Megatron (Beast Wars)

"Say goodbye to the universe, Maximals! The future has changed! Yes! The Autobots lose! Evil triumphs! And you... you no longer exist!"

- Megatron, after trying to murder Optimus Prime and rewrite history, Beast Wars, "The Agenda, Part 3"

Megatron is the commander of the Predacons (the descendants of the Decepticons), and the main antagonist of two of the Transformers TV series, Beast Wars and Beast Machines. His beast form is a tyrannosaurus rex, a transmetal tyrannosaurus Rex, and a Dragon. He named himself after the original Megatron of his ancestry. He is voiced by David Kaye (who would later voice Megatron in the Unicorn Trilogy).

Season 1
Megatron traveled through time to get to prehistoric Earth to find enough Energon to make the Predacons more powerful. With him were Predacons Waspinator, Terrorsaur, Scorponok, Dinobot, and Tarantulas. Dinobot turned on Megatron after their arrival, and became a Maximal after the Predacons' first battle with the Maximals. Megatron was nearly killed in the second episode when, in robot form and on a mountain full of raw energon, he shot a missile at Optimus Primal that was deflected by Dinobot. However, he survived.

Megatron was often challenged for position of leader by Terrorsaur, at one point being blown to scrap (only to be repaired by Scorponok, who was loyal to Megatron), and at another being locked in a cage next to Rattrap, but escaped it easily. Before the latter, however, Megatron got a new Predacon on his side; by intercepting a Maximal stasis pod he reprogrammed the protoform as a predacon, and it became Blackarachnia. Later, he had another protoform reprogrammed into a Predacon named Inferno.

Season 2
At the beginning of Season 2, Megatron was turned into a Transmetal by the quantum surge, and gained the

ability to fly, like Optimus could. He also got two new Predacons to replace Terrorsaur and Scorponok (who both fell into a lava pit during the quantum surge, though no one seemed to notice except Blackarachnia) The two Fuzors, Quickstrike and Silverbolt. However, Silverbolt had no characteristics of a Predacon, and soon left Megatron and joined the Maximals.

Megatron soon got Protoform X, naming him Rampage, on his side by torturing him using a piece of his spark.

Season 3
At the end of Season 2, Ravage came to capture Megatron with help from Tarantulas, however they soon found out that Megatron was following orders from the original Megatron all along. Megatron found Optimus Prime inside the ark, and attempted to destroy him to put an end to the Maximals. However, Optimus Primal took Optimus Prime's spark, turning him into a Transmetal II, and Blackarachnia switched sides.

Soon the Maximals' base was destroyed, and an attempt by the Maximals to retrieve their defense system, Sentinel, failed as the Predacons got Sentinel instead.

Megatron made a clone of Dinobot (who was killed in Season 2), called Dinobot II, and a Transmetal 2.

Tarantulas and Quickstrike betrayed Megatron, throwing him into a lava pit after he absorbed the original Megatron's spark, but achieved Transmetal II and therefore survived the lava. From here, Megatron's beast form was a dragon, and he threw Tarantulas away, nearly knocking him into the lava as well. He put Quickstrike on trial, but the trial was interrupted. Tigerhawk, possessed by the Vok, destroyed the Predacons' base. Shortly afterward, Tarantulas extracted the Vok from Tigerhawk but accidentally destroyed himself and the Vok.

Megatron soon found the ship, the Nemesis, and used it to destroy Tigerhawk and attack the protohumans (inadvertently killing Quickstrike and Inferno in the process). Dinobot II betrayed Megatron after Rampage was killed by Depth Charge, and informed the Maximals of a shuttle they could use to get back to Cybertron. He was killed in the explosion of the cockpit, and Megatron was captured by the Maximals and chained to the hull of the ship as they went back to Cybertron.

The only other Predacon to survive (and to not become a Maximal) was Waspinator, who was being worshipped by the protohumans in the final scene.

Beast Machines
When Optimus Primal and the others were returning to Cybertron, something went horribly wrong. Optimus, Cheetor, Rattrap, and Blackarachnia found themselves in their original beast form and can't transform back into their robot modes. What's worst is that Rhinox, and Silverbolt have dissappeared, and army of evil transformers known as vehicon are searching for them, but worst of all they were infected with a virus that will kill them if they remain in their animal form.

After they manage to become a hybrid of machine and animal they eventually found out that it was Megatron that was the one responsible for all this. They also found out that they lost the Beast Wars and Megatron took over Cybertron. They also found out that he kidnapped Rhinox and Silverbolt and corrupted them to become Jetstorm, and Tankor. He also modified Waspinator and made him into Thrust. Optimus also found several survivors and learned that cybertron was once a planet that contain plants. So Optimus desided to help Cybertron by making it into a hybrid planet with both plants and machines But Megatron wants it to keep it all machines, and make him 100% machine.

Megatron was finally killed when Optimus Primal, in their final battle, pushed him into the organic core, destroying both himself and Megatron. With Megatron's death, the deaths of Rhinox, Dinobot, Noble and Tigerhawk (Tigatron and Airazor) have been avenged.

Personality
Megatron was generally calm, collected and almost affable. He spoke in a polite, civilised tone of voice and was possessed of a bitingly sardonic wit. He was fond of drama and showmanship and his obsession with grandiose gestures sometimes hampered his mission. However almost all of his charm and courtesy was an act and there was no-one, man woman or child he would not destroy in order to keep his plans in motion. Nevertheless, Megatron did not consider himself evil, seeing himself as a freedom fighter whose goals were for the good of his kind. But in truth, Megatron cared for nothing but power and for no-one but himself, willing even to sacrifice his own troops to achieve victory.

In Beast Machines, Megatron had become even darker, seeming subdued, bitter and obsessed with vengeance as well as making jokes less frequently. Nevertheless, his arrogance and megalomania were as prevalent as ever and he reverted to his former dramatic showman-style ater absorbing the powers of Cybertron and becoming a living god.

Powers and Abilities
Megatron is one of the most powerful cybertronians during the Beast Wars era, although his specific powers varied from Body-to-Body. He has shown, however, to be a cunning strategist and manipulator in all his incarnations, being the only one capable to lead the disfunctional group of sociopathic Predacons, and he has succesfully used Tarantulas' and Tankor's threachirous nature to his advantage. He is also one of the very few who can match Otimus Primal in a hand-to-hand combat.

In his first Body, Megatron is capable of turning himself into a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex, but while physically strong, this form is impratical for disguise, and rather used to protect himself against the high levels of unstable energon on prehistorical Earth. His robot mode keeps his Animal mode head in place of his right hand, allowing Megatron to crush his opponents or to shoot powerful energy blasts from it.

After destroying a moon-sided death ray of the alien race know as the vok, Megatron was exposed to a unnusual form of energy that mutated his body into a metal-alloy know as Transmetal. Megatron Transmetal bodyis capable of flight and very strong, enough to ram through several pillars of rock unscatched, and he has a prehensile tail that allows him to grab and manipulate objects with it. Also, thanks to his Transmetal body being a combination of his original cybertronian body and the Vok alien alloy, not only is Megatron intedectible to Vok's technology, he is also capable of using it to a extent with the right tools.

After absorbing the original Megatron's spark, Megatron gained a larger, red-dragon form that is capable of breath fire and ice, and is also absurdly strong, being able to best Optimus Primal Transmetal-II body in battle twice, tanking magma and the combined assault weapons of the Maximals, and even survive a escape pod rammed into him at full velocity.