(Uh, spoilers for Dark Cybertron, More Than Meets the Eye, and Lost Light, I guess.)

I've always been of two minds about the "redemption" of IDW 1.0's Megatron through More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light. On one hand, it allowed for one of the more complex and thoughtful portrayals of a Megatron in the franchise, as Megatron carries with him a genuine sense of remorse and earnestly wishes to redeem himself, at least in his own mind. I do think Roberts wrote Autobot Megatron generally quite well, especially in giving him his own voice (which was quite a feat for Roberts), which was complimented by Milne's excellent art that conveyed a lot of this Megatron's personality and inner conflict through body language and expression.

On the other hand... it's essentially a story about redeeming Hitler, in which Megatron has to, paraphrasing Bumblebee, "figure out that genocide is bad." It's a very hard pill to swallow that Megatron is even capable of feeling remorse, much less that anyone would forgive him or be okay with his presence. I think Roberts did a passable job of navigating disbelief here, but the ludicrous premise hangs over the entire story until the very end. Ultimately, the idea of a Megatron (especially IDW Megatron, with his largely sympathetic origin and frankly correct motives at the war's beginning) as a good guy is a compelling one and I'm happy it was explored, but it was always hampered by the whole "Megatron is a genocidal mass-murderer" thing.

My "fix" for this, in which we still get the "Megatron redemption" story that interrogates Megatron as a character and challenges the Autobots' willingness to forgive while avoiding the messy moral question of redeeming Megatron's heinous actions, is that during Dark Cybertron, Megatron doesn't just have a change of heart that spurs his redemption, but he loses his memories of the entire war, reverting his memories and personality back to his Chaos Theory-era self, before he had his "evil" turn.

Now, yes, convenient amnesia is not the most elegant of plot points, but I do think it could have worked, and worked better. The "how" could easily be worked into Shockwave's timey-wimey universe-breaking nonsense. Perhaps Megatron, still having his change of heart, makes a sacrifice to stop Shockwave, and for whatever reason, this results in a memory reset (think Optimus Prime's reversion to Orion Pax in Prime). The result is a Megatron whose present culpability for his actions during the war is suddenly questionable - after all, this new Megatron is fundamentally a different individual. Thus the moral quandary for the Autobots is no longer a question of "does this genocidal tyrant deserve redemption" but something closer to a "do we kill baby Hitler" problem.

In this new version, Optimus Prime's motivations for giving Megatron a chance at redemption become more clear. In the actual story, Optimus actually has very little to say about Megatron's redemption, essentially saying "good luck with that" and hardly ever discussing it again. In this version, Optimus sees a chance to prove that Megatron's good intentions could have, in a different environment, resulted in a truly good person. For Optimus, this is not only a second chance for Megatron, but a second chance for himself. Thus, he would represent the stance that Megatron is not inherently evil and, since this is not the same person as before, he cannot be judged for his crimes during the war; he should be allowed to prove for himself what kind of person he is.

Of course, not everyone is going to be okay with this. You can still have folks like Prowl be vehemently against this stance, arguing that either Megatron is inherently evil and should be killed before he can grow to become a tyrant again, or simply arguing that amnesia (even if genuine) is not absolution, and memories or not, he is still responsible for his actions. Ultimately, the compromise can still be this questionable appeal to divine judgement, and Megatron will be sent to the Lost Light as a co-captain in order to test his character. The rest of MTMTE can play out very similarly to how it does - everyone will be uncomfortable with Megatron's presence, some will speak out, some will lash out, etc. Megatron himself will also struggle internally, as he is faced with this horrific version of himself that everyone projects onto him (or the idolized version from Ravage and Tarn) and will have to question whether or not he is, or could ever be, this genocidal monster.

This change also, I think, works wonders for the "Getaway's mutiny" subplot. In the actual story, Getaway's motivations for overthrowing Rodimus and getting rid of Megatron are, frankly, correct (though yes, his actions were certainly not). Because the moral question of "does the genocidal tyrant deserve redemption" is an easy "NO" for most people, Getaway's motives do not match up with his behavior in a way that makes the Mutineers arc feel very forced and awkwardly presented, and Lost Light's portrayal of Getaway as a delusional psychopath only made this whole conflict feel even clumsier. With this new change, however, Getaway's moral stance becomes a fair bit murkier, which I think would make that storyline feel more believable and less like a clumsy reaction to criticisms about how Megatron's redemption is so easily accepted.

Ultimately, I think this Megatron's story would end roughly the same as the actual comic (because I do think that conclusion is very good). Maybe at some point, Megatron gets his memory back and now has to reconcile his new self with his old self, and, because ultimately his sense of justice wins out, he concludes that he deserves every punishment for what he did, and upon proving that he is both the evil and the good Megatron, willingly accepts his own execution.

So yeah, that's my alternate pitch, thanks for reading! I'm very interested to hear if anyone else has ideas for how a "Megatron redemption" story could have been written (if such a story could have even been written at all for this version of the character), or if anyone has any improvements or revisions to my version.  

 

I personally don't really think his story needs fixing. Megatron is never truly redeemed in the end before he died in his eyes or the vast majority of the galaxy, and as the story shows the only reason he's even able to walk around at all, let alone join the Lost Light, wasn't a way for him to be redeemed to become a better person (at least officially cause Optimus is Optimus), but was entirely political.



Most Autobots hate the fact he's on a Autobot ship anywhere that's not in a prison cell and which then results in around 91% of the Lost Light's crew stranding them, and Optimus admits later on that he fully understands that his opinion that even Megatron at least has the chance to be redeemed and be allowed to somewhat atone is in the vast minority.

Really the only main issue I have with the story is like you said, the Mutineers storyline as well as parts of the final issue of LL. Getaway's motivations for the mutiny were 100% justified, and the main reason to hate him was because of what he was will to do to achieve these goal (like what happened with Tailgate) and at first cause the reader believes he left them to die at the hands of the DJD, only for issue 55 to show he actually planned to have the Galactic Council to deal with only Megatron and even called back to make sure the rest of the cast weren't harmed.


This then could have had it were the general story of LL could have still occurred, but have it where say the Protectobots need to escape the ship cause the crew were truly mutineers, blocking Optimus's calls and not wanting word about it to reach Prime, then later on Team Rodimus comes back angry at something the LL crew were unaware had occurred and a violent misunderstanding causes Getaway to side with The Grand Architect in a perceived self-defense. Then at the stories end after Megatron returns from defending the Alternate-Universe for a few centuries and whatever reconciling has occurred, have it so both Megatron and Getaway put on trial for their crimes. Megatron's ending remains the same and Getaway gets off scot-free due to bias of the courts, but have it show that perhaps while he still doesn't fully believe Megatron deserved a second chance, the stories of what Megs did, how he helped Team Rod against the DJD and how the crew perceives him if the idea of them all being turned into Sparkeaters remains, makes it so Getaway sees it all as a hollow victory, as a biter sweet ending.

But instead LL has it were Getaway was a mustache twirling villain, brainwashed the entire crew at the cost of "feeding" them to the brainwasher, and turned them all into zombies with no remorse all cause he had some sort of delusional god complex. And then in the finale the entire rest of the crew (yes the entire since Rodimus said they wouldn't jump if there was even 1 objection) seem perfectly fine being with Megatron as captain for the rest of eternity cause "At least he wasn't as bad as Getaway", which made that portion of the story pretty disappointing for me

 

I had my own issues with Autobot Megs story, mainly due to a few characters at other comic companies souring me on "formerly a monster, now a hero" trope but thought liked it for the most part.

That the story ends with Megs actually going off to either be executed or life in prison (which even he says, he deserves worse) I think are what ultimately make it work for me.

 

Personally I think the core of the problems with MTMTE/LL Megatron "redemption" "arc" is the comic's single-minded focus on the idea that Megatron inherently deserves to be given a second chance by all the people around him, versus it being something he actually has to earn from them.

There's the bit in Everlasting Voices with the "Guiding Hand" where the characters practically look into the camera and tell the reader they're a bad person if they don't think Megatron should've gotten a second chance. Or the fact that all the characters who didn't want to give him a second chance get aggressively punished by the narrative - duped by an egomaniac and then turned into zombies who have to be rescued by the main characters who did want to give Megatron a second chance.

It stands in sharp contrast to RID/OP, where characters were allowed to have a wide range of opinions on whether they thought Optimus was right or wrong in his actions without being demonised or punished by the narrative for it.

 

You hit the nail on the head my guy, this is one of my major gripes with the entire concept.

I tend to think if they really wanted to do a story like this they should have went with a smaller-scale Decepticon instead of MEGATRON himself due to all the implications involved that the story is unwilling to address. Megatron being allowed to become an Autobot should have been the source of a lot of strife and understandably so, but it just... doesn't. When Getaway formed his mutiny I was hoping that the story was finally going to address this issue, but then the next time we see him he's just a bumbling buffoon and no one other than him seems to have strong feelings on the topic when they really should. :|

It really feels like Roberts is on Megatron's side and wants to brow-beat everyone who doesn't believe he should get a second chance, I mean he openly stated he used Getaway as a mouth-piece to voice opinions he read on the idea of Autobot Megatron, yet he doesn't seem to grasp that those people were correct about their observations.

 

Amnesia is indeed cheap, it is still however a better choice, IDW 1.0 wanted to have it's cake and eat it too, there was simply no way to reconcile the absolute psycho he actively was with this new personality without it being forced
Personally, i never liked the idea of Megatron being a civil rights activist, i much preferred IDW 2.0 take where he's a disgruntled war veteran unsatisfied with the state his planet was left, you can see he already had colonialist goals

 

This was one of my major problems with the later parts of Roberts' run, where the narrative basically twisted itself towards what Roberts wanted to say without the characterization and situations supporting it. A super disappointing end to a run that started with such promise.

 

As someone who dropped the IDW comics around the release of Titans Return, I always find it so interesting reading what happened afterwards; Especially what happened in LL, with how MTMTE went from great to awful. To think, by the end of it, Megatron's arc was the only story thread in season 2 I actually thought had been worth following. Reading stuff like this makes me so glad I never read LL.

 

Awful ? I heard from may people J.Roberts never lost his touch

 

Well, everything's subjective; Some people loved his work from beginning to end, others hated it from the start, while many think his work went downhill, either during season 2 or LL.

 

MTMTE season 2 has some cracking stories still like Elegant Chaos, but suffers from the entire story warping around Megatron all of a sudden, and from some iffy spots like the incredibly clumsy attempt at doing a story about disability in the second Scavengers arc.

Meanwhile Lost Light/season 3, IMO, is defined by dodgy structure resulting from Roberts just not being very good at adapting his plans when it's needed - it has a clunky opening due to the renumbering/relaunch necessitating story ordering to be switched around, and then a finale that feels rushed and shallow because he tried to keep too much content in when the order came down that he had thirteen more issues before the book ended.

 

I really like the whole idea of IDW1 redemption of Megatron. I'm glad IDW1 explored this.

But, to be honest, the whole "redemption arc" hinges on a few very loose threads. The least believable of which is how everyone is just okay with Megatron being a captain of the ship and respecting him as such.
Now, there are two counter-points to be made here.

First, you can say that people were resentful, they didn't like the idea, hated it to be in fact. But what exactly came out of it? Whirl's attack on Megs was an attempt of provocation, not a genuine anger.
The "conflict" with Rodimus results in nothing but a friendly banter and endless "co-captain" jokes.
And that's pretty much it. All of this goes nowhere, everyone is just ok and dandy and the occasional recentment leads nowhere but an half-assed passive aggression.

Second, you could make a point about how it's difficult for any mind to imagine how one person is responsible 104 600 000 000 deaths. At that point, all these deaths become a statistic and it's difficult to evoke any sort of emotional response.
But that's a load a of crap! Decepticons fought, imprisoned, tortured, killed and pillaged everything. Overlord on G6, DJD, Grindcore, Shimanzi Massacre - all of that showed us what Decepticons are capable of and what your average frontline Autobot has seen. And you telling me these people, traumatized after 4 000 000 year long war, would not be able to evoke any sort of emotional response to Megatron being their captain? Even if they could not evoke and emotional response, they would hate Megatron by association, because he is the reason for it all.

It's just not how post-war relationships work.
I think IDW writers really wanted to still portray Autobots as "the good guys" and as a result of that these Autobots act too rational and level-headed.
No traumatized post-4-million-year-long-war survivor would act so calmly about the whole situation.

So yeah, I like the idea, but there should've been a lot more stories about how the crew of LL feels about this. Maybe there could've been a mutiny or several assasination attemps. At least that would be something.

 

This, basically.

 

Well... there was.


And there was an attempt to off Megatron before that, and words were brought up to Optimus in RID about his choice as well. The main issue most have is how the mutineers story was treated after MTMTE ended and LL started.

 

Yeah, well, retroactively patching up story issues doesn't really fix the problem.

 

The mutiny really should've started the instant the crew heard Megatron was going to be on the Lost Light, with the first (of many) attempted assassinations occurring not long after.

 

Then they just wouldn't get onboard and stayed behind like Cosmos and others did, cause Megatron was announced as joining the ship days before they left Cybertron. Those who either did remain or joined after were begrudgingly fine with it as their mission was to also transport Megatron to his trial, where he'd most likely get executed anyway.

Eventually they did get tired of waiting, but the reason it then took so long after that was cause they didn't know who'd wouldn't join them and simply contact Prime and Cybertron till Getaway asked everyone, and the full blown mutiny was left until either the previous 2 attempts against Megs failed (cause then they could just deal with it and not get another government involved), and when they'd have the good opportunity to get those who wouldn't join off the ship (cause when they went down to Necroworld some like Whirl weren't suppose to go till the crew insisted).

 

It doesn't take that long to get a mutiny started, they'd only need a few hours. As for not knowing who would join in on the mutiny, the real question would be who wouldn't join in the mutiny? It's Megatron, you don't have to play nice with that bastard.

 

Probably the guys who joined who didn't fight in the war, the 10 million year old warrior, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus (the really big fucking dude), the crazed helicopter, and any who'd potentially not feel like a mutiny is necessary either cause they don't see the point or other reasons, and so on (aka everyone they sent to Necroworld). All of whom can very easily send the message "Mutiny send help" and Prime would be over in 5 minutes and have Rodimus back in command, they wanted to be sure it would work.

And again, they were told well in advanced that Megatron would be going on the ship with them as the was the condition for Megatron to denounce the Decepticon movement. If you didn't want to be on a ship with Megatron as captain you wouldn't go.

 

No, a mutiny is necessary because it's Megatron. He needs to be locked away in a cell, not co-captain of anything.