dudefromcult-wmw

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So Transformers Armada has a version of Wheeljack (who isn't really Wheeljack, he looks basically nothing like him. He's only called that in the US so Hasbro could retain the trademark, in Japan he's called Rampage) with this really interesting backstory where he was on a mission that went south, the whole battlefield erupted in flames and he got trapped under some rubble that his friend Hot Rod couldn't manage to lift off him. Hot Rod said he was gonna come back with help and left, but never came back, leaving Wheeljack to believe Hot Rod abandoned him.

In reality it's a bit more complicated than that, Hot Rod's superior officer wouldn't let him go back into the fire initially, and when he did run back in he passed out before he could find Wheeljack. There's also differences between the dubs in terms of how much ownership Hot Rod takes over abandoning Wheeljack, but that's neither here nor there. Anyways, the one who actually ended up pulling Wheeljack out of the fire was Megatron, which led him to join the Decepticons out of feeling he owed Megatron a debt.

Anyways, all this to say that I'm so surprised that nobody has ever made a TFP AU with Decepticon!Wheeljack based on the Armada backstory. I mean, yeah, Armada Wheeljack is only tangentially Wheeljack, but still, people have made AUs out of less. Not only would Wheeljack be absolutely terrifying as a con, but there's also so much potential for Bulkjack angst. So, yeah, that's what I've been thinking about all day.

I'm sorta gonna brush over the specifics of the backstory since I don't really know if it's exactly in character for everyone, but anyways. So, Bulkhead leaves the Wreckers to join Optimus's team, little while later Ultra Magnus takes over the Wreckers, and then either things diverge in the little period after Ultra Magnus took over before Wheeljack noped out of there, or Wheeljack stuck around for longer than he did in canon. Point being, there's a mission, it goes south, entire battlefield is on fire, Wheeljack gets pinned under rubble. He calls for help on comms, but nobody ends up coming. Maybe he even sees the Wreckers ship fly away without him overhead. Trying to be slightly fair to Ultra Magnus, (despite how much I hate that mf) maybe they already had multiple other casualties during the battle and he made the tough call that it'd be too dangerous to send anyone back into the fire, and had the wreckers retreat.

Anyways, like in Armada, Megatron ends up being the one to pull Wheeljack out of the fire, and Wheeljack ends up joining the Decepticons. (again, not sure how much this works with these versions of the characters, but just. Accepting the premise.) Wheeljack already obviously had issues with how Ultra Magnus was running the Wreckers, and the fact that none of the other Wreckers disobeyed his orders and went to save him anyways made him feel like the Wreckers were already compromised. The rust set in, as he would say. Maybe he even changed his name to Rampage, so as far as the historical record is concerned, Wheeljack has been MIA since that mission.

Fast forward how many years to Con Job, which I rewatched today to refresh my memory, and man, imagining a version of that episode where instead of Makeshift impersonating Wheeljack, Wheeljack actually became a con is absolutely feeding me with the angst.

Arcee mentioned at the start of that episode that Decepticons are sometimes known to use false autobot beacons to lay traps for Autobots, and in this version, that's actually what Wheeljack is doing. What he's not expecting is for Bulkhead to answer his call. Now, I'm imagining Wheeljack has kinda got mixed feelings on Bulkhead, on one hand, Bulkhead already left the Wreckers before the mission where he was left behind, so he can't really be blamed for him being left behind, but on the other hand, the fact that he left the Wreckers is exactly why he's to blame. Wheeljack kinda feels like in that regard Bulkhead was the first one to abandon him. After all, if Bulkhead was still with the Wreckers during that mission, he absolutely would have hauled ass into that fire and gotten Wheeljack out of there, but he wasn't there. He's got these conflicting feelings, where Bulkhead is simultaneously the first one to abandon him but also the only one who wouldn't have abandoned him, he hates Bulkhead for leaving the Wreckers but also kinda wishes he joined him in leaving, knowing how things would turn out once Ultra Magnus is put in charge. All that to say, he has no clue what he's gonna do once he does, but he wants to get to the autobot base and see Bulkhead.

and from Bulkhead's perspective, once Wheeljack actually gets there, things just feel weird. Not even just because Wheeljack's got this new black, gold, and cyan/yellow color scheme, but just in general Wheeljack seems off. He's quieter, like he's deep in thought but won't say what about. All in all, not that dissimilar to how Makeshift was acting in canon, but all the more tragic, especially considering Bulkhead's conversation with Arcee.

"You haven't seen him for centuries, he could just be rocket-lagged, or... Well, bots do change, y'know?"

"Not Jackie."

In the actual episode, Bulkhead's able to just pull out this "gotcha" card on Makeshift, and things get a little scary when he grabs Miko, but everything works out fairly easy in the end in a way that it really couldn't under these circumstances. Bulkhead knowing about the Battle of Darkmount Pass despite not being there seems to imply that he either was somewhat keeping up with what the Wreckers were doing after he left, maybe even having access to Wheeljack's service record like he said, which could lead to him confronting Wheeljack about how "You've been MIA for years, what the hell happened?"

I really don't know how things would end up playing out, but it'd certainly be a lot more painful than in canon, that's for sure. My brain is gonna be chewing on this for a while, I know that much.

So yeah. Figured since you're a fellow pioneer in Bulkjack studies that you might appreciate what is quite possibly the first angsty Bulkjack AU. Because the fans that came before us didn't see the vision and it's up to us to pick up the slack 👍

i actually know what you're talking about here! i've been blazing through armada, and yeah, the wheeljack plotline was pretty heartbreaking, even if he wasn't really wheeljack, yk?

this definitely has potential for some fantastic angst. i have to imagine that if bulkhead was keeping up with wheeljack's service record, then he must've heard that wheeljack was likely kia, or at least taken by the decepticons, so he'd probably be pretty heartbroken. as such, i imagine he'd be completely overjoyed to hear that his best buddy/conjunx/whichever is still alive.

and that leaves wheeljack at a crossroads. on one hand, he's loyal to megatron for rescuing him from certain death. on the other hand, bulkhead actually seemed genuinely worried, like he cared about wheeljack. but clearly he didn't care enough if he abandoned the wreckers and left wheeljack to die, right?

that train of thought is what leads him to try and take miko hostage, which only pisses bulkhead off and makes him realize that something's very wrong with wheeljack. but maybe wheeljack wants to see if bulkhead still cares for him, so he decides that for once, he's gonna disobey megatron's orders and see what's up.

it has a ton of potential for angst to chew on! it'd probably make a killer fanfic if someone were to write it

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Bulkhead: Sorry Jacky, it’s because I love you!🥹❤️

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EYAAAGGHHH FLAPS ARMS UP AND DOWN wee silly moment rq but omg wreckaid actually sounds so so cool, I had no idea that’s what the ship name was called!!! I’m very silly about transformers rarepairs that just fascinated me a lil bit

YEAH ME AND A FEW FRIENDS BUNDLED THE IDEA TOGETHER (im not sure if they have tumblr, credit to those guys)

(made this drawing a while ago)

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Jedtavius Fic idea that i can’t get out of my head so maybe if i post it ill find the motivation (prob not)

Au set in the old wild west where jedediah lives a lonely life where he travels around. One day, he stumbles upon an old looking sword, and when he touches it, he starts to see the ghost of a Roman soldier. He thinks he's going crazy and tries to ignore the other man, but they keep on arguing with each other but slowly jed realises that the nights suddenly aren't as lonely anymore.

A slow burn, enemies to lovers ahh story

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I dont want people judging me ok i need this man

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I Want a Box combo so bad rn

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Tf rid shitpost

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LETS GOOOOOOOO

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The gays

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don’t ever talk to me or my 4500000000 niche AUs ever again

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𝓽𝓸𝔁𝓲𝓬 𝓯𝓾𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝔂𝓾𝓻𝓲..🤤

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Rid2015 stuff (i don’t play about grimbee)

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do you ship megop? cause i love the concept of one hand of optimus is held by megs, one hand is held by ratchet, and ratchet and megs won't stop glaring daggers at each other.

I think MegOp is sweet depending on the continuity (EarthSpark MegOp being my favorite <3) I lean more to Orion x Meg in TFP I think tho (thx for ur question and request!)

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I'm still thinking about what a rockstar version of a megastar would be like...

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Go random bullshit go

Jumpscare warning

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Made. Vide o