Starscream (WFC)


 * Starscream is a Decepticon from Prime continuity family.



Starscream starts out as a neutral Sky Commander, being neither Autobot nor Decepticon. He at some point sides with the Autobots and is charged with defending an orbital spacestation that manufactures Energon and contains Dark Energon by Zeta Prime and Jetfire. After meeting Megatron, he decides to defect and join his insurrection of Decepticons as leader of the aerial forces, plotting to ultimately betray him when the time is right. He is the leader of the Seekers, commanding Thundercracker, Skywarp and Slipstream.

War for Cybertron
For over a thousand years, Starscream was in command of a space station orbiting Cybertron. Alongside Jetfire and his fellow Seekers, Thundercracker and Skywarp, he was tasked with collecting and researching great quantities of Energon. Some time before receiving this post, Starscream was a powerful Sky Commander, but apparently had some sort of fall from grace that reduced him to this menial task.

This station also housed the last known samples of Dark Energon, a dangerous power source known to be uncontrollable and deadly, with the ability to corrupt and destroy anything it comes in contact with. This made it a prime target for Megatron in an attempt to deal a final blow to the Autobot forces. When a small Decepticon task force, lead by Megatron himself, invaded the space station, Starscream warned them that his quest to gain Dark Energon was foolish and would only lead to his own destruction. Naturally, it was at that moment Megatron's long history of not listening to Starscream's opinion began. Despite the station's defense systems, Megatron was eventually able to break through and find the hidden sample of Dark Energon. In a last ditch effort, Starscream attempted to destroy the sample himself, but to no avail. Despite his warnings, Megatron made direct contact with the Dark Energon, and revealed the unprecedented ability to actually control the substance. Starscream was not only stunned, but impressed, and after seeing him use the Dark Energon to destroy the soldiers under his command, offered to join forces with the Decepticons, by giving Megatron the station and telling him he knew how to manufacture more Dark Energon, on the condition that Megatron would teach him to control the dangerous power himself. Jetfire, of course, was not too happy about this.



Starscream immediately set out on his first mission, to reactivate an ancient Energon Bridge, which powered the station to manufacture Dark Energon. His two allies, Thundercracker and Skywarp, joined him in this quest. Almost immediately he made his intention to usurp Megatron known to his two subordinates, neither of which were particularly impressed. The Seekers fought through both defense systems and Autobot forces, destroying an Autobot battleship and eventually the main defense system's controls, and infused the bridge with Dark Energon, setting off a chain reaction that let the evil power source flow freely. Later, Starscream was given command of the frontal assault during the Battle of Iacon, while Megatron and his elite troops engaged in a sabotage mission behind enemy lines. He refused to offer air support to Brawl and his troops, despite their pleas for help. When Megatron was presumed lost during the mission, Starscream immediately assumed command of all Decepticon forces and declared himself their new leader. His unofficial tenure was short lived, as Megatron was soon revealed to be alive, well, and more than a little angry at his shenanigans. Megatron did, however, casually mention that for all his faults, he admired Starscream's unique ambition, and considered it a worthy addition to his Decepticon forces.

Starscream would offer his brief aid to Megatron as he battled the gigantic Omega Supreme, though his efforts were not much of a help, turning Omega's attention on him. When Optimus joined the Battle for Iacon, Starscream eventually faced off against the Autobot's temporary leader in person. Though he was defeated by the future Prime alongside with Bumblebee and Ratchet, he managed to escape, proclaiming that they hadn't seen the last of him.

Prime (Cartoon)
When the Autobot Cliffjumper is out on patrol, he stumbles upon a large Energon cache. Unfortunatly for him, the Decepticon flagship was right above him. After a grueling battle and the destruction of the Energon deposit, Cliffjumper is captured and brought to face Starscream on the Nemesis. Starscream then proceeded to kill Cliffjumper by stabbing him in the chest with his bare hand after he inquired to Megatron's whereabouts. A little later, Soundwave picked up an Energon reading in space, which turned out to be Megatron returning from his journey in space. Starscream proceeded to show him a large energon mine in Nebraska. Megatron revealed the existance of Dark Energon to Starscream, and explained the myth that it could revive the dead. When asked if he would be willing to make the "ultimate sacrifice," Starscream hastily offered his master the broken body of Cliffjumper. When a revived but crazed Cliffjumper started attacking Decepticons, Starscream showed little apprehension toward the project. After Optimus Prime and his team found the Energon mine, Megatron ordered Starscream to destroy the mine in order to prevent the Autobots from seizing the Energon, an order he willingly carried out.

Later, Megatron prepared his large mass of Dark Energon and soon sent it through a space bridge to Cybertron to awake its fallen wariors. However, thanks to the efforts of Optimus Prime and his team, the spacebridge exploded, taking Megatron with it. As a result, Starscream was left in command of the Decepticons.

After assuming command, Starscream decided to reawaken the sleeping warrior Skyquake in order to bolster support from the troops. However, Skyquake refused to obey Starscream and instead chose to follow his true master's final order to him and destroy Optimus Prime. After detecting a Decepticon signal in the debris of the destroyed space bridge, Starscream left Skyquake to his own devices to investigate the energy signal. There he found the barely online Megatron. In an attempt to finish Megatron off Starscream ripped the dark energon shard out of Megatron's spark-chamber. Only the timely arrival of Soundwave's drone kept him from finishing Megatron off completely.

Starscream later summoned Knockout and Breakdown to assist in the repair of Megatron. However, unbeknownst even to Soundwave, Starscream had plucked the Dark Energon shard from his Master's corpse, and intended to keep Megatron in statis and keep the power of the last remaining Dark Energon shard to himself. Later, Knockout, Breakdown, and Soundwave went to a museum to retrieve an Energon Harvester that could remove energon from objects. After acquiring the energon harvester, Starscream used it to take the life of a fellow decepticon, as well as threaten Knockout and Breakdown with it. However, as he was collecting Energon, Bulkhead appeared and managed to stop Starscream by overloading the Energon Harvester.

As Megatron continued to lay in statis, Starscream became anxious of his leader's eventual return, so he struck a deal with Knockout to convince Soundwave that it was the right time to pull the plug on Megatron's life support. Unfortunatly for Starscream, Soundwave noticed a cord that was connected to Megatron's head. The cord was generating the Cordical Phycic Patch between Bumblebee and Megatron that the Autobots were using to find information about a cure for Cybonic Plague after Optimus had accidentally contracted the virus. After tracing the cord, Starscream found Arcee and Bumblebee just as Bee was disconnected from Megatron's mind, unknowingly taking Megatron's mind with him. The Autobots managed to escape, but not before Arcee had the chance to shoot Megatron's central life-support tube. Starscream was actually pleased by this turn of events, and vouched to leave Megatron the way he was. However, at the Soundwave's insistance, he soon had to relent and allow Knockout to reattach Megatron's life-support.

Sometime later, Starscream stole a giant telescope lens to melt away a polar ice cap to get to an unminable energon deposit. However, as usual, his plans were foiled once again by Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead. Enraged, Starscream transformed into jet mode and bore down on Optimus, preparing to kill him while he was still recovering from the explosion of the telescope laser. However, ironically, Megatron suddenly appears, after his mind was returned to his body, and rams Starscream in vehicle mode, saving Optimus' life. Shocked at seeing Megatron alive, Starscream cowers before his newly revived master, and knowing the consequences of his previous treachary, he tries to escape, although to no avail.

Megatron proceeded to beat him to a pulp for his actions in trying to take his life, prompting Starscream to be sent to med bay for a while. However, before he has a chance to fully mend and recover from his beating, Starscream retrieves the original Dark Energon shard that Megatron had first infused to himself. Intending to use it to empower himself, Starscream traveled to the site of the Decepticon warrior Skyquake's demise, and broke the shard in half, infusing half with himself and the other to Skyquake's grave. Again, however, Optimus Prime shows up with Bumblebee and proceeded to blast Starscream's arm off, forcing him to retreat. After a quick disscussion with Knockout about the fate of his severed limb, however, Starscream decides to head back and see if he can still recover Skyquake, along with his lost appendage. Unfortunatly, things don't go very well and Starscream is attacked by one of Skyquake's severed arms, and retreats once again back to base to gain a new arm.

When Breakdown was captured by Silas of M.E.C.H., Starscream asked Megatron if a rescue party should be sent out to save him. Megatron decided to leave Breakdown to his fate, as any Decepticon that could be captured by humans was considered weak to him. Starscream, however, secretly led a team of Eradicons to Silas's base, arriving in time to save Breakdown and Bulkhead (who had gone there to save his old rival) from Silas's forces. After learning that Bulkhead had freed Breakdown, Starscream thanked him, then immediately told Breakdown to kill him. After a brief skirmish, Starscream and Breakdown fled when the rest of the Autobots arrived. As they escaped, Starscream told Breakdown to remember his rescue when it came time to choose between him and Megatron.

Megatron brought Starscream along to a deserted Energon mine. Starscream claimed that the mine was completely empty of Energon and otherwise, but is quickly proven wrong when Megatron discovers leftover mining equipment and unmined Energon in the walls. Exposed, Megatron determines that he has no more need for Starscream, and that his endless bouts of failed attempts to usurp power from him were beginning to become tiresome. Having made up his mind, Megatron prepares to fire at Starscream and exterminate him, all the while oblivious to Starscream's pleas for mercy. Surprisingly, however, the appearance of Autobots this time seemed to have saved Starscream from his certain demise. Just as Megatron was going to fire, he spots Arcee and Jack, and proceeds to open fire on them instead. Taking advantage of the situation, Starscream makes a break for the mine entrance, intending to escape from Megatron. This action further enrages Megatron, and he proceeds to fire into the tunnel after Starscream. However, even after transforming and flying through to freedom, Megatron's shots were still surprisingly accurate and ended up bringing the entire mine down on Autobot, Decepticon, and human alike. Ironically, even though Starscream was the only one intended to meet his end in the mines, he is later the first to dig himself out. After a brief bout of gloating and congratulating himself on finally destroying Megatron, he comes to terms with the fact that his leader has indeed survived much worse. Reasoning that abandoning his master would only lead to greater peril, Starscream decides to go back into the mine and "rescue" his so-called master. Oddly enough, as he made his way back into the mines in search of Megatron, he stumbles upon Bulkhead and Miko, trapped by rubble. Bulkhead was immobilized, but he still managed to deliver a resounding kick to Starscream's face as he tried to take Miko. This was all the time Jack and Arcee needed to show up and apprehend Starscream. Prehaps in a show of mercy, Arcee and Bulkhead don't kill Starscream, but merely have him take Bulkhead's place in holding up a moutain of rubble. Expectantly, Starscream's sheer physical strength is no match for Bulkhead's, so it takes a great toll on him to hold up all the rocks. Eventually Megatron appears, having dug himself free of his stone prison. As Starscream spots him, he pleads extravagantly for mercy and help, but Megatron's only reply was a sinister scowl.

Its later revealed that Megatron did indeed show Starscream mercy and save him from the mine, and in doing so he pratically crushed all of Starscream's ambitions to become the Decepticon leader. He acknowledged all the mistakes he made in the past, and has apparently made peace with the fact that he'll never become a true leader and overthrow Megatron.

Through the Decepticon Airachnid, Megatron finds out of the existence of a crashed Decepticon ship that contained a powerful prototype weapon. Starscream failed to report the ship's location and never found the weapon in question, so Megatron sent him along with Airacnid to locate the ancient ship and its cargo. Upon reaching the crash site, Airacnid was unable to locate the cargo hold in which the weapon was presumably being held. Starscream took this chance to gloat about his prior knowledge of the ship, and that it was shot into two pieces upon entering the Earth's atmosphere. However, this proved to be his undoing as in a fit of rage, Airacnid bound Starscream with her webbing and pried the location of the rest of the ship from him. As she made her escape, the Autobots, led by Optimus, showed up and took custody of Starscream after Aracnid abandoned him. Realizing that he was a prisoner, Starscream desperately requested to defect to the Autobots. Upon following Starscream's directions to the location of the other half of the Decepticon ship, the prisoner was left with Arcee while the others went after Aracnid. Arcee and Starscream soon learned they could agree on one thing; they both hated the spiderbot. When Arcee mentioned how Aracnid had terminated her partner, Starscream (believing that Aracnid was taking credit for what he had done) let it slip that he was the one who killed Cliffjumper, much to Arcee's rage. Starscream attempted to talk himself out of the mess, saying he was only trying to help Cliffjumper, but Arcee wouldn't hear of it. She gave him the key to the binders that held his wrists but he refused, saying that he'd changed. Arcee, disgusted at Starscream's cowardly pleading lowered her guard, allowing Starscream to make a sneak attack at her side and draw energon. After Starscream removed his wrist binders he began to fight with Arcee. At first, it seemed Starscream was winning, but Arcee struck back. Just as she was about to finish Starscream off, she saw Bumblebee standing on the hill and let Starscream go, who hobbled away. Unable to return to the Decepticons due to defecting and the Autobots would not want him, Starscream decreed he served no one and flew off on his own.

Trivia

 * Unlike the majority of his other counterparts, War for Cybertron Starscream is never given the position of second-in-command of the Decepticons, Shockwave always holding this title and Soundwave apparently standing in for Shockwave during the campaign. This, of course, does not stop Starscream from sticking close by Megatron most of the time and attempting to usurp leadership. It is possible that the sequel to WFC will depict the Autobots and Decepticons arriving on earth and Megatron giving Starscream acting secondary command while Shockwave stays on Cybertron, as has happened before; however, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.


 * Starscream's (and the other Seekers') alt mode appears to be an homage to his various forms throughout continuities. The basic triangular shape resembles his "Tetrajet" Cybertronian mode from "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1", while the cockpit and nosecone look like his classic F-15 Earth mode, and the swept-forward wings that pop out when he boosts are similar to his Transformers Animated counterpart.


 * His face design, with more detailed but blocky features, is very similar to his later design in IDW comics.


 * Megatron's explanation as to why he tolerates Starscream has been long-awaited by many fans, though a similar explanation also appeared in IDW's All Hail Megatron.


 * In the episode Darkness Rising Part 5 Starscream makes a very out of character remark (for a Starscream) to Megatron when he urges Megatron to flee the explosion of the space bridge, an event that would surely kill him. Most other Starscreams have been seen to encourage their Megatrons to engage in life threateneing activities.


 * Unlike most of his other counterparts, this Starscream shows concern for some of his troops and is willing to rescue a fellow Decepticon in danger. In "Operation: Breakdown", Breakdown is captured by humans and is partially dissected. Starscream pleads for Megatron to rescue him but Megatron doesn't approve it. Later Starscream goes against Megatron's orders and rescues him anyway.


 * He has similar traits of being a leader with Optimus Prime, such as planning discipline for those who engage in racing for enthusiasm. Though unlike Optimus and even Megatron, Starscream's most fun activity is punishing.


 * He has high heels... Really?!


 * It seems that Megatron enjoys seeing Starscream mess up a plan to get rid of him. Up until lately. And if he gets kidnapped by Autobots, Megatron will not be pleased realizing that the Autobots will possibly try to extract information from him about the Decepticons. Though fortunately for Megs, the only info Scream said to the Autobots was that he's a big douchebag to him.