Character Info
Jan. 28th, 2013 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sword_redemptionABOUT THE CHARACTER:
Drift has always been an idealist and more than a little intense. Even back in the gutters, he resented that anyone should be left out, neglected, or forced to turn to stealing just to survive. His idealism was what kept him loyal to Megatron—he believed in Megatron’s cause, and his belief kept him fighting, constantly, for Decepticon victory, without taking any time to consider the methods he was using or the consequences. His pursuit of victory led him to kill his own troops, for example. The ends—a world where the poor would defeat the rich, the powerless claim power—always justified any means.
His departure from the Decepticons happened when he finally took that a step too far, executing one of his troops in cold blood. They turned him over to his commander, Turmoil, who fully intended to execute him, when Drift (then called Deadlock) escaped, and crashlanded on an uncharted planet—Theophany.
There he met Wing and Crystal City: Crystal City showed him that a perfect society, a perfect world, could be formed without destruction. In Crystal City, refugees had created the world he had always wanted--no suffering, nobody left out. And Wing showed him (by beating him every day--it was the only thing he'd really listen to) that peaceful didn’t mean ‘weak’. (Drift series) Now, Drift is determined never to do that again. He believes, ardently, that peace, true peace, is possible and he desperately wants to help make it happen.
When he re-encountered Turmoil, he told his former commander that both sides had lost their way—the Decepticons had truly fallen, and even the Autobots were ‘a step away’ from where the Decepticons were at the beginning of the war. (Spotlight: Drift) What this means for him now is that he is not going to rush into violence anymore and only fight or attack to defend someone else (such as Pipes in MTMTE 4 and Ratchet in MTMTE 5)—thinking that his actions will save someone else.
The war finally ends, and Cybertron is a mess: Drift and Rodimus start the quest to find the Knights of Cybertron—the mythical ancient founders of their entire species, thinking that the Knights would fix everything. He’s been enthusiastic so far, but when they arrive at Theophany and find it ruined and deserted, he snaps, punching Whirl out for mocking him.
He’s reckless in battle—going out alone among the Swarm on Cybertron (though Perceptor got his back), fighting his way back just in time to help carry Ironhide off the bridge as Sunstreaker prepares to blow it. He is likely to endanger himself and go into the thick of a fight.
He understood Sunstreaker’s need for redemption, more than anyone, because he still feels the weight of his own past. (AHM 8) Likely, part of what drives his ruthless optimism is that need to make up for his own mistakes. He’ll be more likely than some to reach out across faction lines: he’s committed to the ideals of this quest, and bringing all Cybertronians together.
Since recovering from his self-inflicted injury, he’s become increasingly interested in the spiritual and mystical, so he tries to find deeper meaning or symbolism in things. And he will tell you his latest theory!
He is generally optimistic in canon (post Crystal City, that is!), trying to motivate the others on that last night on Cybertron before the Swarm would overrun them, and to reach out to Thundercracker later on Earth, though his attempts at friendliness were generally rebuffed by everyone but Rodimus.
For all his friendliness, he doesn’t form friendships easily: Ultra Magnus is wary of him, Ratchet is annoyed by his optimism. He desperately wants to be liked by Rodimus, to the point of doing reckless things to impress him. It probably doesn’t help that he has become a bit more gregarious, sharing his apparently, uh, ‘interesting’ theories about the Knights of Cybertron, the sparkeater, and the like.
He can be good with words: he apparently wrote most of Rodimus’s speeches, and his exhortation in AHM 8 (that Bumblebee snarked) was actually pretty eloquent. But he doesn’t deliver them because, well, he is sort of short in the charisma department.
But the optimism isn’t really natural: we see a few moments, such as when he laughed a little too loudly when asked if he feared the DJD (and then asked Ratchet that if the DJD was coming, to kill him), where the mask slips, and the cheerful attitude is a bit too hard to keep up. He realizes, just as the mechs remaining on Cybertron are discovering, that just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean that everything is healed.
In a nutshell: he hopes for a lasting peace, a good one, where everyone has a part, and no one's left out, and wants to be a part of it, of making things 'right', especially after he spent so much time making things wrong. He isn't afraid to die, but he is afraid of the overuse of violence or the misapplication of violence in place of justice (he likes to think he uses violence 'the right way').
Drift has always been an idealist and more than a little intense. Even back in the gutters, he resented that anyone should be left out, neglected, or forced to turn to stealing just to survive. His idealism was what kept him loyal to Megatron—he believed in Megatron’s cause, and his belief kept him fighting, constantly, for Decepticon victory, without taking any time to consider the methods he was using or the consequences. His pursuit of victory led him to kill his own troops, for example. The ends—a world where the poor would defeat the rich, the powerless claim power—always justified any means.
His departure from the Decepticons happened when he finally took that a step too far, executing one of his troops in cold blood. They turned him over to his commander, Turmoil, who fully intended to execute him, when Drift (then called Deadlock) escaped, and crashlanded on an uncharted planet—Theophany.
There he met Wing and Crystal City: Crystal City showed him that a perfect society, a perfect world, could be formed without destruction. In Crystal City, refugees had created the world he had always wanted--no suffering, nobody left out. And Wing showed him (by beating him every day--it was the only thing he'd really listen to) that peaceful didn’t mean ‘weak’. (Drift series) Now, Drift is determined never to do that again. He believes, ardently, that peace, true peace, is possible and he desperately wants to help make it happen.
When he re-encountered Turmoil, he told his former commander that both sides had lost their way—the Decepticons had truly fallen, and even the Autobots were ‘a step away’ from where the Decepticons were at the beginning of the war. (Spotlight: Drift) What this means for him now is that he is not going to rush into violence anymore and only fight or attack to defend someone else (such as Pipes in MTMTE 4 and Ratchet in MTMTE 5)—thinking that his actions will save someone else.
The war finally ends, and Cybertron is a mess: Drift and Rodimus start the quest to find the Knights of Cybertron—the mythical ancient founders of their entire species, thinking that the Knights would fix everything. He’s been enthusiastic so far, but when they arrive at Theophany and find it ruined and deserted, he snaps, punching Whirl out for mocking him.
He’s reckless in battle—going out alone among the Swarm on Cybertron (though Perceptor got his back), fighting his way back just in time to help carry Ironhide off the bridge as Sunstreaker prepares to blow it. He is likely to endanger himself and go into the thick of a fight.
He understood Sunstreaker’s need for redemption, more than anyone, because he still feels the weight of his own past. (AHM 8) Likely, part of what drives his ruthless optimism is that need to make up for his own mistakes. He’ll be more likely than some to reach out across faction lines: he’s committed to the ideals of this quest, and bringing all Cybertronians together.
Since recovering from his self-inflicted injury, he’s become increasingly interested in the spiritual and mystical, so he tries to find deeper meaning or symbolism in things. And he will tell you his latest theory!
He is generally optimistic in canon (post Crystal City, that is!), trying to motivate the others on that last night on Cybertron before the Swarm would overrun them, and to reach out to Thundercracker later on Earth, though his attempts at friendliness were generally rebuffed by everyone but Rodimus.
For all his friendliness, he doesn’t form friendships easily: Ultra Magnus is wary of him, Ratchet is annoyed by his optimism. He desperately wants to be liked by Rodimus, to the point of doing reckless things to impress him. It probably doesn’t help that he has become a bit more gregarious, sharing his apparently, uh, ‘interesting’ theories about the Knights of Cybertron, the sparkeater, and the like.
He can be good with words: he apparently wrote most of Rodimus’s speeches, and his exhortation in AHM 8 (that Bumblebee snarked) was actually pretty eloquent. But he doesn’t deliver them because, well, he is sort of short in the charisma department.
But the optimism isn’t really natural: we see a few moments, such as when he laughed a little too loudly when asked if he feared the DJD (and then asked Ratchet that if the DJD was coming, to kill him), where the mask slips, and the cheerful attitude is a bit too hard to keep up. He realizes, just as the mechs remaining on Cybertron are discovering, that just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean that everything is healed.
In a nutshell: he hopes for a lasting peace, a good one, where everyone has a part, and no one's left out, and wants to be a part of it, of making things 'right', especially after he spent so much time making things wrong. He isn't afraid to die, but he is afraid of the overuse of violence or the misapplication of violence in place of justice (he likes to think he uses violence 'the right way').
