This is a terrible thought and this can be done with any ship with Shockwave but I’m genuinely ill so it’s about him and Thundercracker
Some people consider that empurata slowly takes the bots emotions instead of just stripping them away so I imagine that Shockwave is a lot more expressive and feely in the beginning of the war but as the millennia goes on he eventually succumbs to the full affects of the empurata.
Now, I don’t doubt that Thundercracker would take interest in Shockwave in the very beginning of the war, after all Shockwave is really interesting and Thundercracker definitely has an interest for what others may consider creepy.
The point is however, imagine their relationship, originally affectionate and open with their feelings. Slowly it melts into a hollow husk with what seems bares the cusps of one-sided affection. Though, Thundercracker knows it’s not, that at one point Shockwave did love him. It’s just a lot further away now, a memory.
Though, I imagine Shockwave still does those affectionate little actions out of habit. Like bringing his servo to Thundercracker’s wing struts when the seeker brushes against him, returning the little head bumps, the little hugs he gives him when Thundercracker tucks under his gunned arm. It’s all done out of habit but oh how it gives Thundercracker the false sense of hope, how it gives him a sliver of thought that those feelings they once shared still exist. They do, they certainly do, somewhere in Shockwave’s spark, but not here.
