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This might have been touched on already, but I don't see it anywhere in the recent threads.

Was there 1 single leader of the Decepticons in Dark of the Moon? It seemed to me that Megatron and Sentinel were supposed to be partners, but Sentinel never orders the Decepticon officers (Starscream, Soundwave, possibly Barricade) around, just the rank-and-file drones. Megatron does give orders to Soundwave and Stascream, but when he tries to mouth off to Sentinel, he gets bitch slapped. He also never gives Shockwave a direct order, neither does Sentinel. But Shockwave does order at least Barricade around, who in turn commands the drones in the street. So what does that make Shockwave? Equal to Screamer and Soundwave? Basically, I'm just trying to get the chain of command right. Common sense says

Sentinel and Megatron
Shockwave
Starscream and Soundwave (maybe Barricade)
Drones

Megatron does say after taking down Sentinel that "I just want to be back in charge" which I always took to mean leading the Decepticons. Does that mean he lost leadership?

Sentinel took advantage of Megatron's weakened state to push him around. I think that's what Megatron meant when he said he wanted to be back in charge.

Evidently, during the "We're partners!" "NO, I'm your PARTNER, not SERVANT!" banter between Megs and Sentinel, SP was supposed to overthrow Megatron as leader (by literally throwing him off the building).

Going by the first two movies, Starscream is the #2 (he does quite a bit of troop commanding).
Soundwave takes orders directly from Megatron himself, but doesn't command any troops -- rather just his "pets" and human liaisons.
Shockwave seems to carry out certain missions he presumably specializes in (like Blackout, Barricade, Frenzy, and Devastator before him), but was relegated to basic grunt work in Chicago. The only one I see him having command over would be the Driller (again similar to Blackout and Barricade).
As far as I could tell, Barricade was just venting on the nearest Con about the whole prisoner escape thing, not really giving orders.


I'm not sure if there's any strict hierarchy going on. Decepticons seem willing to listen to anyone else around them (the Fallen, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Sentinel at least have all issued orders), so many of them have minions of their own, and commands don't come from any clear source.

Noideaforaname wrote:Evidently, during the "We're partners!" "NO, I'm your PARTNER, not SERVANT!" banter between Megs and Sentinel, SP was supposed to overthrow Megatron as leader (by literally throwing him off the building).

Going by the first two movies, Starscream is the #2 (he does quite a bit of troop commanding).
Soundwave takes orders directly from Megatron himself, but doesn't command any troops -- rather just his "pets" and human liaisons.
Shockwave seems to carry out certain missions he presumably specializes in (like Blackout, Barricade, Frenzy, and Devastator before him), but was relegated to basic grunt work in Chicago. The only one I see him having command over would be the Driller (again similar to Blackout and Barricade).
As far as I could tell, Barricade was just venting on the nearest Con about the whole prisoner escape thing, not really giving orders.


I'm not sure if there's any strict hierarchy going on. Decepticons seem willing to listen to anyone else around them (the Fallen, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Sentinel at least have all issued orders), so many of them have minions of their own, and commands don't come from any clear source.

Just like in the G1 cartoon! Haha.

Canon answer: Megatron was in command of the Decepticons. Megatron let him issue only whatever orders were necessary for enacting the agreed-upon plan.

IRL answer: You're trying to apply logic to the Bayverse. Just give up; you won't succeed.

cotss2012 wrote:Canon answer: Megatron was in command of the Decepticons. Megatron let him issue only whatever orders were necessary for enacting the agreed-upon plan.

IRL answer: You're trying to apply logic to the Bayverse. Just give up; you won't succeed.

That answer seems to work, so I'd call that a success.

Alternative answer: Sentinel Prime was yelling orders at nobody in particular, hoping that somebody would listen. The Decepticons had no idea who this fool was or why he was telling them to do what they were already doing. Megatron was too busy picking bugs out of his head to notice that Sentinel was actually talking.