#2017-2019 also makes sense to me because | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

freckliedan · 4 months ago

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could you expand on your thoughts why you think dan and phil havent always been monogamous? super curious! i kind of get the same vibe.

i'm happy to expand on it tbh! it's something i think and talk a lot about with my friends.

i'm hesitant about going in depth because i've found that's when people find it okay to say deeply shitty things to me, a polyamorous person, under the guise of academic debate/it just being a difference of opinion. but i'm also not going to let the possibility of that stop me?

ANYWAYS.

quite honestly the biggest thing for me is just. taking dan and phil at their word? even when parsing something true through them saying things in silly ways that's the easiest way to be right about them.

we noticed and believed in the underlying truth in their gay jokes before they were out. people are willing to entertain the bondage and mpreg and various other horny jokes as containing some kernel of truth. more people than literally any point in time are willing to believe there's some substance to dan's career-long mentions of gender.

but for whatever reason (mononormativity) the comments about them being attracted to/flirting with/being interested in other people get written off as 100% joking and funny because they're the most monogamous people ever & because they get jealous easily. and that just? sucks.

i think they've always been committed. like, phil brought dan home to meet his parents at their very first christmas together type committed. planning to spend the rest of their lives together from 3 months into the relationship committed.

but also like? that coexists with the fact that dan wasn't able to come out to himself as gay until the lead up to basically i'm gay. 2018 or maybe 2017, i think. @freckliephil or @phulge has brought up the idea to me before that part of why they didn't label their relationship to us in 2019 may have been because they were still in flux with labeling it for themselves.

dan has also always had commitment issues due to how he saw his parents' relationship function/due to his home life growing up and i'm NOT going to elaborate on this one but it is so obvious.

(consider this whole post informed by conversations with aries and roper btw).

i think the idea that dan and phil were secure in their connection but not in a place where they had to (or could, on dan's part) ascribe labels to it in the early years is realistic?

and i think their commitment and security can coexist with the idea of like. "i think it's hot seeing you kiss other people for attention at parties and come home with me". + i genuinely think the fantastic foursome explored each other's bodies on the italy trip. etc.

i definitely think there would've been huge stretches of monogamy, and i do think that there was jealousy before they found their footing and felt comfortable in their commitment. (different rant, but i think most of what gets read as jealousy these days is them dong a bit/possessiveness).

but i think there's also always been points in time where they were either theoretically or in practice fine with having sexual experiences with other people. that wouldn't've really been possible during their deep closet era, and i don't think it was COMMON beforehand.

but i also think that it's definitely something possible after they came out.

i think people hear me say this and assume i'm degrading the incredible and beautiful love and commitment dan and phil share. that i'm reducing queer men's relationships down to sex only.

but like. i'm not fucking doing that! the people making those assumptions are doing that! and saying a lot about how they view non monogamy too!

i'm saying i think they're so secure in their love and relationship that they're literally completely unbothered and not threatened by potentially having an open relationship. devotion is not only present in monogamous relationships.

WAD makes sense as a point of post coming out timing for another open period in their relationship to me. quite honestly i could see phil being the one to suggest it to dan? 2019 thru the close of WAD was dan's self actualization era.

growing up in the context of a single committed relationship does things to you psychologically. your identity formation happens side by side with another person and even if the relationship isn't controlling and toxic you can really lose sight of your individuality, if you're not careful. this is even easier to have happen if you share all of your friends, live together, AND work together. ESPECIALLY if you're significantly closeted in some way.

i know this because i've also lived it. believe me when i say dan NEEDED to figure out who he was as an individual. we saw him do that in several iterations artistically/careerwise. but we also saw his interest in experiencing queer culture in ways he missed out on when he was young and closeted.

so i think dan actually WAS on the apps, when he was touring WAD. i wouldn't be surprised if that was phil's idea, even. a "don't worry, go see the world, we've been open before, i'm not worried you won't want to come home to me, nobody's gonna match your freak like i do". i think phil would've had the option too but probably would've taken it less.

and i think it's like. like they're best friends! it's something they would've been talking about with each other. i think it could've been foreplay to them sometimes. i think it could've been what catapaulted dan into his top era. (this is a seperate essay from drs. frecklie, frecklie and phulge as well).

most importantly we think dan came back from the first leg of WAD having completely exorcised his fear of commitment and. wait i have to find a specific message. nevermind you're getting 3 screenshots without any further context

anyways. i can't find the specific point where we said this so it was maybe an in person conversation but the rest of the idea is that experiencing other options resulted in dan coming back from WAD and proposing. and phil proposing the gaming channel return right back. we 1000% said this before phil mentioned that he's the one who suggested the gaming channel return i just can NOT fucking find receipts on that because we largely voice message.

this has been an entire ramble that touched on a lot of different subjects but. yeah. dan and phil aren't polyamorous in the "both dating another person as a couple/other people as individuals" sense nor will they ever be. but there's sooo much room between that and strict monogamy.

and a lot of that in between is in perfect alignment with the ways they've talked about their lives over the years and is yet another extension of them having a level of trust love and intimacy in their relationship that most people will never experience. so

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#jam replies #jam posts #anon #polyamory #analysis #meta #this is ok to rb but i'm not putting it in the tags bc people love to be shitheads #jam thoughts #freckliephulge

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machveil · 1 month ago

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Captain John Price is next on the chopping block. another birth year and headcanoned age post because I love digging shit up on the CoD operatives

let’s get our facts straight:

Price was a Lieutenant in 1996 (age N/A)

Price served as a Captain from 2011-2017 (age N/A)

1996 is 15 years prior to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Act 1 - Blackout is dated as 2011, Act 3 - Gameover is also listed as 2011

Task Force 141 began activity in 2019-present day

huge information, his dog tags in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare list his *potential birthday as 01-11-1953

*from what we know about given birth years from my Kyle “Gaz” Garrick analysis, we always check plausibility when given a birth year

so… we have a solid date [celebration]! let’s confirm what we know and do some math ( ^_^）o自自o（^_^ ）

according to Price’s dog tags (huzzah) he was born 1953. as a Lieutenant, Price is 43 years old off the bat. Price is 58-64 while serving as a Captain in 2011-2017

when TF141 started activity in 2019 John was 66 - present day (2024), that would make Captain John Price 71

headcanon time because holy crap, I would not have wagered that personally—

let’s go over the headcanoned ages I’ve done for Simon “Ghost” Riley, König, and Kyle “Gaz” Garrick briefly before I continue. respectively, for each of these men, I will list their ages in 2019 - when TF141 started activity: 34-35, 31, and 27

Price is 66 in 2019… maybe it’s just me, but that seems wild - like, it checks out and makes total sense, but still! admittedly, I’m not a huge Price fan - don’t get me wrong, I still like him. since I don’t actively write for him I’m fine with him being headcanoned as born in 1953, it’s just wild having an actual age to put to his face haha

I think I’ll still see him as in his late 50s to early 60s, but plausibility wise… I’d say his in-game dog tags check out

#don’t shoot the messenger #he’s aged like fine wine #price #john price #captain price #price headcanons #price cod #price call of duty #cod #cod headcanons #call of duty #hit post

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rhysdarbinizedarby · 11 months ago

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Couch surfer in his 30s. Oscar winner in his 40s. Why the whole world wants Taika

**Notes: This is very long post!**

Good Weekend

In his 30s, he was sleeping on couches. By his 40s, he’d directed a Kiwi classic, taken a Marvel movie to billion-dollar success, and won an Oscar. Meet Taika Waititi, king of the oddball – and one of New Zealand’s most original creative exports.

Taika Waititi: “Be a nice person and live a good life. And just don’t be an arsehole.”

The good news? Taika Waititi is still alive. I wasn’t sure. The screen we were speaking through jolted savagely a few minutes ago, with a cacophonous bang and a confused yelp, then radio silence. Now the Kiwi filmmaker is back, grinning like a loon: “I just broke the f---ing table, bro!”

Come again? “I just smashed this f---ing table and glass flew everywhere. It’s one of those old annoying colonial tables. It goes like this – see that?” Waititi says, holding up a folding furniture leg. “I hit the mechanism and it wasn’t locked. Anyway …”

I’m glad he’s fine. The stuff he’s been saying from his London hotel room could incur biblical wrath. We’re talking about his latest project, Next Goal Wins, a movie about the American Samoa soccer team’s quest to score a solitary goal, 10 years after suffering the worst loss in the game’s international history – a 31-0 ignominy to Australia – but our chat strays into spirituality, then faith, then religion.

“I don’t personally believe in a big guy sitting on a cloud judging everyone, but that’s just me,” Waititi says, deadpan. “Because I’m a grown-up.”

This is the way his interview answers often unfold. Waititi addresses your topic – dogma turns good people bad, he says, yet belief itself is worth lauding – but bookends every response with a conspiratorial nudge, wink, joke or poke. “Regardless of whether it’s some guy living on a cloud, or some other deity that you’ve made up – and they’re all made up – the message across the board is the same, and it’s important: Be a nice person, and live a good life. And just don’t be an arsehole!”

Not being an arsehole seems to have served Waititi, 48, well. Once a national treasure and indie darling (through the quirky tenderness of his breakout New Zealand films Boy in 2010 and Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016), Waititi then became a star of both the global box office (through his 2017 entry into the Marvel Universe, Thor: Ragnarok, which grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide) and then the Academy Awards (winning the 2020 best adapted screenplay Oscar for his subversive Holocaust dramedy JoJo Rabbit, in which he played an imaginary Hitler).

Waititi playing Adolf Hitler in the 2019 movie JoJo Rabbit. (Alamy)

A handsome devil with undeniable roguish charm, Waititi also slid seamlessly into style-icon status (attending this year’s Met Gala shirtless, in a floor-length gunmetal-grey Atelier Prabal Gurung wrap coat, with pendulous pearl necklaces), as well as becoming his own brand (releasing an eponymous line of canned coffee drinks) and bona fide Hollywood A-lister (he was introduced to his second wife, British singer Rita Ora, by actor Robert Pattinson at a barbecue).

Putting that platform to use, Waititi is an Indigenous pioneer and mentor, too, co-creating the critically acclaimed TV series Reservation Dogs, while co-founding the Piki Films production company, committed to promoting the next generation of storytellers – a mission that might sound all weighty and worthy, yet Waititi’s new wave of First Nations work is never earnest, always mixing hurt with heart and howling humour.

Waititi with wife Rita Ora at the 2023 Met Gala in May. (Getty Images)

Makes sense. Waititi is a byproduct of “the weirdest coupling ever” – his late Maori father from the Te Whanau-a-Apanui tribe was an artist, farmer and “Satan’s Slaves” bikie gang founder, while his Wellington schoolteacher mum descended from Russian Jews, although he’s not devout about her faith. (“No, I don’t practise,” he confirms. “I’m just good at everything, straight away.”)

He’s remained loyally tethered to his origin story, too – and to a cadre of creative Kiwi mates, including actors Jemaine Clement and Rhys Darby – never forgetting that not long before the actor/writer/producer/director was an industry maven, he was a penniless painter/photographer/ musician/comedian.

With no set title and no fixed address, he’s seemingly happy to be everything, everywhere (to everyone) all at once. “‘The universe’ is bandied around a lot these days, but I do believe in the kind of connective tissue of the universe, and the energy that – scientifically – we are made up of a bunch of atoms that are bouncing around off each other, and some of the atoms are just squished together a bit tighter than others,” he says, smiling. “We’re all made of the same stardust, and that’s pretty special.”

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We’ve caught Waititi in a somewhat relaxed moment, right before the screen actors’ and media artists’ strike ends. He’s sensitive to the struggle but doesn’t deny enjoying the break. “I spent a lot of time thinking about writing, and not writing, and having a nice holiday,” he tells Good Weekend. “Honestly, it was a good chance just to recombobulate.”

Waititi, at right, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople actors, from left, Sam Neill, Rhys Darby and Julian Dennison. (Getty Images)

It’s mid-October, and he’s just headed to Paris to watch his beloved All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup. He’s deeply obsessed with the game, and sport in general. “Humans spend all of our time knowing what’s going to happen with our day. There’s no surprises any more. We’ve become quite stagnant. And I think that’s why people love sport, because of the air of unpredictability,” he says. “It’s the last great arena entertainment.”

The main filmic touchstone for Next Goal Wins (which premieres in Australian cinemas on New Year’s Day) would be Cool Runnings (1993), the unlikely true story of a Jamaican bobsled team, but Waititi also draws from genre classics such as Any Given Sunday and Rocky, sampling trusted tropes like the musical training montage. (His best one is set to Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.)

Filming in Hawaii was an uplifting experience for the self-described Polynesian Jew. “It wasn’t about death, or people being cruel to each other. Thematically, it was this simple idea, of getting a small win, and winning the game wasn’t even their goal – their goal was to get a goal,” he says. “It was a really sweet backbone.”

Waititi understands this because, growing up, he was as much an athlete as a nerd, fooling around with softball and soccer before discovering rugby league, then union. “There’s something about doing exercise when you don’t know you’re doing exercise,” he enthuses. “It’s all about the fun of throwing a ball around and trying to achieve something together.” (Whenever Waititi is in Auckland he joins his mates in a long-running weekend game of touch rugby. “And then throughout the week I work out every day. Obviously. I mean, look at me.”)

Auckland is where his kids live, too, so he spends as much time there as possible. Waititi met his first wife, producer Chelsea Winstanley, on the set of Boy in 2010, and they had two daughters, Matewa Kiritapu, 8, and his firstborn, Te Kainga O’Te Hinekahu, 11. (The latter is a derivative of his grandmother’s name, but he jokes with American friends that it means “Resurrection of Tupac” or “Mazda RX7″) Waititi and Winstanley split in about 2018, and he married the pop star Ora in 2022.

He offers a novel method for balancing work with parenthood … “Look, you just abandon them, and know that the experience will make them harder individuals later on in life. And it’s their problem,” he says. “I’m going to give them all of the things that they need, and I’m going to leave behind a decent bank account for their therapy, and they will be just like me, and the cycle will continue.”

Jokes aside – I think he’s joking – school holidays are always his, and he brings the girls onto the set of every movie he makes. “They know enough not to get in the way or touch anything that looks like it could kill you, and they know to be respectful and quiet when they need to. But they’re just very comfortable around filmmakers, which I’m really happy about, because eventually I hope they will get into the industry. One more year,” he laughs, “then they can leave school and come work for Dad.”

Theirs is certainly a different childhood than his. Growing up, he was a product of two worlds. His given names, for instance, were based on his appearance at birth: “Taika David” if he looked Maori (after his Maori grandfather) and “David Taika” if he looked Pakeha (after his white grandfather). His parents split when he was five, so he bounced between his dad’s place in Waihau Bay, where he went by the surname Waititi, and his mum, eight hours drive away in Wellington, where he went by Cohen (the last name on his birth certificate and passport).

Waititi was precocious, even charismatic. His mother Robin once told Radio New Zealand that people always wanted to know him, even as an infant: “I’d be on a bus with him, and he was that kind of baby who smiled at people, and next thing you know they’re saying, ‘Can I hold your baby?’ He’s always been a charmer to the public eye.”

He describes himself as a cool, sporty, good-looking nerd, raised on whatever pop culture screened on the two TV channels New Zealand offered in the early 1980s, from M*A*S*H and Taxi to Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson. He was well-read, too. When punished by his mum, he would likely be forced to analyse a set of William Blake poems.

He puts on a whimpering voice to describe their finances – “We didn’t have much monneeey” – explaining how his mum spent her days in the classroom but also worked in pubs, where he would sit sipping a raspberry lemonade, doodling drawings and writing stories. She took in ironing and cleaned houses; he would help out, learning valuable lessons he imparts to his kids. “And to random people who come to my house,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘Here’s a novel idea, wash this dish,’ but people don’t know how to do anything these days.”

“Every single character I’ve ever written has been based on someone I’ve known or met or a story I’ve stolen from someone.” - Taika Waititi

He loved entertaining others, clearly, but also himself, recording little improvised radio plays on a tape deck – his own offbeat versions of ET and Indiana Jones and Star Wars. “Great free stuff where you don’t have any idea what the story is as you’re doing it,” he says. “You’re just sort of making it up and enjoying the freedom of playing god in this world where you can make people and characters do whatever you want.”

His other sphere of influence lay in Raukokore, the tiny town where his father lived. Although Boy is not autobiographical, it’s deeply personal insofar as it’s filmed in the house where he grew up, and where he lived a life similar to that portrayed in the story, surrounded by his recurring archetypes: warm grandmothers and worldly kids; staunch, stoic mums; and silly, stunted men. “Every single character I’ve ever written has been based on someone I’ve known or met,” he says, “or a story I’ve stolen from someone.”

He grew to love drawing and painting, obsessed early on with reproducing the Sistine Chapel. During a 2011 TED Talk on creativity, Waititi describes his odd subject matter, from swastikas and fawns to a picture of an old lady going for a walk … upon a sword … with Robocop. “My father was an outsider artist, even though he wouldn’t know what that meant,” Waititi told the audience in Doha. “I love the naive. I love people who can see things through an innocent viewpoint. It’s inspiring.”

After winning Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for JoJo Rabbit in 2020. (Getty Images)

It was an interesting time in New Zealand, too – a coming-of-age decade in which the Maori were rediscovering their culture. His area was poor, “but only financially,” he says. “It’s very rich in terms of the people and the culture.” He learned kapa haka – the songs, dances and chants performed by competing tribes at cultural events, or to honour people at funerals and graduations – weddings, parties, anything. “Man, any excuse,” he explains. “A big part of doing them is to uplift your spirits.”

Photography was a passion, so I ask what he shot. “Just my penis. I sent them to people, but we didn’t have phones, so I would print them out, post them. One of the first dick pics,” he says. Actually, his lens was trained on regular people. He watches us still – in airports, restaurants. “Other times late at night, from a tree. Whatever it takes to get the story. You know that.”

He went to the Wellington state school Onslow College and did plays like Androcles and the Lion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Crucible. His crew of arty students eventually ended up on stage at Bats Theatre in the city, where they would perform haphazard comedy shows for years.

“Taika was always rebellious and wild in his comedy, which I loved,” says his high school mate Jackie van Beek, who became a longtime collaborator, including working with Waititi on a Tourism New Zealand campaign this year. “I remember he went through a phase of turning up in bars around town wearing wigs, and you’d try and sit down and have a drink with him but he’d be doing some weird character that would invariably turn up in some show down the track.”

He met more like-minded peers at Victoria University, including Jemaine Clement (who’d later become co-creator of Flight of the Conchords). During a 2019 chat with actor Elijah Wood, Waititi describes he and Clement clocking one another from opposite sides of the library one day: a pair of Maoris experiencing hate at first sight, based on a mutual suspicion of cultural appropriation. (Clement was wearing a traditional tapa cloth Samoan shirt, and Waititi was like: “This motherf---er’s not Samoan.” Meanwhile, Waititi was wearing a Rastafarian beanie, and Clement was like, “This motherf---er’s not Jamaican.”)

With Jemaine Clement in 2014. (Getty Images)

But they eventually bonded over Blackadder and Fawlty Towers, and especially Kenny Everett, and did comedy shows together everywhere from Edinburgh to Melbourne. Waititi was almost itinerant, spending months at a time busking, or living in a commune in Berlin. He acted in a few small films, and then – while playing a stripper on a bad TV show – realised he wanted to try life behind the camera. “I became tired of being told what to do and ordered around,” he told Wellington’s Dominion Post in 2004. “I remember sitting around in the green room in my G-string thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? Just helping someone else to realise their dream.’ ”

He did two strong short films, then directed his first feature – Eagle vs Shark (2007) – when he was 32. He brought his mates along (Clement, starring with Waititi’s then-girlfriend Loren Horsley), setting something of a pattern in his career: hiring friends instead of constantly navigating new working relationships. “If you look at things I’m doing,” he tells me, “there’s always a few common denominators.”

Sam Neill says Waititi is the exemplar of a new New Zealand humour. “The basis of it is this: we’re just a little bit crap at things.”

This gang of collaborators shares a common Kiwi vibe, too, which his longtime friend, actor Rhys Darby, once coined “the comedy of the mundane”. Their new TV show, Our Flag Means Death, for example, leans heavily into the mundanity of pirate life – what happens on those long days at sea when the crew aren’t unsheathing swords from scabbards or burying treasure.

Waititi plays pirate captain Blackbeard, centre, in Our Flag Means Death, with Rhys Darby, left, and Rory Kinnear. (Google Images)

Sam Neill, who first met Waititi when starring in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, says Waititi is the exemplar of a new New Zealand humour. “And I think the basis of it is this,” says Neill. “We’re just a little bit crap at things, and that in itself is funny.” After all, Neill asks, what is What We Do in The Shadows (2014) if not a film (then later a TV show) about a bunch of vampires who are pretty crap at being vampires, living in a pretty crappy house, not quite getting busted by crappy local cops? “New Zealand often gets named as the least corrupt country in the world, and I think it’s just that we would be pretty crap at being corrupt,” Neill says. “We don’t have the capacity for it.”

Waititi’s whimsy also spurns the dominant on-screen oeuvre of his homeland – the so-called “cinema of unease” exemplified by the brutality of Once Were Warriors (1994) and the emotional peril of The Piano (1993). Waititi still explores pathos and pain, but through laughter and weirdness. “Taika feels to me like an antidote to that dark aspect, and a gift somehow,” Neill says. “And I’m grateful for that.”

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Something happened to Taika Waititi when he was about 11 – something he doesn’t go into with Good Weekend, but which he considered a betrayal by the adults in his life. He mentioned it only recently – not the moment itself, but the lesson he learnt: “That you cannot and must not rely on grown-ups to help you – you’re basically in the world alone, and you’re gonna die alone, and you’ve just gotta make it all for yourself,” he told Irish podcast host James Brown. “I basically never forgave people in positions of responsibility.”

What does that mean in his work? First, his finest films tend to reflect the clarity of mind possessed by children, and the unseen worlds they create – fantasies conjured up as a way to understand or overcome. (His mum once summed up the main message of Boy: “The unconditional love you get from your children, and how many of us waste that, and don’t know what we’ve got.”)

Second, he’s suited to movie-making – “Russian roulette with art” – because he’s drawn to disruptive force and chaos. And that in turn produces creative defiance: allowing him to reinvigorate the Marvel Universe by making superheroes fallible, or tell a Holocaust story by making fun of Hitler. “Whenever I have to deal with someone who’s a boss, or in charge, I challenge them,” he told Brown, “and I really do take whatever they say with a pinch of salt.”

It’s no surprise then that Waititi was comfortable leaping from independent films to the vast complexity of Hollywood blockbusters. He loves the challenge of coordinating a thousand interlocking parts, requiring an army of experts in vocations as diverse as construction, sound, art, performance and logistics. “I delegate a lot,” he says, “and share the load with a lot of people.”

“This is a cool concept, being able to afford whatever I want, as opposed to sleeping on couches until I was 35.” - Taika Waititi

But the buck stops with him. Time magazine named Waititi one of its Most Influential 100 People of 2022. “You can tell that a film was made by Taika Waititi the same way you can tell a piece was painted by Picasso,” wrote Sacha Baron Cohen. Compassionate but comic. Satirical but watchable. Rockstar but auteur. “Actually, sorry, but this guy’s really starting to piss me off,” Cohen concluded. “Can someone else write this piece?”

Directing Chris Hemsworth in 2017 in Thor: Ragnarok, which grossed more than $1.3 billion at the box office. (Alamy)

I’m curious to know how he stays grounded amid such adulation. Coming into the game late, he says, helped immensely. After all, Waititi was 40 by the time he left New Zealand to do Thor: Ragnarok. “If you let things go to your head, then it means you’ve struggled to find out who you are,” he says. “But I’ve always felt very comfortable with who I am.” Hollywood access and acclaim – and the pay cheques – don’t erase memories of poverty, either. “It’s more like, ‘Oh, this is a cool concept, being able to afford whatever I want, as opposed to sleeping on couches until I was 35.’ ” Small towns and strong tribes keep him in check, too. “You know you can’t piss around and be a fool, because you’re going to embarrass your family,” he says. “Hasn’t stopped me, though.”

Sam Neill says there was never any doubt Waititi would be able to steer a major movie with energy and imagination. “It’s no accident that the whole world wants Taika,” he says. “But his seductiveness comes with its own dangers. You can spread yourself a bit thin. The temptation will be to do more, more, more. That’ll be interesting to watch.”

Indeed, I find myself vicariously stressed out over the list of potential projects in Waititi’s future. A Roald Dahl animated series for Netflix. An Apple TV show based on the 1981 film Time Bandits. A sequel to What We Do In The Shadows. A reboot of Flash Gordon. A gonzo horror comedy, The Auteur, starring Jude Law. Adapting a cult graphic novel, The Incal, as a feature. A streaming series based on the novel Interior Chinatown. A film based on a Kazuo Ishiguro bestseller. Plus bringing to life the wildly popular Akira comic books. Oh, and for good measure, a new instalment of Star Wars, which he’s already warned the world will be … different.

“It’s going to change things,” he told Good Morning America. “It’s going to change what you guys know and expect.”

Did I say I was stressed for Waititi? I meant physically sick.

“Well…” he qualifies, “some of those things I’m just producing, so I come up with an idea or someone comes to me with an idea, and I shape how ‘it’s this kind of show’ and ‘here’s how we can get it made.’ It’s easier for me to have a part in those things and feel like I’ve had a meaningful role in the creative process, but also not having to do what I’ve always done, which is trying to control everything.”

In the 2014 mockumentary horror film What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-directed with Jemaine Clement. (Alamy)

What about moving away from the niche New Zealand settings he represented so well in his early work? How does he stay connected to his roots? “I think you just need to know where you’re from,” he says, “and just don’t forget that.”

They certainly haven’t forgotten him.

Jasmin McSweeney sits in her office at the New Zealand Film Commission in Wellington, surrounded by promotional posters Waititi signed for her two decades ago, when she was tasked with promoting his nascent talent. Now the organisation’s marketing chief, she talks to me after visiting the heart of thriving “Wellywood”, overseeing the traditional karakia prayer on the set of a new movie starring Geoffrey Rush.

Waititi isn’t the first great Kiwi filmmaker – dual Oscar-winner Jane Campion and blockbuster king Peter Jackson come to mind – yet his particular ascendance, she says, has spurred unparalleled enthusiasm. “Taika gave everyone here confidence. He always says, ‘Don’t sit around waiting for people to say, you can do this.’ Just do it, because he just did it. That’s the Taika effect.”

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Taika David Waititi is known for wearing everything from technicolour dreamcoats to pineapple print rompers, and today he’s wearing a roomy teal and white Isabel Marant jumper. The mohair garment has the same wispy frizz as his hair, which curls like a wave of grey steel wool, and connects with a shorn salty beard.

A stylish silver fox, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he suddenly announced he was launching a fashion label. He’s definitely a commercial animal, to the point of directing television commercials for Coke and Amazon, along with a fabulous 2023 spot for Belvedere vodka starring Daniel Craig. He also joined forces with a beverage company in Finland (where “taika” means “magic”) to release his coffee drinks. Announcing the partnership on social media, he flagged that he would be doing more of this kind of stuff, too (“Soz not soz”).

Waititi has long been sick of reverent portrayals of Indigenous people talking to spirits.

There’s substance behind the swank. Fashion is a creative outlet but he’s also bought sewing machines in the past with the intention of designing and making clothes, and comes from a family of tailors. “I learnt how to sew a button on when I was very young,” he says. “I learnt how to fix holes or patches in your clothes, and darn things.”

And while he gallivants around the globe watching Wimbledon or modelling for Hermès at New York Fashion Week, all that glamour belies a depth of purpose, particularly when it comes to Indigenous representation.

There’s a moment in his new movie where a Samoan player realises that their Dutch coach, played by Michael Fassbender, is emotionally struggling, and he offers a lament for white people: “They need us.” I can’t help but think Waititi meant something more by that line – maybe that First Nations people have wisdom to offer if others will just listen?

“Weeelllll, a little bit …” he says – but from his intonation, and what he says next, I’m dead wrong. Waititi has long been sick of reverent portrayals of Indigenous people talking to kehua (spirits), or riding a ghost waka (phantom canoe), or playing a flute on a mountain. “Always the boring characters,” he says. “They’ve got no real contemporary relationship with the world, because they’re always living in the past in their spiritual ways.”

A scene from Next Goal Wins, filmed earlier this year. (Alamy)

He’s part of a vanguard consciously poking fun at those stereotypes. Another is the Navajo writer and director Billy Luther, who met Waititi at Sundance Film Festival back in 2003, along with Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo. “We were this group of outsiders trying to make films, when nobody was really biting,” says Luther. “It was a different time. The really cool thing about it now is we’re all working. We persevered. We didn’t give up. We slept on each other’s couches and hung out. It’s like family.”

Waititi has power now, and is known for using Indigenous interns wherever possible (“because there weren’t those opportunities when I was growing up”), making important introductions, offering feedback on scripts, and lending his name to projects through executive producer credits, too, which he did for Luther’s new feature film, Frybread Face and Me (2023).

He called Luther back from the set of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) to offer advice on working with child actors – “Don’t box them into the characters you’ve created,” he said, “let them naturally figure it out on their own” – but it’s definitely harder to get Waititi on the phone these days. “He’s a little bitch,” Luther says, laughing. “Nah, there’s nothing like him. He’s a genius. You just knew he was going to be something. I just knew it. He’s my brother.“

I’ve been asked to explicitly avoid political questions in this interview, probably because Waititi tends to back so many causes, from child poverty and teenage suicide to a campaign protesting offshore gas and oil exploration near his tribal lands. But it’s hard to ignore his recent Instagram post, sharing a viral video about the Voice to Parliament referendum starring Indigenous Aussie rapper Adam Briggs. After all, we speak only two days after the proposal is defeated. “Yeah, sad to say but, Australia, you really shat the bed on that one,” Waititi says, pausing. “But go see my movie!”

About that movie – the early reviews aren’t great. IndieWire called it a misfire, too wrapped in its quirks to develop its arcs, with Waititi’s directorial voice drowning out his characters, while The Guardian called it “a shoddily made and strikingly unfunny attempt to tell an interesting story in an uninteresting way”. I want to know how he moves past that kind of criticism. “For a start, I never read reviews,” he says, concerned only with the opinion of people who paid for admission, never professional appraisals. “It’s not important to me. I know I’m good at what I do.”

Criticism that Indigenous concepts weren’t sufficiently explained in Next Goal Wins gets his back up a little, though. The film’s protagonist, Jaiyah Saelua, the first transgender football player in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, is fa’afafine – an American Samoan identifier for someone with fluid genders – but there wasn’t much exposition of this concept in the film. “That’s not my job,” Waititi says. “It’s not a movie where I have to explain every facet of Samoan culture to an audience. Our job is to retain our culture, and present a story that’s inherently Polynesian, and if you don’t like it, you can go and watch any number of those other movies out there, 99 per cent of which are terrible.”

*notes: (there is video clip in the article)

Waititi sounds momentarily cranky, but he’s mostly unflappable and hilarious. He’s the kind of guy who prefers “Correctumundo bro!” to “Yes”. When our video connection is too laggy, he plays up to it by periodically pretending to be frozen, sitting perfectly still, mouth open, his big shifting eyeballs the only giveaway.

He’s at his best on set. Saelua sat next to him in Honolulu while filming the joyous soccer sequences. “He’s so chill. He just let the actors do their thing, giving them creative freedom, barely interjecting unless it was something important. His style matches the vibe of the Pacific people. We’re a very funny people. We like to laugh. He just fit perfectly.”

People do seem to love working alongside him, citing his ability to make productions fresh and unpredictable and funny. Chris Hemsworth once said that Waititi’s favourite gag is to “forget” that his microphone is switched on, so he can go on a pantomime rant for all to hear – usually about his disastrous Australian lead actor – only to “remember” that he’s wired and the whole crew is listening.

“I wouldn’t know about that, because I don’t listen to what other people say about anything – I’ve told you this,” Waititi says. “I just try to have fun when there’s time to have fun. And when you do that, and you bring people together, they’re more willing to go the extra mile for you, and they’re more willing to believe in the thing that you’re trying to do.”

Yes, he plays music between takes, and dances out of his director’s chair, but it’s really all about relaxing amid the immense pressure and intense privilege of making movies. “Do you know how hard it is just to get anything financed or green-lit, then getting a crew, getting producers to put all the pieces together, and then making it to set?” Waititi asks. “It’s a real gift, even to be working, and I feel like I have to remind people of that: enjoy this moment.”

Source: The Age

By: Konrad Marshall (December 1, 2023)

#rhys darby #taika waititi #next goal wins #our flag means death #hunt for the wilderpeople #interview

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takaraphoenix · 3 months ago

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Today I learned that AO3 stats actually show you your word count per year. I did not know that. Whenever I wanted to figure that out, I did the damn math by hand.

So I got curious.

And it's actually interesting. To me, anyway.

The earliest stat that makes sense to check is 2015, since in 2014 I transferred four years worth of fics onto the account as I started it.

And the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were all rather similar at around a million words per year, give or take 100k (but in a manner that does even out to a million on average again).

2019 saw a dip into 775k, which surprises me because I genuinely don't remember anything significant happening that year to justify the drop.

The years 2020, 2021 and 2022 all clog in at around 660k each, give or take 10k, much lower but also steady. And this does make more sense, between the pandemic, me finishing my Bachelor and then being on the job hunt, I had regular time to write, but less.

And though I'd known that 2023 was my worst writer's block in over 15 years, seeing it proven in numbers was really startling.

245k. That's less than half of what I wrote on average for the prior three years, a third of the year before that, a fourth of the years before that. I had months where I didn't write a single word and it really reflects in the final word count.

Now comes the delightful part though! We are only in August of this year and I am already at 430k. I'm already close to having written twice as much as I did last year in total, and the year is only two-thirds over.

This really makes me happy. I know I got my grove back, I mean damn I wrote a 14k fic yesterday, start to finish, and my Writer's Month clocks in at 58k on day 12 out of 31, so yeah I know I'm writing like I'm running out of time, but seeing just how significant the improvement is to last year makes me incredibly, incredibly happy.

(I am right now at a total word count of 9.5 million. Which doesn't look like a real number tbh. A whole lot of fics got written in the past 14 years.)

#About Me #Fanfiction #My Fics #Stats #AO3 Stats #Word Counts

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ask-serendipity-sky · 1 year ago

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1108: Facts and observations

•Day 0

1108 started on the 8th of November of 2015.

Jimin uploaded a video of him and Jungkook to twitter:

On the 26th of January 2016, Jk uploaded a small snippet of a song he was covering.

•Day 100

And on the 15th of February of 2016, Jk uploaded the entire song Nothing Like Us and noted to listen to the lyrics as they were expressing what he wanted to say:

In Korean culture, parents celebrate 100 days after a child is born. This is to indicate that the child made it through the first vulnerable phase in their life. In the same manner, the 100 days are celebrated by Korean couples.

And this is what Jk had to say 100 days after the 8th of November of 2015:

There's nothing like us There's nothing like you and me Together through the storm There's nothing like us There's nothing like you and me together, oh

•Day 366 (1 year)

On 08/11/2016, a year later, Jimin posted another video of them:

•Day 732 (2 years)

On Oct. 28, 2017, Jungkook treated Jimin to a trip to Tokyo. It was because of this trip, that Jungkook released gcfTokyo on Nov. 08, 2017.

youtube

A fan used the images in the video and was able to determine the hotel and room jikook stayed at. It was room number 1108.

The video also used the song There For You by Troye Sivan:

Boy, I'm holdin' onto something Won't let go of you for nothing I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you There was a time that I was so blue What I got to do to show you? I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Day 811

On the 26th of January 2018, in a Japanese fancafe, Jimin gifted Jungkook a drawing of a set of champagne glasses and a bottle. Note the details of the glasses.

•Day 900

On the 25th of April 2018, a day before the 900 day milestone, Jimin had a vlive where it was obvious he wasn't alone in the room. He kept looking to the side, laughing shyly and explained:

After he said this, you can hear someone whisper, "Jimin."

Day 1000

On August 3rd 2018, Jk posted a selfie while they were all filming BV3:

During BV3, jikook were able to look around the city alone, and have a boat date under the moonlight.

Day 1013

As you all may know 10:13 is also known as Jimin ssi, or Jimin time. It only makes sense that this day would be special to jikook too.

On the 16th of August 2018, Jimin tweeted a series of 3 tweets:

Jungkook was the only member that appeared in the photos with Jimin. It is also interesting to note the 2 butterfly temporary tattoos he had on his hand.

This is the same time when they had the photoshoot with the inflatable unicorn:

The next day, Jimin uploaded a tweet with the caption "Love Ya", and one of the photos was him and Jk.

•Day 1141

On the 22nd of December 2018, when fans uploaded their selfies on fancafe, the fans let Jk know that Jimin had uploaded his own:

This prompted Jk to type "JIMINNNN" and he signed off. He later uploaded a song that he stopped at 1:18:

You take my mind away When you touch me that way This place, your face It gets hard to breathe I know you're feeling me now You're all I see Almost like we're dreaming

•Day 1394

On the 1st of September 2019, Jk made 2 tweets. One in which uploaded a snippet of Decalcamonia, which he also ended on 1:18:

•Day 1500

On the 16th of Dec 2019, Jimin posted a good night tweet:

The time he uploaded this was at 1:50.

•Day 2300

On Feb 22, 2022, Jk uploaded a story on insta where he is in a car, listening to So Good by Joan. The story was labeled 23:08 even though he uploaded it at 1:24 am.

You and me Got a lotta tension, not even to mention Ooh, that night, just two weeks ago It was half past ten Thinking about living, suddenly when you walked it You took my breath away

•Day 2315

On March 10, 2022, during the Permission to Dance Concert, Jimin used the 2315 numbers and stated the following:

2315 days had passed since November 8, 2015.

•Day 2545

On the 26th of October 2022, Jk uploaded a photo of himself while he was in Qatar. He uploaded the photo at 11:08 Korea time and, 5:08 Qatar time.

•Day 2643

On the 2nd of February 2023, Jimin answered a question on weverse at exactly 23:08. The question is now deleted.

•Day 2684

During Jungkook hosted a series of lives on White Day, 14th of March 2022. His first live was started at 8:11 pm:

During these lives, Jk changed to various outfits and had an extensive playlist. One of the songs that was included was There For You.

•Day 2855

On the 1st of September 2023, Jk hosted a short live to thank the fans for being present with him during so many birthdays. He ended his live quickly and it lasted 8:56 minutes:

My impressions

Based on Korean customs, celebrating different day milestones is typical in a Korean couple.

While some may think that jikook started dating on the 8th of November 2015, I think that's when they decided to be intimate with each other.

I feel like a jikook kiss had already happened since the last time Jimin asked Jk for a kiss publicly was in September 2015 for Jk's birthday. From there, one can only think that things proceeded quite quickly.

I think that in recent years, we have observed less mentions of 1108 because of BTS' popularity and so many fans expecting something from jikook.

It's possible that jikook has decided to not make these milestones known like they did before, but every now and then, they still reference that number. Who knows when they will do it again.

But who is counting, right?

#jikook #jimin #jungkook #1108 #Spotify

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eerna · 2 months ago

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Not to like compare who's better among all the Orpheuses, but who do you like best and in ascending/descending order (not to say that the lowest is the worse) among the Orpheuses?

I've only listened to Reeve and Damon btw hehe

Huehuehue ofc!! I have heard audio boots from quite a few, watched a couple on video boots. I only saw Donal Finn live.

8.) Reeve Carney (2020-2024). I know you said that lowest doesn't mean the worse, but for me... I can't stand this performance. You'll see my ranking of pre-2020 Reeve super high up, so I have 0 idea why this happened. He became breathy, shrill, started speaking every other line (for a role THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE MEMORABLE FOR HIS SINGING) and his acting turned wooden. His arms do the Bill Cipher thing and I feel 0 chemistry between him and Eurydice. It is painful to watch bootlegs from this period, which sucks because MOST of his bootlegs are from this period. I can't tell if this happened right after the opening night in 2019, but he wasn't like this in the previews, and idk why the change happened.

7.) Jordan Fisher. Idk if this is controversial, but I think he doesn't get the role at all. His voice is good, but I feel no humility or honesty in his emotions, he performs it as he would any other role he is cast in. He plays himself playing Orpheus, if it makes any sense.

6.) Damon Daunno. I like him, but the NYTW Orpheus just doesn't mesh well with me.

5.) Reeve Carney (2017-2018). Similar to Damon, Edmonton/London Orpheus is just not my thing. Ranked higher than Damon because I think he's vocally better.

4.) Nicholas Barasch, J. Antonio Rodriguez. I like them! But it's a little like they are playing Reeve Carney playing Orpheus.

3.) Reeve Carney (2019-2020). The Orpheus who made me fall in love with this show. The bootleg from the previews was my optimal Hadestown experience before I saw it live for the first time. This is where Orpheus as a character became who he is, gentle and romantic, and the way he looks at Eva Noblezada in that bootleg specifically makes me feel faint. My fav version of the couple.

2.) Chibueze Ihuoma. Good lord. He is number 2 by a hair, he could easily share the no 1 spot. The fact that he was never the principal Orpheus even after 5 years of understudying boggles my mind. He is the one who does the "poor naiive little romantic boy" take on the role the best. I believe every expression, every gesture, every line. He is just a confused artistic dreamer who loved this world so much and tragically lost his optimism!!! And his vocals? He glides across that falsetto like an ice skater and makes it seem effortless. His voice feels like an extension of him instead of something he puts on for a show, which is to me one of the best ways to sing in a production - I don't want to be reminded the person onstage is a singer who has done this 1000 times before in different roles. He entirely embodies the clear, perfect voice of Orpheus - truly, "he sang just like a bird up on the line". I feel like he is to Orpheus what Eva Noblezada is to Eurydice, hearing them together would probably forever change my world.

1.) Donal Finn. Completely different take on the character from Broadway, he is halfway between NYTW's charming confident musician and Broadway's gentle romantic dreamer, and somehow this is the perfect combination that makes me personally fall in love with Orpheus. I can't describe how it felt to walk into that theater so sure I know the production inside and out and that nothing could surprise me, and then seeing this performance. He has something that I haven't seen in any other version: he is utterly broken and entirely rageful. If It's True begins with him pressing his face to the floor, heartbroken, and ends with him angrily screaming out rallying calls, and Donal manages the transition PERFECTLY. There's something about seeing Orpheus not only gradually lose his optimism, but also gentleness, while remaining so vulnerable and tragic. His voice is so melodic and beautiful and he can really nail the balance between singing and speaking in ways Reeve never succeeded. Even when he "ugly sings" it is still on point. Like Chibueze, his voice is an extension of him instead of a karaoke-like performance, and his accent is so damn endearing idk how I will ever NOT hear Orpheus as Irish. Also he couldn't stop sobbing during his final curtain call and I've never seen that before which makes him all the more endearing. I hope he will play Orpheus on the West End recording!

#eernask #eernanon #eernask talk hadestown #the fact that my top 2 orpheuses left the production on the SAME DAY with an ocean between them. august 25th tragedy day on eerna dot tumbl #listening to reeve's final wait for me... oh i don't think he was ever better??? excuse me??????????#maybe i need to find a super recent bootleg #maybe he switched styles again and i'm dragging him unjustly

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cultofcreatures · 10 months ago

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My Top 15 Vaporwave Horror Movies

I thought I would put together a list of vaporwave/dreamcore/liminal aesthetic horror movies that I find to feel outside of time and space. That's sort of my vibe here on tumblr, and I also like the mantra of "if there's something you want to see that no one has made yet, make it yourself." These are films that I personally love, and the list not meant to be definitive. Remember also that art is subjective. I hope someone out there finds at least one film they want to add to their watchlist! It's been a minute since I've seen some of them, so let me know if I need to correct something.

15. Mandy (2018)

I wish I could add pictures for all of these entries, but I can still only add 10 pictures to a post blah. It's such a shame because I wanted to show off that gorgeous aesthetics of all these films. Oh well. This is a revenge flick about a cult kidnapping Nick Cage's girlfriend and him losing his marbles about it. Definitely recommend if you're the mood for vibes and/or Nick Cage NickCageing.

TW: violence, blood, fire

14. Come True (2020)

This is a haunting, fantastic vibes movie. It feels so otherworldly. It's about a homeless young person participating in a sleep study to be able to safely get some sleep. It would be an almost perfect film if it weren't for the just garbage ending. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, just skip the last 5 minutes, and take it for what the rest of the film is: beautiful.

13. Braid (2018)

This film follows a couple of young drug dealers on the run from their supplier crashing at a mentally unwell friend's house. The catch is they have to play along with their host's unhinged "game" while they hide out. Not gonna lie, this film is trippy af and definitely not for everyone. I can guarantee that no matter what, it is a ride.

TW: heavy drug use, blood

12. Perfect Blue (1997)

A pop star retires to become a full-time actor, which angers some of her fans. Her sense of reality becomes warped when one obsessive fan begins to stalk her. I don't love some of the turns this movie takes when it comes to mental health, but it's hard to deny this film is classic that has stunning animation.

TW: negative depictions of mental disorders, violence, blood

11. Skinamarink (2022)

This controversial found footage movie is sort of hard to describe because it's so otherworldly. Basically, two kids wake up one night to find their dad and all of their doors and windows are missing. Everything about this nostalgic yet terrifying film is vibes and aesthetic: liminal, vaporwave, voidcore, dreamcore, you name it. It feels like a fever dream, and it's a nightmarish journey you won't soon forget, for better or worse.

10. Vivarium (2019)

A couple are looking for a home to share. They follow a strange realtor to an even stranger labyrinthine neighborhood that seems to have no escape. If you're into liminal spaces, this film will definitely scratch that itch for you.

9. Revenge (2017)

This is a r*pe revenge tale that has absolutely beautiful scenery and cinematography. I love the sweeping liminal landscapes and vibrant vaporwave colors. It's a standard plot as far as the genre goes, but it's directed by a woman, so it has a different angle that I find to be superior to most films of the genre.

TW: violence, gore, SA, blood

8. Don't Worry Darling (2022)

A 1950s housewife begins to suspect that something about her utopian community is not what it seems. This film seems to be a bit controversial, too, for some reason. Whatever the case may be, I adore the liminality and dreamy feel of this film. You really get a sense that this world is outside of time and space.

7. It Follows (2014)

This film is straight up about a sexually transmitted curse. Jay sleeps with her boyfriend for the first time, and then finds out she must outpace this demon that can take the shape of anyone forever lest it kill her, or she must pass the curse on to someone else. The shots in this film are to die for. Especially for connoisseurs of the liminal, vaporwave, and dreamcore. Highly recommend for the visuals and music alone.

TW: gore, blood

6. House (1977)

Gorgeous decides to stay with her aunt to hopefully get closer with a group of six of her friends. The girls come to find her aunt's house is more than meets the eye. The visuals and absurdity are what make this movie. It's a classic for a reason.

TW: cartoon gore

5. Akira (1988)

Tetsuo gains psychic abilities via a secret military project and becomes mad with power. It's up to his friends and a small group of psychics to stop him. This is another classic anime. Its 1980s futuristic mentality really lends itself to the vaporwave atmosphere of the cityscape. I highly recommend this classic if you haven't seen it.

TW: violence, body horror

4. Censor (2021)

Enid is a serious film censor with a shrouded past that includes her long-missing sister. She watches a film that bears eerie resemblance to her vague childhood memories that begin to take hold of her as tries to piece them together. I don't think I'm totally clear on when this film takes place, which is what I love about it. It has a spooky surreal quality that will both draw you in and unsettle you.

TW: violence, blood

3. She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

Amy is convinced she is going to die tomorrow. Her friend Jane comes by to comfort her, and then becomes consumed by the thought she will die tomorrow as well. This film is as strange as it is beautiful. It will either leave you in tears or confused af or both.

TW: blood

2. The Neon Demon (2016)

Jesse is a very young, gifted model who is new in town (probably LA). She quickly signs with an agent and begins getting gigs, breeding the contempt of the established models around her. This is probably one of the most visually appealing films I've ever seen. The music is on point. The low key acting is a vibe. I just adore this film. 10/10, highly recommend.

TW: gore, blood

1. The Platform (2019)

A man wakes up in a prison that is an indescribable liminal pit where there are a seemingly never-ending number of levels. A platform full of food is lowered through each level once a day, and everyone on the lower levels must fight to survive. This film is just so utterly anticapitalist and gorgeous that I can't help but sing its praises. I think everyone should watch this movie at least once. It is horrifying yet eye-opening. Certainly one of my favorite films of all time.

TW: gore, violence, blood

Thank you for reading my list! Like I said, I wanted to make a list like this because I couldn't find one when I went looking. I hope you found something to add to your watchlist! I tried to include some of the big TWs for these movies, but they're far from complete lists. So please check websites like doesthedogdie.com for more complete TW lists if you have any concerns. Make decisions that are right for you. Thanks again, and have a happy and safe new year! xx

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taylortruther · 8 months ago

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Did it feel like her songs about Joe were starting to get redundant? By the time Midnights came out I was surprised we were hearing another two songs about the breakup/make up period in the beginning, another song about the beginning when they were falling in love, another three songs about how the relationship is great if the world stays out of it, another song about the Afterglow I-thought-he-cheated moment, and another song about how it wasn't supposed to work but it did. It really struck me that the Joe parts of Midnights were dedicated to not giving us any kind of update or really new information. It was all either about their beginnings again or 'everything's perfect except for the media nothing to see here.' She found a couple new angles on it, like Mastermind, but she was mining the same ground she'd been sifting through for four albums already. At the time it struck me as odd that she was deliberately avoiding any real update, but I thought she was just committed to privacy and refused to go into any other part of their relationship that wasn't already known (which is entirely her right). But obviously it turned out to be much more complicated than that and the mysterious gap makes perfect sense now.

i noticed the beginning was really fertile ground for her, but it didn't really strike me as unusual or concerning. the 2016-2019 period of her life was HARD. it was obvious, to me, she was probably processing that stuff all the time because for her, it never went away.

additionally, folkmore's fictional narratives and midnights' reflections on the past still reflect her mental landscape at the time of writing (tolerate it, coney island, bejeweled, champagne problems, hoax say hello.) so i'd argue she was treading new ground and writing about some of their issues even if it wasn't strictly autobiographical.

plus, as super fans, i think we get caught in the minutiae and don't see the big picture. let's pull back and look at the story her albums told about their relationship, in stages:

2016: joe and taylor meet and fall in love 2017: reputation is released and, among other things, it's about joe being sexy and wonderful and not caring that she was "crazy" or cancelled 2019: masters situation happens also 2019: lover is released and it's about taylor recovering from the cancellation, fighting her demons, admitting she self-sabotages, but we also get songs implying they want to get married! makes sense, it's 2-3 years of dating now. we also, notably, get a song about her wanting to step back out into the world! 2020: pandemic! sorry, daylight! also 2020: folklore and evermore are released and are about, among other things!, how she fears her life is too big for joe to handle but she is still planning a future with him (peace, the lakes, which both feel more present to me.) makes sense, they have obviously talked marriage and KIDS, things are getting very real. but, to your point, evermore in particular reasserts that they were lucky to find each other in the beginning (clm, lss, evermore.) 2021: renegade discusses joe's shit - we now understand that he has his own struggles and clearly describes a very recent/present conflict ("timing") 2022: in midnights, we get songs about the early honeymoon phase (lavender haze), and about how he is still a respite from it all (sweet nothing, mentions a recent trip to wicklow.) 2023: ylm drops (written in dec 2021), we also get the alcott - both implying conflict and a couple trying or failing to reconnect. makes sense, it's been like 6-7 years! couples go through shit!

...no, this isn't the WHOLE story. but it feels like a satisfying one, and not one where she was simply recycling topics. to me anyway.

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dearweirdme · 3 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/757802362042761216/httpswwwtumblrcomdearweirdme7577272183235706

Hey, I’m the one who sent you the ask the other day about taekook’s dynamic evolving. I did read your response aswell as some of the other anon asks responding to my ask and just wanted to say everything I said was from my point of view and not influenced by any other person’s thoughts. I was aware that my opinions were not going to be met with approvals because i know that tkkrs see things very differently but I just thought i’d share.

I decided to use my own life experiences because before I kinda got distant with my bestfriend, I also highly doubted the ITS talk because I couldn’t understand how they could claim taekook grew a little distant in such a short amount of time and the way we all still saw them physically affectionate and close to each other just didn’t make sense to me then but I understood how things like that could happen after what happened with my bestfriend. I am aware that sometimes too we project without realizing it but the difference between me now and the me I was before the whole thing with my bestfriend is that now, I understand that sometimes, you don’t have to have an argument or fight or issue with someone you are really close to for distance to creep in. Sometimes the distance creeps in because of circumstances not necessarily in our control like life events, physical distance from each other and stuff like that. People sometimes very naturally grow apart without having any issues with each other and that is what I meant. My bestfriend and I are nothing like we used to be before but we still love and care about each other so much and will be there for each other if needed. Sometimes it is impossible to understand certain things unless we personally experience them. I could be wrong but I just see now how things like that are possible and this is something I couldn’t see or understand before because I had never experienced it or knew anyone who had.

About Jk and Jimin’s living situations that I mentioned earlier, these are some pictures I found.

https://x.com/koongelic/status/1497134143192600577?s=46

https://x.com/koongelic/status/1496106980360208385?s=46

https://x.com/jjksonyeondan/status/1477296197178114049?s=46

Some of these pictures are taken in Nine one. You can compare to Namjoon and Jimin’s apartments. When you add these to the timeline of Jikook sharing a car right until mid 2021 when Jimin bought the apartment, plus Jimin mentioning that he was with Jk at 4am on his birthday back in 2020 and jikook arriving late for the radio interview back in 2020 when all the members were out of the dorm already, it makes sense. Namjoon also spoke to Jk about a coffee shop that was infront of “their” house during one of their lives and there is a coffee shop right infront of Nine one which people guessed he was talking about.

I think the members shared rides depend on how close they live to each other, for example, Yoonjin have shared a car for the longest time because they live 5 minutes from each other so I guess it is convinient for one car to pick up members who live close than sending individual cars. Minimoni have been sharing a car since mid 2021, taekook too have shared cars since they don’t live far from each other and back in 2019 when Jk first had his first apartment in Hobi’s apartment complex (which he has now given to his brother) he shared a car with Hobi for sometime too.

I feel like the ITS talk is forever going to be a very confusing topic for so many people and I can honestly see why some people would have doubts about it as I did too until I came to realize that human relationships and dynamics are very complex. Nothing is a one size fits all and as much as many people try to think they know everything, there is always some context or information we are missing which might put things more into perspective. I guess so many think that distance could only come with two people having fights or disagreements and that when this distance comes, there would always be noticeable physical distance as well but this isn’t always the case because sometimes we just outgrow certain people at certain points of our lives or just naturally grow apart from them maybe because we are on different wavelengths or just cannot relate to each other anymore as we used to. My bf and I got distant because we were both on very different wavelengths and in completely different spaces that we couldn’t relate to each other anymore. Does this mean we lost the love we had for each other, no but that emotional bonding which came from being able to completely relate to and understand each other just isn’t there as much. Maybe one day we would get back on the same frequency as I believe Taekook did and only get closer than ever. Same thing happens in romantic relationships too and even marriages when at certain points you just feel yourself getting so distant from your partner that it almost feels like you don’t really know each other anymore.

Anyways, just thought I should mention that I didn’t mean anything bad with my previous ask and just wanted to explain things further but we don’t have to agree on things because as I said, I could be wrong and also sometimes it is impossible for people to understand things if they haven’t personally experienced them. Thanks for being so nice in your response and I appreciate the concern❤️

Hi again!

I think the problem some have with this, is that while you say you are a newer fan, you also make it come across as though your ideas have not been influenced by others. As a newer fan (and I am also relatively new, nothing wrong with that) we do rely on certain influences from others. The points you used before to argue your case, come from a certain side of fandom.. and we can see that, because we've seen it before. Now to you, those might seem neutral takes, but they are not. When you say for instance "I remember..." while talking about something that happened in 2018.. you don't actually remember that time and what the vibe was like.. you remember watching the footage and the vibe you felt during that time. There is a difference there that should be acknowledged. When you talk about all the rides Jkk shared.. you most likely remember people (accounts, blogs) mentioning that, because you cannot have witnessed it yourself. And I don't mean to say that Jkk sharing rides wasn't true.. I mean to point out that you are biased (as am I ofcourse) and that Tkkrs who were around during 2016 have a different recollection of how the vibes were. From what it looks like to us is that you do not weigh Tkkrs opinions and accounts as heavily as you do accounts of other sides of fandom. Having multiple angles is important, but when we show reasons as to why we disagree.. all too often our ideas are just set aside as 'delusional' when the actual footage is literally just there.

I do understand what you mean when you talk about people drifting apart naturally without there having been actual issues. The thing with the ITS talk though, is that it's heavily implied that there was an issue that they had to work through. It's even said that things were almost back to how they used to be. It implies that a certain level of friendship should be met, which is weird. I think the ITS talk was something they used to make sense of why things looked weird before, and why they were about to change.

I think there is a lot that point to Tae and Jk still having been close on many different levels during 2016-2020 and beyond. A lot has to do with the looks of understanding they shared, but things like that are hard to point out with a single picture or vid. A few examples of what I feel speaks to their continuous closeness though:

2016:

youtube

2017:

Not an indication of closeness perse, but certainly one of attraction..

youtube

Borrowing this from Kayla (@taekooktimeline).

Jk rushing past people to walk next to Tae and holding his hand.

youtube

2018:

Yoongi's text to Tae and Jk and the way they all responded to that..

youtube

Tae himself saying that Jk listens to him when he's troubled and gives advice.

youtube

Jk wanting Tae to room with him in Malta and the way they sleep.

youtube

2019:

Besides the obvious closeness in the season greetings footage, this is quite something to say about someone.

youtube

This very confusing live in which it does become clear that at least Tae thought they were sharing a room. And during which it also seems Tae did not actually leave.

youtube

Also... a very strong year for physical closeness and magnetism.

Jk pointing at Tae.

youtube

2020:

As far as bodylanguage goes.. this cannot be more obvious. This is not two people being distant but still feeling close enough to cuddle. This is Jk being protective and comforting to Tae.

youtube

Overall, I think 2020 shows a care and connection between Tae and Jk that is undeniable. Jk's awareness of Tae and the way he was feeling is huge. The whole year leading up to the ITS talk shows moments of connection. Of them clinging to each other. It's absolutely possible that something felt off, because of the way Tae had been feeling... but that had nothing to do with their closeness I believe.

#gosh this got long #taekook #taekook analysis #reasons why they were not distant

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midnight1nk · 2 months ago

Text

WOTFI 2024 PREDICTIONS

Another year, another war.

WOTFI is just around the corner and this means a new arc!

Who will be our opponent this year?

Well, the most likely answer would be Marty, returning from WOTFI 2023. I mean, it was pretty obvious that would be him from the get-go in the episode 'We Must Kill Mario'.

This, personally, was a great episode that had some good foreshadowing and I love the dynamic between Four and Karen — I thought of it as 'SMG4 🤝 Karen ➡️ single parents who are just born to be parents'

...which made me want a dynamic between Three and Karen, single moms who would kill for their kids.

Anyway, back to WOTFI, it makes sense for Marty to be the crew’s opponent timeline-wise. Looking at the calendar, we are expecting a WOTFI roughly sometime in October, based on the dates of previous WOTFI’s:

2011 - October 29

2012 - October 21

2013 - October 13

2014 - October 24

2015 - September 27

2016 - August 15

2017 - October 7

2018 - October 6

2019 - November 2

2020 - August 22

2021 - September 18

2022 - October 15

2023 - October 28

Assuming this arc would be 7 episodes and this being the first one, it lines up with our prediction. (Though, it may be subject to change depending on how many episodes it would actually have.)

What you may not know is this episode not only foreshadowed Marty’s return but the plot for WOTFI as well.

There is much more than meets the eye…

Join me as I go over the episode 'We Must Kill Mario' and discuss my predictions for WOTFI ‘24!

⚠️ But before we dive in though, I do want to put a disclaimer that while this is a theory, I want to be respectful to the crew behind SMG4. ⚠️

I don’t want any of my theories to influence/forcefully change any intended plans for the future so please don’t harass anyone working on the show just because whatever I said wasn’t true. It’s just a reminder to be kind and respectful. If they somehow see my post, uh hi, keep doing what you do and I hope for the best! ❤️

Now with that out of the way, Let’s-a Go!

CHANGE THE CHANNEL

The episode starts off in Karen’s house with her kids flipping through the SMG4 channel while she makes them dinner. In the scene where Zack, Cory, and Katie are fighting over the remote, we get a clip from the episode 'SMG4: You Made Mario Do This' when Marty was preventing the construction of the castle because he felt underappreciated for his hard work.

['SMG4: You Made Mario Do This' // timestamp, 2:15 ]

IT’S TO DIE FOR

In the next scene, Karen poured “Smarty’s Spaghetti Sauce” on the pasta.

…I mean, do I really have to spell it out here? If this cardboard cutout was able to run Casino Paisano before he and Mario went to jail, then it shouldn’t be a surprise. What is curious though is that somehow Marty, while on the run, has his face plastered on a Goober Eats bag in 'SMG4: Super SMG4 Wonder', owns a whole airline named “Marty Airlines” in 'Mario’s Plane Trip', and now has a pasta sauce brand in here. All with no one noticing anything.

['SMG4: Super SMG4 Wonder' // timestamp, 0:57 ] ['Mario’s Plane Trip' // timestamp, 0:13 ]

There is an ‘S’ put in front of his name, but the point still stands. Now, I wouldn’t say that this is “unusual”. It’s the SMG4 universe, after all, you can literally start a business and this is completely normal. Just some food for thought.

TAKING THE JOB

Back to the episode, Karen receives a call from the corporation that offers her a job — and when I mean ‘offers’, I mean ‘convinces her to take the job'. According to her former “boss”, it was a hit request on an international terrorist who has escaped from prison and is currently poisoning innocent people, who we later learn to be Marty. The “boss” also stated that Karen may know him. Karen initially refuses since she has abandoned that line of work for her kids, until her “boss” elaborates that if she doesn’t take the request, more lives could be lost, including children. Like her children. With no choice, she takes it.

But, who is this corporation?

Based on what little we have, I can determine this corporation may be affiliated with the government or something similar in power status.

They can keep tabs on all their agents, even if they quit, just as Karen did.

Apparently, they are able to get word on the people who interacted with them but not enough to know their personal lives (the corporation is seemingly uninformed about her kids.)

They are open to receiving requests from third parties.

They don’t take hits for kill’s sake, they prioritize people’s safety.

However, they don’t want any witnesses when taking the hit so they would kill IF they have to. For Karen, they trust her enough to know it won’t come to that since she is a professional, qualified agent.

Other than that, we don’t exactly know. There is a possibility that WOTFI could reveal who they are. But it also lead to Karen having her secret past revealed as well, potentially losing her job(s).

[side ramble: if that were to happen, it would be great if Three hired Karen to come work at his café. He needs the extra help after all, and Karen would be able to have more appearances in the series. I know it's not going to happen but hey, a guy could dream.]

TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW

Karen catches Four eavesdropping on their conversation and after some convincing, the two decide to work together. They head down to the basement where Karen keeps a stash of her weapons and demands Four to tell her everything he knows about Mario.

Well, first off, I don’t think Mario can be killed except if it was through manipulation of his code due to the cosmology lore. Of course, the real target isn’t Mario but it does bring up the question:

How do you kill Marty?

In the episode 'SMG4: You Made Mario Do This', it has been established that Marty is practically invincible since he was able to stand a nuke for memes’ sake. Water may have slowed him down but it wasn’t enough to outright destroy him. We don't know if he can be destroyed, not even Mario knows — the guy who created him. Likely, for WOTFI, one of the crew’s objectives would be that they have to find Marty’s weakness to defeat him.

['SMG: You Made Mario Do This' ]

Then again, cartoon logic exists.

THE “SPAGHETTI APPRECIATION” CLUB

Karen and Four go out to tail Mario and stumble upon a cult working on the distribution of the sauce. Confused about why Mario would be here, they continued on through the warehouse… Until Four accidentally alerted the cultists of their presence.

[another side ramble: Four, you can’t just say you used to have a deviantART account and not drop the link, dude.]

After an intense between them and the cult, they were able to find Mario and realize that yeah, Mario’s being Mario and had no idea he was even in a cult.

Pure of heart, dumb of ass ❤️

That was when a dying cultist and a jar of “Smarty’s Spaghetti Sauce” revealed that the poison mentioned earlier in the episode was the sauce itself. It also was a horrifying revelation that Karen used the same sauce on the dinner she just left for her kids.

Like I mentioned before, Marty is somehow able to have a pasta sauce business. Not only that but recruit a cult who worship spaghetti to work for him.

The cultists that were in the warehouse are dead but it doesn’t mean it was all of them. Indeed, later on in the episode, more cultists came into Karen's house to fight. For all we know, Marty has multiple distribution plants in the Mushroom Kingdom so perhaps Marty would bring more as part of his army for WOTFI.

AN UNEXPECTED REUNION

Karen, Four, and Mario rush back to her house and were able to stop her kids from eating the spaghetti just in time. However, they’ve faced an unexpected guest: Marty.

Four and Mario immediately recognized him, but Karen was confused as to why a cardboard cutout was with her kids. That was when Four tells her about WOTFI 2023 — which I dubbed ‘The Notebook Arc’ — and how Marty stole Three’s notebook.

[i really have to stop making these side rambles: i absolutely loved it when they referenced WOTFI '23 :) ]

Then, Mario wonders how Marty managed to escape from prison, allowing Karen to piece together that Marty was the real target all along.

Wait a second, wasn’t she there in WOTFI '23? His face was literally all over the casino, how did she not know about Marty?

She was there but it’s likely that she assumed as everyone else did: Marty was just a cardboard cutout. A mascot. How much damage can he really do?

A lot, apparently. He was clever to take advantage of his appearance so that no one would suspect a thing.

Marty greets the familiar faces and reveals his motive behind his poisonous spaghetti sauce: after the events of the Notebook arc, Marty swore revenge on Mario after our local funny man escaped from prison and abandoned him for spaghetti.

“The one person I trusted the most has left me behind for… SPAGHETTI! Now I’ve escaped! …And it's time for… everyone to suffer like I have! At the hands… of the one thing YOU love the MOST.”

This will definitely be his motive for WOTFI 2024, this time going against Mario due to betrayal. Marty said it himself that he would be back, after he escaped with the help of a helicopter from being cornered by Karen.

WELL PLAYED

Even after Marty managed to escape from Karen, she felt relieved that her kids were safe, thanking Four and Mario for doing so.

This leads me to suspect that Karen will have a big role in WOTFI. Thematically, it makes sense since she has yet to carry out the request and would likely give the finishing blow, defeating Marty once and for all. Well, until the crew could find a weakness, of course.

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

And there you have it: my predictions for WOTFI 2024, all based on the episode 'We Must Kill Mario'! As this arc is just starting, it might be likely we will get to see more hints about Marty’s plan for revenge or anything related to the plot of WOTFI.