TFP Wheeljack: A Misblamed "Maverick"
Wheeljack is one of the most popular characters in Transformers: Prime, with the episodes focusing on him always bringing some form of emotional release or suspense to the audience and the main cast. However, as the series progressed, Wheeljack's introduction as a laidback, untethered former Wrecker was largely forgotten by the writers in favor of exploring heretofore unseen "flaws" of his - namely his sudden renegade behavior and rebellion against authority, this last becoming strange when his status as a Wrecker is taken into account since, to survive, you have to be ready to follow your leader's orders.
Allow me to deconstruct Wheeljack's purported status as the "maverick" of Transformers: Prime.
As I said above, Wheeljack was introduced as a laidback fellow. Yes, he was spiteful in the face of his captors and more than a little violently inclined from the beginning. However, he had a head on his shoulders that let him escape the Nemesis in his debut and deal a blow to the Decepticons shortly before he left to search for other survivors. This made him memorable and gave Wheeljack a degree of nuance on its own: he was a free spirit, but loyal to his side and hoping to reconnect with other Autobots who had fled Cybertron.
However, this went out the window upon his return to Earth in season two's episode "Loose Cannons". In this installment, upon his fellow former Wrecker Seaspray's death at the hands of a vengeful Dreadwing, Wheeljack decides to avenge his comrade's death. Thanks to the implied fondness for his fellow Autobots in his debut, Wheeljack's desire to kill Dreadwing makes sense. However, what makes this hard to swallow is the sudden strictness with which Optimus treats Wheeljack. Yes, the fury that fuels Wheeljack in this episode is clearly going to end badly for him, and as an Autobot, Wheeljack is technically under the jurisdiction of Optimus' now stern orders....
....Except for the fact that Wheeljack was explicitly stated/shown in his debut, and which he verbally made clear to Agent Fowler in this same episode, to not be Optimus' subordinate, and thus negates the grounds for Optimus to enforce the "ground rules" with Wheeljack - which itself becomes a more glaring problem with how Arcee broke ranks repeatedly and ignored Optimus' orders, with Optimus never even confining her to base. Rather, he ends up justifying her actions by the end of her arcs by saying what amounts to "you rose above your base desires", or so some such speech that even gets recited to the other, original team members throughout the various episodes that have no meaning, because the stories are both retreaded later on and never actually resolved at the end of an episode.
From "Loose Cannons" onward, while his grudge against Dreadwing mysteriously disappears after he and Optimus save Bulkhead from the flier, Wheeljack's "rogue" behavior is erroneously fixated upon by the show. It is erroneous because the team persistently paints his attitude as a problem when Arcee, Bulkhead, and even Bumblebee's truly maverick tendencies - disobeying direct orders, satisfying their own needs by protesting so greatly as to spur Optimus to acquiesce to their demands, or leaving the base to get something they personally wanted back from the villains - are far worse than anything Wheeljack ever did, and serves as nothing but a series of out-of-character moments for Optimus and Wheeljack.
That is not to say that Wheeljack did not have issues beneath the surface, mind you. However, it is not a strictly vindictive streak that plagues Wheeljack, or a "problem with authority" that shadows him.
Something that I have noticed over the years about Prime's Wheeljack is his preference for being alone. This, coupled with the repeatedly stated death tolls of the Wreckers, leads me to the conclusion that Wheeljack is what TV Tropes calls a Death Seeker - someone who has suffered so much that he or she pursues a lifestyle where the person in question can be killed in combat because they still won't commit suicide. Until season three, Wheeljack had always stayed in his own lane, forming brief friendships of one kind or another with the main cast, but ultimately keeping to himself, even from his supposed best friend Bulkhead. But when he goes on a mission - whether it be against Soundwave, Dreadwing, or Hardshell - Wheeljack, while giving it his all, seems oddly content with the prospective outcome of his death. In the case of Hardshell, it's almost as if he doesn't want to survive, because from what I recall of that fight, there was virtually no plan aside from "kill the Insecticon and maybe die with him" that I could discern from the battle.
This is furthered by how Wheeljack stays away from the Autobots both before and after his duel with Hardshell as, until his forced "learning experience" at the hands of Arcee, Wheeljack keeps an emotional and physical distance from the others, most clearly with Bulkhead. Again, Bulkhead is his best friend, yet there couldn't be a greater gap between them aside from the occasional jokes and handshakes they share. The show tries to explain it as him "pushing others away" so he won't have to deal with loss, but we saw that treatment from Arcee. She pushed Cliffjumper and almost everyone else away, even though it was a surprisingly tame version for the others as opposed to how she all but abused Cliffjumper in the flashback episode to Cybertron in season two. Additionally, the way Arcee pushes others away is through snark, spite, fury, and "leave me alone" speeches that make her come across as a petulant child who wants to wallow in her misery or otherwise drag others down into the pit of despair that she herself has made her home.
Directly opposite this attitude is Wheeljack. As opposed to lashing out and abusing others as Arcee does, Wheeljack puts on a facade of casual indifference to the Autobot way of life, but consistently removes himself from the others. He does not take out his pain on them, he does not snark about loss to others while naval gazing, he does not even furiously bat the hand of compassion away from him. True, he might not take it, but he does not so vehemently reject it either. This is not the behavior of a man who wants to wallow in self-pity for his personal losses, or use to others to make himself feel better.
This is the behavior of a man who sees no point in living anymore, and is desperately avoiding connection lest he finally snap and commit himself to a suicide run that will finally put himself out of his misery at no expense to others.
And yet, rather than exploring this psychological dilemma of Wheeljack's, rather than give him the chance to find a reason to live, Wheeljack becomes the engine through which the reckless, maverick, and life-threatening actions of Optimus' original subordinates are shifted to in order that they might avoid the blame and consequences of their behavior, and may be addressed in another character as opposed to the "family" that the creatives of the show were so fond of. This is a waste and an insult: it's a waste because showing Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee facing the consequences of their actions would have been fruitful and given them more than just recycled plotlines that are never resolved or meaningful, while it's an insult because those who suffer from a variation of the Death Seeker mentality that hounds Wheeljack are forced into maintaining that mentality due to the perceived "error" of what their psyche is, in addition to spreading a message that Death Seekers aren't what the name suggests, but individuals throwing pity parties for themselves who "need" to get out of themselves and become a part of society again.
Arcee is a professional pity party girl who should have faced the reality that she is an entitled brat in need of seeing outside of herself. Wheeljack is a man barely clinging to life by the tips of his fingers, practically breaking apart at the seams when an old friend dies or is nearly killed and prepared to die right after hearing the news.
The two attitudes could not be more different, yet Wheeljack and the audience are respectively told and led to believe that they are the same without ever addressing the deeper concerns lying underneath the surface.
That's my two cents on Wheeljack in TFP. I hope you enjoyed this, and that it gets some thoughts turning in people's heads. Until next time -
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
pixelskylines
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jacobvanloon
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