The Energon Pub

I posted an article on my blog about why good ol' Megs has to be a gun. For his characterization's sake.
Here is the link
http://www.budmaloney.com/2015/03/why-megatron-needs-to-be-gun.html

What do you guys think? I'm actually curious to hear perspective from new fans that have never experience gun Megatron. How does he come off as ? Is he scary?

@mods should I paste the text of the article here? Or is it fine with the link above?

Gun Megatron can be very effective in battle but fundamentally he is a Transformer and can change his body into many forms, given time to reformat himself. The most important things are his plans and ambitions. If a gun form is needed, he will use that. Otherwise, he will switch to something else.

You can post the text if you want, but the link is fine. That's a pretty long blog entry so I would tend to advise just leaving the link up.

Some might find that tl;dr for a forum entry.

budmaloney wrote:I posted an article on my blog about why good ol' Megs has to be a gun. For his characterization's sake.
Here is the link
http://www.budmaloney.com/2015/03/why-megatron-needs-to-be-gun.html

What do you guys think? I'm actually curious to hear perspective from new fans that have never experience gun Megatron. How does he come off as ? Is he scary?

@mods should I paste the text of the article here? Or is it fine with the link above?

Could'nt agree more, I just can't wrap my head around Megatron being anything other than a gun, dispite him having a plethora of different alt modes for me if he's not a gun he's not Megatron.

It all depends on power. If real people want Megatron to be a gun, he will be a gun. If we grant him our 'permission' to change, he may change. A Walther pistol cannot move very well on its own. It requires assistance to get from A to B, especially if it wants to remain small and undetected.

snavej wrote:Gun Megatron can be very effective in battle but fundamentally he is a Transformer and can change his body into many forms, given time to reformat himself. The most important things are his plans and ambitions. If a gun form is needed, he will use that. Otherwise, he will switch to something else.

He could fly in G1 in robot mode right? It's a good balanced trade off, being incapacitated yet wielding ultimate death. Even though you're right, I'm inclined to think that everyone else is a jet or tank or car, but not everyone is a pistol. That honor was reserved for megs. Shockwave was a gun too but didn't mass displace. I just think it's boring if he's anything else other than a gun. Sure he's cool and all, ,but he's just like any other Decepticon. His plans and ambitions are what make him who is , but "world domination" can only go so far. Every Decepticon wants world domination. Or beats his soldiers. Or yells at them. If Motormaster was leader of the Decepticons, we'd have the same plans and ambitions. Gun mode made him stand out. Gun mode was his last resort. His Trump card if you will. I know it's heavy to bear all weight of the character on his vehicle mode. But that's what Transformers is about. If the alt mode and robot mode are indistinguishable functionally, then why Transform? Why not just watch Spider-man. The transition from robot mode to vehicle mode has to serve a purpose. Either strategically, or for transportation , or for merging. Also even if that mode doesn't make sense in our world. Look at Fall of Cybertron, Grimlock's beast mode was far more powerful, it offered his flame, he transformed out of rage. It vented that rage. So as the player you felt change and purpose to transform. It's sort of like swearing. If someone continually swears, when he or she really wants to get a point across it's not very credible if they swear. Because they always do that. But if someone who doesn't swear often, when they swear out of anger, it has more impact. Sure there is the presentation of the swear that matters, but I hope you get my point. Transformation should be treated as an event. Something to look forward to. When Megatron was in G1, we were waiting for him to turn into gun mode. We wait for the moment Constructicons merge. We waited in Energon to see Unicron Transform. Not much for Optimus Prime for example. It doesn't have the same anticipation. That's simply the law of diminishing returns. The good stuff was the withheld stuff. Predaking in TF Prime. He was in beast mode for a long time and we all wanted to see his robot mode. But if Megs was a tank... Brawl is a tank, Shockwave is a tank, Blitzwing is a tank. Or "oh yay he turned into a jet". Big whoop, Optimus can do that too, he just merged with Jetfire or whatever. It's just much harder for them to make a generic character believable.

ScoutBumblebee wrote:You can post the text if you want, but the link is fine. That's a pretty long blog entry so I would tend to advise just leaving the link up.

Some might find that tl;dr for a forum entry.

Thanks

leakin' lubricant wrote:
Could'nt agree more, I just can't wrap my head around Megatron being anything other than a gun, dispite him having a plethora of different alt modes for me if he's not a gun he's not Megatron.

It's sad to see them beat around the bush.

snavej wrote:It all depends on power. If real people want Megatron to be a gun, he will be a gun. If we grant him our 'permission' to change, he may change. A Walther pistol cannot move very well on its own. It requires assistance to get from A to B, especially if it wants to remain small and undetected.

I see your point, I wish they want to see a darker Megatron, makes for more entertainment. See stealth is for Soundwave not megs. And if Megatron does want to move from A to B he can transform. I liked that in the 2007 movie, Megs spoke in Cybertronian more because he is disgusted by English.I can't remember if it's in TFP or movies, but Megatron's vehicle mode wasn't intended to blend in because he was making a statement "I am above disguises" . While Starscream and the other Decepticons chose real human Alt modes.

There is a parallel between gun Megatron and psychopathy:

Small pistol = relatively small threat (compared to a larger weapon)
[Sudden change of mode]
Large Megatron = extreme threat

Quiet psychopath = looks normal, seemingly small threat
[Sudden change of mood]
Violent psychopath = major threat

Psychopaths are feared greatly because they often don't care who they hurt. They are self-centred and do what they want without much guilt. Often, they take senior roles in society, making them even more dangerous. In many cases, they act unpredictably and without hesitation. They usually look normal, so it is a shock when they show their ruthless side. Megatron can achieve this sudden shock with his transformation and mass shifting. Although he is very powerful, he is still vulnerable to other powerful people. Therefore, he needs to cultivate other strengths such as stealth and surprise.

Another word about human psychopaths: because they are so dangerous they can, paradoxically, make very useful allies. A psychopath fighting for you has a good chance of defeating your enemies. Hence, many people are attracted to psychopaths despite the risk to themselves. This helps to explain some people's fascination with such people and, by extension, Decepticons and other dangerous Transformers.

I never thought arguments over Functionist principles would spill over into actual discussions, but here we are!

One of the thematic elements explored in MTMTE has been whether form defines function. There's even a parallel universe where, once your alt-mode form is deemed useless by the Functionist Council, boom, wholesale genocide of any Transformers with that alt-mode. Causes a bit of tension, as you can surely imagine.

This is my roundabout way of saying that Megatron can just be Megatron, regardless of alt-mode, and that can go for other characters too. It can still be a bad idea - Optimus Prime as a tricycle is just silly, but that's where balance comes in. Because Transformers are what they are, you can't reject the importance of that alternate mode altogether, but minor variations don't bother me. A tank and a gun can both still do some damage.

There is a real problem though facing gun megs, one that no amount of power can't change.

You can't sell guns to kids! Now this didn't used to affect IDW however with them working ever closer to hasbro then that's out of the question unless they resurrected nerf megatron

Plus in my honest opinion, I was never that attached to his gun mode, seemed very silly to me. Glad he's changed

If the gun form does come back I expect it to be more of a space pistol-ish design. Kind of what happened with classics Megatron.

I honestly don't think he would be coming back with that form for long. This explains why a second Masterpiece Megatron isn't made yet.

One thing that I don't like about Megatron being a gun is that he needs Soundwave or one of the seekers to hold and fire him. I'd like to see him autonomous in gun mode like g1 Shockwave.

I still prefer Megatron in his gun mode over Galvatron in his cannon mode.

I don't understand how Soundwave carried Megatron into Astrotrain only to let Starscream throw him out in deep space. Megatron would have been better off if Soundwave just left him at Autobot City.

He would never have been reformatted in Galvatron, and we'd still have Megatron.

This is why:



'enough said

We aready discussed about this in my threat "Why G1 Megatron is so idolised".

Gun mode is inpractical and unspectalucar. He needs other Con to aim and operate him (Not ver overlord-ish), he can't move on his own, and is well... Tiny. Is there any pratical and improtant adventage of gun mode over tank mode? He could have as much firepower plus full mobility. In fact, I can't think about any Transformers in G1with more useless altmode.

Megatron can fire by himself. Look:

I quess it is early instalment wierdness because if he can do it canonicaly, then why he let other Cons to use him as a weapon(Usually Starscream-oh irony....)? Or hew can do it shortly after transformations.

Also lack of ability to transform into something boss-like makes Megatron kinda underdog. Optimus is a big Truck, Megatron is tiny Gun, Optimus seems to be superior at first sight. And outside The Movie ( Since Megatron's pyrric victore was undone in third season anyway) it is so right that might be consider symbolic. Megatron is transforming into something inferior, because he is inferior fighter and leader when compared to his Archenemy.

Over time, I've grown to like the ability of TF's to reformat but I do think for certain reasons, mostly financial on my part (for buying so many toys) it should still be a rare undergoing. In the original versions of the fiction, there had to be a reason to gain a new alt mode. If you crash on a new planet and everyone gets broken, everyone gets a new alt mode. If you get trashed by your arch enemy from the last several million years to the point where you will die unless something drastic is done, you get a new alt mode/body. This is a good model. Michael Bay-makes-another-movie,-everyone-gets-a new-alt-mode is a bad model.

As far as Megatron being only a gun...For collecting purposes, if HasTak makes an updated MP gun Megatron, I will buy it. Fiction-wise, I could care less what his alt mode is. I probably won't buy anything other than a gun Megatron.

It's ok Megatron is a gun because his arm fusion canon is more powerful.

Why couldn't Unicron just given Megatron a different alt mode like Teletraan One did? Give Megatron the cannon mode. That's enough of a reformat; he'd still be Megatron like when the Decepticons moved from Cybertron to earth. I'm sure Megatron had a Cybertronian alt mode on Cybertron, before he got reformatted by Teletraan.

Megatron needs to be a gun because he would not do this:

Megatron's gun knocked Omega Supreme down and out:



whereas Galvatron's space cannon mode knocked Omega down but he got right back up.

Am I the only who thinks that for a bot, a gun is a great idea?

To me it is obvious. It is very difficult to hit a gun in a mass shoot-out. The one who wins the war is the last being left standing. And that would be the gun of the most skilled fighter. Even the most skilled fighter can, and do, get shot. There is a very high chance that it is a weapon that would be the last one standing. So the obvious strategy is to get your most skilled fighter to use you to take out as many as he can... before inevitably getting shot. After which Megs can take down the rest himself, or simply appoint another.

And all this is not talking about whether the blasts are actually more powerful or not, or if megs uses less energon as a gun blah blah... not too important.