It works both ways, after megatron got upgraded to galvatron in TFTM, he phsically is the same person, but mentally he sees himself as a seprate person from megatron. (Confusing yes?)

 

I don't think you can be so certain. I'm not doubting that Galvatron is created from Megatron. Like you said, we see that right on screen. And like you, I prefer to think of Galvatron as a continuation of Megatron's mind and personality. But I think it's just as clear in that scene that Galvatron thinks of himself as something separate to Megatron.

Think about it from Megatron's perspective. Think about his ego. Okay, he has a new body -- why wouldn't he still call himself Megatron? Would Megatron's ego allow him to have his name (the one he's had for millions of years) changed for him by someone else? And even if he would allow it out of fear, if he was still Megatron, why would he continue to keep the Galvatron name after Unicron was dead? Of course, the real reason is to sell a new toy. And that's why I don't think the writers of the time thought about it too deeply, and why they seemed to portray it both ways at different points.

 

I always looked at it like Galvatron looks at his past Megatron self as being weak (allowing himself to be so heavily damaged by Prime and then discarded by Starscream) so he prefers to distance himself from that identity in his own mind. But whether he likes it or not, he is Megatron, just with an altered appearance and arguably increased strength/power.

 

That was only to not spoil the outcome of the movie.

 

Most bios of Galvatron tend to start off with "Galvatron is Megatron, evolved to the ultimate degree: stronger, more powerful and infinitely more ruthless" or words to that effect. That pretty much cements the general Galvatron is a super-charged Megatron theory.

However with Galvatron's insanity, he probably doesn't have all that much of Megatron left. He's Megatron in body and at his core, but basically a whole new existence created around the frame of Megatron. In his saner moments, he's almost Megatron again, but when he falls into madness, he becomes something else entirely.

Of course, the comics have always treated them as individuals. Galvatron and Galvatron II in the Marvel comics were a time traveler and a dimension hopper, respectively. Dreamwave never used Galvatron, but odds are if they had, he'd have been his own entity. IDW made Galvatron completely divorced Megatron from Galvatron, devoid even of the links that Marvel UK's had as a future version of Megatron.

 

Cyclonus: Once Decepticons nearly held a quadrant through terror, now we scrap like slargs over a few Energon Cubes. Is this how you honor the memory of Galvatron? Is this the fate of the mihty Decepticon empire?
Astrotrain: In the days of Megatron it was not like this.
Sweeps: You mean Galvatron!
Cyclonus, Sweeps: Hail Galvatron! Hail Galvatron! Hail Galvatron!
Astrotrain: Well, they were the same guy...


Quotes taken from Five Faces of Darkness Part 1.

Compare it to this: If all my organs are transplanted to your body and replace all your organs, you are still you. But if my brain gets transplanted to replace yours, than you are me, although I will look like you.

 

If Galvatron had only put in the paperwork for a legal name-change at Polyhex City Hall we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

Obviously is the same, reformed.

 

yea unicron just gave him a new body the reason why galvatron went crazy was because of that plasma bath made him crazy.

 

What about Cyclonus and Scourge?

Without getting into the specifics of who they were previous to getting new bodies, are they the same characters, reformatted?

 

That's the real question, and maybe provides a hint about Galvatron. Because Scourge might be the same guy he was before Unicron, but no way in hell is Cyclonus still one of the Insecticons. He got a complete makeover and intelligence boost.

 

Interesting to note, while not official canon, it does give insight to the writer's intent; The earlier drafts had Life Sparks of Decepticon heroes for the new 'con cast (Megatron included).

No doubt Unicron had enough raw material to make new bodies, (he manifested a ship), but probably needed a life spark nucleus (Spirit/ soul) to build on.
(He's a destroyer, not creator after all).  

While it indicates that the identities of the supporting characters are exchangeable, it also points to the need for a pre-existing 'essence'. The Seekers and Insecticons were more than recyclable body parts.

I guess it comes down to how much personality, intelligence, character, etc, is considered to be contained within an 'essence'.

 

while galvatron, cyclonus, and scourge, might have the bodies of older transformers, and maybe even the "sparks," but i never once saw anything to even imply that they are the older characters. they have totally different personalities.

galvatron after unicron goes BOOM, is totally insane, and paranoid. the character is NOTHING like megatron. even if they are the same robot, they're totally different characters to me.

 

Indeed, I think the main reason the OP couldn't resolve his disputes on the matter was that there was no distinction between Character and Progenitor/ essence.

 

It does'nt matter anymore since so many TF stories contradict each other.
It's all up to the audience

 

He did crop up in their Armada comic. He got killed by a MiniCon-enhanced (using the Dark Saber) Megatron.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Megatron-galvatron.jpg

Of course you probably meant using Galvatron in a G1 ongoing stylee, but I just thought I'd mention it anyway.  

 

I was working on a fanfic YEARS ago. In my story Megatron/Galvatron, Thundercracker/Scourge, Skywarp/Cyclonus were long since dead but later revived. Because of the reformatting by Unicron, they couldn't go back to being their original personalities and were revived as sort of fusion characters (my Megatron/Galcatron character was named Gigatron because 1) it sounded like a sort of a name fusion between the two 2)it sounded like an upgrade 3)it had historical value (Car Robots)

My point is that while I think they are the same sparks, Unicron twisted and changed them so much that they are very different characters...

 

Again,this depends on the continuity. In aligned he wasn't rebuilt, just renamed and given Matrix.

 

Apropos Cyclonus. Don't want to open a new thread for this, but I think it fits this thread's identity crisis theme.

When I recently saw the transformation of them by Unicron. I just realized, they probably made two animations for Cyclonus to see which looks better and in the final product someone must have made it wrong and used all animation layers for Cyclonus to create the scene, instead of using only the correct ones, which ends up in two Cyclonus being created and "his Armada" refers only to the Sweeps, which are commanded by Scourge, but all including Scourge are under the command of Cyclonus. Which fits to the rest of the show and the film. So there were never going to be two Cyclonuses.

It is obvious in the scene where they fly off, because one Cyclonus flies in front of the other jets, while he should have been behind the other jets, because of his proportional size in relation to the others. This makes it obvious they used too many layers for this scene. And this shouldn't be no surprise at all. There are often such errors in G1.

I think in the same comic there is a panel where you can see every alternate dimension version of Megatron/Galvatron and one of them is G1 Galvatron.

 

This is much easier in the Unicron Trilogy continuity where Megatron simply states ‘Call me Galvatron’ to which Starscream says ‘I look like Thundercracker’.
It makes perfect sense.  

Yeah, there is no way Cyclonus is the same person as the Insecticon Bombshell he originated from. And the fact that almost all the characters who were reformatted into Unicron's troops show up later in their original form (even at Starscream's coronation -the very next scene!) makes it all the more confusing.
Were these Seekers we hadn’t seen before that had similar (identical) colors to Skywarp and Thundercracker?
Were these the actual Insecticons or were they clones?

However, I think there are two things that clearly point out that Galvatron is just Megatron in an upgraded form.
First, Unicron tells Megatron ‘I will grant you a new body, new troops to command’.
So I think it’s pretty evident that Megatron would retain his identity but his troops would not.
Second, when Unicron says to Megatron ‘You belong to me now’ Megatron replies with ‘I belong to nobody’.
Later Scourge tells Galvatron ‘But remember, we belong to him’ and Galvatron replies with ‘I belong to nobody’; the exact same thought voiced the exact same way. It’s pretty clear to me that his persona is the same regardless of his name or body.

What aligned continuity? Are you talking about Transformers Prime?