>>8097221>Does Hasbro mandate every series to have a Megatron and an Optimus?Pretty much, I mean look at the RiD follow up, it was originally a Takara one shot in G1, focused on Fire Convoy vs Gigatron, but they got renamed Optimus and Megatron
Honestly they could have easily worked Megatron into the Tripredicus plot. They've used the info from tarantulas to enact their own plan of conquest and order. They would be the ones taking issue with beast modes and shit, as they wouldn't have a pre established enjoyment of a beast form to contradict.
We can still open in media res, even even have Megatron as a major villain. As when they got to cybertron, they arrested megatron and reprogrammed him to act as their servant, so now you have this different dynamic of megatron acting as second fiddle, until of course he hijacks it mid season and upgrades to the grand Mal form. This would also drop the entire "trying to lose his beast mode" subplot as the council has already taken care of that, making him turn into a powerful hover tank with a flight mode.
For added fun have established predacon resistance members. Maybe keep some more beast wars characters alive to work with this. And hell, have megatron have no skin in the technological purity or technorganic reformatting, he just wants to hijack the winning side to put himself on top.
