No preferance, really.

I like the Marvel US Megatron who was just a very powerful fighter and thus believed that he as the strongest had the right to rule everything. No real plans, no real strategy, no real political agenda... just pure physical strength and might makes right.

But I also like the IDW interpretation of Megatron as a thinker, a poet, who was forced to do hard manual labour just because he had an altmode suited for it. And thus he rebelled. First in words (Marx), when this didn't work he went for a revolution for all the right reason (Lenin) and then became dogmatic and violent while losing sight of the real purpose of it all (Stalin).

I also liked the approach of Megatron in Armada, Prime and Animated, who honestly were variants on this theme. And I can even like a Megatron who's just pure evil (like the Sunbow or movie Megatron), but although that is my less favourite version I still like it.

 

Evil all the way! Sympathy is for the weak!

 

Neither. I like the idea of him being a sincere villain. I want him to generally have evil motives, an evil personality, but I want to be able to root for him, too. Redeeming him doesn't really work for me now like it did when it was first introduced to his character. I think something along the lines of Armada Megatron is a good balance for me- someone who is never fully redeemed, but we get to see some genuine moments of emotion from him, some struggle, and even some hints of reflection on his part, without losing what's made him Megatron.

 

I prefer black and white good and evil. The evil villain being evil for no other reason than being superior and wanting to rule all and watching what crazy plan he comes up with next. I don't want to sympathize with the villain. I want to cheer for the heros and live my male power fantasy.

 

I'd say BW isnt entirely an "evil for no reason" villain. The predacons were kinda just randomly discriminated against by the maximal government for being decendants of the decepts. Now he did try to destroy the space time continum, the earth, the autobots, and also wiped out all of cybertron's population but...

Alternatively it would be cool to see Megatron as a government leader who uses his power in a straight up evil way by slowly taking away rights, making opressive laws, building up more power for himself, etc.; all while telling cybertron's population that its for their own good. The autobots would call out his "deception" (see what I did there?  ) and rise up to stop him. The decepticons would be the warbots that Megatron had built or indoctrinated into his own personal army.

 

On the other hand, Megs was the one making these claims, and given everything else about him, I wouldn't trust his word. He's shown to be a monster only interested in securing power for himself, and will happily toss aside his own troops the second he doesn't need them anymore. Whatever he says about the Predacons being oppressed and denied what they're owed is immediately suspect, since he otherwise shows no care for his fellow Preds.

 

I'd say the Predacons were "oppressed" in the same way the South was after the Civil War.

"I'll need you to take full responsibility for starting the war, disband your army, and let all your former slaves to vote."

"Help, help I'm being oppressed! The preds shall rise again!"

I really like your idea for Megatron.  

 

Seeing as his group is a rebel group within the preds, it's possible his actions dont actually represent the whole group so he might not be lying. He also tries to wipe out all of the organic robots on cybertron (including g1 Soundwave?) So his backstory could be bogus.

 

Yeah, I think his body type was used in BM as some random dude Nightscream was standing by. He's quite out of scale though.

 

He does turn into a tapedeck so maybe he finally was in scale!

 

For once, he was.

 

I voted Sympathetic cause other than BW/BM, Siege is my favorite Megatron. Then Prime Wars, Animated, and Micron Legend tied for 3rd.

But the idea of MEGATRON being the "Big Bad Government" and OPTIMUS leading the ragtag uprising sounds very interesting to me. Megatron could even be a younger "protege" to a Cybertronian Tyrant before ascending to power himself just in time for an Autobot Uprising.

 

Megatron could be the second in command and Terminus is the main leader who gets taken out of power (forced to step down by council, assassinated, resigns, etc.); only for Megatron to be even worse!

 

I always liked the idea that post-Great Reformatting Cybertronian society is actually very equal, but Megatron just cannot imagine a world where he is not one of the top dogs in the power structure, so he sees it as oppression.

 

Evil. This whole recent characteristic of him 'once being friends with Prime' is a total X-Men Charles/Xaviar rip off in my mind and totally cliché now.
Megatron is the Transformers equivalent of Hitler. There are plenty of other Decepticons commanders under him to do the story of a potentially good person just believing in the wrong thing.

 

No offense to you but that is a completely overplayed comparison. Literally every time a discussion about Megatron is posted, someone says that. What is hitler mainly known for doing? Compare that to Megatron. Not even close. Megatron is just wanting to conquer the world like Napoleon, Gangis Kahn, etc. Nothing to do with a (so called) "perfect race" or any of that hogwash. Also Megatron is a fictional alien robot that turns into a (gun/plane/tank/dragon/vehicle/youGetThe Idea) so his motives are intrinsically different from Hitler or really any other politician comparison.

 

I don't like pure-good vs. pure-evil characters, period. Everyone's character should be a shade of grey. I prefer a hint of something redeemable in Megatron as much as I'd like to see something other than the sickeningly noble-beyond-boring Optimus Prime.

I can think of very few people in real life that are close to one end of the spectrum or the other. In fact, I don't think anyone can be wholly altruistic or evil without also being insane.

 

Evil with perhaps some sympathetic origins

 

Megatron should start out as sympathetic (think IDW), but he should grow over the course of the war into a power-hungry megalomaniac (think G1, Unicron Trilogy, and Animated).

 

I'm not the greatest fan of evil-for-no-reason bad guys. It's just paper-thin characterization. That said, if I'm watching a cartoon for kids I don't necessarily want subtle shades of grey and a Megatron who truly believes he is fighting for (as he sees it) good. I'm happy with fighting-for-glory and fighting-for-the-love-of-it, or might-makes-right or pure expansionism and imperial conquest.

While evil-for-the-evulz can be funny, I don't think it works for Megatron; it's better-applied to more powerless characters (or at least ineffective) who can't actually wreck a planet. Likewise, punchclock-villain is OK for lower-ranked Decepticons, but I can't see any version of Megatron switching from pompous speeches of conquest and blasting things to sitting back with an energon sandwich and watching soap operas because he's off-shift.