I just finished watching Predacons Rising for the first time and gotta say I was pretty disappointed with Megatron's "redemption" (if you could even call it that). Okay, so he disbands the Decepticons and decides to drop the whole evil thing after being possessed by Unicron, great! But then he just leaves and that's it? He's a good guy now? It doesn't sit right with me after everything he's done. He doesn't even bother to stick around and help fix the planet he helped destroy!

Now don't get me wrong I like the idea of Megatron getting a redemption, when it's done right. I guess my question is how would you have redeemed Megatron? What would you have done differently?

 

I would've left him dead after season 3 and either brought in a new antagonist for predacons rising or used Arachnid and her terrorcon army. I dont like the idea of Megatron being redeemed, so I cant comment on that.

 

Honestly, I liked the element from the netflix shows that they used to be enslaved by the quintesson empire, so I’d redeem Megatron by pointing him at a greater evil, the quintessons, have a season or two where he’s full antihero who’s not meaning to help the good guys, but his main priority is revenge or opposition to the quintessons, and that goal has overlapped with the good guys enough times that he just kind of “owes them” his spark enough times that he’ll play by those rules.

Aside from that, ousting him as a leader for a more evil leader (Shockwave, Bludgeon, Overlord, Deathsaurus, even BW Megs) to a point where he works on the outskirts as an antihero/antivillain against them… then do the asspull for sesshomaru from inuyasha: as part of his travels he basically winds up caring for a small child-bot (ideally made specifically by Vector Sigma or Primus and tied to Megs’ spark so he can’t ditch them), and enough episodes acting as MegaDaddy soften him up.

 

I imagine Megatron becoming a lone ranger type vigilante, traveling the galaxy, doing what good deeds he can (protecting the weak, fighting off space marauders, etc.)before leaving to do the same elsewhere. Throughout his travels, he would be known by many titles to many people, but he would never reveal his true name, nor would he ever return to Cybertron.

 

I could care less whether Megatron's enslavement by Unicron humbled him. He's still a brutal warlord. Realistically, Optimus should have killed him where he stood.

As for a proper redemption, I would have Megatron sacrifice himself to restore Cybertron instead of Optimus. Giving life back to the planet and people he destroyed at the cost of his own is a much more suitable end.

 

I wouldn't have tried to "redeem" him. He didn't want to continue the war any longer. But it's not like he wanted to be a hero.

 

That could have worked, actually. It's still too quick of a turn, given the lack of prior development in the direction of redemption, but it beats him going off on his own without even getting community service.

One way to do it could be to have Optimus plan to kill him for his crimes, and Megatron, having been broken of his megalomania and facing the guilt of a lifetime of slaughter and destruction, would agree. Megatron would accept his execution, and Optimus, recognizing Megatron's change of heart, would make it a clean kill )because unlike every other Megatron out there, this Megatron accepted responsibility for his crimes and refused to weasel out of the consequences of his actions).

 

Well put, I think the best we could hope for in regards to a proper 'redemption' for Megatron would be him making a sacrifice of that sort. Even if he was not a good person, in the end he still managed to do something good for his people.

 

I would've left him dead. Megatron doesn't need to be redeemed. He shouldn't be redeemed. He's Megatron, just let him be a bad guy who dies or gets locked up at the end.

 

This is honestly another thing that I feel needs to be stated: I think at this point I vastly prefer a Megatron who never compromises on his ideals and beliefs, even if he's totally wrong there's something dignified and maybe even begrudgingly respectable about a guy who will never falter in his twisted beliefs.

He's fully aware of what enslavement and subjugation feels like, he just doesn't care.

 

Despite my earlier response, this is where I stand at the end of the day. It's kind of like Ash's opinion on the xenomorph in the first Alien movie: I admire it's purity: a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

 

This is what makes him a great villain, but I think a lot of writers are afraid of making characters entirely unlikable/irredeemable since it can be construed as lazy or a lack of forethought, or too one-track.

Yet at the same time if the character is charismatic enough, it doesn't matter what their beliefs are, because it's a fictional story. BW Megatron is completely without a shred of humanity or respect, using and abusing whatever he gets his hands on with a smile on his face. He's almost impossible to dislike. TFA Megatron also lies with practically every word, yet does it so well you'd almost believe him, and his underlings certainly do.

 

Part of it is that the writers don't delve into what makes a monster a monster - they only skim the surface without delving into the psychology of evil. That and for the past couple of decades, it's been the current fad to consider gray villains more complex, thus allowing the writer to show off how smart/sensitive/worldly/compassionate/enlightened/fill-in-your-favorite-superlative they really are.

 

I honestly hated what happened to Megatron in Prime. His change of heart was so sudden and out of nowhere, almost like IDW’s version. But at least that one actually explored the concept and did some interesting things with it.

If I had to bring back Megatron and had to redeem him, I guess it’d have to be a story where he’s actually facing everything he ever wanted under Unicron and maybe realizes that it’s not as great as he thought it would be. Being careful what you wish for because you might actually get it, ya know?

Then because he’s still a rough and tumble guy, once he’s freed from Unicron he disbands the Decepticons but then just fights off anyone who tries to stop him. Lives the rest of his life as a wanted bot for reasons he now understands but doesn’t agree with.

 

I think what most people forget about Prime Megatron is he had already died for the awful things he did. The actual issue you're having is he came back to life afterward.

Megatron didn't get redeemed; what you see in Predacons Rising is the start of him going on that redemption arc. Of course that Megatron we saw doesn't deserve redemption because we haven't seen him earn it. The thing is you won't ever see him earn it, either.

Don't mistake starting a redemption arc with being redeemed. That's putting the cart before the horse.


(and heck, after RiD2015 finished its run Megatron was never shown going back to his evil ways so you can't bag him for that, either)