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#goddamn the Wrecker identity is SO important to Wheeljack and it almost NEVER gets mined for character conflict
honestlyvan · 3 years
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Also like with the caveat of Your Yum Is Not Mine And That's Fine, and that I promise I'm not just being a bitter hater b/c I'm a BulkJack shipper first and foremost, the reasons Arrogant Ace Wheeljack engaging in pigtail-pulling with Stony Professional Ratchet doesn't work for me really is the lack of coherent motivation, Wheeljack having no real reason to antagonise Ratchet, but doing it just because it's fun to because he wants to be acknowledged by someone he thinks is cool
when, like... a source of conflict that is right there is the way Ratchet treats Bulkhead, the way he's just unerringly shitty and dismissive of his existence and contributions. Like, there's nobody on the team Ratchet is as casually callous with as he is with Bulkhead, no matter how successfully Bulkhead pulls his weight with the team.
If you want Wheeljack to act petty and vindictive and seek out a conflict with Ratchet because something about him threatens Wheeljack's sense of identity, you've got your conflict right there! Even if you don't want to tap into the potential of the one chink in Wheeljack's armour being that he really does genuinely care about Bulkhead and Miko, you could lean into him taking Ratchet's disrespect towards Bulkhead as his disrespect towards the Wreckers as a whole, and have Wheeljack feel threatened and offended that way.
Wheeljack taking it upon himself to be offended on Bulkhead's behalf is already a thing. Bulkhead not wanting to play that game and instead trying to keep the peace between him and Ultra Magnus is almost so painful he runs away entirely. If you really wanna write conflict driven by Wheeljack's arrogance and pride, you don't have to fabricate self-esteem issues for him, the bones of it are right there, in his pride as a Wrecker being threatened by proxy no matter how many times Bulkhead tries to tell him that it's not much of a thing to be proud of, anymore.
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