G1 cartoon Cyclonus a better leader than Galvatron?
 

I always wondered what would happen in G1 Season 3 if Cyclonus never led a small group of sweeps to fish out Galvatron from his plasma bath. Would he be able to bring the Decepticon empire back to the top? His troops obviously feared him and respected him. Even his arch nemesis Ultra Magnus respected Cyclonus as a worth adversary and contemporary. What say you Toyark denizens?

The thing about cartoon Cyclonus is, he drew all his strength (IMO) from his unbelievably powerful belief in Galvatron. Without that focal point, I don't think he'd be nearly as strong in character.

However, if they actually never figured out where Galvatron crashlanded, I suspect Cyclonus might've turned the Decepticons into a more powerful force than ever...given time. Since he'd be driven by the increasingly fruitless search for the commander he's absolutely loyal to.

(<3 season 3)

It would have been interesting to have seen Cyclonus under the command of the movie Galvatron before he went crazy, though I'm thinking that would have been more boring then what we got. Vang makes a good point about Cyclonus not being very effective without Galvatron. What was always great about Cyclonus was that because Galvatron went crazy he got the huge leadership role that he did in the G1 toon. I think if Galvatron did not got loopy and was just a Megatron 2.0 Cyclonus role would have greatly diminished which would have been very unfortunate. Despite the mixed reaction among fans to season 3 I liked how they tried to mix it up with a character like Cyclonus who really got to shine wile the leader get's the more backseat role (same with how UM and Rodimus). To bring it back to your original point wile Cyclonus is an outstanding general and leader he's kinda like Shockwave in the sense that he's not the full and fleshed out big picture person (ruling the galaxy and so forth). He's the military commander who job it is to take the orders he's given and command troops on the battlefield. Without Galvatron or a higher power to be there he's still kinda lost in that respect.

Most definatly, it was his blind loyalty to Galvatron that made him never realise this.
I still love mad ol' Galvy though.

I always hoped that Soundwave would take control if Galvatron never resurfaced!

Would this be prerub or post rub Soundwave? :p I think Soundwave makes a great spy but doesn't have what it takes to run the Decepticons.

Pre Rub of course!

Soundwave and I will pretend we didn't hear that. ;)

I think once he got over the no Galvatron thing he would have been a much better leader conventional wise. After the movie Rodimus didn't seem much more powerful than him. A bigger weapon acquired would fix that. All Galvatron had going for him was insane ideas, spontaneity, and his own personal strengths. Cyclonus would have made better use of his resources and manpower which would have made him the better leader.

Cyclonus was always calm and calculated, I think he would make better decisions than Galvatron.

I wondered why Cyclonus was so supportive of Galvy, and went and rescued him, if that was Starscream, that would never have happened. That kind of loyalty would make him a successful leader, IMO

And Cyclonus also had a healthy respect for Magnus as well. I thought "The Killing Jar" was one of Cyclonus' shining moments.

I think he would have done very well as a leader, especially since he would have probably garnered more loyalty from his troops in the long run. I think that without Cyclonus, the Decepticons would have never recovered from the events of the movie.

I'm also pretty sure that the Decepticons would've assasinated Galvatron were it not for Cyclonus maintaining some semblance of order.