The Transformers franchise has had a presence on the page, the screen, and the colored panels for over 30 years ever since these bots first debuted in 1984. The whole time, one of the more consistent Transformers characters to ever make an appearance is Megatron's right hand man, Starscream. Starscream is a Decepticon of many things: a gladiator, a scientist, a politician, a graduate of the Cybertron War Academy, but above all else, he is one of the strongest Decepticons of the bunch. If not for the fact that he was trying to overthrow Megatron and take over his throne every chance he got, he would be the ideal soldier that any one of the Transformers would be lucky enough to have on their side.

While Starscream's ambitions -- or, rather, obsessions -- with becoming the new leader of the Decepticons was never a secret to anyone, that does not mean there are not just a few secrets in this robot's closet. He's got quite a few dark secrets as far as his history is concerned, his origin story, and even some behind the scenes tidbits that went into the character. Without further ado, here are some of the most shocking dark secrets when it comes to Starscream.

15 HE WAS ALMOST CALLED ULCHTAR...

Starscream is a pretty cool name when ya think about it. It is also kind of the perfect name to summarize Starscream's personality, if we had to break it down in one word; or rather an amalgamation of two random words that fit perfectly together when talking about Starscream. Yeah, that sentence totally made sense and does not sound drawn out at all. Just run with it.

Anyway, Starscream is just a great name for Starscream, but the character almost very nearly had a different name.

One of the names that the creators had considered calling him was Ulchtar, which compared to Starscream, sounds utterly boring. In fact, Thundercracker was going to have the name Starscream before writer Bob Budiansky insisted on giving the name to the Decepticon instead.

14 ...AND PRETTY POISON

Ulchtar was not the only name that the Transformers creators almost gave to Starscream. There were actually several different names that were considered before they finally settled on Starscream; all of which sound even more horrendous than the last. Other options included The Silver Snake and -- perhaps the cheesiest one of them all -- Pretty Poison.

Thankfully, they came to their senses and decided on sticking with Starscream. After all, as the classic saying goes, a Starscream by any other name is not Starscream at all. Okay, that is not how the saying goes at all and no one has ever said that, but it is not like we ever admitted to being Shakespeare scholars or something. Just run with it, and act like we're smart and clever.

13 AS A GHOST, HE POSSESSES A LITTLE GIRL

Fans well versed in all knowledge revolving around Starscream would know that the Decepticon can never truly die. Not when his lifeforce was mysteriously indestructible, and allow him the ability to possess anyone or anything he wished.

Over the years, we have seen Starscream possess all types of machinery, robots, and at one point, a little girl.

There is an odd franchise of Transformers lore called Kiss Players, where Transformers gained power-ups via kissing little school girls. In one issue, he possessed young Atari Hitotonari while she was using the bathroom. He failed to truly intimate anyone while in her body because he never managed to pull up her underpants once he left the bathroom. The less that is said about this franchise, the better.

12 THERE'S A GENDERBENT VERSION NAMED SLIPSTREAM

As history tells us, genderbending a character which always has been traditionally male or traditionally female can make for some rather interesting twists on classic stories. Elementary turned John Watson and Professor James Moriarty into Joan Watson and Jamie Moriarty. The Flashpoint universe of DC Comics gave us a lady version of The Joker in the form of Martha Wayne. The 2007-2009 animated Transformers series did something similar by introducing a genderbent version of Starscream.

This character, Slipstream (voiced by Tara Strong), is a clone of Starscream, who frequently insults the original Starscream. Like each of his clones, Slipstream comes from an aspect of Starscream's personality. When he asked which personality trait, she told him he was better off not knowing which personality trait of his she represented.

11 HAS THE HIGHEST BODY COUNT IN THE  G1 SERIES

The Generation One cartoon version of the Transformers franchise was always directed for a children's demographic. Of course, Transformers in general always has been and always will be directed towards children -- even if some of the questionable content of the Michael Bay films is not exactly what a lot of us would call kid friendly -- but Generation 1 in general was always a kid's product.

Because of the fact that it was such a childish and kidsy product, Transformers rarely went in a dark direction when it came to storytelling.

Interestingly enough, more often than not, whenever death did pop up in Generation 1, Starscream was at the center of it. Starscream reportedly killed five characters, automatically giving him the highest kill count of  any Transformer in Generation 1.

10 ONLY DECEPTICON TO TAKE OUT A MEMBER OF TEAM PRIME

As both Megatron's second in command and the secondary antagonist of the Transformers franchise, Starscream has always had a merciless side to him. One may say that Starscream has quite the unapologetic trigger finger on his hands. That mercilessness was especially highlighted during the 2010-2013 animated series Transformers Prime.

In this series, he is noted as the first and only member of the Decepticons to permanently kill a member of Team Prime. The key word here is "permanently." Transformers get killed and come back from the dead all the time -- of course, Hasbro can't sell all those toys when Transformers stay dead -- but the one time that the Autobots never did come back from the dead was when Starscream kills Cliffjumper, something that he frequently bragged about on the show.

9 HE'S CREATED A WHOLE TROPE

If there is one thing that Starscream always has been and always will be remembered for, it is for being the untrustworthy right hand man to Megatron who always tried to take the mantle of Decepticon leader from under him.

It is such an enduring and distinguishable character trait for Starscream that it gave birth to an entirely new archetype called "The Starscream."

According to tvtropes.org, "The Starscream" is a character in pop culture that is "too ambitious" and "too stubborn" to accept the supremacy of their Big Bad boss, and instead spends every waking moment of their day plotting to take their boss's job. Other "Starscreams" in the media include Spike during Buffy's second season, Jayne from Firefly, and Stringer Bell from The Wire.

8 HE DIED IN THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIE TO SELL MORE TOYS

In 1986, Transformers: The Movie was released in theaters and took its possession as arguably the boldest animated kids movie ever. Everyone's most beloved characters -- heroes and villains alike -- who children had grown accustomed to for several years at this point were all killed off in one flail swoop. The characters who suffered grim fates would include Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Kickback, and most shocking of all, Optimus Prime.

One would think that making such a bold move in a children's movie was the filmmaker's way of being shocking but no, that's not what's going on here at all. The only reason why all of these characters were killed was because it would give Hasbro a reason to produce more toys based on new Transformers introduced in the movie.

7 HE'S VOICED BY COBRA COMMANDER

There have been several different actors who have lent their voices to Starscream -- including Spongebob himself, Tom Kenny, in the infamous Michael Bay movies that everyone loves -- but one actor who made an impression on audiences like no one else has is none other than Chris Latta. Latta played Starscream during the original animated Transformers series.

When he was not dedicating his voice to playing Starscream, he was doing so for another Hasbro character: Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe.

Other notable appearances including some guest spots on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The Simpsons where he voiced Mr. Burns from 1989-1990. The stand-up comic passed away in 1994 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He is survived by his second wife, and three children.

6 THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS RIVAL, JETFIRE

Jetfire is remembered best as the arch nemesis of Starscream, but the character was actually introduced to the show under rather strenuous circumstances. The truth is that when originally created, Jetfire was never supposed to be a Transformer. In fact, Jetfire's name was not even originally Jetfire. It was originally a VF-1S Super Valkyrie Fighter from a television show called The Super Dimension Fortress Macross that aired during the early '80s exclusively in Japan.

Produced by the Takatoku toy producing company, this toy was a hit with kids in Japan. Recognizing how well the design could do in the States, Hasbro bought the rights to the toy, renamed it Jetfire, and made it an Autobot. Well, a Decepticon that converted into an Autobot, but an Autobot nonetheless.

5 HE WASN'T ALWAYS A DECEPTICON

For as long as Transformers has been a popular brand in pop culture, Starscream has always had a close knit connection with the Decepticons. For so long, in fact, that many fans seem to forget that he did not start out as a Decepticon.

Starscream originated in Transformers lore as a politician on the planet Cybertron.

At least that was how his origin story for Marvel Comics played out. In the original animated series, Starscream started out as a Cybertronian scientist. When it comes to the Dreamwave comic book series, he was a gladiator who was fighting on the planet Cybertron. Though he has played many professions in many different origins, one thing that has remained the same is that he was a Cybertronian before Megatron swayed him over to the Decepticons.

4 HE CREATED COMBATICONS

Among many things -- right hand man to Megatron, a Decepticon Air Commander, a Cybertron War Academy graduate, etc. -- Starscream was a scientist. He knew how to build, and when he finally got fed up with waiting until Megatron croaked before he could lead the Decepticons, he decided to leave the Decepticons and lead his own army. Or, better yet, create his own army.

He took a bunch of parts from some old military vehicles, then stole some personality components from some old Decepticons he found when he flew over to Cybertron. He took the personality components, put them in the cars, put two and two together, and voila! Starscream finally has his very own army to rule over however he oh so pleased to do with!

3 HE ISN'T SECOND-IN-COMMAND TO MEGATRON

In all of the numerous iterations of the Transformers franchise that have been spun off in movies, television, comic books, novels, etc, one remaining constant is that Starscream is, and always has been, Megatron's second-in-command. There is one iteration of the character that felt the need to tweak this origin just a bit.

In Beast Wars II, an anime that remains exclusive to Japan, Starscream is second-in-command not to Megatron, but to Galvatron.

Granted, Starscream is still the same old Starscream. He is still the same crazy old bat who seems hell bent on overthrowing his master to take power all to himself (the more things change, eh?), but in this version of the Transformers lore at least, Starscream directs all of that angst to Galvatron instead of Megatron.

2 HE INSPIRED THE NAME OF A FAMOUS CAT 

Olan Rogers is an extremely popular comedic Youtuber who nearly has one million subscribers on YouTube and close to 120k followers on Twitter. Those who may not know his work by name probably have seen his face throughout social media more than a few times, considering that the man's videos of himself frequently get gif'd and memed by his followers.

He is also the creator of the brand new animated show Final Space, a comedy sci-fi show that airs on TBS. In addition to all of this, it appears as though that Rogers also happens to be a massive Transformers fan, considering that his cat -- a frequent subject and guest star of his videos -- is named, of all things, Starscream. He named her Starscream because of the cat's inability to meow properly.

1 HE LOST A FIGHT TO RAINBOW DASH 

Yes, that is correct. That is not a typo of any sort, and everyone who is reading this is doing so correctly. The infamous second-in-command of the Decepticons actually once lost a fight to a miniature Pegasus pony. As many of our readers may be familiar with, the website ScrewAttack regularly upload a series of fight videos pitting well celebrated characters in pop culture against each other.

One of the most viewed match-ups was that between Starscream and Rainbow Dash.

Starscream had the size advantage and the heavy artillery on his side, but thanks to Rainbow Dash's karate background and her weather manipulation abilities, she won after turning Starscream's own missiles against him. When he turned into his lifeforce form, she put one final nail in his coffin by eating him.