Old Magnificent Bastard thread
Welcome to the Magnificent Bastard proposal thread! This is the thread where new Magnificent Bastard examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential mitigating features will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the MB subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- If a work is already reserved by another user, please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite MB" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from other parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for MB equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, their goals and methodology, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some characters, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
How are they Magnificent?
This is the point where you highlight the character's brilliance. How to they convey their intelligence and charm to the audience? What makes them stand out among the crowd? What are their goals and how do they go about accomplishing them? This part welcomes a lot of creative thinking — not everyone has to be a Machiavellian Diabolical Mastermind to be worth considering here! This is also the time to showcase how the character can think on their feet if it's necessary.
How are they a Bastard? How are they not too bad?
What kinds of moral lines is this character willing to cross for the sake of their goal? Are they willing to let innocents die? Start wars? Commit crimes? The character has to show some kind of unscrupulousness in order to count as a "Bastard". Notably, this character does not necessarily have to be the villain, and an Anti-Hero can cross the line if they're immoral enough, but they have to be immoral somehow.
This is also the section where you then state your case for why they're not too bad. Perhaps their good intentions help mitigate their crimes. Perhaps others are shown to be much worse than them. Perhaps they're prone to Pet the Dog moments or are even fighting on behalf of loved ones. Whatever the case, there are certain lines that an MB can't cross, but as long as their villainy is reasonable for their goal, they can be considered.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Twiddler on Jan 17th 2024 at 5:40:56 AM
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
to Graydon. Abstaining on Itsuki until someone more familiar with the work says something.
Lizzid people!
Eh... Itsuki. I understand his intention is to save his son, which is commendable, but he enables Ai Magase, a sadistic serial killer, to do it. Sure, you can make the argument that he is not responsible for all the murders (like the infamous scene where Magase chops off a woman's limbs to draw out as much suffering she could), but she only gets to do so because of him.
That, and the final episodes practically treat him as a nonexistent entity since, once again, Magase is the one trying to have the US president kill himself.
Question: do you guys think that any of the Player Characters from Star Wars Old Republic MMO could count?
Goku Black
Uh not really. You can do a lot of terrible and dumb stuff. Which is the issue with being a playable character.
At least Revan was given a canonical list of deeds later.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Classy, Refined, Unstable
Aight here's arguably my longest proposal I'll ever do but honestly? This guy deserves it. He's been brought up but never officially EP'd so here we go.
What is the work?
Transformers: Prime is a damn fine cartoon with well Transformers. The series tells the story of a small crew of Autobots defending Earth against the Decepticons, after their home planet Cybertron was rendered uninhabitable from their civil war. The conflict is small, the once massive civilization is scattered around the universe and the factions on Earth are a fraction of that. Opposing the heroic Autobots are the Decepticons— which contain two easy M Bs, Shockwave and Soundwave but ultimately they serve someone and who do they serve? Megatron, played spectacularly by Frank Welker and in my opinion, tied with David Kaye's Beast Wars Megatron as the greatest version of the character.
Who is Megatron and what has he done?
A gladiator who fought within the Cybertron arena's of Kaon. The one who took the name Megatronus, one of the original thirteen primes, saw a noticeable power dynamic amongst the classes of his race. Wanting to initiate a change in that hierarchy, Megatronus took to becoming a revolutionary, eventually meeting a clerk named Orion Pax (Optimus Prime) with the pair becoming like brothers. Shortening his name to just Megatron, he and Optimus went to the high council of Cybertron. While Megatron went with threats, Orion went with a speech with spurred the council to Prime's side. Annoyed by the outcome, Megatron left the council and Orion behind and decided to orchestrate his own group—The Decepticons.
Assembling loyal followers, including Hyper Competent incarnate Soundwave and the scheming Starscream, Megatron then initiated the war for Cybertron, intending on finding the Matrix of Leadership. During the war, Megatron had managed to successfully take over the city of Kaon and rechristened it as the Decepticon capital. During a fight at Tyger Pax, Megatron had the autobot Bumblebee under interrogation— crushing his voice box when the scout refused to break.
Not just limiting his war efforts to brute force, Megatron also created a cybonic plague which he unleashed upon Cybertron resulting in ugh nasty body count, eventually also reaching Cybertron's core itself and granting him an almost complete victory. When Orion purified the core and was rewarded with the Matrix, becoming Optimus Prime, Megatron had his assassin Skyquake ordered to kill Prime. With the assassin's failure, Megatron took to himself that he alone only deserves the right to be able to kill Optimus. During the wartime conquest, Megatron also had his chief scientist Shockwave send an army of Predacons to Earth to secure any energon deposits they could find, although they all eventually died out.
When the war eventually leaves Cybertron in ruin and the Transformers scattered throughout the galaxy, Megatron takes to leading his army to Earth to collect the energon, not before leaving Cybertron guarded with Insecticons in stasis should anyone return but him. Having secured many deposits, Megatron leaves the Decepticons to Starscream temporarily so he's able to scour the galaxy to gather more troops. Discovering something far better than foot soldiers, Megatron discovered some Dark Energon, the "blood of Unicron". Discovering that this can reanimate deceased Transformers as his own army, Megatron returns to Earth, resuming control of the Decepticons and has the Dark Energon tested on the deceased Autobot Cliffjumper. Unfortunately for him, the revived Cliffjumper acts like a feral zombie and attacks and kills several Decepticons although posed no threat to him himself. Also unfortunately, the revival of Cliffjumper alerted the Autobots to the mines. Deciding it's not time to combat Optimus, Megatron retreated to his ship the Nemesis and continued to study the Dark Energon.
To get over the "mindless zombie" problem that would be created if he attempted anymore resurrections, Megatron decides he'll have to integrate the Dark Energon within his own body to be able to control the undead. Inserting a shard of the Dark Energon into himself, Megatron heads to a site of an ancient Cybertron battle on Earth and starts to resurrect the fallen Transformers there, successfully able to control them—siccing them on Optimus and Ratchet when they confronted him. While the pair were distracted Megatron seized the opportunity to open a portal to Cybertron, intending on using his newfound power to revive the dead inhabitants of Cybertron, an undead army of billions under his control. Succeeding with opening the portal despite the Autobot's best efforts, Megatron then duels Optimus while he waits for the undead army to cross through. Unfortunately for Megatron the other Autobots stop the assault by causing the portal to explode, seemingly killing Megatron and the horde. Surviving due to his Dark Energon usage but barely, Megatron was left drifting in space until Starscream discovered him. After Starscream takes the Dark Energon crystal out of Megatron he's halted by Soundwave who forces him to take Megatron back onto the Nemesis to keep in the sick bay.
When Optimus gets infected with a plague, Arcee and Bumblebee sneak aboard the Nemesis to search for an antidote. Discovering Megatron's body in stasis, Bumblebee links his mind with Megatron's to search in it for a cure. In Megatron's mind, Bumblebee sees that he's spending his time killing endless variants of Optimus Prime. Noticing Bee, Megatron realises he's in his mind when he strikes the Autobot but doesn't harm him. Content with letting Optimus simply die by the plague, Bee convinces Megatron that he would gain a greater satisfaction if he killed Optimus himself rather than letting him die of unceremoniously. Megatron then offered Bee a deal, he'll provide the cure if Bee helps him escape his mental prison. Despite Bee double-crossing Megatron, Megatron manages to follow Bee into his own mind at the very last moment.
Possessing Bee, Megatron uses a portal to head to the battle grounds on Earth and retrieves a shard of Dark Energon, then heading to the Autobot base to seemingly act like Bumblebee is just a bit off due to the mind link. Returning to the Nemesis, Megatron then uses the Dark Energon to attempt to revive his true body, making Ratchet and one of the autobot human allies, Raf, realise that Bee isn't in control. Despite Ratchet trying to stop the revival, it proves fruitless as Megatron recovers fully. Leaving Ratchet, Bee and Raf to be killed by his troops who discover he's revived, Megatron then makes a beeline to Starscream for his treachery, promptly beating the Decepticon and dragging him away screaming.
Instead of permanently ending Starscream, Megatron beats him to near death and has him left in the infirmary, only visiting to gloat out of amusement. Hearing the Decepticon Breakdown had been captured by the human antagonists MECH, Megatron denies to rescue him, citing about if he was able to be taken by humans, then Breakdown deserved the capture. When Breakdown escapes and offers to retrieve a Polarity Gauntlet to make up for his capture—failing although he returns with another Decepticon, Airachnid.
Discovering that Starscream was mining energon for his own personal usage, Megatron determines the amusement he had from his second in command being battered was to end and took him to the mine where he almost executes him if not for the appearance of Arcee and Jack, causing Megatron to shoot at them giving Starscream a chance to escape. During the shooting, Megatron accidentally brings down the mine, pinning him under a load of rubble. When Jack appears above him with a drill, Megatron goads him into killing him although Jack refuses. This brief time gave Megatron a chance to break free of the rubble when he discovers Starscream trying to keep a large rock from crushing him. When Starscream insists he was trying to save Megatron and begged for mercy, Megatron halted the execution with a smirk.
Hearing from Airachnid that Starscream had kept the location of a fallen ship, the Harbinger, from him. Megatron has Starscream take her to it to retrieve a weapon called the immobiliser from it. Megatron is then later furious when she returns without the weapon... and Starscream who had been captured by the Autobots.
When a formula for a special type of Energon called Synthetic Energon ends up accidentally transferred into the mind of the Autobot Bulkhead from a data cylinder. Optimus makes a deal with Megatron so they can extract the formula from Bulkhead's mind and give the cylinder back to Megatron. Despite Megatron briefly considering to agree, he then goes back on it and sends Knock Out and Breakdown to capture Bulkhead and dares Optimus to fight for the cylinder. When Knock Out and Breakdown fail, Megatron then crushes the cylinder and departs. When Ratchet gets juiced up on the Synthetic Energon and punches Megatron into a wall, Megatron responds with an "Alright then" and promptly defeats the autobot, leaving him with Knock Out to extract the energon for his own troops.
Suffering visions from the Dark Energon, Megatron has the Decepticons create a new space bridge to find more of the Dark Energon for them. Locating the last component, Megatron goes in, shooting at the human Raf which creates a distraction that allowed him to escape. Luring Optimus to a volcano that he saw within the visions, Megatron duels him in which the volcano nearby erupts Dark Energon, imbuing Megatron with it and allowing him to almost kill Optimus although the Autobots save him. Having the source at hand, Megatron has the Decepticons mine the Energon and gather it up.
When Soundwave alerts Megatron that there's a lifeform within the Earth, Megatron realises that Unicron himself was in the depths of the planet. Leaving Airachnid in command, Megatron heads into the volcano and communicates with Unicron hoping to be bestowed power. When Unicron expresses his displeasure of the existence of Optimus Prime and denies Megatron anything, Megatron heads to the Autobots and offers Optimus his services— he'll provide the Autobots the means to travel to Unicron so Optimus use the Matrix on the chaos god, making no pretence that this is a truce and that they'll return to being foes once again once the threat is disposed of.
When the Autobots return to their base to decide on the offer, Megatron fights the giant stone variants of Unicron, keeping them busy—later being invited to the Autobot's base. Leading the Autobots to Unicron despite the persistent influence of the dark god (due to the Dark Energon usage), Megatron also aids them with fighting Unicron's antibodies—eventually reaching Unicron's spark chamber. When Optimus unleashes the Matrix and seemingly stops Unicron, Megatron goes to kill him but stops when he realises that his foe has lost his memory. Convincing Optimus that the Autobots are the enemy, they depart to the Nemesis where Megatron greets the Decepticons along with "Orion Pax".
Producing a story about the "Autobot warlord Ratchet" and the destruction of Cybertron, Megatron has Orion work on decoding data for something called the Iacon Project—knowing that Orion would find out the truth but making several precautions to delay it just until the data gets decoded. Seeing Arcee was onboard the Nemesis, Megatron has Soundwave quietly and efficiently remove her from the ship so she can't reach Orion and not to kill her so Orion wouldn't see them execute a foe. Eventually though Orion discovers about Optimus Prime although Soundwave alerts Megatron to this discovery, forcing the leader to realise harsher methods will be necessary to decode the Iacon data.
When Orion demands the truth from Megatron, he refuses, causing Orion to try and delete his findings although Soundwave had managed to record the files—also informing Megatron that the Autobots were planning on restoring Prime's memory. When Megatron goes to stop the Autobots, Orion escapes his confinement and attacks Megatron, losing easily. While Arcee distracted Megatron, Jack returned the Matrix to Orion, restoring his memories and causes him to leave with the Autobots, leaving Megatron in fury.
Despite this loss, Megatron was still able to use the data Orion had found to discover a device called the Spark Extractor. While Megatron was heading through a portal, Bee quickly steals it from the warlord— making Megatron order Knock Out and Breakdown to retrieve another artifact before the Autobots did. Megatron is pleased when Knock Out returns with an artifact and joins the mission himself to retrieve the third artifact, managing to succeed doing so by holding Bulkhead hostage. Unfortunately for Megatron he discovers that it could only be used with a Prime's power behind it.
When the Decepticon Dreadwing arrives on Earth, Megatron informs him what happened to his brother Skyquake but warns him to not go on a vendetta, later musing that they probably won't see Dreadwing again when he does although is glad when he returns alive and pledges his loyalty to Megatron. Remembering Airachnid's past treachery of trying to take over while the Unicron business was going on, Megatron sends her on a mission with Dreadwing and Breakdown—the latter two with orders to kill her. When only Dreadwing returns, Airachnid challenges Megatron for him to finish the job himself, causing him to head to where the call was and to fight an Insecticon Aircachnid sics on him. Although defeating the beast, Megatron is left weak and at the mercy of the Autobots but Dreadwing arrives and holds them at a Mexican standoff. While Dreadwing doesn't harm them and helps Megatron up, Megatron orders his troops to fire citing that only Dreadwing made the deal. Megatron then made Dreadwing his second in command for his loyalty.
When four Starscreams are discovered on the ship's bridge, Megatron appeals to their treacherous nature, granting him the opportunity to destroy three of them before the last one escaped, revealing that it was a diversion for a mass attack of Insecticons. Due to plot stuff on the Autobot side, the Insecticons eventually end up loyal to Megatron, granting him a new set of troops. When the Nemesis crashes, Megatron uses Dark Energon to revive it, causing it to become sentient, putting the leader in stasis when he tries make it obey him.
Intending on finding the artifacts that the Nemesis was intending on discovering, Megatron has his soldiers instructed to go and find them. Expressing his fury at his soldiers for bringing back nothing (apart from Shockwave), Megatron is then impressed when the Insecticon Hardshell says that he killed Bulkhead...although that quickly evaporates when the Autobot Wheeljack calls and taunts the Decepticons about Bulkhead being alive. Megatron then orders Hardshell to either kill Bulkhead or Wheeljack— later being shocked when Hardshell's corpse is brought back to him and discovering that it wasn't the Autobots that did it but one of their human allies.
When Silas gets merged with Breakdown's corpse and slaughters a military base, a signal is pinged to the Decepticons in which Megatron has Knock Out head to the signal, noting to be cautious as it could be a trick. When Silas demands to speak to Megatron, he explains about the satellite "Project Damocles", a laser which can lock onto any location from space. Though initially impressed with the device, due to the heroes interaction, Megatron orders Silas to stop the problem while Soundwave continues to use the satellite. Ultimately the heroes prevail and Megatron calls Silas back and has him sent away to be dissected by Knock Out and it's a glorious moment for the SmugSnake Silas to lose his composure.
When Soundwave discovers a new set of relic coordinates, Megatron has a decoy beacon dispatched to distract the Autobots so he can retrieve the relic. Although expecting it to be a Decepticon weapon, Megatron discovers it to be an incredibly powerful sword called the Star Saber. Unable to extract the blade, Megatron has it and the chunk of rock it's embedded in removed so to prevent Optimus Prime to retrieve it. When a new Autobot called Smokescreen arrives and delays the Decepticons long enough to discover the plan, Optimus manages to retrieve the blade and unleashes it's power on the Nemesis, marking one of the few times Megatron is genuinely lost for words.
Needing to come up with the means to combat the Star Saber, Megatron and Dreadwing head to Cybertron and break into the tomb of a Prime. Having Knock Out graft the deceased Prime's arm into Megatron's, Megatron then is able to use one of the artifacts previously unusable for him due to not being a Prime to forge himself his own Star Saber with his Dark Energon. When Soundwave provides new coordinates for an artifact, Megatron demonstrates his capability with his new blade by effortlessly defeating Arcee and Smokescreen and even destroying the Star Saber when he duels Optimus although the Autobots escape with the artifact called an Omega Key.
Still pleased with the destruction of the Star Saber, Megatron tasks Knock Out with retrieving the next Omega Key— with him being pleased when he returns and tasking him with studying it to see what it's greater purpose is. When Soundwave informs Megatron that Smokescreen is in possession of an Omega Lock, he has the Autobot captured and the key extracted from him. Having Knock Out delve into the Autobot's mind and discovering the true purpose of the Omega Locks, Megatron leaves to put the Omega Key in storage—leaving Knock Out to see if he can discover the Autobot's base. After Smokescreen escapes with the lock, Megatron has his troops give chase but to not avail but then discovers Starscream on the ship's bridge with all of the Omega Keys as a peace offering.
To see whether Starscream had an ulterior motive, Megatron invades Starscream's mind to find out, eventually allowing the former Decepticon to join back. While Megatron was within Starscream's mind, Dreadwing saw that Starscream had used his brother's corpse as a zombie to attack the Autobots, angering the Decepticon to try and murder Starscream. Despite Megatron's protests that the Decepticons need to be united, Dreadwing still proceeds to try and kill Starscream forcing Megatron to kill him. While Starscream exclaims in joy about his saviour, Megatron tells the weasel that he better make sure he doesn't regret who he had let live.
Returning to Cybertron with the Omega Keys and looking for the Omega Lock to put them into it, Megatron and the Decepticons are attacked by the Autobots with Optimus having a reforged Star Saber due to Dreadwing giving him the forge to fix it when he had discovered about Starscream using his dead brother as a zombie. When the Autobots steal the keys from Megatron, he devises a new scheme to retrieve them, holding the Autobot's human allies as hostages. Despite Megatron allowing the Autobots take the humans in return for the keys, he then reveals that he intends on using the Omega Lock on both Earth and Cybertron to leave him two worlds to rule... wiping out all organic life on Earth in the process.
Refusing on letting Megatron win, Optimus clashes with the Decepticon and cleaves his arm off and destroying the Omega Lock. Despite the Autobots escaping, it was useless since Megatron had used the Lock to create a fortress by the Autobot's base, giving him the knowledge of their location. From there, Megatron leads an assault against the Autobots destroying their base and the town nearby (the show confirms there's no casualties as everyone was evacuated.) Seemingly killing the Autobots, Megatron discovers Wheeljack amongst the rubble and has him taken prisoner.
Having been unable to find the other Autobots, Megatron has Soundwave monitor the Earth's surveillance systems to track them. Seeing an armada of humans arriving at his fort with the intentions of attacking, Megatron casually disposes of them with his fort's cannons. Contacting Agent Fowler, Megatron offers the human peace and that his quarrel is only with the Autobots and that so long as the human's don't meddle with his affairs, he won't use his cannons to fire in densely populated areas. With Starscream's interrogation of Wheeljack being unfruitful, Megatron has Knock Out scour Cybertron for artifacts, in which he discover Shockwave is still alive, something that pleases Megatron greatly.
Appointing Shockwave as his first lieutenant in charge of science, Megatron is then intrigued when Shockwave brings a Predacon that he had cloned to Earth, with Megatron using it as a beast of war to attack the heroes. Annoyed when he realises that Starscream had scattered their troops chasing fake Autobot signals, Megatron and his remaining troops were attacked by the Autobots, led by Ultra Magnus. Despite their efforts, Megatron manages to best Magnus and has the Autobots rounded up and nearly executed if not for the appearance of Optimus who has had a major upgrade. To keep this bit short, Optimus basically yeet Megatron into the fort's cannon core, causing it to implode. Despite Megatron protesting to fight, the Decepticons drag him back to be transported back to the Nemesis as the fort collapses.
Deciding to go down a different method to help the Decepticons, Megatron orders for the creation of more Predacons to create an army—having his forces scour out for Predacon bones to aid Shockwave with the development of the clone army. After Starscream accidentally causes Silas in Breakdown's body to become a vampiric zombie and causes the deaths of many Decepticon troops and inadvertently costs them the Insecticon army, Megatron orders Knock Out to only take scientific orders from Shockwave before looming over the whimpering Starscream before inflicting a punishment.
Discovering the Predacon had sapience and intelligence over being a beast, Megatron has concerns about it despite Predaking saying he's loyal, that once he realises that his army of Predacons heavily outweigh the Decepticons forces (due to Starscream's Silas incident), that Predaking would turn against him. Needing to quickly terminate the project, Starscream suggests that they do it in a manner that makes it appear to Predaking that it was due to the Autobots.
Discovering that Synthetic Energon can repair the Omega Lock, Megatron realises that Ratchet would be needed to complete the formula. Megatron would also have Predaking attack the Autobots when they interfered, making sure that he does it in beast mode so they don't realise his sapience. After Soundwave escapes his imprisonment and brings back Ratchet as a prisoner, Megatron attempts to break into his mind but to no avail. Switching on the charm, Megatron convinces Ratchet to help rebuild the Omega Lock—rewarding him in the end by giving him to Predaking as a chew toy. Unfortunately for Megatron, Ratchet reveals to Predaking about the true cause behind the Predacon clones being wiped out, making him face Megatron in combat. Although putting up a fight, Predaking eventually gets thrown off the Nemesis but now faced a new issue— the Autobots were attacking the Nemesis. During the final fight for the fate of the Earth, Megatron seemingly kills Bumblebee who falls into the Omega Lock and almost kills Optimus Prime before Bee reveals the Lock healed him and stabs the Decepticon leader with the Star Saber, killing him.
Due to his tampering with Dark Energon, Megatron found himself to be confined to Unicron. Now unfortunately for Megatron...Unicorn's kind of a dick, with the dark god using Megatron's body as a puppet and constantly torturing the Decepticon. When Megatron realises Unicron's plan is complete destruction, he tricks him into head to where Predaking is content with the pissed off Predacon destroying the body so Unicron can't possess it. When Optimus traps Unicron's spark in a container to be permanently sealed away, freeing Megatron of his torment and providing him a new powerful body, Megatron dissolves the Decepticons, having tasted oppression and losing the will to inflict it any longer before flying off to parts unknown.
Is he magnificent?
Evil Is Cool? Check. Love to Hate? Easily. Cowardice? Practically null, Megatron barely shows any fear and when he does, it's only ever due to a massive revelation and even then (apart from Optimus first wielding the Star Saber) it's more shock then anything. Charm? He's no smooth Card-Carrying Villain like Beast Wars Megatron but damn does Frank Welker pull an incredible performance. Usually a Cold Ham, Megatron is more than capable of being charming IMO. An example. Megatron also pulls off some impressive Deadpan Snarker with one of my favourite instances is when Shockwave almost impales Starscream's eye for being left behind and ultimately spares him, Megatron merely remarks "Exemplary teamwork." Competent? Megatron pulls off many clever schemes and pulls of multiple The Bad Guy Wins. Unless your name is Optimus Prime, if you try to fight Megatron—it's not ending well. His VBs do happen but it's never to a childish manner where he seems pathetic.
Now there's two major glaring issues here that are Megatron's biggest hurdles. His sadism and his tendency to get angry. Now my thing with his sadism? It's showcased much worse within other characters such as Starscream who's a (hilarious) weaselly sadist who is a huge Butt-Monkey, Airachnid who's a genocidal Serial Killer with trophies of her victims and Silas who decides to become an ultra dick when he merges with Breakdown's body and develop a god complex over humans. Megatron's sadism is never to depraved getting off levels, more "Oh the heroes about to die? Shit Imma happily watch this and smile evily, maybe a grandiose laugh as well."
And there's his Hair-Trigger Temper, Megatron gets pissed a fair bit, due to his troops failing orders or when the Autobots succeed. However he only yells at his troops for failure and it's fair for him to be pissed if the Autobots have an advantage because he knows that Optimus Prime with any resources that the Decepticons can obtain is a credible threat. One thing you'll notice though, Megatron never yells at Soundwave or Shockwave, why's that? Because they're competent and get the job done especially with the former. In one instance Megatron is yelling at his troops but also adds that only Soundwave has procured anything useful. His temper never gets in his way of his scheming or plans apart from maybe one instance? He's genuinely outraged about the tower being attacked and wants to fight back but the Decepticons have to drag him away.
What helps these issues though is his final appearances—his death is played with him more shocked than anything, no Big "NO!" or long lasting VB and his treatment from Unicron. It's a massive slice of Humble Pie for him but despite being practically trapped Megatron still tries to pull off a scheme against the dark god and when he is freed from Unicron's control? He genuinely loses his taste for conquering in a solemn way and leaves despite him at that moment being able to fight the Autobots effortlessly.
Is he a bastard?
If you've made it this far then yeah, you should realise that Megatron does a lot of nasty shit. He's responsible for the plague that destroyed Cybertron, attempts to kill all life on Earth and wipes out the Predacon clones. It sounds bad right? Well the weight is there but it's not too a revolting manner. His major victims are robots with his only major human casualties being army guys who attempted to assault Megatron's fort so it's not like he decided to do a Silas and intentionally rack up a high human body count. The side-effect of the cyber conversion wiping out all life is given the weight so the threat is there but the show doesn't delve into if it's an agonising process or a horrific death etc. Airchanid explicitly enjoys torturing her prey with sadistic relish and a half. The Predacon clone wipe out? All of the major Decepticons are in on it, even the one who created them Shockwave sees the extermination as logical due to the concerns that they could revolt and outnumber them so it's not like they've gone "mwahahaha let's wipe them out for funnies." It's an extreme albeit pragmatic plan.
Bad Boss? I mean he yells at his troops (unless you're named Soundwave and Shockwave and know actually how to get shit done lmao) and in one funny instance he throws two of his soldiers off the Nemesis to chase Smokescreen— they're in a ship in the sky and one of the troops can only transform into a car causing it to crash and explode. He's not slaughtering his troops for failure or leaving them to be tortured. There's only two major recipients of Megatron's abuse—Starscream and Silas. The former is a weaselly sadist who performs some major fuck ups (such as the outbreak on the ship and before attempted to betray Megatron repeatedly.) and the latter is a Smug Snake who thought himself Megatron's equal yet his scheme ended up failing out his own smugness. The former's abuse is played off comedically mostly and never sympathetically and the latter is a glorious Kick The Son Of A Bitch moment.
Final Verdict?
Megatron is a damn fine villain but Magnificent Bastard? He ticks a lot of the quote IMO but ultimately it's a thread decision!
Edited by WetFlannels on Aug 24th 2023 at 8:04:53 PM
Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
regarding Itsuki
He’s not really “enabling’” her to commit the crimes more “employing” her, Ai was evil before Itsuki hired her and would probably do more evil things without him, here she just gets paid.
Also I think his ability to sway lots of people with his speeches is what makes him “magnificent”, at least in my opinion.
Edited by LarryT on Aug 23rd 2023 at 1:44:06 AM
In honor of Akira Toriyama
leaning Itsuki.
Graydon suffers a rather nasty Villainous Breakdown which is why I never considered him. He strangles and breaks his cane on Gregson. He's smart, yes and a bastard, but I don't remember him recovering from his breakdown aside from a where are they now epilogue, so I think I'll abstain on Graydon for now. I also found him a bit too tragic to really hit that magnificence mark. Leaning yes on Itsuki though. Another TGAA example I considered was Courtney Sithe but felt she might have been too much a cog in Stronghart's machinations. Graydon's murder of Pop Windibank is also in self defense, and his murder of Magnus Mc Gilded was an asshole getting what was coming to him, whether it was premeditated or not. I think he barely makes it though given he sold state secrets to McGilded if we consider the epilogue.
Edited by Klavice on Aug 23rd 2023 at 2:42:36 AM
doesn't he recover from that as shown in the epilogue?
I do remember him recovering from it and selling state secrets is pretty scummy so I think he just barely makes it.
Hey, if Beast wars Megatron can count, so can this one.
How is selling state secrets too scummy in Ace Attorney of all works?
Especially given how evil other villains are in the same game
Hey, guys, wet just put a ton of effort into an EP, maybe vote on it?
I misspoke. I meant it was "just scummy enough" so with all those factors I'm comfortable giving Ashley Graydon Milverton a yes. Edit: Yes to Megatron.
Edited by Klavice on Aug 23rd 2023 at 2:54:34 AM
to Megatron. TBH I am surprised he doesn't have more MB versions.
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
I’d say yes to Grayson and Megatron
In honor of Akira Toriyama
Lies and Violence!
Ooh, Megatron, Istuki and Graydon.
What's the work?
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles again. To reiterate, the series follows John and Sarah Connor as they prepare for the upcoming robot apocalypse as orchestrated by the rogue A.I. Skynet. As Skynet's Terminators hunt John before he can grow up into the leader of the human resistance, the Connors are joined by one of the machines themselves, Cameron, a reprogrammed Terminator sent by Future!John to help them.
Who is Myron Stark?
A Terminator sent into the past to kill the Governor of California in 2010, an error in the time travel technology results in Stark accidentally being sent to 1920. On top of that, the energy sphere thingy he uses to time travel accidentally sets off a massive fire, killing the future architect of Pico Tower—the same tower the governor was supposed to be at for Stark to assassinate.
So this went completely off the rails, but there's an obvious solution: Stark just needs to build the tower himself! Unfortunately, the architect's father, land developer Rupert Chandler, refuses to sell the area out of a desire to honor his son's memory. Stark responds by starting his own construction company, funding himself by robbing several banks, and is singlehandedly able to build a business empire that quickly makes itself a rival to Chandler—while paying double the wages and ensuring all his employees are treated equally. Which, sure, probably comes more from cold apathy to our primitive bigotry and a strong desire for efficiency, but it's nice to see all the same. After killing Chandler's right-hand—with nobody aware of what happened to him until his body is discovered decades later—Stark drives Chandler to bankruptcy, allowing himself to finally buy the land and build the tower.
With that accomplished, Stark hides himself in the walls of the tower with a machine gun, waiting decades for 2010 to roll around and for the governor to enter the building so he can shoot him dead. Unfortunately for him, Cameron happens to recognize him as a Terminator in an old photograph and spends an episode uncovering what he was doing, what he was after, etc. The night before the assassination, she busts through the walls and fights Stark, crushing him with an elevator.
Mitigating factors?
The man has a mission, and he is goddamn determined to see it through. Stark perfectly repairs the damage to the timeline to ensure he completes the assassination with no complications, using a combination of sheer dedication to work and careful applications of murder, and is ultimately only foiled by the sheer dumb luck of Cameron recognizing him in a photo in a library. Keeper.
Megatron
Not the Eye
to Graydon, Megatron and Myron
![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_down_emote.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
to Randall and Itsuki
Yes to Myron.
to Megatron, Istuki, Graydon, and Myron
to Randall and Itsuki
Alright it's now past the 72-hour and with 6 (Wet said to me him saying "I think she's good" is him saying yes) and 0 here's Amber's write-up
- Twisted Metal (2023): Amber is the well-known botanist codenamed Flower Power, whose innocent appearance hides a truly brilliant Master Poisoner. Getting pushed out of her girlfriend’s car for attempting to poison her, Amber finds a house to settle in while killing attackers before using their chopped body parts to help grow her plants, which she uses to make poison and medicine to sell. Believing John Doe and Quiet to be attackers, Amber tricks them into consuming her poison before imprisoning them and using her poisonous plant to torture John Doe. Letting the two go when they explain Granny sent them, Amber reconciles with her girlfriend, Miranda Watts after Granny’s passing after which they reunite John Doe with Quiet before helping them complete their delivery. Facing opposition from Sweet Tooth and Agent Stone, Amber and Watts join forces before Amber patches up her wound after getting shot in the throat and surviving her car crash.
Edited by G-Editor on Aug 23rd 2023 at 6:35:32 AM
To Megatron and Myron.
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]")
graydon
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."