What are your thought on Megatron's character arc from Worker-->Rebel-->Dictator-->Autobot

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by batfan007, Sep 22, 2016.

  1. batfan007

    batfan007 Double the Dragon

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    I'd like to hear people's point of view on Megatron's character arc from Worker to Rebel/Freedom Fighter to Dictator to Autobot.

    What did you like/dislike about his character arc?

    If it were up to you, what would you have done differently?
     
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  2. Coffee

    Coffee (╭☞ꗞᨓꗞ)╭☞

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    I love it, honestly. Some of his most interesting character developments occurred in his attempts to adapt to Autobot customs, while at the same time using guile, deception, and planning three steps ahead to get to where he is. Admittedly, I feel like more could have been done with this throughout Season 2 of mtmte, and his vow to give up violence felt a little forced, but otherwise I prefer Autobot Megatron above most incarnations of Megatron period.
     
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  3. 8bitboy

    8bitboy Well-Known Member

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    I love it honestly. It's the reason Megatron's character has become more interesting and has a lot more depth. He actually CHANGED and convinced me that he was serious about it in the process. And convincing me isn't an easy task at all. I really like what they've done with him rather than stick to status quo. The same could be said about Optimus Prime getting a bit ahead of himself in annexing Earth into the Council of Worlds. It actually breathes more life into his character. Makes him feel alive :)  I digress. I love where this is going and open to seeing how far they can take it.
     
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  4. ILoveDinobot

    ILoveDinobot You can, you up. No can, no BB.

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    Typical revolutionist story beginning. A little bit of the reign of Terror from the French Revolution. Then it becomes like many fanfics I read over the years, he turns himself in. Asks Prime to forgive him, finds the wrong in his ways. MTMTE is just a huge fanfic. I love it though. Didn't Armada Megatron sacrifice himself for Cybertron too?
     
  5. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    Like everyone else has said, I love it. It's a redemption arc at its absolute finest.
     
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  6. Thelonicon

    Thelonicon Well-Known Member

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    I've always loved Megatron's design/look, but he was just another boring "evil for evil's sake" character like so many other cartoon/comic villains. It wasn't until Roberts started writing for the character in Chaos Theory and MTMTE that I feel like he finally came into his own. Count me in on the "I love it" crowd.

    More critically, some of it has been a bit handwavey but that is kind of necessary given the fact that the IDW universe pretty much started with super villain Megatron back in the -ation days. Sure we also had Megatron Origin but he went from oppressed worker to killer psycho in like 5 pages.

    I also want to give IDW credit for really blurring the lines between factions in the past few years now. It really was one of the most interesting if not the most daring direction to take things. It might not always be perfect, but the franchise is creatively better off for it.
     
  7. Zenstrive

    Zenstrive Well-Known Member

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    You forget that he went from Worker-Prisoner-Gladiator-Rebel-Freedom Fighter-Dictator-Mass Murderer-Fallen Leader-Prisoner-Leader.

    I am waiting for him to become worker again, working with Terminus in an expedition....
     
  8. Noideaforaname

    Noideaforaname Pico, let's go up to Zuma

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    I rather like the "well-meaning revolution --> just-as-bad tyranny --> realizing everything has gotten WAY out of hand". Dunno if I much care for Megatron literally donning the Autobot insignia though. 'Course, having basically only read MtMtE, said change holds zero weight...
     
  9. batfan007

    batfan007 Double the Dragon

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    The subject line / thread title is only so long. I'm not going to summarize every megatron comic in a thread title, please do expand and add whatever you like in the thread itself, I mean the point of conversation (to me) is expansion and sharing of ideas, perspectives and contrasting points of view etc, hopefully communicated in a way we can understand each other.
     
  10. batfan007

    batfan007 Double the Dragon

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    I like that in IDW they went beyond the simplistic toy mentality of "EVIL Decepticons" and "Heroic Autbots" in the G1 cartoon, which is fun for a certain kind of story, and simper for kids to understand, but it's also jingo-ism painting any one group of anything as "evil" and the other lot "heroic" it denies basic freedom of choice. Although even in the cartoon we did get the odd character switching teams, or doing something contrary that binary good/evil nature.
     
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  11. motorthing

    motorthing Too old for this $hit

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    Even in the original tech-specs I gave Tranformers high marks for NOT creating many absolutely one-dimensional good/bad characters. Most Bots had some flaw or imperfection going on and that's pretty ambitious for toy-packaging.

    But Optimus and Megatron were the closest to All Good/All bad from comic to cartoon to boxes. And I was fine with that. You need a couple of polar opposites to hang a large cast on.

    This IDW take on Megatron plays into modern thinking on redemption for many Heavyweight Villains in pop-culture. Thanos gets another chance, Dr Doom has to be understood, Luthor is motivated by paranoia and isn't just a Whiney, selfish bitch etc.

    So this is more of the same. It may add some depth/pathos and even empathy to how we read a character, but it walks us a little too far into "I like Him so I want to forgive him" territory which has always made me feel a little queasy. Megatron is a Genocidalist. His murder tally puts him up there with the real Monsters of fiction. His casual cruelty demonstrated at various points and otherwise total disregard for other beings can't be handwaved away just because He's a fan favourite.

    He would have had full knowledge of the deeds and excesses of his lieutenants and is therefore totally complicit in the acts of Turmoil, Bludgeon, the DJD and all the others. He is guilty. I don't want to get too comfortable around that just because he is interesting and has a backstory.
     
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  12. Zenstrive

    Zenstrive Well-Known Member

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    In IDW, I think, the real push for Megatron to go full villainy is when he was stranded on junkion and have his soul poisoned by the Quintesson.
     
  13. hardlurk

    hardlurk Well-Known Member

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    It's why I started reading the comic.

    Brutally and mercilessly destroying the caste system was a fun and cool thing to do. Violently imposing a better society was also a fun and cool thing. Genocide against organics had nothing to do with either of those. The addendum of technoism to Megatron's original cause is nonsensical, as are attempts to argue against that original cause because of it.

    Megatron becoming an Autobot is a neat idea if it can be interpreted as Megatron breaking away from his fixation on Optimus Prime in order to step back and once again begin his revolutionary thought from the beginning but without its pathological elements. I.e., insofar as it can be read as a dialectical progression rather than Megatron admitting that whoops, the Autobots were right all along.

    Megatron's redemption involves several different possibilities which should not be confused:
    The redemption of revolutionary Decepticon ideology.
    The redemption of the actually existing Decepticon regime.
    The redemption of Megatron as an individual.
    And finally, Megatron's personal redemption leading to his pardon or acquittal.

    The first is my goal in reading the comic. The second is irrelevant; that regime failed in its goal of creating a better society and no longer exists. The third can only be accomplished by the first. It should not lead to the fourth.
     
  14. batfan007

    batfan007 Double the Dragon

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    Megatrons regrets would mean nothing if he wasn't a monster. But yeah it's familiar fiction territory, the sympathetic criminal/mobster/leader.

    Even Scarface (DePalma) and Kingpin (Marvel comic and Daredevil TV show) while unrepentant are portrayed with some sympathy, I don't think we are meant to forgive or excuse anything they did, but we do see that they are human.
    The Dr Doom thing to me is not modern at all however, I mean he was who he was from the start. Stan Lee had been saying since the inception of those characters such as Doom that the villains in the stories don't see themselves as villains, it's only the audience that sees them that way and the writer etc. That's also very true to life.

    Not that we have real life super villains, but we do have the regular garden variety career criminals, drug lords and genocidal dictators etc.

    Also, Thanos was not a true villain to start with. in the generic sense yes, but if you follow the entire store of Thanos, which is Jim Starlin's story, he was written as an ignorant child who learns things the hard way. Again, does not excuse anything he did. However, unlike Darkseid in DC who is a literal embodiment of evil, a space Hitler/Devil who is in full knowledge of what he is and totally unrepentant, Thanos was a being of ignorance who craved knowledge and power at any cost. If you follow his story arc from the 70's to the modern day - he goes from tantrum child to teenager who breaks up with his girlfriend (literally DEATH) and then because he feels bad, wants to wipe out all of reality (and does a couple of times). Further down the road we see he has actually changed, or evolved through knowledge, awakening, experience etc. And that was very deliberate. He dabbled in nihilism, but ultimately he's a character who wants not only power, but knowledge, and his tantrums are his inability to deal with his own emotions, or handle his own energy and god-like status. He even comes to know that although he possessed the infinity gauntlet/gems on several occasion, he lacked the maturity to use them sensibly. He's still the "Mad Titan" of course, and some stories just do a redux and put him back at square one / reboot as comic storie inevitably do, but if you read the Starlin stories, he keeps moving the character forward, he is not as stagnant as other so called super-villains, but you really have to read the whole run of Thanos stories from the 70's to the last few years to see the whole pattern.

    Unlike with Doom, Magneto, Luthor who may be written here and their as sympathetic or temporarily as misunderstood or whatever, they never essentially change, they are the same basic characters now as when they first appeared. Sure Luthor went from mad scientist to mad industrialist to president and super-villain, but he's still essentially the same amoral ruthless bastard he always way, who like Doom and Magneto, thinks he's better than everyone else, and always feels entitled.

    These are just my opinions and may be 100% wrong.
     
  15. Autovolt 127

    Autovolt 127 Get In The Titan, Prime!

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    Not really realistic but still rather fascinating.

    As long as Megatron stays the course, I think this whole redemption arc is actually compelling.
     
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  16. Mr. Chaos

    Mr. Chaos New Holder of the Matrix of Leakership

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    I love it because it has made him have greater depth. In almost every other version of Megatron we get almost nothing other than him being 'grrrr evil!"

    But this arc for him has been wonderful, showing the depth that makes him just all the more memorable.

    Put me in the camp of people who don't want him to go back to being evil. Heck, I want characters like Soundwave, who is also slowly moving towards the side of good, and Thundercracker to remain hero characters and for the comics to shift to other villains.

    For example... the Galactic Council or whatever they are called. Non-robot threats. Really show what happens when two different sides of a civil war must become allies.
     
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  17. lordcryotek

    lordcryotek M'Hael

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    I really think IDW should just go ahead and make the -acy's non-canon, they create so many problems for the rest of the narrative and are below even McCarthy's writing in terms of quality.
     
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  18. batfan007

    batfan007 Double the Dragon

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    What problems? What narrative? Can you be more specific, are you talking about a particular book?
     
  19. Andersonh1

    Andersonh1 Man, I've been here a LONG time Veteran

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    I think it's ruined IDW Megatron. They've tried to force a redemption arc on an irredeemable character.
     
  20. lordcryotek

    lordcryotek M'Hael

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    Start here: The Transformers: Autocracy - Transformers Wiki and read the "notes" and "errors" sections under each issue for all of the inconsistencies. If you need to, continue on with the notes section in Monstrosity and Primacy. I'd go into detail, but there are soooo many contradictory plot details in the -acy's that it seems like the authors did not bother to read any of the comics preceding these series. Aside from that, almost all of the characters act way different from the way they're otherwise portrayed in the IDW universe and tonally speaking it's completely different from anything else in the IDW universe (Megatron, Optimus and Hot Rod are all particularly out of character). It's like a highschooler's thrash metal song that someone insisted be added on to the beginning of a classic prog-rock album. Also, the art is offensively horrible.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2016
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