Megatron (Animated)
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Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons in the Transformers: Animated continuity and largely resembles other incarnations of the character. The most notable change from previous and subsequent versions is that he did not know Optimus Prime prior to the start of the series, and their antagonism throughout the series is not on the personal level found in other branches of the Transformers franchise.
History
Animated series
Megatron has served as the leader of the Decepticons for an unknown period of time, and was the most feared combatant of the Great War, during which the most impressive Autobot action against him personally was that Ultra Magnus once dented his face (according to a tech spec). The rise of the Omega Sentinels, particularly Omega Supreme, resulted in the defeat of the Decepticon forces and their expulsion from Cybertron; driven to the edges of the galaxy, they disappeared so completely that many resulting generations of Autobots believed they were extinct. Megatron endured, however, having secured his flagship Nemesis, whose crew eventually came to include his treacherous underling Starscream, loyal minion Lugnut, the psychologically unstable Blitzwing, and the techno-organic female Decepticon Blackarachnia who was once the Autobot Elita One. Eventually they detected the AllSpark, the source of Cybertronian life that the Autobots had sent into space to keep it from Megatron so long ago, aboard the Autobot vessel commanded by Optimus Prime. Megatron flew into battle to recover the artifact himself, but between Starscream's treachery, the Autobots' unexpected abilities, and the ship being pulled through a nearby Space Bridge, he was heavily damaged, with parts of him crash-landing in the vicinity of Detroit on Earth.
Megatron's head and one severed hand were discovered by Isaac Sumdac, who used the technology he derived from them to build his company Sumdac Systems, with the two Cybertronian relics being moved into his private lab inside Sumdac Tower. After the Autobots were reawakened following decades in stasis and the AllSpark empowered a key belonging to Isaac's daughter Sari Sumdac, Megatron's head was revived by this device and learned of Starscream's treachery, which he had admitted during his recent battle with the Autobots under the belief that Megatron had perished. Vowing revenge on all of his enemies, Megatron turned his attention to deceiving Isaac Sumdac, convincing him that he was an Autobot who had been critically damaged and couldn't bear the thought of his "comrades" seeing him in such a state. This farce enabled Megatron to set about efforts to create a new body for himself, which had the unexpected result of creating four new Transformers: the three Dinobots and Soundwave, all of whom Megatron briefly attempted to manipulate to his advantage. He later established a private communications line with Lugnut in order to utilize him and Blitzwing in his schemes as well, but some of his activities began to stir Sumdac's suspicion as to his true motives.
Surprisingly, much of Megatron's body-his torso, one arm, and his legs-remained intact and were commandeered by mutated space barnacles, organisms that used them to menace the Autobots Prowl and Bumblebee before being defeated. This enabled Sumdac to recover the inert form and bring it back to Sumdac Tower, only for the Decepticons to arrive in the midst of his repair efforts and reveal Megatron's true identity to him. Starscream also learned of Megatron's continued existence, but due to Autobot interference and Megatron's own actions was unable to finish his hated leader off; Megatron then utilized Sari's key to repair and reformat himself into a new frame with the alternate mode of a VTOL helicopter. After punishing Starscream for his treachery and the Autobots for their opposition to his plans, he set his sights on recovering the AllSpark, and eventually managed to embed it in his chest. However, Optimus Prime was able to use the AllSpark Key's power to shatter the crystalline AllSpark, scattering it's fragments across the planet; Megatron was beaten, but retained Isaac Sumdac as a hostage.
