I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For...

Starscream?

Before I begin, I would like to make two disclaimers. First, I've been reading some of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry tonight and quoteing it for an essay (I'm pretty sure "The Raven" can be quoted for any essay an AP english class can devise) which when reading Poe, one can tend to enter a strange philosophic mode. Second, some of you readers may not be able to understand this blog without some explanation, which will be provided shortly.

First off, who is Starscream? The Transformers were (or that is to say are) a line of toys (and calling them such makes my soul hurt) that had/have two forms, that of a robot (armed with weapons) and a vehicle mode. The two forms were switched between by tweaking a plastic piece here, twisting there, and detaching and reataching here. They were broken into two factions, the Autobots (which we can sum up as "Good guys") and Decepticons (which through conotation of name alone would tell one that they were "Bad guys"). The two factions fought endlessly, led by two leaders, Optimus Prime for the Autobots and Megatron for the Decepticons.

You'll notice Starscream is not one of the leaders. And that is perhaps why he was my childhood (and still) favorite. But we'll get there. For the time being, a picture:



Recently, the company that makes such "Toys" re-released (in their original form) a select few of the ones that were around when I was a child. Starscream was listed among the re-released.

Starscream's alternate form was an airplane (according to the websites that know, an F-15 Eagle)* and is faithfully reproduced to the original figure (although the airplane-robot transformation has been cleaned up a little so that fewer pieces have to be removed).



So, why was Starscream my favorite character, and why, after I have professed to being matured and past such things (just last Friday I gave such a speech with a friendly smile to a dentist aid who offered me a choice from a prize jar) should I care?

Because of what he represents.

Starscream was Megatron's (a refresher: Decpeticon leader) second-in-command and as often happens with evil leaders, often plotted his overthrow and rise to power. Perhaps as the youngest of three children, my young mind saw Starscream as a fellow pursuer for accomplishment and recognition from behind huge shadows.

Or maybe it was just because he turned into a cool looking plane. I'll leave that question to the philosophers (philosophic Poe high has worn off).

*In the live-action movie planned for next year (a strange theme to make a live-action movie of, robots that turn into vehicles) apparently Starscream is planned to be an F-17 Raptor instead. I can just hear the heavens shouting "Travesty!"