When he's pants on head moronic with how blatant his backstabbing is it makes you wonder how the hell he got above the position of toilet scrubber.
When Starscream is more neutral/anti-heroic and his backstabbing is due to abuse, not obsession, it makes him a more useable and interesting character.
No, I'd rather Starscream fujos never be pandered to, ever, not even unintentionally.
Why is Streamscream such a fujo magnet? What makes him so much more appealing to put in gay situations over like Ironhide or Ratchet?
In all ways except physical, Starscream is a woman.
Too late anon, fujos turn moronic even if the Starscream they like is the worst piece of shit imaginable. See Cyberverse Starscream and the fujo writing him somehow wanting THAT Starscream to get a redemption arc.
While I enjoyed that version of Starscream as a separate character who just happened to have the same name, in any setting based on G1, I'd prefer Starscream to just be a backstabbing evil usurper motivated by lust for power, and if we want to have a reasonable and not particularly evil Decepticon who tries changing sides, do it with another character. I'm kind of OK with that being Thundercracker's thing, so long as it doesn't always get taken as far as IDW1 took it.
Starscream needs SOME reason to be in his position of second in command though. If he's cartoonishly obsessed with backstabbing megatron, it makes zero sense for him to be even above a grunt, let alone the second in command to megs.
this gets even worse when they also make him cartoonishly incompetent in addition to him being a backstabber (Like in fall of cybertron or most moder iterations of transformers). If he's at least an incredibly potent fighter or cunning/effective individual you can at least make the argument "He's a backstabber, but he's DAMNED GOOD at what he does, so Megs keeps him around for that". But if he's just a bumbling idiot who's more incompetent than decepticons with the rank of grunt, there's literally no reason for his existence.
This has lead to recent cartoons having him get kicked out of the decepticons almost from the start (Like in animated, where he's incredibly forthright in his backstabbing, and outside of having the advantage of flight was likewas pretty incompetent), which begs the question of "Why?"
If you want a backstabber, but they get kicked out of the group from the start, how can they BE a backstabber? They're incapable of fulfilling that role anymore. Tarantulas compared to Terrorsaur is a good contrast here: Terrorsaur was meant to be your idiotic, incompetent and blatant backstabber to stand in for starscream. There was no reason for him to be kept around since he was both moronic AND a betrayer. Tarantulas on the other hand was a betrayer, but he was DAMNED GOOD at what he did and very cunning about his betrayals, so there was a very good reason for his continued existence.
starscream needs to be more stable to work IMO.
For as much hate as the story gets, I think IDW1's All Hail Megatron had the best take on it, that he's basically Megatron's hand-picked successor, an accomplished officer and squad leader, the guy he's trying to mold into the next leader, but he's just too damn eager, power-hungry and uppity to learn the job and wait his turn.
>Starscream needs SOME reason to be in his position of second in command though.
The fujo explanation for this is that hes literally sucking Megatrons robotic wiener.
Dammit Hitler, why didn't you round up all the fujos instead of the israelites?
I'm not a fujo but even i go with this theory. Let's be fricking honest, you don't keep a pos at second unless they offer something. And judging how corporate seems to operate for my job..I can believe it.
I think it depends on which series you watch, but I would say that most modern depictions of Starscream portray him more as a competent type who might not be the overtly strongest individual in the decepticons makes up for it with his intelligence + cunning.
Of course if you're looking for outright strength, than Starscream at his peak would be his portrayal in the Cybertron show. Where he becomes a psudeo-god;
That said you mentioned Animated but I feel like that you forget that Starscream was actually more subtle about his backstabbing in animated. It wasn't until Megatron had killed him and thus was aware of his treachery did Starscream start being more overt in his attempts to kill him (which even then was for 1 episode, after which he goes back to being more passive in his plans).
You can at least argue that Terrorsaur was only kept around because Megatron had so few troops at the time and couldn't afford giving the Maximals a number advantage especially when he knew Tarantulas was running his own agenda.
Doesn't that get tiresome. Armada was like a breath of fresh air in that respect.
Armada's an entirely separate version of Transformers that happens to re-use character names. I'm more open to things being drastically different in that kind of situation, but if you're doing a version of G1, I want the characters to be as they were in G1. Right down to the guys who only had a few lines in the final episodes being written the same because you could get enough of a sense of what their personality was.
>Armada's an entirely separate version of Transformers that happens to re-use character names
That's literally every reboot of transformers anon.
The thing is Armada was the first TV series with starscream as a regular in 15 years. The comic had starscream too but his storyline in the G1 comic ended in 88 or so, and G2 was jsut 12 issues. Dreamwave had just started. Sure, Starscream is his usual form in his BW appearance, but it anything Armada and Energon were curveballs.
See, here's the problem. Armada Starscream was every bit a backstabber and every bit wanting to control the Decepticons, and he successfully backstabbed the Autobots after conning them for several episodes in one of their biggest defeats, it's just the only reason he did all of that was because he genuinely believes Megatron is a frickup and that he would be better suited to lead the Decepticons because he sees himself as a better soldier and leader, and the only reason he backstabbed the Autobots was because he believed it was for the best in general and would allow him to climb back up and take control of his life. And, ultimately, he discovers a truth about the world and is forced to give up his life for the good of all, not just himself, coming full circle from selfish singleminded need for power at the start to someone who is willing to fight to the end for a future he'll never see.
Sound good? It really was... when Dinobot did it. But what part of that sounds like STARSCREAM? They were so desperate for another sword wielding side turning noble warrior because they wanted to catch lightning in a bottle twice. It worked when it was a brand new character, why try and fit a square peg into a round hole?
> it makes you wonder how the hell he got above the position of toilet scrubber.
Two fun theories about this.
1) Megatron knows Starscream's spark is immortal, and wants to keep him in his sights as much as possible, so promotes him to the position of 2nd in command.
2) Starscream is incredibly competent off-screen, and between the panels.
>2) Starscream is incredibly competent off-screen, and between the panels.
I like the idea of Starscream being a ultra-efficient bureaucratclerk, single-handedly keeping the Decepticons running with supplies and whatelse as a hobby
Megs keeps him close so he doesn't notice he could take over the Decvepticon in a week without moving from the lounge just by tweaking numbers
The crazy thing is, in practice, Starscream isn't even megatron's second in command: Soundwave is. Literally in every way EXCEPT name soundwave functions as the second in command, to the point he even seemingly overrules starscream on shit when he steps out of line.
Soundwave is a good loyal second in command, but doesn't usually seem to have the drive, ambition or vision to be a leader, the only times he ever ascends to leading are in the British Marvel comics when he acts as interim leader when Megatron and Shockwave are both MIA, and again in a future timeline when every other potential leader was dead or missing.
Eternal reminder that the Japanese crew shipped them.
Not enough for the two to have a meaningful interaction in Energon.
I don't remember where I've read it, but Megatron's explanation for keepink Starscream close by, was that it helped him stay on his toes and prepared for everything, so that he won't be blindsided by some unseen event.
He claims that if the day comes that Starscream manages to overthrow him, it means he (Megatron) really lost his ability to lead Decepticons.
Yes