As funny as this panel is, it’s actually somewhat sad, because recurring situations like this are a huge part of why Rodimus behaves the way he does.
Not only does he compare himself constantly to Optimus and to the general concept of being a Prime and what that “should be” and how Primes are “supposed to be”, everyone else compares him to Optimus, too. They were both Primes, and nobody ever thinks beyond that one, dazzling, blinding point of similarity.
Rodimus is constantly dismissed, ignored, called out for doing questionable or overly-flashy or loud things, for making mistakes– For distorting the popular image of what a Prime, or ex-Prime, is supposed to be like.
So he’s up against actual legend and folklore, social expectations, and direct comparison to someone who has centuries more experience and is a completely different type of person, who has lived under completely different circumstances, who has had actual formal mentors and guidance…
But nobody cares that the comparison between Rodimus and Optimus is totally fundamentally impossible and unfair to make, because again, the Prime title means so many things to so many people, the idea of a Prime and what that should be and how that should work, is so legendary that it’s impossible to reconcile.
And Optimus is a living Prime, fresh in the minds of everyone, so much the image of wartime leader and a near religious figure to their entire faction. When it got handed off to Rodimus, there was no way he could possibly live up to that.
He was more valued as Hot Rod than as a Prime by most if not everyone he regularly interacts with.
When he was Hot Rod, it was fine for him to be playful and goofy and touch-focused and loud and make brash decisions. It’s just how he is, he’s high energy as a person all around to the point that his actual frame is designed for motion and speed, and for the most part he never actually messes something up beyond saving even when the decision wasn’t really the best one to make. He makes mistakes, and he goes and tries his best to fix them. He’s not perfect the way Optimus seems to be, to Rodimus himself or to anyone else.
So when he suddenly becomes a Prime, he tries to fix the situation. By picking up the pieces, trying to be the best leader he can be, when he never received any of the preparation or training, had zero notice, had zero actual support from anyone– He still tried.
Rodimus has excellent traits for leadership, foremost being perseverance.
He doesn’t give up, even when he screws up monumentally, or when shit has really gone wrong, or when odds look insurmountable, or when hard decisions have to be made, or when he wants to give up. He doesn’t.
And when we see him as Captain of the Lost Light, it’s almost as if he’s willingly being a half-assed Captain, because he’s surrounded his command with notoriously experienced and competent people (Ultra Magnus and Drift), and experience and competence were the two things he was always raked over the coals by everyone else about. He was questioned so much that he questions himself, but actually, instead of questioning himself, he seems to just try to Rodimus-proof his own mission.
Which of course, leads to mistakes anyway.
When he takes the advice of others because he doubts himself too much? It’s bad advice. Listening to Prowl was a mistake.
He’s hurt when he finds out there was a mutiny plot against him, but he wasn’t surprised.
He hates being called Hot Rod, likely because it reminds him of all the friendliness that disappeared from his casual interactions with others once he became a Prime, and he is a friendly person. It hurts when your friends who used to mess with you are now genuinely questioning and grilling you and above anything else, doubting you… And then afterwards? Everyone just ignores him. It never went back to friendliness, those relationships were nearly all lost.
Rodimus doesn’t like himself, and the way others treat him feeds into that constantly. He is always dismissed, ignored, pushed aside, or sometimes even outright belittled. His experience, comments, and ideas are, generally, not respected even when he is in a significant role of involvement.
He hates himself so much that he’s almost obsessed with himself; The Rod Pod and the Rodimus Stars in MTMTE are great examples. Other people just see it as being self-absorbed for the sake of being self-absorbed, but I feel like Rodimus does that kind of stuff because he wants to reassure others and pretend like he’s fine, like he’s confident in a way that he’s not, and it works. It works way too well.
Nobody values him for his strengths and they overly focus on his flaws or errors; Even in MTMTE, I think he’s complimented maybe twice on his people skills/friendliness and his desire to genuinely do good for other people. One of those times, it is a begrudgingly given compliment.
And that’s it.
People look at him and think he’s just a loud dumbass who acts before he thinks and makes for an incompetent Prime.
Optimus got people through a war, sure. And that’s not insignificant.
Optimus is a great at managing wartime. Strategy, tactics, battle plans, the classic beloved romanticised leader. A cult of personality, a figure to his bots.
And Rodimus isn’t the kind of bot who does that particular type of leadership very well.
But Rodimus is better for dealing with the actual effect of that war on people; He saw people hurting while he himself was hurting, and made the rash decision to say fuck it and follow a legendary story into deep space with a bunch of fellow disillusioned, messed up people, and by the end of it, those people felt better.
Rodimus is a good leader, he’s just been expected to be a kind of leader that he’s not. But when he goes off and does his own thing? The road is long and winding, but he will get to the finish line one way or another, even if it’s not the way he was expected to do it, even if nobody else would have done it that way.
Wartime leaders and peacetime leaders require very different approaches and personalities.
Some people say Roddy didn’t deserve the Matrix. I think he just got the Matrix a little too early in the timeline of events.
I haven’t slept in like two days, so this is the best I got for now, but I have serious Rodimus thoughts.
