And, until cannon tells me otherwise, I’m sticking with the ‘Barricade survives’ story, since he was totally cool.

He may of had 2 lines, but it was just that one scene-oid, my point being that starscream is defined by his rebellion and power struggles.

Yes there may have been more than meets the eye with this specific girl, but he was chasing her before he knew such details. Also it was general rant that male characters are either chasing the “cheerleader”, or are completely asexual. I’m only okay with such cheerleader chasing if someone has visited you from the future and said it must be done to save the world.

Actually, Dan, you’ll note that there were several Decepticons who didn’t die.

Scorponok doesn’t die, Barricade (the police car) doesn’t die, that crazy Sprite machine dude doesn’t die.

You’ll also note that Starscream had two lines: “I live to serve you Megatron” (a tongue in cheek comment, no doubt), and “The humans have taken it!” (referring to the All Spark, which Megatron had just quizzed him on). Nonetheless, I agree with your underlying sentiment.

As for the dude and cheerleader, I couldn’t really have cared less for them. You’ve got to remember though, there was more to her than met the eye. Anyway, Spike and Carly were, like, a bajillion times cooler, and Carly was a total ditz (and an MIT graduate). She was also, like, five years older than him.