I thought it would be a good idea to air our memories of experiencing as kids the death of Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie and the near-death of Duke in G.I. Joe: The Movie. For those who don't know, movies were made of these two popular TV shows featuring Hasbro characters, and it was decided that Duke, one of the highest ranking and most popular members of the G. I. Joe team, was to be killed off. The people who made the decisions said that if Duke were to die, an analogous death should happen in Transformers, so the Autobot leader Optimus Prime was killed by the Decepticon leader Megatron. The Transformers movie was released in 1986 before the G.I. Joe movie. It was not successful enough, so the G.I. Joe movie ended up going direct to video. Furthermore, the death of Optimus Prime made grown boys cry in the theaters, and following complaints by parents, it was decided to make Duke survive. Trouble was, they had already animated his death: the Cobra emperor Serpentor threw a snake like a javelin at him, piercing him apparently through the heart. Rather than re-animate the scene, they added voiceover of Scarlett (a member of the Joes' team who was also his romantic interest) saying that he was in a coma and later voiceover from Doc (a medic) that he would be a-okay. In a Japanese release of the movie, however, it was not insinuated that e had survived.
My experience with the death of Optimus Prime: I was 6 at the time and a Transformer fan. I did not see the movie (in fact, I have not seen the whole movie, as I type this, I am finally downloading it onto my new external hard disk), but did see the trailer, in which it was strongly suggested that Prime would die. Then, suddenly, a new season started, in which there were all these new characters and a new futuristic-looking setting. Among the old characters I wasn't seeing was Optimus Prime. I was not too happy about this change and I missed the old stuff. In the new school year, a classmate told me Prime had died. I went into denial...until it couldn't be denied. Too bad, but in the end I ended up accepting it. Maybe a quarter year later, I was watching Transformers and got a pleasant surprise: the first episode of the miniseries "The Return of Optimus Prime" came on. Optimus Prime's body was found and, in the end, revived, becoming the Autobot leader again. But my pleasure was marred by my other favorite Transformer, Bumblebee, being rebuilt into "Goldbug", with a less attractive appearance. Later, I wrote and illustrated some of my own stories and comics about Transformers, which had their own storyline. In my universe IIRC, Optimus could have been repaired when he died, but Hot Rod/Rodimus had him blasted into space so that he could be the leader. I think I had Bumblebee go onto a body recovering expedition, and when Optimus was repaired, Rodimus was punished (I don't remember how).
Duke: I was older, 8 or 9, when I watched the G. I. Joe movie on TV. I got the impression that he had died. It was a dramatic scene, but not something that affected me like Optimus Prime, although in fact Duke was my favorite G. I. Joe. Maybe I was just used to the concept of one of the main characters dying, or maybe it wasn't completely clear to me if he had died or not. Anyway, when I watched it again later, I heard the line that Duke would be all right and that therefore he hadn't died. But I think it was all kind of confusing. I guess it goes to show how cheap it was to animate his death and then overdub it rather than just reanimating the scene.