Optimus Prime's death was impactful and dramatic, but He-Man's was unceremonious nothing more than shock value?
It's all in the execution.
For Optimus, we see him go down after a brutal, gruesome fight against his lifelong nemesis, Megatron, and then we have a long, elaborate deathbed scene in which he more or less literally passes the "torch" - and not to his eventual successor, Hot Rod, but to Ultra Magnus. And even as he leaves both the show and us, the audience, 'until that day, when all are one', it is in a mixture of sadness and grief, but also hope for the future, as we are told the Matrix will choose another leader 'to light our darkest hour'.
Whereas in this show, it just kinda
happens; in the very first episode, He-Man is reduced to a burn mark on the ground, and the only person to show any reasonable amount of grief over that fact is Queen Marlena, Teela being apparently too upset that the people around her have stopped constantly telling her how amazing she is over such a triviality.
Regardless, I obviously can't speak for anyone else, but I for one never really hated Transformers: The Movie. I didn't like the fact that they killed Optimus and a whole bunch of others, but if you'd asked 7, 8 year old me what I had thought of it once I watched it all the way through, I'm pretty sure I would have told you I liked it.
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kuatorises (7467)
3 years ago
"For Optimus, we see him go down after a brutal, gruesome fight against his lifelong nemesis, Megatron, and then we have a long, elaborate deathbed scene in which he more or less literally passes the "torch" - and not to his eventual successor, Hot Rod, but to Ultra Magnus. And even as he leaves both the show and us, the audience, 'until that day, when all are one', it is in a mixture of sadness and grief, but also hope for the future, as we are told the Matrix will choose another leader 'to light our darkest hour'.
Whereas in this show, it just kinda happens; in the very first episode, He-Man is reduced to a burn mark on the ground, and the only person to show any reasonable amount of grief over that fact is Queen Marlena, Teela being apparently too upset that the people around her have stopped constantly telling her how amazing she is over such a triviality."
Optimus literally dies in the opening minutes of the movie, quite literally loses color (much like He-Man turning to ash) fighitng his life-long nemesis (much like He-Man). You didn't like it, that is perfectly fine, but these are VERY comparable scenarios.
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