History Characters / TransformersFilmSeriesDecepticons

* KarmaHoudini: The Decepticons as a whole following the events of ''Dark of The Moon'' are shown in ''The Last Knight'' as having been arrested by the Humans. Compare this to their Autobot counterparts: who throughout both films are actively hunted by the Humans with the intent of outright killing them.

* AxCrazy: He seems to be kinda nuts, as evidenced by the Christmas decorations on his robot mode, and the fact that he turns into a Volkswagen bus (which is considered a hippie symbol of peace and love). He was caught after robbing a human bank, then blowing the vault up and killing witnesses rather than actually taking anything.

* HippieVan: His vehicle mode, a rusty old VW.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Along with Onslaught and ([[WhatHappenedToTheMouse maybe]]) Mohawk, he is killed in his first battle.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Killed at the end of the opening of ''Revenge of the Fallen''.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: A few of the Constructicons blend inhuman design elements with the humanistic ones expected under the Bayverse art style.
** Scavenger and Demolishor transform into wheeled robots, with one positioned high above their heads and the other being used for mobility.
** Rampage and Skipjack each have a large jackhammer-like appendage in place of traditional legs.
** Despite never transforming in ''ROTF,'' Overload received a robot mode in concept art that would later influence his toy designs. The art shows him bearing multiple legs and arms, and only the latter would be retained for his ''Studio Series'' release. Hightower is in a similar position, only with all of his transforming toys retaining what makes his design so different from his contemporaries. His robot mode appears to be one that adopted a truss crane not just as a disguise, but as a ''body-type.''

** As well, [[spoiler:in ''Dark of the Moon'' when he's [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu told he'll be reduced to nothing but Sentinel's bitch]], Megatron fiercely advances toward her...then realizes she does have a point and decides to direct his anger right to Sentinel Prime himself]].
* PreMortemOneLiner:
-->'''Megatron:''' NO! I want ''two''!

** An earlier one occurs in the ''Revenge Of The Fallen'' video game. Starscream's Special Ability there is the Null Reactor -- which temporarily increases the damage of his weapons and gives them the ability to slow opponents with each shot -- referencing the similarly-functioning Null-Rays that his [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers G1 self]] had.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: In ''Dark of the Moon'', he [[spoiler:charges and defeats Sentiel to reassert himself as leader of the Decepticons, allowing Optimus to finish Sentinel off after Megatron is defeated]].

* BigBad: In the first film by himself, later reduced to being the Dragon for the second and third films but promoted to part of a BigBadDuumvirate alongside [[spoiler:Quintessa]] for the fifth.

* BigBadWannabe: In ''Dark of the Moon'', he still hasn't recovered from the blast he took to the face from his own fusion gun and chooses to stay out of fighting in the battlefield (Chicago). Carly uses this to her (and Optimus Prime's) advantage by goading Megatron [[spoiler: he'll be dethroned by Sentinel if he doesn't revolt]].

* TheHeavy: Makes all decisions for the Decepticons; all of the conflict is driven by his actions.

* TheDragon: To Blackout.

* BigBad: Of the second film.

* GreaterScopeVillain: To Megatron in the first film, though he isn't mentioned.

** In ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'', there's a point in the scene where the Decepticons attack the junkyard in which [[spoiler:Megatron comes across Starscream's severed head -- since recovered and put back together by Daytrader since [[YourHeadAsplode his death]] in ''Dark of the Moon'' -- [[PetTheDog which he looks at, holds mournfully and briefly talks to]] just as he prepares to fight Hound]]:

* UnexplainedRecovery: A rare [[spoiler:non-living]] variant. Despite Starscream [[spoiler:having his head blown to bits by Sam in ''Dark Of The Moon'' -- promptly followed by the rest of him hitting the ground in pieces from the resulting fall off a tall building -- his head has been scavenged by Daytrader by the time of ''The Last Knight'', looking completely intact and no worse-for-wear otherwise]].

* AdaptationalCurves: To keep him about the same height as the rest of the Cybertronians -- due to transforming into a jet fighter that's about the length of three standard cars -- Starscream is more wide and portly here than in most incarnations, which depict him with a sleeker or thinner body.
* AdaptationalJerkass: The Starscream in the Decepticon campaign of the [[VideoGame/TransformersTheGameDS 2007 DS game]] is one of the most monstrous if not ''the'' most monstrous incarnation of the character to be depicted. He takes the treachery up to eleven, slaughters Decepticons who turn on him without a thought, and is in general one of the creepier incarnations of Starscream.

** In ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'', there's a point in the scene where the Decepticons attack the junkyard in which [[spoiler:Megatron comes across Starscream's severed head -- since recovered and put back together since [[YourHeadAsplode his death]] in ''Dark of the Moon'' -- [[PetTheDog which he looks at, holds mournfully and briefly talks to]] just as he prepares to fight Hound]];

** You can also tell that Starscream did absolutely nothing to stop Optimus from completely pummelling Megatron and The Fallen in the final battle of ''Revenge of the Fallen''; but on the other hand, after Megatron suffers a bad enough injury that he's still recovering in the next film, Starscream suggests him to retreat, instead of finishing Megatron off or letting Optimus do it for him.

* AdaptationalCurves: He is more wide and portly here than in most incarnations, which depict him with a sleeker or thinner body.

* AnArmAndALeg: In ''Revenge of the Fallen'', Optimus cuts off his right arm in the forest fight [[GrievousHarmWithABody and clubs him with it]]. Starscream is later shown reattaching it after the argument with Megatron on top of a skyscraper.

* CallBack: In ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'', there's a point in the scene where the Decepticons attack the junkyard in which [[spoiler:Megatron comes across Starscream's severed head -- since recovered and put back together since [[YourHeadAsplode his death]] in ''Dark of the Moon'' -- [[PetTheDog which he looks at, holds mournfully and briefly talks to]] just as he prepares to fight Hound]];

* CombatPragmatist: In the first movie, instead of fighting on the ground like his fellow 'Cons, he takes advantage of the fact he can fly while his enemies can't, and [[DeathFromAbove simply ambushes them from the air]]. This comes to a head when he intercepts Ratchet and Ironhide while they're escorting Sam to the rendezvous. He screams in jet mode, slams into the ground and skids towards them mid-transformation, ''fires point-blank at the two Autobots'' with his Vulcan cannons and a good missile or two for good measure, before doing a flip, transforming into jet mode, and rocketing back into the sky.
* CoolPlane: His alt mode is an F-22 Raptor, which some would call ''the'' cool plane of the modern age.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: One long HumiliationConga. [[EyeScream One eye torn out with a grappling hook, the other gouged out with a knife blade]], all he can do is flail blindly while N.E.S.T troops and Sam attack him. [[FridgeHorror And it's entirely possible]] that he [[OhCrap overheard Sam tell Lennox that the aforementioned knife was a bomb]].

* DeathByAdaptation: Offed by Jazz in ''VideoGame/TransformersTheGame''.

-->'''Starscream''': [[CouldSayItBut Not to call you a coward, master]], but, sometimes, ''cowards do survive''.

** The [=ROTF=] games in fact combine the two versions, and the end result is someone who, underneath the deep, creepy and authorative voice filter sounds genuinely insane and volatile. This is particularly interesting in that Creator/FrankWelker reprises his role as Megatron in the games, meaning that ''Starscream's voice is actually deeper than Megatron's'' in the [=ROTF=] games.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Gets his optics gouged out by [[LethalJokeCharacter Sam]] -- first he gets a grappling hook fired in one and then a bomb gouged into the other, which then detonates and kills him]].
* GutturalGrowler: His voice is screechy and raspy.

* PragmaticAdaptation: His vastly different design from practically every other version of Starscream is the result of this - as mentioned below, the plane has to go somewhere in robot mode without making him the size of a combiner (hence his shape), and his usual red, white and blue color scheme doesn't exactly blend in with the grey planes of the U.S military.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Defied. The problem when designing him was that planes are large. His odd appearance (bird-like legs, wideness) is because the plane had to go somewhere when he transformed, and using a more humanoid design would have resulted in him dwarfing every other character of the film. Thus most of his mass was shifted to his torso, and his leg design means he looks shorter than he actually is.

* TheStarscream:
** ''Very'' downplayed. He's less proactive than other incarnations, although he was happy to leave Megatron to die in Mission City. Though Megatron accuses Starscream of ''actually'' attacking him [[note]]As a ShoutOut to the popular fan theory that Starscream was one of the jets that shot him[[/note]], Starscream at least claims he didn't and doesn't try anything so direct at any other point in the series. This comes back to bite him when Megatron [[BackFromTheDead makes his return]]. Then again, the mere fact that he could lead the Decepticons quite effectively in the tens of thousands of years of Megatron's absence would probably have Starscream being justified in feeling that he's the better leader compared to Megatron. However there are some hints to Starscream being just as treacherous as his cartoon and comic book counterparts in the live-action films:

** You can also tell that Starscream did absolutely nothing to stop Optimus from completely owning Megatron and The Fallen in the final battle of ''Revenge of the Fallen'' - on the other hand, after Megatron suffers a bad enough injury that he's still recovering in the next film, Starscream suggests him to retreat, instead of finishing the guy off.

* TattooedCrook: at some point before ROTF, Starscream had his Alt-Mode parts covered in Cybertronian Glyphs, negating the advantage of looking like a Air Force jet to sneak up on enemies, allowing Epps to notice straight away he wasn't a friendly in the climax of the film.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: According to tie-in comics, he doesn't believe in Optimus or Megatron; his only goal is to save his species from extinction.

* DarkIsEvil: Most Decepticons are either black or metallic gray. Notable exceptions are Long Haul (bright green) and Galvatron (shiny metallic silver).

%%* TransformingMecha: Natch.

* EvilIsBigger: Most Decepticons are larger than the Autobots. This is an interesting result of the more realistic nature of these films, which make a more vested effort to defy [[YourSizeMayVary the problems of scale]] pervasive throughout the ''Transformers'' franchise. Decepticons tend to disguise themselves as massively complex and bulky military vehicles, and in preserving the mass and bulk of their alternate forms, they tower over the Autobots that are based on smaller vehicles -- even Optimus Prime (who takes the form of a ''huge'' truck that includes his tractor rig) is noticeably smaller than [[BigBad Megatron]].

* EvilIsBigger: Most Decepticons are larger than the Autobots.

* InformedAtribute: Earns the designation "My old treacherous friend" by Megatron upon [[spoiler:discovering his severed head]] in ''The Last Knight''. Despite this comment, Starscream's [[TheStarscream typical behavior]] hadn't actually been displayed in the film series all that much.

* IronicNickname: Earns the designation "My old treacherous friend" by Megatron.

* BadassDecay: In the first movie, Starscream is threatening and proves himself one of the Decepticons' best fighters, destroying Bumblebee's legs in an ambush and later sufficiently wounding Ratchet and Ironhide that they are unable to protect Sam, something Brawl and Blackout were unable to do. He also blasts the helicopter meant to evacuate the AllSpark out of the sky, allowing Megatron to catch up with Sam. However, in the next two sequels, he refrains from engaging any Autobots head-on, is frequently abused and berated by Megatron, and ultimately ends up being killed by ''Sam'' after chasing him and Carly. This is almost reflected in his voice; in the first film, he has a deep, gravelly, intimidating baritone, but in the next two movies, it's changed to a higher-pitched, more submissive tone.

* DeadpanSnarker: In the DS Decepticons game, where he shows a bit more of a personality. Just for one example:
---> Brawl: Gee, blow up a bunch of stationary targets that won't fight back. How exciting.

** A variation; he seems to genuinely love Cybertron, and is ready to sacrifice anyone who stands on his way to return it to it's former glory. However, he doesn't like to aknowledge the fact that he ruined it in the first place, [[HistoryRepeats and it's likely he would just re-establish himself as it's leader and ruin it again]] if it were ever saved.

* Mixmaster, a cement truck.

* CombatMedic: Long Haul is the Decepticon counterpart to Ratchet in the game, having a Combat Repair

* AdaptationalDumbass: In the console game's Decepticon campaign, he's too stupid to do anything, whether it's fending off U.S. military units or locating Mission City. Although a pivotal combatant in the movie, he's actually absent from the Mission City battles forcing Barricade to take his place.

* DeathByAdaptation: In the junior novelization, Brawl is killed just before Megatron kills Jazz.

* ManChild: He fits this trope in the console version of ''Transformers: The Game'', though maybe Brawl really is a child. He's useless to the Decepticon cause being unable to fight off weak, fleshy human units on his own nor find his way into Mission City to help crush the Autobots forcing Starscream to "babysit" him.

* Long Haul, a dump truck.

* BadassBaritone: He is voiced by Creator/HugoWeaving in the first three films. In ''The Last Knight'', he is voiced by Frank Welker who is using a deeper, more monstrous voice than what he used for his ''Prime'' counterpart[[note]]His movie voice can be described as constantly snarling and filled with barely-restrained rage, while his ''Prime'' voice is not as gravelly, something more of a deeper, much less throaty and screechy, and refined take on his original cartoon voice[[/note]].

* WhipItGood: Rampage.