Do any of you feel like Armada's take on Starscream was superior or inferior to other incarnations? While I liked it, I felt he was a little too similar to Thundetcracker, in that he was devoted to the Decepticon cause but at the same time questioned his loyalty to Megatron, and less like the traditional Starscream who was narrow-minded lot obsessed with becoming leader.

 

Honestly he has had so many slight alterations but i quite liked him here.

 

Armada Starscream is my all time favorite character. He was my first Transformer, and has been my favorite ever since.

 

I feel Armada Starscream was superior because he was so different from the normal way Starscream is portrayed.

 

He was like some generic anime villain who was an antagonist at first then revealed he had some nobility in him and then died for the good guys.

As a different version of Starscream, I admit he had potential. But most of us would prefer Screamer to be self-serving.

 

^ Well...good thing he always is in everything else then?

 

I've never seen Unicron trilogy stuff but this incarnation of him has always interested me and I'd really like to see it adapted to a modern take on the character in a western series.

 

Armada Starscream is my favorite incarnation of the character. He breaks from the mold of Starscreams and does it beautifully.

 

Armada Starscream was a very fascinating take on the character. It took the core concepts of your average Starscream, but instead of being constantly traitorous and conniving, he has legitimate, personal issues against Megatron. It became sort of a father-son relationship, in a way; Megatron shows no compassion or kindness towards him, but constantly pushes him because he sees the potential for a future leader. Starscream constantly tries to impress Megatron, and resorts to defiance just to get some kind of response from his leader. When Starscream finally does challenge Megatron, it's treated as a big deal and Megatron's reasons for sparing him are sound. Even at the end, Starscream clearly still meant a great deal to Megatron as his sacrifice caused Megs's pivotal change of heart.

It's also great that they wrapped in some of Thundercracker's character, too, with his care of humans and his sense of disillusionment rather than Starscream's traditional habitual need to backstab. Plus, he got Thundercracker's colors towards the end, which really hammers home the idea that he's kind of a mush of the two Seekers. It's just such a damn shame Energon shat all over that character development.

So yeah, Armada Starscream is fantastic. Armada may very well be worth watching just for that character progression (and the last half in general). Also, he has such a badass design with the one-winged swordsman look that the Generations toy inexplicably ignored.

 

Before Armada I had yet to really see anything that delved into Thundercracker's bio personality, so I only feel like he's similar retroactively. In fact, I can't recall anything besides IDW thet ever did anything with that aspect of Thundercracker.

 

My first transformer was Armada Megatron/Armada Thundercracker it was a great toy But I feel Cybertron Starscream was superior Armada.

 

It pretty much all stems from the "Not totally convinced of the Decepticons' cause" line from his original bio, and IDW turned it into "has a soft spot for humans." I think the Alternity stories played off of that, too, but Alternity is too much of a clusterfuck for me to try and confirm that.

Also, wasn't there like one G1 episode where Thundercracker briefly showed some of his personality? I could totally be wrong.

 

I'm almost done watching Armada for the first time now, so I've got some fresh thoughts on him.

His character is a rather interesting take on Starscream and he's by far the most developed character on the show, but the way is development was pushed forwards was so choppy that it harms the entire experience. Thrust and Megatron are discussing that Starscream is the most competent and loyal of the Decepticons and how worthy he is to be second in command and then two or so episodes later, with no provoked reason, Thrust and Megatron are suddenly conspiring to kill him because they think he's incompetent and disloyal, purely just because they needed a reason to finally push him into leaving the Decepticons. The writing of this show (which I believe is mostly dub) is just garbage.

 

Starscream was the absolute best part of Armada. I know that may not be saying much, but his progression was better than some of his more recent incarnations.

 

Armada Starscream was neat because he explored reasons for Starscream behaviors other than (and deeper than) "I wanna be the guy in charge!'

 

While I liked the take on him as it was a different feel, I can't help but miss,

"I'm stupid! I'm stupid!"

 

Well, it was different and not in a bad way. They took the Starscream formula of him being at odds with Megatron as Decepticons and went in reverse. As in, rather than have him go lead his own bots in a separate crusade to gain their objective and annihilate the Autobots, he went to the Autobots and stayed on their side for a time not totally appalled at what was offered. Nice twist, but ultimately, it is a story that heavily deviates of the traits of what Starscream really is. I think Cybertron Starscream nailed his essence quite well.

 

He didn't feel too much like the 'archetype' of starscream, but I think it worked for him. Not every character has to be a rehash of their classic portrayal, and while sometimes this doesn't work out well, for armada starscream I think it went excellently. He felt like his own character, I enjoyed seeing where his actions and life would take him, and become somewhat attachted to the character. Was he a good starscream? No. Was he a good and well developed character? Absolutely.

 

I always thought of him as a damned good Thundercracker rather than a Starscream. It doesn't help that he got Thundercracker's colors in the end.

 

Armada Starscream is the Starscream in my book.