when I was watching TFP for the first time and got to Wheeljack's first episode, specifically when Arcee asks "hey Bulk, is that your boyfriend?" and Bulkhead doesn't deny it, in my head I was immediately like "oh, obviously the entire fandom ships those two."
like, there was no doubt in my mind that Bulkhead/Wheeljack is obviously the biggest ship in the fandom, how could they not be?
and then I kept watching, and Loose Cannons rolled around, and we literally got an "I love you" from Bulkhead, and like.
ok. Straight men should be able to say I love you to eachother without it being seen as gay. The platonic reading of these two is completely valid, and even if there's nothing romantic between them, it's still really commendable that this show was willing to let a man platonically say I love you to another man in 2011.
But also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THEY'RE MARRIED YOUR HONOR.
So, the moment I finished the show and could safely browse the tag on Tumblr, I dove straight in expecting to see these two everywhere, but on my first dive in the maintag, I barely found anything. I was mostly in Knockout mode so I didn't really think too much about it at the time, but then a couple days later I tried out the tfp Wheeljack tag.
and I was like, huh, that's weird. Not seeing very much Bulkhead here. Like, I already knew I'd see a lot of him and Ratchet, they were fun in their little episode, and they have that cross-continuity appeal. Nothing wrong there. Ratchet can be his side hoe, I'm okay with that arrangement.
But then I realized I was seeing more of him with Ultra Magnus than with Bulk, and like. Part of it is that I still just hate Ultra Magnus, so I won't really get into it, but like. Some beefs can not be solved by fucking.
Whatever, so Bulkjack isn't the biggest top Wheeljack ship. I'm okay with that. Imma just go on the ship tag and have my fun there.
A few minutes in, I realized I'd already gotten 2-3 years deep in the tag. Huh, that's odd, I haven't been scrolling that long, why is it already 2021? Then I hit 2020... Then I hit 2019... and then 30 seconds after hitting 2019 I hit the bottom of the tag.
Nobody posted about this ship until 2015. Between then and 2020, there were only ten posts in the tag.
So I'm immediately like how is this a rarepair and then I remember oh yeah. Bulkhead is fat and played by a black guy. Of course the fandom only started caring about him yesterday.
All this to say... idek actually, I just like my wrecker husbands and need everyone to catch on to these two.
NAHHHHHH BECAUSE I'M RIGHT THERE WITH YOU
like i knew wheelratch was gonna be a popular ship, i saw it in the ao3 tags while hunting for starop, but when arcee asked bulkhead, "so who's the boyfriend?" and bulkhead didn't even deny it?? yeah, i deadass expected everyone to ship the fuck out of these two.
AND I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE HE DROPPED AN I LOVE YOU IN LOOSE CANNONS... blame that on me watching transformers while on the treadmill and not paying attention lmao, but i went back to see and YEP. "sorry, jackie, it's because i love you" like WHAT??
so we've got bulkhead not denying that wheeljack's his boyfriend, bulkhead dropping an i love you, these two calling each other nicknames ("bulk" and "jackie"), whatever the hell this was
so i was honestly expecting the bulkjack tag on here to be much bigger than it was. but i had the same experience as you! i somehow managed to reach the bottom of the damn tag! i haven't even reached that with starop, and that's a rarepair, too! the fact that there's more content for ultra magnus x wheeljack... for shame!
yeah, i agree, these two need to have a lot more fanart, fanfiction, headcanons, they deserve more love! it's honestly shocking that there isn't more for them, because i've seen transformers fans ship for less.
and yeah, you're probably right about why people don't ship them as much. part of me wants to think that it's because bulkjack is relatively new in terms of transformers ships, but tfp released fifteen years ago. that's not an excuse anymore. as much as i hate to consider it, yeah. it wouldn't be surprising if bulkhead was less popular in the shipping department because he's both 1.) fat and 2.) played by a black man. he's not a skinny twink or a stereotypical bodybuilder the way ultra magnus is built. i'm not gonna sit here and say that everyone who ships wheeljack with someone other than bulkhead is doing it out of racism/fatphobia because hey, preferences are preferences, but... it wouldn't shock me if that's the reason for some people. i'll put it that way.