User:Dead Metal/Galvatron controversy over identity

Yeah, this'll really help with the whole insanity thing.

Some fans believe Galvatron is a psychologically distinct and discontinuous entity from Megatron, almost, or equally, as much as Scourge and Cyclonus, who demonstrate no continuity of memory or personality with their former Decepticon selves. This remains a topic of heated debate in some circles, in spite of a fairly unambiguous canon.

{{#if:Astrotrain's thoughts on the subject"Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1"|

“	Well, they were the same guy.	”
{{#if:Astrotrain's thoughts on the subject| —Astrotrain's thoughts on the subject{{#if:"Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1"|, "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1"}} }} }}

Generation 1 cartoon

In the Generation 1 cartoon continuity, Galvatron evidently still self-identifies as being the same person as Megatron, albeit with greater power and a new name. Although not making a point of revealing this former identity to his troops at large (perhaps to cast off the potential stigma of being a "defeated"/successfully deposed leader), Galvatron makes his sense of self clear when Starscream asks "Megatron? Is that you?" to which he replies, "Here's a hint", before obliterating him.<ref>Some fans claim the "Here's a hint" line is a point in favor of Galvatron not being Megatron, instead of the far more likely intended affirmation, since Megatron "would never kill Starscream". However most fans would probably agree that Starscream had simply never pissed off Megatron enough to actually kill him before. Or, more cynically, Starscream never pissed off Megatron in a movie before.</ref> Later in The Transformers: The Movie when Galvatron is poised to crush Hot Rod's neck, he boasts: "First Prime, then Ultra Magnus, and now you. It's a pity you Autobots die so easily, or I might have a sense of satisfaction now." Again, Galvatron is obviously speaking with no sense of discontinuity of identity or personality as he refers to past and current acts as both Megatron and Galvatron without qualification or distinction.

While some might contrast this statement, however, with his earlier line, "I, Galvatron, shall crush you, just as Megatron crushed Prime", interpreting that such a statement implies a disconnect from his former life, this too can easily be explained by Galvatron's apparent reluctance to allow his troops to know that he used to be Megatron. While Galvatron would have fully expected the knowledge imparted in the later statement to Hot Rod to die with the callow youth, the declaration to Ultra Magnus was made in public, with his troops (and, potentially, other Autobots in earshot) present.

During season three, however, Galvatron makes little or no further references to his past life as Megatron, though this could be a side effect of lying in a pool of lava for several months and his increasing insanity. Upon meeting the resurrected Optimus Prime in The Return of Optimus Prime, Galvatron behaves as though simply picking up where he left off with his old nemesis from his Megatron days, as does Prime, saying that he knows Galvatron "all too well". This indicates that the Autobot leader is capable of recognising his former adversary despite the change in name and appearance. Furthermore, in "Five Faces of Darkness", Astrotrain states that Megatron and Galvatron are "the same guy", implying that during Galvatron's absence, the other Decepticons (or, at the very least, Astrotrain) figured out what was going on.

Despite all that, a memorial of Megatron can be seen prominently in the Decepticon Crypt, implying that the Decepticons who built it considered Megatron to be dead. This could possibly be explained by presuming the Decepticons built the marker before Galvatron returned and seized command, though their window of opportunity to do so was rather slim. Starscream's Ghost

Japanese fiction

I hope you enjoyed that shining wizard, Magnus, because it's a very long way down.

Early advertisements for the Galvatron toy presented the character as an altogether separate being from Megatron, and in some cases, even being Megatron's underling. The second "Scramble City" OVA was a remake of the original animated version, albeit including the Galvatron toy for promotion. Galvatron appears to fight his nemesis, Ultra Magnus, as Megatron barks orders from the background. This is likely due to Takara wishing to advertise the toy as quickly as possible, without full knowledge of the character's history. To maintain Galvatron's mystique, he was given the function of "City Commander", with no indication that he was an upgraded Megatron. Continuing this trend of unintentional disassociation, very early promotional artwork featured in TV Magazine and Comic Bom Bom also presented Galvatron as a separate character.

However, this era was very short-lived. In all official Japanese fiction, including the manga and the Japanese-exclusive cartoons, Galvatron is locked in as an upgrade of Megatron. A retcon was created by writer Hirofumi Ichikawa for E-Hobby in order to explain away the bizarreness of some of these early story pages, detailing that the Galvatron seen there was actually a dimension-travelling Galvatron II.

Marvel Comics

In the US and UK Marvel comics, the various time-hopping Galvatrons all demonstrate an awareness of having previously been Megatron with no strong indicators of a break in psychological identification. Indeed, at one point, a Galvatron says outright, "Like Megatron? No—I AM Megatron!" The closest that these Galvatrons come to identity crisis are incidents in which a time-displaced Galvatron is confronted by Megatrons (or copies thereof) and does battle with his former self. Although in these instances Galvatron experiences trains of thought that suggest he sees Megatron as a separate being and/or the source of his madness that needs to be destroyed, these are not the musings of a calm, rational mind. In these instances, Galvatron is in the grips of a psychotic episode, which he generally snaps out of by realising that he and his opponent are indeed the same person.

A possible explanation for why (any version of) Galvatron retains psychological continuity with Megatron while his fellow Unicron-creations do not may be that Thundercracker, et al. were apparently already dead or in total stasis lock at the time of their reformatting, and thus it is widely speculated that only their bodies were used to create Cyclonus and company. Whether this indicates that they retained their life-essences—or sparks, if you adopt the popular retcon—and merely suffered total mind-wipes (either as the result of recent death or by Unicron's doing), or if Unicron actually infused their reformatted bodies with new life-forces is unknown. (On the other hand, none of the other Unicron-created Decepticons have faced their past selves or deeds the way Galvatron has.) Megatron, by comparison, was clearly alive and awake at the time of his reformatting and struck a bargain with Unicron for "a new body", a deal which implied that his mind would remain his own.

References

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