What's your opinion on Starscream?
A character who has way more depth than people give him credit for, and often forget while he is a problem, he's not THE problem.
He's not the root cause of the BS the Decepticons do, that's mostly Megatron. This doesn't make any of Starscream’s wrongs right by any means, but people forget that a lot of his problems were caused and or created by Megatron.
Starscream often repeats the cycle of abuse he got stuck in with the Buckethead. This is where he should be called out so that way he can avoid repeating the cycle and hopefully break away from it.
I think he's more than just the second in command who wants to overthrow his leader, some versions of him are mostly that character type but others are more complex than that.
Get ready for a long post because I'm about to go over all the Starscreams I've seen so far.
I'd argue that in Gen 1, as much as he says the "Megatron has fallen!" line, even he is more complex than some later versions because we clearly see that he's smart, has depth, plans things out, and has his own goals. Unfortunately, however, he's so focused on overthrowing Megatron, that he doesn't think about going somewhere he'd be wanted if he promised to atone for his crimes, and prove that he can be better. Eventually, this all just led to his demise when he did take over the Decepticons, leaving him to become an immortal ghost who pops up in Beast Wars.
To add in a Gen 1 bonus, he got absolutely disrespected in the Devastation game. Even if he was talking shit behind Megatron's back in some of the audio logs you find, he was still doing his part in fighting the Autobots and trying to do what Megatron needed him to do. Megatron was really just going to leave him behind for something he could hardly control. It's not Starscream's fault that the power core was so fucking heavy that he dropped it and he ended up crashing. He was also a pretty easy boss compared to other cons like fucking BLITZWING 🤬 and was a pretty good addition to the game and his theme went hard as fuck.
In Armada he was a very sympathetic and well written character who was getting abused by Megatron, who turned out to be his father figure. Megatron literally beat him because he had valid points or said something the wrong way. He later joins the Autobots because he knew they were a better and safer option for him, and he just wanted Megatron gone. However, Hotshot wouldn't shut the fuck up about what happened to Smokescreen even though STARSCREAM WASNT FUCKING THERE. So, him and the other Autobots bullied him into going back to his abuser. This eventually led to him sacrificing himself during the Unicron Battles to prove a point that would let everyone else know that shit was real, and they needed to lock the fuck in if they wanted to live.
Worst part is his death was in vain because it did almost nothing to stop Unicron.
Fast forward to Energon and he gets revived with none of his memories and just becomes a personal assassin to people wanting to revive his murderer, and later gets taken by Megatron. Then he gets tortured psychologically until Megatron has full control over him once again, then he gets his memories erased AGAIN. His brain might as well be cheese after that.
I haven't even finished Energon yet and I fear this will only get worse...
In Cybertron however, he just says fuck it and becomes a more relevant villain than Megatron himself and also gaslighted him into getting obliterated by Optimus. Then he's implied to be alive after Megatron "killed" him. He girlbossed too close to the sun while making Megatron irrelevant and Sideways his henchman bitch.
Honestly king shit, he earned it because in Armada/Energon he got fucked over and abused for no reason. It's like the Starscream from that universe communicated to him through his dreams and let him know to give his Megatron and Sideways everlasting hell.
I don't have much to say on Bayverse Starscream since I've only seen the first movie so far, but from what I've seen that dude was pretty loyal and was working overtime rebuilding the Cybertronian population via laying eggs.
I know the fandom often has a field day with that theory not to mention it's implied that a similar thing happened (Not laying eggs) in the next continuity with Starscream and the Jet twins.
Animated is probably one of the only iterations where we see this dude turn his back on Megatron, but not because he was abusive. He just did it with no hesitation because he's a petty bitch. Besides that, Megatron is a much better leader despite being evil, so that Starscream had no real excuse and was just trolling Megatron.
There's definitely a lot of fan theories, fanons, and comics about how Megatron actually treated him before the main story, and I'm totally on board with those theories considering how scary this version of Megatron is. But I'm mostly going off what happens in the show.
War for and Fall of Cybertron Starscream is pretty interesting considering he had the upper hand in the beginning of the story. If it wasn't for him, Megatron wouldn't have gotten the Dark Energon he needed to corrupt Cybertron. After Megatron gets pancaked by Metroplex, Starscream of course takes over the cons with his crown and all. Then Megatron comes back from the dead thanks to Snitchwave and he gets chased out of his coronation. This time however he lives. Afterwards, he forms the Combaticons and even awakens Grimlock.
Honestly, I don't remember much and would have to watch the video discussing the overall story again, but all this tells me is that it makes no sense for these two games and Prime to be in the same universe/continuity.
In Prime they do tease a possibility of redemption for him, but this is one of the versions that goes through constant relapse.
However, we can clearly see his competence as a soldier. He plans shit out and has managed to get himself in and out of situations alive and when he fucks up, it usually happens last second. Example, him getting his T-cog yoinked by Mech after getting Bee's blown up. On the other hand, he created clones, found Red Energon, and managed to sneak into the Autobot base and steal the Omega keys without them noticing until last minute. While he isn't the best example of a competent character type, it's clear he knows what he's doing, even if he's bullshitting his way through half the time.
Sidenote: This Megatron is definitely among the biggest idiots of his iterations for keeping Starscream around and KILLING DREADWING to save his stupid ass. Like that Dark Energon really scrambled his dementia ridden brain.
Honestly his 6 episode "season" in RID 2015 made no sense. Like what was the point of bringing him back when he's only going to be there for 6 episodes and then just be killed off by Optimus of all people.
That's possibly the most nonsensical option for an opponent of Starscream, it should have been Bumblebee or literally anyone that wasn't Optimus fucking Prime. Literally any other member of team Prime would've worked. Other than that, I have nothing much to say about that version of Starscream other than he was wasted and his explanation for surviving the Predacons is BS and lazily written.
Prime Wars Trilogy Starscream is the definition of fucked over. This is one of the few times we've seen Starscream be a calm and reasonable person. He didn't talk over his subordinates; he actually gave good points and also didn't raise his voice or yell at anyone; he was literally calm the whole time.
In his trailer we see how he wanted to be more than just the treacherous second in command that everyone made him out to be, and wants to move on from that. Most would think "Oh he's just putting on this facade to get what he wants because he's a schemer. He always goes back to being treacherous."
This looked like a Starscream who wanted to do and be something more than someone who worked for Megatron. He looked like he wanted to move on from the Decepticons as a whole and have a new beginning. On top of that he still sounded and acted like himself while explaining this, proving that we can get a Starscream that isn't just the same typical bad guy and actually has depth. He even admits to his mistakes while working with the Mistress of Flame and Rodimus.
However, for some fucking reason a certain buckhead didn't like that and decided to fuck it all up. When Megatron decided to work with both Optimus and Windblade, Prime explicitly told him NOT TO ATTACK Starscream. So when they approach the Mistress of Flame, Rodimus, and Starscream, who btw have the security system on but don't immediately use it, what does this stupid motherfucker do? He shoots Starscream and mind you..
Starscream didn't even shoot back.
STARSCREAM DOESNT SHOOT BACK.
He couldn't give less of a fuck about what this abusive dumbass wanted from him. He even called Megatron out on his bullshit by saying he was trying to atone for his actions while Megatron decided to keep being a fuckwad who drags everyone into his nonsense. Then Megatron resorts to insulting Starscream by saying he's too stupid to use the Enigma of Combination, because Starscream had a valid point and he couldn't gaslight his way into convincing him he was wrong.
Lastly, when shit started hitting the fan after Megatron fucked everything up and pissed off Devastator, the three go to the enigma and plan to use it. Since Rodimus got his arm ripped off and The Mistress of Flame was from another planet, neither of them could wield it so only Starscream could use it.
THEY ALLOWED HIM TO USE IT.
He didn't shove them to get to it, nor did he steal it. They literally gave him permission to use it. And even if he was planning this all along, he did it fairly this time. So, the fact that everyone proceeded to villainize him when the enigma fucked him up is total bullshit. Especially when the Mistress of Flame and Rodimus talk shit about him when they're the ones WHO GAVE HIM THE FUCKING THING. Like you guys allowed this to happen, don't act like you're innocent in all this, especially you Mistress of Flame.
I'll make an entire post about this debacle on my main account because this segment is already too long, just know that I think Starscream's arc in that show was a clusterfuck of nonsense, and that "plot twist" of how he was planning to get the Enigma the whole time and still being that treacherous archetype, was bullshit.
Anyways onto the next continuity...
Cyberverse Starscream honestly had the most valid crashout. He was the definition of fed up. He was a hardworking commander of the seekers dealing with the one-eyed racist eugenicist named Shockwave who would constantly say his kind had "low intelligence" and probably called them every possible Seeker slur in existence. He had no clear intentions of actually betraying Megatron before his crashout.
When we do see his crashout, we are shown a montage of Megatron constantly nagging, bringing up every little mistake Starscream has made, and straight up hitting him or throwing him against the wall. Him just taking command and yeeting Megatron made total sense, because Megatron did all that but was still an incompetent idiot who got nothing done, and everyone else was just willingly doing the work for him.
Most of the cons in this show not being shit becomes very obvious when we see how all of them are just a bunch of fucking sheep, who follow any Decepticon who takes leadership.
*Sigh* more on that on a future post on my main.
Honestly his whole arc after that is a massive fever dream, but it makes sense considering the BS Megatron put him through. I honestly liked him in Cyberverse before they decided to just make him an evil cartoon villain who just kills his whole family like it's nothing, not to mention the Quintesson BS after that.
In the Netflix trilogy (I'm not calling it War for Cybetron), he was pretty alright, he had a ton of valid points especially in Kingdom when he said the Matrix belonged to Optimus. That's when you know shit is hitting the fan when Starscream is saying the Matrix should stay with Optimus, he actually has a fucking brain unlike Megatron. He wasn't really that treacherous or malicious he was just using common sense because that Megatron was going to get everybody killed if they didn't stop him. That Megatron was so fucking stupid and desperate for power, and it wouldn't amount to anything if Unicron got a hold of them.
Last and definitely not least is Earthspark Starscream. We've already heard everyone's opinions on him so I'm gonna keep this one brief...
Like many people I really like this Starscream. I think he had a bunch of wasted potential when it comes to becoming a better version of himself and pulling away from his past with Megatron. I get a single friendly interaction with Hashtag wouldn't automatically make him good, but it could've been the key to the beginning of a well written redemption arc. Starscream could still be himself and still plan and scheme but not for totally evil reasons, at least things that won't endanger everyone else in the process.
Overall, I don't think it was necessary to make him and the other cons evil again, it feels forced when season 1 was about giving these fuckers a chance to prove themselves instead of jumping to conclusions when most of the time it was shown they were doing what they could to survive. Swindle was kind of an exception to that considering he held children at gunpoint. Even though the seekers were going to take the Maltos hostage, the most they were probably going to do was just take them outside the cave and ask to be let go or they're taking the kids, but not actually do anything to them and would just end up leaving. In the end, they didn't actually harm kids. As for Skywarp and Novastorm in "Age of Evolution" their targets were assigned by Mandroid and it was clear they were wondering why the fuck they were even doing this in the first place, and they didn't want to get captured by G.H.O.S.T even if that's what ended up happening anyway.
My point is, there was lazy writing, wasted potential, and a lost opportunity for a well written redemption arc for Starscream and the other cons. Alongside an opportunity to call out Megatron's BS and the fact that he's a fucking coward.
There you have it, my overall views of each Starscream I've seen so far. There's some missing because I haven't seen, read, or played those continuities. But this is all I've pretty much got to say about Starscream as a whole.
Thank you for coming to my long ass Ted Talk. 👌
