#prime suspect

A ramble on my thoughts on the book.

As a reader-insert choose your own adventure book for kids it's a simple but fun romp where you meet all the Autobots and help (or attempt to help) them on the latest mystery with Optimus Prime being wanted by the police for a burglary of a rival company to Sumdac industries.

The path structure is meeting Optimus > Be taken to Autobot base > Search for clues what happened > Follow the clues to a warehouse > You, Sari and Optimus vs Blitzwing > Resolution as the team joins up with you.

It's a pretty basic book with the wish fulfillment of "what if you were also a little kid with Sari and helping/being rescued by the Autobots." It feels like an episode of the tv show which is what you want. All the characters feel pretty true to themselves with the exception of the antagonists Captain Farzone, who decides to shoot first and ask questions never, and Blitzwing.

As the big bad in the book Blitzwing has gained quite an upgrade from his show’s counterpart in terms of powers and presence. For the plot he has gained Holotech that can perfectly replicate Optimus, his powers, alt-mode and appearance. (Interesting to note that it’s not something that ever gets them mixed up beyond being briefly mistaken. Blitzwing makes no effort in acting like Optimus and is always described by the cruelty or anger in his eyes while disguised.)

Blitzwing’s normal powerset has also been changed as he doesn’t actually use his guns as his primary means of power but can summon frost (pg 48) and fire (pg 63) from his hands. Even making himself a slide of ice in thin air, ice armor (pg 85), ice-spike knuckles (pg 19), and his favorite, sending a fireball from his fists (pg 6, 53, 73). He can very easily deal with Optimus 1v1 and can put up a fight against the Autobots for a limited time. Blitzwing is basically turned into a melee fighter for the plot.

(That being said Optimus also gets some upgrades to his kit though they are more in line with his show counterpart)

One of the most drastic changes though on the whole is Blitzwing's personality however. While in the book he is explicitly referred to and clarified to have multiple personalities the author doesn't write them as different from each other. In the book Blitzwing is egotistical, sadistic, and mocking- ironically he's not actually depicted as crazy even when referred to as such in the text. All of them have similar way of speaking and usually only change what adjective is used to describe his expression (Cold/Fire/Mad).

Funny way to showcase this is a pun compilation, which Blitzwing makes a lot of.

Also have a bonus compilation of Optimus and Blitzwing interacting because I survive on crumbs ok let me have this:

Also with this I can actually answer what "Amend his programming" (pg 41) means. Optimus basically believes that Blitzwing can work past the Decepticon propaganda, it's more likely a figure of speech rather than literal. It is interesting that Optimus only says this when he personally takes Blitzwing down and not in any of the other endings which end more with a wink to the reader about needing their help in the future.

Day 115: Sam in Prime Suspect 1973

Stefanie Martini as Jane Tennison and Sam Reid as DI Len Bradfield