Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is the main protagonist from the Transformers franchise.

Overview
Optimus was the last born of the original Thirteen Transformers. His spark was the most like their progenitor Primus, its frequency nearly identical. He was the mediator and visionary of the group, passing among them all as a calm, inspiring, thoughtful, unifying and well-liked friend. It was his unique spark and his inspiring reassurance that "All are One" that allowed the Primes to rally and succeed in their battle against the Chaos Bringer Unicron. When tragedy at last ended the era of the Primes and brought forth the new race of lesser descendant Transformers he alone chose to be reborn in the Well of All Sparks as one of them, that he might know them and their needs more completely.

All memory of his past life gone, he took the name Orion Pax and sought his way like any other robot on the new world. Eventually, he found his place as a simple data clerk, satisfied with his job. He was always anxious of the inequality amongst Cybertronians and thus, after gaining inspiration from an outspoken gladiator named Megatron's call for an upheaval of Cybertron's society, took a stand to rid the oppressive caste system which hindered the freedom of all the sentient beings on Cybertron. Little did he realize that his instructor, the master archivist Alpha Trion, was also one of the Thirteen and knew of the secret within the data clerk. Once Pax and Megatron discovered they did not have as much in common as they once believed, the lowly data clerk was promoted by the High Council to be the next Prime. With the claiming of the Matrix of Leadership Orion Pax became Optimus Prime once more, regaining his memory and rising to lead his people.

Over the centuries, loss and war have led Optimus to appear stern and serious to most. But scratch the surface, and you'll find an individual who greatly cares for his fellow living beings, with a warmth and kindness his closest friends can rely on. You'll also find regret over the loss of a comrade to darkness, and the faintest glimmer of hope that he can be saved.

Personality
Optimus is kind, caring, selfless, serious, highly intelligent, calculating and wise. He has a strong sense of justice, honor and good morals. On the battlefield, he is a great fighter, leader and tactician. He can be cold and ruthless towards his enemies, but he also has a sense of compassion for enemies who were turned from the right path. Optimus is very mature, calm, level-headed and patient, as he rarely loses his temper. Despite humanity's primitive state compared to his own race, Optimus often defends them by arguing that he sees their potential to be better rather than focusing on their flaws (even if this faith experienced some knocks after humanity rejected the Autobots following the destruction of Chicago). His affection for humans has also been shown in his admiration of them; when introduced to Buzz Aldrin, one of the first human beings to set foot on Earth's moon, Optimus accepted the astronaut referring to them both as space travelers despite his far greater time in space, acknowledging it as an honor to meet the man who had done so much by humanity's standards before they officially began collaborating with the Autobots.

Abilities
As the last of the Primes, Optimus is one of the most, if not the most powerful cybertronian.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant: Optimus is shown to be an exceptionally formidable hand-to-hand combatant. In fact, the only ones that have been able to defeat him in combat are Megatron, Sentinel Primeand Lockdown (and most of Megatron's victories were caused because Optimus was already worn down after fighting someone else where Megatron entered the battle fairly fresh).
 * Master swordsman: Optimus is shown to be a formidable swordsman. He was able to kill Megatron with only an arm and a battle axe within 15 seconds as shown is the third movie. Optimus Prime was also able to decapitate the drillerbot with his dual energon swords in the third movie.
 * Master marksman: Although he prefers hand-to-hand combat, Optimus is extremely proficient in the use of firearms.
 * Master tactician: Optimus is shown to be a master tactician.
 * Master leader: Optimus is shown to be a great leader.
 * Expert driver: Optimus is shown to be an expert driver in vehicle mode. In the first movie, he was able to do a swift u-turn, while driving at a high speed and in the third movie, he was able to tranform at a high speed in mid-air even with a trailer attached to him.
 * Cybertronian strength: Optimus is shown to be strong compared to that of an average cybertronian. He was able to take down Shockwave with ease in the third movie. He is capable of lifting over 2,000 tons.
 * Cybertronian speed: Optimus is shown to be a fast compared to that of an average cybertronian. He was shown to outrun helicopters in the first film and was able to outrun Sentinal Prime when Sentinal was in vehicle mode, as shown in the third film.
 * Healing Factor: Optimus Prime has an enhanced healing factor, in the second movie, a badly damaged Optimus Prime was healing during the time Jetfire's parts were combining with Optimus.
 * Invincibility: Optimus Prime has the matrix of leadership inside his chest. As long as it stays there, Optimus Prime has invincibility. He was able to survive a sword through the chest from Lockdown in the fourth movie.

Trivia

 * Exodus and War for Cybertron are different continuities within the same "continuity family", so their difference on Optimus Prime's pre-Prime name is not a real contradiction in and of itself. However Hasbro's online timeline—meant as prequel to War for Cybertron—refers to Optimus's pre-Prime name as "Orion Pax" like Exodus. To confuse matters even more, in IDW Publishing's War for Cybertron comic, Alex Irvine, in adapting scenes from his novel, still keeps the character's name as "Orion Pax", when it is also meant to occur prior the game's events. Also, Fall of Cybertron, the sequel to War for Cybertron, uses the name "Orion Pax".
 * Optimus is rather forgetful in Exodus. Alpha Trion tells him twice that he had suggested to the High Council that Orion might be the Prime foretold in the Covenant of Primus. Then he tells Jetfire that the Core told him of Project Generation One, when it was a contingency plan Trion told him about, put in place since the Breaking of the Primes. Then again, leading an army for thousands or millions of years may place a strain on a bot's memory servers.
 * Optimus's CG model underwent modifications between "Darkness Rising" and the first season proper, with his chest windows lowered somewhat during scenes when he is not in battle.
 * Optimus Prime's truck mode in Fall of Cybertron is described by High Moon Studios principal artist Mike Brown as a "fist with wheels attached to it."
 * At BotCon 2012, High Moon Studios stated that "Optimus Prime's weapon" was designed to look like an earlier version of the rifles he wields in the Transformers: Prime television series.
 * Optimus Prime's body parts are available to use in The Hub website's Vector Sigma Bot Builder online game. Normally, you cannot configure a generic 'bot using all Optimus Prime parts, but you can see what one would look like at right through the magic of Photoshop.
 * Optimus' appearance after being repaired by the Forge of Solus Prime is fairly reminiscent of Optimus' "Super Mode" appearance in the Transformers: Cybertron cartoon, especially in regards to the wings, and how he holds his blaster in the show, slung under his hand.