^—- This.Allow me to roughly outline Starscream’s “treacherous” relationship with Megatron.
The Timeline:
Approximately 3 years before TFP – Darkness Rising: Starscream successfully runs the Nemesis, gathering huge stockpiles of Energon, commanding the army, staying under the radar, exactly as Megatron ordered him to. At any point in this timespan, he could have sashayed off of Earth and done his own thing, but here he is, Commander Starscream, kicking ass at the job he was given.
Darkness Rising: Megatron returns filled with space cocaine and crazy. Starscream greets his master, presents him with his accomplishments… and is asked to offer up his life to become an experimental Terrorcon. Um. Yeah. Whoa nelly, that be some crazy treachery there, not wanting to become a Terrorcon.
Starscream then disobeys Megatron’s orders, which probably would be treacherous if it wasn’t for the fact that Megatron’s plan was to create space cocaine fueled robot zombies that attacked anyone, ‘con or not, that was not him. Shame on Starscream for not wanting to go that route, right? Shame, shame, shame on him for not wanting the space cocaine plan.
Starscream tries to work a non-crack plan by capturing Fowler and trying to get info out of him. This plan fails. Instead of civilly reprimanding him for a failed plan, Megatron backhands him across the command deck for daring the question the space-crack plan.
Further along in DR, Megatron is continuing with Space Crack Plan Alpha One: bringing space zombies through the gate post-crack-infusion. Plan fails due to Autobot kickassery. Megatron goes puts himself in the suicidal position. Starscream… what, betrays him by not putting the ship into the blast zone? Yeah, wow. Such treachery, not wanting to be incinerated by an exploding space bridge. He even tells Megatron to flee, but Crackatron doesn’t have the neurons to figure that shit out.
Masters and Students – Out of his Head: Starscream tries to rule the Decepticons. Because, you know, their “leader” is essentially in a coma and more useful as a paperweight than as a leader? Starscream is second-in-command. It is part of his job to assume leadership should Megatron pass away or become otherwise indisposed.
As far as not trying to wake Megatron up: for pity’s sake, why would he? Megatron treated him like garbage after his return, plus came back not with an army, but a crazy space cocaine zombie plot. Megatron was not a good leader for the ‘cons anymore. He was a good leader for his own creepy, obsessive vendetta against Optimus, but not for the ‘cons. Starscream actually had plans that were doable. Starscream actually kept logistics in mind. Starscream was horrible under pressure, but that pressure likely wouldn’t have existed if Megatron wasn’t a colossal spacedick and if Starscream had had the support he’d needed.
And, honestly, trying to wake up the unwakeable was a waste of military resources. They were fighting a drawn out, difficult war. They couldn’t afford to waste time and energy on pampering Megatron’s essential corpse. Remember, everyone: the only reason he woke up is because of Bumblebee’s meddling. If the Autobots hadn’t done what they did, it’s unlikely Megatron ever would have woken up. He would have happily spent eternity prancing through his Optimus-defeating fantasies like the immature teenager he was.
Starscream was under no obligation to halt the war so that Megatron could be gently coaxed from his creepyass wet dream.
Starscream may have been ambitious, but he was not treacherous. I’d bet money that, if Megatron had actually given him recognition instead of slapping him about when he didn’t bow to the might of Space Cocaine Zombie Time, that ambition would have been fulfilled, and Megatron would have had a satisfied SIC.
Shadowzone – Rock Bottom: Starscream spends these episodes trying to regain what he felt was rightfully his. He’d taken the ‘con leadership role fair and square, after being tossed aside by his drug-obsessed boss. This, compounded by the fact that Megatron beats him for… ruling the ‘cons like a proper SIC would after the Lord is put into what is seen as an irreversible coma, makes him an unhappy ‘con during the episodes.
Teawraith is right here: everything up to this point has shown us that Megatron is his enemy. Megatron wouldn’t given him his due at the very beginning of the series, when he was clearly loyal, and Megatron punished him for doing precisely what Megatron himself would do if he was SIC to an indisposed leader.
Excuse Starscream for being pissed off at being treated like dirt. Really, people, am I to assume that you’d all smile happily at being treated like that? Yeah?
No. I don’t think you would.
Rock Bottom, Megatron deals with Starscream’s unhappiness (caused by Megatron, of course), by trying to execute him. Not by apologizing for treating his SIC like shit, or by listening to Starscream’s concerns, or by… I don’t know… being a proper leader? Nope: just gonna execute him for not bowing to the Cult of Megatron. Okay then.
Partners: Starscream, after first being nearly executed by Megatron, then having to beg for his life, at Megatron’s mercy while being crushed under tons of rock, pledges to be a good little SIC. No doubt some emotional trauma precipitated this.
Starscream tries to be a good SIC (which he had already been being for 3 years), only to be shown up by Airachnid, who is only on this planet to satiate her bizarre desire for chasing around teenage boys. Megatron treats Airachnid, who was pretty much a deserter up until five seconds ago, better than he treats the dude who kept his army running and his ship happily afloat for 3 years. Awesome.
Starscream is pissed. Wow. Shock and awe. How treacherous to be pissed at the deserter getting more authority than the SIC who did a butt-ton of work for years, only to get offered up as Terrorcon subject #1.
Partners – Patch: Starscream tries to make it on his own. He’s not very good at it. I cry intermittently over his various experiences being hungry, losing flight capability, nearly attempting self-surgery, etc., etc.
Starscream finally decides to go back to the ‘cons after failing to make it on his own and being royally fucked over by the Autobots on numerous occasions. He starts out sassy, offering Megatron a deal for the Omega Keys, and ends up being mindfucked into submission, at one point begging for a beating rather than death (yes, that made me cry, too).
Starscream is “allowed” back into the ‘cons by his “generous” Master. Whoohoo.
Regeneration – Deadlock: Starscream… does everything Megatron tells him to do. He literally has no other moments of backstabbing Megatron. Starscream is the one who helps Megatron get the Keys back after Megatron loses them to the Autobots, suggesting using the kids (not nice, but completely not treacherous). Starscream does everything to help his Master, only to have half his rank removed and given to Shockwave, who shows up out of no where and steals a huge portion of Megatron’s respect.
These episodes are spent with Starscream trying to do his job while faced with the humiliation of having Shockwave lord over him, Predaking disobey and harm him, and Megatron ignore his sincere efforts. It’s like a sick parade of secondhand embarrassment that never ends.
Predacons Rising: Starscream and Shockwave continue to try to be ‘cons after Megatron’s “death.” Megatron comes back. Starscream immediately rallies to his Master’s side. Unicron thing happens. Megatron becomes Megatron again. Starscream rallies to his side again. Starscream is cast away, told that the ‘cons are no more, and left to his own devices as Megatron flies away to brood forevermore, like the immature teenager he is.
Starscream decides to become lord of the ‘cons. Because, hey, maybe not everyone is able to have a change of spark in approximately three hours after dedicating eons of their life to a giant-ass war. And because, hey, maybe instead of being taken prisoner by the Autobots, Starscream would have like to… I don’t know… hold a position of power and authority and stuff, like any normal person would.
Wanting to continue the war? Yeah, not nice of him. But not treacherous.
Starscream (very likely I’m pretty 100% sure) is killed by Predacons for not wanting to roll over and forsake everything he’s stood for and believed in up ‘til now. Megatron is rewarded by being allowed to leave, despite the fact that he just left hundreds of people who were hyperdedicated to their cause without a leader, direction, or closure. Whoo!
Conclusion: TFP!Starscream was not treacherous. If you think he was, your critical thinking level is not where it should be. Thank you, and good night.
Beautiful. This really needed to be written, and you are awesome for writing it. I have nothing further to add except a little train of thought, heh, because I’m still trying to figure out why this concept is so difficult for fandom to accept.
My only theory is that people are masters at believing what they want to believe, right in the face of tons of evidence proving the opposite. They think their fanon!Starscream is so much cooler than the real one, and so they try their hardest to erase the real one.
We have the perfect example in fandom’s reaction to “Thirst”. I don’t know how many comments I saw, claiming that Starscream (with Knock Out’s assistance) creating the terrorcons was an act of treachery. He’d gone behind Megatron’s back, hadn’t he? He was responsible for the Decepticons losing half of their troops, wasn’t he? Surely he’d earned his punishment, there at the end.
Yeah, no. Apparently it’s easy to forget that Starscream had planned to create a super soldier for Megatron, controllable by Megatron only. Which he did in a desperate attempt to regain his master’s favour. None of that shit would have happened, if Megsy hadn’t been busy on the phone with his latest favourite, Shockwave, disdainfully brushing Starscream aside. Over the course of several episodes, in fact, Megatron went out of his way to make it clear to Screamer that he valued Shockwave higher and that Starscream’s position was tenuous at best. At that point, Starscream’s greatest fear was becoming redundant, because what does Megatron do to redundant officers who become more trouble than they’re worth? He kills them, like Dreadwing.
Yet fandom still crows about how treacherous Starscream was for not telling Megatron about his plan (to help him!), and then lying about it when it all went wrong, and trying to pin the blame on KO. When we all know what happens when Megs finds just the slightest excuse to beat on his “SIC”. Noteworthy in that scene: Starscream still thought the possibility of a ship full of terrorcons was less threatening than an angry Megatron.
It’s victim blaming, and it’s really gross. In fact it seems kinda desperate to me – people are so eager to think of Starscream as a backstabbing opportunist who has perfect control of his destiny and everything that happens to him, who deserves all the misfortune piled on him, that they’re willing to make shit up just to avoid having to think too hard about it. Because if they did, the whole house of cards would come falling down.
THANK YOU! I’m so glad you put it all into words! the breaking down to episodes really helps showing how not treacherous tfp starscream really is!
(i’m really happy he didn’t end up dead though, you did one thing right show writers!)
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