I like the Decepticon power struggle seen in Marvel G1 because it shows that Starscream isn’t an outlier. Shockwave thinks Megatron is being illogical, Ratbat thinks the Earth Decepticons are bad at managing resources, and Starscream thinks Megatron is dumb. Marvel G1 Megatron has his moments of brilliance, yes, but for the most part he’s an unstable, unreliable leader who couldn’t get crap done while Shockwave slaughtered the main Autobot cast and Starscream went on a cosmically-empowered rampage that wiped out a huge chunk of the G1 cast.
Not to mention there were Scorponok’s desires for power and grandeur as well as Galvatron’s insanity in the mix, plus ‘84 retroactively adding a version of Deathsaurus to that universe
Megatron: -High firepower -High Strength -High combat skill -Decent planner (not perfect) -Rewards success Starscream: -Flight -Great with aerial combat -Amazing resource management -Fantastic schemer -Some all-round scientific skills -Rewards loyalty In theory, if they worked together with Starscream as a respected second then their overlapping skills would create very competent leadership. Unfortunately, Megatron doesn’t respect Starscream and Starscream wants Megatron’s job.
You forgot Megtaron's insane charisma. He built a whole faction from the ground up after all, and his rethoric persuaded millions of Transformer to join his rebellion.
I’ve been saying this for years. Another great example is Dinobot Island - Starscream correctly concludes pretty early on that the energy is unstable and taking it is causing potentially dangerous conditions on the island, and Megatron just mocks him and ignores his advice
I love how shows like Animated and Prime showcased how Starscream taking power for a substantial amount of time would actually pan out. That is to say, not that great. Ironically, not usually through much fault of his own. He’s just not able to command the same respect and loyalty that Megatron does, and thus struggles with infighting and insubordination a lot. His overconfidence makes a lot of his ambitions and plans fall flat, again, usually because of his troops not backing him up, and it causes him to not only lose the confidence of his men (if they even had any to begin with), but confidence in his own abilities.
Actually Starscream in Prime was a good leader until Megatron showed up at the start of the first season. Until Starscream led, the Autobots were in complete hiding, and the only time the Decepticons managed to kill an autobot was during the 'rule' of Starscream. Also Starscream hoarded a lots of resources, didn't take unecessary risks like Megatron did, and he was very caution in his strategies. In Prime Megatron did some whild shit, which had far reaching consequences (like using dark energon, which was unprecedented. Starscream warned him against doing just that, and it resulted in Unicron taking control of Megatron, and almost causing th end of the world.) Also Starscream was willing to make compromises, unlike Megtaron and Optimus.
Megatron: I'm going to leave them in a easily escapable situation and assume all goes according to plan... what? Starscream? Starscream: :rolleyes: this is why I will rule one day. Megatron: Scuse me? Starscream: Yes dear Megatron! It's foolproof!
Thank you! Somebody else actually agrees with me on how Starscream should basically be either a third faction, or just take over leadership of the Decepticons entirely.
@@ElradAtte and this is not just for a couple of episodes, as much as I love transformers prime. I want this to be a series long thing. Animated Starscream almost got there. Starscream, for whatever reason, always seems to come crawling back to Megatron. He shouldn’t.
I think Starscream, as self-serving as he is, would've happily stayed second-in-command if only the Decepticons had a leader who would listen to his ideas and worries. And yet, weirdly, despite Megatron's *abysmal* track record throughout the G1 continuity, the Decepticons somehow managed to conquer Cybertron between Season 2 and the 86 movie. This reminds me: Starscream mentions how the Autobot moon bases are a threat, whereas Megatron is convinced his plan of destroying Autobot City will work. Laserbeak's spy deeds literally played back the part of Optimus saying "We don't have enough Energon Cubes" line, which means it would be much more cost-effective to attack them there, rather than Autobot City which has plenty of reserves. Oh and theres also the fact that Optimus is literally on Moon Base 1, so attacking it would kill Prime, leave the Matrix in Megatron's hands, and greatly demoralize the Autobots on Earth.
You can also add Galvatron and his greediness to control Unicron then his betrayal which caused him to lose Cybertron and the war and getting his army damaged and banged up from battling Unicron and also battling the Autobots and being exiled to Charr without Galvatron who was tossed through the walls of Unicron into deep space by Rodimus Prime temporarily to lead them as another probably the most epic failure for Megatron/Galvatron in Decepticon history because of the fact by 2005 the Decepticons had fully conquered Cybertron and Megatron killed Optimus Prime and many Autobots died and all he had to do was keep his agreement with Unicron and the Decepticons would still have Cybertron and Unicrons power and assistance unless he was destroyed somehow by the Autobots certain events would have been different also the war would be over until Rodimus Prime and the Autobots regroup and attempt to counterattack
In divide and conquer starscream was begging megatron to let them kill the autobots after starscream had put optimus prime out of action. He was also about to kill the autobots making it to the space bridge, but megatron reaaaaally wanted to do the acid rain plan. Some other great moments: The search for alpha trion: starscream defeats optimus prime and elita 1, and right as he is about to dome elita 1 shockwave insists on a dr evil style lower prime into acid plan that fails. Masquerade: The autobots disguise as the stunticons, starscream doesn't buy their disguise for a second but megatron doesn't listen to him so he gives up on convincing him and just laughs at everything unfolding. Ghost in the machine: starscream: "Just wait until I get my body back, then you'll be sorry!" Galvatron: "I'M ALREADY SORRY"
Starscream finally got the job of leadership for about 5 minutes until Megatron returned in the form of Galvatron and killed him with a full blast in his cannon mode
I agree He is the better description of someone who uses DECEPTION He puts the Decept in Decepticon Also, G1 Starscream has something that Megatron doesn't A sense of Self Preservation If he's losing he will retreat While Megatron just has his troops keep fighting till they need to recharge their Energy reserves or of he's the one winning he decides to retreat giving his Enemies to recouperate Megatron is an Idiot While Starscream is actually the smarter one Starscream also is more willing to finish the job if he has the chance Megatron had to become Galvatron to do that may I remind you he became the "Starscream" to Unicron (Though a Throughly stupider one)
In my AU, Starscream takes over the Decepticons after Megatron dies. And Starscream is genuinely competent. He actually makes incredibly well-thought-out plans and nearly defeats the Autobots. He even allies with the US military before the Autobots get the chance to, leaving the Autobots at a severe disadvantage, now that their potential for human allies is extremely limited. Starscream's main downfall is his own insecurities. His overconfidence is all a facade. He spent his life trying to prove himself, and now that he finally can, he doesn't want to ruin it. But Soundwave is ultimately loyal to Megatron. So much so that he gives Shockwave the task of trying to bring Megatron back to life. And if Starscream were to disapprove, he'd lose favor with the other Decepticons, so he has to go along with it. And throughout the course of the story, internal conflict is what ultimately hurts the Decepticons. Despite Starscream's competence, Skyquake and Needlenose don't trust him, Blitzwing is not loyal to him, Soundwave constantly undermines him, and Shockwave outright hates him. Shadow Striker and Astrotrain are the only ones who listen to Starscream. But Astrotrain is also loyal to his best friend, Blitzwing. And will often side with Blitzwing over Starscream. And Shadow Striker will always choose pursuing her rivalry with Prowl over helping Starscream accomplish his goals. And when Megatron does eventually come back as Galvatron, Starscream is cast aside and left to die while Galvatron destroys everything he's worked for, including a rampage on the military base that was most closely involved with helping the Decepticons.
The IDW corssover with Terminator actually addressed the point about Megatron just leaving Teletraan I and the deactivated Autobots behind in the pilot episode. In those comics, he indeed ordered the Decepticons to blast them all to pieces, but last-minute interference stopped them.
I feel like Starscream without the power of plot to defeat him because he has to be, villain ball to make his minions hate him or whatever BS that’s pulled to help the heroes win and justify keeping Megatron on would actually be a dangerous individual in the vein of Robert ‘Bob’ Ritter from the Tom Clancy series. Cunning in ways gained from his political background, a patriot to his cause in the Decepticons, has a sound tactical mind and wouldn’t hesitate to betray you if it meant to further his cause. Likely could win the Great War against the Autobots by adapting to more practical tactics and strategies with less resources wasted under his leadership. He wouldn’t give the Autobots a chance the way Megatron would and making the same mistakes as him. Might even adapt the Decepticons towards a system more based in the realm of commerce and corporatism to help with their own economy.
And to add insult to injury when Megatron was reformatted into Galvatron he had a genuinely loyal and competent 2nd in command who would make a better leader in Cyclonus and Cyclonus was fanatically loyal!
I will say prime may also have points to rule or at least fill in. Prime starscream when he was ruler went out and did stuff like find skyquake, use makeshift, he called in knockout/breakdown, and tried to mine a large energon pit while megatron played with purple space crack and tunnels visioned on killing Optimus. I’m curious if this starscream would just give up on earth and start rebuilding cybertron or make a new colony world cause the autobots are stuck on earth until they get the forge but if he makes a colony they have no clue where to look. This starscream did try different methods to get his way he was almost willing to work with the autobots but skyquake interrupted that, also curious if skyquake wasn’t so stubborn if starscream and Optimus would’ve made some type of deal that episode.
Way back in the TF Ring days of the early web, I remember reading a fan-theory that Megatron’s jettison into space in the 86 movie was a co-conspiracy between Astrotrain and Starscream. Always stuck with me. Also, if you watch G1 from start to finish, it seems like Megatron burned up all his resources in The Ultimate Doom-which was probably the closest he came to total victory. After that, all his plans seemed a bit desperate. Megatron’s shortcomings were a central part of the Marvel comics (issue 5 onward). However, this was addressed lethally by Shockwave, not Starscream.
Megatron lived by the credo Might Makes Right. Look at their mottos, "Peace Through Tyranny" Megatron is literally saying everything will be fine if you rule with an iron fist and cruelty. "Conquest is built on the ashes of ones Enemies" is also pretty harsh, but it speaks to his nature. To be in charge you have to eliminate opposition. If you are onboard with Starscream he will probably lead fairly and even be generous. It's also worth noting that tyranny is generally a bad word, conquest can have many meanings, not all negative.
I’d say Megatron is DS9 Gul Dukat with Damar’s sternness while Starscream is Damar with Gul Dukat’s charm. Dukat had ample opportunities to win the Dominion War by taking out the self-replicating minefields surrounding the wormhole near DS9 containing a large fleet of his Dominion allies but was too busy trying to woo over the heart of a woman who hates him and her people that despises him while Damar was able to figure out how to deactivate the replicators and did question some of Dukat’s decision making that ultimately became his own undoing.
I would love to see a video similar to this, reviewing Rodimus Prime’s tenure as leader of the Autobots. Not as a “let’s dunk on Rodimus” but as an objective review as his time as leader.
Yeeeeah... G1 Megatron's kind of a dumbass. While none of the cartoon cast are particularly deep characters in the cartoon itself (besides Rodimus, my beloved), I wouldn't mind betting that Megatron is actually responsible for Starscream's treachery. He makes the guy his second-in-command and leader of his air forces, and then verbally abuses him and ignores all the reasonable concerns he has with his schemes. Starscream's ambition and lack of loyalty are rooted in the lack of respect he gets. He sees the flaws in Megatron's plans, voices them, is ignored, and then those plans fail at best. At worst, they almost kill the other Decepticons. Why wouldn't he look at that and go "Screw it, I could do a better job."
Starscream already had an Army to seize command. He didn't need Bruticus Supreme Commander: Starscream Second in Command: Sunstorm Generals: Thundercracker and Skywarp Troopers: Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, Cloudcover, Acid Storm, Ion Storm, Nova Storm, Hotlink, Bitstream and Red Wing Grunts: Seeker Generics
“Who dares interrupt my coronation!?” 😮 “Coronation Starscream? This is bad comedy…” 😂 “Megatron, is that you?” 😅 “Here’s a hint!” 😈 “Aaahiiieee!” 😵 **SIZZLE**
You forgot to mention that in the first episode Starscream did actually try to destroy the Ark, he took a few shots at it with his Null Rays as the Decepticons were leaving but Megatron stopped him. There was an excuse about being low on Energon and the Autobots being in Stasis Lock so they didn't need to kill them then but the Autobots could have been defeated in that first episode if Megatron didn't cause Starscream to miss. Because Starscream hit the volcano and not the Ark that caused the first Autobot to fall into the scanner and get repaired by Teletran 1 so Megatron not only didn't take the opportunity to defeat them outright but actively caused the chain of events that lead to them being repaired. The real question is... what if Starscream actually succeeded and did take over, which incarnation of Starscream would make the best leader? Cause not every Starscream is the same, they might have similar personalities but I think Starscream has wildly different competence levels across his different incarnations. So which Starscream would be the best Decepticon leader assuming Megatron was already out of the picture.
G1 is pretty arguable just because 80s plot armor. Though there's quite a few plots out there where Starscream really shines. Armada Starscream I am almost certain after a number of years would have negotiated a truce. Arguable if that is better or not. Energon Starscream lacks the proper ambition to be leader ironically. Cybertron Starscream is weird to say because he literally did create his own splinter faction. He's more of a schemer than Megatron, but considering Cybertron Megatron and Starscream don't really have any grand plans to rule Cybertron and are merely power hungry, got to go with Megatron because at the end of the day he was more powerful, even though they were both power houses. Animated Starscream lacks the charisma to lead the Decepticons, they literally disbanded the second Megatron died. We see Prime Starscream become leader for a short time, and we do see he isn't all too good at it. Movie Starscream at least in the video games actually seems to be a fairly competent leader during the events of revenge of the fallen, and he seems to focus more on Cybertron and resource management than Megatron does. Though he still died to Sam at the end of the day so take that for what you will.
Probably got to turn to the comics. Marvel Starscream did a fairly good job whenever he was in power, he was extremely good at weaselling his way out of trouble and manipulating others into furthering his goals. IDW Starscream also did a not-awful job with his second stint as leader. Most of the issues he faced during his time as ruler of Cybertron came from people actively fucking with him and trying to bring him down. He managed to avoid reigniting the war on Cybertron itself, ruled peacefully for several years, and things only got really bad again after he quit. His subsequent re-emergence as leader of the Decepticons was short-lived and more prone to error (really, Screamer? You gave a fleet of battleships to _Bludgeon_ of all bots?) but he _was_ facing the Robot Satan Apocalypse so hardly the worst showing. I don't know much about Dreamwave. IDW2 Screamer didn't get much time to shine, but when he's doing stuff, he's fairly competent at it. Helps that he has to work alongside one of the dumber Megatrons of recent years. Outside of the comics, Earthspark Starscream isn't awful. He's certainly not perfect, but he's not a total coward either, willingly throwing himself into a fight with a mind-controlled Megatron to protect the Maltos and leading the other Decepticons to their aid as well.
@@R0-83-RT I wouldn't say that Energon Starscream lacks ambition to be leader. He doesn't have any memory of who he is and is made to be loyal to Megatron simply by removing his memories. But if we're assuming Megatron is already out of the picture and Starscream got his memories restored, he'd be the same Starscream from Armada just in a new body. Cybertron is also technically suppose to be the same Starscream, at least as far as the American dub is concerned it's still set in the same continuity. Never mind the fact that Galaxy Force in Japan is a new continuity and that Starscream actually is suppose to be a different incarnation. But I do think he might actually be a good leader because Cybertron is still the closest Starscream has ever gotten to over throwing Megatron. He's about on equal power level and one of the most mentally competent as well as being physically superior to other incarnations. Animated Starscream also lacks any real Power, I mean there is a montage of Megatron killing him repeatedly. The only almost successful attempt he made was done by pretending to be loyal and planting on bomb on Megatron's back as he was leaving the Nemesis. And this was also a Megatron who didn't put of Starscream at all and never gave him any second chances. Both Animated and Prime also share the same problem that they can't even lead a clone army of himself. Movie Starscream I'd actually say lacks ambition. There's a line in the Last Knight where Megatron finds Starscream's severed head and says "Starscream my old treacherous friend" before crushing the head in his hand which made no sense because movie Starscream never actually showed any sign of treachery at all. In fact movie Starscream seemed to be entirely loyal to Megatron. He did lead the Decepticons in the first movie while Megatron was frozen in ice and Starscream even gave the order to thaw Megatron from the ice. In the second movie it was the Fallen, not Starscream who took command of the Decepticons, Starscream just delivered the bad news. And movie Megatron was constantly loosing leadership in every single gawd damn movie. Starscream was the leader for most of the 2007 film, the Fallen was the leader in the sequel, Sentinel Prime was the leader after that, then Galvatron took a back seat to Lockdown in AoE, Quintessa is commanding them in Last Knight, and Megatron hasn't even been in the most recent movies at all. The live action movies seem to hate Megatron.
@@RialVestro I seperated Unicron Trilogy Starscream because despite technically being the same being none of the character's personality or character is maintained. In Energon because Starscream has no memory he sort of acts as a completely different entity than his previous self. I would argue it's kind of similar to what happened to the Vehicon generals, technically they have the sparks of previous characters, but without their memory they essentially act as completely different characters. And yes I know about the whole thing about Galaxy Force was supposed to be it's own show but the dub decided to attach the show to Armada & Energon. Though apparently I did hear the Japanese team did attempt to connect the show to the Unicron Trilogy after they found out what happened to the localized versions. This is why the humans from Armada & Energon can briefly be seen at the end of Cybertron/Galaxy Force. Though considering this has minimal effects on the rest of the show, honestly I dunno🤷. Cybertron is a continuity headache. Animated Starscream is weak compared to Megatron though ironically considering how powerful the average Decepticon is in Animated in comparison to the average Autobot it really isn't all too bad of a detriment. In the first 2 seasons it takes about 3-5 Autobots to go against Starscream. Granted Animated Starscream is hardly fit to be leader, though considering both Starscream and Shockwave are capable of taking on Ultra Magnus, it kind of shows just how weak the Autobots in Animated are as a whole. You are right that technically Starscream isn't leading during Revenge of the Fallen, the Fallen is. Though in the Revenge of the Fallen games it is mostly Starscream who is giving the direct orders, while the Fallen acts more as a higher up, giving Decepticons vague plans but not actively leading anyone during missions. Also you're right that the movie version of Starscream never really applied himself when it comes to traitorous intent, though I wouldn't say this is a lack of ambition, rather the movie version of Starscream is playing it safe, which ironically does allow Starscream to act as a leader in Megatron's absence. Granted I will admit this makes the movie version of Starscream a less interesting character, since he never really schemes against Megatron, rather just waits to take an opportunity to lead.
Screamer was always my favorite in the original G1 cartoon series because he would point out the issues with Megs plans and Megs would ignore him just to have those plans not work. Screamer did have some questionable moments with plans as well, but mainly it was because he had lost self confidence after being knocked down a leg or two by Megatron that he did not show strength when leadership moments did come.
The idea somewhat came to my mind when watching Aalgar's transformers reviews. So many of Megatrons schemes are kind of dumb that I do at times think, yeah Starscream would probably be a better leader.
It's worth noting that Starscream is equally responsible for the Autobots coming back on line, him firing on the Ark after the Decepticons left is what knocked Optimus into Teletrann's restorative beam.
To be fair, he wouldn’t have known his shot would inadvertently reactivate them and Megatron had a once in a lifetime chance to erase the deactivated Autobots present while they’re unable to call for help or have anyone to save them.
To be fair the shot he had lined up would most likely have destroyed the ark and the autobots inside it was only due to interference from Megatron that the shot he actually took awoke the autobots.
So, if I was to create a Transformers character who combined with Starscream, and I formed the head of that character as a headmaster, then I may or may not permanently negotiate with Starscream into not betraying me. If he did, I would obliterate him. I would even go as far as separating from the Transformers character, and having Starscream obliterate it, so then we could team up and I could make him think that I wanted to Megatron destroyed. Spoilers, it would end with me blasting Starscream with Megatron’s fusion cannon.
Starscream may be treacherous, cunning and sneaky by nature but he is a Decepticon at his core who’ll do what he can for the cause while Shockwave is self-serving towards his own ideals.
In the latest HasvVerse episode I'm writing, Starscream leads a team to steal data (location of the Nemesis for Space Bridge purposes). He is narrowly defeated by Jazz's Unit-E. And Megatron is furious, because the Warlord neglected to tell his second in command about a plan already in progress, which Starscream interfered with. Starscream is the tactician, Megatron is the strategist. But Megatron not sharing data with his #2 because he doesn't trust him, leads to failures.
It's a fun topic, but in all honesty....asking why Megatron didn't win more is like asking why Batman doesn't just kill The Joker, or why Storm Troopers never hit their target, etc, we know why that can't happen. Until it did, in Transformers The Movie and we all saw what that would look like for once, only for it to go back to status quo because.....Megatron wins, kills all Autobots, shows over.
here is an interesting conspiracy theory, what if all the failures of megatron are because he was repaired by teletran 1? Teletran 1 was made by the autobots for the autobots, who can say he didn't sneak in a bit that changed him from 100% decepticon, to 99% decepticon and 1% autobot, and that 1% is why the autobots somehow always find a way to win?
As a "man" of Science myself, I would be just like Starscream if I was in his place But, He definitely shouldn't be the Leader him. He should at least have been given the chance to be More respected and given I don't know more of a Secondary Leader of some kind ? He's shown to at least lead the other Seekers well enough
My lines about Starscream are, first, from Triple Takeover: "No planet ever lost its orbit by overestimating the stupidity of Starscream." And that's BLITZWING talking, who's good in a fight but pretty much a lunkhead otherwise. Then, for the G2 comics, Optimus asks Megatron outright why je always kept Starscream around, and Megatron replies, "Because I'm an idiot!" As for the topic of the video... No, I don't think so, really. On the time scale of beings that live for literal millions of years and might not have an "old age" or senility at all, Megatron taking a couple of years to gather resources and information, and as seen in several season two episodes scout out and connect with the situation in the wider galaxy, before getting serious with the TFtM attack that utterly wrecked a huge number of the Autobot forces, engaging in various schemes when opportunity presented itself but calling a retreat before his own forces could suffer losses when they didn't pan out, that all seems completely reasonable to me. Yes, there's plot induced stupidity along the way as you pointed out, but much as it would be preferrable to stick with in-universe arguments, it's ultimately still a children's show explicitly designed to sell toys. Subtle planning would be apt to lose the target audience of boys ages six to thirteen, and of course the baddies have to be defeated by the end of the show, no matter how dire the situation looks going into the second commercial break. Finally, City of Steel was an awesome pisode and I always wanted an allicon Optimus toy as a kid. I'm still waiting for that, honestly... maybe Legacy, as they've already done some pretty deep cuts for that with Defcon and the Toxitron collection, or a head swap and recolor of (hopefully the Cyberverse Warrior-class rather than the TFES 1-step) Skullcruncher in the Earthspark line.
In Megatron's defense, maybe a contributing factor to his poor track record is that he excelled on Cybertron when he had massive armies and resources at his disposal, but struggles when dealing with with the small-scale tactics associated with working with what amounts to just a few squads to a company of soldiers. Then again, Decepticons had complete control of Cybertron, so the fact that once they had the space bridge he didn't have Shockwave send overwhelming numbers does sort of throw that argument out the window.
The blame lies with 1980's cartoon writing creating invincible plot armor for the heroes. If the battles were portrayed through the cartoon years the way he was in The Transformers: The Movie, Megatron would have succeeded easily. I know that's breaking cannon but after 5 million years of victory it makes no sense to suddenly lose every single conflict with an enemy that had been fleeing for their lives. The only way I can reconcile this with the cartoon cannon is somehow when the Decepticons were revived they were patently defective. Maybe Teletraan-1's reactivation of them was to blame and they were never "quite right", whereas when the Autobots were revived they didn't have the same problem? Teletraan was obviously not working optimally since it didn't know the difference between Autobots and Decepticons when it revived them, so could that be the hidden explanation for Megatron's apparent incompetence?
I agree, in that Ol 'Sceeamer was right about Megs, and his constant failures, as well knowing that Megs's rule was done, but, he should've asked for his fellow 'Cons to help him find a succesor to Megatron, instead of grabbing the top spot for his self.
In my opinion, Megatron should have joined shockwave in staying on cyber Tron, because how else is Megatron going to keep an eye on the planet he has basically already conquered/drained at this point.
Megatron holding a stalemate for 5 million years isn’t exactly the mark of a great leader. Especially considering his entire army is built for warfare & his enemies are civilian hardware.
Megatron wasn't sure which set of Stunticons were the Autobots but he didn't attempt to destroy both. The loss of the real Stunticons would be a small price to pay for the destruction of Optimus Prime and four other Autobots.
Megatron and the other Deceptions could have further scrapped the Auto bots on day on Earth as they were revived first. There would have literally been no fight whatsoever. I'mean also supra sec Shockwave never tried or actually tried to depot Megatron like he did in the Marvel vomic.
I mean ... you're not wrong, but he mostly suffers from being an 80s villain. It would be fairer to compare Megatron to his peers - Mumm-ra, Skeletor, and Cobra Commander (among others). Was he less successful than any of them? His inability to listen to others when he's focused on a short term goal is pretty bad. That's the best point in the vid. But his poor schemes and oversights after landing on Earth are part and parcel of being an 80s villain and something Soundwave would suffer from too if we're being fair.
It’s funny how we remember Optimus and Megatron as mighty leaders but in a realistic context both were HORRIBLE leaders. Only thing putting Optimus above Megs is that at least he doesn’t humiliate his associates lol.
Of course, by the time Starscream did finally pull off the closest he got to a full grand coup, Megatron had somehow conquered the rest of the planet and banished the last of the Autobots offworld. Then proceeded to slaughter an entire Autobot shuttle crew, lead a pretty successful sack of Autobot City, and fatally wound Optimus Prime... Gee, Megatron seems to do so much better when he isn't limited to 22 minutes of screen time, doesn't he?
Megatron does better when he's allowed to kill (discontinued) Autobots, and even that's only true for the beginning of the movie. During the attack on the shuttle, the Autobots die with one or two hits. Optimus dies from a few shots from a random pistol Megatron found laying on the ground, even after receiving presumably the best medical care the Autobots had to offer. Fast forward a bit and we see Ultra Magnus's body *explode* after being shot repeated by the Sweeps, yet he's back on his feet after the Junkions simply stick his parts back together.
Starscream did do most of the killing in that shuttle attack. Megatron only finished off ironhide after starscream nearly killed him after killing ratchet and brawn.
Yes I think starscream was very right about a lot of things about Megatron because the truth is Megatron and starscream always baking at each other and yes start screening is very smart too good for himself. At one time he was friends with one of the autobots
I agree with the fact that Megatron should've been ousted, but Starscream still wouldn't be a good leader. But even though Megatron never won, neither did the Autobots.
1 reason I liked season 3 over the first 2 was because Galvatron didn't care and was less likely to retreat unlike Megatron. I found it was getting lame after season 2 every episode was the same however at the start of the movie it clearly states the decepticons had won they took back cybertron and started killing off the autobots had starscream not thrown him off of astrotrain who knows how the war would have gone since Optimus was dead and Magnus sucked as a leader
Weird how: The war went on for Nine Million Years with no major deaths. No one on Cybertron seemed to get older or die for the next 4 million years. A single energon pistol shot to the shoulder in 2005 is lethal. I HATE the MILLIONS of years element of the story telling.
The biggest problem when it comes to megatron is same reason why Joker won't kill Batman. He needs a rival, someone to make what he does has purpose. Also starscream has many opportunities to defeat meg's but let's his ego ruin his plans.
At least, Starscream is the only one who got a "Ghost" power to possess other weak-willed cybertronians. Too bad this was not expanded very much after season 3.
He may of been right that Megatron needed to be replaced, but without a good replacement things would fall apart even worse. So who should have taken over if Megatron was replaced?
This is why I still say Cy-Kill was better at his job than Megatron. The problem is Starscream is such a bad choice as leader that it's hard to take him seriously.
I like the Decepticon power struggle seen in Marvel G1 because it shows that Starscream isn’t an outlier. Shockwave thinks Megatron is being illogical, Ratbat thinks the Earth Decepticons are bad at managing resources, and Starscream thinks Megatron is dumb. Marvel G1 Megatron has his moments of brilliance, yes, but for the most part he’s an unstable, unreliable leader who couldn’t get crap done while Shockwave slaughtered the main Autobot cast and Starscream went on a cosmically-empowered rampage that wiped out a huge chunk of the G1 cast.
Transformers comics stay winning.
Not to mention there were Scorponok’s desires for power and grandeur as well as Galvatron’s insanity in the mix, plus ‘84 retroactively adding a version of Deathsaurus to that universe
i mean Cosmically Powered Starscream is the 86 Movie of the comic books with how many kills it has
Megatron:
-High firepower
-High Strength
-High combat skill
-Decent planner (not perfect)
-Rewards success
Starscream:
-Flight
-Great with aerial combat
-Amazing resource management
-Fantastic schemer
-Some all-round scientific skills
-Rewards loyalty
In theory, if they worked together with Starscream as a respected second then their overlapping skills would create very competent leadership. Unfortunately, Megatron doesn’t respect Starscream and Starscream wants Megatron’s job.
You forgot Megtaron's insane charisma. He built a whole faction from the ground up after all, and his rethoric persuaded millions of Transformer to join his rebellion.
I’ve been saying this for years. Another great example is Dinobot Island - Starscream correctly concludes pretty early on that the energy is unstable and taking it is causing potentially dangerous conditions on the island, and Megatron just mocks him and ignores his advice
I love how shows like Animated and Prime showcased how Starscream taking power for a substantial amount of time would actually pan out. That is to say, not that great. Ironically, not usually through much fault of his own. He’s just not able to command the same respect and loyalty that Megatron does, and thus struggles with infighting and insubordination a lot. His overconfidence makes a lot of his ambitions and plans fall flat, again, usually because of his troops not backing him up, and it causes him to not only lose the confidence of his men (if they even had any to begin with), but confidence in his own abilities.
Actually Starscream in Prime was a good leader until Megatron showed up at the start of the first season. Until Starscream led, the Autobots were in complete hiding, and the only time the Decepticons managed to kill an autobot was during the 'rule' of Starscream. Also Starscream hoarded a lots of resources, didn't take unecessary risks like Megatron did, and he was very caution in his strategies. In Prime Megatron did some whild shit, which had far reaching consequences (like using dark energon, which was unprecedented. Starscream warned him against doing just that, and it resulted in Unicron taking control of Megatron, and almost causing th end of the world.)
Also Starscream was willing to make compromises, unlike Megtaron and Optimus.
Megatron: I'm going to leave them in a easily escapable situation and assume all goes according to plan... what? Starscream?
Starscream: :rolleyes: this is why I will rule one day.
Megatron: Scuse me?
Starscream: Yes dear Megatron! It's foolproof!
Also there are a bunch of times in g1 where starscream is about to kill an autobot and Megatron is just like: no, let them live for plot convenience
Thank you! Somebody else actually agrees with me on how Starscream should basically be either a third faction, or just take over leadership of the Decepticons entirely.
Agreed
@@ElradAtte and this is not just for a couple of episodes, as much as I love transformers prime. I want this to be a series long thing. Animated Starscream almost got there. Starscream, for whatever reason, always seems to come crawling back to Megatron. He shouldn’t.
All Hail Starscream
@@R0-83-RT yep. As he actually said himself in transformers prime.
@@haydenreviewscustomcombos true
I think Starscream, as self-serving as he is, would've happily stayed second-in-command if only the Decepticons had a leader who would listen to his ideas and worries.
And yet, weirdly, despite Megatron's *abysmal* track record throughout the G1 continuity, the Decepticons somehow managed to conquer Cybertron between Season 2 and the 86 movie.
This reminds me: Starscream mentions how the Autobot moon bases are a threat, whereas Megatron is convinced his plan of destroying Autobot City will work.
Laserbeak's spy deeds literally played back the part of Optimus saying "We don't have enough Energon Cubes" line, which means it would be much more cost-effective to attack them there, rather than Autobot City which has plenty of reserves.
Oh and theres also the fact that Optimus is literally on Moon Base 1, so attacking it would kill Prime, leave the Matrix in Megatron's hands, and greatly demoralize the Autobots on Earth.
the decepticons where in charge of cybertron even before g1.
@@Majinhero and prime being on moon base 1 implies that the decpticons lost ground.
I mean you also have to count the numerous times when Megatron's plans failed BECAUSE of Starscream.
You can also add Galvatron and his greediness to control Unicron then his betrayal which caused him to lose Cybertron and the war and getting his army damaged and banged up from battling Unicron and also battling the Autobots and being exiled to Charr without Galvatron who was tossed through the walls of Unicron into deep space by Rodimus Prime temporarily to lead them as another probably the most epic failure for Megatron/Galvatron in Decepticon history because of the fact by 2005 the Decepticons had fully conquered Cybertron and Megatron killed Optimus Prime and many Autobots died and all he had to do was keep his agreement with Unicron and the Decepticons would still have Cybertron and Unicrons power and assistance unless he was destroyed somehow by the Autobots certain events would have been different also the war would be over until Rodimus Prime and the Autobots regroup and attempt to counterattack
Well, that’s a thing being the strongest doesn’t make you the best leader. So yeah, totally agree that Starscream was right
Megatron before coming to Earth = Harlem Globetrotters. Megatron after coming to Earth = Washington Generals.
OUCH, THAT'S BAAAADDDDD!!!!!!
In divide and conquer starscream was begging megatron to let them kill the autobots after starscream had put optimus prime out of action. He was also about to kill the autobots making it to the space bridge, but megatron reaaaaally wanted to do the acid rain plan.
Some other great moments:
The search for alpha trion: starscream defeats optimus prime and elita 1, and right as he is about to dome elita 1 shockwave insists on a dr evil style lower prime into acid plan that fails.
Masquerade: The autobots disguise as the stunticons, starscream doesn't buy their disguise for a second but megatron doesn't listen to him so he gives up on convincing him and just laughs at everything unfolding.
Ghost in the machine: starscream: "Just wait until I get my body back, then you'll be sorry!" Galvatron: "I'M ALREADY SORRY"
Starscream finally got the job of leadership for about 5 minutes until Megatron returned in the form of Galvatron and killed him with a full blast in his cannon mode
I agree
He is the better description of someone who uses DECEPTION
He puts the Decept in Decepticon
Also, G1 Starscream has something that Megatron doesn't
A sense of Self Preservation
If he's losing he will retreat
While Megatron just has his troops keep fighting till they need to recharge their Energy reserves or of he's the one winning he decides to retreat giving his Enemies to recouperate
Megatron is an Idiot
While Starscream is actually the smarter one
Starscream also is more willing to finish the job if he has the chance
Megatron had to become Galvatron to do that may I remind you he became the "Starscream" to Unicron (Though a Throughly stupider one)
In my AU, Starscream takes over the Decepticons after Megatron dies. And Starscream is genuinely competent. He actually makes incredibly well-thought-out plans and nearly defeats the Autobots. He even allies with the US military before the Autobots get the chance to, leaving the Autobots at a severe disadvantage, now that their potential for human allies is extremely limited. Starscream's main downfall is his own insecurities. His overconfidence is all a facade. He spent his life trying to prove himself, and now that he finally can, he doesn't want to ruin it. But Soundwave is ultimately loyal to Megatron. So much so that he gives Shockwave the task of trying to bring Megatron back to life. And if Starscream were to disapprove, he'd lose favor with the other Decepticons, so he has to go along with it. And throughout the course of the story, internal conflict is what ultimately hurts the Decepticons. Despite Starscream's competence, Skyquake and Needlenose don't trust him, Blitzwing is not loyal to him, Soundwave constantly undermines him, and Shockwave outright hates him. Shadow Striker and Astrotrain are the only ones who listen to Starscream. But Astrotrain is also loyal to his best friend, Blitzwing. And will often side with Blitzwing over Starscream. And Shadow Striker will always choose pursuing her rivalry with Prowl over helping Starscream accomplish his goals. And when Megatron does eventually come back as Galvatron, Starscream is cast aside and left to die while Galvatron destroys everything he's worked for, including a rampage on the military base that was most closely involved with helping the Decepticons.
Will you ever post the full story somewhere?
@@nobodyhere8257 probably.
I wonder who would be Starscream’s own dark reflection? Someone who’s like G1 Starscream but flanderised and warped in terms of values.
Megs and Screamer fight a lot but they stay together because the sex is great.🤣
The IDW corssover with Terminator actually addressed the point about Megatron just leaving Teletraan I and the deactivated Autobots behind in the pilot episode. In those comics, he indeed ordered the Decepticons to blast them all to pieces, but last-minute interference stopped them.
I need to get that book
Then Galvatron was even more unstable than Megatron and they still followed him.
Like a cult.
Nobody attempted to stop Starscream throwing Megatron out of Astrotrain.
I feel like Starscream without the power of plot to defeat him because he has to be, villain ball to make his minions hate him or whatever BS that’s pulled to help the heroes win and justify keeping Megatron on would actually be a dangerous individual in the vein of Robert ‘Bob’ Ritter from the Tom Clancy series.
Cunning in ways gained from his political background, a patriot to his cause in the Decepticons, has a sound tactical mind and wouldn’t hesitate to betray you if it meant to further his cause. Likely could win the Great War against the Autobots by adapting to more practical tactics and strategies with less resources wasted under his leadership. He wouldn’t give the Autobots a chance the way Megatron would and making the same mistakes as him. Might even adapt the Decepticons towards a system more based in the realm of commerce and corporatism to help with their own economy.
And to add insult to injury when Megatron was reformatted into Galvatron he had a genuinely loyal and competent 2nd in command who would make a better leader in Cyclonus and Cyclonus was fanatically loyal!
I will say prime may also have points to rule or at least fill in. Prime starscream when he was ruler went out and did stuff like find skyquake, use makeshift, he called in knockout/breakdown, and tried to mine a large energon pit while megatron played with purple space crack and tunnels visioned on killing Optimus. I’m curious if this starscream would just give up on earth and start rebuilding cybertron or make a new colony world cause the autobots are stuck on earth until they get the forge but if he makes a colony they have no clue where to look.
This starscream did try different methods to get his way he was almost willing to work with the autobots but skyquake interrupted that, also curious if skyquake wasn’t so stubborn if starscream and Optimus would’ve made some type of deal that episode.
Way back in the TF Ring days of the early web, I remember reading a fan-theory that Megatron’s jettison into space in the 86 movie was a co-conspiracy between Astrotrain and Starscream. Always stuck with me.
Also, if you watch G1 from start to finish, it seems like Megatron burned up all his resources in The Ultimate Doom-which was probably the closest he came to total victory. After that, all his plans seemed a bit desperate.
Megatron’s shortcomings were a central part of the Marvel comics (issue 5 onward). However, this was addressed lethally by Shockwave, not Starscream.
Megatron lived by the credo Might Makes Right. Look at their mottos, "Peace Through Tyranny" Megatron is literally saying everything will be fine if you rule with an iron fist and cruelty. "Conquest is built on the ashes of ones Enemies" is also pretty harsh, but it speaks to his nature. To be in charge you have to eliminate opposition. If you are onboard with Starscream he will probably lead fairly and even be generous. It's also worth noting that tyranny is generally a bad word, conquest can have many meanings, not all negative.
I’d say Megatron is DS9 Gul Dukat with Damar’s sternness while Starscream is Damar with Gul Dukat’s charm. Dukat had ample opportunities to win the Dominion War by taking out the self-replicating minefields surrounding the wormhole near DS9 containing a large fleet of his Dominion allies but was too busy trying to woo over the heart of a woman who hates him and her people that despises him while Damar was able to figure out how to deactivate the replicators and did question some of Dukat’s decision making that ultimately became his own undoing.
@rayvenkman2087
Agreed. And, also, love the DS9 comparison.
I would love to see a video similar to this, reviewing Rodimus Prime’s tenure as leader of the Autobots. Not as a “let’s dunk on Rodimus” but as an objective review as his time as leader.
Rodimus beat Galvatron down . Enuf said.
Yeeeeah... G1 Megatron's kind of a dumbass. While none of the cartoon cast are particularly deep characters in the cartoon itself (besides Rodimus, my beloved), I wouldn't mind betting that Megatron is actually responsible for Starscream's treachery. He makes the guy his second-in-command and leader of his air forces, and then verbally abuses him and ignores all the reasonable concerns he has with his schemes. Starscream's ambition and lack of loyalty are rooted in the lack of respect he gets. He sees the flaws in Megatron's plans, voices them, is ignored, and then those plans fail at best. At worst, they almost kill the other Decepticons. Why wouldn't he look at that and go "Screw it, I could do a better job."
Starscream already had an Army to seize command. He didn't need Bruticus
Supreme Commander: Starscream
Second in Command: Sunstorm
Generals: Thundercracker and Skywarp
Troopers: Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, Cloudcover, Acid Storm, Ion Storm, Nova Storm, Hotlink, Bitstream and Red Wing
Grunts: Seeker Generics
“Who dares interrupt my coronation!?” 😮
“Coronation Starscream? This is bad comedy…” 😂
“Megatron, is that you?” 😅
“Here’s a hint!” 😈
“Aaahiiieee!” 😵 **SIZZLE**
You forgot to mention that in the first episode Starscream did actually try to destroy the Ark, he took a few shots at it with his Null Rays as the Decepticons were leaving but Megatron stopped him. There was an excuse about being low on Energon and the Autobots being in Stasis Lock so they didn't need to kill them then but the Autobots could have been defeated in that first episode if Megatron didn't cause Starscream to miss. Because Starscream hit the volcano and not the Ark that caused the first Autobot to fall into the scanner and get repaired by Teletran 1 so Megatron not only didn't take the opportunity to defeat them outright but actively caused the chain of events that lead to them being repaired.
The real question is... what if Starscream actually succeeded and did take over, which incarnation of Starscream would make the best leader? Cause not every Starscream is the same, they might have similar personalities but I think Starscream has wildly different competence levels across his different incarnations. So which Starscream would be the best Decepticon leader assuming Megatron was already out of the picture.
G1 is pretty arguable just because 80s plot armor. Though there's quite a few plots out there where Starscream really shines.
Armada Starscream I am almost certain after a number of years would have negotiated a truce. Arguable if that is better or not.
Energon Starscream lacks the proper ambition to be leader ironically.
Cybertron Starscream is weird to say because he literally did create his own splinter faction. He's more of a schemer than Megatron, but considering Cybertron Megatron and Starscream don't really have any grand plans to rule Cybertron and are merely power hungry, got to go with Megatron because at the end of the day he was more powerful, even though they were both power houses.
Animated Starscream lacks the charisma to lead the Decepticons, they literally disbanded the second Megatron died.
We see Prime Starscream become leader for a short time, and we do see he isn't all too good at it.
Movie Starscream at least in the video games actually seems to be a fairly competent leader during the events of revenge of the fallen, and he seems to focus more on Cybertron and resource management than Megatron does. Though he still died to Sam at the end of the day so take that for what you will.
Probably got to turn to the comics. Marvel Starscream did a fairly good job whenever he was in power, he was extremely good at weaselling his way out of trouble and manipulating others into furthering his goals.
IDW Starscream also did a not-awful job with his second stint as leader. Most of the issues he faced during his time as ruler of Cybertron came from people actively fucking with him and trying to bring him down. He managed to avoid reigniting the war on Cybertron itself, ruled peacefully for several years, and things only got really bad again after he quit. His subsequent re-emergence as leader of the Decepticons was short-lived and more prone to error (really, Screamer? You gave a fleet of battleships to _Bludgeon_ of all bots?) but he _was_ facing the Robot Satan Apocalypse so hardly the worst showing.
I don't know much about Dreamwave.
IDW2 Screamer didn't get much time to shine, but when he's doing stuff, he's fairly competent at it. Helps that he has to work alongside one of the dumber Megatrons of recent years.
Outside of the comics, Earthspark Starscream isn't awful. He's certainly not perfect, but he's not a total coward either, willingly throwing himself into a fight with a mind-controlled Megatron to protect the Maltos and leading the other Decepticons to their aid as well.
@@R0-83-RT I wouldn't say that Energon Starscream lacks ambition to be leader. He doesn't have any memory of who he is and is made to be loyal to Megatron simply by removing his memories. But if we're assuming Megatron is already out of the picture and Starscream got his memories restored, he'd be the same Starscream from Armada just in a new body.
Cybertron is also technically suppose to be the same Starscream, at least as far as the American dub is concerned it's still set in the same continuity. Never mind the fact that Galaxy Force in Japan is a new continuity and that Starscream actually is suppose to be a different incarnation. But I do think he might actually be a good leader because Cybertron is still the closest Starscream has ever gotten to over throwing Megatron. He's about on equal power level and one of the most mentally competent as well as being physically superior to other incarnations.
Animated Starscream also lacks any real Power, I mean there is a montage of Megatron killing him repeatedly. The only almost successful attempt he made was done by pretending to be loyal and planting on bomb on Megatron's back as he was leaving the Nemesis. And this was also a Megatron who didn't put of Starscream at all and never gave him any second chances.
Both Animated and Prime also share the same problem that they can't even lead a clone army of himself.
Movie Starscream I'd actually say lacks ambition. There's a line in the Last Knight where Megatron finds Starscream's severed head and says "Starscream my old treacherous friend" before crushing the head in his hand which made no sense because movie Starscream never actually showed any sign of treachery at all. In fact movie Starscream seemed to be entirely loyal to Megatron.
He did lead the Decepticons in the first movie while Megatron was frozen in ice and Starscream even gave the order to thaw Megatron from the ice. In the second movie it was the Fallen, not Starscream who took command of the Decepticons, Starscream just delivered the bad news. And movie Megatron was constantly loosing leadership in every single gawd damn movie. Starscream was the leader for most of the 2007 film, the Fallen was the leader in the sequel, Sentinel Prime was the leader after that, then Galvatron took a back seat to Lockdown in AoE, Quintessa is commanding them in Last Knight, and Megatron hasn't even been in the most recent movies at all. The live action movies seem to hate Megatron.
@@RialVestro I seperated Unicron Trilogy Starscream because despite technically being the same being none of the character's personality or character is maintained. In Energon because Starscream has no memory he sort of acts as a completely different entity than his previous self. I would argue it's kind of similar to what happened to the Vehicon generals, technically they have the sparks of previous characters, but without their memory they essentially act as completely different characters.
And yes I know about the whole thing about Galaxy Force was supposed to be it's own show but the dub decided to attach the show to Armada & Energon. Though apparently I did hear the Japanese team did attempt to connect the show to the Unicron Trilogy after they found out what happened to the localized versions. This is why the humans from Armada & Energon can briefly be seen at the end of Cybertron/Galaxy Force. Though considering this has minimal effects on the rest of the show, honestly I dunno🤷. Cybertron is a continuity headache.
Animated Starscream is weak compared to Megatron though ironically considering how powerful the average Decepticon is in Animated in comparison to the average Autobot it really isn't all too bad of a detriment. In the first 2 seasons it takes about 3-5 Autobots to go against Starscream. Granted Animated Starscream is hardly fit to be leader, though considering both Starscream and Shockwave are capable of taking on Ultra Magnus, it kind of shows just how weak the Autobots in Animated are as a whole.
You are right that technically Starscream isn't leading during Revenge of the Fallen, the Fallen is. Though in the Revenge of the Fallen games it is mostly Starscream who is giving the direct orders, while the Fallen acts more as a higher up, giving Decepticons vague plans but not actively leading anyone during missions. Also you're right that the movie version of Starscream never really applied himself when it comes to traitorous intent, though I wouldn't say this is a lack of ambition, rather the movie version of Starscream is playing it safe, which ironically does allow Starscream to act as a leader in Megatron's absence. Granted I will admit this makes the movie version of Starscream a less interesting character, since he never really schemes against Megatron, rather just waits to take an opportunity to lead.
Screamer was always my favorite in the original G1 cartoon series because he would point out the issues with Megs plans and Megs would ignore him just to have those plans not work. Screamer did have some questionable moments with plans as well, but mainly it was because he had lost self confidence after being knocked down a leg or two by Megatron that he did not show strength when leadership moments did come.
The idea somewhat came to my mind when watching Aalgar's transformers reviews. So many of Megatrons schemes are kind of dumb that I do at times think, yeah Starscream would probably be a better leader.
It would also make sense for him to get sick of Meg's leadership. G1 Megatron was goofy as hell but hes still a badass
It's worth noting that Starscream is equally responsible for the Autobots coming back on line, him firing on the Ark after the Decepticons left is what knocked Optimus into Teletrann's restorative beam.
To be fair, he wouldn’t have known his shot would inadvertently reactivate them and Megatron had a once in a lifetime chance to erase the deactivated Autobots present while they’re unable to call for help or have anyone to save them.
To be fair the shot he had lined up would most likely have destroyed the ark and the autobots inside it was only due to interference from Megatron that the shot he actually took awoke the autobots.
So, if I was to create a Transformers character who combined with Starscream, and I formed the head of that character as a headmaster, then I may or may not permanently negotiate with Starscream into not betraying me. If he did, I would obliterate him. I would even go as far as separating from the Transformers character, and having Starscream obliterate it, so then we could team up and I could make him think that I wanted to Megatron destroyed. Spoilers, it would end with me blasting Starscream with Megatron’s fusion cannon.
ALL HAIL STARSCREAM!!!
All hail Starscream 🙌
Autobots get the Earth Buff in every continuity
Between shockwave and Starscream as the lead scientist of the Decepticons, I would have to go with Starscream. Sorry shockwave.
Starscream may be treacherous, cunning and sneaky by nature but he is a Decepticon at his core who’ll do what he can for the cause while Shockwave is self-serving towards his own ideals.
In the latest HasvVerse episode I'm writing, Starscream leads a team to steal data (location of the Nemesis for Space Bridge purposes). He is narrowly defeated by Jazz's Unit-E. And Megatron is furious, because the Warlord neglected to tell his second in command about a plan already in progress, which Starscream interfered with.
Starscream is the tactician, Megatron is the strategist. But Megatron not sharing data with his #2 because he doesn't trust him, leads to failures.
The Decepticons would have been better off if Starscream lead them in Season 3.
I mean that's not saying much since Galvatron was literally insane. Arguably even rumble would have been a better leader at that point.
Whenever Starscream was cautious, Megatron wasn’t, and vice versa.
It would have been hilarious if Megatron had a list of evil things to do in order to become a bad guy
It's a fun topic, but in all honesty....asking why Megatron didn't win more is like asking why Batman doesn't just kill The Joker, or why Storm Troopers never hit their target, etc, we know why that can't happen. Until it did, in Transformers The Movie and we all saw what that would look like for once, only for it to go back to status quo because.....Megatron wins, kills all Autobots, shows over.
Fully agreed, you're preaching to the choir!
here is an interesting conspiracy theory, what if all the failures of megatron are because he was repaired by teletran 1?
Teletran 1 was made by the autobots for the autobots, who can say he didn't sneak in a bit that changed him from 100% decepticon, to 99% decepticon and 1% autobot, and that 1% is why the autobots somehow always find a way to win?
As a "man" of Science myself, I would be just like Starscream if I was in his place
But, He definitely shouldn't be the Leader him. He should at least have been given the chance to be More respected and given I don't know more of a Secondary Leader of some kind ?
He's shown to at least lead the other Seekers well enough
My lines about Starscream are, first, from Triple Takeover: "No planet ever lost its orbit by overestimating the stupidity of Starscream." And that's BLITZWING talking, who's good in a fight but pretty much a lunkhead otherwise. Then, for the G2 comics, Optimus asks Megatron outright why je always kept Starscream around, and Megatron replies, "Because I'm an idiot!"
As for the topic of the video... No, I don't think so, really. On the time scale of beings that live for literal millions of years and might not have an "old age" or senility at all, Megatron taking a couple of years to gather resources and information, and as seen in several season two episodes scout out and connect with the situation in the wider galaxy, before getting serious with the TFtM attack that utterly wrecked a huge number of the Autobot forces, engaging in various schemes when opportunity presented itself but calling a retreat before his own forces could suffer losses when they didn't pan out, that all seems completely reasonable to me. Yes, there's plot induced stupidity along the way as you pointed out, but much as it would be preferrable to stick with in-universe arguments, it's ultimately still a children's show explicitly designed to sell toys. Subtle planning would be apt to lose the target audience of boys ages six to thirteen, and of course the baddies have to be defeated by the end of the show, no matter how dire the situation looks going into the second commercial break.
Finally, City of Steel was an awesome pisode and I always wanted an allicon Optimus toy as a kid. I'm still waiting for that, honestly... maybe Legacy, as they've already done some pretty deep cuts for that with Defcon and the Toxitron collection, or a head swap and recolor of (hopefully the Cyberverse Warrior-class rather than the TFES 1-step) Skullcruncher in the Earthspark line.
In Megatron's defense, maybe a contributing factor to his poor track record is that he excelled on Cybertron when he had massive armies and resources at his disposal, but struggles when dealing with with the small-scale tactics associated with working with what amounts to just a few squads to a company of soldiers. Then again, Decepticons had complete control of Cybertron, so the fact that once they had the space bridge he didn't have Shockwave send overwhelming numbers does sort of throw that argument out the window.
The blame lies with 1980's cartoon writing creating invincible plot armor for the heroes. If the battles were portrayed through the cartoon years the way he was in The Transformers: The Movie, Megatron would have succeeded easily. I know that's breaking cannon but after 5 million years of victory it makes no sense to suddenly lose every single conflict with an enemy that had been fleeing for their lives. The only way I can reconcile this with the cartoon cannon is somehow when the Decepticons were revived they were patently defective. Maybe Teletraan-1's reactivation of them was to blame and they were never "quite right", whereas when the Autobots were revived they didn't have the same problem? Teletraan was obviously not working optimally since it didn't know the difference between Autobots and Decepticons when it revived them, so could that be the hidden explanation for Megatron's apparent incompetence?
I agree, in that Ol 'Sceeamer was right about Megs, and his constant failures, as well knowing that Megs's rule was done, but, he should've asked for his fellow 'Cons to help him find a succesor to Megatron, instead of grabbing the top spot for his self.
How I see Megatron's relationship with Starscream after God of War.
Mimir: do you fear death?
Kratos: No... Death can have me when it EARNS me ...
In my opinion, Megatron should have joined shockwave in staying on cyber Tron, because how else is Megatron going to keep an eye on the planet he has basically already conquered/drained at this point.
Megatron holding a stalemate for 5 million years isn’t exactly the mark of a great leader. Especially considering his entire army is built for warfare & his enemies are civilian hardware.
Megatron wasn't sure which set of Stunticons were the Autobots but he didn't attempt to destroy both. The loss of the real Stunticons would be a small price to pay for the destruction of Optimus Prime and four other Autobots.
Starscream was sure tho. From the moment he saw the autobots painted up like them.
Megatron and the other Deceptions could have further scrapped the Auto bots on day on Earth as they were revived first. There would have literally been no fight whatsoever. I'mean also supra sec Shockwave never tried or actually tried to depot Megatron like he did in the Marvel vomic.
I mean ... you're not wrong, but he mostly suffers from being an 80s villain. It would be fairer to compare Megatron to his peers - Mumm-ra, Skeletor, and Cobra Commander (among others). Was he less successful than any of them? His inability to listen to others when he's focused on a short term goal is pretty bad. That's the best point in the vid. But his poor schemes and oversights after landing on Earth are part and parcel of being an 80s villain and something Soundwave would suffer from too if we're being fair.
It’s funny how we remember Optimus and Megatron as mighty leaders but in a realistic context both were HORRIBLE leaders. Only thing putting Optimus above Megs is that at least he doesn’t humiliate his associates lol.
Of course, by the time Starscream did finally pull off the closest he got to a full grand coup, Megatron had somehow conquered the rest of the planet and banished the last of the Autobots offworld. Then proceeded to slaughter an entire Autobot shuttle crew, lead a pretty successful sack of Autobot City, and fatally wound Optimus Prime... Gee, Megatron seems to do so much better when he isn't limited to 22 minutes of screen time, doesn't he?
Megatron does better when he's allowed to kill (discontinued) Autobots, and even that's only true for the beginning of the movie. During the attack on the shuttle, the Autobots die with one or two hits. Optimus dies from a few shots from a random pistol Megatron found laying on the ground, even after receiving presumably the best medical care the Autobots had to offer. Fast forward a bit and we see Ultra Magnus's body *explode* after being shot repeated by the Sweeps, yet he's back on his feet after the Junkions simply stick his parts back together.
Starscream did do most of the killing in that shuttle attack. Megatron only finished off ironhide after starscream nearly killed him after killing ratchet and brawn.
Yes I think starscream was very right about a lot of things about Megatron because the truth is Megatron and starscream always baking at each other and yes start screening is very smart too good for himself. At one time he was friends with one of the autobots
I agree with the fact that Megatron should've been ousted, but Starscream still wouldn't be a good leader. But even though Megatron never won, neither did the Autobots.
Perhaps we were wrong about Starscream
Basically Starscream really likes grass…
Very enjoyable video
I hate it TJ, that the G1 continuity kept forgetting Starscream was a scientist along with Skyfire/Jetfire, before the war.
You sound as frustrated with Megatron's prolonged and unnecessarily dragged out villainous destruction ploys as Scott Evil
Question, is the giveaway over?
I think you should do what are the top 10 best Decepticon leaders and Autobots
Which is better in your opinion, g1 starsream, or do you think that Shockwave from the comic is better
he's out of line but he's right
Starscream couldn't lead a parade
1 reason I liked season 3 over the first 2 was because Galvatron didn't care and was less likely to retreat unlike Megatron. I found it was getting lame after season 2 every episode was the same however at the start of the movie it clearly states the decepticons had won they took back cybertron and started killing off the autobots had starscream not thrown him off of astrotrain who knows how the war would have gone since Optimus was dead and Magnus sucked as a leader
Weird how:
The war went on for Nine Million Years with no major deaths.
No one on Cybertron seemed to get older or die for the next 4 million years.
A single energon pistol shot to the shoulder in 2005 is lethal.
I HATE the MILLIONS of years element of the story telling.
The biggest problem when it comes to megatron is same reason why Joker won't kill Batman. He needs a rival, someone to make what he does has purpose. Also starscream has many opportunities to defeat meg's but let's his ego ruin his plans.
Cade bane
The rule of 2
One master
One apprentice
Megatron is the sith master
Starscream the lesser sith apprentice
Elements of star wars can exist in transformers 😂
At least, Starscream is the only one who got a "Ghost" power to possess other weak-willed cybertronians. Too bad this was not expanded very much after season 3.
All Megatron had to do was not revive Starscream on the Ark, and the Decepticons would have easily taken over earth.
He may of been right that Megatron needed to be replaced, but without a good replacement things would fall apart even worse. So who should have taken over if Megatron was replaced?
Lol, I am a fan of your dark side...? P.s. miss the toy story life.
This is why I still say Cy-Kill was better at his job than Megatron. The problem is Starscream is such a bad choice as leader that it's hard to take him seriously.
You know that this is a kids' show, right? No kids want to see the bad guys win.
You are really downplaying Megatron's popularity, aren't you?