Ok so I just realized that Starscream before he betrays Jetfire & the Autobots is colored with purple energon pre-decepticon alligence.

Wondering why they didnt make him red and when he made the decepticon faction symbol he didn't turn purple then?!

I know it's not a big deal, but I just watched the cutscene again going throught the campaign to shoot the rest of the autobot symbols (have 9 more to go, lol) and it just dawned on me.

I know he didnt have a faction symbol at the start of the scene (there is actually a dent in his right wing where the logo should be) and since Jetfire calls him a traitor it must imply one of the following (or perhaps both)

1. he is a traitor to the autobots (so he should be red, not purple along with thundercracker and skywarp)
2. he is a traitor to his job as a guard?!

Meh, wonder what you guys think  

 

Maybe prolonged exposure to minute amounts of Dark Energon has had an effect on him. Or maybe they were just lazy.

 

He'd be considered a traitor to Cybertron itself, agreeing to help Megatron essentially destroy the planet with Dark Energon.

 

I wondered the same thing but didn't think it noteworthy enough to make a topic. XD
It did bug the hell out of me though.

 

I'd vote on them not wanting to spend time and resources on an Autobot model Starscream that is only used in a single level. But I noticed it too. It's slightly immersion breaking but I can understand why they didn't do it.

 

I thought he was supposed to be a neutral, like all the other robots you fight on the station, since none of them have red glowy bits or purple glowy bits.

But yeah Screamer does have glowy purple on him.

 

I did notice this too. But as was, they probably didn't have the time/resources to do a neutral model.

Heck...the very first brute you encounter in the game, has and Autobot insignia on him. And he suppose to be one of the neutrals.

 

For most of the level Starscream is only seen as a hologram that doesn't reveal the coloration of his, er, "purple bits". Then in the two cases where it's seen he's got the purple bits and isn't Decepticon, they're barely seen or noticed thanks to the camera angle.

That, and Megatron does state at some point in the first level when confronted by holo-scream that he does know of Starscream from an earlier time, addressing him as "Air Commander Starscream" even and hinting at an implied fall from grace (because why the Hell else would Starscream be hanging around an inactive station like that?)

Or, in simple terms, HM got lazy and didn't alter the model for the few seconds it would have mattered. Call it an "Animation error" if you will and that way it's another homage layered into the game instead of a simple continuity error.

 

Eh, High Moon Studios just did it to keep the continued G1 color errors of the show  

 

this

 

I noticed it and assumed the studio decided not to spend time and resource creating a 'pre-decepticon' Starscream model for the sake of a couple of short cut scenes.

The extra attention to detail would have been a neat touch, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

 

I didn't think of him as an Autobot just as I didn't think of Jetfire as one. Neither of these two had faction symbols until after Starscream betrays the Autobots—weren't they neutral Cybertronians? I mean, the trophy/achievement “It’s your lucky day” can only be gotten when you let one of the neutral prisoners—Starscream’s faction-less soldiers—live.

Perhaps Starscream’s past actions kept him out of the Autobots or something they did to him kept him and his troops away from them—not enough to not support them entirely, but enough to leave some strong resentment toward them.

In the end, Starscream and his troops sided with Megatron, while Jetfire sided the Autobots, as we knew they would.

I didn't think much about their colors (red for Autobots and purple for Decepticons), I just accepted them for what they were: their colors.

 

About the neutral achievement. It's more referring to the game state the character is in. NPCs have three general states in most games. Hostile, helpful, and neutral. Hostile will attack and helpful will aid you, obviously. Neutral do not react to you much. That is what the prisoners do in that hall.

 

kind of annoyed me as well, especially with the multiplayer starcream's coloring already able to switch with the disguise ability

 

He technically should've been yellow like the neutrals he commanded, I would think.

 

HM were too busy hyping the game to care probably.

"Just leave him purple, I have a another video to make about our game. "

 

Didn't even notice it, didn't care. I mean seriously, it's only one level and you seem mostly in hologram form anyway..?

 

If you want to be techincal about it I think I've sussed it.

Starscream Was a decepticon before he was recruited by Megatron. Megatron in one of his conversations says that he knows who Starscream used to be and that he would return to glory. Is it possible that Starscream was a part of a past decepticon uprising that failed so he became neutral in order to stop others using dark energon for the sake of cybertron since no-one had proven capable of harnessing it's power?

 

Well, Storm just supplied and in-game rationization why he has purple on him. Nice job!

 

He wouldn't of technically been a Decepticon because Megatron created the Decepticons but Starscream being part of a uprising (maybe evening spawning the same logo) is possible. Great Explanation Storm.