I have seen many questions regarding whether people prefer Megatron to be a sympathetic and possibly redeemable villain or just a straight-up heartless monster.

My ideal Megatron has an understandable background which explains why is he the way he is, but by no means is he redeemable in the present moment. He is a totalitarian dictator who would rather destroy everything so he could rule everyone.

But I have a different question on how you prefer him. Do you prefer him as a calculating mastermind (like in IDW1, Animated and Beast Wars) or as a megalomaniacal barbarian (like in TFP, WFC/FOC and the 2007 Bay film) or a perfect balance of the two.

As much as TFA, IDW1 (Pre-Dark Cybertron) are my favourites with heavy nostalgia towards the 2007 film and FOC/WFC versions. I would like to see a perfect balance between the two depictions. What do you guys say?

 

Heartless monster.


I think Megatron full of hate is more entertaining than Megatron with a bit of a heart. He’s got good reason to be mad and it makes his character matter imo

 

Very smart and accomplished with scientific research and such, but completely lost in his goal of supremacy, where Cybertron should be a vessel for an ultimate race that are superior to all others. To him, all Cybertronians should be part of his forces, and loyal to him. But at same time, his anger and hate is beyond a mental illness and the results are that he keeps making terrible decisions that ends up sabotaging his own plans. His obsession with trying to "convert" Optimus to his "side" makes his troubles completely amplified.

He wants to rule a planet of "Gods" compared to all other lifeforms, but doesn't care to invade to rule other races, just that they'll bow down to them when they happen to have to "stop by" and provide them with whatever is asked (energy or materials).

 

Yeah, but do you prefer him as a calculating mastermind or a megalomaniacal barbarian?

 

I don’t think of him as either of those archetypes. So, I choose “C: none of the above”.

 

While i like the sympathetic every now and then, i prefer the heartless monster. And enough with the war was started because of the political underclass. Lets have him start the war because he just wants to rule the galaxy. He has a superiority god complex and we must all bow down to him.


As for the other q, i like a mix. He can use guile, deceit, pursuasion and manipulation to get what he wants. After all, his faction is called the decepticons. But if he does have to enter the battle and throw down, he's a near impossible rage monster. He's the head honcho, he should be feared if you see him on the battlefield. You either need prime or a bunch of heavy hitters to take him out.

Kinda like how Animated did him.

 

Animated.

 

I have a similar idea where is kind of an intellectual and mostly talented in the field of history, literature, psychology, politics and philosophy but is mostly underestimated due to his origins as a miner and later reputation as a thug and gladiator. He is a calculating strategic and political mastermind who can organize and control his Decepticon Empire across the entire universe and wage a longer large scale war, fighting for a vision of a Decepticon controlled universe where the most capable and strongest rule over the weak. A perfect order. Peace through tyranny. However he believes that this vision van only be implemented through HIM, anyone else who dares to attempt this will be shot by his fusion cannon. However, despite his reputation as a brutish tyrant, not only is he an actual intellectual but also quite a charismatic and cultured guy.


But when he enters the battelfield personally he becomes a an absolute barbaric monster whom nobody (maybe except Soundwave and Shockwave) is safe from. A cruel psychopath who enjoys toying and tormenting his enemies not just physically but psychologically, even excelling in the art of psychological warfare. When he fights personally, he doesn’t fight to just win, but also to break and absolutely devastate his enemies and sheer sadism.

Basically the manipulative charisma of BW Megs, the strategic intelligence of TFA Megs, the political motives and philosophy of IDW Megs and the sheer rage and brutality of Bayverse Megs.

 

My thoughts exactly. Although I like it when he has an understandable background, but without making him redeemable in any way.

 

Depends completely on fiction and context.

My favorite Megatron? Sassy as fuck Prime Wars Megs, he is the only one that sold me on a post War Megatron that made logical sense.

I also love Armada, a super stern and selfish General..that does shockingly have some good in him.

I also really like War With In Megatron who isn’t a good guy in anyway.

 

Then which archetype would you categorize him as?

 

I don't subscribe to the Gladiator thing at all, nor the miner origins.

But in my head cannon, he starts off in the military, screws up, gets a court-martial and end up in a mining camp for a while.

I have him returned to the military by Megatronus and Unicronus so to make him into their general, molding him to be a support for their goals, helping him raise ranks, where he takes his new name in honor to his mentor.

It's once that both of them are sent away that he swears to uphold their mission, but this eventually get skewed.

In the end, he's near insanity when he founds out the truth about their origins and what followed, and just wants to ends it all and get what remains of the Cybertronians killed.

 

Megatron was once a miner that after experience freedom for the first time in kaon. He would escape with his some of friends, (Demolishor,lugnut, Wreckage) explore the world and Megatron become a gladiator and find a liking to poetry. Megatron make some new friends like Soundwave, starscream and theseeker, Shockwave but find out that cybertron have problems and those problem are pulling back cybertron to create a new cybertron of his ideals.

Soon, he began his movement of the decepticons and reach worse and more destruction as his best friend Orion would seen horror of pal. After multiple different events that add more to Megatron will of making cybertron his world and his decepticons would raid during one of Sentinel Prime( in this universe, he was good guy but fall into the dark side when he on earth) been assault and killed by starscream and thus began the great war.

 

Begins sympathetic, ends heartless.

No redemption. One shall stand, one shall fall.

That’s how I prefer Megatron.

 

A particularly cunning barbarian warlord hell-bent on dragging the Cybertronians kicking and screaming back to Cybertron's imperialist past, before the Autobot Revolution.

 

For me, Megatron's character comes down to these two lines from the Marvel bio: "Love, compassion, mercy are words that have no meaning for Megatron. He has risen to the leadership of the Decepticons by a combination of brute strength, military cunning, ruthlessness, and terror." He basically the opposite of Optimus Prime in every regard, and considers the Autobots as outmoded and contemptible. In terms of backstory, I envision Megatron as originally being a mercenary soldier who turned the Decepticons from a freelance fighting force into a galactic threat. His goal is to rule a mobile Cybertronian empire, driven on by a fleet of self-replicating Warworlds to strip mine whatever planets they encounter. This is an ideal situation for Megatron, since it gives him exactly what he wants: an endless conquest with the whole universe open for him to claim.

 

I would describe him the way his original tech spec bio did. I think he ultimately seeks peace, but only his way. Sort of like Thanos in the Marvel movies.

 

Animorph's Visser 3, superbly talented general who rose from obscurity, beholden to an unseen Decepticon council he holds little respect for.
Hubris and greed on Earth become his undoing.

 

which megatron? because I really like how Beast Era megatron was done in Beastmachines

 

Megatron to me should start out as sympathetic. A low class worker in a caste system that is prejudice against him and other miners/workers. Mere tools, cogs in the machine for the high society to walk over. Who forms a deep bond and kinship with Orion Pax over their shared dream for an equal Cybertron. After all, both want whats best for their people but who go about it differently. He is someone who tried to do it Orion’s way but when that didn’t work used fear & violence. But eventually he needs to take that drastic turn into villainy. To do something that makes him irredeemable. He believes what he is doing is right despite us and the Autobots knowing its wrong. He does deplorable things and becomes the ruthless leader with the blood of millions on his hands. He could careless about his troops, bots who onced follow him because they thought he was the change Cybertron needed. Instead they went from low class bots with a common goal and dream, to terrorists, to now simple tools and puppets he will use. He blames Optimus for the war and their friendships end. He refuses to accept fault or blame for what happened to their planet and to their people. He no longer remembers what his original goal was when he & Optimus were friends. To him it’s no longer about equality its about power, he has had fleeting taste of it and it has driven him blindly mad chasing it. Willing to do whatever to get it and step over others to get it.

That to me is the ideal depiction of Megatron.