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"Yes! Right then... Solemn face, solemn face..."
"Time makes all things possible. I can wait."
In some stories the Big Bad casts a shadow over everyone: They might be afraid of him, they might be his minions, or they might be the heroes trying to defeat him.
A certain type of character falls outside this pattern: a villain too ambitious or stubbornly individualistic to accept the supremacy of the Big Bad. Instead, this villain actually dreams about overthrowing the guy everyone else fears and taking his place. Sometimes he is a (grudging) servant of the Big Bad; sometimes he is entirely outside the established power structure. Either way, if the Big Bad ever stumbles or shows weakness, the Starscream will be there, ready to kick him out of the Astrotrain.
Depending on the nature of the character, he may be an over-optimistic fool or someone who might actually be able to pull it off. If the character is badass enough, the heroes might be forced to try and stop him from toppling the original villain. Usually fond of playing Commander Contrarian to their boss' schemes ( deservedly or not), who will normally Neck Lift them into cowtowing to their will. It can be hard to justify why the Big Bad keeps them around, but it may most commonly be so the Big Bad has a reason to always keep his guard up.
Differs from the Reliable Traitor in not always working for the Big Bad and in his reasons for working with the villain (if indeed he does so).
Not the same as The Dragon getting a promotion when he survives the Big Bad's downfall—That's Dragon Ascendant. Also not to be confused with Dragon Their Feet, where the Big Bad's right hand man screws his boss over by strangely being absent at a bad time.
Quite strongly related to the Sith Rule of Two (see: film), where this is expected and quite nearly mandated.
Many examples can end up being The Millstone if their schemes consistently screw up the Big Bad's plans enough to let the heroes keep pull off wins.
See also Bastard Understudy, with a similar attitude but more subtlety and patience, and The Dog Bites Back, for when the attacker has not planned but takes advantage of weakness.
Often involves Nice Job Fixing It Villain. All examples prone to contain Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
Contrast Sarcastic Devotee and Professional Butt Kisser.
Examples:
Transformers
- Starscream of Transformers, obviously, especially in the 1986 animated movie. Before that, of course, Status Quo Is God, so he'd fail every. Single. Episode. If Megatron so much as sneezes he'll start shouting "Megatron has fallen!" And Megatron would never punish him much for it. (Except in the movie, when he did). Cracked's "5 Reasons Megatron Should have Fired Starscream Years Ago"
 list provides five examples of Starscream's ambitious behavior as well as ineptitude in a single episode (the FIRST EVER episode no less!).
- In The Movie, Megs-into-Galvatron actually kills Starscream, only to find himself as The Starscream to Unicron, with no better success than the original—less in fact, because Unicron is now the source of his power.
- And of course in the post-movie season, Starscream comes back and then procedes to backstab Unicron, with his usual level of success. Truly the man has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
- Scorponok in Transformers Headmasters was similar, but both sneakier and more willing to act against Galvatron.
- Starscream's Expy, Terrorsaur, in Beast Wars has the same MO, with the same suspicious lack of permanent consequences (though it might be explained by Megatron's lack of man-er... robot-power).
- Arguably, Tarantulas took over this role after Terrorsaur's death at the beginning of season 2. Arguable because his motivations are a lot more mysterious and sinister than simple ambition.
- And of course, let's not forget the episode Possession, where the actual Starscream showed up, possessed Waspinator, lied about his past, then betrayed Beast Wars's Megatron, then betrayed Optimus Primal, then betrayed Megatron again...only to be betrayed in the end by Blackarachnia.
- Don't forget that in one episode, Terrorsaur somewhat succeeded, only to have the Maximals advancing and Megatron mockingly asking him what what his move will be as leader now. Terrorsaur panics and quickly hands leadership back to Megatron. Megatron = Magnificient Bastard.
- And don't forget the episode where he succeeded through brute force after being powered up by energon and scrapping Megatron (though he was repaired by Waspinator and Scorponok by the end of the episode).
- And in Beast Machines, we see Tankor/Rhinox act as Starscream. Although it's more probably a case of Freak Out.
- To recap the Beast Wars series, the following have attempted to be The Starscream on a fairly consistent basis: Dinobot (in the first episode, no less), Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, Waspinator, the original Starscream, Rhinox, Quickstrike, and Rampage (to some extent). All There In The Manual states that Megatron himself was this to his former boss, Cryotek. So, about the only loyal Predacons were Scorponok, Inferno, and the Rubber Ducky (best summed up in this Lilformers strip: "I managed to keep at least two of my troops from betraying me! Two!")
- It appears that Megatron actually encourages treachery in some of his more competent troops. He's studied them so well that he's able to guess their schemes and incorporate them his own while letting the traitor think they're still in control. Megs only seems to really get pissed when a betrayer does their plan poorly.
- To be fair, Dinobot only tried because he thought Megatron had betrayed the crew in the first place and failed to get them to earth. Megatron himself mentions that up until that point in his career, Dinobot was extremely loyal.
- Dinobot does this repeatedly whenever Primal is incapacitated too. This is absolutely within his character.
- Curiously, Transformers Armada and Transformers Energon have "Starscreams" of their own (Thrust and Shockblast respectively), while Starscream himself is an actual cast member, and falls much closer to a Noble Demon!
- Note that this isn't true for Dreamwave's Armada and Energon comics, in which Starscream remains true to this trope.
- In the third part of the "Unicron Trilogy", Transformers Cybertron, Starscream is right back to his old tricks. It comes to a head in "Showdown", where Galvatron is stunned, bordering on horrified, at the prospect that he might actually lose to him. Basically, take G1 Starscream, remove all 80s cartoon villain stupidity, and add three levels in Badass in its place, thus turning him into a Magnificent Bastard. Other exploits include successfully betraying Megs, forming his own splinter group, singlehandedly handing Autobots their skidplates on multiple occasions, ''stealing Atlantis'', siphoning life force out of Primus Himself while looking him right into his optics, another Xanatos Gambit or three, and finally, outliving Galvatron and thus becoming the only survivor of the actually serious Decepticons.
- The IDW version is a mix of G1 and Armada, a deadly and powerful warrior who used to see Megatron as a great hero (and even cried with joy when he first met Megatron, really) a few million years later and now he thinks Megatron has become what the Decepticons are fighting against.
- The Transformers Animated Starscream is shockingly proactive compared to his predecessor, and finds himself on Megatron's bad side immediately. Then in the season two finale, his clones do this to him. Oh, the irony.
- He's also semi-efficient at first, although he does die multiple times for it later.
- However, unlike most of his other incarnations, Megatron has essentially no tolerance for Starscream in this setting. If Starscream wasn't immortal due to an Allspark fragment, Megatron would have killed him several times over.
- Granted, with the Immortality, Megatron literally killed him several times over.
- He did get the last laugh on Megatron in the finale. Post-humously.
- The excellent Transformers spoof Incredible Change-Bots has Wheeee, the expy for Starscream, do this when Shootertron falls... only for Shootertron to get back up and berate him. ("Shootertron, you haven't fallen!" "No, I just fell. That laser blast put me off balance.")
- Some fans have theorized that in the Live Action movie, during the big battle royale, Starscream subtly does this by transforming into one of the good guys' Air Force jets and firing a few shots off at Megatron before flying away. Not really confirmed by Word Of God, but was more of a Sure Why Not. "It makes sense with the character, but would only really affect the sequel.'' This has appeared in the IDW Sequel/Prequel comic, which makes it at least mostly canon, though another version has him considering this but ultimately deciding against it.
- The sequel, Revenge Of The Fallen, actually confirms this incarnation of Starscream's treachery where it is revealed Starscream deliberately left Megatron to die just so that he could take over. Naturally, Megatron comes Back From The Dead and is pissed off to know this, so Starscream attempts a half-assed explanation. While being beaten with his own arm.
- What's different is not only is this Starscream a pretty good leader, but the reason he's a Decepticon (you can change sides if you want) is because he's trying to keep the Psychos For Hire in check and wants to kill Megatron for the good of all Cybertronians. (For the uninitiated, this Megatron is a hulking, cannibalistic juggernaut who is about as sane as Galvatron. And Galvatron is not a stellar example of sanity.)
- In IDW's The Reign of Starscream comic, Dreadwing is The Starscream... to Starscream himself. Starscream's method of dealing with him is about as pragmatic as Animated Megatron's method of dealing with his Starscream, except with less of "Death Montage" and more of "throwing one of the guy's allies into his spaceship". (READ: Starscream kills Dreadwing. By ripping out his spark.)
- There's also Hellbat from Transformers Victory, who the Transformers Wiki even describes as "a member of the Ambitious Screwups club" along with Terrorsaur and Starscream.
- Leozack also qualifies as a member of the Starscream club. Deathsaurus/Dezaras eventually wised up and threatened to kill him if he continued his treacherous ways.
- The Starscreams in Transformers Super God Masterforce and Transformers Headmasters would be Dauros and Mindwipe, respectively. Except Dauros is too dim to be deceptive and often openly challenges Blood's leadership, while Mindwipe's ulterior motives are wholly unrelated to usurping leadership of the Decepticon Headmasters in the first place.
- Meanwhile, the Beast Wars II version of Starscream wasn't like this at all (instead being Ambiguously Gay)... instead, the Megatron counterpart Megastorm was the ambitious screwup constantly trying to subvert Galvatron's leadership. However, BW 2 Screamer wasn't above trying to backstab his co-minions in an attempt to move up the food chain, and he even tried dunking Megastorm into a pit of Unicron-mojo to get rid of him. (Megastorm got better. Much better.)
- Storm Cloud of the Micromaster Air Strike Patrol is Starscream without intelligence or aptitude. So he gloats about his ambition to replace Whisper as the leader of the Air Strike Patrol in the company of Whisper himself.
- Finally, in the Mirror Universe that is Shattered Glass, Rodimus is The Starscream to Optimus Prime. SG!Starscream, naturally, is Megatron's most loyal follower.
- And once Rodimus mutinies on the Ark (getting rid of anyone loyal to Optimus in the process) and comes to Earth, Goldbug takes over the role of The Starscream.
- In the Marvel US G1 Comics, Shockwave is The Starscream for a long while, and actually succeeds in wresting power from Megatron on a few occasions. Starscream has a few memorable moments, opting for big power grabs that still fail, but not as blatantly or stupidly as his animated counterpart.
- In an interesting inversion of the 1986 movie, in IDW's "Dead Universe Arc" (Spotlight: Galvatron, parts of Devastation and all of Revelation) the Starscream to Nova/Nemesis Prime is a version of Galvatron who borders on the Magnificent Bastard.
- Also in IDW, Ramjet tries his hardest to be a Magnificent Bastard when he tries his hand at being The Starscream during his Spotlight issue, but fails miserably. Megatron finding out didn't help at all.
Anime and Manga
- Uonuma Usui of Rurouni Kenshin fits this trope and loudly so: he's actually told Shishio that he intends to kill him first chance he gets. Shishio is confident that said chance will never come, so he keeps Usui around because he's a handy killing machine who, while waiting for that chance, will happily slake his bloodlust on Shishio's enemies.
- Somewhat subverted, as Saito provokes him by saying that Usui knows he can't beat Shishio, so he's secretly happy to just hang around as one of the Juppon Gatana. He's right.
- The Gundam franchise has a long and noble history of Starscream villains. Observe:
- Mobile Suit Gundam saw Char Aznable and Gihren Zabi as early adopters of this trope, although neither was really a true Starscream: Char was after revenge, not power, and Gihren was not so much a Starscream as an Evil Prince with his eye on the throne (Hell, Gihren is a literal evil prince, seeing as how the Zabis were the equivalent of Spacenoid royalty.)
- Zeta Gundam introduced the definitive Gundam Starscream villain, Paptimus Scirocco. He starts out as an Enigmatic Minion but evolves into this pretty quickly while being something of a Manipulative Bastard. He's also one of the few Starscreams who virtually realizes all of his ambitions, knocking off all his rivals for power and seizing command of the entire Titans organization.
- Gundam ZZ saw Glemy Toto, originally one among many inept Harmless Villain enemies, do an abrupt turn into one of these pretty quickly. The sudden change was brought about by Tomino receiving the go ahead for Chars Counterattack, and Magnificent Bastard Char Aznable receiving his own plot not coinciding with ZZ.
- Speaking of Chars Counterattack, let's not forget Gyunei Guss, Char's scheming underling. Though taken in as an orphan by Neo Zeon, Gyunei seems pretty mutinous against his boss from day one, and his desire to obtain the affections of Quess Paraya spurs him into action pretty quickly.
- And let's not forget the infamous Frost Brothers from Mobile New Century Gundam X, who pretty much betray nearly every single faction they side with to engineer a war...all in retaliation for not being acknowledged by the Earth Sphere as Newtypes.
- No mention of Gundam 00? First we had Ribbon (Starscreaming Alejandro), then.... Regene return the favor.
- Loki, one of the Eight Fists of Ragnarok in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple attempts this against the gang's leader, Odin. Going so far as to assemble his own group of Fists and attempt to convince Odin's Dragon Berserker to become the new leader. Loki failed, due to Berserker's lack of interest in being in charge and was promptly beaten down by the unpredictable fighter for his effort.
- In One Piece, Hannyabal is an example. The Vice-Warden of Impel Down, subordinate to Magellan, the Warden of Impel Down, is so ambitious that he outright states his ambitions to be warden himself in earshot of Magellan, and makes several attempts to get him in trouble, including allowing escaped prisoners Buggy the Clown and Mr. 3 to pass him. Unfortunately, their stupidity forced him to beat them up and capture them. The only time he deals with troublesome prisoners other than this is when his own job is on the line, as Luffy and Inazuma charging into Level 6 of Impel Down. Despite all of this, he works hard at his job and believes in their collective mission, so much so that Magellan will only allow Hannyabal to be his replacement.
- A flashback reveals that Portgas D. Ace, of all people, started out as one before developing fanatical loyalty to Whitebeard. Of course, this is exactly as Whitebeard had hoped, as he had wanted Ace to be the next King of the Pirates anyway.
- Does Schneizel el Britannia qualify? By the middle of R2, he clearly has no respect for his father anymore and is clearly angling to hear "Yes, your Majesty" rather than "Yes, your Highness." In fact, he even puts out a hit on his own father, only to have his half-brother beat him to it. The only reason to hesitate is that, for all of R1 and the majority of R2, he's perfectly content with his role as Prime Minister, and its only after he starts feeling that his father is a hindrance to The Empire that he begins to plot to take the throne. Most people in Schneizel's situation, when told that the Emperor did not care about "mundane" issues, would consider a coup to put in effective leadership too.
- Schneizel mentions Damocles in season 1 - and considering what Damocles is, I doubt it could have been built by Toromo in the one-month time skip.
- In the Suzaku of the Counterattack manga, he kills the Emperor and becomes the Big Bad.
- Averted in Naruto; Orochimaru suggests that Kabuto may be planning on betraying him, but in the three instances in which he appears to be planning to do so, he remains loyal to him (It helps that he started out as one of Orochimaru's former Akatsuki partner Sasori's spies). In the Three-Tails arc, Rinji appears to be planning to betray Kabuto and usurp his position and gets killed offscreen for it.
-
Khyron Kamjin Quamzin, the overzealous Zentradi warlord in Super Dimension Fortress Macross. While Vrlitwhai is a charismatic Magnificent Bastard who is just so cool that he manages to keep his badass persona even after his Heel Face Turn, even when he blatantly says he's only doing it to save his own skin, as Boddole-zer would kill him and his fleet for being tainted, Quamzin is just a dick who will stab anyone (especially his own superiors) in the back for another chance to attack the humans, or, well anyone else, really. He's such a loose cannon that the other Zentraedi have given him the epithet Khyron The Backstabber "Quamzin Ally-Killer".
- Though mostly he's not really interested in taking control of the Zentradi fleet, he's just Ax Crazy and doesn't care about collateral damage among his allies.
- The Espada Barragan was this to Aizen in Bleach. Barragan, the former self proclaimed ruler of the Hollows, hated Aizen for forcefully drafting and humiliating him in front of his subjects. His last act as his own powers of decay are slowly dissolving him is to throw his weapon at his head. Of course, this being Aizen, it didn't work.
- Yoshino from the anime-only Bount arc initially seems like one, but actually turns out to be a Defector From Decadence. A more straight example is Utegawa, who tried to take control of Jin's scheme by trying to steal his seal. Unfortunately for him, he failed to take Jin's bodyguard into consideration.
- Shapiro Keats. He makes it pretty clear that his ambitions reach higher than working for Muge Zorbados. Unfortunately, he alienates Luna, a very important potential ally, and Zorbados betrays him first.
- Vegeta in Dragonball was essentially this to Freeza until his Heel Face Turn.
- Spectra tries to usurp Prince Hydron in Bakugan: New Vestroia. It's unknown if Hydron actually knows of Spectra's machinations, but he's still going to get labeled as a traitor...because Mylene convinced the prince to retreat from New Vestroia and blame Spectra for the Vestals' failure there. She then tells the other Vestals, who think the prince is useless, that "he'll make a good fall guy", revealing that she is also planning to usurp both Spectra and Hydron.
- Prior to and during the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, Kuwabara regularly challenges Yuusuke to fights for the role of "Number one thug at Sarayashki Junior". The rest of the student body is terrified of Yuusuke, who singlehandedly wins brawls against gangs of four or five.
Comics
- In a straight up subversion Alexander Luthor from DCU's Crisis Crossover Infinite Crisis knew that it is generally impossible for anybody to control somebody that's as insane as the Joker so he did not even try. The Joker was VERY unhappy that he was not picked for the team as Luthor eventually found out.
- For some part of the Archie Sonic The Hedgehog comics, Robotnik's nephew Snively served as his increasingly untrustworthy lieutenant, and eventually set in motion a plan to destroy Robotnik. And he actually succeeded.
- In the animated Sat AM series, Snively constantly grumbles over having to serve the Doctor, but doesn't actually attempt to harm him. He simply plays along until Robotnik is electrocuted in the final episode, then is seen donning his uncle's trademark yellow cape. He does, however, resemble Starscream in voice, Especially considering his voice is done by Charlie Adler.
- In the Fleetway Sonic The Comic series, Robotnik also had to fight against Commander Brutus, a robot with an indestructible body and a copy of his own brain patterns, who started off as Robotnik's Dragon and then rebelled against him. Robotnik himself was briefly The Starscream when he was allied with the Drakon Empire.
- In DC Comics' Green Lantern, a powerful villain named Mongul seeks to take control of the Sinestro Corps from its current leader, Sinestro
- And before Mongul came onto the scene, Superboy-Prime was the the Starscream, planning to betray the Sinestro Corps' "guardian", the Anti-Monitor, and kill him in revenge for the Anti-Monitor destruction of Prime's entire universe.
- Marvel Comics' Fabian Cortez plays thie trope straight, betraying Magneto and "killing" him.
- Moonstone of the Thunderbolts
- Weasel of Deadpool fame (during the latter's Villain Protagonist arcs). He's nowhere near as scared of Deadpool as someone with his proximity and history should be, and Deadpool speculates in front of him that he might be one of these - but he's just too useful to kill.
- Darth Wyrrlok is an unusual example- he betrays his master Darth Krayt only because he feels this best serves Krayt's own goal of a Sith-ruled galaxy. As he puts it: "Sometimes for the dream to live, the dreamer must die". High Moff Morlish Veed from the same series is a more traditional example, though his own shortsightedness means he generally winds up a pawn for more competent players.
Film
- Lord Sopesian and Lord Glozelle seek to overthrow King Miraz in The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian by provoking him into accepting Peter's challenge of a mano-a-mano sword fight in hopes that he'll be killed. When this doesn't happen, Sopesian stabs Miraz in the back. Glozelle gets a Heel Face Turn, though.
- In the book, however, Glozelle is the one who stabs Miraz to death, as revenge for his ex-leader insulting him before the duel with Peter takes place. Both him and Sopesian end up killed in battle.
- In The Matrix trilogy, Agent Smith starts out as a loyal (if somewhat disgruntled) Agent of the system, but eventually rebels and decides to just kill everybody, humans and machines, which ultimately forces both sides to make peace so Neo can stop him.
- Modus operandi of virtually all Sith, who tend to be just waiting for their Master to slip up. Creator of the Rule of Two, Darth Bane, even applauds it in his apprentice when he finds out she would have supplanted him if he had lost certain battles.
- And then they wonder why they don't rule the galaxy. Palpatine is the only exception.
- Not the only one. Very few get as far as he did, though.
- Bane based the Rule of Two off of a holocron left by Revan. True to form, Revan's apprentice, Malak, tried to assassinate him while he was fighting off a Jedi team sent to capture him.
- Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) in particular. It's mentioned twice in the entire Star Wars saga—Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin believes he can overthrow Palpatine, and rule the galaxy with Padme, likely foreshadowed in Attack of the Clones of his mistrust in Senatorial politics. Then he tries it again with his son in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Special mention given because it does not involve the typical Sith MO of killing their masters over power, for it seems more like Anakin does not like how Palpatine rules, and wants to supplant him and perhaps do it better.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has three Starscreams—the Largo siblings. Each of them would happily topple the other and can't wait until their father dies so they can get the top spot. Until the end of the film, where their father's crushing rejection of al three of them in favour of his ex-wife's kid causes Luigi and Pavi to stand behind Amber as she takes over the company.
Literature
- The Kid of Stephen King's epic The Stand aimed to overthrow Randall Flagg.
- The wizard Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance novels was one of the most ambitious, planning to overthrow the all-powerful evil dragon goddess who was the chief villainess of the earlier books and to ascend to godhood to take her place. Actually, he wanted to eventually destroy the whole pantheon of Krynn and to become the sole new deity of the world. He managed it, too, although Time Travel and an appeal from his twin brother stopped him from destroying the world. He chose Redemption Equals Death.
- It wasn't just the appeal - he saw what would happen to the world and to himself if he succeeded and he didn't like it.
- Saruman of The Lord Of The Rings. His dreams of using the One Ring against Sauron were mostly left out of the films.
- While its not obvious until you think about it Saruman managed prevent Sauron finding out what his opponent's real plans regarding the Ring were. In the book it was Saruman's orcs (acting under explicit orders from the Wizard) that, through intimidation and brute force, decided that Merry and Pippin would be taken to Isengard after they were captured. This of course meant taking them through Rohan where the orcs were wiped out by Eomer and his Rohirrim (with some very neat tactics by the way). If instead Sauron's troops had had their way the hobbits would have been taken east to Mordor. Unless Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli caught up and contrived a rescue (unlikely) or the orcs ran into someone else (very unlikely - Faramir would have been too far south of the orc's route) then Merry and Pippin would have ended up in Barad Dur. Then when Sauron had tortured the fellowship's real aim out of the hobbits he would only need to send a Nazgul and a couple of squads of orcs to guard Mount Doom and there would be no chance for Frodo to succeed.
- In a way, Scourge of the Warrior Cats series is a Starscream, as he's generally treated as an underling by Tigerstar before slitting his throat and killing him nine times over with the emotion one would reserve for swatting a fly.
- Lanfear in Wheel Of Time schemes to overthrow the Dark One, and still has a thing for main character (and old boyfriend) Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn. Despite playing The Dragon to the Dark One's Big Bad, she's pretty solidly on the side of the good guys in the first few books - she imagines that, teamed up with Rand, they'd be unstoppable.
- Wheel Of Time also has Padan Fain, a Gollum / Agent Smith style wild card who's got a major grudge against both the Light side (Dragon Reborn) and the Dark side (the Dark One), and who (being empowered by Shadar Logoth) is enough of a threat to pull it off.
- Although it remains to be seen what effect, if any the destruction of Shadar Logoth in Winter's Heart has had on Fain.
- Visser Three is the Starscream to Visser One in Animorphs. Although he is the primary Big Bad and he does succeed.
- Rupert of Hentzau is this to Black Michael in The Prisoner Of Zenda.
- Gul'dan, waiting for the right chance to betray Orgrim Doomhammer throughout Warcraft: Tides of Darkness.
- Also Arthas to Ner'zhul in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King.
- Collectively, the Sisters of the Dark are sort of like this to Emperor Jagang in the Sword Of Truth series. They're not trying to take over the Order that he runs, so much as pursuing their own goals while enslaved to him.
- An unusual example comes from The Chronicles of Prydain. Originally, Arawn, the dreaded Death Lord and Big Bad of the series, was the consort and servant of Queen Achren,the ruler of Prydain in the series backstory, who taught him all of her secret arts. Arawn used this power to betray Achren and become Lord of Annuvin, at which point Achren became The Starscream to him.
- Quite a lot of Redwall's villains have a Starscream. Lantur in Marlfox actually succeeds.
- Sociopathic Drake from the Gone series seems to serve this role to Caine-though Caine is certainly the mastermind villain, Drake would easily overpower him if he'd been blessed (or cursed) with something better than his weird whip-arm.
- The Forgotten Realms Dark Elves. Not only do they pursue the blessing of their goddess, The Goddess of Chaos, Lolth, which leads to alot of squabbles, itself, but their entire race is just a pile-up of this. Families strive to climb the ranks and eventually join the council. on top of that, each elf strives to position him/herself as the most important in their family, under their matron mother. AS WELL AS becoming the highest rank in their chosen profession. (the children of the families can become priestess, warriors, or wizards.)If you can't guess, this leads to ALOT of backstabbing. And frontstabbing. and poisoning. and... Well, let's just say that the leading cause of death for Dark Elves is other Dark Elves.
- Lensman. This behaviour is actually approved of among the various alien races opposing Civilisation due to the Social Darwinist nature of their society. It's believed that if a subordinate does succeed in usurping his superior, then the Big Bad was no longer fit to hold the job in the first place.
- Speaker-To-Animals in Ringworld. Good God, during the journey to the Ringworld itself, Speaker would pull this shit every ten pages, and each time would be EASILY thwarted by the Puppeteer. It becomes a running gag that never starts to be funny.
- Joruus C'baoth to Grand Admiral Thrawn, for basically the entire time that they were a Big Bad Diumvirate. C'baoth chafed under Thrawn's directions and constantly tried to get around his orders. Thrawn's Commander Contrarian, Captain Pellaeon, even said that taking an insane cloned Jedi Master off his planet and into the Imperial fleet was a bad, bad idea. Thrawn had plans for the stunts C'baoth pulled, but if the two of them hadn't been killed more or less at the same time at the end of the book, it's anyone's guess what would have happened.
- In the X Wing Series, Kirtan Loor gradually moves away from loyal minionhood and towards this. When he's put in charge of the Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front on newly-captured Coruscant while everyone higher-ranked than he is leaves, he gets a lot of autonomy, allowed to harass and terrorize the New Republic pretty much any way he wants. Eventually he decides that while he's not an idiot and won't directly oppose Isard, he's not terrified of her anymore, and she won't live forever. Not long after that thought hits, the head of the organization commissioned to neutralize the Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front tracks him down, but not to bring him to justice, just to get him to hit targets that head wants eliminated. Loor agrees, in part because otherwise he'd be either killed or taken to justice, but thinks that Flirry Vorru, too, won't live forever. At the end of The Krytos Trap he does actually turn against them, but to try and seek sanctuary with the New Republic in exchange for some information. It doesn't work out.
Live Action TV
- Ba'al of Stargate SG-1 who was supposedly in the service of Anubis while he was in fact trying to topple him and take his place. This led him to cooperate with SG-1 to stop Anubis from obtaining a weapon that would give him power over the entire galaxy. Notably, Ba'al betrayed Anubis in this manner twice.
- Ba'al also stuck around to continue playing The Starscream in the Ori story arc, scheming to undermine the Ori's Take Over the Galaxy plot so that he could be the one to Take Over the Galaxy.
- Spike, in season 2 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and thus well before his himification. As an unwilling minion to Angelus, Spike seemed content to stick to snarky remarks and threatening glares, until Angelus unveiled his plan to destroy the world... and seemed poised to pull it off, too. Spike, who likes the world, was not amused. He promptly betrayed Angelus to the good guys.
- That wasn't the first time Spike successfully Starscreamed somebody, either. Initially he was in league with the Annointed One, the late Master's right-hand
man boy. This lasted all of one episode, before Spike killed the "Annoying One" and took over.
- Scorpius upstaging Crais in Farscape is a rare example of it actually working.
- Considering Scorpius was even originally created to be a one story villain to never be seen again...
- Power Rangers uses this fairly often. In any season with two Dragons, expect one to be loyal and one to be treacherous.
- Tom Zarek on Battlestar Galactica starts working to topple or undermine President Roslin as soon as he's introduced, stopping just short of an assassination attempt. After Roslin suffers a Heroic BSOD in "A Disquiet Follows My Soul", he partners with Gaeta to stage a mutiny and take control of the fleet, and shows signs of usurping him as well.
- Shane Vendrell from The Shield is that series' Starscream, though the writers took a great deal of time (about three seasons) to pull the trigger on his betrayal of Vic Mackey. Though Vic takes him back into the fold once Shane crashes and burns on his own during season four, the reconciliation doesn't last very long. Shane murders fellow Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky, when Shane realizes that Vic was stalling on giving the order to kill him, due to Vic's sentimentality keeping him from realizing Lem had to be killed before IAD could break him and bring the entire Strike Team down. This in turn leads to a confrontation for seasons six and seven, between Shane (Starscream) and Vic (Megatron) and Ronnie (Soundwave).
- Doctor Who ("Dalek"). Corrupt Corporate Executive Henry van Statten keeps his assistants in a state of sycophantic fear by brain-wiping them for frivolous reasons. Unfortunately van Statten alienates his security force by insisting they sacrifice their lives to recover the Dalek intact, and then breaks down in terror in front of that same Dalek plus a watching assistant, Diana Goddard. Their fear and respect for him now gone, both Goddard and the surviving mooks seize van Statten and drag him off to be brain-wiped.
- ("The Caves Of Androzani"). In a Crowning Moment Of Funny, Corrupt Corporate Executive Morgus thinks he has every angle covered, until his secretary calls him up to inform him that she's not only usurped his position, she's also provided the government with evidence of every one of his evil deeds and shut down all his illicit bank accounts, making him on the run and penniless.
- Blake's Seven features computer hacker Avon on the heroes' side, who constantly attempts to abandon Blake and make off with the Liberator and the fabulous wealth it holds, and makes no secret of this. Eventually, Blake disappears on his own, and Avon wins the subsequent power struggle against Tarrant, putting him in charge; however, by then, he has become increasingly paranoid, decides to continue the resistance, and wants Blake back. When they meet again, he shoots Blake because he is afraid that Blake has betrayed the ideals of the revolution and sold out to The Federation.
- Arch-fiend Sylar of Heroes. Every volume features a major Big Bad either directly or indirectly recruiting him as their The Dragon. Because Evil Is Not A Toy, it never ends well for anyone except Sylar.
- Alex Krycek (The X-Files) has had a few sneaky attempts at clawing his way to power, including his stint in charge at a Russian gulag, his recurring threats (and eventual attempt) to kill the Cigarette Smoking Man (and when that failed, attempting to ensure his place as CSM's successor) and manipulating Jeffrey Spender. You can practically see him waiting in the shadows, ready to seize power with both hands.
- Captain Grisham to Colonel Montoya in Queen Of Swords.
Religion
Tabletop Games
- Mephistopheles in Dungeons And Dragons rules the eighth layer of Baator, Cania. He makes no secret of his plots to conquer the ninth layer, Nessus, and overthrow Asmodeus. In fact, he has said as such directly to Asmodeus's face. Being the ultimate Magnificent Bastard, Asmodeus has absolutely no fear of Mephistopheles, and allows him to plot away.
- This applies to the rest of the Lords of the Nine as well (they're devils, what do you expect?)to a (much)lesser degree, but most strongly to Levistus. He is still suffering the punishment from his previous coup attempts; buried in ice after killing Asmodeus' consort when he suspected her of betraying one of his schemes. Despite this, he maintains control over Stygia and the actual reason he was imprisoned was for being too chaotic.
- On the other hand is Geryon, a subordinate who was punished for being too loyal, because loyalty is weakness in Baator.
- Baalzebul is a subversion - a Starscream who actually did manage to get punished. Baalzebul used to be the #2 guy in Hell - a demonic angel figure who ruled 2 layers of Hell, one himself and one through another Lord he manipulated. Asmodeus melted him into a sluglike form and demoted him to #3.
- Which is ironic, because Dante's Geryon was the "Beast of Fraud".
- Elsewhere in the D&D game, several Ravenloft darklords have Starscreams on the payroll. One of the most powerful darklords, Azalin the lich-king, actually used to be a Starscream, before he left Strahd's domain and service. In so doing, Azalin gained his own domain, so that one was a draw.
- In the Scarred Lands table top RPG, one of the villains is a being called Mormus, AKA The Jack Of Tears, who rules over his own part of the world. He has four lieutenants, and all but one of them is planning to usurp him and betray each other. Mormus's well aware of this, but he lets them continue their machinations just because it amuses him.
- Warhammer 40000. Find a Chaos warband, Ork mob, Dark Eldar Kabal, or Imperial planet. Find the next most powerful Marine, next biggest Ork, next most powerful Dark Eldar, or next highest-ranking noble. Congratulations, there's a 98% chance the person you've found fits the bill in a manner appropriate to the race in question.
- On the Dark Eldar it's closer to 100% chance. They're essentially a culture of Starscreams, each attempting to usurp the others. The only doesn't fit the bill is Asrubael Vect, the leader of the most powerful Kabal, simply because there is no one higher than him that he can backstab for their position.
- Ditto with the Skaven in Warhammer. If a Skaven Grey Seer doesn't honestly believe his ascent to the Council of Thirteen, usually by betraying everyone in sight, isn't the only hope for the Skaven race, he's been trained wrong. The primary weakness of the Skaven is that the vitally important role of The Starscream is given to everyone.
- Princess Magnificent from Exalted was forced by her bosses to work for the First and Forsaken Lion; she's not happy about that arrangement at all, and plots his downfall. It's gotten to the point where fans sometimes refer to them as "Princess Starscream and the First and Forsaken Megatron."
Theater
Video Games
- Karai in the ending to TMNT Smash Up's Arcade Mode.
- Ashnard, from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance thought of all of his generals as Starscreams, but never worried about it. It's just what happens when you combine the Darwinist with a Blood Knight.
- Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts Chains of Memories. He planned to overthrow the Organization by using Namine's memory-manipulating powers in order to turn Sora into a mindless puppet and send him to destroy the superior members. Unfortunately for him, after being betrayed twice (First by Mad Scientist Vexen and then by Lovable Traitor Axel) and losing his Dragon Larxene at the hands of Sora, Marluxia was left alone to fight Sora and Co. and was no match for him.
- Slightly, Marluxia became his own Big Bad, threatening to report any members of Castle Oblivion if they didn't listen to him. Zexion, in charge of a small group in the basement, wanted to use Riku to STOP the rebellion. But, thanks to yet ANOTHER betrayal by "loveable" traitor Axel, a.k.a. Magnificient Bastard (as a matter of fact, some fans hate Axel for this), Zexion's group is killed one by one by Riku, (besides Vexen, who Axel kills), until Zexion is alone. Then Axel eventually backstabs him by leading the Riku Replica to Zexion and telling him he could become his own person by absorbing Zexion's darkness, which does no good, because Riku eventually kills Replica. Zexion possibly has one of the WORST deaths, seeing as he gets choked into fading. Of course, there's Vexen, Axel, Luxord, and the guy with the tomahawk as well...
- But as 358/2 Days shows, all that killing Axel did was under orders from Saix, the Organization's second-in-command, to get rid of the traitors... But that was also meant to eliminate obstacles to their plan to overthrow Xemnas and get the Organization back on the path to their original goal of reuniting with their hearts.
- While Kefka from Final Fantasy VI may have some subversions, it is generally impossible for anybody to control somebody that insane, as Emperor Gestahl eventually found out.
- Much like Kefka above, while Luca Blight from Suikoden II may have some subversions, it is generally impossible for anybody to control somebody that insane, as his father, Agares Blight eventually found out. That out of the way, the real Starscream of Suikoden II was the main character's former best friend, Jowy. As soon as Luca is out of the way, Jowy reveals his true plans, and the war continues.
- In Jade Empire, Master Li has already tried to steal power from the Emperor once, and in the course of the game he gets his revenge, pulling off a masterful Xanatos Gambit twenty years in the making to become the game's true Big Bad.
- Not to mention the Lotus Assassins ALL seem to have this outlook.
- Especially Gang toward Shin; after helping Gang kill his direct superior Shin to get his favor, you can kill Gang yourself.
- In Odin Sphere, Brigan attempts to overthrow Demon Lord Odin by killing his daughter and announcing it to make Odin look bad. Although his plan never even gets to the first act, because Gwendolyn kills him before he can even begin his plan, he does manage to snatch power for a short while because he later possesses Odin from beyond the grave.
- The orc player character (later revealed to be Doomhammer) in Warcraft I. You eventually overthrow your boss and rule the Horde yourself.
- And in World Of Warcraft, Varimathras to Sylvanas. It doesn't end well for him.
- Garrosh seems to want to be this for Thrall, about the only thing keeping from activly doing it is Thrall's Dragon is Saurfang, who already doesn't like Garrosh much.
- Prometheus and Pandora from Mega Man ZX obviously hate their creator, but they had their reasons for not stabbing him in the back at first - Master Albert had to limit the amount of time they could live in order to keep them under control, since they had to keep going back for maintenance in order to stay alive. But when they do, Prometheus simply walks up to Master Albert, kills him off right in front of the hero, and declares that Albert's "Game of Destiny" was all a farce (Those two are the only villainous characters in the series who actually realised this), and that he and Pandora will destroy everything as part of their revenge. Interestingly enough, they didn't quite succeed. There's a good reason why Master Albert is a Magnificent Bastard - Albert actually faked his death as part of a plan that his own creations unintentionally provided him with, and it's implied that both Prometheus and Pandora are both dead... thanks to their own traitorous actions.
- Mr. King from Mega Man Star Force 3 is a shining example of an evil villain with a disastrous (for him) hiring policy. Ace defected to the Satella Police before the game starts, Joker has been serving him to fulfill his own desire for power, Jack and Queen were using him solely to access Meteor G as a WMD, with or without Corvus and Virgo's guidance, and Heartless was only half-loyal so she could try to contact Kelvin Stelar. The man was literally surrounded by traitors with intellect on par with aforementioned Prometheus and Pandora, and wound up the only human in Dealer to not live to the end credits. Then again, it's not clear whether he died or not after the Crimson Dragon was subdued.
- Sadoul from the Sega CD RPG Vay, who actually kills his superior, Emperor Jeal, halfway through the game and positions himself as the real Big Bad.
- Jade, Emperor Zog's second-in-command in the first Breath Of Fire video game, who helps Ryu and his allies throughout the game disguised as a thinly-veiled cloaked man with a color swap —- in the process dropping big hints on how Ryu can fight the Dark Dragon Empire right down to letting Ryu know about a weapon (a bottled song named 'D.Hrt') that reduces Zog's HP by half in one blow (and Ryu's to 1). After Zog is defeated, Jade reveals himself, having set Ryu up to defeat Zog to obtain the Goddess Myria's powers all for himself.
- This is slightly subverted in that Jade's hints potentially end up stabbing himself in the foot —- if the player defeated Zog the hard way without D.Hrt, he/she can instead use it against the mind-controlled Sara (who Jade kidnaps at the start of the game and had kept around for his own purposes) when she transforms into a Dragon and fights the party. This reduces her HP (and as usual, Ryu's) to 1, instead of half.
- Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. While loyal to Shao Kahn the first three canonical installments, in Deception he teams up with Quan Chi and Raiden in the opening intro in a desperate Enemy Mine situation. There's also the matter of his endings in Mortal Kombat II and 3, where he kills his former master and conquers both Earthrealm and Outworld.
- Sort of Justified by the Fact that you actually need to defeat Shao Kahn with Shang Tsung to get said ending.
- The Barbarossa campaign of Age Of Empires II has Henry the Lion getting ambitious and betraying Barbarossa twice, and then being exiled. As you finish the last scenario, The Narrator says "What of Henry the Lion? With Barbarossa gone, there was nothing to stop him from returning to the Holy Roman Empire. But I'm an old man now. What harm could I possibly do?
- Alastor from Painkiller, who turned out to not be upset at all that Daniel helped him kill Lucifer. Also, Eve, who wanted Daniel to kill Alastor so that she could become ruler of Hell herself.
- Brauner in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin uses Dracula's castle and powers to exact revenge on humanity, all while keeping Dracula sealed away. His plans are thwarted when the heroes defeat him and, not too long after, gets killed off by Death, Dracula's second-in-command.
- Amelissan from Baldur's Gate fits the bill nicely. While Bhaal could foresee his death, he could not realize his head priestess would be happy to take his place as the goddess of murder instead of reviving him. You'd think a name like Amelissan the Black-Hearted would have given him a clue.
- Played for laughs with Smug Snake Edwin Odesserion, who often plots kaof killing the hero and his party under his breath, apparently unaware that everyone can hear him.
- "You see, power shifts quickly in the Brotherhood...."
- Sho Minamimoto from The World Ends With You has elements of this; while several people want to overthrow the god-like Composer, Sho is the only one who is willing to toy with the exceedingly dangerous and violent Taboo Noise to do such, and the only one willing to chase the Composer to the RealGround (which is to say, mortal life) to do it. In a bit of a twist, the ending reveals that the Composer, Joshua, actually kind of enjoys having such a loose cannon around.
- This also fits Mitsuki Konishi. She states on the final day that she would have no qualms whatsoever about betraying Megumi Kitaniji in order to take his place as Conductor. She makes a deal with Minamimoto that she will help him defeat the Composer, so long as she is allowed to be second in command.
- In the fourth game of the Questfor Glory series, Ad Avis hates being magically compelled to serve his master,Katrina. At the end of the game he baits her into breaking the bond by attacking him. He then proceeds to kill her by casting a spell that brings her to the attention of the Cosmic Horror who's brain the scene takes place in..
- In Conker's Bad Fur Day, the Weasel Scientist fits this trope well. At the end of the game, he kills the panther king by putting an alien egg inside him
- Cecile in Winback, who offs the Big Bad Kenneth near the end of the game, before being temporarily KO'ed by The Mole.
- In the Mario & Luigi RPG series, Fawful sort of fills this role. Although wholeheartedly loyal to Cackletta throughout most of the first game, and never actually outright betraying her, in the final fight he has the sudden realization that—*gasp*—he is merely a useless peon, and decides to disregard his boss and fight the titular brothers on his own accord. He then goes on to be the only character exclusive to the Mario RP Gs outside of the main four characters of the series (The Bros., Peach and Bowser) to appear more than twice. In his second appearance he is recovering from his first defeat and describes the events of the first game, but completely neglects to mention Cackletta at all, and makes himself out to be the true villain. In the third game, Bowser's Inside Story, Fawful is the main villain.
- Dalton from Chrono Trigger, who seems all too eager to usurp the throne the first chance he gets.
- In Wild Arms 1, The Dragon helps you defeat the Omnicidal Maniac Big Bad at the halfway point, and then becomes the new Big Bad for the rest of the game.
- Not entirely correct. Zeikfried was actually EATEN by Mother after the confrontation in the Metal Demon base, and what you fight at the end is actually him possessed by Mother - in fact, his name is "Motherfried" in the second to last fight, and he only reverts to being himself (although as a mangled torso who will die anyway and is just trying to have the last laugh) in the very last battle, as Zeik Tuvai.
- In Mega Man X, Vile is a loyal second-in-command of the Big Bad Sigma. Maverick Hunter X, on the other hand, retcons him into becoming this, especially in his own story, where he decides to take on both his enemies X and Zero and Sigma's Maverick army.
- In Pokémon Platinum, Charon somewhat fits this role, seemingly having a completely different agenda than the rest of Team Galactic. This finally comes to fruition when the player goes to Stark Mountain and ends up encountering Team Galactic again, something that didn't happen in Diamond and Pearl. An extra battle with Mars and Jupiter is fought, and then they leave while Charon enters the mountain. He is eventually captured by Looker.
- Astaroth, in Soulcalibur IV. In the first three games in which he appears, he serves Big Bad Nightmare, embodiment of Soul Edge, but as his consciousness develops, he intends on overthrowing his master and claiming Soul Edge for himself, seizing power when the opportunity is right.
Web Comics
- When Bun-Bun captains a pirate ship in Sluggy Freelance, his Jerkass behavior inevitably drives every single one of his first mates to try and kill him. Bun-Bun actually encourages this, since he "feels safer knowing where the next mutiny is coming from."
- One of those first mates is actually a time-displaced version of himself in disguise, making Bun-Bun possibly the only character to have been his own Starscream.
- Drizz'l of 8-bit Theater managed to usurp Garland. For about a day.
- On the other side of the "Light" Warrior/Dark Warrior fence, BM taking advantage of Thief's absence once to take over. It didn't last.
- Gloog from A Game of Fools is constantly trying to undermine Captain Sepultra's authority (and at one point manages to briefly overthrow him), mainly because Sepultra won't allow some of Gloog's more sinister antics.
- O'Halloran's constant attempts to usurp the Chairman in Building 12 certainly qualify.
Western Animation
- Rasp from Dino Riders, although not to the consistency of the trope namer. Interestingly, his voice actor was the same who did the voice of the original Megatron, Frank Welker. He also voiced the Big Bad, Krulos. This more-or-less means that he was trying to backstab himself.
- General Skarr from Evil Con Carne.
- Glove from Bionic Six.
- Makuta Icarax from Bionicle believes that Big Bad Teridax's (the Makuta) plan to take control of the universe (by putting the Great Spirit asleep and then reawaken him once preparations are complete) to be too convoluted, and prefers to batter people into submission instead. When Teridax was temporary unable to monitor the actions of his whole Brotherhood, Icarax decided to speed up the process by going to war. He had already claimed some areas when Teridax arrived and beat him up. He's only kept alive because of his talent at fighting and the fear he inspires in his foes.
- After being deevolved by Toa Ignika, he later gets killed by some of his fellow members when he tries to ruin The Plan, making him a historical Starscream. The ones that killed him though suddenly outlive their usefulness.
- Zero, on Challenge Of The Go Bots. Zero had been the leader of the Renegades, and Cy-Kill stole the job from him after defecting from the Guardians. Zero had every reason to resent Cy-Kill, and he wanted his job back.
- Mighty Max's Warmonger was Skullmaster's Dragon and Starscream throughout, and temporarily succeeded in replacing him. Skullmaster, in a rare attack of competence, set the whole thing up: Skullmaster being offstage encouraged the heroes to blow the spell that could stop (kill?) him on the Hydra instead.
- On The Fairly Oddparents, the Lead Eliminator eventually tires of taking orders and tries to revolt. He promptly gets "unmade". Though he eventually comes back a does a One Winged Angel into the true villain of the special.
- In Chaotic, Lord Van Bloot is a lieutenant of Chaor, supreme ruler of the Underworld, that really wants the bigger chair. Heck the latest sets in the card game reveals that he has allied with the M'arillians to achieve his goals of ruling the Underworld (even thought that would just make him a mere governor if the M'arillians succeed in taking Perim)
- Pretty much all the major villains become Starscreams to Tombstone in the Gang War arc of The Spectacular Spider Man. Green Goblin is successful.
- In WITCH, Cedric eats Phobos unexpectedly after Phobos agrees to give 'a fraction of his power' - which he decided to interpret as 3/3, 4/4 or equivalent.
Web Original
- In KateModern: The Last Work, the Shadow is this to Rupert van Helden. It is left ambiguous whether he succeeds or not, but Word Of God is that the Shadow killed Rupert.
Real Life
- There were more than two dozen attempts to kill Adolf Hitler, many of them by the military. The most notable, and the one that got the furthest, was the July 20 plot, which was started because Hitler was mismanaging military resources and leading Germany to destruction through his inept micromanagement of forces on the East and policy towards the West, as well as his status as a commoner (the plotters largely being Prussian officer men).
- Though not to imply that either political party was good or evil, the former Australian Federal Treasurer Peter Costello almost always seemed to exemplify this role. Nearly any time the then Prime Minister John Howard made any kind of screw up, showed any sign of weakness or even hinted that he may quit/retire, Costello would be there with an attempt to usurp power, even though the thought of him becoming Prime Minister through succession was abhorent to many Australians.
- Even with the Liberal Party now out of power, Costello still seems to be causing trouble for whoever happens to be the party leader simply because his "will he or won't he" nature in regards to leadership challenges causes much public speculation any time he says anything.
- Also in the Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull, after they got out of power. After a leadership dispute, Brenden Nelson became the party leader-but he was incredibly unpopular. Turnbull was seen as being after the leadership, which caused much speculation as to who supported who. It came to a head when Nelson decided to resolve it all by putting it to a vote - which Turnbull won.
- And roll on 2009 - after trying to get the Liberal Party to help the Government pass Climate Change legislation, Malcolm Turnbull himself faced open revolt in the party, decided to resolve it all by putting it to a vote, which was won by Tony "The Headkicker" Abbott.
- Also in Australia politics, judging by their behaviour recently, the NSW Labour Party is an entire party of Starscreams.
- The Tasmanian Greens to...well...everyone. How about we just say politician is another word for Starscream and leave it at that?
- Laventry Beria for Joseph Stalin, including rumors that he poisioned him.
- Stalin himself arguably played this role to Vladimir Lenin, to the point where Lenin denounced Stalin in a testament written shortly before his death. Being the Magnificent Bastard that he was, however, Stalin managed to blunt the testament's effects and set himself up as the Vozhd anyway.
- Aaron Burr, most famous for killing Alexander Hamilton, was rather persistent in his quest for certain positions. In the presidential election of 1800, the Democratic-Republican Party (yes, that was its name) nominated Thomas Jefferson for President and Aaron Burr for Vice-President. However, at the time, the President and Vice-President were not elected separately—the Vice-President was the Presidential candidate who got the second-most votes, and each member of the Electoral College had two votes to cast. Therefore, the Democratic-Republicans arranged for 73 electoral votes be cast for Jefferson, 72 for Burr, and 1 for some other guy. However, that some other guy was never picked, and as a result, the vote was tied at 73-73. This pushed the election for President to the House of Representatives, where under the convoluted rules of the Constitution under these circumstances, the opposition Federalists had a majority. Burr could have quietly declared that he did not actually want to be President and have the House pick from there; he did not. The House therefore spent a whole week and 35 ballots before Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalists, stepped in. Hamilton hated Jefferson personally, but hated Burr even more (being the leader of the Democratic-Republicans in his native New York); beyond that, he regarded Burr as unprincipled and rather slimy, two charges of which even Hamilton accepted Jefferson was innocent. Therefore, Hamilton convinced enough Federalists in the House to vote for Jefferson for President, leaving Burr to take the Vice-Presidency. Understandably resentful, Jefferson effectively locked Burr out of Washington politics, despite the fact that he was VP. Realizing his presidential career was going nowhere fast, Burr decided to run for governor of NY—but failed to do that in part due (again!) to the efforts of Alexander Hamilton. After that, Burr decided to go off into the West to start a conspiracy with the probable intent of overthrowing Jefferson or at least creating Burr's own break-away state where he could be president. Jefferson got wind of it, AGAIN, and was even less pleased. Ultimately, Burr fled the US, eventually ending up in France, where he once again tried to conspire against Jefferson and the US by intriguing with Napoleon. It didn't work very well for him this time either.
- Akechi Mitsuhide, the man who killed Oda Nobunaga.
- This could pretty much sum up the entire Roman Empire in the third and fourth centuries AD. One series of these after another. Almost every Emperor was a military general who betrayed his Emperor and seized power for himself, only to have the exact same thing happen to him. Spoofed hilariously in Futurama (re, Fry the Solid).
- When US President Ronald Reagen was shot, Alexander Haig, the Secretary of State, immediately came out and made statements that sounded to most people like he was trying to claim presidential power while vice President Bush was away on business. The Secretary of State is fourth in the line of succession in case you were wondering.
- The upper tiers of the British Labour Party seem to be enjoying a resurgence in quiet backroom meetings, as various factions try and persuade each other that the only hope to improve the poll numbers is for their candidate to force out and replace Gordon Brown. Gordon himself can't really complain, as the last years of the Blair ministry were marked by several Brownite factions trying to persuade Tony to expedite his departure, while Gordon remained conspicuously silent.
- Within the British cabinet, the minister most commonly portrayed as the Starscream is Peter Mandelson, who's had a bit of a rivalry with Brown since they helped Tony Blair set up New Labour and get into power.
- During the presidential run of 2008, a lot of people speculated that Hillary Clinton might have Barack Obama assassinated to win the nomination. Hillary didn't help herself with her "anything can happen between now and then" comment.
- Happened in Canada during the 1990s. Generally successful Finance Minister Paul Martin was so obviously Prime Minister Jean Chretien's successor as next leader of the Liberal party (and probable prime minister) that he was visibly chafing at having to wait and eventually resigned from cabinet (or was forced out, depending on who you ask) to sit as an ordinary backbencher until Chretien did retire.
- Previously, the Progressive Conservatives were renowned for this happening in a regular basis.
- It's also worth noting that Chretien got the last laugh by retiring just before the sponsorship scandal (an illegal deal that funnelled more than $100 million of taxpayer money to Liberal-friendly public relations firms in Quebec) came to light. The whole mess fell into Paul Martin's lap, and it cast a pall over his entire reign as prime minister. The Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the 2004 election, and then their government collapsed altogether a year later, paving the way for the Conservatives to take power under Stephen Harper in an early 2006 election.
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