A trend I've noticed a lot recently, even officially in the IDW comics and the dubiously canon Aligned novels, is Galvatron being a different entity from Megatron. The question that's been in my mind for a while is... Why is that? I don't get this aversion towards the two characters being one and the same. Galvatron as a character is essentially Megatron in a new body. He looks a bit different, but he still acts the same, thinks the same, and talks the same as he did when he was Megatron up until Rodimus Prime throws him into a planet. I get that Megatron is the most important and prominent villain in the entire Transformers franchise, and as such, there's going to be a lot of attachment to him, but why does upgrading his design and changing his name put so many people off? I'd really appreciate the feedback, because I see this choice to make Galvatron a different character in a lot of good material, both official and fan-created, and I just don't understand it.

 

To me, Galvatron is the butterfly and Megatron is the caterpillar. They ARE the same entity

 

Why rob your audience of both characters? It would mean if you have Megatron, you can't have Galvatron. And if you've got Galvatron, you can't have Megatron. Making them separate individuals means you can have both at the same time. Unless you're having a Time War.

 

Because Hasbro has been trying to sweep Rodimus Prime, Season 3, and the general memory of Optimus dying in TFTM under the rug. The backlash was massive and Hasbro wants to avoid ever repeating that mistake again. Galvatron is too heavily associated with the time they tried to replace Optimus Prime by killing him. (As in, Megatron becoming Galvatron was the very next thing to happen in the movie.) So even in Transformers Prime where we get Megatron resurrected by Unicron, you know, the exact same thing as the original Galvatron..... Hasbro calls him "Unicron Megatron" instead of "Galvatron". But Hasbro still wants to hold on to the copyright they have on the name and take the opportunity to make more toys. So now we get Megatron AND Galvatron.

However, they DID use Galvatron in the live action movies as Megatron reborn again. So the mainstream audience now knows Galvatron as an upgraded Megatron that cheated death. But apparently he's going back to being Megatron in TLK.....

 

damn, thought the title was setting up for a punchline

 

I don't think it's so simple an issue, mostly because of some degree of change fatigue and options.

In the separate camp, you've got the character freedom to have Galvatron have any sort of background as the author(s) want, which gives some freshness. Ancient Warlord Galvatron has been popular and interesting and something that can't be done if they're one and the same. You also have the potential Galvatron/Megatron showdown and the ability to tell two different stories with the two characters. You also really buck the toy trend by having Megatron toys get a redeco and getting a nameslap to keep the copyright active by having a really different character.

There's also the issue that most Megatron to Galvatron evolutions have mostly never really been explored. G1's cartoon kind of threw the chance away by aiming at a younger audience overall and making Galvatron counterproductive. After that, it's been a nameslap on Megatrons new deco, again never exploring the change in any visual media. The rare exceptions have been the comics, where Galvatron got some real chances to shine.

In the same camp, you've got some bare bones to choose from, with the many comic Galvatrons having some good stories, but even they don't really explore it that much, but at least they do use the idea. Frankly, I don't think any version has been really explored enough, but that's just me.

I think if you can blame anything, it's the success of the movies. At that point, Optimus, Bumblebee, Starscream, and Megatron got cemented to the point where even the variances of the years prior are mostly ignored. Look at how many Rodimus Prime's we've gotten since then, or even anything post-movie for that matter.

 

If you want Megatron to become Galvatron then you can watch the TFTM and G1 cartoon or the 2001 RID cartoon or the Unicron Trilogy animated series. There are many continuities that Megatron becomes Galvatron. Nobody says you have to read or watch a series that has them as separate characters.
I don't think it's an aversion to the idea that they should be the same character. I think that the stories that can be told with them being separate beings are better and greater in number than those with them being the same.

 

If Megatron and Galvatron were to exist in the same timespace, then for me the story would need to unclude time travel or multiverse theory. As long as it's explained in a way that alludes to them both being the same entity from seperate times, I'm good with it. It cones down to a decent script.

 

Obviously this is so cerain people Hasbro caters to wouldnt have to go without the most famous characters for an instant.
I think sadly we have no choice to be happy we get anything post movie appearing in any modern fiction at all.
Also the backlash post movie is a revisionist lie produced by adult 84-85 diehards in order to organise a genocide against any real change in the franchise.

 

Just make sure your headcannon has Megs being transformed into Galvatron at some point in the distant future, then subsequently sent back to the past without memory of it. You can even hold on to the certainty that they'll end up doing just that in the (comics, or whatever you're following) if they just have time to get there, and spot the various hints they give, which others dismiss as being TFTM easter eggs. Bam! Galvatron is Megatron.

 

Megatron also became Galvatron in RID1. In the Unicron Trilogy he goes from Megatron to Galavatron to Megatron to Galvatron to Megatron to Galvatron cause apparently he can't make up his bloody mind what his name is. During that period between RID1 and Cybertron Galvatron was always just a repaint of Megatron. He didn't even get a new body it was just every time he got repainted he became Galvatron and then when he actually did get a new body he went back to Megatron again until that got repainted too.

G1 Galvatron and AoE Galvatron are really the only versions of Galvatron where he is both the same character as Megatron and not a repaint of Megatron.

The real reason that they some times make Galvatron a different character is because in the G1 comics they were separate characters. Plus there has never been a Galvatron who was a different character from Megatron and was just a Megatron repaint. The repaint Galvatrons are always the same character. People hate when Galvatron is just a repaint and since that's commonly associated with Megatron and Galvatron being the same character people also tend to hate them being the same character.

Personally I also hate the repaints but I don't associate them being the same character with repaints because I never got into any version of Transformers where they were shown to be different characters. I've only really known Galvatron as an upgraded Megatron. If they're going to exist at the same time there better be time travel involved cause to me Megatron and Galvatron fighting each other and arguing is like watching the Doctor insult his other incarnations.

Oh wow I was skinny wasn't I. I've never seen it from this side before. Sand shoes what was I thinking?

 

I think you're kind of misinterpreting things.

Galvatron being a seperate entity from Megatron was done in IDW in order to do something different with Galvatron the character (since Galvatron has always been much different from Megatron personality wise), to seperate him from a pre-existing character, so that he becomes a character of his own and not an extension of another character, and to echo back to the Marvel UK comics, where a time-travelling Galvatron acted as a character and villainous rival to the present-day Megatron (who ended up never becoming Galvatron in those comics).

As for Aligned, they pretty much just took the history of IDW and more or less pasted it in their own. So I guess Galvatron was one of those ideas taken?

It's not that anyone hates the idea of turning Megatron into Galvatron. It's just something one continuity did, and I guess another that liked the idea.

Plus didn't we just get a Megatron turning into Galvatron in AOE?

 

Okay, let's be honest here. We can talk about 'giving characters backstory' and 'room to explore new ideas' and these may be true. But the answer, the real true answer, is one simple thing: Branding.

Hasbro and IDW, at this point in our culture's age, have seen the explosion of the Comic Book Hero and Villain. So of the most talked about movies and shows are comic book characters. Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Captain America, so on. And DC and Marvel, thanks to the Dark Ages (aka the 90s) learned a VERY important lesson: unless the story is REALLY GOOD... changing your characters name and design NEVER works out. Electric Superman? No. Ben Riley as Spider-Man? While I am a fan it did NOT work out well no matter what they did. Turning characters like Gambit and Cyclops into Horsemen/Apocalypse himself? Ugh. Hell, even legacy characters who are taking up the mantle are panned until they prove themselves; people forget that only a few years ago Miles Morales, the new Ms. Marvel, and the Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle were INSANELY hated. Hell, the Kyle Rayner backlash...

...okay, back to point. As much as people claim they want to see evolution, growth, development, and something 'new'... this is a bold face lie. People want the familiar, the known. Just look at Transformers itself: Optimus truk, no munkey, the hatred if a character gets a new voice actor, the movie designs are too alien, Bumblebee isn't a camaro, so on. And now we are going to do something INSANELY radical: we are going to take our main villain and alter his look completely, his name completely, and make him a 'rebuilt' or 'evolved' version. Longtime fans would be okay with this, but for the casual fans? "Where is Megatron?!?!"

By separating the characters Hasbro can continue developing the brand that is Megatron. They can explore Megatron's motivation, make him an autobot, so on... but mark my words... in almost all new media (so exclude the movies, as they are now proven stable for money) he will always remain Megatron.

 

I got to admit, I don't quite like Galvatron being a different character than Megatron, because I really like the idea of Megatron basically selling his soul for more power, and also in the process replacing what more be the rational strategist in him with an irrational maniac.

 

The unicron trilogy's naming inconsistencies with megatron to galvatron are due to mistranslation ultimately. In the Japanese/original versions of those shows it's essentially

Armada:megatron to super megatron
Energon:galvatron to super galvatron (new body)
Cybertron:master megatron to I don't remember(second new body)

 

I think for Super Link his upgraded form was Galvatron General, or Galvatron G for short.

His Galaxy Force upgraded form was known as Master Galvatron.

 

I've seen a lot of arguments about Galvatron's identity (crisis?) because of how he shows similarities and differences to his past life to the point where TFWiki.net has a section about it. Probably has something to do with that.

Really, the concept of Galvatron being separate from Megatron is as old when the character was first introduced in the Japanese G1 continuity (it was an error and even got retconned, but still), along with there being a Galvatron in a Japanese Beast Wars series who is certainly different from Megatron.

I feel that IDW making Galvatron a separate character was a good decision (unlike say, making Star Saber a hideous zealot). By doing so, they can satisfy both the fans who want to see Megatron and the fans who want to see Galvatron. And really, changing Megatron into Galvatron would maybe be a little too reckless for a comic series meant to last for a really long time, and they wouldn't want to make any big (possibly irreversible) mistakes, now would they?

 

Just before the 1986 movie was out, the action figure Galvatron was sold and his bio said that he wanted to become leader of the Decepticons and he was a city commander. There was nothing said about Megatron turning into him. So many played with that Galvatron as him being another entity than Megatron until the movie went out and some may have kept that idea.

Galvatron (1986) - Decepticon City Commander - www.tfu.info

 

I'd be down with that. Marvel UK did the same thing with Cyclonus and Scourge to make them Targetmasters in the present day despite being created in the future.

How come no one mentions Bumblebee and Goldbug being separate entities in idw?

I wouldn't mind going the Dreamwave route and have Soundblaster made a separate character to Soundwave.

 

I like keeping them separate, because otherwise Megatron just feels like a placeholder until he becomes Galvatron.