I am becoming increasingly fond of Megatron as a character.
I mean my favourite characters in the various pieces of Transformers media are usually Decepticons, but I haven't really focused on Megatron that much.
...Until my obsession with D-16 resurfaced stronger than ever.
I mean, Megatron is quite versatile when the writers take their time to write him well. I am a sucker for a truly nefarious villain, but sometimes I want something deeper than that. Megatron is usually cartoonishly evil but occasionally he is granted some kind of deeper origin than suddenly waking up one day thinking "I have to get all the energon so I can rule the world/universe/Cybertron!!!"
That's when it gets really good.
Sadly, like many other character in Transformers Earthspark, (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON STARSCREAM) Megatron got butchered as a character after S1. I also have issues with some parts of his writing in S1, though. In TF Earthspark, he has left the Decepticons and is trying to redeem himself. He disagrees with some of Optimus' methods and feels as if they are dehumanising the Decepticons and causing unnecesarry harm to them. He very much advocates for them to use less force. In S1, the Decepticons are shown as nuanced and characters of their own. I can't say the same for the following seasons.
When I first got into Transformers about a year ago, it didn't take long before I heard about the IDW comics. It had a very long run from 2005-2018 with 427 issues in total. I've specifically heard a lot great things about the writing in More Than Meets The Eye. At the time, it just seemed like a very huge undertaking, I had little understanding of how and where to start and I was barely even familiar with Transformers lore and even the most well-known characters.
Recently, though, I've heard more and more about Megatron's supposedly nuanced and fascinating character development in the IDW comics. I think I'll start at the beginning of More Than Meets The Eye so it will likely take a while before I can report back on what I think of his development. I've heard that they also add a huge amount of nuance to his origin as a heavily abused miner, (yeah Transformers One sure got it from somewhere, though I'm pretty sure IDW did not invent this particular origin) his change in attitude and how the people he has hurt react to him changing his mind about the war.
I've also heard that MTMTE is just good in general with interesting philosphical and political conundrums. I'm obviously not gonna fully and attentively read 427 issues just for the sake of Megatron. The art also seems really nice and there's a lot of characters there I barely know anything about. (I think they were invented for MTMTE?)
It all sounds super interesting to me. I've heard so much praise for the writing so I'm sure there's good things in store for me. (trust me, Transformers fans WILL let you know if they think something is bad)