Starscream (Animated)
| The name or term "Starscream" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Starscream (disambiguation). |
- Starscream is a Decepticon from the Transformers Animated continuity family.
Starscream is easily as accomplished, powerful and deserving of leadership as Megatron. At least, that's what he thinks. Power-hungry and driven by jealousy, Starscream operates through three ideals: lying, manipulation and deception. And when all else fails, a bit of sabotage never goes astray. Wise bots are careful about turning their backs on Starscream, just in case it's the day he finally decides to shove in the knife.
Though not as powerful as Megatron (despite what he thinks of himself), Starscream is by no means a wimp. His weapons can demolish large buildings, and he can fly around so fast that he can break free of Ratchet's magnetic powers. Unfortunately, all these abilities are offset by an enormous ego and the tendency to make long, overbearing speeches when he should just get on with it and fight. More than once, his leanings towards bombast have caused him to miss a golden opportunity. Sadly, he doesn't seem to be learning from these mistakes.
| “ | Don't worry. I'll tell them all you went offline valiantly... just after you named me as your successor! | ” |
—Starscream to a bound Megatron, "A Bridge Too Close, Part II" | ||
Fiction
Animated cartoon
- Voice actor: Tom Kenny (English), Stefan Staudinger (German), Krzysztof Korzeniowski (Polish) Daniele Demma (Italian)
Starscream was aboard the Nemesis when it came across an Autobot repair ship that appeared to be emitting the energy signature of the fabled AllSpark. Starscream's doubt of the AllSpark's very existence and his dismissal of Megatron's millennia-long search did not sit well with Lugnut, and an argument broke out on the bridge until Megatron himself arrived and all fell silent. Starscream was forced to eat his words when Blackarachnia confirmed that the energy coming off the ship was indeed that of the AllSpark, but quickly volunteered to secure it for his leader. Seeing through his lieutenant's greed, Megatron put a dent in Starscream's wing and rose to obtain it for himself. As he was leaving, however, Starscream arrived at the airlock to wish Megatron luck and patted him on the back—planting an overload device on him in the process. As Megatron attacked the Autobot ship, the device overloaded his circuits and caused an explosion that led Starscream to believe that Megatron was no more. In the aftermath of the blast, Starscream got so caught up in his own greatness that he didn't notice that his comrades had left him on the ship, hurtling towards an exploding space bridge.
Surviving the explosion, Starscream spent the next fifty solar cycles searching for the AllSpark on his own, using the damaged ship as a base (and probably getting a few screws loose in his central processor in the meantime). Detecting the faint signal of the AllSpark on Earth, Starscream tapped into television broadcasts from the planet and discovered that the Autobot ship had landed there. While heading for the planet, Starscream was approached by Blackarachnia, who was also seeking the AllSpark for her own purposes and proposed an alliance. Starscream was unsurprisingly unwilling to share power, and he booted Blackarachnia out into space just before the ship warped away. Starscream was so occupied by the task, however, that he failed to notice Earth's moon appearing in the ship's path. Dispatches
One crash-landing later, Starscream abandoned the ruined hulk of the ship and headed down to Earth, immediately drawing the attention of military jets. After a brief dogfight, Starscream scanned one of the jets as an alternate mode in order to continuing searching incognito. The search did not go on long, as Starscream found the Autobots watching a Crimson Angels air show, and he quickly joined in the proceedings. Upon revealing himself to the Autobots, he quickly thrashed each of them individually. Starscream mocked them, apparently assuming that the Autobots thought they had really defeated Megatron (whom he referred to as "the great Megatron" without sarcasm, so he seems to have at least a loathing respect for his leader's power). All too boastful of his cunning, Starscream boldly admitted that Megatron was already defeated by the bomb which Starscream himself had put on him. Despite being more powerful than the Autobots, Starscream failed to take the AllSpark, partially because he spent too much time gloating. Optimus Prime grabbed Starscream in midair, and they opened the AllSpark, releasing a massive wave of energy. Optimus was killed by the energy surge and subsequent fall (he got better), while Starscream disappeared. Transform and Roll Out
Starscream was hurled into the wilderness by the AllSpark energy surge, where he lay, unconscious and undisturbed, for an unspecified period of time. Eventually, Starscream came back online, only to discover that his body had succumbed to stasis lock, leaving him immobile. As "luck" would have it, it was at this moment that he was happened upon by the villainous Professor Princess, whom Starscream attempted to sweet-talk into triggering his manual reset. She was insistent upon "fixing up" Starscream first, plastering him with makeup and a wig, but when the horrified Starscream screamed at her, she just decided to blast him. Her rainbow-blast jumpstarted Starscream's systems, and he seized the Professor, but before he could reduce her to a pink stain, she threatened to broadcast an image of the prettified Starscream all over the world and perhaps the galaxy. Preferring not to be hideously embarrassed, Starscream let her live and quickly departed, unaware that she'd worked her fashion magic on his wings, too. Whatever Happened To Whatisname?
Starscream laid low on Earth, until he revealed himself to a badly damaged Blitzwing and Lugnut, offering them help in exchange for their loyalty. Lost and Found After repairing the duo, Starscream continually had to reassert his authority over the two walking malfunctions, who were quick to point out that their service was by threat, not choice. As Lugnut went prostrate with praise, Starscream was initially quite flattered by the hulking Decepticon's obsequity, but quickly learned that the big guy was being manipulated by an outside source. Tracking the transmission, he came to Sumdac Tower and was quite surprised to find the disembodied head of his former leader. Megatron, aware of Starscream's betrayal after seeing a news report on his earlier battle with the Autobots Home Is Where the Spark Is but not wanting to tip his hand, greeted Starscream as a "devoted and faithful subject", while Starscream adopted a subservient attitude himself. Beginning the smug monologue to end all smug monologues, he was interrupted by the senseless heroics of the Autobot Bumblebee. Focusing his attentions on the yellow little squirt, he mistakenly assumed that Megatron was helpless, an oversight that allowed the galactic despot to control the lab's machinery and defenestrate the traitor. Even so Starscream remained fixated on Bumblebee, and thus was caught unaware when the repaired form of Megatron burst from the tower roof. Megatron Rising - Part 1
Starscream watched with interest, tossing Bumblebee around absentmindedly as Megatron trashed the Autobots. When Megatron called out his loyal Decepticons, Starscream gracefully landed on Lugnut's head, ready to return to his position as second-in-command. Megatron prepared to fire on the Autobots, but quickly lashed out and rammed the AllSpark Key into Starscream's chest, seemingly offlining the traitor, who then crumpled to the ground. Megatron Rising - Part 2
Sometime later, Starscream awoke on a garbage barge, evidently thrown in by an Autobot cleaning up Detroit. He found he couldn't detect any Decepticons, not even himself. Panicking, he wondered if he was dead, but recovered when he realized he was still on Earth. Furious, he managed to track down Lugnut and Blitzwing and to follow them to the Decepticon base. There he challenged Megatron and was soundly sliced, blasted and thrown off a cliff. However, he again revived, except now he had no spark! Starscream discovered he was being kept alive by an AllSpark fragment embedded in his head. Using this newfound immortality to his advantage, he again attacked Megatron... and again and again and again, each time taking a trouncing and having his corpse thrown off a cliff by Blitzwing and Lugnut. Discovering another fragment, he set up a trap that would draw Megatron out and blow up both him and the city. He embedded the shard in a train engine, and as the overloading machine drew out Megatron, Blitzwing, the Elite Guard AND the Earth team, the plan seemed to be working. Unfortunately, the Autobots stopped the train, and Megatron knocked Starscream out of the sky, sending him crashing into the midst of the Autobots. He blasted Ultra Magnus and took back his fragment, but was put into stasis lock when Optimus slipped some cuffs on him. He was last seen bound, gagged and being taken onto the Elite Guard vessel. Mission Accomplished
While in transit on said vessel, Starscream somehow blasted his way out, once again vowing revenge against Megatron. Magnus sent word to Optimus Prime, warning him that Starscream was most likely on his way back to Earth. Megatron, eavesdropping on the conversation, offered a substantial reward for bringing Starscream to him.
To this end, Prowl ran off by himself to the resting place of the Nemesis on the Moon, where he ran right into Starscream. Despite getting in behind Prowl, Starscream was rather easily disabled and put in stasis cuffs. While Lockdown and Prowl battled, Starscream somehow managed to escape.
Lockdown and Prowl agreed to team up, and they tracked down an apparently very scared Starscream, who was captured easily. While Lockdown brought him to Megatron, another Starscream turned up. This Starscream tried to deal with the Autobots, suggesting they team up to deal with their common enemy, Megatron. Prowl disabled him with ease, despite making a total mess.
Shortly after Lockdown delivered "Starscream" into the hands of Megatron, the Autobots showed with the other Starscream. Confusion ensued, and suddenly both Starscreams exposed internal bombs, and a recording of the real Starscream revealed that his entire plan was to allow the clones of himself to be captured and take out all his enemies in one fell swoop. In his infinite wisdom, however, he apparently programmed the bombs to explode long after everyone had realized what had happened. Prowl sent the clones into the sky, where they exploded without destroying the city.
Afterwards, Megatron increased the bounty on Starscream, this time stipulating that it had to be the real one. Watching, Starscream cursed Megatron (again) and dismissed his failure, noting he had plenty more clones—an army of them. A Fistful of Energon
His time alone allowed him to produce five clones of himself, which he empowered with small slivers of the AllSpark fragment in his head, giving them life. He quickly learned that each of the Starscreams was a different aspect of his personality: cowardice, ego, sycophancy, deception, and...something else. He asked the female version of him where she came from, and she said not to ask. Once introductions were done, he ordered them on their merry way to Megatron's base. A Bridge Too Close, Part I
Upon reaching the base, the clone army attacked, leading to a free-for-all against Megatron's forces and the Autobots who'd assembled to stop the Decepticon leader's plan. During the fight, Starscream became fed up with his female clone telling him how to handle Megatron, as he'd been working on killing him long before she existed. She was unimpressed with his results to date. Eventually, his team overwhelmed Megatron, allowing two of the clones to subdue him while Starscream prepared to deal the killing blow. Starscream relished the moment, wryly assuring Megatron that he'd tell everyone that he died fighting valiantly—after naming Starscream as his successor. Abruptly, Starscream got head-jacked by Isaac Sumdac in a Headmaster unit.
Starscream's inert body fell on top of his head, which put him out of action. Panicking, he told his clones to attack, but was outraged when they all sided with Megatron instead. Starscream's head was then glued to one of the walls by Mixmaster's concrete. When he tried to mock Megatron's plan for the conquest of Cybertron, he had his mouth closed by more concrete. Poor Screamer.
When Megatron's newly activated Space bridge ran out of power to maintain the portal to Cybertron, Megatron replaced the AllSpark fragment with Starscream's head, which overloaded the power systems. This caused the portal to expand and attempt to suck everything around it into itself. This included Starscream's head and Megatron, the latter of whom was disabled by Autobot stasis cuffs, which prevented him from resisting the space bridge's pull. The overload also caused the space bridge receiving coordinates to be deleted, dumping the pair into empty space. Without a body to manoeuvre, Starscream was forced to look at Megatron, while Megatron, still disabled by the stasis cuffs, suffered a similar problem. A long night of bickering commenced. A Bridge Too Close, Part II
Somehow, Starscream managed to manoeuvre his head to begin trying to free Megatron from his stasis cuffs, either by gnawing on them or by picking them with a fragment of asteroid in his mouth. Megatron berated Starscream for his incompetence, whereupon the indignant Decepticon pointed out that this would be much easier if Megatron had reattached his head to his body back on Earth, and that they wouldn't even be here if Megatron hadn't overloaded the Space Bridge. Fuelled with anger, Starscream screamed that this was all Megatron's fault, during which the fragment in his head lit up... and Starscream's face suddenly unfolded into a sonic blaster that smashed Megatron's cuffs.
This was evidently not something from Starscream's original design plans, as he could be heard asking where that had come from once it had fired. Megatron didn't care, though; all that mattered was that he was free now. Starscream was petrified when Omega Supreme chose that moment to float into view, trying to denounce Megatron in order to save his own hide. Fortunately for them both, Omega Supreme was currently offline, giving Megatron an idea. Though Starscream nearly gave the plan away when he was brought inside the awoken giant, Megatron succeeded in installing Starscream's head into the computer to be used as a combination of power source and control mechanism.
Megatron used Omega Supreme to attack the Autobots on Earth, and during the battle, Prowl infiltrated Omega, accessed his internal processor, and helped him fight off Megatron's control... only for Starscream to take over instead. He continued fighting the Autobots until Megatron suggested that they just go conquer Cybertron instead. Starscream agreed that it was a good idea, but failed to make Omega transwarp as the giant's old friend Ratchet swayed his control. Eventually overpowering Omega's mind, Starscream tried flying into space, only for Optimus Prime to plant a plasmadynamic thruster on his new body, causing it to start warping around randomly in outer space. Transwarped
At some point during Starscream and Megatron's warping adventures, Starscream stopped controlling Omega Supreme's body, again reduced to a sarcastic head. After one of the warp jumps, Lugnut suddenly smacked into their windshield and joined their merry group. Decepticon Air Removing the plasmadynamic thruster, they traveled into Cybertron airspace, even though Omega Supreme was offline and drained of energy. Starscream advocated that they abandon the hulk before the Autobots picked them off in their helpless state, but Megatron disagreed. After the Decepticon agent Shockwave obtained Omega's activation codes, they picked him up and transwarped back to Earth's moon, where Starscream noted Lugnut's anger at Megatron complimenting Shockwave. This Is Why I Hate Machines
Goading Lugnut into fighting Shockwave, Starscream used the distraction to roll himself back to his old headquarters, the wrecked Nemesis, where he used a protoform and one of his many clone bodies to get himself back to 100%. Megatron subsequently destroyed the rest of the lifeless clone bodies, before explaining to Starscream his ultimate plan—creating Decepticon clones of Omega Supreme. When the time came for these clones to imprint upon a leader, Starscream went for a power grab yet again, knocking Megatron down and taking his place. However, he was in turn tackled by the eternally loyal Lugnut, who ended up becoming the template of the three "Lugnut Supremes". As Megatron explained that this had been his plan all along, Starscream retorted that the giants would just be lifeless shells without his AllSpark fragment.
Unfortunately for him, Megatron had found three other fragments in Omega Supreme's spark chamber, and so and deemed Starscream useless before blasting his lower body to smithereens with a fusion cannon shot and leaving him on the surface of the Moon. Endgame, Part I
But this did not destroy the tenacious traitor, and he painstakingly reattached himself to a reassembled lower torso before transforming and flying to Earth. There, he was distracted from his goal of taking revenge on Megatron by a sudden severe pain in his head, which pulled him to Sumdac Towers, where he found Jazz and Prowl using their Processor-Over-Matter skills to reassemble AllSpark fragments. Realising what a threat this posed to him, he opened fire on them in an effort to distract them, but failed. His fragment was torn from his head, and Starscream, his sparkless body no longer fueled by the AllSpark, fell from the air, finally dead.
He did leave behind a nasty post-mortem surprise, however: Upon the disconnection of Lugnut from the Lugnut Supremes, a hidden program kicked in, a message from Starscream revealing that each of the Omega clones had been secretly outfitted with a nasty set of concealed explosives, now primed and ready to detonate. Unfortunately for Starscream, his revenge would not come to be. Not only did Omega Supreme destroy one clone while deactivating its explosive, the other was encased in an AllSpark-powered force field and failed to destroy anything...not even Megatron, who took the full force of the blast (albeit he was heavily damaged). Endgame, Part II
Titan Magazines
they're not singing
they're not singing any morrrre!"
Megatron kept uncovering Starscream's hide-outs, so Starscream took his clone army and seized control of the Autobots' own base, reasoning the Decepticons would never look for him there. His plan was undone by the Dinobots. Dino-MIGHT!
He later acted as the backer for the supervillain Crossroads, giving him a sliver of Megatron (no, it wasn't explained how he got it) that completed the man's robot-controlling gauntlets. Starscream didn't care that Crossroads was going to hurt robots, as long as he made sure to turn the city against the Autobots. Boo, hiss! Crossroads!
Later still, he appeared out of nowhere to hack into the Wraith-X stealth bomber and send it off to bomb Detroit to bits, seemingly just for shits and giggles. Divebomb It turned out he'd been let back into the Decepticons for... some reason, joining their massed attack on the Autobot base. Of course, he used that as a way to ensure Megatron had an "accident", and then "saved him"; as a result, Megatron become stupid and believed he could be trusted with temporary command of the Decepticons... Megatron's Revenge
Toys
Animated
- Starscream (Voyager, 2008)
- Accessories: 2 missiles
- Starscream transforms into a futuristic, forward-swept wing jet fighter based upon the Su-47 (S-37) Berkut Experimental Fighter and the YF-19 "Alpha One" from the series Macross Plus.
- His twin "sonic shock blaster" spring-loaded missile launchers can slide forward, opening panels on his forearms (referred to as blasters on the packaging). Landing gear in his vehicle mode flip down from his undercarriage, and his blasters flip forward or back for a "hidden" attack. He also features two automorph gimmicks. When his nose cone is pushed in, his undercarriage folds into his hips. Folding his shoulders down also pushes up his head. Though not really an "automorph", with the arms and legs out of the way, his spring loaded wings fold down by themselves. His arms are also just poseable enough to stroke that enormous chin.
- His missiles have tiny shark faces molded into them.
- As with past incarnations, Starscream was redecoed as Animated Skywarp and redecoed again as Animated Sunstorm.
- Starscream (Activators, 2008)
- A smaller, simpler version of Starscream, the Activators Starscream toy has a spring-loaded autotransform gimmick that springs him from Harrier jet mode to robot mode in one easy step, although robot to Harrier jet mode is still that good old manual click-it-up yourself transformation, giving you the best of both worlds.
- Activators Starscream greatly resembles Voyager Starscream, especially when compared to several other Activators and their respective larger toys, with the only discernible difference between Activators and Voyager Starscream is that Activator Starscream's wings sit lower on his back. Most notably, this toy possesses more show-accurate weapons than its Voyager counterpart, due to the lack of a launching mechanism.
- This mold was also used to make Animated Thundercracker and Dirge.
- Starscream (McDonald's Happy Meal Toy, 2008)
- A simple version of Starscream with a very simple transformation sequence. A tad unique among the McDonald's Animated toys, he has given up a toy accurate vehicle mode for a toy accurate robot mode. You transform him by splitting the front of the jet to form the legs, snapping up the feet, lowering the rear wings and rotating his head. His robot mode, save for the fact the wings are pointing the wrong direction and that he is missing his guns, is decently show-accurate, but his vehicle mode totally sucks. Plain and simple.
- Rescue Ratchet (Animated 3-pack, 2008)
- A Universe Legends-class Starscream came packaged with this Target-exclusive version of Ratchet, as well as a Legends Prowl.
Universe (2008)
- Starscream (Legends, 2008)
- Legends-class Starscream transforms surprisingly similarly to his larger counterparts. He is notable for being the only version of the character to have his weapons mounted correctly on his upper arms, rather than his lower arms (though this is largely because he completely lacks elbows). However, as with his past versions, he is again not gray, but apparently a shade of blue.
- This toy can also be found as part of the Animated Rescue Ratchet three-pack with Legends Prowl, but with a more purple deco.
Notes
- In a podcasted audio interview, Marty Isenberg revealed that he originally wanted to play Starscream's name ironically — he wanted the character to have a quiet, whispery tone, as he really didn't like the screechy voice of the original Starscream (though, at the same time, he pointed out that he has nothing against his actor). Derrick J. Wyatt argued against this idea, and Tom Kenny's reading finally won Marty over.
- Though he never truly took out Megatron, this Starscream may be the most successful to bear the name to date.
- There is some confusion as to precisely what weapons Starscream has. According to the Decepticon character descriptions sent out in the initial Cartoon Network press release for Transformers Animated, Starscream "can affect a sonic scream and produce powerful blasts of sound that can send enemies spinning through the atmosphere". His toy packaging declares that he has "twin sonic shock blasters" rather than the null-rays of his Generation 1 counterpart, while a bio on the Hasbro website declares that Animated Starscream does have null-rays... while otherwise being a direct copy of the press release text, which doesn't mention them anywhere. What is unquestionably Starscream's "sonic scream" appears in the third season episode "TransWarped", apparently a modification created by the AllSpark fragment in his head. Similarly, in the same episode, Blurr tells Skywarp and Thundercracker to use alternating sonic pulses to destabilise the concrete the trio are trapped in. This could point to Starscream's arm-mounted cannons being sonic shock blasters, as he was addressing Skywarp, but also could be a reference to Generation 1 Thundercracker and his ability to create sonic booms.
- Several times in the series, Starscream's alt-mode is called a "harrier jet". In the real world, this term actually refers to just one specific jet type--the British-designed V/STOL-capable Harrier Jump Jet--which very clearly is not Starscream's altmode. Then again, the series is set about 100 years in the future, so perhaps the jet designs or terminology could have changed.
