#otto thoughts

Something I really struggle to get people to understand is that like. Sometimes there was no intentional homoerotic subtext, the author was just extremely misogynistic. Sometimes the author wasn't "secretly shipping" those two men, the author literally just hates women so much that they see them as being literally incapable of relationships with depth. Like this is kind of a big thing with misogyny actually. A lot of extremely misogynistic people truly believe that a man can only have meaningful and complex relationships with other men because they literally just think women are so inferior they only exist to birth children and clean the house. It's like when people say along the lines of "no one worships exclusively men quite like straight men do". It's just that phenomenon actually. That happens to be manifesting in a raging misogynist's writing. Writing a man character who literally only puts effort into his friendships with other men while completely ignoring his literal girlfriend or wife is actually an extremely straight thing to write. And that doesn't mean you can't ship those men or that there are no stories with actual intentional homoerotic subtext. I just think it's important to be able to recognize extreme misogyny in writing and acknowledge it without brushing it off and assuming good intentions when literally all evidence is screaming that this was a misogynistic writing choice and not a representing gay men choice.

The only difference between me (someone who draws) and someone who wishes to draw is simply that I draw. There's no magical quality someone who draws or sculpts or sews or writes or composes or crochets or plays or codes or knits or sings or whatever has that people who aren't making art lack except willingness to make art. When I was younger (and to this day) I wanted to draw so bad. It gets under my skin. It bothers me deeply. Not having a pen in my hand. Not understanding how something was drawn. I was just so interested in it I could not contain myself. So all the frustration and discomfort and humiliation of learning something new and being bad at it was worth it to me and still is. I still make plenty of art that looks bad as I keep learning and trying things. I just tend not to post the things that look bad. If wanting to make art gets under your skin, I urge you to pick up the pen or the needles or the keyboard or the guitar or whatever art making tool of choice and make something. I promise there's nothing fundamental you lack. I promise there's no magic quality that makes someone an artist that you don't have. Of course there's nothing wrong with yearning. I'm just saying that the bridge between not being an artist and being an artist is just making art, not some secret artist ingredient that gets put in some people and not others. The one thing I hear constantly as an artist is "wow I wish I could do that". I hear it more than anything else. You can do it. The only "leg up" I have on you is just years of experience. Which you're never going to get if you never even get started. I used to look at other artists with such envy. I used to think they were just keeping secrets from me or were just more special than me, and that's why their art was better. But it was just learning and hard work I hadn't done yet between my skill and theirs. The more I draw and learn, the more I understand just making things was all I had to do to get where I wanted. And you can do that too!

Haha I couldn't help but notice you made a funny little joke about how two background men characters exchanging a glance with each other was "more gay" than the canonical lesbian romance and/or sex scene in that media. No yeah haha good one. But hey real quick what do you mean by that actually? Explain to me why you think two men existing near each other is inherently more intimate and romantic and queer and worthy of celebration than entire love stories about two women? I'll wait haha! I'll wait.

It's crazy how people will routinely point out that making fun of twinks specifically and effeminate gay men specifically is textbook homophobia (which it is and people should say it) but when a trans man specifically is effeminate at all and people are shitty about it suddenly a ton of people who are always saying "don't say twink if you really mean fag 🙄" are realllll quiet. In fact, a lot of people start talking shit about how that trans man isn't trying hard enough to be a man and deserves to get shit on. Funny how that happens!

Plenty of my "hot takes" about Rumble and Frenzy have no basis in canon and is just me doing a New Twist on my favorite characters once a month. However, it will always kind of irk me that the fandom consensus seems to be that they're children because like. No they are not. At least not in their most major appearances which I think are G1 and the IDW comics. In G1 they get drunk. In IDW they're about the same age as Megatron if not older. Like people can do whatever they and I don't actually have a problem with people enjoying characters in a different way than I do. To each their own. Peace and love. But to me Frenzy could MAYBE be in the Cybertronian equivalent of mid-20s at the youngest and there's no way Rumble is under 30. And I guess I just don't really Get what other people are seeing when they look at Rumble and Frenzy. Which is fine! But sometimes I'm just like damn have you never met a maladjusted thrill-seeking adult before? They're everywhere. Or even just a loud and rowdy person?