| “ | Starscream. His victory reminded me of something I swore never to forget: winning means winning people over. The closest I came to outright victory wasn't Simanzi. It was four million years ago, before my Decepticons took up arms—back when I had the people on my side. I lost the war the moment I gave the order to fight. | „ |
| ~ Megatron having come to understand the true meaning of Victory |
| “ | I'm not trying to set an example, if that's what you mean. I've made my choice, Rodimus. You're free to make yours. You're all free to make yours. Anyone who wishes to leave should leave. No questions need be asked, no reasons given. The same if you want to stay. You don't have to justify your actions, or explain your motives, or invite others to scrutinize your conscience. Either you stay or you go. You don't need anyone's permission. You don't need anyone's blessing. Make whatever decision you wish to make—but make it for yourself. And let me assure you: there is nothing in this room but understanding. | „ |
| ~ Megatron to the crew of the Lost Light before heading off to meet with Tarn |
| “ | Peace Through Empathy | „ |
| ~ Megatron's new ideology, combining his old one with Optimus Prime's. |
D-16 now known as Megatron is the main antagonist of the first half of the Transformers IDW Comics, later turned major protagonist for most of the story's remaining chapters.
He was a miner bot who was forcibly assigned to the Energon Mines by the Functionist Council and began to spread writings calling out the Senate, which inspired several others to rise against the corrupt government forming the Decepticons, with Megatron becoming their leader and slowly becoming a more vile and heartless warlord who only lived for conquest until the moment where he realized the error of his ways and chose to redeem himself, pursuing redemption by ensuring a legacy that is more than death and carnage.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
As D-16[]
- Ever since he was young, he aspired to become a medic but couldn't act on it due to the doctrine of functionism which declared that a Cybertronian's role and rights were decided by the Alt. Mode one was born with.
- Disgusted by the corrupt system instilled by Nominus Prime's government, he wrote a treatise in which he expressed his beliefs on how the pacifist dissent and the exchange of ideas could help revolutionize the current system. His writings in the long run inspired hundreds if not thousands of Cybertronians to rise against the Functionist Council and fight for their freedom.
- His samizdat writings began to circulate in Cybertron's underground, spawning the original Decepticon movement, its name derived from its own slogan, "You are being deceived", warning the population of the Senate's true colors.
- Upon being relocated to Messatine, he worked with Terminus to continue smuggling his writings back to Cybertron and continue to inspire rebellions. Later after Terminus had his food supply cut off due to being involved in an incident in the mine, Megatron kept him alive by sharing his own Energon with him.
- When a surge of energy caused the mine to be evacuated, he went back inside to look for Terminus. While he did ultimately choose to instead take his own unpublished works, it was only after he had searched for his friend and was unable to find him.
- After Decimus announced that the mines would be automated and the workers relocated, he saw a miner be murdered by the Senate Guard which led him to hurl his pickaxe at Decimus in retribution for the lost life. Upon being subdued shortly after by the Senate Guard, he killed him by smashing his head in, and was instantly horrified by what he had done, remaining numb and unaware of the ongoing riot.
- When he first joined the gladiatorial ring, he was repulsed by how Clench mercilessly murdered his opponents.
As a Decepticon[]
- After Soundwave was sent to spy on him by Ratbat, Megatron who was impressed by how Soundwave treated his cassette assets as equals as opposed to the teachings of the senate, invited him to the pits and allowed him to read his mind, which showed Soundwave his honest and true desire for all Cybertronians to be equal, moving him enough to join the cause.
- Though he abandoned his original ideology more and more from this point onwards, he's still shown to be a truly honorable individual and a genuine extremist as all his actions in spite of how horrible (such as requesting Senator Shockwave for Jhiaxus' teachings to build a loyal combiner and murdering Decimus publically) did have an effect in changing Cybertron and began to cleanse the corrupted government organizations. Not to mention that he actually did succeed in some parts as he managed to kill the corrupt Sentinel Prime in honorable combat.
- He began to admire and respect Orion Pax who had been assigned as the Autobot Leader since he'd been inspired by D-16's old writings, even talking about his respect for Pax to Bludgeon.
- When Orion approached Decepticon territory, Megatron had him brought in peacefully to talk with him and tried to convince him of Zeta Prime's true intentions, even proposing an alliance between the two factions.
- When Zeta Prime turned on Orion and tried to kill him. Megatron intervened and saved his life once again offering him to team up against the corrupt Prime.
- He and Orion lead the attack to the citadel on Iacon and he successfully takes down Zeta and ends the corruption within the Autobots.
- After returning to the chaos filled Cybertron after Typticon’s arrival, he headed out to investigate the situation by himself, unwilling to put the lives of any of his followers on the line.
- When he and Grimlock were swallowed by Trypticon, the two set aside their differences and fought off the predators within the giant, working together to destroy Typticon’s internal power cell and knocking him offline.
- When Pentius (who now inhabited Trypticon’s body) revealed his true intentions of consuming Cybertron with the titan, he left by himself to stop it before he could awaken and installed a contingency plan in case he failed where he would have his men burn down Iacon. Atop Trypticon, he was confronted by Optimus and tried to trick him into killing him as he believed that his death would also end Pentius due to their link.
- He agreed to abide by the Tyrest Accord during the war in spite of having previously rejected his ideals.
- He joined forces with Optimus to stop Thunderwing after he drove himself insane due to experimenting on himself with his polydermical grafting procedure after Megatron rejected it. After Thunderwing was brought back to life by Shockwave, Megatron deployed the Predacons to Cybertron and authorized them to do whatever it takes to stop him.
- After escaping custody from the Autobots since he had used them to return to Cybertron and taking his new Armored Bomber form, he joined the fight against Galvatron’s forces by taking on Deceptigod (an amalgam made by the brainwashed forms of every single Decepticon soldier) by himself all while trying to resist the D-Void’s brainwashing himself. He succeeded and freed the Decepticons, as well as contributing to the Autobots’ victory over Galvatron, at the cost of losing his arm and being gravely injured.
- He refused to comply with Shockwave’s plans of using him as a space bridge to bring back Galvatron as well as Nova Prime.
- After being freed by the combined forces of the exiled Autobots and Decepticons, he carried Ironhide to safety before being ripped in half by Galvatron.
- He worked with Bumblebee to escape Waspinator and Galvatron by using his fusion cannon to knock out Galvatron.
- He used the Space Bridge technology within him to transport Metroplex’s thumb back to him from the Lost Light as he had realized it carried one of Shockwave’s regeneration ores, giving the Titan the necessary Power Boost to take down Shockwave’s Necrotitan
- He placed himself and the Decepticons under Bumblebee’s command in order to organize a counter-strike against Shockwave.
- He ultimately chose to spare Galvatron after finding him weakened in Shockwave’s base despite all their past indignities.
- After Bumblebee was shot and killed by Shockwave, he went in a blind rage and attacked Shockwave, holding his own against the nigh-omnipotent enemy until Optimus arrived to join the fight.
- After Optimus tried and failed to reason with Shockwave, Megatron chose to redeem himself and call out Shockwave for his atrocities, comparing it to himself and using Bee’s insignia to declare himself an Autobot. Said action stunned Shockwave enough that he lost control of his time machine and allowed his pre-Shadowplay self to emerge once again, and so the horrified Shockwave shut down his operation, saving the entire universe and then asked Megatron and Optimus to give him a mercy killing, to which they sadly complied.
As an Autobot[]
- When Optimus expressed his doubts, he reassured him that his change of heart was genuine.
- When Rodimus taunted him over the certainty of his execution, he maintained himself cool and controlled and simply asked him to give Optimus a communicube with the request to move the trial to Luna 2’s Raskol Arena. This request was done so that he could exploit the moon’s different legal system in case that the trial was biased or unjust
- When the trial was interrupted by an attack of a force of Decepticons led by Snap Trap and Hun-Grr, he didn't aid them in any way and refused to escape, quelling the uprising.
- After Starscream’s speech made him realize that if he was executed now he would leave behind a legacy of only death and destruction, he invoked a forgotten law that stated that an individual who had committed sufficient heinous crimes could be judged by the Knights of Cybertron, asking that he could join the crew of the Lost Light in the search for them and Cyberutopia, securing a new legacy and being willing to submit to any kind of punishment afterwards.
- He agreed to go to therapy sessions with Rung expressing his past and current way of thinking as well as refusing to fight Whirl when he attacked him.
- He oversaw a team bringing a mysterious coffin aboard the ship and reprimanded Trailcutter for cracking it open during a drunken dare.
- When Skids accused Megatron for being responsible in the future for the crashing of the Lost Light and the vanishing of several bots, he accepted the blame and allowed himself and Ravage to be imprisoned as he was not sure if he could have done it in the future.
- During his imprisonment with Ravage, he justified his change of heart and sadly told him he could offer no consolation, opening up about seeing himself as a monster.
- After finding more dead bodies in the closet, he was able to identify the DJD as responsible for the recent attacks, clearing the crew of the lack of trust between them.
- He used his mass-displacement to shrink down and go through the quantum fog to deactivate the ship’s quantum engines, saving Ofsted XVII from destruction and inviting Ravage to stay by his side.
- When Rodimus led a team back in time to stop Brainstorm, Megatron had a talk with the past Orion by pretending to be his younger self and used the young bot’s optimism as a source of affirmation for himself.
- After finding out that Rewind had destroyed his past self’s spark, he chose to accept his coming demise knowing that the world would truly be better without him and his influence. After Whirl set the timelines back to how they were, he retreated to his quarters instead of celebrating with the others.
- When he and Rodimus received an S.O.S. regarding an infestation of personality ticks on the Vis Vitalis, they headed over to help and their combined charisma was enough to overdose and kill the ticks the moment they entered the room.
- He was among those who ventured to a holomatter duplicate of Earth in order to save Swerve’s dying mind. While there he used a holomatter avatar and after cutting himself with glass it led him to understand the fragility of humanity and realize that this did not make them weak.
- He and Magnus studied Swerve’s injuries which had been caused by a bullet shot by Dominus Ambos, discovering a map to the Necroworld lodged in his skull.
- Though he was constantly trying to avoid the day he’d be judged and had plans to use a time briefcase to escape, as well as telling the crew of the Lost Light to make a detour to the Necroworld after Rodimus revealed he now had a map to Cyberutopia, he completely abandoned this traits after seeing the garden the Necrobot had made around his marker in the Necroworld, where there were thousands upon thousands of flowers, each representing a life he had taken. The beautiful manifestation of all he’d done caused him to realize the future can’t be avoided and made him bury the time briefcase among the flowers.
- While he did attack Tailgate upon waking up to find him performing mnemosurgery on him, this was justified not only due to Megatron’s fear of it due to being traumatized by the time the Senate tried to use Shadowplay on him, but it was also a scheme made by Getaway so that Megatron could be executed or imprisoned. This experience is what finally motivated Megatron to abandon all forms of violence and declare himself a pacifist. He also proved his vow was genuine later on when the serial killer Sunder infiltrated the Lost Light and he tried to reason with him instead of attacking him.
- He participated in an excursion into the past in order to honor the crew members that had been killed on their journey.
- He oversaw the campaign to liberate Milarium from Rust Giants but didn’t join the mission himself in order to keep his vow of pacifism.
- While he did strike Minimus Ambus, it was because he was among those that were attacked by a psychic weapon that made them experience horrible visions, in Megatron’s case the screams of every organic he’d killed. He was horrified after realizing what he had done and apologized to Minimus.
- He and Rodimus led a small team to a Rodpod in order to track what had caused the attack, only to learn it was a trap staged by the DJD to lure them back to Necroworld and get revenge on Megatron for renouncing the Decepticon cause.
- When the Autobot team found a teleport chamber and Brainstorm proposed escaping, Megatron denied and gave a motivational speech fueled by him finally understanding how truly alike organic and mechanical life is due to the psychic attack, convincing everyone else to stay and fight as well.
- He went out to meet with Tarn one on one and surrendered under the condition that no one else would be harmed.
- While he and Tarn walked, he apologized to him for corrupting him into who he was and even lamented that Brainstorm’s attempt to kill his past self had failed.
- When Tarn began to beat him to the ground for his changed ideals, he refused to retaliate and merely chuckled at the idea that the Fool’s Energon he’d been drinking had caused his nature to change.
- After being healed, he refused to take part in the battle against the DJD and rejected the new fusion cannon Brainstorm had built for him from the teleport chamber, telling the group to cherish the time they had left instead of wasting it in combat.
- He later confessed to Ratchet that the reason he didn’t want to fight was because he was afraid that if he did he’d fall back to his violent tendencies and become the monster he was in the past once again.
- After Ratchet revealed that Fool’s Energon was a lie and that Megatron had truly been in control of his actions the whole time, combined with witnessing Ravage being torn in half by Tarn, he finally chose to join the battle; succeeding in forming a link with the black hole and bringing back Whirl’s arm as well as donning the new fusion cannon Brainstorm had made.
- He took on the DJD himself while the rest retreated and took Ravage to treat his injuries, feigning being defeated in order to draw all the members of the DJD close, revealing his charade and trapping them all within a force field created by the generators from Trailbreaker’s body.
- Once inside the forcefield, he unleashed the full power of Anti-Matter from the black hole on the DJD and killed every single one of them, finally ending one of his biggest mistakes.
- He ripped out Tarn’s mask before his death and put it on his chest, intending to remain inside the forcefield so that he could die as a Decepticon by allowing the Anti-Matter to destroy him.
- After being saved by Rodimus, he comforted Ravage in his final moments.
- After nearly attacking the Autobots out of grief, he chose to leave for everyone’s safety before he was stopped by Terminus who had been rescued by the Necrobot from across time.
- When the Galactic Council dropped a geobomb on the Necroworld, he paid his last respects to Ravage before returning with the others to Cybertron.
- After the crew realized they were now in a parallel universe where Megatron had never been born and the Functionist Council still ruled, he ordered the crew to surrender in an attempt to reason with the council and avoid a confrontation.
- When the Anti-Vocationist League tried to save them and were defeated quickly, he aided in the battle, breaking out of his cuffs and turned the tide without even lifting a finger.
- While watching Six-of-Twelve’s message, he gathered everyone so they could save Rung and prevent the council from finding Vector Sigma.
- He called out Rodimus for his interest in Luna 2’s teleporters, being more concerned with chasing down the Lost Light than saving the people on the planet.
- Due to the lack of weapons in the timeline, he used what little he had on an offensive while ordering Nine-of-Twelve to lead evacuations. His tactics allowed the defenders to distract Luna 2 long enough for all the refugees to escape safely.
- When Terminus proposed that Megatron stay behind in the Functionist Universe, he refused as while he liked the idea he wanted to make amends back home, answer for his crimes and remain with the Lost Light as the crew had become his second chance.
- After assuring Clicker over Rung’s choices against functionism, he stayed behind for a moment to say his goodbye to Terminus who had elected to stay behind in the alternate universe.
- After being left behind as Luna 2 transported away, he chose to make the most of the situation and visited the Anti-Vocationist League’s scattered cells and united groups all over the planet under a combination of Prime’s slogan and his old ideology: “Peace Through Empathy”.
- He became the leader of the AVL and drew the alternate Orion and Impactor in, simultaneously working as a medic, finally fulfilling his original dream.
- When the Functionist Council built planetary engines into Cybertron, Megatron had the AVL follow them through the Warren in order to warn several alien populations of the council’s genocidal intentions.
- After being transported back to his native universe, he immediately contacted Rodimus to warn him and dismayed the Autobot’s concerns that he was the one leading the invasion by showing him the Council’s “Primus” weapon and sending coordinates for rescue.
- He had all his friends freed from the Architect, including the Decepticons.
- He treated Drift who had been suffering from a zero point and managed to heal him despite the condition being supposedly untreatable.
- When Epistemus proposed blowing up the false Primus, Megatron refused due to knowing there were still innocent Cybertronians trapped inside. His dedication to saving those lives allowed the group to create a plan where they would open 12 different Matrixes on each of Primus’ hotspots in order to kill the Functionists by overloading Vector Sigma.
- When the Magnificence revealed himself to have masterminded an idea to blow Primus up, Megatron distracted him long enough for Nickel to simply crush him. He later had the Lost Light turn around to help save the universe and coordinated with Flame to ally with the Grand Architect’s troops.
- He and Rodimus went to the Nova Point of the planet however after the Matrixes refused to open, he convinced Rodimus to give one final speech for the crew to confirm their morality and willpower.
- After Prowl arrived to declare that since the Knights of Cybertron were fictional, Megatron would have to once again stand trial under the Galactic Council, he agreed to go with no protests and convinced Rodimus to stand down.
- He convinced the Council to let him go on one last victory lap with the crew of the Lost Light.
- During his last drink with his friends at Swerve’s, he lamented that he had wasted his life in a cycle of endless violence.
- At some point he advised Ultra Magnus to destroy the Magnus Armor, something he ultimately chose to do in order to live the rest of his life as his own bot.
- At his trial, when the punishment was either infinite imprisonment or execution, he accepted that either of those fates were fitting and held no arguments even though Rodimus and others tried to testify for him and give false information to get him free.
- During his last discussion with Magnus and Rodimus, he revealed that he had always kept the Rodimus Star in spite of previously viewing it as a senseless sentiment bidding both of his friends farewell before peacefully walking to his fate.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- In spite of how remorseful he is and the fact that he spent the entire remainder of his life trying to amend and atone for all he did, we can't ignore that his war crimes are far too severe for him to be considered NPG at any point, something that he himself knows and is willing to accept the death sentence for:
- He began the Great War which was the greatest tragedy in Cybertronian history and led to millions (possibly billions) of casualties all over not only Cybertron but in other worlds as well. His war is also what led to the “death” of Cybertron (and by extent Primus) in the first place, as the destruction of natural resources and the energy crisis, left the planet a dead and uninhabitable husk filled to the brim with toxic radiation and forced the Cybertronians to continue their war offworld and even then he’s also responsible for causing considerable damage to other planets including the Earth. The war lasted a total of four million years which were considered the darkest period in the Transformers race’s history.
- After accomplishing his goal of killing Zeta Prime, he swiftly betrayed Orion by shooting him in the back, which became one of the most infamous moments in their history as it was the moment in which Megatron showed his true colors for the first time and the point in which he began to abandon his original goals in favor of senseless destruction and carnage. Immediately afterwards, he conquered Iacon and declared himself as the ruler of Cybertron, having his soldiers patrol the streets in order to find and kill remaining Autobots under the charade that they were "keeping the peace".
- After finding out that Orion, now Optimus Prime, was organizing a rebellion against him, he organized a full strike against the Citadel and unleashed Zeta's vamparc annihilator on the Autobots, later trying to get Optimus to surrender by holding Hot Rod hostage.
- He freed Pentius only for the purpose of using him to navigate the planet of Junkion due to the Quintesson's expertise on the area, chaining him down and keeping him as a slave he often mistreated. Later when he was ambushed by the Terrorcons, he killed Pentius by ripping out his spark to use as a power source for himself in the battle. Later he even took it out to use on Trypticon.
- Even after being purified by Optimus with the Matrix of Leadership, he vowed to never stop hating him which led a saddened Optimus to finally understand that his old friend was truly gone.
- After being freed from custody, he wrote a second peace treaty in which he described continuing to fight the war until the very notion of conflict was literally inconceivable and that then and only then would he finally give up his fusion cannon as a sign of change.
- Wishing to exploit friendships in order to prove attachment was a weakness, he corrupted Optimus’ old friend Damus and turned him into Tarn, who became arguably the most vicious, and devoted Decepticon of all time, and he did it all simply out of spite for Optimus. This makes him directly responsible for every single thing that Tarn would end up doing, and even Megatron himself later comes to be horrified by the vile nature of the bot and is ultimately the one who kills him.
- With total war going nowhere, he would go on to develop a six-stage infiltration protocol to be used for conquering targeted planets.
- He nearly killed Spider-Man by using him as a power source for himself and the Decepticons, extracting his radioactive blood and using it to master a powerful Energon isotope which he then used on himself and his Decepticons to copy the superhero’s powers.
- He caused the event known as The Surge after exiling all the Autobots into the dead Cybertron and then using his army to storm thousands of Autobot Camps across the entire galaxy and achieve a galaxy-wise domination for a total of at least a year. This event would come to be considered one of the Five Dark Epochs of the war and nearly led to the extinction of the entire Transformer race.
- After gaining his Stealth Bomber body, he manufactured thousands of guns from his old body and had them transported to Earth and found by a group of gun runners to then illegally transport them throughout Earth and spreading his consciousness throughout all of North America, manipulating a human called Joe Gladki to attempt to assassinate Bumblebee by using his paranoia against him.
- He used a signal from the D-Void to brainwash the Aerialbots and forcefully meld them into a hopelessly insane Superion that had no will or consciousness of itself and upon acknowledging its uselessness, he left it alone to die in the wilderness of a wastelanded Cybertron.
- In spite of taking an oath of pacifism later on, he is still a lethal individual, and probably has the highest kill count out of every Cybertronian in the entire continuity. He brutally murdered millions of innocents and admitted to Optimus that he took pleasure in each Autobot he brutally murdered, shocking even himself. While his very first kill was something he showed great remorse for, as he rose through the ranks in the Gladiatorial pits he slowly abandoned this and began to take pride in bringing down his opponents, as he became more brutal and excessive and even took control of the entire operation. Even after his redemption, he still had one last rageful moment where he bitterly murdered Tarn and the D.J.D using Antimatter.
- He also had an incredibly sadistic side and took great enjoyment in combat, often going into rage attacks whenever he lost a battle to Optimus and constantly abusing some of his soldiers (most notably Starscream and the Seekers) physically and mentally, while also diminishing all their lives as expendable to his cause and showing extreme willingness to take their lives should they turn against him.
- While Ramjet was indeed planning to betray him, Megatron brutally beat him to death simply to take out his anger over his failed infiltration protocol and later savagely tore his corpse apart, keeping his head as a trophy.
- His actions against Starscream also left him deeply traumatized and years later when Bumblebee questioned Starscream on why he always chose to remain alone, he revealed that it was due to the several beatings Megatron gave him which taught him to always be on guard and by himself. This is further expanded on when Starscream was nearly killed by Vigilem after he took Megatron’s form, causing the Seeker to freeze in fear.
- He also had an incredibly sadistic side and took great enjoyment in combat, often going into rage attacks whenever he lost a battle to Optimus and constantly abusing some of his soldiers (most notably Starscream and the Seekers) physically and mentally, while also diminishing all their lives as expendable to his cause and showing extreme willingness to take their lives should they turn against him.
- He is considerably wrathful and quick to rage, even after his redemption he has several moments of snapping at others and is overall a pretty jerkish and rude person. He also has two occasions where he physically struck his friends unprovoked, the first being out of desperation when he found out Brainstorm was going back in time to kill him, attacking Perceptor and demanding he be sent back, and the second being after Ravage’s death when he nearly turned his fusion cannon on the Autobots in the Lost Light.
- In spite of taking the side of good several times throughout the war and before his redemption, it was only ever out of pragmatism as he only helped because it would further his own agenda and immediately turned on Orion by shooting him in the back after Zeta’s death.
- He is still shown to be pretty manipulative and secretive regarding his personal plans as he lied to Optimus about wanting to have his trial on Luna 2 in order to be able to accommodate the massive number of spectators that would show to watch, while in reality he was planning to take advantage of the different laws that are used in said moon, while it was for good reasons, he could have at least told Optimus instead of changing his plea to not guilty. Later on after Trailcutter was killed by the DJD, he opted to remove the forcefield generators that had been planted on his body to reassure other Autobots and later had Ravage retrieve one of Brainstorm’s time briefcases before their destruction intending to use them as a contingency plan to save himself.
Trivia[]
- Megatron is the only Transformers character yet to be both Inconsistently Admirable and Inconsistently Heinous
- Megatron at the start of the IDW comics would not have been IA and he even reached a point where he was approved as Pure Evil before his tragic backstory and genuine intentions were revealed, ultimately culminating in his redemption during the Dark Cybertron Arc. Had this not been revealed, it's likely that Megatron would have remained Pure Evil.
- This is so far the only version of Megatron to be IA as while there are several versions who redeem themselves, this is the only one to actively work to be a better person and make amends for everything he has done.
External Links[]
- Megatron on the Heroes Wiki
- Megatron on the Villains Wiki
- Megatron on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Megatron on the Moral Ranking Wiki
- Megatron on the TFWiki.net
[]
 Inconsistently Admirable
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