Connecting the Characters
I like making connections, especially between seemingly unrelated things. Or characters, in this case.
For instance, have you ever noticed how similar Fluttershy from the relatively new My Little Pony cartoon is to First Aid from Transformers (at least as I know him)? They both detest violence, are the kindest souls you’ll ever meet, and see the best in everyone. They are often seen as, treated, and at times even act like pushovers. They are hardly taken seriously. But endanger those they love, and they can be downright terrifying.
Will they ever actually hurt you? No. But when Fluttershy levels her stare and tells you are being an absolute jerk, it doesn’t matter. Same for Aid. The surprise factor adds to this effect. The Autobots and Decepticons expect Ratchet to brandish a wrench and chew them out. When First Aid does it’s terrifying.
Or take tfp Starscream in au’s where he turns Autobot and turning Damian Wayne (as I know him) into a respectable Robin. Both start out nasty: arrogant, prideful, viscous, violent, demons, attacking and trying to kill even the most long suffering characters and driving them up the wall.
But beneath all that is a person who just wants to be safe and loved (platonically). Who craves respect and the power to protect themselves from others. And someone, be it Optimus Prime or Batman, has to show them that hurting others the way they have been hurt is not the way to get what they truly want. And once they realize that, you can see the kindness, honor, and light that was within in them all along.
TFA Optimus and Steve Rogers. Both are obsessed with history, want to serve their country, and spend a several decades in hibernation beneath a large body of water. But seriously, their journeys are very similar.
Optimus wants to help people but gets kicked out of the Academy and told he’s not hero material. Steve is to sickly to join the army and gets rejected time and time again. Optimus finds the Allspark. Steve gets the super soldier serum. Both get told to sit tight and leave the heroics to somebody else (wait for the Elite Guard vs being an actor). They choose otherwise when the stakes are raised.