RUINS OF CHILDHOOD is an excavation and recontextualisation of a childhood spent in the 20th Century.

Matrix Of Entitlement: Rodimus Prime.png

Originally posted October 10th, 2020

I was in the theater when Optimus Prime died. I had no chaperone and no moment to mourn as there was still 58 minutes of TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE to thrill through. So it wasn’t until they returned to their daily TV schedule that I even realized the Autobots would need a new leader. That leader wound up being a Winnebago named Rodimus Prime. And, as demonstrated by the discount bin at Kay Bee Toys, kids were not a fan.

The tv show responded with a Stan Bush backed two-parter entitled THE RETURN OF OPTIMUS PRIME. And while I was thrilled to have my hero back, something about his decommissioned replacement still lingered. Optimus inspired ideals for us to strive for but Rodimus unveiled something a little more immediate. It turned a key, sparked an ignition and steered me right past the exit for post-adolescence.

TURBO REVING YOUNG PUNK

Prior to being a leader, Rodimus was known as Hot Rod. And while more valiant Autobots prepared to retake their homeland, he joy-rode himself around Look-Out Mountain. In a term attributed to BACK TO THE FUTURE (but still applicable dur to a recent continuity cross-over) this Auto-brat-packer could be considered a slacker.

That’s not to say he didn’t have potential but he wasn’t actively protecting Autobot City until it was apparent that Autobot City was being attacked. He was brash and immature and showed the naiveté of his age.

“HOT ROD
Maybe the Matrix can stop it.

KUP
What do you know about it lad?

HOT ROD
I just got this feeling.”

I once read the back of a Zizek book and for the next week repeated the phrase “commodities in the dream state” to anyone in earshot. “I’ve just got this feeling” is pretty much that same psuedo-code of “I didn’t really look this up.”

TILL ALL ARE THIS ONE?

So how did this motor idling dropout obtain his exalted rank of Prime?

The Matrix Of Leadership, an ancient vessel of knowledge passed through each generation and contingent to the prophecy of a chosen Autobot lighting their darkest hour, literally fell into his hands.

He didn’t earn it like his predecessor Optimus Prime. Hot Rod fumbled into his Prime position because of where he was standing during this darkest hour. He happened to open the Matrix, it happened to destroy Unicorn and, in that moment of happenstance, any Autobot could have done so.

Its like how I became shift manager at a cafe house because I lived within walking distance during the blizzard of ’97. That’s not to discredit either of our skill sets, its just we were both forced into a position. And, due to the easy praise of “I knew you had potential” (or the disembodied paraphrase of “Arise Rodiumus Prime because you are the only one here”) we just kind of took it. Because that’s what everybody said to do.

CHANGE, CHANGE, NOT A GROWN-UP

As the smoke cleared from that Darkest Hour, Rodimus had to embrace this newly assigned maturity. It sort of helped that the third Cybertronian War was over. Likewise, the mid 90s were a pretty lucrative time for me to have a non-marketable skill. I’d go days between temp positions while still feeling like I was standing tall. But there was a lingering sensation we were both just slackers in disguise?

Rodimus was trying to be a leader, but in the shadow of the previous Prime. And that Prime was not only admired by soldiers on both sides but also countless 6th graders who already had him as their favorite transformable truck. They weren’t looking for a new Autobot leader so anything that was unique about Hot Rod dissipated as soon as he left adolescence.

I had to contend with the simliar fact that I was no longer living in a dorm room avoidinglaundry while sustaining myself on Jolt cola. Except that I pretty much was. It was my roommate, my co-workers and the contemporaries I graduated with that weren’t. They had somehow become inflicted with a maturity all due to that opened relic of a diploma.

THE BURDEN HARDEST TO BEAR

On the 27th episode of the third season, Rodimus Prime broke. And in my second Autumn out of college, I paralleled that thought.

He lashed out at the humans who said his protection damaged their surroundings while I balked at my parents when they pushed for insurance. In a headstrong response, he transformed and peeled out, I quit a full time job and we both crashed off the main road.

The accident dislodged the Matrix. He reverted to Hot Rod, I retreated to a cafe and, for a moment, we were free from burden. Free to think. I didn’t want to work a 9 to 5 job. And he didn’t want to lead the Autobots.

Hot Rod’s reprieve was short and, with the Matrix returned, he was once again Rodimus Prime. Only now he didn’t want to be a Prime. And that moment of clarity was complicated when he came face to face with his predecessor.

SURRENDER THE MATRIX

It took the plot device of a Hate Plague to finally bring Optimus back. And Rodimus wasn’t having it. Perhaps he felt judged by his mentor and doubted his own relevance. Or possibly it was the throbbing red infection of that previously mentioned Hate Plague. Regardless of reason, the two Primes squared off.

Optimus soon wrestled the Matrix from Rodimus but not to usurp his leadership. He took it to light a-… ahm… -nother darkest hour and eradicate this now thrice mentioned Hate Plague. And as the galaxy returned to normal, Optimus handed the now empty Matrix back to the no longer Rodimus.

“HOT ROD
The wisdom of the ancients... its lost.

OPTIMUS PRIME
It’s up to all of us to fill it again. With the wisdom we accumulate from this moment on.”

Optimus had broke the Matrix. And in its absence Hot Rod could finally break free. He didn’t have to be the “Prime” everyone expected because that prophecy was now empty.

My prophecy stated I would one day attend college and pursue a career based on that diploma. And while that’s a valiant road to put someone on, it wasn’t the route I wanted to take.

So when Hot Rod fell short of being a Prime, and was still embraced by the most Optimus of all Primes, I saw a “chosen one” could still choose otherwise. And that choice could be more than just some joyride to avoid doing the work.

-sigh-

Tim