Suburbanator wrote:
If I remember correctly, in the cartoon, he came to Earth without an identity. Both the Autobots and the Decepticons wanted to get to him before the other side, the Ds because he was a superior plane than the Seekers and a stronger/bigger robot, the As wanted him so they could finally have someone who could kick butt in the air. The Ds got to him first, tried to manipulate him, but he didn't feel right, so he went to the As, but still wasn't fully trusted by some of the As. Of course, I could be talking completely out my backside on all of that.
In this case, yep. Mostly.
In the cartoon Skyfire flew to Earth with Starscream on a scientific expedition, before the Decepticon and Autobot war. They were out cruising the galaxy, as scientists, when they came to this primitive (prehistoric) planet. They went in for a closer look, and Starscream "lost" Skyfire in a storm near the pole. He looked for him but couldn't find him.
Then millions of years later the Decepticons found him while on one of their energy gathering schemes with some crystal shaft thing that tapped in to the Earth's core. The Decepticons did indeed what him because of his size, but when he refused to kill some captive Autobots (being a scientist not a warrior), his old buddy Starscream blasted him. The good guys helped fix him and thus he changed sides.
And yes in the G1 cartoon Skyfire could fly in space.
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"Now I am somewhere I am not supposed to be,
and I can see things I never really should've seen,
and now I know why, and now I know why...
things aren't as pretty... on the inside"