After kinda discovering the ship last night I have been ruminating on TFA Dratchee (Drift/Ratchet/Arcee) and have officially sold myself on the subject.
LIke, I'll be honest I don't normally ship poly relationships in fiction. It just tends to take a lot for me to be sold on the idea that everyone involved would genuinely enjoy being together and having chemistry. Tfa Dratchee might have a bit of an angle there since Drift, while having a tfa design, was never really properly implemented into the series and so I can kinda go hog wild on adapting him to tfa's universe.
But, like, even with that I can't be the only one who sees it right!?
I mean they're literally a great trifecta!
Ratchets got healing, grit, and a lot of experience Arcee is personable and also intelligent (she was both a teacher and an intelligence officer), and Drifts a badass ninja assassin samurai.
Ratchet is a pessimist, Arcee could be the optimist, while Drifts a realist.
Hell even their personalities I think would be a decent fit. Ratchet is a grouch with an ultimately soft center, Arcee is personable but not really a doormat, while drift is outwardly smily while being kinda depressed inside.
I mean the dynamic is just THERE.
Not to mention if you throw tfa Omega Supreme into the mix it gets even better. Ratchet and Arcee already have a sort of relationship with Omega as his teachers and friends. Sliding Drift in there as a kind of unexpected kindered spirit to the big guys internalized dilemma (wanting to protect but seeming to only be able to destroy).
Hell all three of them are even, technically, similar ages only looking different for various reasons.
Ratchet looking older only because Arcee was in a kinda suspended animation while Drift got a full body frame change.
The only real grey area that isnt fully explored would be the relationship between Drift and Arcee, but I honestly think we'd be able to extrapolate enough info about both characters from various iterations across continuities to be able to think of a dynamic between them.
Like, while tfa Arcee is generally sweet I actually think she'd be VERY careful with Drift starting out. Especially if she knows hes a former decepticon from the start. There wouldn't be a lot of cruelty in it, and I think she'd remain relatively polite and cooperative but it'd be obvious to everyone, including Drift, that she was holding at arms length and treating him with a kind of distant professionalism she never displayed to people she actually trusted.
For Drifts part he would be outwardly very understanding of this while inwardly being intensely frustrated by it. Like, I imagine he has other people like Jazz, Rodimus, Kup, etc who have all accepted that his change to autobot is genuine and he might feel a bit miffed that this kindergarten teacher is giving him dirtier looks than actual members of the high guard.
Course then shit hits the fan and it turns out Arcee never actually dropped that war time training she received and Drift gets to see first hand what a reliable, responsive, and intelligent officer she really is, and in turn maybe Arcee gets more of an opportunity to see how genuine Drifts turn towards autobot is.
And all that is way before either of them realize they both have a history with Ratchet.
I dunno, I'm literally just musing about this idea at random because, again, I just couldn't find ANY content for it when I looked.