Transformers Prime showed us all how NOT to write abuse victims

Content warning for discussions of abuse (mostly physical, references to psychological) and Stockholm Syndrome.

A tribute to one of my favorite fictional characters and the awful way the show treated him.

I originally made this as a tumblr post but decided to go all out and make a youtube video. Even if no one watches it I'm glad I could scream my thoughts into the void.

FURTHER POINTS:
I tried not to mention real people during the video, but it's also true that Steve Blum (Starscream's VA) stated that he and some of the writers enjoyed Starscream suffering. I didn't mention this because I wanted to focus on the narrative that had made it into the finished project, but just the fact that that was a conversation happening behind the scenes is genuinely horrifying. If the intent was to use Starscream in season three to have his suffering be somehow entertaining, that's plainly disgusting.
Starscream is also a queer-coded character (the gay subtext is up to interpretation, but he's definitely gender non-conforming, being more effeminate than other male characters) which makes his role in the story being perpetual suffering significantly worse.
While I can see the interpretation of Starscream being a character who doomed himself by refusing every chance to make the better and less selfish choices throughout the series, he could still be the villain who refuses redemption without his last scene being him being physically beat again.
also, parts of the fandom have a terrible tendency to make all of this worse by continuing to victim blame Starscream and not understanding the nuance that villains can be victims, too

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:32 How Not to Write an Abused Character
02:12 Who is Starscream?
03:12 Why Starscream is a Badly Written Abuse Victim
10:35 Outro

FURTHER READING/VIEWING:
Save Our Starscream:
https://www.tumblr.com/tyrantofthefir...
Another Youtuber's Discussion of the Same Topic:
   • Starscream, Megatron, & Imperfect Abuse Na...  
Article on Writing Abused Characters:
https://www.dabblewriter.com/articles...

Thanks for watching and thanks for reading my description
#transformers #transformersprime #tfp #tfpstarscream #starscream #saveourstarscream