| Cartoon Overview
MEGATRON is a fierce, unyielding despot who sees himself as a freedom fighter. He sees the DECEPTICONS as an oppressed race suffering under the tyranny of the AUTOBOTS. The DECEPTICONS must survive by any means necessary. He takes extreme pleasure in the suffering of even a single Autobot. And MEGATRON does not care at all for the collateral damage known as humans who might happen to stand in his way. He has the zeal of a fanatic and demands the unquestioning loyalty of those who serve him.
Unfortunately he did not get it, as Starscream double-crossed him, planted a bomb on his back, and damaged as he was, he was knocked out of the Autobot ship and burned up entering Earth's atmosphere. His head (and presumably other components) were retrieved by a young Isaac Sumdac who retro engineered them into the basis of Earth's robots.
Megatron chose to reveal himself to Sumdac in episode 6, Blast from the Past. He presented himself as an Autobot who was separated from the others, and explained that Sumdac should not reveal his existence to the Autobots just yet - better to repair him first, he explained, then the Autobots would be more favourable to the fact that Sumdac had been hanging on to his head in secret all this time. He also explained away things like the Dinobot's flame breath and other modifications as his own attempts to develop systems for use in his eventual new body, claiming to have been over zealous. Megatron is deeply frustrated by his situation, though, and by the primitive technology, materials, and limited aid of Sumdac.
Megatron is extremely cautious, due to his current situation being a result of Starscream's betrayal, so when the Decepticons Lugnut and Blitzwing arrived on Earth, he monitored them until he was certain of their loyalties, only revealing himself to Lugnut due to Blitzwing's unstable personalities. He directed Lugnut with Blitzwing in tow to recover the Allspark to facilitate his resurrection. While they failed, Sari received a warning from her key and the Allspark, a warning that showed her key being used to restore the damaged Megatron and create his new body.
This warning eventually came true. Having once again contacted Lugnut, who with Blitzwing was able to recover the Key for Megatron, Megatron was finally able to restore his body. First, though, he was confronted by Starscream, who had tracked his communications with Lugnut. Starscream's love of gloating brought Megatron some time, so when Bumlebee charged in, Megatron was able to use the distraction to remotely control the machinery of Sumdac tower and remove Starscream and Bumblebee from the lab. With Bumblebee to keep Starscream occupied, and the other Decepticons delivering the Key, Megatron revealed his true nature to Isaac Sumdac as the Key's power restored and upgraded his body. Blasting free of Sumdac Tower to the horror of the Autobots and Starscream, Megatron was reborn!
Megatron's first order of business with his new body was to trash the Autobots. He effortlessly defeated Bulkhead, and even managed to defeat Prowl with little effort. Optimus Prime put up more of a fight, but Megatron was still able to defeat him quickly.
With the Autobots defeated, Megatron turned his attention to Starscream, who was unaware that Megatron knew of his deception. With the Allspark key, Megatron punched Starscream, overloading Starscream's systems and seemingly destroying him.
With Starscream dealt with, Megatron set off to claim the Allspark. With Blitzwing and Lugnut, he shot down the Ark. He then took on Optimus Prime for a second time, and again was able to defeat Optimus with minimal effort. The fight raged into the Ark's cargo hold, where Megatron took the Allspark and placed it within his chest next to his Spark. Isaac Sumdac attacked, using a device cobbled together from spare parts to try to bring Megatron to his knees, causing Megatron to drop the Allspark Key. Megatron was strong enough to overcome the effects of Sumdac's device, though. Optimus got up again, but was blasted up against a wall by a beam of pure energy from the Allspark. At the last moment, Sari threw the Allspark Key to Optimus, which Optimus used to deliver an Allspark powered punch of his own to Megatron's chest, shattering the Allspark, and inflicting extreme damage to Megatron. Defeated, Megatron landed on the banks of a river, with Isaac Sumdac in his hand, cruelly promising Isaac that their fates would remain intertwined for the immediate future.
In The Elite Guard, Megatron, who had repaired the damage he took at the end of Megatron Rising Part 2, had retreated with Blitzwing and Lugnut to a mine, where the carbon deposits shielded him from detection (the mine was probably the same one seen in Nature Calls). There Megatron laid out his plans for his next move. The Decepticons, he explained, lost the Great War because of two things, the Allspark and the Autobot Spacebridge. The Allspark was dispersed in Megatron Rising Part 2, so is no longer a factor. Megatron then revealed he downloaded partial schematics for the Spacebridge during one of his visits to the Autobot ship, and set Isaac Sumdac, his prisoner, to work on reverse engineering the specs. Also in The Elite Guard, Megatron learned that The Allspark was not completely gone, but shards of it were scattered throughout the city, and maybe even the world.
In Mission Accomplished, Megatron advanced his plan for the conquest of Cybertron. He had Lugnut and Blitzwing retrieve the Elite Guard's Tachyon Communicator from their ship so that Isaac Sumdac could engineer an intergalactic transmitter, which would allow Megatron to communicate with his Decepticon soldiers throughout the galaxy. His plan was to coordinate their attacks on the Autobots to make better use of them than "random acts of sabotage" so that he might draw the Autobot forces away from their homeworld, then use the Spacebridge that Sumdac is building to warp straight to Cybertron itself and seize it while the Autobots are still mainly offworld.
To Megatron's surprise, in that same episode Starscream reappeared. Although Megatron was sure that Starscream had been deactivated, he did not pause too long to ask questions before deactivating him a second time, and this time having Blitzwing make sure Starscream was truly offline. However, due to a fragment of the Allspark within Starscream, Starscream could not stay dead for long, and so he continued to reappear to plague Megatron, who effortlessly - and patiently - dispatched Starscream each time until he changed tactics and tried to lure Megatron into a trap. But Megatron was too smart and saw through the trap right away, and instead let the Autobots deal with Starscream.
Like many Megatrons in the past, this Megatron is a smooth talker. In Rise of the Constructicons, he talks the Constructicons into joining his cause over some extremely high grade oil (from his own personal supply) with a speech about the horrible oppression that the Decepticons have had to endure at the hands of the Autobots. His speech - and the quality of the oil - is enough to talk the Constructicons into joining him and the Spacebridge construction program he is running.
On learning that Starscream has escaped from captivity, Megatron put a massive bounty on his former lieutenant's head. He had little tolerance for the bizarre situation that unfolded when a pair of Starscream clones were delivered to him, with high explosive bombs inside them both, and so when Megatron raised the bounty after escaping the trap, he ordered anyone else hunting the bounty to ensure they got the right Starscream first.
Megatron himself made a rare appearance on the battlefield when he discovered he required Bulkhead to complete his Spacebridge. His utter ruthlessness was displayed when he took Bulkhead back to his base and threatened him with a Headmaster unit, and the knowledge that Megatron would use the Headmaster unit to make Bulkhead hurt all his friends.
Megatron's sheer ruthlessness was seen once more when he battled against Starscream and his clone army. Megatron was more than happy to let Optimus Prime fight back to back with him against the clones, because Megatron was already planning what to do with him next, grabbing Prime as a shield against the attacks from the clones.
Megatron showed his one weakness at the end of the fight, though - he acted rashly, giving away the identity of his agent on Cybertron, then placing Starscream's head in the Spacebridge power unit, overloading the Spacebridge. The effort cost him dearly, as Megatron was sucked into the out of control Spacebridge, and left adrift somewhere in space, with only Starscream's head for company.
In "Transwarped", Megatron and Starscream's head were found by Omega Supreme. Megatron convinced Omega Supreme not to execute him on the spot and instead deliver him to Cybertron to face justice. Omega accepted this and revealed his ability to transwarp without the need for a Spacebridge. This caused Omega to go into a sleep mode and allowed Megatron to free himself and take control of Omega. Megatron ordered the various Decepticons around the galaxy (including Strika's team) to stand down and await further orders, causing the other Decepticons to withdraw from the various Spoacebridges around the galaxy.
Megatron then took Omega Supreme to Earth where he attacked the Autobots out of spite. While Bumblebee and Bulkhead fought against the berserker Omega Supreme to cause a distraction, Optimus Prime and Prowl infiltrated Omega and attacked Megatron. Prowl fought Megatron in virtual reality and used his ninja training to call out to Omega Supreme, who drove Megatron out of his mainframe. Meanwhile, Optimus went servo to servo with Megatron himself, and fared better than previously due to Megatron having no weapons. However, Megatron still won, admitting he didn't even know Optimus Prime's name. Optimus is that far below Megatron's notice! In the end, though, Megatron was defeated by Starscream, who took control of Omega Supreme because Megatron had wired him into Omega's control console. Megatron tried to convince Starscream to join him as a lieutenant again, and in the process, he saved the day, because Starscream liked the sound of conquering Cybertron and left the Autobots, but not before Optimus Prime was able to plant a Spacebridge component on Omega to make him, with Megatron and Starscream inside, transwarp endlessly to random locations throughout the galaxy.
He has since been seen at the site of a battle between the Elite Guard and the Decepticons captured by Sentinel Prime, to pick up Lugnut who was left adrift in space following that battle. Once Lugnut fixed Omega Supreme so that he would no longer randomly transwarp across the galaxy, Megatron finally made it to Cybertron, when he picked up Shockwave, who had kidnapped Arcee and with her the access codes to take full control of Omega Supreme. The Decepticon force then transwarped once again, to Earth, in order to kick off their Endgame...
Megatron's plan, as revealed in "Endgame", was to recover Omega Supreme's activation codes to create three clones of Omega Supreme. Megatron once more proved his ruthlessness by using Starscream to help him create the clones, then destroying Starscream when his attempt to gain the activation codes failed and his use was at an end. Instead, Megatron shrewdly had the activation codes imprint upon Lugnut, whose loyalty to Megatron meant that the three "Lugnut Supremes" would be 100% loyal to Megatron. Megatron then set off for Earth with his new super warriors, intending to personally oversee the destruction of New Detroit.
Initially in the huge battle in "Endgame Part 2", Megatron views the battle from the comfort of a control room within one of the three Lugnut Supremes. He decides to make the first target of his attack on New Detroit Sumdac Tower, intent on destroying the monument to his fifty years of humiliation as a head in a lab. However, Optimus Prime - equipped with his rocket pack and the Magnus Hammer - is able to destroy Megatron's Lugnut Supreme, prompting Megatron to enter battle directly, facing off against Optimus Prime. During this confrontation Megatron finally acknowledges Optimus Prime's name, recognizing him as an enemy and not merely some annoying insect who keeps getting in his way. As Optimus and Megatron battle, the other Autobots head to the moon and break Lugnut's control over the Lugnut Supremes, causing them to activate a booby trap set by Starscream - the remaining Lugnut Supremes were rigged with bombs and primed to explode! In anger Megatron carried on attacking Optimus Prime even as the Lugnut Supremes got closer to exploding, in a "if I go down I'm taking you with me!" mindset. However, thanks to Prowl's heroic sacrifice, the exploding Lugnut Supreme was contained along with Megatron, and Megatron took incredible damage from the blast - although he was very much still online. He carried on the battle, managing to blast Optimus Prime in the back, however by now Megatron was weakening, and after one final attack from the Magnus Hammer, he lay defeated. He accepted his fate and told Optimus Prime to finish him off, but instead Optimus smashed Megatron's fusion cannon and took Megatron back to Cybertron, a prisoner.
Megatron's final appearance was in stasis cuffs, as Optimus Prime returned to Cybertron with him as a prisoner. This must have been the greatest defeat of all for Megatron - because although over the run of the series he had been variously reduced to a head in a lab, blown up, left floating in space and sent endlessly warping to random destinations, he had never before been captured by his hated enemies, the Autobots, until now.
Apparently, he is Swindle's best customer.
A version of Megatron also appeared in Soundwave's virtual reality in "Human Error". Unfortunately, this VR Megatron showed up just a bit too late - by the time he showed, Prowl had already worked out that it was not real, and using his Processor over Matter training, was able to warp reality, breaking out of Megatron's hand and slicing off Megatron's arm with a single chop (all this while Prowl was still in human form). If this was not humiliating enough, VR Megatron was then defeated when Optimus Prime (also only in human form) picked up Megatron's severed arm and used it to land a knockout blow on Megatron.
Powers and Abilities
MEGATRON begins the series with only one power: the power to lie and manipulate Sumdac to repair and reconstruct him. Over time, the MEGATRON head will develop into a powerful psychokinetic who can control any machine. While the Cybertronian minds are too advanced to succumb to this ability, MEGATRON can control virtually any robot on Earth and the automated plants that construct them. In addition to this power, MEGATRON’s eventual robot body will be equipped with an assortment of laser cannons, sonic missiles and pulse blasters.
By far Megatron's most devastating ability, though, as shown in episodes such as Mission Accomplished, is his shrewd military mind and mastery of battle tactics. Megatron's ability to devise and follow complicated battle plans to keep his enemies off balance will surely prove a threat not just to Optimus Prime or the Elite Guard, but to all Cybertronians who would stand in Megatron's way.
Vehicle Mode Appearance: Helicopter Gunship. Appearances
Transformers Animated
01 Transform and Roll Out Part 1
04 Home Is Where the Spark Is
06 Blast From the Past
08 Nanosec
10 Sound and Fury
11 Lost and Found
15 Megatron Rising Part One
16 Megatron Rising Part Two
17 The Elite Guard
19 Mission Accomplished
20 Garbage In Garbage Out
22 Rise of the Constructicons
23 A Fistful of Energon
24 S U V Society of Ultimate Villainy
25 Autoboot Camp
27 Sari No Ones Home
28 A Bridge Too Close Part One
29 A Bridge Too Close Part Two
30 Transwarped Part 1
31 Transwarped Part 2
32 Transwarped Part 3
37 Human Error Part 1
39 Decepticon Air
40 This is Why I Hate Machines
41 Endgame Part 1
42 Endgame Part 2
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After his head crashed on the Sumdac farm, Megatron was offline until Sari's key reactivated him. But even offline, Megatron was still partially aware, as The Arrival #1 showed - he was the silent witness to Isaac Sumdac's rise to fame and fortune.