Oh!

[yvannairie]

Right! Okay!

I think I worked out at least a bit what my problem with a lot of Prime!Wheeljack fic is :|c

I've theorised before that the reason Wheeljack Is The Way He Is in Prime is b/c on the Bluray extras they mention switching Ironhide out for Bulkhead b/c they didn't want to have too many red 'bots and couldn't use his Bayverse colours b/c he was slated to die in the film coming out next, so I figured that something similar had happened with Sideswipe (white/silver in Bayverse) and Wheeljack

and now when I'm more familiar with G1 -- yeah, there definitely is a tendency to give Prime!Jackie some Sideswipe-ish qualities that don't. Really. Like, they didn't sit right with me even before I was familiar with other Wheeljacks but they definitely don't sit right with me now when I realise what parts of the continuity soup Prime!Jackie draws the most from for his characterisation.

What it really comes down to is... a misplacement of anxiety, I think. Whenever there's Primeverse fic where Wheeljack is written as having "something to prove", I goggle because that doesn't at all line up with how his behaviour parses to me. Wheeljack's competence is never bought into question -- it's not arrogance if he's right -- and his lack of discipline is called out as a problem by other characters, but the actual solution to it is shown to be mutual co-operation, not just Wheeljack learning to do as he's told.

No. Wheeljack's issues are very firmly brought about by skepticism and distrust of other people over an elevated sense of self-importance. He's self-motivated and self-directed, and always looking to get things "done" over getting them down pat, hence his dislike for formality and protocol. It's a reluctance to hand control to anyone but himself, because he's Got This, it's fine, stay out of his way, please. The best way to derail an improviser is to stop them from iterating on their plans.

(I frankly don't think Sideswipe thinks about other people enough to have that much hostile suspicion towards them.)

I don't know how much of it is brought about by people who write Aligned stuff mostly sticking to Aligned and not really drawing on the multiverse because admittedly various levels of dangerous confidence look similar from a distance, and I might just have clued in on this particular read because "lol relatable tho". Nevertheless, that explains things.