#i think there's only about... one author who's written a semi idw esque optimus

[lord-squiggletits]

Mmm I think part of the reason I have such exacting standards for fic depiction of OP is because I’m more of a canon-typical writer than a continuity soup writer (and also because I love IDW Optimus specifically not necessarily just any version of him).... but also

The thing is that there’s something about the average fandom depiction of Optimus that... it’s not BAD or poorly written per se, but fanon OP often feels...less nuanced? Than he is in canon? I’m going to make a comparison between canon IDW OP and fanon OP not to say that people need to be canon compliant/write specifically IDW, but for the sake of having a canon version that I know a lot about to contrast with the general fanon of the character.

For example, the most immediate one that comes to mind is that “Optimus is stupid/a himbo” is a pretty common fanon take that isn’t technically wrong, you know? Many Optimi have himbo moments or make bad decisions, but like... there’s a difference between being a stupid himbo versus just making bad choices or having questionable beliefs. Again using IDW OP as an example, him putting blind faith in questionable people (Shockwave and Zeta) doesn’t mean that he has low intelligence, it just means that his faith/emotions/what have you can blind him to more objective evaluations of a situation. IDW OP wasn’t stupid, he knew that the government sucked and he wasn’t ‘a good guy,’ but he was also trying to balance between what seemed like the slightly less bad of two options. To call (IDW) OP stupid, as I see many people in fandom do, would be to imply an ignorance or lack of intelligence that simply isn’t there. There’s a difference between making bad decisions versus actually being stupid versus making a stupid decision in a sea of a bunch of really bad decisions.

And what about the points where Optimus isn’t stupid? For example, IDW Optimus is actually shown to be outright cunning in a few instances, such as when he makes Trypticon the embassy for Earth on Cybertron so that it will be considered politically neutral ground and Starscream (the then-ruler of Cybertron) would be unable to swoop in and claim the sparklings inside of Trypticon to use for his own ends. That’s savvy political thinking. That’s manipulation of a situation to make sure no one can interfere with what Optimus believes is the right course of action. An idiot wouldn’t be able to consider the political situation of two different planets and come up with a solution that continues Earth-Cybertronian diplomacy while also using legal precedent to keep a known power-hungry tyrant from abusing force/subterfuge to get what he wants.

So getting back to fanon, what I’m trying to get at is that few to no fandom depictions of Optimus give him as much nuance as canon versions like IDW do. Like, I’m sorry, but canon Optimus is just so much more interesting? I don’t want a boiled down version of Optimus that’s just “he’s dumb but nice and he’s a good person” or “he’s depressed but he’s nice and a good person.”

I want the Optimus who’s a good person that sometimes does good things, sometimes does bad things in pursuit of good ends, and sometimes even does bad things because he doesn’t know what else he can do. I want the Optimus who prefers peaceful solutions and stops other people from vengeful, punitive justice while also struggling with his own anger issues. I want the Optimus who might not be socio-politically savvy but knows that he just wants to help as many people as he can. I want the Optimus who sucks at picking the right people to trust but is also a tactical and political powerhouse. I want the Optimus who regrets the things he’s done but keeps doing things anyways (good, bad, or somewhere in between) because it’s simply what he has to do.

And I just don’t feel like I get that from any fandom depictions of Optimus I’ve read in this fandom. It feels to me as if the most popular takes on Optimus are the ones that simplify him rather than making him more complex. Or they try to erase his flaws and ugly sides, not realizing that those things are what make him a good character.