LogFAQs > #985147054

ConfusedTorchic posted...

galvatron without the brain damage would be better

Wikis aside, it's not like Galvatron ever did anything particularly cunning.

He overwhelmed Starscream mainly by dint of sheer firepower (his upgraded gun being much stronger), and by virtue of total surprise (because the Decepticons had no reason to believe he or his troops even existed, and then Starscream had about 10 seconds to mentally process the idea that Megatron was still alive). There really wasn't a cunning plan, they just flew directly from Unicron to Cybertron and shot a guy. Even Grimlock could have come up with that idea.

He overwhelmed the Autobots by sheer force of numbers, and mostly only took them by surprise (again) because a) they were already weakened by the previous Decepticon attack, and b) because they assumed they were safe from further Decepticon attack because they'd just handed them their asses. With the added distraction of the Autobots now knowing something's going wrong back on Cybertron (Unicron eating the moons). If Galvatron had just swooped in the same way with all of the defenses fully operational and with the Autobots at full strength, he probably loses worse than Megatron did.

After the Autobots escape (meaning his attack failed), he chases after them, and then falls for an incredibly simplistic ruse which allows the Autobots to escape, and only realizes he screwed up after he schleps all the way back to Unicron so his boss can tell him what actually happened.

Then he kills Ultra Magnus on the Junkions' planet (again, solely via sheer force of numbers, with no real plan), and flies directly to Unicron where the first actual plan he has all movie backfires on him spectacularly.

Then, in the end, when he runs into Hot Rod and is explicitly told that he couldn't use the Matrix to kill Unicron because he was a Decepticon, rather than give the Matrix to the Autobot directly in front of him to try it, he tries to kill him instead. I'll cut him some slack here, because he was being tortured into it - but if he was clever he still might have resisted just long enough to toss the Matrix to Hot Rod and tell him to use it. Sure, you could argue that he wouldn't want to hand such a powerful weapon to one of his enemies, but this is clearly a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation. A cunning villain gives Hot Rod the Matrix, gets him to kill Unicron, freeing you from the guy who is enslaving you, then you cheap-shot the Autobot later. It's not like having the Matrix stopped you from killing Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus, now did it?

Galvatron basically accomplishes almost nothing of any meaningful value throughout the entire movie. Considering his SOLE success (killing Ultra Magnus and stealing the Matrix) is later entirely undone, his net value of worth is effectively zero. Worse, considering his actions directly lead to the creation of the new Autobot leader and the Decepticons losing control of Cybertron, he might actually rank as the worst Decepticon leader in the entire history of their existence. The Decepticons might actually have been better off if Starscream HAD become their new leader (not to mention far superior tacticians and planners like Soundwave or Shockwave).

If anything, the most cunning plan done by anyone in that movie was Megatron's plan at the beginning to disguise the attack by using the shuttle to bypass the early-warning system. Nearly everything else that happens is either entirely reactive (with no real forethought or planning), or is just "bum rush the enemy and hope you get lucky" (which again, is basically Grimlock-level planning).