Wolfman Jake wrote:In my head canon, cartoon/movie G1 Unicron is a physical manifestation of the IDW G1 Dead Universe (same essential entity, different forms for different universes). When Unicron creates Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps (and Cyclonus' "Armada") in the '86 movie, he's actually just imprinting sparkless chaises with the minds and/or sparks of ancient Transformers of the same name who had crossed paths with him eons ago and been consumed, akin to how those characters plus a few others were written into the IDW G1 mythos as having been early explorers who discovered and then became trapped in and corrupted by the Dead Universe. Of course, Megatron "still functioned" when he was reformatted in the movie, so his spark still survives as a part of "Galvatron," while Thundercracker, Skywarp, and the Insecticons were thoroughly dead at that point, so their personality makeovers are much more complete.
I'll tell you why I don't care for this aspect of IDW. It feels like having cake and eating it too. The same goes for the Galvatronus toy. I really want the promise of a world with no Megatron or Optimus.
One option for that is a world where they die and stay dead for awhile. One option is if they fundamentally become different characters.
If you can have Galvatron or Galvatronus alongside Megatron without explanation, it means you don't ever need to get rid of Prime and Megatron.
I like Animated. I think Energon is my favorite of the Unicron trilogy and I'm starting to get nostalgic for how different much of that stuff was. Season 3 is my favorite part of G1... and I really wish G2 had more proper fiction not just because I instinctively like Pyro and Rapido but because I think Rodimus deserves a post-Prime story (Japan launched him into space after restoring him although I think Energon Prime was hinted at being G1 Prime there, eh?). Actually, part of what interests me about G2 is that it kind of devolves Megatron and Optimus. The comics made them both more fallible but the toys themselves stripped them of what had been their iconography. This was the line inspired every heresy. The end of Megatron as a gun. Optimus Prime increasingly off model and ending up with plans to make him a dumptruck.
I prefer Season 3 to the early years. I like G2 because it's both the failure of the early G1 aesthetic and simultaneously the surrender of the G1 characters from the clutches of any kind of purist presentation. Every improvement and heresy dates back to G2 and G2 stands as this reminder that going back to G1 wasn't enough.
People talk about losing their innocence when Optimus Prime died. I think, for me, I lost it when I saw him return. I'd been eager for it, expecting it. I think maybe other kids saw Rebirth first. There was a line telling kids to expect his return on VHS, I think? But when I saw him come back, I wondered if we weren't better off with him dead. I never thought that with Starscream. I loved his brief returns and Cobra Commander's.
But I still think I'd be more interested in a Transformers universe without Prime or Megatron. Any Optimus or Megatron. And I like the idea that Galvatron means you have to give up Megatron. I feel like without that, you'll always have Optimus and Megatron around and, worse, they'll always be fairly true to form unlike G2 where they started getting off-model in fun ways.
Galvatron is the dessert that people finish their vegetables (ie. let go of Megatron) for. And if you can have dessert without finishing your vegetables, well... No writer will ever set out to get rid of Megatron permanently if they don't need to to have Galvatron.
Same goes for my feelings on Galvatron 2 in the Marvel comics. Seeing them together is novel for a few minutes but then you realize that it means they don't have to get rid of Megatron and it's kind of depressing, for me at least. Because it meant that a world of Transformers without Optimus and Megatron was always going to be some kind of alternate future and the comics never had to make that clean break if they could just have characters show up from there.
case assortments are probably not subject to random changes like that, due to the figures needing to be made, packaging printed and cases formed. But this is a good way for people who missed out on MM to pick him up, as he is an excellent stand-alone figure, though he is very lackluster as a torso.
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