The Starscream / Live-Action TV

Starscreams in live-action TV.

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• 24: Samir Mehran in season 8. Although, unlike most examples of the trope, he didn't plan it all along, he only decided to overthrow his boss (Farhad Hassan) when said boss proved unwilling to threaten New York with a dirty bomb to force the Americans to give up President Hassan.
• The A-Team: In the episode "The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas", Hannibal's plan to rescue an innocent professor out from under a Vegas mob boss' nose goes perfectly smoothly... until, just as they're getting away, the boss' right-hand man, Martell, takes advantage of the trouble they've been causing to throw his boss out of a window and frame them for it.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): Tom Zarek 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.
• Blackadder: Rare quasi-sympathetic example with Edmund Blackadder in his first and third incarnations. It's hard to blame him given the dangerously inept powers in charge. The second, fourth, Victorian, and ''Cavalier Years'' incarnations are, arguably, just trying to stay alive. To be more specific: the first one had some ambitions but was too spineless and idiotic to do anything about it and ended up being pushed around both by his more competent father-king and the other villains once he decided to take over. The second one was an Opportunistic Bastard who tried to earn the evil Queen's favour and perhaps even marry her and rule himself, but didn't really go any further than saving his neck for a longer time than anyone would have hoped. The third one was just as self-serving though far more proud and in control of the moronic Prince George and was more of a Dragon-in-Chief for him.
• Blake's 7: 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.
• The Boys (2019): Homelander. While serving as the Dragon to Stillwell for the entire first season, he's notably frustrated with this position until he ultimately becomes the new Big Bad by killing Stillwell at the end of Season One.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spike, in season 2, 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. And this wasn't the first time Spike successfully Starscreamed somebody, either. Initially he was in league with the Anointed One, the late Master's right-hand boy. This lasted all of one episode, before Spike killed the "Annoying One" and took over.
  • Mr. Trick also became one when he grew tired of being The Dragon for the old-minded Kakistos and left him to be dusted by Buffy and Faith.
  • Adam was meant to be Maggie Walsh's Dragon, but he pulled a Starscream against his creator as soon as he woke up.
  • In Angel, Lilah Morgan pulls one on Linwood Murrow, the President of Wolfram & Hart Special Projects Division, but does it with the blessing of the Senior Partners.
• Cobra Kai:
  • Johnny Lawrence bringing back John Kreese into his life as his assistant/co-sensei would be a massive mistake on his part, as Kreese would secretly make a deal with the landlord to seize Cobra Kai for himself, even after Johnny attempts to kick him out.
  • However Kreese would wind up on the receiving end after he brings back Terry Silver in his life and tries to asset himself as the dojo's head sensei despite Silver having far more resources (and skill) than him. Silver would later take offense to it and frame Kreese to the police just so that he can take over Cobra Kai and begin his expansion plan.
• Daredevil (2015): It's strongly implied in a few episodes of season 1 that Wilson Fisk came to power by working for Don Rigoletto, and eventually murdered him to take over his operations.
• In Dark Matter (2015), in an intentional Shout-Out to the first Mirror Universe episode of Star Trek, when the crew visit an Alternate Universe where their counterparts were never divested of their evilness by the memory wipe that kicked off the series, Two and Three pose as their Evil Counterparts Portia and Marcus and have to deal with an attempted coup by the Alt versions of Jace Corso and Tash.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Daleks have repeatedly turned against and overthrown their creator, Davros, only to come crawling back when they are weak, because he is smarter than them. Not smart enough to have realized that when he created a race that thinks they are superior to everyone, that would include himself, though. Subverted in "The Stolen Earth"; the Daleks don't even pretend to respect him this time, and are keeping him as a "pet".
  • This has been directed at them. In "The Daleks' Master Plan" Mavic Chen is working with the Daleks but plans to overthrow them, though the Daleks exterminate him when they don't need him any more.
  • In "The Invasion" Tobias Vaughn, playing by Kevin Stoney who also played Mavic Chen, is working with the Cybermen to invade the planet, but plans to betray them and rule the world. He ends up helping to defeat the Cybermen but is killed by them.
  • In "The War Games", the War Chief plans to overthrow the War Lord. He is Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves. (However in the tie-in novel Timewyrm: Exodus he has survived due to a botched regeneration and is working with the War Lord's son.)
  • The Master in "Frontier in Space" plans to do this to the Daleks. This was quite common with the Master. He would be working with another villain who would turn against him, then he would need the Doctor's help.
  • "Evolution of the Daleks": After Dalek Sec, leader of the Cult of Skaro, turns himself into a Half-Human Hybrid and begins to develop morals, Dalek Caan overthrows him and takes over.
• Farscape: Scorpius upstaging Crais is a rare example of it actually working. Ironic since Scorpius was originally created to be a one story villain to never be seen again. Also ironic since Scorpius technically outranks Crais.
• Firefly:
  • Jayne frequently alludes to his willingness to betray Mal if he feels it will profit him. When Zoe is left in charge of the ship, she semi-seriously expresses concern that the "power-hungry maniac" will kill her in her sleep. However, Jayne is gentled quite a bit after Mal threatens to blow him out the airlock into space.
  • Simon got to play the reluctant crony version of this in the final episode, "Objects in Space", when the bounty hunter Jubal Early makes him help track down River. Early Lampshades it himself, saying "You're gonna help me because every second you're with me is a chance to turn the tables, get the better of me, and it's the only chance your sister has. Maybe you'll find your moment. Maybe I'll slip." This, in fact, does happen, but Simon, neither being a fighter nor having a gun, loses spectacularly.
• The Game (2014) has Bobby Waterhouse constantly attempting to undermine 'Daddy' in order to try and take his place.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Many of the Great Houses have a lesser House hoping to undermine them. The Freys and Boltons betray their overlords the Starks and Tullys in "The Rains of Castamere". House Reyne was this to the Lannisters until Tywin wiped them out. After "Blackwater", characters like Cersei consider the Tyrells to be this to the royal family.
  • Ramsay Bolton is his father's scheming, self-advancing second-in-command until he murders his father in the sixth season and takes his place as Lord Bolton and Warden of the North.
  • Daario does this to Mero and Prendahl. Though, as he points out, it's not betrayal if they tried to kill you first.
• Gossip Girl: A non-villainous example has Penelope constantly trying to usurp Blair's role as Alpha Bitch.
• Heroes:
  • Arch-fiend Sylar. Every volume features a major Big Bad either directly or indirectly recruiting him as their Dragon. Because Evil Is Not a Toy, it never ends well for anyone except Sylar.
  • Emile Danko was this to Nathan Petrelli in Volume 4. When Danko took over he was much worse.
• Holy Pearl: In this C-Drama, Kagura-expy Hu Ji despises her master and spends a large part of the series maneuvering to wrest power from him.
• House of Cards (UK): The whole point of the first series is that the protagonist, Francis Urquhart, decides to take the prime minister out of office through trickery and bribery and become the prime minister himself.
  • In series 2, Stamper has similar designs on Francis's position - except Francis finds out about and has him killed in a car bomb, framed to look like a terrorist attack.
  • Same applies to House of Cards (US).
• Intelligence (2006): Ted Altman spends the first season playing this role, setting in motion a number of schemes to undermine and replace his boss as head of the Vancouver Organized Crime Unit.
• Kamen Rider
  • Kitazaki of Kamen Rider 555 attempts to kill the Arch Orphnoch after its awakened in order to prove himself the strongest Orphnoch, even though doing so would doom their entire race. He predictably gets killed off.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva: Bishop eventually begins plotting to overthrow Taiga Nobori when he no longer views him as an ideal candidate to serve as the Fangire King. Although in his case he doesn't want to take power for himself but place someone more suitable into the role by reviving the previous King.
  • Ryoma Sengoku spends much of Kamen Rider Gaim plotting to usurp Takatora Kureshima, as he would rather use the Helheim Forest situation to claim power for himself than save humankind like Takatora wants to. Redyue of the Overlord Inves is similar, as she desires the Forbidden Fruit held by the Overlord King Rosyuo. Once it becomes clear Rosyuo isn't going to give it to her, she takes measures into her own hands.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost has Adel, who is so committed to his father Adonis's ideals that he eventually betrays and usurps him when he feels his father has lost sight of them, becoming the new Emperor of the Gamma.
• Kamen Rider Dragon Knight: Gives us Kamen Rider Torque. Fearing a You Have Failed Me, he decides to go after his boss first. It doesn't work out so well, and not for his failure, but his treachery, he winds up being among the first of oh-so-many to be taken out by his replacement as The Dragon, the smooth but sociopathic Kamen Rider Strike.
• Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire: Dongalor plans to take power from the Emperor with the Eye of Gulga Grymna, and kills a noble who objects at the idea.
• Legend of the Seeker: Both Darken Rahl and Nicci (independently), during season two turn against the Keeper and try to stop him, after deciding they aren't cool with his end of the world plan.
• Lost Girl: Vex is a positive paragon of this trope, constantly looking to usurp leadership of the Dark Fae, and then proving to the Morrigan, when he fails, that he's still too valuable to kill.
• The Man in the High Castle: Reinhard Heydrich is plotting to assassinate Hitler so he can succeed him as Fuhrer and annihilate Japan with nuclear weapons. He specifically dismisses loyalty as an "overrated virtue" when called out on his lack of honor. However, Hitler was already aware of Heydrich's intentions and arranges for him to be assassinated first. In season 2, it transpires that Heydrich was merely an agent of the real Starscream, a Minister in Hitler's cabinet who actually managed to succeed him after a more successful assassination attempt through poisoning.
• Nikita:
  • Plays with this trope in an interesting way, in that Percy — the Big Bad of the show— is himself The Starscream to his superiors in Oversight; he stopped being loyal to them years ago, and keeps secret documentation of all the government's dirty secrets prepped to be released upon his death, thus insuring that they can't assassinate him without bringing down the whole government (them primarily).
  • Towards the end of Season 1, Percy gained his own Starscream in Amanda, who at some point turned on him and joined with Oversight to take him down; by the time Season 2 starts, Percy is locked up, and Amanda's running Division. More recently, she's become a more classical Starscream towards Oversight, in that she's actively plotting against them, and seems intent to bring them down.
• The Office (US): Early in the run, Dwight Schrute is enamored with Michael. As the show goes on, he decides he should be the one running the Scranton branch and becomes the Starscream to anyone who's actually running it.
• Oz:
  • Deconstructed by Huseni Mershah. His efforts to overthrow Kareem Saïd and take over the Muslims quickly gets him thrown out of the gang, and his subsequent attempts to take over results in him becoming a Pariah Prisoner Hated by All.
  • After being initiated into the Latinos, Enrique Morales wastes no time taking over the gang by setting up the current leader to be killed.
  • Hamid Khan is a somewhat sympathetic take on this trope. He ousts Saïd from his position as leader because he finds Saïd's relationship with a white woman and his willingness to help any inmate, regardless of race or sexuality, disgusting. However, Khan still protects Saïd from being killed by the Aryans and the two develop a mutual respect for the other.
• Pennyworth: In Season 2, Colonel Salt serves as this to Lord Harwood. He gains Harwood's confidence, and slowly gaslights him, manipulating him into alienating his actually loyal associates while slowly drugging him into an unstable paranoid state. This eventually culminates in Harwood killing a soldier he falsely believes to be conspiring against him, leading to his house arrest and allowing Salt (who had managed to worm his way into the position of Number Two) to take control of the Raven Union.
• Power Rangers:
  • Most Dragons in early seasons are loyal, but it is mentioned in a two-part episode that Divatox's mother in Power Rangers Turbo turned on her husband - patriarch of the pirate clan - and took over. In most seasons after that, starting with Power Rangers in Space, the Trope is used often. Generally, there's two Dragons - one Starscreamy, and one loyal. Which one ends up on top varies.
  • The first of these was Darkonda. Interestingly, he wasn't after the Big Bad of the season per se. Rather, he wanted to go all the way and destroy The Man Behind the Man. Interestingly, he succeeded, but failed to survive the attack.
    • Astronema herself was a Starscream after being brainwashed by Darkonda on the orders of Dark Specter. (Clearly, that worked only too well.) Using the Psycho Rangers had two purposes: fighting the true Rangers (obviously) and weakening the Dark Specter. She intentionally connected their powers to his, hoping that their frequent battles with the Rangers would weaken him enough for her to destroy him and usurp his position as leader of the alliance. Unfortunately for Astronema, the Psycho Rangers were impatient and unwilling to follow her plans, which led to them being defeated before this plan could succeed. She did succeed in usurping his position after the original Starscream Darkonda destroyed Dark Specter and was destroyed in the process.
  • Following Darkonda was Deviot in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. He was easily the successor to Darkonda, once again not after the Big Bad, but after her powers. In the end, his greed for those powers was his undoing, as he and Trakeena battled into the cocoon containing the ultimate power, causing Deviot's ruthlessness to become infused into Trakeena and destroying Deviot himself.
  • Generally, The Starscream is the less sympathetic of the two, as the loyal Dragon has Noble Demon traits while the treacherous one is all about greed and power, but in Power Rangers Time Force, when you find out what Frax's beef with Ransik really is... ouch.
  • Some non-dragon villains can also qualify as Starscreams. For example, Power Rangers Wild Force brings us Mandilok, the Mouth General of the Orgs. Having been suspicious of Master Org and finally realized he was actually the human Dr. Viktor Adler, Jindrax and Toxica went to look for a replacement for Master Org, and they found Mandilok. He was more than happy to be of service to them as their new master. Later, after Viktor lost all of his Org powers in battle with Cole, Jindrax and Toxica introduced Viktor to Mandilok and, mocking him out of knowledge that the real Master Org died 3,000 years ago and claiming that Master Org is never coming back, he throws Viktor off a cliff, taking his place as the new master of the Orgs for a while until the reborn Master Org's eventual return.
  • Broodwing of Power Rangers S.P.D. got the farthest. As he was the arms dealer the Big Bad and the various unaffiliated criminals got their weaponry from, he was able to easily step into the role of The Heavy and there wasn't much anyone else could do. (It helps that Broody was the main villain of Dekaranger, SPD's parent Super Sentai series, so it was a lot cheaper to have him as the villain.)
  • Grizzaka, the Land Overlord in Power Rangers Jungle Fury, also qualifies as a Starscream. Naturally, he blames Dai Shi for losing the war 10,000 years ago and hates humans even more. This makes perfect sense as, after being revived by Camille, he, upon arriving at Dai Shi's temple, is surprised to see that Dai Shi is now using the human Jarrod as a vessel. Jarrod wants Grizzaka to teach him Zocato, but, naturally, Grizzaka isn't too thrilled about that and simply refuses to take orders from any human. Guess what he does next?
  • Interestingly, out of all the Starscreams in the Power Rangers series, Grizzaka, alongside Astronema and Mandilok above, is one of the few who actually succeed in overthrowing the Big Bad (not counting Darkonda, who, despite successfully destroying Dark Specter, was unable to survive his final attack), and after his success, he becomes the ruler of the other evil forces until Dai Shi returns and takes back his throne.
    • And after him come the Phantom Beasts. They are actually loyal to Dai Shi - having thought like Grizzaka back in the original war, and now believing they'd have won if they had followed Dai Shi. (Yes, villains blaming their failure on themselves. You don't see that every day.) However, they believe Dai Shi has been compromised by the will of Jarrod.
    • But before any of them, there was Naja. He made the mistake of trying to recruit Camille, and his Starscreaming career lasted two episodes before she finished him.
  • Arachnitor from Power Rangers Samurai is an interesting example of a Monster of the Week that actually tried his hand at becoming Starscreamy to Master Xandred. Sadly, his attempt to overthrow him and become the new leader of the Nighloks didn't end so well for him, and he ended up being mutated into a mindless beast through Cold-Blooded Torture as punishment for his betrayal. From the same series, we have Serrator, whose attempt to get control of the Netherworld and Earth nearly succeeded until Deker turned against him.
  • Vrak from Power Rangers Megaforce, on top of already being the Dragon-in-Chief who puts most of the villains' plans into motion, claims to be this when he takes advantage of Admiral Malkor going into his cocoon state late in the season to further his schemes. That said, he never really takes any action against Malkor (though the Rangers don't give him much of a chance), and the fact that it takes so long for him to even claim to make a move ironically makes him much more loyal than his incredibly treacherous Goseiger counterpart below.
    • Moreso when we find out what his vague hints about being royalty really mean. The Goseiger and Gokaiger villains had been merged into one group in the Megaforce years; Vrak is the Emperor's younger son and thus doesn't have the authority enjoyed by his buffoonish older brother Vekar. As such, Admiral Malkor really doesn't have any authority over Vrak, though it's the same the other way around.
  • Power Rangers Ninja Steel has Madam Odius, a treacherous general who conspired behind Galvanax's back to get the Ninja Power Stars for herself. She managed to survive the Final Battle between Galvanax and the rangers, taking his place as the Big Bad, making her one of the most successful Starscreams in Power Rangers. It helps that many believed that her Super Sentai counterpart was more the main villain of Ninniger than Galvanax's.
• Queen of Swords: Captain Grisham to Colonel Montoya.
• Resurrection: Ertuğrul: Several of the characters who try to backstab their masters either have plans that don't come to fruition or only last momentarily, including:
  • In the first season, the commander Titus behave as a Starscream when overthrow his master Petruccio Mancini when he kept Ertugrul and his men alive, and didn´t kill them when he had the opportunity. Thanks to the advise of Cardinal Thomas, the Grand Masters of the Templar Knights named Titus as the new Grand Master. Petruccio was dying in his bed due to a venom in a dagger wound, and Titus told him about it in his bed.
  • Tankut. He wants to rally the Mongols to be under his watch instead of Noyan, who has been particularly abusive toward him. The only significant thing he accomplishes during his tenure as a self-made patriarch is killing Deli Demir.
  • During the season 2, we known Gumushtehkin Bey and his sister Airtolum. Both tried to overthrow Korkut Bey to take the leadership of the Dodurga Tribe with the help of Sadettin Kopek. Although they succeed in killing Korkut Bey, Ertugrul and his men discovered their plan and decapitate Gumushtehkin, while Abdul Rahman killed Airtolum defending Halime and Vanuchichek
  • Emir Sadettin Kopek and Mahperi Hatun both display this attitude unto Alaeddin Kayqubad, having their own plan to assassinate the sultan. Although the former succeeds in eliminating Kayqubad, his inability to do the same to his son Giyaseddin prevents him from formally becoming sultan himself. Downplayed with the latter, as she eventually repents and regains her son Giyaseddin’s trust.
  • Kiyat comes very close to usurping Berke Khan near the end of season 5. The only reason he ends up becoming this trope is because Ertugrul informed Berke about his plan to try to weaken the Muslims in the war against Hulagu by stealing some vital documents that the Golden Horde were guarding. Downplayed in that he was more interested in working against his superior with the enemy than actually wanting to replace his leader like most examples.
• One sketch on Saturday Night Live focuses on one partner in a drug gang planning to take the operation over for himself. The sketch quickly shows that the partner doesn't have the faintest fraction of a clue on how to run the operation.
  Quan: Product this pure... *pshh*... sells itself.
  Dante:... not really.
  Quan: Yo... says you. Man, look this "heron", bruh
  Mikey Day goon: Thas' cocaine.
  Quan: It's the same thing.
  Dante: It's not, though.
  Quan: I know that, fool. I'm saying it's like the same thing pricewise.
  Harry Styles goon: No it's not.
• The Shield: Shane Vendrell 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).
  • A more minor example: Tio tries to get Rondell Robinson (his boss) killed in season 1 so he can take over. But it's more pragmatism than betrayal; Rondell is getting high more and more and making mistakes that could compromise everyone.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • Ba'al, 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. And despite perpetually making himself a nuisance or worse to much more powerful Big Bads, Ba'al managed to outlast them all, mostly through being incredibly self-aware.
  • Qetesh becomes Ba'al's own Starscream in Stargate: Continuum.
  • On the Darker and Edgier spin-off Stargate Universe, Colonel Young has two Starscreams, Camille Wray of the IOA, and the much more dangerous Dr Nicholas Rush.
  • The Genii leader Cowen in Stargate Atlantis has Ladon Radim pretend to be planning a coup in order to lure Sheppard into an ambush. When Weir tells him that they are able to cure Radim's sister from near-terminal radiation poisoning, Cowen tells her he does not care - in Radim's hearing. Guess what happens next.
• Star Trek:
  • It appears that this is standard operating procedure for the Mirror Universe of this franchise:
    • Sulu plots to get rid of both Kirk and Spock, but suddenly finds himself badly outnumbered when Marlena uses the Tantalus Field to wipe out his men.
    • Garak repeatedly tried to get rid of Intendant Kira, with little success. Kira kept him on because he was good at his job (but not nearly as good at interrogation as Garak-prime).
    • Archer was The Starscream to Captain Forrest, and in a way to the Imperial Starfleet once he had his hands on the prime universe's Defiant (the one from "The Tholian Web", not the Deep Space Nine battleship), only for Hoshi to betray him and take over.
  • In the regular universe, Damar wound up as the Starscream to Dukat by killing his daughter, therefore driving him insane. However, this was a subversion. Damar did this because he saw Ziyal as a traitor to Cardassia and killing her in Dukat's best interest, not because he disdained Dukat or wanted his job. Nonetheless, this all put Dukat out of the leadership and second-in-command Damar in his stead.
    • Damar (who has a very idealistic and naive view of the Cardassian Union and what they did on Bajor) ends up trying to pull one of these on the entire Dominion once they start turning on the Cardassians. All he manages to accomplish is driving the Founders into one more atrocity.
• Succession: Kendall serves as The Dutiful Son and heir apparent to media tycoon Logan Roy, but the moment he learns he will not be inheriting leadership of the company he throws all his weight behind trying to usurp Logan.
• Supernatural:
  • Season 6 gives us Castiel, the local Sixth Ranger Traitor. He and Crowley hatch a plan to set themselves up as the new God and Lucifer, respectively. Their alliance hits a few snags, and ultimately Cas becomes God, but Crowley does not become Lucifer.
  • Cas had more power than Crowley for most of their working relationship, rather than working under him, and prior to that had joined La Résistance for moral reasons at great personal cost, even leaving aside that he'd already died twice saving the world by this point. He was also becoming God to end a war that he'd started to prevent the apocalypse beginning again. His qualifications as Starscream are slim, but The Dark Side Will Make You Forget is prominent.
  • Technically, the demon Crowley is also a Starscream, as far as season 5 of the show is concerned. While a servant of Lucifer, he knows that he and the rest of his kind are merely tools of Lucifer and that they may end up being killed by him so he forges an alliance with the brothers so they can defeat him.
  • Even Sam Winchester qualifies as a starscream for the most part of seasons 1-5, most prominently in season 4. Frustrated by the constant belittling of his older brother, Sam is made to believe by the demon Ruby that he is mankind's salvation and has him rebel against his older brother by the end of season 4.
• Super Sentai: Similar deal in the series Power Rangers gets its footage from. They vary in how successful they are.
  • After spending a good chunk of episodes doing nothing but laze around the Vader Castle, Banriki decides he wants to rule the Vader Clan and begins plotting to overthrow Queen Hedrian. He succeeds... and then proceeds to run the organization into the ground, in a prime example of why you don't give The Brute power.
  • Queen Hedrian becomes this in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. Much of the series is one long game by her to build up power in Black Magma before taking over.
  • Kagaku Sentai Dynaman: General Zenobia plotted to overthrow Emperor Aton at least once in the past, and almost immediately goes back to doing so after she's unsealed. She's beaten to the punch by Prince Megiddo/Dark Knight, who out gambits both her and Aton so skillfully that the latter willingly names him his successor.
  • In Choujin Sentai Jetman, whenever someone becomes leader of the Vyram, the other executives almost immediately become this in turn, as they all want to be ruler.
  • Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: Late into the series, Seventh Spear, Sandaaru sees the writing on the wall and realizes Tau Zant is eventually going to dispose of him, and so he begins plotting to betray him first. He actually succeeds, backstabbing his boss right after he begins his In Their Own Image plan and hijacking it for himself.
  • GoGo Sentai Boukenger: The moment Yaiba of Darkness deems Gekkou of Illusions a hindrance to his ambitions, he makes plans to backstab him and go off on his own.
  • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has Akumaro Sujigarano, though he doesn't want to supplant Dokoku per se, it's just that his Hell on Earth plan would jeopardize not only him but the rest of the Gedoshu.
  • Tensou Sentai Goseiger has the one who takes the cake. At first Buredoran simply knows things the others don't and keeps the real deal to himself, but in the end he's actually using the strengths of all three villain organizations to further his own plan. He's a fallen Gosei Angel who wants to use the power that will resurrect everyone for the final judgment at the end of the world to instead erase all life. His supposed bosses were actually so far beneath him it's not funny.
  • Enter from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters becomes this trope in the second half of the show. In the first half, he is a loyal Dragon-in-Chief, who is much more competent and strategic compared to the Psychopathic Manchild Messiah. In the second half, after Messiah's corporeal form is destroyed, Enter starts using Messiah's leftover data for his own schemes, instead of resurrecting him.
• Thieves of the Wood has The Dragon Squint Eyes plotting to usurp control of the gang from his father Iron Simon.
• The Thick of It: Defied with Jamie: Malcolm specifically chose a Bastard Understudy too batshit to pull off a successful betrayal. Eventually he does make a rather pathetic attempt, which fails horribly.
• Tidelands (Netflix): Violca, one of Adrielle's underlings, wants her position and is always plotting her takeover.
• V: The Final Battle: Diana reveals herself to be one of these towards the end. And in the followup TV series, she got one of her own in Lydia.
• Vikings has a few examples of this, as well as a number of inversions. Anyone in this show could qualify as a Starscream or a Megatron, since even the Vikings themselves could be considered villains from a certain point of view.
  • In early season 2, Rollo, the brother of Ragnar Lothbrok, betrays him to fight alongside Jarl Borg, though this doesn't last as Rollo can't bring himself to hurt his brother in battle. This isn't the only time Rollo betrays his more popular and widely acknowledged brother for power, fame and stepping out of his shadow.
  • King Horik attempts to pull this off against Ragnar in late season 2, but it backfires horribly and Ragnar defeats and kills him. Floki also pretended to be this at the same time, but it turned out he was faking and was actually aligned with Ragnar the whole time and was acting to lure Horik into a trap.
  • In England, there are usually inversions. In the alliance of King Ecbert and King Aelle, it's Ecbert, the more powerful king, who betrays Aelle to take control of Mercia, making him basically the king of England. Aelle swears revenge against his former ally, but never acts on this before he falls at the hands of The Great Heathen Army.
  • Also in England, there's King Aethelwulf and Bishop Heamund in season 5. Heamund constantly tries to dominate his king and usurp his authority, and take charge in battles. Eventually, the king catches on and puts him in his place. Heamund then stops overstepping his boundaries and seemingly remains loyal to his king (at least before being captured by the Vikings and begins fighting for them).
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Simon was this in Season 8, growing increasingly frustrated with Negan's leadership decisions and disobeying his orders. His leadership bid didn't work out.
  • After killing Pope for his willingness to sacrifice his own men and for being a Bad Boss in general, Leah takes over the Reapers in the Season 11A finale.
• The Wire:
  • Stringer Bell fits this trope perfectly, killing D'Angelo behind Avon's back, and taking advantage of Avon's imprisonment to restructure the Barksdale Organization under his own model. His model is smarter and more professional, and might lead to less violence, but he doesn't get the extent to which Avon only cares about playing The Game. Stringer goes down because he thought it was about making the most money.
  • Bill Rawls once he's promoted to Deputy Ops. While he and Burrell are thick as thieves at first, the moment Burrell's job security becomes threatened, Rawls immediately looks ready to find something to get Burrell ousted so that he can take his place.
• The X-Files: Alex Krycek 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. Well, one hand anyway.

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