The most Megatron needs as a backstory is simply his quote:

"Peace through tyranny."

He sees the only way to bring about peace is absolute control of his society with preference given to his military minions. He is facism incarnate. He doesn't need a FOX-movie Magento "how did he get there?" story. He just needs to be robot Hitler.

 

Honestly? I don't think he needs to be mysterious, because I think what he is is pretty straightforward. There are plenty of other villains in the lore that could be more mysterious.

He also doesn't need some overly sappy backstory to try and justify who he is, and why he does what he does. He lusts for total power and control by any means necessary, he uses lies, charisma, manipulation, fear and good old fashioned thuggery to get what he wants.

For a more mysterious antagonist you could look into characters like Lord Imperious Delirious, who's basically TF's equivalent of Ermac from Mortal Kombat, or hell, you can't get more mysterious and evil than the Quintessons.

 

It's always seemed to me that the villain has to be the more interesting deep character to make a series work. After all it's the villains motivations which move the story, often the heroes only real provocation is to stop the villains plan. Without Megatron there is no need for Optimus Prime.

 

It depends. I suppose characters don't need to have any realistic qualities to them in order to make them plausible. But then does that really make for an internally consistent story? Like, what Cybertronian in their right mind would follow someone whom is so mysterious that you don't know why he's doing the things he does? Half of the entire population(in some continuities) can't be that insane, can they?

If I want things to not draw me in, then sure. But I don't think Megatron should be "evil" just for the sake of it at all. I think he should be relatable. I think that he should be motivated by something and inspirational to his minions, even if it borderlines on madness to the Autobots.

This is JMO though, so meh.

 

The real world has plenty of examples of fascistic thought and its supporters vs other schools of thought.

I like the general idea of stagnant Autobot society with inequality and shortages --> Criminals, malcontents, and the disaffected form under Megatron's Decepticon uprising because might makes right is honestly a whole lot more fair than caste systems --> The 'New Autobot Ideology' takes form under Optimus Prime (where he came from can vary but he should 'rise to the occassion' not have a 'predestiny') as a rejection of old thinking and a libertarian-esque, peaceful counterpoint to Megatron's militant revolutionary ideals --> Now you've got Autobots and Decepticons at odds over how to move on from the old way, loyalists to the old guard, and regular civilian Transformers who don't want war they just wanna survive somehow.

That framework can be twisted and extrapolated in all sorts of ways that could keep things fresh, if writers really worked to keep things fresh. Megatron himself can be anyone from anywhere he's just gotta get real angry one day and start screaming at the heavens while the crowds around him grow....

 

Beast Machines did it best.

 

Yep. That guy was a monster, a malignant narcissist who reforged an entire planet in his name and committed atrocity after atrocity in the name of his own self-aggrandizement.

 

Just my two cents: just leave Megatron as an in your face antagonist which is a complicated mix of unrequited love for Cybertron's survival and fascism. What you see is what you get.

Leave the mysterious origins to the likes of Violen Jiger or Devil Z.

 

Both yes and no for me; one of my favorite parts of Transformer fiction is having the multiverse and all the different interpretations of characters that com with it. There are places for Megatrons who don’t even know Optimus’s name and for those who were once best friends with him. I’d be against all versions of him being completely mysterious, but I’d say the same thing about all of them being a well known entity.

I do somewhat disagree with mysterious being the opposite of being fleshed out. A mysterious character can be fully thought out from the start, but just have most of those details kept secret from the reader. I’d rather have the answers to mysteries be thought of beforehand because it often ends in disappointment when a big reveal is obviously written last second.

 

Beast Machines was not the best at anything.

 

You revived a three-month-old thread just to say that? Seriously?

 

Well, as long as this thread has been necro-posted....

If anyone wants "mysterious force of evil", I would say go with Unicron. As for Megatron, he's about as mysterious as a fusion-cannon blast to the faceplate at point-blank range.

 

I was about to say I think there are other Decepticon leaders that could pull off the mysterious factor better like perhaps Bludgeon or maybe Soundwave (especially Prime's since he keeps to himself alot) but yea, Megatron in Beast Machines is a better example. The show was not that great, but I can appreciate what they were trying to do with Megatron but I really think they should have held off revealing him in the series until later. It would have added to the "mysterious" behind the scenes puppet master type character.

 

I don’t think three months is all that long really. What’s the problem?

You’ve contributed zero to this thread today. You may not think much of my contribution, but it was more than yours.

 

I didn't feel a need to add anything else, because three posts up from yours is an old post of mine saying everything I needed to, back in July. As for contributions, your post was essentially a threadcrap, on a nearly four-month-old post, no less. I don't think you've got a leg to stand on here.

 

I would like to see a take on him like that. I can see him being more mysterious, calculating, rather than going on speeches and doing evil laughs. Just someone who has been around for a really long time, isn't known much about.

 

Thank you for your insightful and thought-provoking response.

 

TFA Megatron. Very enigmatic and powerful, and yet far from a boring villain.

Future Megatrons shld follow him

 

No.

 

What is necro posted?