Though he's occasionally replaced by his upgraded counterpart, Megatron is almost always the face of villainy in the Transformers franchise. Whether he turns into a tank, a jet, a dinosaur or even a diminutive gun, Megatron's myriad of incarnations are always waging their battle to destroy the heroic forces of the various Optimus'. While Optimus is sometimes almost impossibly valiant, Megatron himself was once a very cliche villain. In recent years, however, new takes on the character have added new layers to his actions.
Forced into enslavement while ruled by an apathetic Autobot elite, Megatron's fall into villainy now typically has an air of sadness. Comics, video games and cartoons now all feature a Decepticon ruler whose lust for power was once based on a desire to see his put upon compatriots rise above their moribund societal entrapment.
G1 Cartoon Megatron
In the original cartoon, Megatron was the result of the second generation of official Decepticons. When he was created, the Decepticons had already lost their first war against the Autobots but sought to turn the tide by copying their rivals' transformation technology and their own flying abilities. They also built the warrior robot Megatron, who would become their new leader. Megatron led raids against major Autobot cities, even killing Sentinel Prime in his quest for factional domination. To add to the Decepticon ranks, he even employed the dangerous Robo-Smasher to brainwash Autobots into joining his cause.
These murderous pursuits were somehow kept out of public knowledge, with Autobots such as Orion Pax even looking up to the cool flying robots. Once their unquestioning evil was revealed, however, the revived Decepticon army was seen unequivocally as the villains they were. Megatron was never given an exact reason for his evil, despotic ways, and his sometimes cartoonish brand of evil resulted in some rather ridiculous plots throughout the show. While he was an incredibly memorable villain nonetheless, later versions of the character would build from this foundation and give the villain a downtrodden backstory that fleshed him out.
Megatron's Reimagined Origins
Megatron's origins have been heavily revised in the past two decades, though similar elements make him into a formerly put upon individual who rose to greatness, only to turn to evil in the end. In the IDW comic book continuity, Megatron formed the Decepticons initially not through force, but through writing. Speaking out against the ruling class of Cybertronians who lived atop the world via an oppressive caste system, Megatron was punished by being forced into living as a lowly miner. After killing a prejudiced senator, he was imprisoned as a gladiator, fighting battles to the death for the entertainment of the masses. This further hardened him through a life of forced servitude to the elites, while also gaining him more supporters that would bolster the eventual Decepticon army.
A similar origin came through the Aligned continuity, which mainly manifested in the TV series Transformers: Prime. He was a miner named D-16, living under the tyrannical rule of the enslaving aliens, the Quintessons. He fought alongside his Cybertronian brethren to eventually free their planet of their oppressors, but while the unity of this event was eventually forgotten to the race, the caste system first imposed by the Quintessons was not. This saw D-16 remain a miner even after being supposedly freed. After having joined the recreational gladiator fights of his society, he began to respect the sanctity of freedom and life. His first true kills were against those who tried to further impose the caste system on him directly, though he abhorred the idea. Even as his growing Decepticon movement became associated with violent terrorist attacks, he distanced himself from these acts, believing that power could be achieved through other means.
Unfortunately, Megatron would eventually become more violent in his opposition to the Cybertronian ruling class. This would end his friendship with Orion Pax, who he saw as a sellout to governing elites. From there, he would turn genocidal in order to retain power, becoming even more mentally unhinged after being exposed to Dark Energon. This campaign of terror against all those who opposed him all started with wanting a better life, both for himself and those locked into servitude as well. This makes him analogous to the X-Men villain Magneto, who usually poses the risk of becoming the same threat that he claims to fight against. It's also worth noting that this origin heavily resembles that of the Beast Wars version of Megatron, who went to extreme lengths to undermine what he saw as the oppressive ruling class of Maximals. This backstory adds a great deal of depth to what was once a rather two-dimensional villain, proving that with the Transformers, there's always more to them than meets the eye.
KEEP READING: Transformers: Earthrise Foreshadows Optimus Prime Becoming Nemesis Prime