Boomstick: Megatron, the Decepticon commander from Transformers.
Wiz: When these two dictators collide, the cosmos will tremble.
The eleventh episode of DEATH BATTLE! Season 10 travels to the depths of space once more. Though this time, rather than furry genetic experiments or lone alien defenders, today's combatants are two of the most prolific Galactic Conquerors to traverse the cosmos. No power in the universe can oppose them for long, as they've crushed all beneath their heels and ruled everything they could grasp with fists of iron. Now, with the planet of Cybertron itself on the line, the sheer might of the self-proclaimed Emperor of Universe 7 takes on the devious mind of the Decepticon's supreme leader in a death battle that will shake the stars!
Throughout the universe of Dragon Ball, there are few beings more feared or more wicked than Emperor Frieza. Born an extremely powerful mutant among his race, Frieza's diminutive stature belies an immense amount of cruelty and destructive power. For years, he used this power to conquer other worlds in order to sell them to the highest bidder, often by wiping out the entire population in the first place and while Frieza may have plenty of soldiers to do that work for him, he's perfectly fine with and capable of doing so himself, especially if it's to crush his most hated rivals, the Saiyans.
Frieza's power comes from his knowledge of ki, a life energy that can be used to amplify his physicality and mold into energy attacks. Most of his repertoire is keyed, no pun intended, to completely annihilating his opponents outright, with such attacks as the Death Beam, Death Ball, Death Wave, Death Cannon and Death Saucers. Though he does also possess other abilities, such as telekinetically moving objects, creating forcefields and sensing the ki of others in order to track them. His power is so great that he can move at quadrillions of times the speed of light and can obliterate the much hardier Planet Vegeta in his weakest form and that was after killing its king and slaughtering most of its people already. Unfortunately for him, Frieza failed to kill all of the Saiyans, many of whom would come back to battle him, but Frieza proved he could contend against opponents of similar or superior power, having survived Broly's assault for an hour, being crushed by a Spirit Bomb and split in half, having a planet explode on him and being stuck in the vacuum of space. Though curiously, unlike many other Dragon Ball villains, Frieza is not capable of healing on his own.
Ultimately, Frieza would be sent to Hell after his defeat by Goku and after his eventual resurrection, he chose to train for the first time in his life with the result being Golden Frieza. This form allowed the alien tyrant to match Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan Blue forms and subsequently, the Gods of Destruction who can destroy the entire Dragon Ball universe. Frieza would train further and gain a form that surpasses Goku's Ultra Instinct and Vegeta's Ultra Ego and even exceeds the power of someone who wished on the Dragon Balls themselves to be the strongest in the universe. This form, Black Frieza, puts him into contention as one of the candidates of a so-called "prophesized strongest warrior" and ensures that Frieza will continue to reign as one of the most malevolent forces in Dragon Ball. Even teaming up with his old nemesis to save their universe was merely a means to an end, because at the end of the day, only Lord Frieza gets to decide who will live to serve and who will die by his hand.
After an advertisement from NordVPN, the hosts travel to the distant planet of Cybertron, ruled by the Functionist Council who created a caste system that set every Cybertronian in a specified role based on their alternate mode. One Cybertronian, Megatron of Tarn, a former gladiator, rose up against this oppression, albeit at first by encouraging peaceful dissent. Ultimately, his dreams of equality through peace were shattered after surviving an assassination attempt, convincing him that the only path towards reform was violent revolution, something he turned out to be quite adept at.
Megatron founded the Decepticons and fought a nine-million-year war against the Autobots for control of Cybertron. His weapon of choice in this effort is the Fusion Cannon, a laser bazooka that can fire shots that can level towns and move at four thousand times the speed of sound. Beyond that he possesses weaponry composed of Energon, the primary fuel of Transformers, usually in the form of a mace and a shield. He is also capable of firing lasers from his eyes, launching buzz saws and creating a forcefield known as a "Panic Bubble", whose real job is to trap enemies inside with Megatron. Megatron himself is a master combatant, backed up by an extremely strong metal body that has matched Optimus Prime, who could toss oil tankers, and survived an explosion that shifted Cybertron's orbit. Megatron is also deceptively fast, able to match fellow Decepticons like Starscream, who can fly across the galaxy at hundreds of thousands of times the speed of light. Of course, Megatron would not be a Transformer if he could not assume alternate modes. In his case, he can transform into a tank, a stealth bomber jet or a gun that can fire itself. Perhaps Megatron's most dangerous ability is his usage of anti-matter. By using Space Bridge technology, he can transport anti-matter from a black hole out through his eyes. By its very nature, anti-matter is capable of destroying any matter it touches at the subatomic level, regardless of its durability.
As the war raged on, Megatron's ideals would degrade. Where he once cared about destroying the caste system and freeing his fellow Cybertronians, he now only cared about ruling everything and everyone with an iron fist. He would battle other powerful Transformers in his conquest, such as Grimlock, Predaking, the Deceptigod, Nova Prime and Regenesis Shockwave, the latter three of whom were empowered by an entire universe. Though it wasn't just raw power that carried Megatron through these battles, but his mind, which allows him to think many steps ahead of his opponents and command thousands of battles in real time by processing every piece of worthwhile information. His war eventually took its toll on his beloved Cybertron, leaving it in ruin and forcing the Decepticon leader to remind himself of why he chose to fight in the first place. Finally realizing that Optimus Prime and his Autobots embodied his old ideals better than he had in millions of years, he joined their side to save the universe from destruction. Megatron may have lived long enough to see himself become the villain, but he lived longer still to see himself become a hero once more.
With the final advertisement from Better Help complete, the space-born dictators are fully analyzed and ready for combat. It's time for a death battle!
A fleet belonging to the Frieza Force slowly approaches the planet of Cybertron in the depths of space. Its leader, Emperor Frieza, approaches the robotic planet's lone defender, Megatron and stakes his claim on the world, ordering the Decepticon to submit or die. Megatron angrily defies Frieza, intent on preventing his organic hands from sullying his planet. Amused, the emperor summons a Supernova from his finger and flings it at his rival warlord...
FIGHT!
... But Megatron repels it with a blast from his Fusion Cannon, sending it straight back into Frieza's fleet and destroying it, though the alien survives unharmed while assuming his Final Form. Promising to construct a new ship from the Cybertronian's corpse, he unleashes a Death Wave at Megatron that the Decepticon shields with his Panic Bubble, but the wave passes through and strikes the surface of Cybertron instead. Angered, he blasts at Frieza with his Fusion Cannon. The alien weaves around the shots and batters Megatron repeatedly, taunting him about his lack of speed, only to run face first into the inside of Megatron's forcefield.
Megatron capitalizes by punching Frieza hard enough to send him flying out of the bubble and crashing onto Cybertron's surface. Frieza emerges with a crack of his neck and immediately starts blasting Megatron with his Death Beams, but the Decepticon defends himself with his Energon Mace before firing the spiked ball at the emperor. Frieza avoids the unusual attack and Megatron's follow-up volley before being buried into the ground by a stray shot. Megatron maniacally and repeatedly blasts the ground where Frieza is embedded until he emerges. The two warlords engage in close combat which Frieza ends by trapping Megatron in an Imprisonment Ball and flinging him into the planet's surface causing a massive explosion that rends and warps Cybertron.
In the aftermath of the destruction, Frieza looks around for his opponent, unable to sense him but eventually taking notice of a lone tank amidst the rubble. A transformed Megatron charges up and shoots a massive beam of energy at Frieza that blasts the emperor all the way back into space where he assumes his Golden transformation. The giggling Frieza launches a massive purple Death Ball at the Decepticon and Cybertron. He responds by using the Recoil Boost of his cannon to launch himself at the sphere, transforming back into his normal form and, with maniacal glee, intercepting the apocalyptic attack with a Fusion Cannon beam. Frieza takes advantage of Megatron's attempt to defend Cybertron by telekinetically pulling the planet towards the Transformer and his own Death Ball. Megatron is unable to stop it and is crushed between both celestial objects.
What follows is Cybertron's core being exposed, with the despondent Megatron kneeling before it and Frieza floating overhead, mockingly predicting the time until the planet's full destruction. Enraged, Megatron shoots his eye lasers at Frieza who counteracts them with his own, seemingly destroying Megatron's eyes which begin to leak antimatter. In turn, the Decepticon taunts Frieza over all of his losses in trying to conquer the now ruined planet, calling the emperor a fool. Frieza finally snaps, assuming his Black form and promising unspeakable torment for Megatron, who simply engulfs Frieza in his antimatter. Frieza tries to resist but is eventually fully consumed by an antimatter explosion.
Megatron emerges unharmed and alone, laughing over his seeming victory but is bisected by a Death Saucer from the still-alive, albeit one-armed and torso less Frieza. The Decepticon fires one last shot from his Fusion Cannon while the emperor responds by throwing three Death Saucers that easily slice through the projectile, Megatron's head and the entire planet of Cybertron, obliterating it in a massive explosion. Floating alone in the destruction is the victorious, but utterly enraged Frieza who swears to hunt down the rest of the Cybertronians as retribution for his humiliation.
KO!
With Cybertron in ruins and an injured but very much alive and angered Frieza seeking to wipe out its people for good, the hosts delve into how he was able to conquer the Decepticon commander. To his credit, Megatron boasted a lifespan far longer than his opponent's, and his wartime skills meant he was more likely to employ clever tactics to gain any advantages in the battle whereas Frieza often coasted on intimidation and power to defeat anyone in his path. His use of anti-matter was also noted to be a tool capable of killing Frieza in a scant few scenarios, but considering how this battle factored in who was likely to win more often than not, most of Megatron's advantages ended here.
While Frieza would've very much had no way to survive the anti-matter enveloping his entire body, he has survived parts of his body outright being destroyed, and his ki forcefields could keep the substance at bay enough to escape. Combined with his superior speed - as Frieza would scale to Goku capable of moving millions of times faster than light, this afforded him another avenue of surviving Megatron's superior weaponry, which meant that the Cybertronian's best bet was to overpower his foe directly. Such a feat would prove to be too much for him to handle; while Megatron has fared well against fighting foes capable of threatening the Transformers universe, Frieza has kept up with foes who can threaten the larger Dragon Ball multiverse. Hell, considering that Black Frieza has proven himself superior to both Goku and Vegeta in Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego, he would have no problem utilizing his overwhelming power and speed to snuff out his foe's diabolical spark and end the battle swiftly.
Wiz: The winner is Frieza!
"Frieza VS Megatron" contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: The crux of Megatron's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, as by that point in the battle Frieza lost his ship and army for a planet that's beyond saving.
- Always Someone Better: As far as speed and raw power go, Frieza is superior to Megatron as the former is scaled to the likes of Goku and Vegeta, both having accomplished insane feats such as fighting universe-destroying beings and entities. Even Megatron's antimatter fell short as Frieza has dealt with hakai, an attack that works similarly to Megatron's antimatter — though it's also noted it might be iffy to directly compare the two — and has a defensive measure to protect himself. In the post-analysis, Megatron's only advantages over Frieza was that he had nine million years worth of combat experience over the fate of Cybertron and was a tactical genius.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: At the start of the battle, Megatron tells Frieza he'd rather see his planet be turned to ash than allow it to be exploited by some organic. At the end of the fight, Frieza kills Megatron and destroys Cybertron in the process.
- Big "WHAT?!": This is Boomstick's reaction upon learning that Megatron became an Autobot.
- Bittersweet Ending: Or a Downer Ending, depending on how you look at it. Megatron has wiped out Frieza's army and left the emperor as nothing but a floating torso, but Frieza still survived, destroyed both Megatron and Cybertron, and plans on dismantling the rest of Megatron's people in retribution. What's worse, being reduced to such a state hasn't stopped him before.
- Book Ends: Frieza's arrival to "Cyber-whatever" shows that he doesn't take its race that seriously. By the end, after suffering enough damage by Megatron in more ways than one, he's taken Cybertronians seriously enough to make sure he'll destroy the rest of them, and actually gets their name right.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Frieza's victory over Megatron finally nets the Dragon Ball franchise a win after Goku Black, Vegeta, and Trunks' respective losses to Reverse-Flash, Thor, and Silver, and a net neutral win/loss through Gogeta losing to Vegito.
- Call-Back:
- Harkening back to his vow to kill every last Saiyan for the threat they posed, Frieza swears to slaughter every last Cybertronian after having been nearly defeated by Megatron.
- At the end of the fight, Frieza is once again reduced to having only an upper torso and a right arm, much like his fate in the Frieza Saga.
- Composite Character: Averted. In one of the rare instances, DEATH BATTLE only uses a specific continuity for Megatron's feats and abilities, that being Generation 1, more specifically his IDW Comics incarnation.note Also, his transformation into Galvatron is never mentioned.note
- Darker and Edgier: In comparison to the last time a villain-turned-hero Hasbro character fought and lost to a villain, this time around goes very poorly for the losing Hasbro rep. While Discord managed to trap Bill in the Nightmare Realm and prevent him from further harming any of his friends, Megatron, while preventing Frieza from conquering Cybertron, fails to stop him from outright annihilating his home and everyone on it, with Frieza then vowing to slaughter every last remaining Cybertronian afterwards. The only bit of reassurance being how badly Megatron had wounded Frieza before his death... Keyword being bit considering Frieza's still a massive threat despite having most of his body missing.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: While its destruction was already set in motion by the second Death Ball, Frieza's final Death Saucer attack ends up completely obliterating Cybertron.
- Evil Is Bigger: Inverted. The colossal Megatron's committed plenty of brutal acts during his long war against the Autobots, but his diminutive opponent Frieza is the bigger bastard by far.
- Evil Versus Evil: Downplayed. This episode pits a straight-edge villain against a Fallen Hero who did manage to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- Foil: Frieza is an entirely evil character who casually conquers planets, selling them to the highest bidder, and any who defy him are outright destroyed. The only time he's ever willingly worked with his enemies is when the alternative was facing down total destruction, but otherwise makes it very clear he will never pull, much less consider a Heel–Face Turn. Megatron is a Fallen Hero who once advocated for peace and revolution before becoming the cold and ruthless tyrant who waged war for nine million years and ultimately rendered Cybertron uninhabitable. He has worked with Optimus in the past, and at one point, Megatron even pulled a Heel–Face Turn after remembering his initial goals for Cybertron and even became an Autobot.
- Force and Finesse: Despite Megatron's history as a gladiator, he's the finesse to Frieza's force; the latter was physically superior in every way that mattered, but Frieza relied on raw power and intimidation to win fights (though that isn't to say he's Dumb Muscle by any means; he's just not used to fighting opponents who can give him a run for his money). Megatron on the other hand, spent nine million years fighting in a civil war and had incredible tactical prowess to command over a thousand battles at once. This is even shown in the fight itself; in a final act of defiance, Megatron goads Frieza into recklessly attacking him so he can hit him with an antimatter attack. While the attempt ultimately fails, Cybertron is ultimately destroyed, denying Frieza his prize and being doomed to wander the vacuum of space. Although, Frieza isn't deterred by this and promises to eradicate all Cybertronians in retaliation.
- Foregone Conclusion: The post-fight analysis shows that Golden Frieza was powerful enough to overwhelm Megatron in all but a few cases. Unsurprisingly, they don't go into the specifics of how powerful Black Frieza is after that other than Black Frieza managed to beat Goku and Vegeta at their strongest.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Both fighters are reduced to a torso and an arm (two in Megatron's case) by the end of the fight, Frieza from Megatron's antimatter and Megatron from Frieza’s Death Saucer. While they both survive this, Frieza's the only one who can actually move in that state, leaving him free to land the finishing blow on his opponent.
- I Shall Taunt You: Towards the end of the fight, Megatron taunts Frieza with the fact even if he wins, it'll be a Pyrrhic Victory. This causes Frieza to go berserk and fly right into Megatron's trap with the Anti Matter, very nearly killing the galactic tyrant. It's noted in the analysis that in some situations, Megatron actually could have beaten Frieza this way, outsmarting him and luring him into the Anti Matter, just most of the time Frieza would win out.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Frieza is cocky and smug, hardly putting any effort into the fight even as Gold Frieza. It isn't until Megatron tells him his victory will be pyrrhic at best and left to wander the vastness of space that he busts out his Black Frieza form and decides to kill Megatron then and there.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Megatron may be a brutal tyrant but he did start off with noble goals and hints of his former heroism remain. This is in stark contrast to Frieza, a purely malevolent creature.
- Merchandise-Driven: There's a lot of jokes that poke fun at the contrast between Megatron's dark, politically charged backstory and the Transformers franchise being used to sell toys. For further irony, Megatron is noted to hate capitalism.
- Mythology Gag:
- One of fight song's verses is "Deceptive tyrants never choose to make amends", a reference to a commissioned Brandon Yates song
themed around Frieza and Megatron. - Frieza estimates five minutes before Cybertron explodes from his Death Ball attack.
- Frieza being reduced to his upper torso and one arm, and the last exchange between him and Megatron calls back to the finale of Frieza’s fight with Goku on Namek... though this time Frieza kills his opponent.Frieza: You will die by my hand!
Megatron: You Fool!
- One of fight song's verses is "Deceptive tyrants never choose to make amends", a reference to a commissioned Brandon Yates song
- One-Hit Kill: Megatron's antimatter attacks can destroy anyone and anything regardless of durability, as antimatter and matter annihilate each other on the sub-atomic level. As noted by Wiz and Boomstick, this gave him a slight edge against Frieza and would have won in some scenarios combined with his superior intellect. Unfortunately for Megatron, Frieza's far greater speed mean that even if he did get hit, he'd most likely be able to react in time to limit the damage unless his whole body was annihilated at once.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Frieza wanted to take over Cybertron but destroys it instead, losing half his body in the process as well as his mothership, and is last seen fuming over the fallen Megatron's insults and defiance as he swears to finish off the rest of the Cybertronian race.
- Villain Song: "Final Formers" is a song about Frieza and Megatron both being deceptive and cold-hearted tyrants.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Discussed; Boomstick repeatedly mocks the fact that Megatron has a tragic, politically charged backstory despite his real world origins as a kid's toy that can turn into a gun.
