This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on January 2025.
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Welcome to Megaframe!
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~ Megabyte conquering Mainframe in Season 2
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I come from the Net. Infecting systems, people, and cities, to this place—Megaframe, my domain. My format: Virus. To corrupt and conquer
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~ Megabyte's opening monologue for Episodes 24, 25, and 27.
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No. YOU remember, boy. How I turned defeat into victory! How I left you with a dying system!
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~ Megabyte nearly making his grand escape
Megabyte is the main antagonist of the 1994 animated series by Mainframe Studios, ReBoot, the first fully CGI animated 30 minute series. A virus obsessed with order, Megabyte is the most persistent foe of Mainframe, seeking to infect it and then the entire Net as a whole. Becoming the archenemy of the Guardian Bob and his successor, Enzo Matrix, Megabyte progressively becomes more and more of a threat as the series goes on.
While Megabyte is a vile Pure Evil, his viciousness is only second to his more prominent traits of sophistication and perseverance, traits heightened by Tony Jay's glorious vocal performance, and as the series goes on, progressively subverts Villain Decay. It also helps that the worst of his actions, such as the decapitation and torture of Phong's head and ravaging Mainframe, will all be reversed by the end of the series to keep the show within the content standards so his acts don't feel so exceptionally bad that they overshadow his charm.
While he did forcibly kiss Dot twice simply for the sake of being a jerk, which is technically sexual assault, the act itself is dampened by content standards, lacking any rapey undertones as a result.
While initially having small shades of being a Sore Loser, this is a trait Megabyte explicitly discards upon his Cerebus point by the end of Season 2, in which whenever faced with a loss will simply find move onto plotting the next plan than mulling it over, to which his fierce perseverance leads him to multiple victories. A very telling showcase of this trait being shed is on the penultimate episode of Season 4, the whole series even, in which his charade as Bob was unexpectedly ended, he decides to simply play seriously and move onto more effective plans.
In the series premiere, strings Bob to do a favour to convert a tear into a portal to the Supercomputer, anticipating his refusal at the last minute using a harness to control Bob's power himself, and then simply uses the Game Energy from a game cube landing on top of him to do the job instead.
Catches up to Bob and Dot Matrix's escape plan and traps them in his lair.
Using expert hacker Mouse, he attempts to brain jack Bob to sue his knowledge to infect the Supercomputer. When the incompetence of his minions Hack & Slash lands them onto Enzo's bran, Megabyte takes advantage of them being on the Supercomputer to simply take control of the Principal Office.
Already has an entire sector of Mainframe conquered, and plants a spy on Dot's resistance to swindle the PDI codes of the entire population and decrypting them to control all, actually succeeding in the decryption and only foiled by Dot managing to take the files at the last minute.
Stringing Hexadecimal to an alliance to exploit her weapons, he creates a false upgrade for Mainframe to infiltrate the Principal Office and remake the system to his image.
Using the energy of 2 games, he initiates a near successful plot that drains Mainframe of its power.
Taking advantage over the Web invasion, Megabyte forms a false alliance with the heroes to trap Bob in the Web, decimating Mainframe's defenses and conquering the entire city for his domain.
Using propaganda, Megabyte turns Mainframe against Enzo when he was appointed as Bob's successor, defeating him with just words.
Takes control of the more powerful Hexadecimal to be his weapon and be unbeatable. He then takes advantage of her freedom to break free of the Firewall imprisoning him to rule all of Mainframe and back the resistance to a corner.
Upon realizing Mainframe is dying, succeeds in extracting all the portal codes to move on to conquering other systems, only foiled due to outside interference that drags him to the Web.
Now a Trojan Horse Virus due to his time on the Web, Megabyte disguises himself as Bob and turns Mainframe against the original version, only revealed due to mere chance.
Deciding to quit fooling around and get to business upon being revealed as the second Bob, Megabyte uses his disguising powers to sow chaos and confusion across Mainframe to provide distractions as he rallies up his former virals to serve him once more on their own will.
Anticipating the heroes' trap for him, he uses a clone to get captured on his stead to distract the heroes as he ends the series taking control over the Principal office and thus Mainframe once more.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
Repeatedly attempts to ravage Mainframe and remake it as his domain, intending to invade the Supercomputer to spread this process towards the entire Net.
Has the population of the sector he rules, Geidi Prime, enslaved to create weapons.
Betrays Bob in a truce and banishes him to the deadly Web to dispose of him.
Kills a dissenting binome to show the population of Mainframe that in his rule, it's either bow down or die.
Using a shock collar, he forces Hexadecimal to painfully power his superweapon, taking some pride on his work.
His reign renders Mainframe to be a wasteland and is even on the verge of destruction to which he attempts to simply abandon it to its fate to infect other systems.
Conquers Mainframe in the series finale and initiates 'The Hunt' against all who threaten his rule.
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