Megatron - Transformers Animated

Transformers Animated

In Transformers Animated, Megatron was not the main antagonist for much of the first season, but in season two, he took back the role of the primary antagonist. Megatron's Cybertronian design hearkens to the movie version but with more human-like features, while his Earth design bears similarities to the "Super Megatron" form of his G1 incarnation. He wields his trademark fusion cannon (which is much larger than usual in this series), and carries a pair of swords. The swords do not resemble the katana in the image at right, taken from an earlier design. His original alternate mode is an unknown Cybertronian space vehicle, but becomes a tiltrotor aircraft once he is rebuilt to blend in with Earth.

In this series, Megatron has his own catchphrase: "Decepticons, transform and rise up!", contrasting Optimus Prime's classic "Autobots, transform and roll out!" line. A marked contrast between this and other series is that Megatron and Optimus Prime's antagonism is not personal: before their first battle, they had never met, and they continue to clash on the basis that they are on opposite sides rather than on any particularly personal hatred. Megatron does not even bother to remember Optimus's name until the series finale. Unlike several other series, Megatron does not upgrade into Galvatron, he remains as Megatron for the full three seasons.

This version is less tolerant of Starscream's treachery: after gaining his new body, he uses Sari Sumdac's key to slay Starscream, and takes great pleasure in killing him several times once he discovers that Starscream has become immortal due to a shard of the Allspark embedded in his head, and he would later destroy Starscream's replacement body, moments after he got it, once the treacherous Decepticon had outgrown his usefulness.

Megatron is also the most cool-headed among his other adaptations, despite being just as arrogant as his predecessors. Furthermore he doesn't consider Optimus of any actual importance until the climactic final battle on Earth, where Megatron finally acknowledged him as a threat by name.

The scale chart released for the series indicates Megatron stands about 35 feet tall.

In the Japanese translation of Transformers: Animated, the story has been changed to make it a prequel to the 2007 Transformers film. This makes this version of Megatron an earlier version of the film character.