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cinyadom · 8 days

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Essay: Galvatron, the Flawed Jewel

When I watched the 80s Sunbow cartoon, I always found Galvatron to be a rather shallow character. But in the Marvel UK comics, he is one of the most fascinating and compelling of all. I want to explore why that is. However, before I can, I need to briefly clarify who Galvatron was made from and how many versions of him are in this continuity. Time-travel makes this really complicated, but here's my best guess:

The first Galvatron (and Scourge and Cyclonus) went back in time right after he was thrown out of Unicron by Rodimus as he was in the movie. This Galvatron went back in time to escape from and find a way to destroy Unicron, but he, Cyclonus, and Scourge end up being erased from existence in the Time Wars arc after Shockwave kills Cyclonus, accidentally causing the space-time continuum to nearly collapse.

Galvatron II was plucked from an alternate future in which he tried to get Unicron to leave him alone by doing his bidding—killing and conquering. But the Unicron of the main timeline makes Galvatron II do yet more labor for him.

A third Galvatron was shown in the future stories, replacing the one who was erased from existence. This Galvatron temporarily succeeds in forcing the future Autobots off Cybertron, but ends up dead (maybe? He's shown slumped in a pile of corpses so) in a battle against Unicron.

I'm going to assume each Galvatron can be used to inform my interpretation of him in general.

Another detail to mention is that the Galvatron(s) of this continuity were always made from more than Megatron. All of them probably have some degree of Straxus in them as well. Straxus, who I must say sure is obsessed with Megatron's body, both injected his mind into Megatron AND built a second, lookalike Megatron out of some unnamed Decepticon to inject his mind into. In both cases, Megatron's personality seemed to reemerge as the dominant one, but this calls into question what Galvaton inherited from whom.

Straxus's alt-mode, which seems very similar to Galvatron's

With all of that out of the way, time to delve into the complexities of Galvatron's characterization!

One of the first things that surprised me about Galvatron in this continuity was the way he reacts to characters who are obscure and/or weak.

He knows all their names!

One big issue with this continuity is the overinflated cast (because the comic was supposed to sell the toys), so there were always tons of characters who almost felt like filler running around. A few characters who are known for their cool designs and toys, but still fill this role, are the Seacons. They're just described as engineers who were brought to Earth to fortify Shockwave's undersea base, not to fight. But when Shockwave sees Galvatron walking around on the ocean floor, he sends them out to fight him against Soundwave's advice, knowing they'll probably die. The Seacons' leader, Snap Trap, even just tells his team, "...do your best!" before the fight, which doesn't inspire confidence lol

But Galvatron is impressed with them, and even leaves them all alive! He says that by embarrassing Shockwave, it will all be in their best interest one day.

Some way too overexposed filler characters were the Sparklers/Sparkabots. When one of them, Fizzle, almost drowns, Galvatron... saves him for seemingly no reason?

At the same time, though, I think it's significant that this odd fondness does seem be predicated on these people not actually being able to do much to him or anybody close to his level. For example, several characters I'd classify as being on the level of fodder, Guzzle (another Sparkabot), Getaway, Chainclaw, and Crossblades are initially some of the only surviving Autobots in the future Galvatron II was from, but when they actually manage to defeat Scourge and Cyclonus, Galvatron is so disgusted that he saves Cyclonus's life just to immediately punish him by killing him himself.

When it comes to the big names, Galvatron seems to feel only contempt. In Galvatron II's future, he strings up Rodimus's corpse and shoots him again and again, symbolically killing him over and over. And in the multi-issue story ...Perchance to Dream in which Galvatron tries to trap various Autobots who are in stasis in visions of moments in which they demonstrated their inner weaknesses/flaws, we get to see Galvatron's own nightmare. While it's meant to be humorous, I think the fact that Galvatron's worst fear is being killed by Rodimus over and over again is important.

In fact, it's not just the Prime I suspect Galvatron is afraid of. Sure, maybe it was just cruelty or his desire to turn the Decepticons against the Autobots, but in the Time Wars arc, I think he used Scorponok as a shield because he didn't want to face Ultra Magnus in a fair fight, since Magnus had previously defeated Galvatron a couple of times.

So, Galvatron's afraid of other people who can best him, but what does he desire? Well, the entire series follows his mission to free himself of Unicron. He has major setbacks given multiple versions of himself die, and Galvatron II suffered a rude awakening when he realized his attempt to satisfy Unicron by following his orders was for naught and that that he remained a tool. In fact, I believe that Galvatron's interest in weak, obscure characters stems from how eclipsed he himself feels by Unicron.

Also, I love how much of Unicron's and Primus's personalities we get to see in these comics. Unicron is so immature which is great, because like, who does he have to impress? XD

Galvatron sometimes says he wants to take over the Decepticons and conquer the world when he's free of Unicron, but I honestly question if that's even true. Galvatron II doesn't spread his "empire" beyond the Americas, something that bothers his troops. They note he's acting like a child, revelling in random acts of destruction to no purpose.

The first Galvatron spent a long stretch of issues (like a hundred or so IIRC) in the present time, wandering around and doing nothing in particular, only lashing out when he's reminded of Rodimus Prime, or attacked by other people, like his former lieutenants Scourge and Cyclonus, or the Wreckers. All of that on top of the fact that he very intentionally didn't start his fight with the Seacons... in fact, after that battle, he embarrasses Shockwave and undermines his command by claiming he'd come in peace. Galvatron also doesn't really take initiative to team up with his old self, Megatron, instead only doing so after Shockwave attempts to get over that humiliation by using Megatron as a weapon against Galvatron. And yes, then he finally starts to take initiative and battle people... but I almost wonder if that was Megatron's drive for conquest propelling the initial conflict, not Galvatron's.

This brings up another really interesting facet of Galvatron's character: his relationship with Megatron. In the story arc that introduced Galvatron, Target: 2006, his initial plan is to get Megatron's help in building a weapon to destroy Unicron. Notably, Galvatron does not tell him they are one and the same, and unsurprisingly, Megatron does not agree to work with him.

However, some time after incapacitating Megatron, Galvatron does tell the captured Jazz about his entire backstory. Also, the first ever glimpse of Galvatron's unstable state of mind came when Megatron decided to team up with the Autobots to defeat him. He can't seem to handle the cognitive dissonance of this.

Later, leading up the Time Wars arc, Galvatron does manage to get Megatron's assistance by instead convincing him they're the same. One of the first moments that peaked my interest in Galvatron was during this arc. When he sees the Wrecker, Roadbuster, about to shoot Megatron, and remembers that in his timeline, he suffered that injury as Megatron. And in that moment, Galvatron decides to spare his past self the pain.

There are so many layers to this. Imagine remembering horrible pain that your past self suffered and then deciding to suffer that as your current self to spare them that agony. It's not a selfish act, because you still have to feel it. It's bizarrely compassionate in a way. (It's also worth noting that as the timeline diverges more and more from his original one, Galvatron becomes more and more unstable, to the point that even Megatron grows tired of his madness and vows to not end up like him. Once again, something about cognitive dissonance is extremely difficult for Galvatron to handle).

Unlike this Galvatron, Galvatron II initially resents Megatron. Galvatron II actually manages to best Unicron by making Emirate Xaaron wake Primus to get the god's help (!) and then inspiring all the Autobots and Decepticons to fight Unicron (!!!) and eventually Unicron is destroyed.

Galvatron in this continuity is such a badass, I really can't overstate that

But with Unicron gone, Galvatron then sees Megatron as the one thing still holding him back. This is where the header image of this post comes from: Galvatron views Megatron as the flaw to his otherwise-perfect jewel. When Galvatron sneaks aboard the Ark, which Shockwave and Starscream have stolen, and discovers Megatron there, Galvatron blames Megatron for his mental instability. He nearly tries to kill him before he comes to his senses and snaps back to an attitude more like that of the first Galvatron and decides he might need to protect Megatron and team up with him.

This is the (not Straxus-made clone) version of Megatron and Galvatron II, who hadn't met before this point

However, this isn't to be. The Ark crashes when Ratchet sacrifices himself and only Galvatron is seen leaving it. He kills some humans and then unsteadily walks away from the ship, until he ends up at a settlement.

He ends up being tracked down by Fortress Maximus, who shoots him in the back, which triggers Galvatron and causes him to go into a rabid frenzy.

Pictured: Galvatron eating the forbidden noodles

Fortress Maximus beats himself up over causing this for a while until his Headmaster component, Spike Witwicky, tells him to own up to his mistake and fix it.

I want to shift focus for a minute to this final opponent Galvatron ends up facing. Fortress Maximus in this series is an extremely flawed Autobot: so worn-down and eager to stop fighting and have peace that he ended up essentially being a colonialist whose actions and inaction nearly destroy a once-peaceful world. He's a character who is super averse to conflict to the point of being callous at points, and he needed to learn to do his duty and take responsibility for his actions. I mention him because I think Galvatron is a parallel inversion of those character traits: what he actually needs is to just stop fighting, since it's when he isn't that he is actually at his most stable... but that need is getting obscured by his immense power, arrogance, and mental illness.

This conclusion may be reaching, but here is my ultimate take on Galvatron's character here: Galvatron's past self, Megatron, is someone with an indomitable will. No matter how embarrassing the defeat (and he has so many humiliating ones in this continuity, from standing on a cliff that falls out from under him, to freezing up because he was hangry and ate too much raw coal), he keeps going seemingly shamelessly. No matter how many times people like Straxus and Shockwave try to take over his mind, Megatron's personality just keeps reasserting itself in the end. He gets inappropriately intimate with his enemies, and just become more driven and more obsessed if anyone ever manages to get the better of him. He lives to fight, and enjoyed executing people before he ever started the War.

But I think Galvatron is not only a transformed Megatron (+ whoever else was sharing Megatron's head at the time), but a transformed Megatron whose will was shattered by Unicron. That deep down, Galvatron doesn't particularly want to keep fighting and conquering—that he's not at his happiest when he's fighting and killing some powerful opponent the way Megatron is. Instead, fights with people who could threaten him scare him. He doesn't even really care that much about conquering the world... the passion that Megatron had for being a dictatorial strongman is all but gone. Galvatron seemed most satisfied when he was just hanging around on Earth, doing nothing in particular, maybe in a body of water or something, alone, with nobody around to trigger memories of Rodimus Prime or Unicron or anyone else powerful enough to hurt him. Hot take, but I feel like with Galvatron, there could be a chance that he could be open to living peacefully if he were left alone, which is something I didn't feel was possible with Megatron.

...Also, this color scheme for Galvatron is the best ever. Just saying!

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