Here's a thought. How might YOU (anyone) go about putting together a Binder of Revelation that aligns the various brand directions over the years and folds non-G1 character and narrative elements into a G1 core? (Let's say that direction is what the brand/company wants, rather than something all-new or something built around Botbots) Who would be on, say, your five-person (you not included) for doing that?
Beast Era- keep sparks, the afterlife, protoforms.
RiD- Optimus and Ultra Magnus being bros, I'd toss in Delta Magnus too.
UT- Minicons, Unicron as this Lovecraftian creature feeding on hatred and fear.
Movies- Sentinel as a guy who will do whatever it takes to save Cybertron, creates conflict with Optimus. Bumblebee and Spike/Sam's friendship.
Animated- Lockdown, Lugnut, Old Man Ratchet. "Decepticons, transform and rise up!"
Aligned/IDW/all the rest-
Megatron as a power hungry bully, but he's smart enough to know "just let me be in charge" isn't a selling point in and of itself. Rallies everyone to his side with enough vague ideology to justify violence. Keep the "political allegory" people like to go with, for Megs these days but flip it from "underclass revolutionary" to "fascist opportunist" to sidestep the morally grey sludge that could drag down IDW's narrative.
That's even if you wanted to get that deep. Just making Megatron a tyrant who goes on about might making right and survival of the fittest as he's being a baddie can work in that dynamic if you want to dial back the heavy political stuff.
One more idea... a deep Sunbow pull. How about we go back to the Autobots and Decepticons being separate societies/social groups instead of political factions? It's a dynamic that's fallen by the wayside as political allegory got popular but hear me out.
Thirteen Primes, doing demigod societal founder stuff. The Fallen goes rogue. The followers of the remaining Twelve form the Autobots, inherit the Matrix from Prima.
The followers of the Fallen become the Decepticons led by various warlords.
The two sides live side by side in tense peace but conflict flares up now and then. But then Megatron shows up, assassinates his rival leaders amongst the various Decepticon factions, unifies them, and starts the Great War.
Animated Sentinel was entertaining, but he only happened because Hasbro didn't want his character given to Rodimus. Which, now that I think about it, feels kind of like we dodged another "anti-Rodimus" bullet, as in Animated was originally going to add to the Rodimus hate train before Hasbro stepped in and made Optimus's jerk rival be Sentinel instead. Which, if that's the case, then phew!
Animated Sentinel is fun, but part of what makes him fun is that he's not overtly villainous. He's an Autobot through and through. He's just a massive jerk.
Though I'll maintain that had that been Rodimus (assuming it's a character name and model change and nothing else) I think it would have been well received. That character, as I said, is fun! And I don't think Jerk Rodimus would have been rejected if he'd been fun.
My evidence is how popular Roberts' MtMtE/Lost Light run is. Rodimus is a buffon in that.
He gets played into changing his name to "Rodimus" by Swindle who's clearly using him.
He has an over-inflated sense of his own importance, thinking he's on some crusade to return his people to glory, when his own crew jokes about how little progress they've made towards their stated goal of finding the Knights.
Selfishly gets Chromedome to engage in addictive and self-destructive behaviour to further his own goals. Gets punched out by Chromedome's husband for this (who is half his size).
Flies around in a personal ship that looks like his own head yelling "'TIL ALL ARE ONE!"
IDW1 Rodimus is a total dweeb! He's popular though because Roberts made him a fun dweeb.
The issue with the Deviations comic wasn't that they did a comic where Hot Rod was lame. IDW was already doing that to critical acclaim. Deviations sucked because it was just so mean spirited. Hot Rod is told he sucks at every opportunity and Eastman has all the storytelling chops of a hyperactive seven year old recounting an episode of Power Rangers after snorting pixie sticks.
But Roberts proved "Hot Rod is a jerk/kinda sucks" can be fun and accepted if he's written well. Animated Sentinel certainly was written well... so had that been Rodimus? I think it would have gone over just fine.
