Seeker (Transformers)

Seekers (alternatively known as Starscream clones) are a subspecies of fighter jet-themed Cybertronians from the planet Cybertron.

"I will control the skies"

- The Air Warriors' motto

Biology
While also being a subgroup of Decepticons, Seekers consider themselves a species unto themselves.

Anatomy
Seekers share a similar biology to other Cybertronians, except they transform into fighter jets. They come in different colors with occasional variations in wing and head shapes.

Coneheads are a breed of Seekers named for their distinctive transformation, which leaves the jet nosecone pointing up. Unlike their progenitors, the Coneheads typically feature more distinct parts between individuals, which helps to better differentiate them from each other.

Powers and abilities
Seekers share many of the same abilities as Cybertronians, such as being capable of flight in both robot and vehicle mode.

Seekers bristle with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, with their primary weapon being a pair of arm-mounted null rays capable of stopping any electronic device with one shot, be it a mindless machine or another Cybertronian.

Besides null rays, Seekers are equipped with an arsenal of deadly laser-guided missiles, lasers, cluster bombs, and even lethal vibro-claws.

Seekers such as Thundercracker, Dirge, and Thrust are masters of using sound to their advantage, as they can producing sonic booms that instill fear in the audio receptors of their enemies. Cruising at Mach 6, their victims can hear their coming from 200 miles away.

Seekers such as Skywarp possess the ability to teleport, enabling them to ambush or at least prank enemies.

Various Seekers can be immensely durable. For example, Ramjet can survive midair collisions in which he rams opponents with the cone-like tip of his heads whereas Nova Storm can survive in volcanic environments (or even the chromosphere of a star) for short periods of time.

Seekers such as Acid Storm possess the ability to manipulate localized weather patterns to create acid rain.

Seekers such as Ion Storm possess electrokinetic powers such as being able to personally generate EMPs.

Culture and society
Seekers are always obedient, determined, and ruthless. While they generally serve as airborne shock troopers in the Decepticon army, incarnations of Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, and Afterburner are alternatively affiliated with the Mercenaries.

Rainmakers are an elite military unit of Seekers under the command of Shockwave. Comprised of Acid Storm, Nova Storm, and Ion Storm, the Rainmakers are named for their ability to generate acidic rain.

Air Warriors are foot soldiers amongst the Seeker hordes considered to be ruthless killing machines. Though they have a no-nonsense attitude and a lack of compassion, Air Warriors are dedicated to neutralizing Autobots and their allies.

Starscream has commanded an army of silver jet-type Vehicons that he has referred to as Seekers.

Name Origin

 * The truly mysterious thing about the term "Seeker" is the fact that, despite it being widely used by fans as early as the 1990s, nobody knew where it actually came from, as evidenced by confused conversations from that time on alt.toys.transformers. While there were plenty of wrong answers, the strongest suggestion seemed to be that it came from the "hunter-seeker skyship" used in issue #17 of the Marvel US Transformers comic. However, the Decepticons it is applied to in that story are shown only in their flight modes, which look nothing like the jets in question. They are also completely different from the Cybertronian forms of the Coneheads, who also appear in the issue. The only real connection between the hunter-seekers and the "Seekers" is that there is more than one of them and they fly.
 * During this time when the term was believed non-canon, fans flirted with other terms such as "Skyraider". But in 2002, Simon Furman used "Seeker" in a Dreamwave War Within script, which sealed the deal of officiality and set the tone not just for the fandom, but for the Transformers fiction that came afterwards as well.
 * Years later, the mystery was finally solved with the discovery of multiple department-store advertisements from the 1984 holiday season in which the word "Seeker" appeared. The J.C. Penney catalog (sometimes called a "wishbook") featured a page dedicated to Transformers that included this statement in its description of Starscream: "Airplane with sensational F-15 styling scours the countryside searching for Autobots. When they're found, the Seekers set out to destroy them." It also said Soundwave "sends out messages to the Seekers and other Decepticons". J.C. Penney and (now-defunct) chains Zayre and Dahlkemper's put out ads in November 1984 listing Starscream and either Thundercracker or Skywarp as "Decepticon Seeker".
 * In addition, one of the earliest known ads for Transformers toys period is a Zayre circular from April 1984 that uses the term. The term even appears as late as 1985, in a toy-ordering catalog for (now-defunct) Western Auto, a specialty retail chain for automobile parts and accessories, which lists all the standard Transformers releases from the 1984 line-up, among them the "Decepticon (Seekers) Plane assortment", with Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp depicted.
 * Presumably, then, the term "Seeker" was likely handed down by Hasbro in promotional materials, and those retailers happened to run with it. It is impossible to know with absolute certainty, but the most curious aspect of the whole story is that members of the online Transformers fan community were widely and independently using the term largely without question since the early 1990s. Back then, the fandom was just getting on its feet, not dissimilar to the way the term "Generation 1" was coined.
 * The above statement could either mean that those obscure toy ads truly widely seen enough, and a strong enough part of the fandom's collective memory, to determine common parlance almost ten years after the fact, or there were more official usages that have since disappeared.

Alternate terms

 * The most obvious alternate name for these Transformers—and the one generally used by toy pack-in catalogs—is Decepticon Planes. While usually clear enough from context, this term has the weakness that there are many Decepticon planes who do not share this body-type. Also, the term is rarely, if ever, used outside of toy-specific contexts.
 * The first UK toy pack-in catalog referred to the group as strike planes.
 * The 1985 European Milton Bradley catalog calls them "Decepticon Aeroplanes".
 * In Japan, TakaraTomy called these Decepticons Jetrons.
 * The Generation 2 versions of the characters were called "Decepticon Jets".
 * Within fiction, the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Atlantis, Arise!" features Brawn calling Thundercracker a Deceptijet.
 * The 1985 Listen 'n Fun audio book "Sun Raid" has Megatron referring to Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp as Deceptiplanes.
 * The audio book "Jaws of Terror" referred to these characters as Decepticon superjets.
 * The multipath adventure book "Dinobots Strike Back" has Megatron order his warrior jets to attack the Autobots, just before a "good" ending which they fail to prevent.
 * For a long time, it has been common among fans to refer to the Seekers' Cybertronian forms, which first appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1", as tetrajets because their shape resembles a tetrahedron, a pyramid with a triangular base.
 * If there was ever an official term that could have given "Seeker" a run for its money, it was the one used on the European Generation 2 packaging of Starscream and Ramjet: Skyraiders. That term also appeared in those characters' profiles in the UK Generation 2 comic.
 * When the modern fandom dug this information up, "Seeker" was still considered a fan-generated term, so there was a push to supplant it with "Skyraider". But Furman's use of "Seeker" in The War Within, coupled with the rediscovery of the department store advertisements, put a damper on that movement.
 * Some years later, the term "Skyraider" was officially resurrected to describe the jet warriors in the BotCon 2009 set "Wings of Honor" (based on the "Unicron Trilogy" Starscream's appearance in Transformers: Energon). Skyquake was indicated as the body-type's developer in-universe.

Designs

 * Several times in the Animated cartoon, Starscream's alt-mode is called a "harrier jet". In the real world, this term actually refers to just one specific jet type, the British-designed V/STOL-capable Harrier Jump Jet, which very clearly is not Starscream's alternate mode. Then again, Animated is set about 100 years in the future, so perhaps the jet designs or terminology could have changed.
 * In the War for Cybertron video games, the Seeker design has the bulk of their live-action film series counterparts but with Generation 1-inspired heads and colors.
 * The Seeker design featured in Transformers: Prime features a thin body and narrow, upward-swept wings in robot mode similar to their Animated counterparts but with the Igor-like posture of their live-action film series counterparts.
 * In the console version of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, the Seeker design serves as the basis for the Shadow Raider Shotgunners albeit with the fighter jet kibble being absent.
 * The Seeker design featured in the 2015 Robots in Disguise franchise is similar to their Cybertronian design from Fall of Cybertron but with details inspired by both their Animated and Generation 1 counterparts, even incorporating elements of Generation 1 Starscream's appearance during the coronation scene in The Transformers: The Movie.
 * In one of the rare noticeable instances of physical change within the "Aligned" continuity family, Fixit and Bumblebee both address Starscream as looking different. Fixit claims that Starscream's current body does not match any records of him whereas Bumblebee explicitly compares it to his previous Cybertronian body.
 * Unlike most past incarnations of the group, the general design of the Seekers featured in Transformers: Cyberverse actually differs substantially from Starscream's. While Starscream is very closely based on his evergreen design, the other Seekers generally use a more stylized version of the classic body-type, with narrow wings ending in a sharp tip at the end and null-rays mounted on their upper arms.
 * This is not reflected on their toys, however, as most toys of the Seekers are simple redecos of Starscream's.
 * Many Cyberverse Seekers have atypically colored Decepticon insignias on them. The most common yellow Seekers have orange and green insignia emblazoned on their chests, and even those with purple insignias do not have a consistent shade between them.
 * The design for the Coneheads featured in Cyberverse is a robust and streamlined version of the "Generation 1" Conehead design, featuring wings similar to Generation 1 Ramjet's and turbines similar to Generation 1 Thrust's.
 * While Ramjet and Dirge share this design in the Cyberverse carton, Thrust instead uses a recolor of the standard male Seeker design. When asked if there was a significant reason for this, story editor Randolph Heard replied "not yet."
 * Fans rather wishfully interpreted this as meaning a future story might explain it only for it to, unsurprisingly, not happen. However, Afterburner would later appear on the show as a Conehead.
 * Blitzwing's design in Bumblebee bares an uncanny resemblance to Starscream. Firstly, his design is based on the classic Generation 1 Seeker design but with vehicle kibble of an F-4 Phantom II instead of an F-15 Eagle. Secondly, he is wearing the classic red and greyish-white colors of Generation 1 Starscream.
 * When the first trailer for the Bumblebee film was released, most viewers logically assumed the F-4 Phantom II Decepticon was meant to be Starscream. A synopsis for the film posted on the official Viacom blog also referred to the treacherous Decepticon by name. However, the synopsis would be edited within hours to remove it. A month later, director Travis Knight stated at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 that the Decepticon featured in the trailer was actually Blitzwing.
 * It is unclear if it was consciously decided to portray the live-action film series incarnation of Blitzwing as a Seeker, or if it was just a case of a generic Decepticon getting labelled with the "Blitzwing" name after the fact. However, it seems unlikely that the character was originally intended to be Starscream himself. The Decepticon jet's demise was present in the early test screenings when the movie was still intended to be a prequel to the Michael Bay films, in which Starscream was very much alive. Indeed, a different placeholder name was used for Blitzwing in the post-screening questionnaire.
 * Blitzwing is never referred to by name in dialogue, only being named as such in the credits, and his portrayal in the film has little relation to the original Blitzwing. Subsequent toys and media would depict Blitzwing as a Triple Changer similar to his Generation 1 counterpart and Animated counterparts.
 * The first trailer for Bumblebee to include Cybertron scenes featured a Cybertronian version of Blitzwing among Shockwave's Seekers. In later trailers and the final film, he would be replaced with Starscream, sporting his traditional color scheme and seemingly a new head lacking the "flight mask" design motif. Blitzwing still makes a cameo during these scenes, being briefly seen to Soundwave's right alongside Dropkick in the opening Cybertron scene.

Voices

 * In a podcasted audio interview, Marty Isenberg revealed that he originally wanted to play the Transformers: Animated incarnation of Starscream's name ironically. He wanted the character to have a quiet, whispery tone, as he really didn't like the screechy voice of the original Starscream (though, at the same time, he pointed out that he has nothing against his actor). Derrick J. Wyatt argued against this idea, and Tom Kenny's reading finally won Marty over.
 * Steve Blum was a fan of Charlie Adler and Tom Kenny's portrayals of Starscream, and had Adler give him his blessing after he got the part for Transformers: Prime.
 * In addition to "Aligned" Starscream in both Prime and Robots in Disguise 2015, Blum would also voice the live-action incarnation of Starscream for the Dark of the Moon video game and EarthSpark Starscream.

Miscellaneous

 * There is some confusion as to precisely what weapons Animated Starscream has. According to the Decepticon character descriptions sent out in the initial Cartoon Network press release for Transformers: Animated, Starscream "can affect a sonic scream and produce powerful blasts of sound that can send enemies spinning through the atmosphere".
 * His toy packaging declares that he has "twin sonic shock blasters" rather than the null-rays of his Generation 1 counterpart, while a bio on the Hasbro website declares that Animated Starscream does have null-rays while otherwise being a direct copy of the press release text, which does not mention them anywhere.
 * What is unquestionably Starscream's "sonic scream" appears in the episode "TransWarped (Part 1)", apparently a modification created by the AllSpark fragment in his head. Similarly, in the same episode, Blurr tells Skywarp and Thundercracker to use alternating sonic pulses to destabilize the concrete the trio are trapped in. This could point to Starscream's arm-mounted cannons being sonic shock blasters, as he was addressing Skywarp, but also could be a reference to Generation 1 Thundercracker and his ability to create sonic booms.
 * "Aligned" Starscream's backstory in Exodus is self-contradictory as Starscream is referred to as a scientist on page 78, backed up by the book saying that he "had spent much of his scientific career in the labs contained within these refracting walls". However, on page 158, it is stated that "Neither Starscream nor Megatron were scientists." When asked via Twitter, Exodus's writer Alex Irvine stated "Let's say he's always been scientifically curious."
 * In the console version of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, when Starscream sarcastically remarks how Shockwave is "ever the scientist", Shockwave replies with "as you once were". This implies that Starscream had been a scientist at some point in time but eventually left that field.
 * Skyquake's role in the Transformers: Prime cartoon was originally filled by Skywarp.
 * In the Prime episode "Scattered", the silver jet-type Vehicons have been referred to as "Seekers" by both Starscream and the episode's end credits. Whether the same applies for the normal-colored jet-type Vehicons has not been confirmed, though the end credits referred to one of those as a "Trooper" instead.