Megatron's Ultimate Goal

[devastron]

In a recent Transformers post there was some interesting discussion about the whole civil war and what both sides were after or were fighting for. I thought I would present these pages from the current IDW ongoing, issue 22, to help shed some light on Megatron's motivations.

(Please be kind, this is my first time posting an entry.)



The context here is Megatron recently 'surrendered' to the Autobots for unknown reasons. He did mention wanting to see the Autobots get betrayed by the humans, which does happen, but later on we find out he wasn't as much a prisoner as he appeared.

Optimus has come to visit him in the brig, letting him out of his restraints so they can talk. The Autobots are having a hard time figuring out what to do with Megatron. Give him a trial? Imprison him for life? Execute him? Prime asks him why he surrendered and Meg's avoids answering, leading to this conversation.



I get a kick out of laid back Megatron in his chair. Its also interesting to see someone call out Optimus like that.

And now a nice collage of all of the major events that happened in the IDW run so far.



Interesting to know the war has gone from hot to cold and back several times. It makes sense considering how energy intensive it must be and how tough it is to kill a Transformer.

And now the answer we have all been waiting for.



I found Megatron's answer fascinating. His ultimate goal seems to be a Cybertronian utopia of peace and not really constant warfare. Of course this does come after conquering basically everything I suppose. I did like finally seeing his motto of 'Peace through Tyranny' explained as it always seemed somewhat nonsensical.

So there you have it. If there is interest and I didn't totally screw this up I might post some stuff from the following issue showing Optimus's past and what he actually was doing back then.

Comments

[akodo_rokku]

I feel like making Transformers morally grey kind of ruins it.

[jlbarnett]

it does. And honestly, the idea that Megatron's ideas are any different is ridiculous.

If there's no Autonomy if Megatron rules everything the he decides how things are carved up. Will he place flyer carving out underground Energon veins just so he can say function is independent of form? Do tanks strap jetpacks to themselves to fly air patrols. His empire will fall apart from inefficiency.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Why?

Making it black and white is boring. And for all the grey, the Autobots far and away remain the good guys.

[stolisomancer]

You're actually twenty years late on that one, at least in comics-land. IDW Transformers isn't the same continuity, but Transformers in general has been pretty grayscale since the Generation 2 twelve-issue series in the early '90s. IDW's plot is actually a pretty natural extrapolation from that particular series; it's the first time I recall seeing the idea that Megatron, instead of just being a font of evil, could be a reasonable individual if needed.

[blunderbuss]

Sorry, but how can you have a story about a millenia-long WAR without moral greyness?

[rainspirit]

I will never, ever understand what makes people love Transformers.

The impact of Machiavellian politics and brutal conflict seem a little bit lessened when the major players are giant robots that turn into cars.

[jlbarnett]

some people don't want impact.

[domino_blue]

it depends on how well it's handled. See half the fun is the Fact that Transformers is essentially a superhero war story. Sure them being robots is weird but the fun comes in the fact that it's a battle between essentially the legion of Doom and the Super friends on a universal scale. The giant robots add to the scale and the excitement. Also some of the characters are really likable and you want to follow them. and....the toys are fun to play with...I guess...they are really fun.

[okkult3000]

Yeah. I'd take it more seriously if they were overmuscled guys in tights and capes.

[q99]

It may for you, it doesn't for everyone.

And giant robots are really fun and distinctive in appearance. Consider that you can usually immediately recognize any of a huge number of transformers at a glance, and usually tell something about them by what they transform into. It's visual character information shorthand.

[starwolf_oakley]

Sometimes the "bad guy" sits down and says to the good guy, "Is what I want all that bad? Really?" Still, Megatron never really got over his anger at being forced to work in the mines (he wasn't a gladiator in this continuity?) and took his rage out on everyone. Any noble ideas about slavery being wrong turned into "killkillkill."

The last two panels remind me of what I've heard about the latest season of Sparatcus: the slaves have figure out if they want to fight for their freedom or run away and *be* free.

[kamino_neko]

Still, Megatron never really got over his anger at being forced to work in the mines (he wasn't a gladiator in this continuity?)

He was. The sequence of events was roughly thus, according to Megatron: Origin:

He was an Energon miner (one who, revealed in this issue, has a well-developed social conscience) - they were treated badly to begin with, and Senator Decimus (who refers to the miners as 'degenerate scum') shows up to tell the minors on the asteroid he's working they're fired (he claims the Senate'll find them new jobs, new homes, but nobody buys it). One of the workers objects - forcefully, but strictly verbally...the security detail rebuts his objections physically. Megatron responds in kind, and a full scale combat breaks out. The miners lose, and the survivors are captured, to be imprisoned or executed. They mount an escape - that goes better, and they end up in Kaon, where Megatron becomes a gladiator - one of the most successful ones.

[crinos]

I love how Megatron is sitting in that first panel. That is a posture that says: "Fucks officially NOT GIVEN."

Now I want to see Darkseid sit like that.

[thatnickguy]

He does, actually. All the time. In fact, that's his preferred pose.

Unfortunately, it's just far too awesome to comprehend, so our minds just interpret as best we can.

[blunderbuss]

AAAAGGGHHHH! That teenage girl in the second scan! I thought I had repressed all memories of her horribleness!

I also like how Megatron completely undermines his own vision and doesn't even realize it. He admits that he is sustained by hate, but then says that he plans to make Cybertron into a peaceful utopia. You can't rule a utopia when you have nothing but hate, nor can you simply just stop hating. If he's sustained by hate then he needs either someONE or someTHING to hate, and that's when his utopia will start to unravel. And naturally, he's too arrogant to ever realize this.

[stolisomancer]

You know, I didn't care for Verity either, but she was pretty cool in the "Last Stand of the Wreckers" mini.

..... Wait.

[dejadrew]

"Lust, rage, ambition, I've moved beyond them all."

... Lust?

... Lust was actually on the table for the giant ROBOT to move beyond?

... THE FANFICS ARE TRUE?

Re: ..... Wait.

[q99]

Lust for power?

In IDW continuity, Transformers don't really have gender normally.

[q99]

I like the difference between how Megs and Prime picture Megatron's vision of victory- Prime picture him as he currently is on top of a pile of heads. Megatron pictures himself as he was in front of adoring crowds.

[kamino_neko]

It's actually kind of odd that Megs would imagine himself in that body, I think. I'd expect him to either keep his current body, or revert to his original form that he had when he was a miner and gladiator.

[biod]

I can not picture Prime saying " whatever". At all.

[icon_uk]

I can, if he's impatient and being dismissive, as we all are from time to time.

[lonewolf23k]

Essentially, what this story does is turn Megatron from a generic cartoon tyrant...

...to the Giant Robot equivalent to Fidel Castro; starts out as a noble revolutionary, and turns into a brutal dictator.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Someone oughta scan the pages where the two reflect on the injuries they've inflicted on one another.

I don't know why, but Megatron's "The arm cannon. You always go for the arm cannon." is one of the greatest Transformer lines ever.

[thanekos]

Those are a great couple pages: " I was in gun mode, Prime! In gun mode! "

They're chock-full of that worldbuilding-by-inference James Roberts seems to like doing, which does help to sell the scope of Cybertronian conflict (and leave you wanting, at the same time- what kind of societal shift was the Clampdown? Just what did Megatron's Nightmare Engine do? And does he have the Tremorcons sketched out somewhere, because it kind of sounds like he does?)

[tsunamiwombat]

Theres something vast, epic, and utterly horrific about the Transformers war when you really examine it. A war that has lasted millenia. It's soldiers are immortal machines, unfatigueable so long as they have energy, limited only by their sentience.

They hurtle through space, slumbering on great war barges that systematically check individual planets one at a time for the enemy until they are found. Each ship is a land mine, drifting through the cosmos, and when it detonates the energy it releases is not an explosion but a war.

They slumber, and the only constant are friends and enemies they don't see for thousands of years at a time. They follow orders they were given a millenia ago. The war is self propogating - it is it's own purpose. They fight because that is what they do. Only the systematic, genocidal extermination of the other side can end it - a mathematical impossibility in the infinite gulf of space.

There will always be another hidden cell, another ship in stasis in an Asteroid field. You could rebuild cybertron and 10,000 years later a passing comet drops a whole column of Decepticons on your doorstep for whom the war never ended and Megatron is still alive.

That is the life of an Autobot or Decepticon. That is why Optimus Prime never, ever laughs.