Character Information
*Character Name: Commander Starscream
*Character Canon: The universe of Transformers: Prime; which means variable data from the tie-in comics/magazines and some canon taken from the prequel books and games that are supposed to be chronologically first...but... whose canon doesn't really logically match up all the time. Hasbro isn't big on continuity.

*Age: Extremely old for his species. Think spritely old man. Like Patrick Stewart with a gun (and knee-high heels).
*Race: Cybertronian (Seeker --- if that turns out to be a race within a defined species, or something)
*Timeline/Pull Point: From the end of season 2.

*History: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_(Prime)
*Personality:

Short version of his personality:
He's: a bully, showy, vain, racist, manipulative, sadistic, greedy, power hungry, cruel, situationally cowardly, too talkative, able to turn his self respect on and off like a switch, needy, boastful, in possession of an overblown sense of self, not entirely sane, in denial, vindictive, petty, dramatic, hysterical, excitable, capable of honour but rarely demonstrating it, opportunistic, deceitful, moderately self aware, easily frightened, predatory, unpredictable, desperate, impatient, rash, seen as a brilliant strategist, his own worst enemy, least sure of who he is as a person compared with the rest of the cast, old fashioned in some of his views, and bad at being social in any context that doesn't involve grovelling and/or violent intimidation.

Additionally, the show goes out of its way to explicitly state that Starscream's most important feature is his inability to decide what he wants/needs. He can't decide who he hates more, either his own team or the enemy's team, and is completely torn between his need for praise and approval from his boss and at one time, very old partner (Megatron) or whether he wants to murder Megatron and assume his position of power.

TL;DR version below:
The most important aspect of Starscream's character, and his main driving force is his sense of self and self-value. People may say it's his want of power, but that would be based more on his historical interpretation than just the Prime universe itself. Starscream may grovel, beg, and make puppy dog eyes in order to get his way (or try to minimize an imminent beating) but that's always in an ends-justify-the-means fashion. I'm not saying he's secretly chivalrous – far from it – but Starscream isn't spineless either (though he will play it up if he thinks it'll benefit himself). Starscream likes to take and manufacture his advantages where he can find them, but that said, he'll still lead an army while putting himself in the front lines. And even while that's true, he's still a commander (highest ranking in the entire army), and the nature of the position usually has him playing a more removed role involving directing the troops and making battle calls. His position affords him more immediate safety from the battlefield which lines up with his behaviour favouring flight to fight when the going gets rough - and the majority of his weapons are long range too - though he's still excellent at hand to hand combat, and is even shown to prefer it in certain circumstances.

For every negative aspect of Starscream's character, he seems to demonstrate at least one mirroring positive trait on the opposite end of the spectrum. For example: he can be both an excellent actor with legitimately ambiguous intentions, or he can be the most transparent liar ever. He can be a sniveling coward, fleeing and pleading for his life, or he can be throwing himself headfirst into a fight. His character is pretty mercurial, and that fits with his somewhat over-dramatic mannerisms, and propensity to grandly monologue (to rocks, the comatose, or even the dead).

Starscream is a Decepticon, and he's pretty obviously a bad guy. And in a show that's primarily geared to children and therefore simplifies the distinction between good and evil, Starscream is barely ambiguous as falling into the Evil category. He's cruel, sadistic, manipulative, prone to jealousy, violent, greedy, into torture and interrogation, power hungry, abusive toward his comrades and underlings, and somewhat follows the cliche of effeminate men as a trope to make viewers uncomfortable. He's ruthless, and often the most keen of the Decepticons to outwardly pursue a good guy with the intention of killing them. In fact, he's the only robot to manage murdering an Autobot onscreen in the present, and his expected treatment of wartime prisoners is to "make them into sport."

This is interesting, because Starscream obviously has an overblown sense of superiority (as seen in his many monologues, or self references as being “great” or “mighty,” and his demands than he be referred to as “Lord”). But at the same time he proves himself as self-aware, and is sometimes self-depreciating, showing that he understands for example, how his grovelling can be seen as somewhat pathetic. It's this sense of self that drives him to make his most important decisions, and this is among the leading factors for his deserting his army after a millennium of battling for their side. Starscream has had ample opportunity to fly off on his own, and he at one point justifies his inability to do so because of the probability of a beating at the hand of his boss since "there's nowhere I could hide that [he] wouldn't find me."

Skip ahead a couple episodes and we see Starscream trying to grapple with his self-concept and self-value; but it isn't until after he irrevocably sees how little he's respected aboard the ship that he finally decides to hightail it out of his current situation. For all his hated abasement in an effort to escape violence (at the hands of his enemies and superior officer) it isn't the violence that sees him leaving, but the physical infringement on his self perception. His ego is among one of his greatest faults too, because he often acts in ways that damage himself just to assuage his inflated sense of importance. For example: he'll forgo a repair and upgrade to replace (and improve) his missing arm, because he's too attached his old self, or he'll babble his way into a hostile situation because he's too busy complaining about how he doesn't get the respect he deserves. He doesn't react well to being chastised either, (especially not by his boss) and such things lead to temper tantrums at best, or a dangerous disregard for personal safety at the worst, as he pushes himself too far in order to (try and) prove a point.

His need for reaffirmation and adoration (if he had his way, but really more like acknowledgement) explains why he'd be willing to change sides (his aborted stint as a potential Autobot) before finally having to leave all on his lonesome; because while being free and "slave to no one" is all well and good, being alone supplies no one to be bullied, and no one to gratify him with acknowledgement. And in so far as robots go, Starscream is a pretty social creature. This desire to be recognized as powerful even pushes him to consider an end to the entire damn war if Optimus (his enemy's leader) will bow for him -- something Optimus (for all his apparent desire to end the war at nearly any cost) doesn't even acknowledge --- which just goes to show again, how much it makes sense that Starscream would want that.

And that's another interesting point, because for all his weaknesses and faults (of which he has many), Starscream's still legitimately competent at what he does (most of the time). It's completely understandable that his main driving force is to assure himself of further respect when you consider the working environment he's had to endure for over a millenia; with Megatron belittling him, completely disregarding his often correct advice, and publicly beating and humiliating him. In fact, of all the people on the warship, it seems like Megatron has singled Starscream out as a personal punching bag regardless of his rank of office or previous actions. Even before (Megatron went stark raving mad and was seen as being unfit to lead the Decepitcon army - which also happens to be the largest collection of planetary refugees from their dead world) Starscream tried to kill his boss, and was to all viewers apparently completely loyal to the cause, he was still the only Decepticon we see Megatron manhandling aboard his ship.

This abusive relationship is pretty enlightening when used to understand Starscream's character too. It's obvious he's pretty emotionally (and physically) resilient (and brave) when having to deal with this constant casual violence, but it also emphasizes how little violence actually means to him for all his (very sane) aversion to it. All of this further makes sense when you realise that Starscream is a soldier. He also takes after his boss (and master -- the latter something he doesn't even demand his troops refer to him as, even though it would probably tickle him pink). Starscram mentions Megatron mentoring him too, and that explains why a lot of his practices mirror his boss's. Both their approaches to leadership and earning respect stem from discipline (see: abuse). They both react positively to seeing others brought low before them -- though Megatron nearly exclusively prefers that in Starscream, while his SIC doesn't discriminate at all.

Meanwhile for all of Megatron's very physical bullying of his second in command, he obviously and publicly values Starscream -- to an almost illogical extent. He sends one of Starscream's rivals (in attention seeking) out to retrieve some important artifact, but when the mission goes sour, he flips out and says he never cared about the trinket or mission, but is instead furious at the loss of his SIC (the result of the episode). This also proves that Megatron knows what he's doing when it comes to punishing Starscream without violence, since this had a much more striking effect that the last near-death beating. Also consider the fact that Megatron has allowed Starscream access to all their secret intelligence, as well as the actual position as highest ranking Decepticon, second only to himself. Not only that, but for all his teasing and threats, he never actually kills the guy. It's been suggested that's there's evidence that they both may have more than just a working (very dysfunctional) relationship together, but it's developer stated canon that the Decepicon warship is a very "don't ask, don't tell" environment, and this doesn't affect how anyone treats the guys. So while Starscream's clearly valued (any emotional reasons notwithstanding), this just isn't something Megatron seems likely to ever actually share with him-- possibly because he knows that's what his SIC most badly wants (aside from maybe a little less abuse).

But even though Starscream's a capable military strategist with a job history of experience, an understanding and interest in resource allocation and acquisition, a prestigious military background, and a professional "scientific curiosity" with the know-how to head a team tasked with building a supremely complication teleportation device using technology of a bygone age... he's still a complete moron sometimes. He's not incapable of thinking in the long term but is excitable and too easily ruled by his emotions and frustrations. Regardless of any professional foresight, sometimes he just throws that all to the wind in order to make stunningly poor, rash decisions. And if his biggest flaw isn't his impatience, it's his inability to shut his stupid mouth when those frustrations of his get the better of him.

*Powers/Abilities:
---- Excluding abilities born of personality:
---- He's a giant robot and made of compact super durable metal and as strong as you would expect for this type of creature.

• Starscream is the only character we see kill a “good guy” in the present, and he does that with his claws, which are both strong and sharp enough to pierce the heavy (often explosion-proof and sometimes volcano-proof) metal armour of his robo-brethren.
• Cybertronians can scan unknown vehicles from other worlds at will, and then transform their bodies into these vehicles while retaining sentience and vehicle functionality. This also works as pretty good disguising.
• He has two removable arm mounted rockets (which can be upgraded and regenerated offscreen), and has an additional gun built into each arm (he needs to transform his arm to access them).
• Even though he's faster as a plane, he's among one of the speediest robots in bipedal mode (even with his high-heels) sometimes able to dodge gunfire by simply dancing around.
• Starscream transforms into a jet, and thanks to this, can fly. And since he is the jet, he doesn't require a pilot.
• Given his nonorganic makeup, he's naturally resistant to extreme weather and temperatures. Also he's space-proof, capable of chilling out in the vacuum of space without protection.
• Another internal mechanism that exists inside Starscream is his communication system that allows him to key into certain radio channels/wavelengths and communicate with his men / his warship / speed dial the enemy's base from a remote location.
• Cybertronians don't need to breath (but do possess cooling fans that cycle air through his body, effectively mirroring a respiratory system... but these can be turned off)
• It's assumed that he, like the rest of the Autobots can magnetize himself to stick to metallic surfaces.
• He apparently has somewhat of a slight immunity to the crazy making drug: dark energon. This could be because he's used it before.
• Given the right equipment (or someone who knows what they're doing), he can reattach his limbs and buff out any scratches and dings
• Given his greater mass, density, and armour plating, he's somewhat explosion proof / heavily resilient against trauma [He's also used to being beaten half to death every other day, so he's been tempered]
• While still painful, his limbs can be removed when needed.
• His original function back when his planet had a working culture and society was that of an elite Energon Seeker. That's roughly comparable to being a truffle pig since energon is a Transformer's food staple. This means that Starscream('s instruments) are hypothetically a lot more sensitive to locating energon when compared to most of his canon peers. And this makes sense since you'd hope that that was the case when you're a food scavenging robot leading an armada of other food scavenging robots through space looking for rare buried minerals on foreign planets.
• Directly stated in canon as being a brilliant strategist (apparently) and knows his way around science better than the average robot -- enough that he was project lead in building a spacebridge. He's also figured out the human internet.

*Inventory: portable groundbridge remote (that probably won't work, but was in his robot pocket anyway), his clone's Tcog (only included in his inventory  if one of the firstforged can't conjure one up for him later), the Apex Armour (usable, but in its 'packed away' form and not currently on his person.) One alien-robot-jar that allows for human transportation in space.

*Starting Polarity: LIEGE MAXIMO
Reasons:
-- Not only is Starscream an antagonist, but he himself states that he's after unspeakable destruction; so he needs to be aligned with someone who isn't all about philanthropy
--  The can both disappear for days on end because they're off doing their own thing. Additionally, Liege likes discover (and maybe has a thing for squatting on top of resources), and Starscream is an energon seeker, so he's all sorts of keen on discovering and hoarding  new energon deposits.
-- They're both pretty willing to talk (and talk, and talk) given half the chance and both aren't very good at accepting "No, you can't have that," as an answer.
-- Liege and Starscream are also all about manipulation and being disdainful
-- Starscream's entire life plays out like a huge prank where he's the butt of the universe's joke. This general theme will probably fit right in with Liege's apparent troll tendencies.


Final Notes for the Lost Event:
1. What would their role would most likely have been in the Haven of the past – a builder, a jokester, a therapist, a warrior?
Starscream is a flexible jack of all trades, but a master of none. He could have been (and was probably) doing any/all of the following (with variable rates of failure) depending on which would give him the most predicted advantage: Trying to scrounge up his own personal army, trying to play with science and (slowly) build his own spacebridge to get home, and trying to bully/manipulate people into giving him what he wants.
2. a) What elements of Haven life would they have involved themselves in the most?
Honestly though, he probably spent the majority of his time brown-nosing to ALL of the First Forged and trying to win ALL of their favour. Because from where he's standing, those are the people with the biggest pieces of pie (to hopefully share with him).
b) What memories would they have held to most dearly? Quiet moments spent in the library, the battles to defend the Haven, exploratory missions into the wastelands?

• Starscream enjoys flying quite a bit, as well as showing off in any capacity. If he had an audience, he'd have very much enjoyed displaying his aerial superiority.
• If Starscream was able to snag someone, he dearly loves a nice long torture session as he plays the deranged sadist and murderer (that he is)
• His most favourite hypothetical experience though, could have been: Receiving something he could interpret as a compliment from someone large and powerful... and then telling everyone about it, and gloating like a total tool.