Skywarp (Animated)
| The name or term Skywarp refers to more than one character or idea, which very much frightens the character featured here. For a list of other meanings, do not be afraid to see Skywarp (disambiguation). |
- Skywarp barely musters up the courage to be a Decepticon from the Animated continuity family.
Skywarp, the Coward Starscream, is a Starscream clone embodying the original Starscream's cowardly side, although it seems to have been greatly enhanced. So much that he's basically afraid of everything. He can't even stand still; even when nothing is going on, he's trembling at some imagined threat.
Naturally, this makes him something of a liability in battle. But he does make one fine decoy to draw enemy fire.
| “ | Us? Against Megatron? Are you insane?! (whimpers) I... think I just sprang an oil leak. | ” |
——The second Skywarp, right after his activation, "A Bridge Too Close, Part I" | ||
Fiction
Animated cartoon
- Voice actor: Tom Kenny (English), Stefan Staudinger (German)
First coward
The first Coward had a "cool" version of Starscream's normal colours, heavily tending toward purple with gray extremities. He bolted after Lockdown and Prowl tracked him down, confusing him for the real Starscream, though both were a little taken aback by how chicken "Starscream" was being. Prowl was able to take the fleeing jet out of the air using his fancy new mods. The clone begged and pleaded with his captors not to be given to Megatron, who had ordered a bounty on Starscream's head. As Prowl explained he was going to be given to the Cybertron Elite Guard, Lockdown tied Prowl up, then ran off with the clone and dragged him to his rendezvous with Megatron.
As Megatron was about to make an example of him, the Autobots arrived with another Starscream clone, the Sycophant, prompting a Mexican standoff. Both clones had bombs implanted in their spark chambers and were used as bait to draw all of Starscream's enemies to one spot. As Lockdown and the Decepticons made a break for it, Prowl welded his borrowed mods to the pair and launched them into the sky, where they exploded. A Fistful of Energon
Second coward
A second Coward would later appear, this time with a black, purple and grey colour scheme. He was the last clone brought online before Starscream led his new force to Earth. A Bridge Too Close, Part I
In the battle for the space bridge, he mostly cowered and pleaded. Blurr got a pair of stasis cuffs on him, which absolutely terrified him, as he claimed that he had an irrational fear of stasis lock. But then both of them and Thundercracker were accidentally stuck in Mixmasters's glue-like cement and hurled into the space bridge, their destination unknown. A Bridge Too Close, Part II
Skywarp's personal hell only continued on the other side of the space bridge. He was trapped with Blurr and Thundercracker in the glue, and it was sepping into his circuitry! Even worse, Blurr's idea to get out of the glue was to release short wave sonic pulses, which Thundercracker did, causing an explosion. He could have been hurt! Fortunately, he wasn't. Needless to say, Skywarp did not join Thundercracker in pursuing the Autobot. He might have shot back! TransWarped
Toys
Transformers Animated
- Skywarp (Voyager, 2009)
- Accessories: 2 missiles
- A redeco of Voyager-class Starscream, Skywarp transforms into a futuristic, forward-swept wing fighter jet based upon the Su-47 (S-37) Berkut Experimental Fighter and the YF-19 "Alpha One" from the series Macross Plus. This shape allows him to have his faction symbols right-side-up on his wings in robot mode. He features a pair of spring-loaded missile launchers, available in both robot and jet modes.
Trivia
- Skywarp was announced as a toy at BotCon 2008's Hasbro toy panel. The Hasbro presenters were pretty insistent that he was developed as a non-show character, simply a way to re-use the Voyager Starscream mold.
- Later in the weekend during their designers panel, they revealed a "concept colors" illustration to show that they considered the redeco potential of their molds early in the development process. This illustration showed line-art of Animated Starscream in both Skywarp and Thundercracker-inspired colors. This (of course) has led some fans to conclude Thundercracker was in the pipeline... but at no point did Hasbro ever say they were, merely that his deco was among the options they looked at (which isn't exactly a shock).
- Skywarp's given name in the scripts for the episodes in which he appeared was "Coward Starscream." The fact that people now know his name no doubt terrifies him.
- His bio states that he has teleportation powers like his Generation 1 counterpart, but he's definitely not brave enough to push anyone down the stairs. They might get back up!
