Starscream (Generation One)

"Not to call you a coward, master, but sometimes, cowards do survive..."

- Starscream to Megatron

Starscream is a Decepticon from many different continuities of the Transformers universe. An ambitious and treacherous sort of fellow, he most often gets his chance to lead after backstabbing or betraying Megatron in some form. The character of Starscream who wants to overthrow Megatron as the leader has been in every Transformers cartoon series except for the Unicron Trilogy and no character called Starscream was in the show Robots in Disguise.

Generation One
'"I will rule the universe! Even if I'm the only one in the universe!"

- Starscream in Generation 1 '

Starscream is one of Megatron's most trusted lieutenants, even if he's always trying to usurp Megatron's leadership. In the episode Starscream's Brigade, Megatron finally puts up with Starscream's thirst for command of the Decepticons and the chance to betray Megatron. So he builds Combaticon Decepticons Brawl, Swindle, Vortex, Onslaught, and Blast Off using stolen personality components (which were once those of five "Renegade Decepticons" imprisoned in a detention center on Cybertron) and broken vehicles used by humans. The 5 Combaticons become Bruticus, then Bruticus actually managed to defeat Megatron, grabbing the Decepticon leader in its' hand. However, Decepticon Menasor separated Bruticus back into Brawl, Swindle, Vortex, Onslaught, and Blast Off, and Megatron grabs Starscream by his neck. Decepticon Astrotrain throws Starscream and the Combaticons into space and banished from Earth. The 5 Combaticons no longer wanted Starscream as their leader, and instead it is now Onslaught. In episode Revenge of Bruticus, the 5 Combaticons try to melt the Earth by bringing it to close to the Sun by using the Space Bridge. The human race were unable to stand the high sun heat, and the Autobots rush to stop the 5 Combaticons. Starscream and Shockwave were prisoners of the Combaticons while Megatron, the other Decepticons, Optimus Prime, and other Autobots free both of them to stop the 5 Combaticons. When the Autobots left, Megatron welcomes back Starscream into Decepticon command. Then, the 5 Combaticons become controlled in serving Megatron.

In the G1 movie, he finally gets his chance to lead after throwing a critically injured Megatron out of an airlock into the vastness of space. His leadership reign doesn't last past his coronation ceremony however, as Galvatron quickly crashes the party and vaporizes him.

This does not deter Starscream from tormenting Galvatron, for at this point, he became a ghost.

Beast Wars
Starscream doesn't physically appear in Beast Wars, however Starscream's spark manage possess Waspinator, and temporary took over the Predacons. Ironically he is betrayed by Blackarachnia, and forced out of Waspinator, sending him flying back into space.

Armada
Starscream originally came to Earth as part of Megatron's expedition to gain the power of the Mini-Cons alongside Demolishor and Cyclonus. However, Starscream's frustration over having been made the last of the Decepticons to gain his partner Mini-Con led him to be manipulated by Sideways into battling with Megatron, which he promptly lost. A short time later, Starscream was given ownership of the Star Saber as part of a scheme by Thrust to make him the patsy in his plan to steal the Requiem Blaster from the Autobots. This led to him being abandoned on the battlefield. Surviving to return to the Decepticon base, Starscream went on a rampage with the sword and disowned the Decepticons, siding up with the wary Autobots, not out of any desire to do good, but out of sheer hatred for Megatron. After a clash with Hot Shot and a trip to Mars with Jetfire, Starscream befriended the Autobots' human allies, particularly Alexis, and then gave the Autobots access to the Decepticon base, resulting in a raid that freed all the captive Mini-Cons. Starscream's defection was not without difficulty however; he constantly clashed with the Autobots over morals and battle strategies. Nonetheless, he proved to be a capable Autobot. However, Thrust (himself being manipulated by Sideways) then toyed with Starscream, planting seeds of doubt in his mind. This eventually caused him to steal the Skyboom Shield from the Autobots and return to the Decepticon fold, giving the Decepticons possession of all three Mini-Con weapons.

Subsequently, Starscream was among the Transformers injured battling Nemesis Prime, and who then received power boosts from their Mini-Cons. Starscream gained a new, blue coloration that he commented made him look like his contemporary, Thundercracker. Returning to Cybertron, Starscream pursued Thrust into the depths of the planet when the turncoat tactician revealed his treachery by stealing the Requiem Blaster and Skyboom Shield. Starscream took a fatal shot from the Requiem Blaster as he battled Thrust in the subterranean tunnels, but the Mini-Con High Wire used his powers to restructure the timeline, saving Starscream. Thrust escaped and delivered the weapons to Sideways and his master, Unicron, presently disguised as Cybertron's moon. Following Thrust through a warp gate and briefly reuniting with Alexis, Starscream entered the belly of the beast along with Hot Shot and Wheeljack, but the unlikely trio were stymied by Unicron's internal defenses and failed to stop Sideways from using the weapons to begin Unicron's reactivation. Galvatron (the renamed Megatron after the Mini-con power boost) was unwilling to acknowledge Unicron's threat, however, dismissing it as an Autobot trick. Starscream, however, knew the threat was real, and that only united under a true leader like Optimus Prime – whose strength of character and nobility had touched Starscream during his time with the Autobots – could the Transformers hope to stop him. Unwilling to betray his leader, Starscream decided on a new course of action. To show Galvatron the error of his ways, he challenged him to a duel in which he allowed Galvatron to run him through with the Star Saber, and then turned his firepower on Unicron, right after he demands Galvatron to join forces with Optimus Prime to stop Unicron. Unicron promptly obliterated him, much to the shock of both Galvatron and Optimus Prime. It was then Galvatron realized that the danger of Unicron was real. Upon realizing Starscream's reasons of his treachery and rebellion, Galvatron became more than willing to have the Decepticons form an alliance with Optimus and the Autobots to destroy Unicron for good. Other than that, Galvatron also develops a newfound respect for Starscream, even calling him a true soldier for his efforts of proving to the Decepticons that the threat of Unicron is real. Starsceam's final action saved everyone and made him the only incarnation of Starscream in the various Transformers universes with a good heart in the end. Alexis, who Starscream had formed a close bond with, was deeply affected by his death. Starscream, or a version thereof, was briefly seen only once more, in a dream that Galvatron had while he was temporarily absorbed into Unicron's mind.

Transformers Movie
"I live to serve you, Lord Megatron."

- Starscream in the first movie

"Truly the universe favours those who persist."

- One of Starscream's mottos

Starscream appears as a fairly minor character in the first film. He fights Autobots Ironhide and Ratchet almost killing them during the final battle, but when his allies Megatron, Brawl, and Blackout were destroyed, he fled back to space. He actually had less than 2 minutes of screen time in the entire movie that ran for 2 hours and 17 minutes. However, in less than 2 minutes, he was able to put Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide out of battle by shooting at them, shot down the helicopter that was supposed to rescue Sam, destroyed an F-22 pilot and was able to easily escape other F-22s trying to shoot him down.

Revenge of the Fallen
Starscream returns again in Revenge of the Fallen as one of the minor antagonists. Megatron was angry at Starscream for taking his leadership when Megatron was killed by the All Spark power, then Starscream (obviously unhappily) was back to second or third-in-command. He also survives the war the Decepticons bring to in Egypt where the Sun Harvester was, uttering the line, "cowards DO survive", which has become famous towards the Transformers fans.

Dark of the Moon
Starscream returns in Dark of the Moon as the quaternary antagonist with his first appearance at when the four primary Decepticons Soundwave, Igor, Starscream, and Megatron are meeting at Africa. Starscream (falsely) claims he is sympathetic towards Megatron's face injury. Megatron only responds at Starscream to just shut up about it, calling him a gaseous sycophant. Later on, Megatron and Starscream invade Washington D.C. where Sentinel Prime unleashes hundreds of Decepticons to slaughter the humans in Chicago, Starscream compliments on Megatron's decision to ally with Sentinel Prime ("So impressive"). Starscream was also seen killing many human soldiers on Ospreys during the middle of the war. Sentinel extorts the Autobots to leave Earth in a spaceship called the Xantium. Starscream was sent to shoot it down, and the humans believed the Autobots were dead. However, it turns out that they did not hide in the spaceship and were in a container that was below the Xantium. Starscream was able to be extremely near Sam Witwicky, and this time, there was no Autobot around. Sam used Autobot Que's grappling hook to injure one of Starscream's eyes. As Starscream was blind and tried to kick Sam, while under fire from Lennox's NEST team, the brave human stabbed a boom stick at Starscream also given to him by Autobot Que. The boom stick kills Starscream and Bumblebee rescues Sam when he fell from a building Starscream exploded on top of. His last words were, "I'm gonna kill you.....", a case of verbal irony.

Animated


Starscream also appears in Transformers: Animated as one of the four primary Decepticons, besides Megatron, Blitzwing, and Lugnut. Here, he is depicted as more competent than most iterations of his character but still too impulsive and impatient to achieve his goals. In the first episode, he finds that the Autobots have the All Spark. He battles the 5 Autobots, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Prowl in Detroit, Michigan. He proves to be more powerful than all 5 Autobots together. When Optimus Prime and Starscream fight for the All Spark, its' power causes Starscream to blast off. Then, when Megatron got a new body, he makes Starscream go offline as punishment for betraying.

Starscream was brought back online by a piece of the All Spark. He fails to attack Megatron, but he is able to attack Autobot Ultra Magnus. However, the Autobots and Elite Guard defeat him once again. He clones himself and brings back more Decepticons, Ramjet, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm, and Slipstream. When the 5 Starscream clones manage to defeat Megatron, Starscream would have killed Megatron with a Cybertronian sword until a human named Issac Sumdac cut off his head and replaced a new robotic unit called the Headmaster into Starscream's body. Starscream only had his head for a while. He and Megatron, along with other Decepticons were sucked in a black hole portal called the Space Bridge. When finding the Autobot Omega Supreme offline when the giant Autobot had also gone offline due to going through the Space Bridge and destroying it, he and Megatron enter the Autobot.

Starscream gained control of Omega Supreme's body, but when Autobot Bumblebee throws a transwarping device at Omega Supreme's body, Starscream, Megatron, and the Autobot whose body that Starscream is controlling, keep teleporting with no control. After Starscream manages to gain another body by entering his ship again, Megatron destroys all the other new bodies that are cloned by Starscream. Starscream then fights Autobots Jazz and Prowl, but when his spark fell off, Starscream went offline forever.

Prime
Main Article: Starscream (Transformers Prime)

War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron


Starscream is one of the playable characters in the video game War for Cybertron. He turns into a Cybertronian jet. In the video game, he is defeated by Optimus Prime in the Autobot story after serving as a sub-boss. In the Decepticon story, he is still under Megatron's rule.

Trivia

 * Starscream has the same personality as Baxter Stockman from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Snively Robotnik from the Comic Book and SatAM versions of Sonic the Hedgehog, seeing as though the three are loyal to their bosses (whilst being jealous behind their backs), They cower from their bosses who have harshful punishments and all three betray their leaders whilst fighting against their heroic enemies; They also have differences compared to each other: Starscream became brave and destructive compared to Baxter & Snively; Baxter became independent yet comical compared to Snively & Starscream; & Snively became smarter and cunning compared to Starscream & Baxter.
 * Starscream has betrayed Megatron so much, it's considered a running gag.