- Nicolas Bossons
Hi, I’m Nico. I’m nineteen years old, and I’ve been a fan of Transformers for as long as I can remember. These toys - and their associated stories - have been a big part of my life, and I’m particularly interested in seeing where those two often-disparate components of the franchise really intersect. With that in mind, I’m here today to talk a little bit about the Big Bad himself: Megatron.
When Hasbro first brought Diaclone and Microman overseas, they were faced with a simple question: “Who are all these robots?”
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| c. Crockalley |
When Hasbro first brought Diaclone and Microman overseas, they were faced with a simple question: “Who are all these robots?”
We all know the story. And now, over thirty years later, we can answer that question pretty definitively.
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| The Transformers (Marvel US) #1 |
2018 feels, in some ways, like a turning point for the Transformers franchise. Yet as many have pointed out, it rather feels like things are just turning back towards Generation 1. As old stories reach their conclusion, the likes of Cyberverse and the new War For Cybertron lines seem afraid to tread truly new ground - instead, they retreat further into the 1984 comfort zone.
Looking back, it strikes me that one particular bit of slavish G1-accuracy has slipped forever beyond Hasbro's reach: Megatron will never again be a gun.
I'm an Armada kid. I'd accepted tank-Megatrons since day one, and was forever rolling my eyes at the “geewunners” imploring Hasbro to instead turn the Decepticon leader into a tiny, immobile firearm. It struck me as an impossibility, as it still does. Yet somehow, I recently found myself trying to convince a stranger online that Hasbro should do just that.
Looking back, it strikes me that one particular bit of slavish G1-accuracy has slipped forever beyond Hasbro's reach: Megatron will never again be a gun.
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| c. Crockalley |
“Oh no!” I thought once I realised what I was doing. I watched as my hands shrivelled and my hair turned grey before my eyes. “What's happening to meeeee?”
I wasn't even alive during the eighties! Surely I wasn't feeling nostalgia for something I hadn't experienced?
And, in truth, I wasn't. Rather, I had stumbled once more upon an idea that has perhaps become subconscious and dilute with time. The idea that an alt-mode means something.
Transformers fiction has always been seen, in many ways, as restrictive. Writers are subject to the capricious whims of Hasbro, wishing to promote a particular set of figures one moment and an entirely different set the next - and, of course, there is a morass of pre-existing lore for any new writer to navigate. But that's not the whole story. Something I think we're all aware of but rarely discuss is that there are some narrative tricks which are wholly unique to Transformers fiction.
Back in the eighties, Hasbro knew they were making a provocative statement. “This is the leader of the bad guys. His name is Megatron. Y'know, like Megaton.”
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| c. Seibertron.com |
“He turns into a Walther P-38. Oh, but not a regular P-38, no- he's the one they had in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Y'know, the spy show.” (My knowledge of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. begins and ends with “it's a spy show.”). In the history of humankind, there is perhaps no greater symbol of “technology for the sole purpose of killing” than the handgun. Perhaps the nuclear bomb, of which Megatron's name is so evocative, holds similar meaning - but such a bomb is directionless, indiscriminate, self-destructive. Megatron's hatred has direction. The tank, meanwhile, is more a symbol of war as a whole - after all, a tank's just an armoured transport with a big gun on top.
You can't drive around in a gun.
Framed this way, the “Megatron should be a gun” argument makes perfect sense. It's easy to see why the “Megatron as a nerf gun” concept was so ridiculous.
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| c. TFWiki.net |
I love that Classics Megatron exists, don't get me wrong- it just doesn’t make any sense. Neither, really, does the traditional handgun mode, which comes with its own ridiculous baggage. A gun on its own is powerless; someone must wield it. Who shall that be? Starscream? Donny Finkelberg? And, for that matter, how exactly is a tiny gun able to turn into a giant robot? These questions seemed obvious from the start, and have led to no end of riffs on the concept.
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| Transformers: The Movie |
“Starscream! Point me at that Autobot so I can kill him!”
Megatron's days as a gun were numbered. It only took two years for the 1986 animated movie to come around. In that film, the leaders of both factions perish. While Optimus Prime “becomes one with the Matrix”, Megatron is dumped out of the back of a flying train and comes face-to-face with the devil. It is only then that Megatron dies.
I'll leave it to Terry Van Feleday, perhaps the only person to comprehensively apply a framework of critical analysis to the first four Transformers movies (well, first five of them, if you subscribe to her ideas about Spielberg's Duel), to explain what’s going on here:
I've discussed this quote before on forums, where it was met with disdain. To suggest that Hasbro and the makers of the 1986 movie were going for a “Buddhist allegory” of all things is patently absurd, surely? Don’t get me wrong, it is, but that’s not what Feleday’s suggesting here.
In my experience as a reader and a writer, I've come to believe in the idea of “narrative emergence”. Just as some ideas pop up again and again in completely different cultures, because they reflect a deeper truth of the human condition, so too can aspects of a narrative unintentionally align to reflect a greater meaning. That's when it falls to an audience to interpret the work, and perhaps the next writer will achieve a greater understanding of the themes which the previous one only skirted the edges of.
Megatron is gone, replaced with something altogether more abstract and alien. Gone, too, is his handgun-altmode - now he turns into a futuristic cannon. The Megatron who could once say “I belong to nobody” needed the help of a lieutenant to make use of his alt-mode- and so it is ironic that the newfound independence of his cannon-mode makes him beholden to a higher evil.
Megatron's days as a gun were numbered. It only took two years for the 1986 animated movie to come around. In that film, the leaders of both factions perish. While Optimus Prime “becomes one with the Matrix”, Megatron is dumped out of the back of a flying train and comes face-to-face with the devil. It is only then that Megatron dies.
I'll leave it to Terry Van Feleday, perhaps the only person to comprehensively apply a framework of critical analysis to the first four Transformers movies (well, first five of them, if you subscribe to her ideas about Spielberg's Duel), to explain what’s going on here:
“Galvatron differs from his predecessor quite significantly. The movie played up Megatron’s opportunistic cleverness to show it displaced completely by sheer, directionless anger and strength. It almost seems like a Buddhist allegory in which Optimus’ enlightenment allows him to ascend to a higher plane of existence, where Megatron’s attachment to life and power sees him be reborn a demon.”
I've discussed this quote before on forums, where it was met with disdain. To suggest that Hasbro and the makers of the 1986 movie were going for a “Buddhist allegory” of all things is patently absurd, surely? Don’t get me wrong, it is, but that’s not what Feleday’s suggesting here.
In my experience as a reader and a writer, I've come to believe in the idea of “narrative emergence”. Just as some ideas pop up again and again in completely different cultures, because they reflect a deeper truth of the human condition, so too can aspects of a narrative unintentionally align to reflect a greater meaning. That's when it falls to an audience to interpret the work, and perhaps the next writer will achieve a greater understanding of the themes which the previous one only skirted the edges of.
Megatron is gone, replaced with something altogether more abstract and alien. Gone, too, is his handgun-altmode - now he turns into a futuristic cannon. The Megatron who could once say “I belong to nobody” needed the help of a lieutenant to make use of his alt-mode- and so it is ironic that the newfound independence of his cannon-mode makes him beholden to a higher evil.
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| c. TFWiki.net |
Therein lies something that is unique to sci-fi and fantasy in general, and particularly Transformers: the ability to so directly reflect internal changes in a character's external form.
It is interesting, then, to apply a similar lens to a story executed with far less competence. In the recent Prime Wars trilogy of Machinima cartoons, Megatron appears back in his original body with a new tank alt-mode. Oh, except for when he turns into a gun instead. Despite ostensibly being set in the same universe as at least the 1986 movie, the show regularly abuses existing continuity with a sense of “this is what I vaguely remember from that movie thirty years ago”. Megatron seems to have mellowed somewhat, and his brand-new snarky attitude endeared him to the audience at large.
What exactly does it mean, then, that Galvatron has apparently become Megatron once more? This exact same oscillation occurred several times throughout the Unicron Trilogy, a time remembered for its similarly-shoddy storytelling, and more recently in the live-action movies. The answer is, of course, that it means nothing - these transitions are rooted entirely in the toylines, and the writers failed to acknowledge the metatext. Again, in the words of Van Feleday:
It is interesting, then, to apply a similar lens to a story executed with far less competence. In the recent Prime Wars trilogy of Machinima cartoons, Megatron appears back in his original body with a new tank alt-mode. Oh, except for when he turns into a gun instead. Despite ostensibly being set in the same universe as at least the 1986 movie, the show regularly abuses existing continuity with a sense of “this is what I vaguely remember from that movie thirty years ago”. Megatron seems to have mellowed somewhat, and his brand-new snarky attitude endeared him to the audience at large.
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| Combiner Wars Episode 8: 'Destruction's Dawn' |
What exactly does it mean, then, that Galvatron has apparently become Megatron once more? This exact same oscillation occurred several times throughout the Unicron Trilogy, a time remembered for its similarly-shoddy storytelling, and more recently in the live-action movies. The answer is, of course, that it means nothing - these transitions are rooted entirely in the toylines, and the writers failed to acknowledge the metatext. Again, in the words of Van Feleday:
“When Optimus Prime du jour mouths off “One shall stand, one shall fall” for the twentieth time, there is simply no longer that understanding that he will not be the one who stands.”
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| All Hail Megatron (IDW) #11 |
I'm pleased to say that, for the most part, IDW's Generation One comics have understood exactly the implications of a new body. Starscream, a character in a constant state of internal conflict, swaps bodies like we humans change clothes. Megatron reinvents himself after each defeat. More recently, Rodimus changed his colours from bright red and yellow to dark purple and magenta - reflecting the darker shift in his motivations - only for them to switch back during a moment of heroism.
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| MTMTE (IDW) #32 |
In the franchise at large, Megatron has been reimagined countless times with varying degrees of success. Generation 2 gave us the first tank-mode Megatron, in a colour scheme that would be homaged again and again.
For Beast Wars, Megatron was reimagined as (what else) a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The creators of the animated cartoon got as much mileage as possible out of this alternate form, and it exuded the pride and cunning which defined that particular Megatron. As Megatron's ambition grew to finally exceed that of his buried-and-dead (in that order) G1 namesake, he reinvented himself as a creature truly unlike anything that had come before - a mythical dragon...
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| c. Crockalley |
...with wheels.
However, Megatron ended up spending Beast Machines in conflict with his feral dragon alternate mode. In that series, the beast mode took on a spiritual significance - only by achieving internal harmony could the Maximals transform. Megatron retreated to a dragon's cave and locked himself in a cage of technology, stubbornly rooted to the world of Cybertron itself. Later in the series, he turned into a giant floating version of his own head. Egotistical much?
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| c. Primal Sabbath |
I feel less desire to apply the same level of analysis to the series which followed - the six-changing Megatron/Gigatron of Robots in Disguise felt like complete overkill, particularly with the four - or five, depending on who you ask - additional modes from his Galvatron form (bat? elephant? hydroplane? devil ostrich? ...really?). I’ll admit that the flying hand mode was actually kind of inspired, and this body suited the campiness of the cartoon, but generally speaking forms such as Gigatron’s remind me of Tarn's second fusion cannon.
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| MTMTE (IDW) #55 |
Armada Megatron's H-tank form is all about Mini-Cons. Energon Megatron's gunship... carries a tank on its back? Yeah, I'm not gonna try and parse that one. Cybertron Megatron was a triple changer with stylings evocative of Unicron himself. All three of these bodies are exceptionally cool, don’t get me wrong, but they don't scream “Megatron” in the same way as so many of the others.
I will, however, single out Shattered Glass Megatron's use of the Energon mold as being interesting. He's a mathematician and lecturer with optimistic hopes for the future of his race and its interactions with alien species - and he's not afraid to use force to secure that future. A futuristic spaceship mode makes perfect sense for that character - less so Jesse Wittenrich’s helicopter interpretation, which sure looks like Galvatron but doesn’t really feel like Galvatron to me.
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| c. TFW2005 |
Megatron's also had his fair share of random alt-modes. He's been sports cars, stealth bombers, fighter jets, crocodiles, shoes, games consoles, cellphones. It seems at one point he might even have transformed into a camcorder - and at another he might've transformed into Skywarp. No, really - and how exactly that fits into the “who is Cyclonus” debate is anyone's guess.
These figures have always existed as fascinating novelties - major departures from the Megatron “canon”. But starting in 2007, one particular continuity would make a departure of its own.
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| Transformers 2007 |
One of the major criticisms levelled at Michael Bay's live-action movies by the fanbase is that they don't “respect” the source material. Even now, with Travis Knight taking the reins, people are up in arms at the revelation that the jet-former in the trailer is Blitzwing and not Starscream as we'd otherwise assume. I guess they feel like they've been conned. No, but seriously, I think it'll be fascinating to come back to this ongoing debate once the movie's out and the dust has settled. For a time people thought that the jet might be Ramjet, and it seems like an interesting example of how the rumour mill can blow things out of proportion. On the other hand, I don't think anyone's upset to see 2007's Dropkick getting some love.
(But it really does look like Starscream.)
(But it really does look like Starscream.)
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| Bumblebee (2018) |
These criticisms are not entirely baseless, though I tend to dislike many of the examples people give to support them. To give an example of my own, I'm under the impression that Bay outright scoffs at the idea of so-called “mass shifting” - and at the idea that Megatron would turn into a puny handgun.
Optimus Prime's design has remained largely unchanged over the first five movies - if anything, it has become bolder, more confident and secure. This clearly reflects the fact that Optimus Prime simply does not undergo a single bit of character development across those movies. Instead, he becomes more and more entrenched in his beliefs.
Megatron, on the other hand loses, a lot. He dies no less than twice across those movies, and the second time (much like in 1986) he doesn't really come back. Each loss is marked with a brand new body, one completely unlike those which came before. Though it may not seem to be much of a contest, there is no doubt in my mind that Megatron is the most complex character in these movies. To explain why, I must turn one last time to Van Feleday's writings.
“When I first learned English, I started to wonder why “Autobots” was the “good” name and “Decepticons” the “evil” one. After all, the transformers’ central tenet, disguising themselves as everyday vehicles, is inherently an act of deception. In giving the word a negative moral note, are they not calling the Autobots immoral as well? Or is there a difference between good, moral “deceivers” and evil, immoral “Decepticons”? What, then, is the fundamental difference in their perception of the world and the nature of their deception?”
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| Transformers (2007) |
“...Megatron is an example of a cybertronian Transformer, i.e. one who hasn’t scanned a disguise for himself. Notice the fractured, bone-like protrusions of metal, the wide, unchanging, humorless grin of a skull… He looks nearly starved, and naked. [Look at] the Decepticons once again. Notice the way bits of the disguised mode seem to drape over the inner robot-y bits like futuristic armor. Because that’s what scanned alternate forms are: Armor, clothing, costumes. The Decepticons use them to hide until they’re needed, at which point the clothes shift aside and reveal the robot underneath. Nakedness symbolizes many things in fiction, but in many cases it symbolizes truthfulness – as Blackout partially takes off/transforms away his metal shell, his true nature is revealed (“more than meets the eye”). Megatron needs no disguise, so he doesn’t even bother scanning anything even once he wakes – the leader of the Decepticons deceives no one at any point, and doesn’t seem to mind being seen naked.”
For me, this is where the argument that Bay somehow didn’t understand the Transformers completely falls apart. In many stories, the “alternate mode” is completely overlooked (More than Meets the Eye in particular has been criticised for consisting mostly of characters standing around in robot mode talking, with very few transformations depicted on-panel). In reality, Bay was willing to approach the franchise with fresh eyes, stripping things back to the very essence of “robots in disguise” and adding in his own blend of nihilism (clearly, opinions vary on how successful that last part was). In Van Feleday’s thread, “SuperMechagodzilla” adds:
“The Autobots don symbols of humanitarianism (the ambulance), blue-collar work (the trucks) and libertarian freedom (the sportscars). But Terry rightly points out how these things don't fit - how the ambulance performs no medicine, for example. Optimus is not a blue-collar worker but a military commander. Optimus and the Autobots constantly disavow their cause and try to ingratiate themselves with the humans - saying, basically, that they're fighting for America and 'American values'. By contrast, the Decepticons wear utilitarian 'military' clothing that accurately reflects their goals. They are militant, and as unashamed of that fact as Megatron is of his nakedness.”
Megatron’s spaceship mode in Transformers is, put simply, a force of nature. Animated and Prime each offered their own variations on that theme, though I’d argue they were less successful. That first movie ends with Megatron dead. In the second, he returns - taking on the parts of “Scrapmetal”, he gains a new tank form. His silhouette subtly changes: the once-tall Megatron now stoops, with wider hips.
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| c. Notrab |
Come the third, he changes once again - after another defeat, he is finally forced to let go of his pride and take on a terrestrial disguise: a Mack truck evocative of the Peterblit tanker from Spielberg’s 1971 Duel. This is a connection Bay is undoubtedly aware of, and Van Feleday makes a very compelling case that the director used Duel’s cinematic language in Dark of the Moon - you can look into her arguments yourself, if you’re interested, because I don’t think I’d do them justice here.
Whether or not the filmmakers’ intentions ran this deep is irrelevant. In truth, they probably didn’t - we all know that. But I believe we should be interested in narrative emergence, in seeing how a flawed story can reflect and focus our own values. Imagine a brand new writer starting work on the franchise, and crafting a story where these kinds of themes are truly in the spotlight - a story where an alt-mode is more than just a Transformer’s way of getting from A to B without having to walk. Surely, that’s the kind of story only Transformers can tell.
Follow Nico on Twitter @TheWadapan
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Whether or not the filmmakers’ intentions ran this deep is irrelevant. In truth, they probably didn’t - we all know that. But I believe we should be interested in narrative emergence, in seeing how a flawed story can reflect and focus our own values. Imagine a brand new writer starting work on the franchise, and crafting a story where these kinds of themes are truly in the spotlight - a story where an alt-mode is more than just a Transformer’s way of getting from A to B without having to walk. Surely, that’s the kind of story only Transformers can tell.
Follow Nico on Twitter @TheWadapan
Tumblr thewadapan.tumblr.com
