Need I remind you that Prime has 5 MILLION YEARS OF EXPERIENCE? Plus, the Gundam had three different pilots in the anime; Amuro Ray, Sayla Mass and Ryu Jose, all pilots of different skill levels. Then again, Amuro is the most prominent pilot so they'd go by him, but since it's the ORIGINAL Gundam he'd be at a lower skill level than he was by the time of Zeta Gundam. Then there's the fact that, while Optimus Prime survived his injuries long enough to at least die in the infirmary, the Gundam was destroyed and not rebuilt. Also, Amuro went through severe PTSD after a certain battle against Zeon, which badly effected his willingness to fight, so who's to say that part of him isn't lingering? |
Optimus's experience: And? He has been fighting the same way for 5 million years. In fact, they were losing against the decepticons, which is why they had to resort to transforming and disguise themselves.
Pilots of the RX-78-2: Sayla mass only piloted for half of the episode, after which Amuro took over cause she could not pilot it. Ryu Jose is not even worth mentioning.
Amuro's skill: He was even better in the Zeta Gundam era, because he fought in grunt levels suits and still was very good. And you would have to take his peak skills from Char's Counterattack as reference.
Gundam's damage: It was a total loss, but all Gundams afterwards were built upon that original. Not just that, Amuro hit the limits of it about the time of the Solomon battle.
Amuro's state: Amuro was at his peak during CC. He wasn't having any issues then. His problems were not PTSD. He had guilt because he had killed Lalah when he wanted to finish Char. He held that against Char. And the rest of his disinterest in fighting pre Zeta is because he was unhappy with the federation. But you would have to look at his superior skills during CC.
