#100% dratchet

[ask-glory-haddock-and-others]

... this is so dratchet coded...

this could be any transformers ship if you put your heart into it

[artsy-hobbitses]

So for all the TTB couples: who said I love you first?

.... Shit this about to get lengthy.

HoundxMirage: Mirage, mid-war while he’s tending to a Hound who’s becoming delirious from a badly-infected wound and a fever on the field and they have to wait for backup to come get them. Hound tells him to go after they somehow narrowly manage to escape a Decepticon patrol, he’s deadweight at this point, just leave him. Mirage tells him to stop being an idiot, and tries to keep Hound awake (Don't sleep, please don't sleep, you might not wake up, they're almost here) by talking about the first time they met and how this situation mirrors the time Hound braved Decepticon prison camps to find him after the Autobots faced of against the Cons for the first time to free their incarcerate comrades. And how shocked Mirage was to see him there, because Mirage wasn't expecting anyone to come. And Hound asks what he said then, and Mirage repeats his memory of the moment to Hound; That Mirage himself had told Hound to leave before they catch them both, he's just deadweight at this point, and Hound told him to stop being silly, he knows the Bots have their misgivings, but he trusts you, and he's not leaving a friend behind. And Mirage admits how trite that was, but how earnest and sincere Hound made it sound. How profound it was to have someone understand for once that his work requires him to wear masks, to put on airs, and Hound trusted him all the same for it. And how silly it felt in the moment to love Hound for something as mundane and simple as that. By that time, help finally gets to them and Mirage can breathe again, and he figures that Hound (who sleeps for several days recovering) might have forgotten about it, it's a silly notion, he must think the same. But when Hound properly wakes up, the first thing he asks Mirage, who's reading by his bedside, is if it was true. What Mirage had said about loving him. And Mirage is silent for a while, before deciding to throw away the mask of propriety, because Hound is one of the few who have seen him without it, and Hound has ALWAYS been open with him, and he won't give Hound any less than that deserved honesty. Yes, he loves you, he loved you in that fleeting moment, and he's loved you ever since, and he's tired of pretending what he feels is anything less than that... but he understands completely if you don't feel the same way. And Hound laughs weakly because he could never have imagined someone like Mirage--a gentleman, talented, and beautiful, but also braver than anyone gives him credit for and with a conviction to do good that so few have despite his privilege--could fall in love with him, some ex-military farm boy Wulver from Shetland, and he'd been content for the longest time to love Mirage in silence (Plants Mirage's favorite flowers/produce, always volunteers to model Mirage's new works, cares for Mirage's pets personally when Mirage is away on a mission, makes sure no one in his presence badmouths Mirage for literally doing what it is the Bot leadership enlisted him for in the first place). Hound's still a little loopy at this point, but asserts that since they're puttin' all cards on the table now, he loves you too, Merry, and god ain't they gonna be a sight at those fancy parties you're going to have to attend with a Plus One. Mirage laughs and kisses his forehead, and says that if they get kicked out, he'd see that as a plus point. He doesn't let go of Hound's hand as Hound drifts off again, and falls asleep next to him (Ratchet allows it for one night).

SideswipexStongarm: Sideswipe, during a sparring session of all things because OF COURSE THESE TWO WOULD. It would be while Sunny is still absent but after he and Strongarm have established that they Have Feelings for each other, but haven't said the words yet. Strongarm's recovering from an injury and needs the practice because she feels useless and is about get cabin fever and claw at the drywall if she's passed over for field work again. Sideswipe calls her stubborn, she's be like "hell yeah where'd you think THAT rubbed off from, Red?" and he's like "lol touche" and goes with it. He trounces her at every turn though, cause he's got his mojo back and has, with his house arrest, had time to learn a couple of new things, but she's unfocused and frustrated and it's actually clear that he's not giving it is 100% and is careful to avoid aggravating her still-healing injuries. When the slip-up seemingly happens and he immediately drops everything to check on her, she takes the chance to take him down and calls him out for falling for the oldest trick in the book as they're both lying on the floor, and he, without missing a beat says "yeah well, you know what they say about people doing stupid shit when they're in love." Record-screech, and a flat "what" from Strongarm as he repeats it again and she punches him in the arm because DUDE WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM and he just cackles because really, REALLY ?? HEY REMEMBER LIKE, THAT ONE TIME WE WERE ON THE BEACH AND YOU WERE LIKE "HEY YOU THINK I'D PUT ALL THIS GODDAMN EFFORT INTO THIS ZUPPA INGLESE FOR SOME CHUMP I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT", babe it's 3am and he could be in bed but no, he's here bruised and sweaty and prepping for a flying kidney dish from Ratchet when the doc finds out, and you really think he'd risk Ratchet's wrath for someone he didn't love? You really think you get to give him a reason to keep looking forward to another day and be the reason he doesn't feel like half a person anymore without him being stupidly twitterpatted over all 5'6 of you?

Strongarm's got her face in her hands --she'd self-immolate if she went any redder---and bemoans with a small laugh that he's got AWFUL timing---"I love you" in the middle of a sparring session ffs, where's the ROMANCE? THE ROSE PETALS AND CANDLE LIGHT? HARLEQUIN LIED TO HER. Sideswipe's howling at the revelation that YOU USED TO READ THAT STUFF??? but he's got a gleam in his eyes as he turns over so he's half on top of her and offers to say it again, under the right circumstances this time. She turns the tables on him again, gives him the kind of kiss that has him as flushed and gasping for air as she is, and tells him she still can't believe he's got her this messed up over him, but they've also still got three hours before dawn, so they should definitely take his little redo somewhere more y'know, comfortable (Let's just say they find a more pleasurable way to burn off her excess energy).

WindbladexStarscream: The question isn’t who said “I love you” first, it’s how many times these morons decided to say it post-war in their native languages thinking they were being slick before one of them (Windblade) eventually decides to let the game end and explain that hey, listen, you know she’s picked up plenty of Italian since you moved in with her right? And you’re at 499 “Ti Amos” right now so how about you make number 500 special and tell her to her face right now how you really feel? And he’s cackling because he’s Still Starscream and HAH 499! HE PEGGED YOU AT 495 AISHITERUS HE WINS THIS ROUND until Windblade nearly pisses herself laughing (“YOU WERE KEEPING TRACK?!” “YOU WERE KEEPING TRACK?!!”) and shuts him up with a kiss and is all OH MY GOD YOU’RE IMPOSSIBLE NEVER CHANGE BUT JUST SAY THE WORDS ALREADY and he does! In English that is! And repeats it three more times interspaced with kisses, because he doesn’t want her to forget this moment. And he thinks he's got her, being suave and heartfelt about it and all, until she asks him, apropos of nothing, if he wants to see the prize he won for those 500 "I love yous" and he's a blustery, squawking mess when she pulls out an engagement ring. By now they've become domestically comfortable friends with benefits, but a part of him still thinks she sees him just as that---a fun fling of a best friend. This is wonderful and all, but she couldn't POSSIBLY want like, an actual married life with him right? The FIRST DELEGATE HERSELF officially, PUBLICLY attached to a feral ex-con gremlin with a rep sheet? And Windblade is all are you kidding? Yes, she ABSOLUTELY wants the world to know that you're hers and there's nothing any of them can do about it, not any more. So how about you stay, and find out if we can reach the 1 million ILY mark together? Starscream can't say no---he has stake in the game now oh man, he wants to see which one of them can get there first, he wants to be there for every milestone, and he concedes that she's won this one. She's won this one, and he's genuinely never been happier that she got him good.

RavagexLaserbeak: Ravage, near end-war when they were caught in Shockwave’s Positive Reinforcement prison and were fed visions of an alternate universe type situation where they’re Completely Normal (Full Human), and Laserbeak is far more entranced with the elaborate illusion of freedom and acceptance than he is (as she looks more ���monstrous’ /non-human than he does—and cannot pass in society). She finds it very hard to leave this simulation and he hears her insecurities front and centre now, the ones she always hides behind a cheerfully nihilistic grin of “I’m cool! It doesn’t bother me at all!” (Narrator voice: It bothered her deeply), while she’s kind of a snotty mess after she interacts with some of simulated humans/children who don’t sneer at her, don’t pull away from her touch, don’t look at her like she’s a freak because she KNOWS it’s not real she knows it’s too good to be real she knows but is it really so bad to want this for herself? For them? And Ravage tells her that some days when things get really hard out there, it’s that he wants this for her that he continues to fight on. Because he loves her, in a fleeting and dehumanising world where every mission could be theirs last and they were all they had for years; he’s always loved her, and she deserves a world like this, a real world like this, and it’s going to be hard but they’ll get there together. And it snaps her out of it. Because it’s so hard and it’s UNFAIR and CRUEL that they should HAVE to fight so hard to just be seen as worthy of personhood… but Soundwave fights for them, and Ravage fights for her, and to give that real love up for something fake and easy is something she won’t do. Ravage loves her, and she will fight to love him AND herself in an imperfect, but real world, through heartache and joy both.

Dratchet: Drift. Drift already knows he definitely sees Ratchet more than a friend, and Ratchet himself is struggling with that revelation for himself, but they try to keep it professional up until near to the end of the war, when Unicron becomes a massive threat and Drift is picked by by Onyx Prime to become their champion/conduit. Now, Drift can see spirits, and lives with a one-foot-in-the-living one-foot-in-the-grave mentality ever since he survived a neath-death experience which gave him that ability, and Onyx choosing to momentarily fuse with him gives him Psychopomp abilities that allow him to 'dance between the curtain' of life and death. However, this is all very unsettling for Ratchet, who's always 'fought death' as a doctor, and he's gets upset when he tries to touch Drift before Drift goes off for a mission to rally the souls of Sentinel Prime's dead men, and his hands go right through Drift. And he hates this. He hates that Drift is like a ghost now, that they're not on the same plane. He hates that he can't help Drift if something happens there, that Drift is going where he can't follow. And he doesn't want to lose Drift for a third time. But Drift tells Ratchet that there won't be a third time, because he's been dancing with Death his entire life so much so that he might as well be the embodiment of it---all the close calls, all the lives he took, all the souls he's attempted to help find peace in atonement---but every time he steps too close to the edge of the abyss, it's always been Ratchet who'd given him back his will to live and who'd shown him the value of a life when he'd become almost desensitized to it. And he'll do just that. Live. Death's call for him to take that final step and wear its mantle may be strong, but he'll fight to live and fight to come back to you because he loves you, Ronan Chase--the literal embodiment of Life and what it means to fight for it, in his eyes--and Death can wait a little longer, because his last dance will be with you. He manages to focus and phase himself back whole so he can kiss the knuckles of Ratchet's hands--these hands which saved him more times than he can count--before Ratchet pulls him in for a proper kiss and holds him to his word, because we have a lot to talk about, so come home to him when you're done.

[starheavenly]

😢 Not Locket calling themselves living proof of Deadlock’s treason…how did Dratchet find out they were having a sparkling and their reactions? I imagine neither side would’ve been happy if they were caught

Locket actually doesn’t feel that way about themselves, they don’t care about either faction but they know that would get under Drifts plating.

I don’t have an exact reaction in mind?? I think Ratchet would be shocked and ashamed and over thinking. Meanwhile Deadlock is planning their entire escape plan and future together, nothing else mattered. His only goal would be to keep both of them safe and happy.

Deadlock would 100% pick Ratchet up and spin him around in joy before Ratchet remind him that they are middle of a war

…On opposite sides

Pretty much my timeline is just them going MIA for 5k-10k years (4 million year war that’s like?? A few months in that scope??)

They have a larger shuttle that they live/travel in. Locket grew up in a space RV, pretty much. So honestly the Lost Light is similar.

Literally all of the younger years are just ratchlock fluff, like all the cutesy stuff. It’s just when Locket becomes an adult that’s when it kinda falls apart.

People thought I wrote them so that they left Locket as a baby?? They’re not evil!!

[breakdownsbuttlights]

You know I think people who don't do a lot of manhandling of their partners or um, lifting of things and people don't really have much idea of what a reasonable amount of human bodyweight is to lift. Which is totally understandable. But my two cents on the Dratchet thing as a reasonably fit fellow who has mostly dated people who outweighed him by at least 100 pounds: Ratchet can probably pick him up one-handed, but Drift can probably pick Ratchet up very easily but it looks much awkwarder. Drift is probably fully aware of how silly it looks and enjoys making them both look like idiots carrying him around bridal style. Ratchet probably squawks at Drift to put him down.

Deadweight is more of a struggle, but still manageable. Piggyback is easiest but Ratchet would likely rather die.

Exactly! As Ratchet points out halfway up the stairs, Drift could spirit him off to the bedroom effortlessly if they went piggy back, but of course he insists on the princess carry.

[kuradoberijam]

Look. I love regular Dratchet all the way 100% but Ratchlock is so fun to think about tbh. It’s about the feelings of betrayal on both sides, it’s about the war time courting rituals, it’s about the anger and bitterness, it’s about the tender moments where sides don’t matter and all they need is each other, it’s about the thrill and the fear and the love and the separation. It’s about both parties seeing the worst of each other and then coming back together again as dratchet later on.

[cozzzynook]

TFA Dratchet idea

One day Ratchet is busy working away sorting out his tools until Bumblebee barges into his med bay all giddy. Before the grumpy medic can kick out the mini bot, Bee explains that they have a rather tall visitor who is asking for him. Confused and annoyed Ratchet walks out of his med bay and into the main room where everyone is gathered, there he sees a tall frame with white/red paint and a familiar smile he hasn't seen in a long time. Drift

:>

100%

Immediately yes.

They see the grumpy medic smile and receive affection like its nothing from the former deadly cyber cat thats hugging him like he’s a teddy.

Ratchet has his tall deadly cuddly cyber kitten wife back.

[mainenorth]

1, 20 and 27 for Dratchet(there will be more)

1. Drift is 100% the better cook. Ratchet CAN cook but usually he doesn’t have time to.

20. Drift. He sees a stray and immediately brings it home. They have to live on a farm because there is 30 chickens Drift had to save after he learned about those produce factories.

27. A church. Thigh-fucking in a confessional.

[sphnyspinspin]

hfsakkjsss I love your TF fan continuety already

I just want to know if maybe some TFRB characters will appear and if you will create a new blog for posting this so everything is more eassy to manage.

Bay!

To be honest, I don’t want to write any humans into the story. That includes people from Griffin Rock. Well, I might make the professors - yes I’m adding in the OG professors Heatwave, Blades, Boulder, Chase, Grimlock, and Bumblebee - mention their human partners. What I mean by this is, I want the Academy to take place on Cybertron instead of Earth. Because I want to pull the aspect of Cyberverse humans memeing the heck out of these guys instead of being freaked out, in since I loved it so much. The professors are still BFFs with their partners and Griffin Rock, it’s just that the Academy won’t be there. I know for a fact I want to add in the Burns, the Greenes, and definitely the Pinches, but that’s like waaaaaaaaay farther into the story. Right now I’m focusing on the recruits going to the Academy on Cybertron. Also Quickshadow, Hightide, Blurr, Salvage, Sideswipe, and Strongarm. I know not that many like RiD but I feel like I could do something with Sideswipe and Strongarm being like interns for Bee and Wedge meeting them. I also want to add in Drfit with his mini cons, but I’ll 100% change the minicons’ names and give them a better Drift. Dratchet 4 life my guy.

And now that you mention it, maybe a separate blog would be easier to manage. I’ll keep that in mind buddy.

THANKS FOR THE ASK!!!

[lesbianratchet]

still thinking about that dratchet fic where ratchet was described as stone butch but the category was m/m like what...what

[artsy-hobbitses]

Sooo, I noted the possibility of other couples such as;

Soundwave x Blaster

Thundercracker x Marissa

Cyclonus x Tailgate

Sparkstalker x Lightbright

how’s that going?

It’s going! Usually it takes a while for a pairing to hit me with what they’re all about (I was ??? about what exactly to do with Dratchet in this universe, until I came across a comic and some little drabbles about how Life and Death are not enemies, but lovers working together to keep the world balanced that it finally hit me that this was the route I wanted for them).

Soundwave/Blaster is still very much only at a 50% possibility. Because I can absolutely also see them as good friends at the end of the day.

TC/Marissa was always in the plans but I’ve got to work out how Marissa fits into everything. I know he likely fell into her company after he left the Cons, and she’s like attached to a peacekeeping squad/NGOs helping out refugees and people affected by the conflict.

Cyc/Tailgate I still don’t have anything for since Cyc, I don’t even have a design for yet. It’s more of a PRESSUMABLY THIS WILL HAPPEN but it’s also 100% OK if it doesn’t because Tailgate here is very developed and has her own overarching narrative of self-discovery and self-love that doesn’t require romance to be a part of it.

Sparkstalker/Lightbright is definitely one I wanna play with but they’re SUPER side characters and I have my focus on developing the Main Characters’ relationships first.

[starheavenly]

Question, is there a planned angsty scene where Locket gets hurt by maybe a rogue decepticon while out on a mission and Dratchet (especially Drift) goes full on protector/executioner mode on the offender?

I couldn’t help but think about it and knowing Drift has trouble with his alter ego I can imagine Deadlock popping out like-

"You forgot about me, huh glitch?"

Omg so good… because Drift has only really snapped once in the comics that being in the annual.

I’m sure Locket being injured by someone would 100% make him show more Deadlock traits. Dude straight up beheads someone!!

I would like to add action scenes like that but a lot of the stuff that’s planned right now are a lot more character driven and just grounded? I guess?? Idk I’ll get to it hopefully.

[decepti-thots]

it's so funny to me that jro is like "i wasn't 100% on if dratchet were absolutely definitely gonna get married til the very end of LL" because oh my god that man was hedging his bets then huh. the issue where ratchet goes after drift is named after the most romantic part of a leonard cohen love song. there is a WHOLE BIT in rewind's last message that breaks with the standard format about how much rewind loves cd that instead superimposes it over an entire page of ratchet and drift that mirrors their own meeting. like. did the man just not know whether it was a good idea narratively or if he just really, really shipped his own characters or WHAT

[itsgrayblue]

Just felt like writing a long post on why I just

don’t like Driftrod

And before people start coming at me saying I’m one of those Dratchet shippers who blames Rodimus for too much and sidelines him, you’re absolutely 100% correct. Enjoy.

Let’s start with Drift and Rodimus’s friendship. It’s strong and endearing, but rooted in a sense of obligation that Drift feels towards Rodimus. It’s something we’ve seen a lot throughout Drift’s arc; he latches onto people. Gasket, Wing, even Megatron for a time.

And I think it comes from that sense of belonging that he’s just never had. As soon as someone gives him the time of day, he throws himself into the relationship with everything.

Then along comes Rodimus with promises of friendship, adventure, salvation; something that Drift can’t say no to, not when Rodimus the only one willing to vouch for him as a former Decepticon.

But even from the start that friendship has this sort of subtextual conditionality, a sort of “look at everything I’ve done for you” dynamic that I can’t stand. Drift writes his speeches, takes his side, takes the fall, and in an early script draft of MTMTE issue 5, we even see that it had been Rodimus who volunteered Drift to go to Delphi.

And we catch a glimpse of the way Rodimus defaults to that line of thinking in the Dark Cybertron prelude.

Now you could certainly make the argument that Rodimus says this for the sake of, well… saying it in front of Thunderclash. But regardless, it’s a pretty inconsiderate way to refer to someone who considers you a friend and ally, not some sort of chaperone (And someone standing right next to you).

It’s a hint of the utilitarian attitude he has toward Drift. Of course we only get to see this interaction after Drift has been banished.

I know people tend to get annoyed when the exile arc comes up, but that’s a HUGE contention point for me. Drift, a former addict, former Decepticon, and all around former loner, after finally finding someone he thinks will be on his side, loses everything.

All the work he’s put into being accepted, changing his ways, into simply finding a place in the universe is taken away. Rodimus finds him guilty of a crime they both know he didn’t commit in front of the entire Lost Light, and exiles him.

All because Rodimus convinced Drift that he needed to be on that ship more than he did.

I’m awfully tired of that entire situation being ignored, I really am. Yes, Rodimus admits his mistakes, yes he learns, and yes he has his own issues.

Having issues is okay. Making other people, people who TRUST you, pay for it is so incredibly not.

Oh yeah, and Rodimus never goes looking for him

And while Drift and Rodimus seem to have a sort of reconciliation once the latter apologizes for his wrongdoings, Drift never says “I forgive you.” And while he probably does forgive Rodimus at least on some level, I don’t think he felt that it was something he could stomach saying out loud. Which is good.

Rodimus has not earned forgiveness. Nor has he earned any of the trust Drift placed on him in the first place.

Now I’m sure by now a lot of you have labeled me as some sort of sociopathic Rodimus-hater, and I’m sure a lot of you won’t believe me when I say I’m not. But the fact is: I'm not.

I think he is absurdly fun and alarmingly relatable at times, and he’s certainly earned his place as the poster child for MTMTE. But there comes a point when you just can’t excuse the amount of hurt that has been bestowed upon a person, especially not to the point where you could somehow assert that they could possibly have a healthy romantic relationship.

While his chronic bad decisions may be at the forefront of his relatableness as a character, he makes an awful lot of them at the expense of others. Making decisions that benefit you but harm others is a toxic trait. It’s harmful. And he does it constantly. Just ask Drift, Chromedome, Ultra Magnus, Megatron…

Now here comes the part about Ratchet, brace yourselves.

Ratchet never poses his relationship with Drift as anything other than what it really is. At first, they’re amicably disagreeing but equally intelligent occupants of the ship, with a shared memory that seems lifetimes ago yet lingers in the space between them constantly.

They have beef with each other, they’re even angry at first. But they’re both trying to come to terms with a universe without war and their role in it.

Ratchet struggles with his diminishing significance, Drift struggles to atone.

There’s this beautiful mixture of very grown-up, very complex emotions and interactions mixed in with the undeniably juvenile tendency to simply bother each other.

And Ratchet is the one who finally takes the initiative to seek him out.

Now I’ve seen it thrown around that people don’t like Dratchet because it was never integrated into the story until later on. I wholeheartedly disagree. You cannot tell me that there is no merit to the “avoiding your feelings by being rude” trope I mean come on, just look at the trend.

They’re two adults who have no false pretense to each other, who have a beautiful dichotomy and a habit of emotionally charged rescues.

So the basis of what I’m trying to get at is that I happen to find Driftrod upsetting from a psychological standpoint. I’m upset that Drift spent so much energy trying to maintain loyalty to a friend who tossed him to the lions so quickly. I love the dynamic they have at times, but sometimes I can’t even reconcile them having a friendship.

I think Ratchet is someone who would actually allow Drift to become who he is, not some sort of tangentially bound sidekick.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[decepticon-simpathizer]

this AMAZING WORK OF ART is the product of me commissioning the impeccable, the indescribable, the unknowable, the imperceptible @acatpiestuff to “like sketch the woobiest dratchet you can but only with your non-dominant hand” and we agreed on the price would be 10USD

anyways this belongs in a gallery somewhere for art snobs to weep bitter tears over their lack of ability to behold such perfection

also this is why it’s good I don’t have the kind of money to pay for a Big Commission from One of Them because I would 100% request this kind of shit and like blow 500 just to piss myself laughing

[transformersloversworld]

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Moje najpopularniejsze posty w 2022:

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Why Megatron is at the top of the Christmas Tree? 😂😂😂

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Nr 4

SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMERS EARTHSPARK EPISODE 10

Even in alliance with Autobots Megatron is still Megatron.

They are looking at dr. Meridian (probably) drowning with his machine.

Optimus: *sighs* :(

Megatron: hehe >:)

57 notek (opublikowanych w 29 listopada 2022)

Nr 3

This is the funniest Earthspark screenshot I made 😂

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Thrash, my dear, please...

..take your feet out of Megatron's face...

Przeczytaj całość

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Mój post nr 1 w 2022

My favourite Earthspark quote.

Just imagine Brainstorm trying to do that.

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[daisyachain]

drift and/or drachet for the ask?

ah!!

Drift: overrated little twerp

Dratchet: binary stars trapped in orbit for 4 million years drawing ever-closer until they combine with the light of a supernova

On a more serious note there's been plenty of good Drift analysis out there re: the way his character shifts from McCarthy to Roberts, the way he was written out of MTMTE season 2 to accommodate Megatron, etc. and I have nothing to add to that. Rather, my take is that he's just not that important! Nor that deep! He's a character that serves a purpose and he serves that purpose, he doesn't get the rhaposodic inner monologue of the standouts (Chromedome, Cyclonus, Whirl, Megatron, Magnus), he's a foil character to s1 Magnus/Rodimus before their character arcs kick into gear and he's a supporting character to Ratchet's arc. Reading him as anything more can be fun and interesting but is fundamentally wrong for the story-as-is (if not the story-that-might-have-been)!

Drift the other extreme in the trio of Magnus-Rod-Drift but not in the pessimism <-> optimism way that it seems on the surface. Rather, Magnus is the lawful extreme, he believes that the Law (the Tyrest Accord) is morality and anything that does not match the Law 1:1 cannot be ethical. Rodimus is more pragmatic, he earnestly wants to Do The Right Thing In The Right Way but he sticks to his own vacillating moral code rather than the Law. Drift is the opposite extreme to Magnus because there is nothing he will not do in order to aid the Cause. Why, when he only recently switched sides?

The answer is another aspect of his character that I feel gets overlooked--Drift does not truly have faith. He's had some supernatural experiences which he believes 100% are visions of the future. In other words, he doesn't have faith in a greater power, he specifically trusts the hard evidence of his own senses that tell him there is a real greater power. Cyclonus and Swerve, the two other religious characters onboard, do not have these supernatural experiences. They believe without proof, they need no convincing, their faith encompasses everything in the world.

Drift, on the other hand, believes only what he has seen. He's seen supernatural and inexplicable things, but he doesn't convert out of a sense of peace and understanding, he converts (to Spectralism, to the Autobots) out of a conviction that things are going to go horribly wrong and that connecting with that greater power (the supernatural, Autobot High Command) is the only way to stop it. So, where Magnus embodies procedural justice, Drift embodies consequential justice--Magnus believes only things under the Law can be right, Drift believes that any action is right so long as it brings about the specific future he has seen. He manipulates Chromedome into doing dangerous work by dangling his spouse's life over his head. He drives Red Alert to suicide. He kills a sick, defenseless patient. He's as amoral as Whirl in his actions, but all of this he does because of a belief that Rodimus and the crew have to stay alive.

In short: Drift does believe in auras, life energy, the call of the universe, etc., it's not all a lie because the things he sacrifices to follow his visions are too much for anyone to give up who doesn't believe. He canonically puts on the hippie persona in s1 to be less threatening and insinuate himself better into the crew, the persona is fake but the beliefs are real. So far, so standard. However, his beliefs are...more godfearing than religious. He is pragmatically following a plan to fix his past mistakes and achieve a better future based on evidence which is concrete to him. He has no life philosophy. To treat him as genuinely religious or as fully cynical is incorrect.

Which leads me to Dratchet!! They do not hate each other, they are not enemies (or at least they have no known interactions during the time they are enemies), Ratchet doesn't treat Drift cruelly or even unfairly, if I have to see one more take that says 'Ratchet is so mean to Dwift uwu' I will scream.

I think I've said it before but Drift/Ratchet hinges on them being the only living people able to understand each other. Because they met before the war, Ratchet is the only one who can understand just what drove Drift to become a murderer and join the Decepticons, while Drift is the only one who can understand what has driven Ratchet to passive suicidality. Ratchet is not just a grumpy person, he's a loving idealist who wants to die rather than live in the world and not be of use/not be able to help people anymore. Drift is not just a weirdo who had a change of heart, he's bloodthirsty by the standards of a 4 million year war and has decided use his skills for the opposite side instead.

The lives Drift took are on both their consciences. Ratchet wants Drift to acknowledge the carnage he caused and the hurt he did to him, specifically. He needs Drift to understand what he did to him, Drift is the embodiment of everything in his life that went wrong--he started saving lives (he became a war medic), and because he started saving lives, he caused millions of deaths (he became a key figure in the war). Ratchet desperately wants to get rid of that weight and the only way he can think to do it is a) make Drift feel it, b) die. So he tries! He hates that Drift relies on platitudes because that negates his own role in the story, if Drift comes around to being a good person because he got a ticket to heaven, then that's just him being shallow and selfish. If Drift has changed sides because he recognized that he'd been doing evil, then that's an acknowledgement of the suffering he's caused Ratchet.

What pulls Ratchet out of his spiral is Drift saving him--for once, his actions have a positive consequence, someone comes back for him, someone does for him what he's always done for everyone else. From that moment on he views Drift not just as everything he's done wrong, he also views him as the only thing he's done right, and as these two ideas struggle he grows to love Drift as the only person who ever saw him as a person and not a concept.

Contrariwise, Drift sees Ratchet as every failing of the old regime, he's the embodiment of systemic ills, he's a well-intentioned person who sacrificed everything he had...to achieve nothing. He knows he owes Ratchet his own life and thousands more, but he still blames Ratchet for leaving him in the first place. He desperately wants Ratchet to have saved him truly, not just given him up to the fate that awaited him, but he can't justify asking for that. He knows he doesn't 'deserve' it.

So instead he tries to pay back the life debt he owes. He's atoning for his sins (supporting the Decepticon cause) by achieving good (making sure the future he saw comes to pass) rather than by becoming a good person, so it only makes sense for him to stand by Ratchet and fucking hate it. His arguing with Ratchet isn't over whether Primus exists or visions or rationality or whatever, it's over whether his change of heart is genuine. Ratchet thinks he's just going through the motions for his own benefit, Drift thinks he's made a significant sacrifice to repay his debts for Ratchet's sake, they both resent the other for ignoring their own personal stake in it. Ratchet isn't cruel to Drift, he's calling him on using weirdo status to deflect responsibility for his crimes. Drift isn't defending his beliefs to Ratchet, he's defending the integrity of his new morals. It's a metaphor! If it were really belief vs rationalism, Ratchet would take it up with Cyclonus.

And in spite of this, as Drift puts in his mandatory lifedebt repayment, he gets to know Ratchet as a person and comes to realize just how genuine he used to be and how far he's fallen and how instrumental Drift has been in stamping out every bit of hope he had. When Ratchet comes to take him home, part of it is Ratchet making up for his previous mistakes. He is confronted with an outcast Drift again and he is making absolutely sure that he has a support network and a way back into a community. Yet also it is Drift realizing that Ratchet never really wronged him, that he always tried to save him, that 4 million years of resentment have pretty much come to nothing, and that he's been tormented by something (the systemic injustice of Cybertron) that was far bigger than either of them. So he returns with him.

This is all very incoherent. What I mean to say is: Ratchet is a character made of unconditional love and he extends that love to Drift as he does to any other. Drift is a character who works alone, without support and without restriction, without justification, without boundaries, and he comes to realize he has nothing except Ratchet's love because of the simple fact that it is unconditional. This loops around so that Drift becomes the only one who knows what that cost Ratchet, and the only one who can give that to him in return, secure in the knowledge that whatever Ratchet says doesn't convey what he means, and that he is putting a lifetime in the service of ungrateful causes somewhere where they will mean something.