Drift, Rodimus, Ratchet & Religious Trauma and Healing allegories:
TW: Discussions of religious trauma. This is just another perspective I wanted to bring to the situation with Drift and Rodimus (and Ratchet) as someone who's experienced a lot of pain with religion and can see myself in Drift.
I've been fixating on how Drift was handled when Rodimus kicked him off of the Lost Light, and how often the severity of what Drift went through was downplayed often to prop up Rodimus.
As if Rodimus could do no wrong, and that Drift's suffering was somehow okay because Drift never raised hell and accepted Rodimus's apology.
I also thought about how with Drift's adherence to religion and tendency to follow Rodimus, even to suffering, was very catholic, and very religious trauma.
Rodimus, a Prime, caused Drift to suffer for something Rodimus did. Drift who worshiped the ground Rodimus walked on, was made to suffer for his mistakes. Drift was almost Rodimus's martyr.
And it's not just that he accepted it, it's that he took on the psychological and physical torment that followed. The social isolation, the physical harm, the lack of resources. The regression back to a side of himself that he fought tooth and nail not to be. It removed him from his safe space and forced him to fight to live every single day.
And this just reminded me so much of how religious trauma actually works in real life. How you are often made to suffer, by your congregation (especially in Christianity) for something you didn't do. How you're expected to suffer because your "God" makes it so, or you suffer so that your religious figure doesn't have to.
And when you are "shunned" or "excommunicated", you lose everything. The very thing that saved you (because religion did save Drift) is used against you.
And even after all of that, they still refuse to take actual accountability. And you are still expected to forgive them.
Their relationship is so complex because Drift has a heart of gold to have forgiven that. He worships the ground Rodimus walks on, but Rodimus was wrong and Drift deserved better.
And then we have Ratchet, the atheist, who respects Gods but understands that they don't have the right to control your life like that, and that you still ultimately have control of everything, save Drift. Save Drift from his own God, and that's so powerful.
And that's why they actually last.
Their story is very much an allegory to religious trauma to me. It took Ratchet, an atheist, to make him realize that what happened to him was not okay and that he was not deserving of what Rodimus did to him.
Drift's "God" didn't safe him. The one Drift suffered for, nearly died for, didn't save him. A non-believer who laughed in "God's" face did.
Drift and Rodimus are religious trauma. Drift and Rachet are religious freedom and religious healing.
