ok this might be a surface level ass take but does anyone else think hot rod and mirage shouldve been swapped around in the specials.. it feels like their personalities and roles wouldve fit better if theyd been swapped
I've been thinking about this, and I've seen a few people express similar sentiments, and I have to say while I understand where it's coming from based on previous versions of Hot Rod, I disagree.
I think having Hot Rod be the one who ended up joining Liege Maximo and the Cons is extremely telling of just how bad shit got on Cybertron during the 15+ years after the space bridge was destroyed. Knowing that he is usually a happy-go-lucky character, a character whose heart is in the right place but sometimes tries to avoid responsibility, and then seeing him so broken and tired and defeated. To me, that is so impactful. And we, as the viewers, knowing that Hot Rod is Optimus' successor, gives it an extra layer of ouch.
I can see the argument with respect to Mirage and his more recent characterization, but I can also see why they wanted to use Mirage in this instance as the second character because of his outlier abilities. I also think that some of his humor might have been a defense mechanism.
I'd like to think their choices were intentional beyond the surface level, but I'm probably reading way more into this than the writers gave any thought to.
you know thats actually a great pointーi was focused too much on mirage to pay much attention to hot rod haha (whoops) but now that you bring it up, that would actually make sense .. makes hot rod a lot more enjoyable too, viewing him as someone whos given up makes it a lot more interesting!!
