I'll just drop this here.

 

Original early info says he was Ramjet and honestly he’s got a more Ramjet color scheme than Starscream

 

Ramjet, eh? Interesting. Maybe more suited to his personality. And of course, the Bayverse already has a Starscream, so there's that.

But the silvery finish, sleek styling, and heat motifs are all so Starscream. This is still how 2007 TFs should have looked.

zmog

 

Well yes. If nothing else can you imagine how much money they would have saved not having 10000 moving pieces.

 

And benefited from not alienating up to 20-30% of the fandom, maybe.  

The earlier designs were perhaps impressive in that respect, but also excessive and kind of hard to look at. IMO, obvs.  

zmog

 

Quite surprising that people still haven't caught onto the fact that Hasbro often arbitrarily names these characters without much thought. If you call the tank Devastator, everyone goes apeshit, but call it Brawl and you avoid the shitstorm, it's suddenly "accurate", despite the fact that the character wasn't designed to be a homage to either and people shouldn't expect (or rather, are denying themselves new creations by expecting) an exact mirroring of past incarnations when Hollywood creatives are involved. It's all in the name apparently, so long artistic license...

And in this case, it's a no-win situation - call him anything but Starscream, and people get testy about the movie's primary Seeker not being Starscream. Call him Starscream, and the fans get mad that he was killed off in the first 15 minutes...

 

It's not so much that we don't realize that the names are arbitrary. It's just that we WANT the names and characters to feel like they match up. This is also relevant because how characters appear in prominent media can influence how they appear in subsequent media.

The 'Brawl' character in the 2007 movie was a clanking, noisy brutish Decepticon tank. Calling him Devastator just didn't match most of the essential traits of Devastator - but calling him Brawl did match up. It's not rocket science. Now we have an appropriate Brawl, and there's room for a Devastator later that matches expectations.

Not that we really ended up getting that... but I digress.  

But let's not confuse name-slaps with the design process. A lot of these robot characters are still based (loosely) on existing TFs. Artists are still looking at original characters and designs for their starting points.

It's not by accident that BB Blitzwing looks so much like a perfect Starscream. The designer didn't just stumble on that design and deco by accident. The line of inspiration is pretty clear.

I couldn't -really- care less what they called 'Blitzwing' in the BB movie... I'll just be happy to get a good-looking quasi-Bayformer Starscream toy. It's worth commenting on because Starscream was always one of the most egregious Bayformer design choices, a poster boy for the aesthetic feeling "wrong" for a lot of oldschool fans. At the time, a lot of people were trying to excuse the movie designs by claiming that a more G1-friendly style couldn't possibly work onscreen. And now, here we are... proving that wrong. It's both validating and a bit frustrating.

It's not so much that we don't realize that the names are arbitrary. It's just that we WANT the names and characters to feel like they match up. This is also relevant because how characters appear in prominent media can influence how they appear in subsequent media.

The 'Brawl' character in the 2007 movie was a clanking, noisy brutish Decepticon tank. Calling him Devastator just didn't match most of the essential traits of Devastator - but calling him Brawl did match up. It's not rocket science.

But let's not confuse name-slaps with the design process. A lot of these robot characters are still based (loosely) on existing TFs. Artists are still looking at original characters and designs for their starting points. It's not by accident that BB Blitzwing looks so much like a perfect Starscream. The designer didn't just stumble on that design and deco by accident. The line of inspiration is pretty clear.

I couldn't -really- care less what they called 'Blitzwing' in the BB movie... I'll just be happy to get a good-looking quasi-Bayformer Starscream toy. It's worth commenting on because Starscream was always one of the most egregious Bayformer design choices, a poster boy for the aesthetic feeling "wrong" for a lot of oldschool fans. At the time, a lot of people were trying to excuse the movie designs by claiming that a more G1-friendly style couldn't possibly work onscreen. And now, here we are... proving that wrong.

I gave this some thought, and I've decided I don't agree. Maybe the character was original written as Ramjet in the script, but this design is definitely more Starscream.

Ramjet is white with black on his torso and maroon delta-shaped wings that angle down along his legs. He also has a white pointy head. Starscream is grey/silver, with red on his torso, and silver wings with red stripes that are swept up from his back. He has a black head with vents on the side.

In view of the design and deco cues, this is really all Starscream and no Ramjet.

zmog

 

But if you pull Ramjet's nose cone doooooown XD

I don't know. The fact the seekers are usually jut identical to Starscream in every way bar the colours, down to the layout, and the fact that what happens on screen has been in every version of the film we know about, including the onethat ties directly into other films...I could see the early concept being "Starscream attacks Bumblebee" but I think he's been an "insert name here" seeker before he was Ramjet or Blitzwing or Tom. Tom the Seeker.

 

The character should be simply listed as The Seeker. It'd match his onscreen role perfectly. He's a generic Decepticon flyer expendable grunt on a seeking mission.

 

Oh, since the movie was apparently always planned as a prequel, I doubt he was ever written to be "Starscream." I just mean that the design cues for the character model were clearly based on G1 Starscream. Ramjet is as good a name as any (and maybe a better choice than 'Blitzwing' in this case), but the shape and deco here really evoke Starscream, and was probably meant as an homage by the designer and/or director.

I was one of those kids who preferred the 'box art' rendition of the second wave Seekers, but over the years, I've sort of (grudgingly) accepted the 'coneheads' as their official look. It is more distinctive (though maybe that's not the point with Seekers).

As soon as a character gets a line, they usually get a name... gotta get that branding in there. Besides, as far as being in-continuity with Bayformers, isn't "Seeker" already a canonical term?

zmog

 

By now the BB movie is so much out of continuity with the 2007 that I don't think it even matters. After all, is there any semblance of continuity left intact after TLK, anyway? :X

It's like all those Imperial militarymen in the SW movies who got a line or two... They're nobodies unless the expanded universe touches on them.


Frankly, I'd go even more into the franchise history and named this generic as Deceptijet or Rainmaker. It'd do just fine.

 

I didn't even watch TLK. I hated myself for even having AoE running in the background one afternoon.  

I think most Imperial officers who got a line in Star Wars had names from the beginning. Especially, if they were talking to anybody important. GL liked to give all his set-dressing characters names.  

All repaints and momentary badguys in the TF franchise get names. It's normal. I recognize Blitzwing's role in the movie is not large, but he is a brand new model, and is still important in a prominent sequence in the movie. He gets a name. Though, I mean, how important are character names in Bayformers anyway? They're almost all disposable.

zmog

 

Nah, characters like those Mos Eisley Stormtroopers were just random numbers until the expanded universe made anything with them. They've got no names in credits when the movies were made. Can't recall all officers on the destroyer bridges but not all of them got named in the credits too.

EU loved expanding on them, but for moviemakers they were just extras.


I think we differ in this that I consider Bayverse an absolute zero-continuity zone by now and I don't even see a point in naming a random grunt. It's beyond the salvaging anyway.

BUT! If the movie will end being a reboot, then Blitzwing's dead for the new continuity. Pity.


On the other hand... G1 Blitzwing wasn't much more than a Decepticon grunt with an extra alt mode anyway. *shrugs* So the cartoon expanded on him more... Still not much.