Can’t sleep? Me neither.

Welcome to my Ted Talk: Why Hot Rod is the greatest villain in Transformers history.

1/Hot Rod has a super badass car mode, forearm guns and clearly is the only Autobot under the human equivalent of 30 other than Blurr or Arcee.

Springer is a creepy 40yr old dude and you know it.

But despite seeming awesome, Hot Rod turns into a giant mass murderer.

2/When Autobot City is attacked, it’s Hot Rod flexing (presumably for Arcee because it’s clear they’re into each other) that gets Optimus Prime killed.

This traumatizes millions of children IRL, including young (and current) me.

3/If Hot Rod hadn’t done this, Megatron would be dead and Optimus could’ve continued single handedly destroying all the Decepticons.

There would’ve been peace in the universe.

4/And if Megatron is defeated at that point, he can’t become Galvatron and help lead Unicron to murdering entire planets. And a whole bunch of Cybertronians too.

5/And don’t forget that Ultra Magnus has to be traumatized. Dude already was clearly called “Bootleg Optimus” behind his back and suffered from some serious emotional trauma.

But dumb Hot Rod let Magnus think he MIGHT be worthy of the Matrix only to learn he’s not by dying.

6/And Hot Rod rubs it in everyone’s faces by becoming the Chosen One, AKA Rodimus Prime.

And hey, people mess up. Maybe we could forgive him for creating the circumstances that led to billions of deaths in 90 minute movie.

But it gets worse.

7/In his first year as leader of the Autobots, Rodimus lets Cobra Commander’s agents commandeer the bodies of Autobots.

So now Cobra knows how Transformers work. And the Commander gets away with Rodimus none the wiser.

8/Soon he also allows the corpse of Optimus Prime to be reanimated as a zombie by the Quintessons.

Nice job.

9/And then Rodimus bungles handling that zombie corpse so badly that it returns to Earth with a hate plague that spreads across the universe.

Presumably killing trillions more.

At this point, Galvatron was probably mad that Rodimus was a more effective bad guy.

10/But now to save the universe, all the power of The Matrix of Leadership must be used up to cure the plague. So the Autobots lose the collective wisdom of their great leaders because Rodimus messed up again.

11/So Optimus returns but because Galvatron exists as a result of Hot Rod’s actions, now the Decepticons head to Nebulos and enslave the planet.

Remember, if Megatron had died this never would’ve happened.

So now the Autobots gotta liberate the planet.

12/So, in conclusion, Hot Rod’s actions lead directly to the death and suffering of trillions.

13/Now fully awake, I only vaguely remember writing this thread. Huh.

14/I’m actually a big fan of the idea behind the introduction and elevation of Hot Rod into Rodimus. I think both designs are mint.

But the show did Rodimus no favors.

Still, if he’s the character you love, that’s awesome. I’m all for Beachcomber. No judgement here.

15/I’ve been informed that Rodimus Prime is somehow even worse in the Japanese Animation continuity. https://twitter.com/scotty__p/status/1107635451555389440?s=21

16/I should say that Rodimus in the IDW comics is awesome...but I stand by my take on animation Rodimus.

Even as mortal enemies like @spencre seek to debate this stone cold fact.

17/You might think I dislike Hot Rod but I respect him in the same way I respect all great fictional villains.

Someone’s gotta be the bad guy.

And I’m buying this figure as soon as I can! https://twitter.com/TFU_INFO/status/1316772012816203781

18/ Hello new followers who presumably read about my upcoming career change and/or the incredibly kind words from so many people.

Read this thread to learn the truth about Transformers that other fans like @Marcdachamp are now learning to accept:

Hot Rod is the bad guy.