at Primus and Cybertronian religion, our humble leader. Till all are one

[guitarbow]

Imagine how disappointed Micronus must of been. The other 12 were masters of the cosmos while Micronus was basically the god of short people

[fireninja]

The first
The time traveler
The keeper
The blacksmith
The Minicon
The scientists
The combiner
The beast
The shifter
The progenitor
The liar
The fallen
The 13th

[annelise]

In Transformers Prime, Ratchet explains at some point that “on Cybertron no one isn't born for greatness, you have to earn it” in a context that involves Optimus backstory. I like that one the best, when it comes to the Prime title. That Primus has his eye out for someone special is a good idea too, but I imagine that special one still has to prove himself in some way. As in, he has to show he’s not only worthy, but that he is willing to take up on the responsibility being a Prime means.

[christophergovan]

I always felt sorry for megatronus, he’s definitely one of the more tragic characters in tf lore

[serbianslav]

Quintus Prime: *I created Quintessons as allies of Cybertronians.*
Quintessons: *lol no*

[justinmontana]

I don't mind Prime being a rank, personally, although I do like the Primes being a form of God to the Cybertronians

[alfflip]

"You think you were born? You were built! And they want you back."

[iMuscleO]

I’ve been a Transformers Fan since I was young, but to be honest, I only know the basic stuff of TF, not the bigger stuff. Now today, I’m now learning new stuff, things I never knew about TF and I’m glad I did now

[desty]

Basically, Optimus was the 13th prime who was reincarnated as Orian and then became Optimus Prime again.

[truexenith]

I for one like the idea of the Primes being nothing more than normal Cybertronians who were slowly revered and immortalized in mythology as history progressed.

[commanderwarden]

I love the fact that Optimus is the 13th Prime and apparently he was nown as the Prime of Wisdom and Knowledge. I might be wrong but I like how it turns out.

[KiropLokiIncarnate]

In regards to whether the Thirteenth/Arisen is actually Optimus and the limited story potential it creates when restricting who can be a Prime, I prefer to split the difference by drawing from some other people's interpretations.

So when the original Thirteen were creating the Well of All Sparks, each of them put a bit of their essence/power into it, giving the Allspark all the required coding/patterns to make pretty much any transformer with any combination of traits, like a female combiner beast minicon or whatever. But when it came for the Thirteenth to make his contribution, he realized it'd be incomplete/not what would be best, so he gave all of himself to the Allspark to make it truly infinite or living or perfect or whatever. This sacrifice did remove the uniting cornerstone of the Primes, causing them to fall to infighting, but it also imbued each new life created (so basically all transformers) with the potential/possibility to be a Prime. Thus, the Matrix of Leadership CAN work for any Cybertronian, but that bot will have to be emotionally/spiritually worthy to actually access its powers/wisdom. Optimus's only claim to fame is that Orion Pax's personality core/spark were the spitting image of the Thirteenth, so that's why the Matrix accepted him so readily and powered him up so much.

So basically, the comic is correct that Primes are 'born, not made', but in the sense that it's a personal journey of self discovery and understanding that makes a Prime, not a magical gift of power. This also makes the other non-Thirteen Primes like Rodimus, Sentinel, and Nova as 'legitimate' Primes, since they all were accepted by the Matrix of Leadership in varying degrees. Their only issue is how their own faults, history, and coding limited their grasp/control of the Matrix, which weakened the power and wisdom it could provide. This also solves the issue of whether Optimus actually EARNED the title or not- since pretty much any Cybertronian can access the powers of the Matrix to some degree, Optimus is viewed as the last 'True Prime' because he can access all of it.

[darkraiking]

Prime works well as both a military rank and title of messainic value. It makes sense that Cybertronians would take the esteemed title of their very first forbearers and bestow it on their shifting leaders. But then there would be the aspect of true Primes, chosen by the Matrix/All Spark itself like Optimus who are more than the coopted rank.

[windbladefromcaminus]

One question why does liege Maximo look like Loki the god of mischief.

[PartigradeCannon]

"That's just Prime"
"Or what's left of him, anyway."


I'm not a fan of the idea that Optimus was the 13th Prime. I preferred the idea that a Prime could be forged. That the Matrix of Leadership could bestow a Cybertronian with the divine mandate of a Prime and that it could also be taken away.

[sdm]

Revenge of the fallen: “originally there were 7 Primes”
Me: “Michael Bay? Can you not count to 13?”