The Energon Pub

"Why G1 Megatron is so idolised?"

I have a simple 1-word answer for you: nostalgia.

He is idolized for the same reason G1 is idolized. It's the original. It's the 1 every other incarnation is compared to. Is it the "best" version? Absolutely not, by far, if you consider his lack of thorough tactical capabilities, supposed vulnerability of his alternate mode, and blatant treachery of his 2nd officer. (Yeah, there could be a debate whether his 2nd officer is Soundwave or Starscream, but that's for another day.)

I read through the thread and agreed with a lot of points on why he is not very effective in the G1 cartoon, but in the '86 movie he was much more to his abilities, as well as in the G1 Marvel comics.

Another reason why I think he's revered? Frank Welker.

That distinct voice separates him from pretty much all other villains not only in TF but in the general world of 80s cartoons. Once again, is it the best? That really is a matter of opinion. No doubt that Welker is a talented guy and he really made that character his own. Megatron would have been much more forgettable had he not had that voice to be burned into a young fan's memory. Personally, I prefer David Kaye, but as I said, matter of opinion.

TurboMMaster wrote:Two weakest Primes (Cybertron & Bayforemrs) killed Megatrons, despite beign inferior to them in combat.

How on Earth was Cybertron Optimus Prime weak? In fact, how was anyone in that show weak? The entire cast was always summoning immense boots of power and energy all Super Saiyan style all the time, and I'm not even talking about the Cyber Keys or the combinations. Seriously, that show was the one that did Burning Justice so often like it was going out of style or something. Everyone there would boost up their power levels Over 9000 on a regular basis that to call any them weak would be a far cry from reality.

TurboMMaster wrote:While I understand that people like him, but I don't get it why so many people belive he is a superior Megatron. I mean LOL, he's alt-mode is completly unpractical and humiliating, most of the time he's butt is kicked by Prime with ease. He once was defeated by by a can of spray paint. Pretty much all of he's plans in original cartoon end with failure. Actually, the only time he seems to be a ruthless warrior and good tactician is in Transformers: Movie. I don't undersand why he supossed to be any bether than other Megatrons...

In the year 2005, he did managed to conquer the entire planet of Cybertron. Hence initiating the events of TF the Movie where Ironhide asks Prime "when are we gonna start busting deceptichops?"

In the opening theme of season 1, just before the end of "..transformers.........more than...........the transformers.........." iirc Megs does fire by himself in gun mode. If the opening scene counts that is.......

fenrir72 wrote:In the opening theme of season 1, just before the end of "..transformers.........more than...........the transformers.........." iirc Megs does fire by himself in gun mode. If the opening scene counts that is.......

Aye. But the autobots also were able to fly in that first episode as well. They had yet to define these things in the very early days.

fenrir72 wrote:In the year 2005, he did managed to conquer the entire planet of Cybertron. Hence initiating the events of TF the Movie where Ironhide asks Prime "when are we gonna start busting deceptichops?"

Only by the power of off-screen plot convenience, as prior to then we had 65 episodes of loss after loss after loss each time.

Doesn't help that the very last plan we saw him carry out before the movie was his absolutely ludicrous plot of the "B.O.T." episode.

Lost the battles but won the war? Maybe all those useless 65 plotting were actually distractions from the real threat? Megs must have been secretly stashing or somehow gotten hold of a gazillion astroliters of Energon to power his war machine which led to the Decepticons driving off the Autobots from Cybertron.

So as a sycophant of the Emperor of Destruction..........Hail Megatron!

I can only tell you why I idolize him. For one he's the Megatron I grew up with. But G1 has always been proactive and a take charge persona. Optimus was always reactive and whiny. I mean, how many times has he stepped down from being a Prime? 5 by my count. How many times has he died? 3 by my count. Megatron has never stepped down or, technically, died. Just altered. Yeah he loses but the "good" guys always win for kids' sake. I'm not a fan IDW because even though they might have a decepticon story line, they always manage to focus it more on autobots. Basically all their stories are easily beaten deceptions and autobots with infernal problems...yawn. at least in the 80's we got a story line that is 50% Decepticons and 50% autobots.

I feel like what we saw in "Masquerade" is the same as what we saw in "Roll For It" -- Soundwave transforming and catching a ride aboard Starscream's jet mode. With the difference that in "Roll" Prowl knocked him into the air, and in "Masque" Soundwave started the momentum on his own.

In original opening theme you can see what Megatron firing himself would look like. I think it's cooler when someone catches him, personally.

When Unicron gave him a new body he also gave him a brand new canon mode, which was cool, too!

Somehow a tank (let alone a jet) is too plain for Megatron, I think.

In his alt mode, couldn't Megatron float and fire himself? I am pretty sure I saw that happen in the G1 cartoon. Meaning, he wouldn't have to rely on someone else to fire him.

For those noting his gun mode issue, here's this

Take from this what you will...

Shadowstream wrote:For those noting his gun mode issue, here's this
Take from this what you will...

Wow, I don't know what game that is, but it looks pretty awful and the voices are horrible.

tfparodies wrote:Wow, I don't know what game that is, but it looks pretty awful and the voices are horrible.

It's called Transformers Tatakai (sp?) and it was exclusive to Japan for the PS2 I believe. I never played it but have seen game footage on YouTube and yeah, it's pretty bad.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

tfparodies wrote:Wow, I don't know what game that is, but it looks pretty awful and the voices are horrible.

It's called Transformers Tatakai (sp?) and it was exclusive to Japan for the PS2 I believe. I never played it but have seen game footage on YouTube and yeah, it's pretty bad.

Tataki was a pre-release name. The game is officially known simply as "Transformers", with a brief in-game text blurb that also subtitles it "Call of the Future". And yeah, it's not a good game, but then what TF game is? I went though a lot of trouble to get the whole thing on YT too, but I think it was worth it, if only to show off the story, which IMHO has a lot of merit... for the most part.

The voice acting is pretty lame, but I still think it's hilarious hearing Alucard as Optimus Prime Megatron and Galvatron though...

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:In the year 2005, he did managed to conquer the entire planet of Cybertron. Hence initiating the events of TF the Movie where Ironhide asks Prime "when are we gonna start busting deceptichops?"

Only by the power of off-screen plot convenience, as prior to then we had 65 episodes of loss after loss after loss each time.

I Agree, it is funny how people ALWAYS are usING argument FOR Megatron's succes in G1, yet in Bayformers Decepticons are pathetic and fact that they conquer Cybertron with ease, killed most of Autobots and humiliate Optimus is completly ignored.

And here is one of the thing I don't understand: Why there is always excuse for G1 Megatron failure, where other Megatron's are consider as simply inferior to Prime, even if they are far more succesfull? Compare him to BW Megatron, witch won in 2 of 3 seazons, beat Autobots dozen of times and and was a real threat! G1 Megatron usually was a typical Cartoon vilian.

Shadowstream wrote:it's not a good game, but then what TF game is?

The PS2 Armada game. Better than WFC/FOC. I still play it to this day. Unending amounts of fun.

As for where G1 Megatron ranks overall? Of course there were better Megatrons, going by their accomplishments, BW Megatron comes to mind (best Megatron ever, IMO) as well as BM Megatron (even though the series itself was crap) but G1 is in the top 5.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Shadowstream wrote:it's not a good game, but then what TF game is?

The PS2 Armada game. Better than WFC/FOC. I still play it to this day. Unending amounts of fun.

I find all those games equally tedious for the amount of fun you get out of them. "Armada" has only 3 characters and they're all Autobots, across 7 levels there are only 4 environment types, searching for mini-cons and data-cons in the ridiculously huge expanses of level is a chore, and the difficulty ranges from hard to "f*ck you". Compare to the all the power-ups, multiple ways of getting from point a to b, and cool boss fights, I don't think the pros outweigh the cons any more than any other TF game without breaking out the cheat codes.

On topic, I really don't think anyone should give an 80's cartoon villain anything short of a grain of respect, if that's the form of Megatron we're basing this off of. As for my personal favorites I'll go for Beast Era Megatron, and Animated Megatron, the latter of whom is the only Megatron I ever thought was legitimately scary.

Shadowstream wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Shadowstream wrote:it's not a good game, but then what TF game is?

The PS2 Armada game. Better than WFC/FOC. I still play it to this day. Unending amounts of fun.

I find all those games equally tedious for the amount of fun you get out of them. "Armada" has only 3 characters and they're all Autobots, across 7 levels there are only 4 environment types, searching for mini-cons and data-cons in the ridiculously huge expanses of level is a chore, and the difficulty ranges from hard to "f*ck you". Compare to the all the power-ups, multiple ways of getting from point a to b, and cool boss fights, I don't think the pros outweigh the cons any more than any other TF game without breaking out the cheat codes.

On topic, I really don't think anyone should give an 80's cartoon villain anything short of a grain of respect, if that's the form of Megatron we're basing this off of. As for my personal favorites I'll go for Beast Era Megatron, and Animated Megatron, the latter of whom is the only Megatron I ever thought was legitimately scary.

I'm not sure we should count Beast Wars Megatron in this discussion, he isn't a representation of Megatron he just took the name.

njb902 wrote:I'm not sure we should count Beast Wars Megatron in this discussion, he isn't a representation of Megatron he just took the name.

He's as much the Megatron of BW and BM as any Megatron is of their series. The only difference that arose with him was his series existing in a continuity family that already had a separate Megatron in it.

Then again, G1 had two Barrages and two Sky Highs. G1 and G2 together had two Smokescreens, two Eagle Eyes, two Deluges, two Afterburners, two Jetstorms, two Dreadwings, two Sureshots, and two Drenches.

Sabrblade wrote:

njb902 wrote:I'm not sure we should count Beast Wars Megatron in this discussion, he isn't a representation of Megatron he just took the name.

He's as much the Megatron of BW and BM as any Megatron is of their series. The only difference that arose with him was his series existing in a continuity family that already had a separate Megatron in it.

Then again, G1 had two Barrages and two Sky Highs. G1 and G2 together had two Smokescreens, two Eagle Eyes, two Deluges, two Afterburners, two Jetstorms, two Dreadwings, two Sureshots, and two Drenches.

Lots of "people" have the same name. I'm just saying that Beast Wars Megatron isn't a iteration of G1 Megatron.

njb902 wrote:Lots of "people" have the same name. I'm just saying that Beast Wars Megatron isn't a iteration of G1 Megatron.

True, but nor is any other Megatron. All iterations of G1 Megatron would be like the cartoon iteration, the Marvel iteration, the Dreamwave iteration, the IDW iteration, etc. etc.

But for Beast Megatron, he was conceived as the Megatron of his two series.

It's a case like how Tidal Wave was the Shockwave of Armada, but Shockblast was the Shockwave of Energon, despite their being two different people existing in the same continity.

Sabrblade wrote:

njb902 wrote:Lots of "people" have the same name. I'm just saying that Beast Wars Megatron isn't a iteration of G1 Megatron.

True, but nor is any other Megatron. All iterations of G1 Megatron would be like the cartoon iteration, the Marvel iteration, the Dreamwave iteration, the IDW iteration, etc. etc.

But for Beast Megatron, he was conceived as the Megatron of his two series.

It's a case like how Tidal Wave was the Shockwave of Armada, but Shockblast was the Shockwave of Energon, despite their being two different people existing in the same continity.

Sigh, I hate arguing with you. You win, I'm wrong.

I'm wondering how many of the G1 Megatron bashers are younger fans who grew up with something other than G1. That's fine, it's only natural. I am the same but in the other direction as a G1'er. What is a problem, though, is when younger fans don't have any respect for what came before. It happens in every aspect of life really.

Take movies as an example. If a teenager today thinks "Jaws" sucks because the shark looks fake on one hand you can understand that his expectations are higher and on the other hand... well, you should take that other hand and slap him in the head.

The original King Kong was groundbreaking and advanced film as an art form. But I doubt kids today would like it very much. Etc., etc., etc., for most things.

Why is G1 Megatron so idolized? Because he deserves to be! I can't think of any other cartoon villian that was like him. (And I can't believe so many discussions go on about how he lost over and over again... really? Can we inject some more intelligence please?) Cobra didn't compare. Skeletor was cool, but not like Megs. Mum-Ra, Dr. Claw, Shredder... all these guys were good in their roles, but Megatron stood out. Even non-transformers fans know about Megatron (and Prime) which shows how good these characters were.

None stood out as real engines of destruction like Megatron did. He looks badass. He sounded badass. He WAS badass. Of course, bad scripts could weaken any character, but as a character himself he was just all win. And I am a person who usually sides with the good guys more.

So, if you are a younger fans don't like him because he's not "their" Megatron, fine, but at least some respect should be shown.

njb902 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

njb902 wrote:Lots of "people" have the same name. I'm just saying that Beast Wars Megatron isn't a iteration of G1 Megatron.

True, but nor is any other Megatron. All iterations of G1 Megatron would be like the cartoon iteration, the Marvel iteration, the Dreamwave iteration, the IDW iteration, etc. etc.

But for Beast Megatron, he was conceived as the Megatron of his two series.

It's a case like how Tidal Wave was the Shockwave of Armada, but Shockblast was the Shockwave of Energon, despite their being two different people existing in the same continity.

Sigh, I hate arguing with you. You win, I'm wrong.

I'm just kiddin' around with ya, sheesh.

In my opinion....

G1 Megatron was an awful leader. Rumble was a more menacing and scarier Decepticon than him.

In the cartoon, almost every one of his plans failed. I mean, sure, all Megatron plans across the franchise fail, but G1 Megatron had some of the most short-lived and pathetic plans in existence.

And then he has some the least-effective tactics of them all until the movie came around. And even then, he ended up failing and then going crazy.

Overall, Shockwave is a better leader. We should just put him in charge from now on.