User:Marshlashl/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Optimus Prime

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Optimus Prime is one of my favorite fictional characters, and his longtime voice actor Peter Cullen is a personal hero of mine who I had the pleasure to meet at a convention back in March. As Optimus is the face of the Transformers brand, I think it is important that such a prominent character and overall cornerstone of pop culture have an updated Wikipedia page for old and new fans alike. This is especially important because it appears that many pieces of the page, particularly the "Animated character biography" and the "Comics" section, have not been updated with information about the different Optimuses of the last few years. Some sections also have far more unnecessary information than others, so either information can be removed or more information can be added to the other sections to rebalance the article's focus.

Evaluate the article
Lead section

The lead section has a clear and concise opening sentence that fulfills all the requirements listed above: it introduces the character (Optimus Prime), the character's franchise and status (primary protagonist of the Transformers franchise), and also includes the character's original name (Convoy in Japan). The lead does not include an actual brief description of the major sections, though the information present (the original toy's history, Optimus's basic in-universe biography, and the voice actors who have portrayed Optimus throughout the franchise) factor heavily into the article's content. One area of potential criticism is that the history of the original toy and its transition into Optimus are not featured until the end of the article; placing those sentences right after the opening sentence might give the impression that it would be featured earlier as well.

Content

The article's content includes character biographies for the different versions of Optimus Prime showcased throughout the franchise's 40-year history, his appearances in comic continuities and video games, a brief overview of several major Optimus toys, and a specific section dedicated to the Optimus from the live-action movie series. All of this is indeed relevant to the content, but not everything is up-to-date or as equally represented as it could be.

For example, the section detailing Optimus as he appeared in the original Generation 1 (G1) cartoon is far longer than the other sections, and although parts of it do concisely summarize his in-universe character history and biography, there are some places where it can be trimmed down. In contrast, the sections dedicated to the Optimuses from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (also known as RID2001), the Unicron Trilogy, Transformers: Animated, and the "Aligned Continuity" consisting of the shows Transformers Prime and Transformers: Robots in Disguise (also known as RID2015) have very little substantive information. Information about the newer shows, including RID2015, Transformers: Cyberverse, and Transformers: Earthspark, is completely missing. Similarly, the voice actors section is also missing information about who voiced the Optimuses from the newer Transformers shows, as well as slightly more information about the other voice actors already listed.

The Comics section details Optimus' appearances in the three major comic continuities published by Marvel Comics, Dreamwave Productions, and IDW Publishing, and there is quite a bit of information missing on the IDW section. IDW held the Transformers license for almost 15 years and produced two separate comic continuities and a whole host of comic crossover miniseries, but the article only provides information up until the 2010 The Transformers: Escalation miniseries.

The Video games section contains far too much summary about the various roles Optimus has played in video games, specifically the tie-in movie games surrounding the live-action films. In comparison, other video games like High Moon Studios' duology of War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron have only a short mention.

While it would be impossible to detail every single Optimus toy released in the 40 years of the Transformers brand, the information provided about the original 1984 Optimus toy is both relevant and concise, including its later rereleases during the 1990s and the short-lived Generation 2. Some of the other information is not relevant and unnecessary (including the full paragraph describing non-toy Optimus merchandise, including the Optimus-themed Mr. Potato Head), while others could use some updating, such as the release of MP-44 in 2019, a successor to MP-10 that more faithfully recreated Optimus' G1 cartoon appearance.

Finally, the content in the live-action films section is mostly clear and concise, although it requires updating to include the recently-released film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, in which Optimus played a prominent role.

Tone and Balance

The article is mostly written in a clear and neutral tone. As its main purpose is to provide objective information about a fictional character, there are not many opportunities to persuade the reader in favor of one viewpoint over another or to present "fringe" viewpoints. However, there are areas where the tone devolves into unnecessary summary as described above, and balance issues exist throughout where older Optimuses are given far more words and descriptions than newer versions of the character. I believe this counts as an issue of overrepresented vs. underrepresented viewpoints, but I'm not sure if this would also qualify as bias toward a particular position.

Sources and References

Most of the different pieces of media have some kind of source or citation attached to them, particularly the live-action film section. The initial descriptive character biography is rather general and, as such, has several "citation needed" notes at the end of each paragraph, but the other sections appear to have an appropriate amount of sources attached to them. None of the included sources are from peer-reviewed publications, but that is to be expected from an article discussing a children's toy and cartoon character. Looking at the source list, some of them appear to be interviews with people directly involved with Optimus and the larger Transformers franchise (voice actors, comic book writers, etc.), while others appear to be opinion pieces from gaming websites and fan-focused forums like TFW2005, so the reliability of the sources is mixed. The linked sources do indeed work; there are no broken links.

Organization and Writing Quality

As mentioned in the beginning, the article's organization does not entirely reflect the standard implied in the introductory paragraph and could use some reordering. Also as previously mentioned, the article devolves into unnecessary summary at several points in describing some of Optimus's appearances, so a more professional and simpler tone might be better for these areas. There are no major grammatical and spelling errors.

Images and Media

There are very few images in the article, most of which are stock art or photography of the various forms Optimus has taken in different media. The captions are simple but effective. There is no discernible visual appeal, but the images are correctly aligned with the section they represent. I do not know how to check the copyright regulations. I think that more images might be necessary to break up the larger walls of text – perhaps more key art of Optimus as he appeared in other animated series, or screenshots from the video games featuring Optimus.

Talk Page Discussion

The talk page contains very few conversations, most of which are short, 1-2 message criticisms or arguments that appear to have been resolved. Predictably, this article is part of the Transformers WikiProject, but it is also featured in the WikiProjects for Anime and manga, Toys, Comics, Film, Animation: American, and Fictional characters. It is designated as a C-class article in all listed WikiProjects, and is specifically noted to be a Top-importance article in the Transformers WikiProject.

Overall Impressions

Overall, this article does a good job providing a brief but approachable overview of Optimus as a character and toy, but there are several major edits that could be made to further increase its usability and readability. I would recommend reducing summary in some areas and adding more in others, specifically focusing on Optimuses that are not yet represented in the article. Information that is not necessary or relevant should be deleted, and more images would probably help to round out the article's overall completeness.