But, he is a main character in the franchise, even though he's a villain. Batman and Joker are a bit different, Joker is one of many batman villains, but in Transformers it is Optimus and Megatron as the story leads in most cases, reacting to and against each other. To have one gone feels incomplete. Megatron isn't just another two-bit villain of the week, there's a reason he's stuck around so long. Even in the TMNT/Shredder example, Shredder is just as much an integral part of their story, just as Megatron is to Transformers. It's not like he needs to be the absolute forefront of everything, but as for the movies he's been less and less relevant, and being completely absent in 2 major films, with barely any roles in 4 and 5.

The last time we had a Megatron/Galvatron vs Optimus fight on screen was in Age of Extinction, before KSI whisks him away when lockdown shows up. In Last Knight they exchange 1 set of lines before Optimus kicks him out of the ship or whatever, and before that, the last fight was in RotF. In Dark of the Moon Optimus just runs up and rips his head off in a few seconds, Sentinel and Optimus get a longer fight.

I'd be in agreement if Megatron was an integral part of each of the films with memorable moments and fights... but he really hasn't been. So it feels weird to me to be jumping around to other wannabe villains like Quintessa and Scourge, when we can't even do Megatron proper once.

 

I don't think Unicron is going to be the main bad guy for the ROTB sequel. It could very much be Megatron next then finishing off with Unicron. Its not tied to the Bayverse so they can do anything.

 

I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who thinks Bayverse Megatron was actually pretty decent, even if it was just in two movies.

2007 Megatron is a pretty solid rendition of the character, though; he's menacing, and he's clearly just someone who wants power and dominance and like, yeah, that's kinda what Megatron is about on a very basic level. He's not particularly complex or deep or even that good, but he works as an adaptation of the character. The problem is that he gets used to diminishing effect after this one and so, like, him barely being in this one kinda makes him seem like a worse character with that hindsight.

The biggest problem with Megatron in RotF and TLK is that he's playing second fiddle to someone and is perfectly fine with it. That's just not what the character is about, and I think DotM actually got this really right. See, in DotM, he thinks he has Sentinel under his thumb, he thinks he's holding all the cards, but when he realizes that Sentinel has all the power, what does he do? He kills the bastard! That's straight out of the original Marvel version of the character. In RotF and TLK, meanwhile, he doesn't really seem to give much of a shit that he's not in charge for, uh... no reason in particular.

Really, Megatron in DotM is what he should've been in RotF itself; the more I think about it, though, the more I realize that, if you changed a little bit about the 2007 movie and DotM, you could basically just delete RotF from the series and have it work perfectly. Just don't kill Megatron at the end of 2007, instead have him be heavily damaged (hence the hobo look) and boom. Honestly feel like there'd be more consistency with what Megatron wants (to be in charge) that way but whatever, someone will come and point out the trillions of holes in this idea.

ANYWAYS, this RotB situation is kinda weird, huh? I don't think it's unsalvagable, it's just very weird. Here's a potential way of handling the situation using a trilogy that starts with RotB since that's apparently what we're doing:

• Have the second movie in this trilogy be the back-to-basics, Autobots vs Decepticons movie that, really, this one should've been. Maybe you could have someone like Nightbird assisting the Decepticons, maybe she's even the one who told them about Earth in the first place, but have her secretly be pulling strings for her master Unicron. Leave that as a subplot though, make the main focus Autobots vs Decepticons so we can actually get a feel for that again. It's gonna be a bit rushed but if the movie is focused on its own internal narrative more than setting shit up then I think it'll be okay. Mainly use this to flesh out the Optimus/Megatron dynamic though.
• The third movie in the trilogy is where these two plot points collide; Nightbird was unsuccessful in getting the Decepticons to ally with Unicron, and they instead join the Autobots, so there's an uneasy alliance between them and Unicron. Kinda doing an X2 thing here. Maybe you could do a TFP thing and have Megatron actually want to serve Unicron only for him to be like "nah fuck you" and join the Autobots instead. So this movie is the Autobots and Decepticons teaming up to take down Unicron. Marvel has kinda brainwashed us into thinking we need 38 movies to build up, like, one event, and that definitely adds to the hype, but from a storytelling perspective it's not an absolute necessity. I mentioned X2 because that movie has the X-Men team-up with Magneto, and it's the second X-Men movie ever.

Is that perfect solution? No, of course not; I just came up with it on the spot. But I don't think it's inherently doomed, just a bit tricky and possibly doomed.

 

Same issues as transformers prime jumping into Unicron way too soon.

 

Megatron this, unicron that, whatever just give me the real MVP: Starscream.

 

Starscream movie when?

 

I think TLK can justify it due to Megatron having the same red mark on his face as Nemesis Prime - it's probably some kind of nanotech shell program. Although the direct trigger was Bumblebee's voice, I think Optimus broke free of this partially because it was making him do things he ultimately didn't agree with and on some level he was fighting it. Meanwhile, what has Megatron's desire been? He lamented to the Fallen that his race was doomed after failing to obtain the Allspark, he fought to find a new source of life-giving Energon in the Solar Harvester, he joined forces with Sentinel Prime to rebuild Cybertron, and now Quintessa is offering another chance to restore Cybertron? After failing his homeworld so many times, I doubt he even needs to be reprogrammed to execute Quintessa's plan at all. She probably did it only to keep him from overthrowing her, and I think Megatron's ceaseless drive to save Cybertron would hold back his desire to be in charge if he's got that red mark.

 

As I made my point in the expectations thread, The decepticons (starscream,shockwave,soundwave and megs) will basically be jobbers compared to the threat of Unicron and his forces. I dont see a point of introducing a lesser evil with lower power levels who dont hold a candle to unicron, its basically like having thanos as the villain in avengers (2012). Scourge already has killed "decepticons" which may lead the audience to believe eh maybe the decepticons are not that powerful cause scourge has decepticons emblems on his "grill".

I honestly think it was a bad move introducing the heralds so early in the reboot phase. Honestly I would've preferred a story about megs and the decepticons trying to steal resources from earth to produce energon (basically g1) and the autobots trying to stop them. The fact that we havent heard a single thing about Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave concerns me.

 

As a huge fan of Starscream in Armada, Cybertron, Animated, and even the first half of TFP...

As far as I'm concerned, the red and ghost gray Seeker who literally transforms into something named Phantom and tracked down Bumblebee to Earth only to be killed unceremoniously is Starscream. I really don't give a shit that that means S-tier popularity character Starscream died unceremoniously four minutes after appearing without even a name reveal.

Heck it'd be cool if that's how they introduce his ghost ability, revealing he was the one who muted Bumblebee and got killed by him and is now back from the dead as some kind of cloud software virus. It'd give them something to hate each other for.

 

That's true. Megatron wanting to save Cybertron is honestly a really interesting hook for the character, probably the most interesting idea the movies really added to him. I think Megatron is maybe someone who wants to be on top, who wants to rule over, but genuinely cares about Cybertron. Kinda wish the movies leaned into that more.

This is a very, very bold take. I can't imagine them doing that, but that'd be kinda interesting provided we got Starscream's ghost.
...Starscream's ghost should team up with Unicron.

 

That will only get reinforced by the fact that the only decepticon we see on the movie is transit. A grunt only being there to get killed

 

You probably would've been a fan of one of the earlier treatments of RotF, which I believe appeared in some of the media like the novel, and I think the video game. In those versions, the Fallen had promised Megatron he'd make him a Prime, which was why Megatron was playing second fiddle. At the climax battle at the pyramids, Optimus would then reveal this to be impossible, that the Fallen could never make Megatron a Prime. This enrages Megatron, and he either leaves the Fallen to die, or assists in killing him.

 

That does sound better.

 

Not just one of many. Two polar opposites and arguably even more iconic than Optimus and Megatron.

*To have one not exist in the universe at all is the point; they just don't always have to be forefront.

The Rise of the TMNT movie not too long did not have Shredder as a villain, like at all. It was all Krang.

^ Above.

I thought Megatron was fine for movie 1. It's really when they put him in the next film that you start to feel, 'Damn, why is Megatron hanging around?', and that's no matter how poor his role is in each movie.

 

The Final Boss of Devastation has some dialogue that would have been utter gold to see Bayverse Megatron and Optimus exchange. It really nails their motivations.


"Why must you always interfere?!"

"You would place Cybertron at the center of the universe!"

"Cybertron is the center of my universe. How is it not the heart of yours?!"

"Cybertron is about all life! Destruction to keep Cybertron on life support? There must be another way!"

"Flesh isn't life! Servos, gyros, and fuel, this is where life comes from! You're defending bi-product at best!"



...I get a very strong sense that whatever political motivations the Decepticons and Autobots both had at the beginning of the war, it's become completely irrelevant. Now both sides are focused on how to respond to Cybertron becoming uninhabitable after all the fighting. The Autobots lost, but the Decepticons didn't win. Their attempts to undo their damage have led them to a planet with potential, and the Autobots' different ideals have made them make the shocking choice to side with some rock festering with organics because they won't sacrifice it to save their own race. It's a moral conflict that's inherently anchored in the difference between how Megatron and Optimus see the world differently and lets them directly voice the conflict between their factions as they fight. IMO it just needs the original political differences of the factions to be defined and written as something compelling that fits with the ideals they hold post-war so that can eventually be resvoled too and it would have been an excellent scenario for why the Transformers are at war. Just one of the many aspects of the Bayverse that had potential, but unfortunately were in movies that were never even close to competent enough to do it justice...

I acknowledge that it would piss off Starscream fans if the Seeker who died in Bumblebee 2018 is him. There are kind of three parts to why I feel this way:

One is the Earth mode Seeker design is IMO the absolute best example of the Live-Action aesthetic done right, and it could have been a superb Starscream, but canon says "lol fuck you he doesn't get to look like this" and if he shows up in the future he'll probably have a different design since the Phantom is already pretty outdated by the '90s and the next movie might have another decade-ish timeskip - Two is I really don't mind the cast of main characters being shaken up in Transformers and common mainstays being outright absent, and Starscream has been pretty prominent in most iterations ever since the Beast Era. It keeps the cast feeling fresh and lots of IMO great shows have totally different casts - Three is although half the time Starscream can be really cool, half the time he's a fucking joke. It's not inaccurate to the history of Transformers for Starscream to be a fucking joke sometimes. Recently regarding Wheeljack I've said I don't wanna see the movies turn characters into jokes, but it's different when sometimes the character already is a fucking joke.

But if I actually had any influence, I wouldn't canonize that Seeker being Starscream unless I could guarantee that he comes back as a ghost, retroactively making that death meaningful and starting a character dynamic between him and Bumble. I wouldn't do that to the Starscream fans. My fellow fans can hate the way it makes Bumblebee 2018 treat the character but that has no effect on what is actually canon so they'll be fine since my headcanon is not reality.

A damn shame that was cut, IMO.

However, it was kept for the novelization, so we can say it's technically canon in the Bayverse continuity cluster!

 

Correct, but Batman still has an entire rogues gallery he regularly deals with, Optimus doesn't. And depending on the series, Batman does not consider Joker important to him, despite Joker's obsession. In certain series, to Batman, Joker is just another maniac. This is not at all the relationship between Prime and Megatron, outside of perhaps Animated where Megatron saw Prime as so utterly beneath him. Optimus may have other fights, but its his relationship with Megatron that defines the entire franchise, because it's the basis of the whole war. Batman and Joker is a famous hero/archenemy relationship, but Batman regularly deals with countless other conflicts.

Never saw it, can't comment. But part of the reason I never saw Rise was I didn't like the Shredder reinvention and several other elements so make of that what you will anyway. If key parts that I enjoy are dropped I dont really have an interest. I think Shredder is better when he's tied to the Turtles story.

As I said, he doesn't need to be the forefront of everything. But I don't know how it could be said that he's been overdone in the film franchise when he shows up for one fight in the 07 film, foaming at the mouth about the allspark without any real motive, only to die. I'd say the reason he has that "why are you here" feeling in the other films is because of those poor roles, and they just made him a glorified henchman rather than actually the main villain character of the franchise.

My point is, I'd rather them just do Megatron good, rather than the studio act like they tried everything they could with him, and create more generic villains like the Fallen and Quintessa. Lockdown was an exception I'd say, at least he was more clearly defined as a one-time villain. A character like Megatron really deserves better, especially if we keep every other transformer main character like Prime and Bee.

Bumblebee didn't need Megatron because it wasn't about Optimus, so it was better to have Decepticon scouts facing an Autobot scout. But I'd say once Optimus is involved, Megatron should be somewhere.

 

I think that "UNICRON EXISTS AND IS A THING" is only an obstacle to the movies using Megatron if Unicron is, like, being "set up to be the next bad guy". Because if it's some shit like "Unicron is out there somewhere and might show up one day, when he does, we'll be ready" that still leaves the door open for stories done with Megatron.

 

Here is the problem with Megatron in live action. If you want him to be done well, i.e. interesting and true to his character. You can either mske him;

A. Make him a full blown villian as a facist, which will alienate viewers who may have similar beliefs.
B. You make him a sympathetic character (a revolutionary who lost his way) which MAY alienate viewers.

I think B is a better route, but I would be fine with A.

The one thing I don't want is a bland villian with the dumbest of motivations i.e. Bay Megatron.

 

I would like to state for the record that I fully support alienating Fascists.

 

The worst part is that they had a perfect setup for Megatron in Bumblebee. A Cybertron under Decepticon control, Optimus on the run, G1-inspired designs, etc. It was the perfect opportunity to reintroduce Megatron at the height of his power and leading the hunt for Optimus Prime. Unless they go the anti-hero route with Megatron in this new universe, it's a huge missed opportunity to skip straight to Unicron without having given Megatron the proper treatment he deserves.