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This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on September 2024. | ||
| “ | Farewell, Maximals. With the destruction of Optimus Prime, the Decepticons and Predacons now take their rightful places as rulers of Cybertron. I, Megatron, have triumphed... Yeeesssss. | „ |
| ~ Megatron boasting about his victory in killing Optimus Prime |
| “ | Spiders spin their webs, yesss... but I spin them larger. | „ |
| ~ Megatron proving how good he is in strategy when he incorporates Blackarachnia's treachery in a plan he nearly wins. |
| “ | Victory is most delicious when seasoned with irony. Is it not? | „ |
| ~ Megatron revealing his Optimal Megatron body |
Megatron is the main antagonist of the Beast Wars era of the Transformers franchise, serving as the main antagonist of both Beast Wars: Transformers and Transformers: Beast Machines.
He is a Predacon renegade who lead his own gang, the Darksyders, in order to fulfill his own agenda in conquering Cybertron upon decrypting a message by his namesake who was the Decepticon leader. After crashlanding on prehistric Earth, he was the leader of the Predacons during the armed conflict called the Beast Wars. He later successfully conquers Cybertron and established a new order using mindless drones called Vehicons after pulling off a victory in the Beast Wars single-handedly, proving that he may not have his Decepticon namesake's army, but he has much more charisma and competence than the original would ever have.
He was voiced by David Kaye, who also voiced Cronus in Class of the Titans, and Jonathan Rook's alter-ego, Stretch Monster, in Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- Even at his most cruelest, Megatron is nothing but charmingly eloquent, comedic and hammy with a massive theatrical flair that can never make him detestable in the slightest, all in thanks to David Kaye's incredible performance that serves as one of his most iconic roles. Even in Beast Machines when a lot less hammy and comedic, still regains his theatrical charm and cold & calculating nature as well as the dread of his presence to still be a scene-stealing villain, before regaining his hammy personality by the series finale.
- Despite being Pure Evil, a bulk of his status relies on Megatron simply having grandiose evil plots and acts dampened by content standards due to the characters being restorable robots, while lacking the visceral and sadistic edge of the other more despicable Taruntulas who is frequently pitted against Megatron to show who is the more magnificent villain.
- While it no longer excuses or justifies his actions given his PE status, Megatron does have a tragic past. Back in Cyberton, the Predacons, including Megatron himself, faced notable discrimination from the Maximals due to the fact that they were descended from the Decepticons, who lost the Great War, causing Megatron to hold a hatred for Maximals and desire power for the Predacons. Despite no longer making him truly tragic or even sympathetic due to mainly being motivated by a selfish desire for power in the end, his background does explain why he became so power-hungry in the first place.
- Using a mask of obliviousness to the obvious treachery of his minions, Megatron frequently uses them for his own gain. Various examples include:
- Using Blackarachnia and Tarantulas' treacherous plans to leave the Earth to die to build a ship using a stasis pod which Megatron will use to thwart the Vok's plans and gain a boost in power while sacrificing them in order to ensure they don't pose further harm to him.
- When Terrorsaur betrays and usurps him, Megatron easily escapes his cell having prepared for the day anyway and allows Terrorsaur to lead to paint him as a mere fool unfit to be the leader and manipulate him into ending his own dreams of overthrowing Megatron and accept his command.
- When Blackarachnia tries to go behind his back having figured out she copied the data on his backup copy of the Golden Disk to herself before destroying it, secretly sets her up with the Maximal Silverbolt and then threatens the latter's life to force her into opening the door to the Ark for him, once again weaving the treacherous spider's plans for him.
- When Quickstrike and Tarantulas betray him and toss him to the lava when he absorbs power from the Decepticon Megatron's spark, Megatron quickly uses the lava into becoming a Transmetal II dragon, an alternate mode so powerful enough that it actually can match Optimus Primal's Optimal Optimus body.
- Even after Tarantulas' death, Megatron still uses his data and makes him yet again his greatest asset even after death to gain control over the Nemesis in the series finale and nearly brought the entire universe to heel, having been a few seconds away from victory and thwarted only by Dinobot II's sudden redemption.
- Having noted Rhinox's treacherous behaviour when he was reprogrammed to be a Predacon briefly, Megatron anticipates Tankor's betrayal when he was powered by Rhinox's spark and then uses him for his own ends to end up providing him the very tools he needs to reformat Cybertron to a machine only he controls.
- Inspires undying loyalty from Inferno and Scorponok. Even Quickstrike was loyal to him until Season 3 despite not even having any Predacon shell programming to brainwash him, just the power of his words.
- Upon having discovered the spyware in his lair planted by the Maximals, Megatron fakes the very destruction of the Predacons to manipulate them into using the remains to rebuild their ship and then hijack it so they could use it for their own ends. When things went awry, Megatron still wins as he shoots down the ship anyway to ensure they don't return to Cybertron and alert the Maximal High Command the Tripredacus Council and ensure his victory another day.
- When Megatron reprograms Rhinox to be a Predacon minion, he is not only the only Predacon to not be outsmarted by him, but even manages to use Rhinox's gloating to reverse the corruption programming.
- Using the cover of a fake truce upon having uncovered the threat of the Vok, manipulates and uses them for his own ends, never at a disadvantage at all and even orchestrates the very death of Optimus Primal in the very last scene of Season 1, which Megatron uses to place a huge blow to the Maximals and nearly succeeded in wiping them all out before Optimus' unexpected return from the dead.
- Having correctly estimated Rampage's indestructible spark will not be destroyed by an Energon blade, Megatron uses what is an obvious advantage to Rampage to turn it into an advantage for him alone as he makes use of it to slice half of Rampage's spark and use it to bring the barbaric Transformer to his control. He also quickly caught Rampage from trying to take the half of his spark back when he was asleep.
- A very notable moment of Megatron's control over Rampage when he orders him to shoot a mountain. Rampage was in a very easy position to shoot at him, with Megatron directly smiling at the blaster, as he knows even with this, Rampage would follow the orders and shoot at the mountain.
- In the season 2 finale, he allows himself to be captured, having been heavily implied to have known Tarantulas' status as a mole, to lure the Maximals to a trap to mine his secret Energon cache while he uses the useable portion of the destroyed Golden Disk and the very power of his words to manipulate Ravage to his side, ending any potential of the Tripredacus Council being a thorn on his side.
- Using Blackarachnia's treachery, he infiltrates the Ark and kills Optimus Prime, the greatest leader of the Autobots, having brought the entire universe to heel as he ends Season 2 having erased the heroes from existence and creating a new future where he ushers in a glorious Predacon rule over Cybertron. This was only undone due to Blackarachnia unexpectedly shooting him from the back and merely defeated by luck.
- Even with that however, Megatron simply moves on to use the heroes' preoccupation to revive Optimus Prime to destroy the Maximal base as a backup plan before securing the chip for their security system Sentinel for his own use.
- Secures a last-second victory of the Beast Wars, having freed himself from imprisonment on the Maximal ship and uses it to arrive to Cybertron far earlier than Maximals, and then with just the very power of his mind, single-handedly takes control over Cybertron, an impressive feat of brilliance still yet to be rivaled in Transformers history.
- Through careful use of his troops, Megatron keeps the Maximals on the run for the entire series, bypasses their shields and kills nearly all of them by the series finale.
- Faking his destruction at the end of Season 1 of Beast Machines, Megatron uses the guise of the kind-hearted Maximal Noble and feigns a bond with Nightscream to tame his dragon side, Savage, and then manipulates them into bringing him to his citadel and ascend to a fully mechanical being.
- Frequently manipulates the Maximals, with the most impressive time being when he impersonates Optimus Prime when talking to Optimus Primal, to not only gain access to the Oracle and absorb all the sparks to achieve his long-desired ascension to godhood, but also foils an attempt by a stalemate by Primal by severing his link to the Oracle, thus granting him the ability to not only control the Oracle, but absorb all the sparks and become a virtual god, and be the sole controller of Cybertron's very fate.
- Despite having been frequently mocked for being a cheap imitation with delusions of grandeur, Megatron surpasses his Decepticon namesake and lives up to his god-complex having grander plans when one fails and has only come closer and closer to victory before having even succeeded at becoming a god as well and nearly overriding and replacing Primus, the creator of the Transformers himself, as the core of Cybertron, only thwarted by Optimus gaining a final second advantage that lead to him sacrificing himself to end Megatron's threat once and for all.
- Overall, Megatron ends his tenure as one of the most successful Transformers villains to date, having set a new Machiavellian standard for the franchise's villains and overall serving as the very basis of the future incarnations of Megatron, who all end up more charismatic and competent than before.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- Attempts to cause various time paradoxes that would wipe out humanity, and then the Autobots and eventually the Transformers race as a whole, all plans that would wipe out countless lives from existence in order to rewrite reality itself and secure his power over Cybertron.
- Orders Dinobot to kill Quickstrike, one of his more loyal minions at the time, to prove his loyalty.
- Cuts out half of Rampage's spark and places it on a vice to torture him to submission.
- Unleashes cyber-raptors to attack human settlements.
- To gain access to the Ark, Megatron has Tarantulas create a device that will directly hijack his spark to control for him for his own ends, him being aware of their surroundings regardless.
- Sacrifices nearly all of his men to secure control over the Nemesis to lay waste to Earth, intending to use the Nemesis' destructive power to conquer the universe.
- Murders Tigerhawk and Noble in cold blood for getting in the way of his plans.
- Uses a virus for a genocidal takeover over Cybertron, trapping the sparks of all Transformers kind in his citadel to recycle their deactivated bodies for his mindless machines
- Uses the sparks of Waspinator, Rhinox and Silverbolt to create Thrust, Jetstorm and Tankor respectively & occasionally uses electric torture on them to assert his authority, which drive the latter two to despair and insanity as they were aware of their surroundings.
- Attempts to destroy Cybertron and all life on it, organic and robotic, to rebuild it into a technosphere only he controls.
Trivia[]
- Beast Wars Megatron and his 2021 counterpart are, alongside the Animated incarnation and the Aligned incarnation, the only versions of Megatron to be Magnificent Baddies.
- Megatron doesn't count in the Japanese dub as he is much less of a credible threat there than he is in the series, being much more bubbly and even shrieks like a little girl whenever he is fired upon or startled.
External Links[]
- Megatron at the Villains wiki
- Megatron at the Beast Wars wiki
- Megatron at the Transformers wiki
- Megatron at the Pure Evil wiki
- Megatron at the Ultimate Evil wiki
- Megatron at the Shonen Villains wiki
- Megatron at the Fictional Characters wiki
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Generation One Continuity Transformers: Animated Transformers Film Series Aligned Continuity Other Continuities | ||