| “ | Peace through tyranny! | „ |
| ~ Megatron's motto. |
| “ | Such heroic nonsense. | „ |
| ~ Megatron finishes off a wounded Ironhide. |
| “ | I would have waited an eternity for this. It's over, Prime. | „ |
| ~ Megatron after mortally wounding Optimus Prime. |
Megatron, later known as Galvatron, is the main antagonist of the Transformers franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the original 1984 cartoon, The Transformers, the central antagonist of the movie and one of the main antagonists in the comics. He is the founder and leader of the Decepticons and the arch-enemy of Optimus Prime and all of the Autobots.
He was voiced by Frank Welker in the G1 cartoon, Garry Chalk in a Beast Wars message and Victor Caroli in a Micromaster Combiners commercial, the last of which has also voiced fellow Hasbro villain Tirac. In the Japanese dub, he was voiced by the late Seizo Kato.
Personality
Sunbow Cartoon
Megatron is depicted as a petty terrorist and would be dictator. Unlike many other incarnations of the character, Megatron has no sympathetic backstory or complex motivations, generally desiring power for its own sake.
Megatron's absurd plans such as having Soundwave act as a DJ to brainwash humans or using altered video footage to convince humans that Decepticons are good and the Autobot are evil often make Megatron come off as a buffoon. Despite this Megatron is incredibly ruthless; he guns down defenseless civilians including Orion Pax in War Dawn, brainwashed peaceful architects and made them blow up a nonviolent city, and executed wounded Autobots in Transformers: the Movie.
Megatron frequently used underhanded tactics to win such as breaking his word to fight fairly in a one on one duel with Optimus by cheating via taking the power of his Decepticons warriors for his own, or pretending to beg Optimus Prime for mercy whilst secretly reaching for a pistol for a cheap shot.
However, there was a limit to his evil. As Megatron wants to rule, not destroy, he objected to Unicron's plan to destroy Cybertron in the Movie and he temporarily teamed up with Optimus to prevent the Earth from being destroyed in The Core as the planet's destruction would mean the destruction of Earth's valuable resources and himself.
Megatron looks down on most of his troops, but has something of a friendship with Soundwave and Shockwave.
Comic
Megatron is depicted as a mad terrorist leader in the marvel comics who started the war because he was sick of Cybertron's peace. Whilst Megatron has nothing but hatred for Optimus, he has a grudging respect for his second archenemy, Ratchet, and has tried to sway him to his side.
Quotes
| “ | I'm surrounded by idiots! | „ |
| ~ Megatron's contempt for incompetent minions. |
| “ | Power flows to the one who knows how. Desire is not enough. | „ |
| ~ Megatron to Starscream. |
| “ | That's because everything I touch is food for my hunger. My hunger for power! | „ |
| ~ Megatron to Optimus Prime. |
| “ | I will win by any means! At any cost! Even if that means terminating you, Starscream. | „ |
| ~ Megatron dismisses Starscream's questions of cheating to defeat Optimus Prime. |
| “ | DIE, AUTOBOTS! | „ |
| ~ Megatron before transforming into gun mode. |
| “ | Megatron: Why throw away your life so recklessly? Optimus Prime: That's a question you should ask yourself, Megatron. Megatron: No! I'll crush you with my bare hands! |
„ |
| ~ Megatron and Optimus Prime before their epic battle. |
| “ | I'll rip out your optics! | „ |
| ~ Megatron to Prime. |
Trivia
- In every Transformers variation, he is the Decepticon leader. However, in the live-action films, The Fallen is the true ruler as he is the founder of the Decepticons. But while The Fallen may have founded the Decepticons, Megatron retains control over them.
- He is the most powerful Transformer and considered the most challenging Decepticon, except in the first Transformers series and the Unicron trilogy of Energon, Armada, and Cybertron, where Unicron is considered the most powerful Transformer with only Primus being his equal. However, Optimus Prime is on par with Megatron and there are others such as the Fallen who are more powerful and dangerous.
- He is the arch-enemy of every Autobot, especially Optimus Prime. However, while that rivalry was present in the Marvel Comics, Megatron would gain a second arch-enemy in the form of Ratchet.
- His leadership of the Decepticons is often challenged by the traitor Starscream. In the G1 series' first TV show, Megatron trusted Starscream for the first two seasons, but in the G1 movie, he was transformed into Galvatron and destroyed Starscream; Starscream later returns as a ghost and torments Galvatron.
- He is remembered as being both the first and overall one of the few incarnations of Megatron that succeeded in killing Optimus Prime.
- In the original Marvel comics Megatron's position as main antagonist was usurped sometimes by Shockwave, Scorponok, and even Ratbat, all of whom managed to last longer as leader of the Decepticons than Megatron has.
- Megatron will search for a prized possession if it plays a central role in a Transformers show. In the G1 series, he looks for the Matrix of Leadership, which is extremely powerful and can destroy any Transformer (also a fact of the Matrix of Leadership not important to Megatron is that it marks who the leader of the Autobots is). In the Unicron trilogy, specifically the Cybertron series, he looks for the four Cyber Planet Keys so that he and the Decepticons can conquer the universe. In the live-action movies and the Animated TV show (which aired on Cartoon Network), he looks for the Allspark; in both instancess, the Allspark is a cube that contains the entirety of Cybertronian history and one piece of the Allspark will bring a dead Transformer back to life.
- Although Megatron seems to favor tanks, helicopters and jets in other portrayals, his G1 incarnation transformed into a modified Walther P38.
- Megatron's alt mode being changed throughout the years is due to strict gun control laws.
- The Walther P38 was manufactured by Nazi Germany during World War II and was used by the Wehrmacht. It apparently was also an inspiration for the mode of transformation of this one; since Megatron was also inspired in Hitler when it was created.
- When Megatron featured in Regeneration One (a sequel to the Marvel comic), Star Trek vs. Transformers & video game Transformers: Devastation (based in the Sunbow cartoon), he is depicted as far more evil than in the comic and cartoon respectively.
- David Wise, the writer of many episodes of the cartoon, said at a fan convention that he viewed Megatron as having fascist leanings when discussing the episode "War Dawn".
- In the comics, Megatron considers Ratchet as his second arch-nemesis.
- In the Marvel US story The Flames of Boltax many fans considers Megatron to return in the story but he only appears in a flashback as he leads the Triggercons to find the Underbase in order to destroy the Autobots. However, he did return in Issue 56 and presumably died with Ratchet in an explosion in Issue 59. After about twenty issues, he returned in The Price of Life as he was fused with Ratchet which made Optimus Prime to destroy them but their bodies were separated by Fixit. And again in Exodus and A Savage Circle, where he was revived by the Nucleon and witnessed his future self, Galvatron, and he died again when Ratchet sacrificed himself for the last time as he triggers an explosion in the Nucleon storage reactor which caused the Ark to crash.
- His "I'm surrounded by idiots" quote would later be said by Scar in The Lion King.
