when the Cons were retreating from Autobot City aboard Astrotrain, the only reason why Starscream opted to discard the wounded into space is because Astrotrain said "You better dump some weight or else i'll never make it back to Cybertron". now here's the kicker: there is no gravity or air resistence in space. Astrotrain wouldn't have had any difficulty making it back to Cybertron no matter how many Cons he was carrying. clearly, Astrotrain was conspiring with Starscream to get rid of Megatron and i bet Starscream was going to make Astrotrain the new decepticon aircommander as a reward for his help.

 

yes, i know that the movie writers simply lacked a proper understanding of astrophysics but it's fun to come up with hairbrained theories for bad writing/animation

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Astrotrain in season 2 had no respect for Starscream, and the writers made sure

of that (God Gambit, Triple Takeover). In Starscream's Brigade, Starscream

orders Astrotrain & 2 other cons to slay Megs but Astrotrain just stands there

with his hands on his hips.  Starscream had no respect and the writers made

sure of that.  Astrotrain would conspire with Starscream only if Astrotrain had a

plan in place to take Starscream out.  At least, that's how I think the writers

would do it.

You would think that Decps like Soundwave, Megatron, and the insecticons could just transform and be stored in the overhead luggage compartments....

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Perhaps they were too damaged to transform?

Guys, this wasn't a novel; it was a (not very long) animated feature. All these ins and outs would have made the story way too convoluted for its own good. The writers focused on Starscream b/c he was an old, well-established character, and his relationship to Megatron was pretty much the only defining relational dynamic among the Decepticons to date. So given that they wanted to shake things up, the obvious thing to do was to simply have Megatron finally get rid of Starscream. Bang. Done. As for any secondary characters (which Astrotrain definitely was), that would have only confused the issue. The writers' job was to jettison everything familiar by the end of the first act, which they did (rather unceremoniously). Astrotrain was a newly released toy when the movie was in development, and wouldn't have been as likely to have been killed off. (In fact, a lot of the 1985 toys continued to have prominent roles in season 3.)

Galvatron did get his turn on Astrotrain, a bit later on, except it was Cyclonus who did it...

 

In the first episode of Five Faces of Darkness, after the Decepticons squabbled for Energon, Astrotrain struggled to claim a cube for himself. Cyclonus then took the Energon for himself, denying Astrotrain anything. Later on, it would be Blitzwing who saved the day.

Galvatron did get his turn on Astrotrain, a bit later on, except it was Cyclonus who did it...

 

In the first episode of Five Faces of Darkness, after the Decepticons squabbled for Energon, Astrotrain struggled to claim a cube for himself. Cyclonus then took the Energon for himself, denying Astrotrain anything. Later on, it would be Blitzwing who saved the day.

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I always wondered why they did that with Blitzwing at the end of FFoD. They set up this big story point with Blitzwing all but defecting / getting kicked out of the Decepticons.... the writers had to know that they weren't going to follow up on that (which they didn't).

i figured astrotrain had to jetison some weight as he didn't have the energy to carry everybody back to cybertron, hince his line, now why they all let ss throw megs off was simple, they all wanted to rule, even sw, because if sw didn't want to lose megs he wouldn't have went to fighting inside astrotrain, but the bigger question is, with all that fighting going on, how the 7344 did they even make it back to cybs in the 1st place  :schin

he "killed" Starscream becuase Starscream tossed him off the shuttle, kicked him, and originally suggested the idea of tossing people off in the firts place. that simple.

he "killed" Starscream becuase Starscream tossed him off the shuttle, kicked him, and originally suggested the idea of tossing people off in the firts place. that simple.

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yeah good point astrotrain never said to throw off the hurt cons, that was ss idea

he "killed" Starscream becuase Starscream tossed him off the shuttle, kicked him, and originally suggested the idea of tossing people off in the firts place. that simple.

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yeah good point astrotrain never said to throw off the hurt cons, that was ss idea

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well, he did insinuate sometihng along those lines... he said "We need ot jetison some weight." while that could mean just throwing away weapons, it's uncertain. in either case, it's really too vague to mean anything other than "Toss some Blot off." >.>

I always wondered why they did that with Blitzwing at the end of FFoD. They set up this big story point with Blitzwing all but defecting / getting kicked out of the Decepticons.... the writers had to know that they weren't going to follow up on that (which they didn't).

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well, one theory is that Blitzwing was originally going to reappear in the episode "Starscream's Ghost" but the writers got him mixed up with Octane and the later was cast in the role by mistake.