Just a Face and a Caption: The Starscream

I think this falls straight in JAFAAC territory. I'm not even sure which of the faces shown is Starscream.

I smell Trope Namer syndrome on the image.

It's....meh.

I like it, although it could stand to be a little brighter. It may be Fan Myopia creeping in, but the smirking expression, weapon in his hand, being behind Megatron, and the caption, makes for a working package.

I don't see a weapon in his hand. That may look like a big Final Fantasy sword he's holding, but it's actually a wing on his back.

The little knife-like thing is the weapon. EDIT: Ignore me.

The picture seems OK to me. It looks like a backstabbing is about to occur.

edited 17th Mar '12 2:24:23 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Actually, that "knife-like thing" is his gun. And I think the picture precedes confrontation instead of backstabbing.

edited 7th Mar '12 6:37:23 AM by ThatHuman

It's not really JAFAAC, though maybe not ideal either.

It was selected in a previous IP thread

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=a5rlps14p90rw6huiqowl6u9&page=1

That looks like a rather meh choice. The Starscream's grin is barely visible.

Yep.

Confrontation instead of backstabbing? Fair enough but the scene in question is still an example because Starscream is directly challenging Megatron's authority...and it looks like a back stabbing about to take place anyway, which is still in line with the trope.

How exactly would it look like a backstabbing is about to take place here, unless you're already familiar with the series depicted?

Because he's standing behind him smirking with a weapon?

He's always got a weapon. (Well, two. One attached to each arm) Some Transformers tend to have weapons attached at all times, even when they're not really doing anything. Helps to be prepared, I guess.

edited 7th Mar '12 5:09:59 PM by ThatHuman

But you'd have to be familiar with Transformers to know that.

To me it's a Keep Until Better Image Suggested.

Reminds me, it's kinda hard to link to K-UBIS, isn't it?

Plain wrapping it in curly braces results in the link converted to the complete words with spaces, like so: Keep Until Better Image Suggested

Manually: Keep Until Better Image Suggestion

edited 10th Mar '12 5:59:49 AM by Catalogue

It would still be misleading to make people assume that having a weapon in the picture actually means anything, no? And the image is definitely not backstabbing (Starscream had already been "fired" by this point. Can't betray somebody who no longer trusts you.) Although I'm pretty sure it still counts.

edited 10th Mar '12 6:45:37 AM by ThatHuman

To me, the image is okay as it is.

There's the Big Bad in the foreground and The Dragon in the background. The former doesn't suspect anything while the latter is clearly planning to betray him.

In other words: The Starscream, in a nutshell. It's freaking perfect.

I agree with Alex Sora 89. I honestly doubt that an image for this page could be any better, save for quality and brightness improvements.

Though unfortunately the only other version of that image I could find is lower quality and darker.

Um, read my spoilered post there (and here): The Big Bad already knows full well what Starscream is up to. The picture is taken from an episode after Starscream was "fired" from the bad guy group. Megatron is far from "unsuspecting". (He beats up Starscream a second after this frame) I don't think that even needed spoilering, really.

Hmm, now this image seems misleading, considering that people seem to get "I'm secretly plotting treachery" from the picture, even though it's really "I'm about to attack head-on". Here's the scene the picture is actually from. No backstabbing, just all-out fighting.

edited 14th Mar '12 11:59:42 PM by ThatHuman

The picture doesn't indicate that the guy in front is The Big Bad, nor that the guy in the back is The Dragon. You would only know that if you're already familiar with the series depicted.

And as indicates, if you're familiar with the episode depicted, you'll know that this isn't actually an example of the trope.

Certainly there's a comic example or something where Starscream is telling Megatron how he should be the one leading the Decepticons, or ... something. He isn't the Trope Namer for nothing, nearly every single version of him has the exact same goal: Off Megatron and take over.

That's a good idea.

A comic image I suppose could work if an even better one is found, but the current image is still blatant to me. And I know absolutely nothing about Transformers. The only "problem" with it is that I can only kinda tell which one's the Big Bad and which is The Dragon, but that doesn't matter since they're both clearly there.

I'm familiar with Starscream and Megatron, but not the series in question, so I don't recognise them in the picture.

I still think the picture is good enough.

Keep Until Better Image Suggested.