Overlord (G1)
| The name or term "Overlord" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Overlord (disambiguation). |
- Overlord is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Overlord is the battlefield leader of the Decepticons during the Masterforce War, serving as the so-called "Ambassador of Destruction" under the Emperor of Destruction, Devil Z. As the combined form of the two human Godmasters, Mega and Giga, Overlord comprises a tank and jet which can combine to form a robot mode, a heavily-equipped advance base, or a larger jet capable of space flight.
Fiction
Dreamwave Comics
In the early era of Decepticon expansion into space, Gigatron (Overlord's american name) performed research that formed the foundation for the later Powermaster proscess.
He would later re-emerge to challenge Powermaster Optimus Prime
Latter-Day UK Toyline
Overlord, a legendary Decepticon whose many functions are driven by Energon figures, fights the Motorvators on a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Masterforce cartoon
Voice actor: Keiichi Noda (Japan) Same voice actor as his partner Giga
The story of Overlord begins with the mysterious alien energy-being, Devil Z, who sought to create the ultimate super-robot lifeform. Stealing a selection of Transformer Transtectors – lifeless robot bodies designed to merge with smaller robots – from a sector of space known as G Nebula 89, he scattered them across the Earth, intending for them to absorb the planet’s energies, known as Chichokon, in addition to the heavenly Tenchokon energy they had acquired from the G Nebula. Alongside the largest of the eight Transtectors brought to the planet, Devil Z slumbered deep within an ocean trench, awaiting the day that his plan could come to fruition, and human souls would bond with the Transtectors, endowing them with Jinchokon, the power of man, and giving the resultant lifeforms, the Godmasters, the power over the three primal energies of life. That day came when two human begins, a husband and wife named Giga and Mega, came into Devil Z’s service and were both bonded with the largest Transtector. The duo now controlled the dual aspects of the Transtector – Giga piloted the "Gigatank," while Mega controlled the "Megajet."
With Devil Z already having brainwashed BlackZarak, the commander of the evil Decepticons – currently engaged in battling the heroic Autobots in the depths of space – Overlord was branded as a Decepticon, ambassador to Devil Z's emperor. While Devil Z’s other agents, the Decepticon Pretenders and Headmaster Juniors, kept the small Autobot force remaining on Earth occupied, the so-dubbed "Lord Giga" and "Lady Mega" set about locating other Godmasters on Earth, finding the German brothers Hydra and Buster and recruiting them to the Decepticon side. After the two groups of Decepticons were then gathered together under Giga and Mega’s command, a race ensued between the Autobots and Decepticons to locate the remaining Godmasters, only for the Autobots to acquire three.
Incensed by this failure, Giga and Mega took matters into their own hands, taking their Transtectors into battle for the first time. Luring the Autobot command Ginrai into the desert, Giga and Mega confronted him as Overlord and immediately proved their physical superiority by thrashing him so badly that he was near death. Overlord subsequently departed into space, taking control of a weather-monitoring base on the moon in order to rendezvous with the approaching BlackZarak there. Pursued by Ginrai, now merged with the drone Godbomber as the powered-up God Ginrai, Overlord and BlackZarak battled him and the Autobot battleship Grand Maximus; refusing to follow Overlord’s instruction to return to Earth, BlackZarak ultimately met defeat and fled back into space.
Overlord later adopted his base mode for the first time to act as a staging ground for the search for the final Godmaster, and again to mastermind the assault of the Autobot base. When BlackZarak returned, Devil Z’s plans escalated to the destruction of all human life on Earth, shocking Giga and Mega; where Devil Z had come to fear the power of Jinchokon that dwelled within all human beings, the couple celebrated their humanity. Dissention grew as Devil Z fused with BlackZarak and abandoned the Headmaster Juniors in the ruins of the destroyed Decepticon base, and Buster and Hydra, believing that their inability to defeat Ginrai was the result of human limitations, were transformed into fully robotic beings through Devil Z’s power. Confronting God Ginrai for one final time, Overlord vowed to fight him without weapons, battling him only through the use of his physical strength, through the power of his human flesh. When Devil Z turned on Buster and Hydra for their own failures, however, Overlord attempted to stop him, only to be on the receiving end of the emperor’s wrath. Rescued by God Ginrai, Giga and Mega finally turned against Devil Z, but when they aided God Ginrai in combating their former master, they were struck down and forcibly separated from their Transtector, which was brought to life through Devil Z’s power. As their Masterbraces vanished from their wrists, Giga and Mega died, regretting that they could not settle their rivalry with Ginrai honourably.
With the subsequent destruction of Devil Z at God Ginrai’s hands, the now-living Overlord Transtector fled into space with the other Decepticons, and joined with the main Decepticon force in space.
Masterforce manga
Whereas the anime did not explain how Mega and Giga came to serve Devil Z, the manga strongly implied that they were a couple who had died at sea, and Devil Z, from his ocean trench resting place, recovered and reanimated their bodies. The characters are cast in much more of a "parental" role for the Headmaster Juniors than in the anime (where the idea is only dabbled with), as if to give the couple the family that they died before they had the chance to start.
Giga and Mega debuted their Transtectors in an attack on a city, only to be blindsided by God Ginrai and goaded into pursuing him out into space. BlackZarak, however, was waiting for them, but God Ginrai was able to dodge their attacks and cause them to damage each other. Indeed, Overlord was no stranger to chassis-shattering damage in the manga, at one time actually having Grand Maximus's battleship mode crash straight into his face, and being punched by God Ginrai so hard that Giga and Mega popped out of his chest.
During the final battle, the merged Devil Z-BlackZarak entity turned on Overlord and the Decepticons, who then teamed up with the Autobots to unite their energies in a final attack that destroyed him. The destruction of Devil Z caused the energy sustaining Giga and Mega to cease, and they died.
Victory Cartoon
Zone OVA and Manga
(Overlord is referred to as one of the Nine Great Demon Generals. This terminology, coupled with the presence of the previously deceased Black Zarak in their ranks and Violen Jygar's supernatural origins, could mean that Overlord died previously to Zone and was likewise brought back to life. However, this is unconfirmed, meaning that Violen Jygar may have simply recruited the still-living Overlord to be a General.)
When Violen Jygar siezed command of the Decepticons, his first act was to recruit 9 Demon-Generals from Decepticon history. Overlord was selected to be one of those Generals and was given the rank of Super God General as well as new power and weaponry to make him an even greater threat than before. Overlord was sent to the Planet Feminia to wreak havoc along with Abominus and Menasor. Together, the 3 Decepticon Demon-Generals destroyed the entire planet and nearly killed Victory Saber in the process.
Toys
Generation 1
- Overlord (1988, Japan; 1991, Europe)
- Japanese ID number: D-307
- Consisting of the Megajet, Gigatank and a slew of accessories, Overlord transforms like any Powermaster, in that he is only able to do so when Giga and Mega are fixed in place. Inserting Giga into the tank splits it in half to form his legs, while attaching Mega unlocks his shoulder articulation for robot mode, and his fold-out launchpad for base mode. His instructions do not feature the additional large jet mode, which was created by the production staff of the animated series, but it is possible to put the toy in this form. There is no one mode that uses all of Overlord's separate pieces.
- Initially exclusive to Japan, Overlord's toy was later releasd in Europe with a completely different tech spec, recasting him in an appropriate role within the Godmaster-less Western Transformers universe with Mega and Giga envisioned as nameless "Energon mini-figures." It might be theorised, however, that rather than be a different character, this could be the entirely-robotic Overlord who exists after the end of Masterforce - appropos of nothing, his tech spec notes that he has the ability to "traverse the dimensions." Could that be how he finds his way from the Japanese-continuity universe into the Western one?
Merchandise
A PVC figure of Overlord was part of the fifth act of Takara's Super Collection Figure series, which was later released in the fourth wave of Hasbro's Heroes of Cybertron under the name Gigatron. Gigatron was given Overlord's UK tech spec and his Japanese bio and function, Ambassador of Destruction, but Dreamwave would later characterise him as an ancient mechanoid who conceived of the Powermaster process. Whether he is simply an international version of the character or a different entity entirely is up for debate.
