#i love seeing actual teenagers in those roles too like yeah!!!! thats why all that happened!!! they were just little babies!!!

[anewbrainjughead]

little lesbian tony from the 2024 Jimmy awards with god as my witness I will avenge you!!!!!!!

[themikewheelers]

as much as people love to talk about how much s3 'ruined' dynamics or whatever, i actually feel the opposite. i think it really showed just how much all of these characters really care about each other and what they're willing to do for each other. and since so many of the main characters were dealing with relationship issues -- platonic, romantic, whatever -- i'm feeling pretty confident that they're just going to grow stronger moving forward and they'll really be facing everything together now

this fandoms idea of “ruining” dynamics is showing dynamics as being more versatile than what the fandom acts like. one example ill bring up is mike and will bc thats the main one i see ppl complain about being “ruined” the most often, and its just?? so nonsensical to me?? yes their dynamic was v different than in s2, but thats bc 1) they were in very different situations and 2) they were in different points of growth than they were a year earlier (theyre teenagers, they change over time, in case ppl forget)

like yes in s2 mike was very gentle and all that with will...... bc will was literally in a life or death situation and needed ppl around him to be taking care of him. i think its very naive to act like their relationship on a daily basis is anything like it is in that context.... same as every other relationship on this show. we shouldnt be basing what these characters are like in their every day lives based on how they act in the most intense moments of their lives. so yeah as a result mike and wills dynamic was v different in s3 and i just. dont understand why ppl think it was so awful. i mean first off i rlly loved how they portrayed will individually in s3 bc after two seasons of him always kinda being in the victim role, in s3 we rlly got to see more of his personality when hes not, ya know, about to die. we saw that hes not this perfect soft little baby, hes a realistic flawed 14 year old just like the rest of them. hes not only dealing with a lot of trauma, but hes feeling like his friends are moving on from him and hes dealing with jealousy and insecurities and a lot of other feelings that i think a lot of us can relate to when we were 14, which are then amplified and complicated by his ptsd. and hes a kid and he doesnt know how to handle all those feelings and as a result he says dumb stuff and unintentionally hurts his friends feelings, just like they do too bc theyre also 14 year olds dealing with a lot of complex emotions. and so s3 portrayed them exactly that way, as flawed characters who still care about each other regardless. we see them fight and get on one anothers nerves on occasion, but also see that they love each other regardless and are still there to protect one another and make up after a fight. i mean, theyve been best friends since they were 5, what does anyone rlly expect? do ppl act like they never argue? theyve never gotten on each others nerves before? thats unrealistic as hell and honestly i love when shows portray realistic conflicts between characters as a way to show how strong those bonds ultimately are, and ST does such a good job of that in ALL their relationships. i just dont understand why ppl are so adamant that mike and will’s dynamic was ruined by s3 simply bc it didnt conform to (unrealistic) fandom expectations. it displayed them as exactly how they are-- two imperfect dumb kids, each dealing with their own issues, and each not rlly knowing how to deal with their own issues, and consequently butting heads and hurting each other, but still making up and being there for one another in the end?

honestly at the core of this discourse and so much discourse in this fandom is that ppl simply forget that these characters are 14. when you’re 14 you just.... you don’t know how to be a functional human being. thats smth ive said in the past as a joke but it rlly is true. thats kinda the age where u rlly start to get a grip on who u are and what u believe and big important stuff like that, and consequently u also start dealing with more complicated emotions alongside growing up. but since ur 14 u just dont know how to process all those feelings and ur immature and do a lot of stuff that in hindsight u realize was stupid. thats just what its like being 14. none of the party members are perfect and theyve all got their own unique problems theyre facing and i rlly do think all six of them are some of the most realistically written teenage characters ive ever encountered in television. and so their relationships with one another are absolutely impacted by how each of them grow and those relationships as a result are imperfect, but ultimately all strong and loving regardless

sorry this got long and rambly but whatever! u know me! in general i am a long and rambly person and i havent been on tumblr in a while and now need to get all my rambling tendencies out! 

[dustinchris]

dude im starting to foam at the mouth at tmr. whats ur characterisation of the mains i need to hear the tea

when i first read this i was like MY characterization? but eye didn’t do anything.. and then realized james dashner and whoever wrote the screenplays didn’t really do anything either so.

i feel like (much like Avatar, 2009, Oh, Wouldn’t You Know) tmr focuses more on building a world than building its characters, now i don’t really mind this as i happen to be a fan of Places and Things, but i AM annoyed bc memorable characters = relevancy and thats a setback for what i’m trying to do here

i’m literally not even saying the characters are bad i like them but they needed rebranding. if thomas had some sort of unique physical distinction synonymous with who he is and his backstory, destiny, and legacy maybe we’d have a maze runner theme park at universal studios rn you know.

ok ok but the funny thing abt tmr is it’s basically a teenage boy hivemind..... the only thing they CAN think about most of the time is how to not die, they don’t seem to individually represent anything, and they all have their fucking minds wiped so there’s nothing about their past to shape them or motivate them or anything like that.. in this post apocalyptic hellscape the core goals of the heroes AND the villains are just going to be about survival and while that’s not uninteresting, none of that makes it easy to create distinctive characters. ahdjdkkd sorry i’ll stop myself and talk more about that later and now i will actually try to chat abt the tmr characters !!

okay so i mentioned none of them having backstory which is a lie because THOMAS, hello, actually has a backstory, and it is completely wasted on him which is so funny to me. like he’s a very in-the-now person who willfully ignores the fact that he has a past and honestly that doesn’t matter bc it barely affects his current reality at all besides people from WCKD already knowing who he is. like i strongly think if thomas was just some random he would still do everything the same and everyone would still be trying to kill him. thomas (alright besides his magic blood i’ll give you that) is not actually special but it’s like HE is the only one who knows that. everyone’s like why is thomas so special why is thomas different, but i think (again, besides the blood) he’s genuinely not, he’s literally just stupid. it’s implied maybe he used to be really smart but that obviously didn’t work out for him because now he’s just a newborn calf who’s dumb and brave and impulsive and it WORKS !!!! he’s naturally very curious, which is why he’s a good protagonist for exploring our fun settings and (more importantly) another reason why it’s SO funny he does not care to know about his old life . and thomas is a circumstantial leader. i think most YA protags in things like this don’t want to be the leader but are good at it once they try and usually NEED to be the leader for whatever reason. thomas leads when it makes sense for him to lead, like when they need to take immediate action or someone needs to yell “RUN!!!!” otherwise the leadership role goes to someone who is capable like alby or minho or newt or if they’re lucky enough to find literally any grown up who isn’t evil it’ll go to them. i think it’s nice that thomas pushes when something’s important to him but otherwise is fine with whatever he’s given. if one were to use cats 2019 terms i would say most of the time thomas is victoria if she was the jellicle choice but he’s jennyanydots when he’s alone (he sits and sits and sits and sits)

i think it’s significant TERESA was the only one who got her memories back and in the movies she doesn’t really become a person until she finds her purpose from those memories and her former self’s morals. thomas was like “yeah there’s no way i’m fucking with WCKD again because they suck. they put me and my friends in a killer maze. i ain’t reading all those memories. i’m happy for me tho. or sorry that happened.” but teresa needed to know and needed to justify her choices. if thomas doesn’t think he’s different, teresa definitely thinks she is! and she is unique, once she gets her memories she’s SMART AGAIN she’s a teen scientist wunderkind which i will never stop thinking about like how does she really feel about thomas who she KNOWS has lost all intelligence on PURPOSE and is on the right side of history because of it. what teresa did wasn’t even that bad i guess she had noble intentions but she betrayed the boys and that is not on. teresa is what always sunny would call “the useless chick” for most of the time in this fun little series but her shining moment is when she entered the maze and was like IMMA START THROWING ROCKS AT ANYONE WHO IS NOT DYLAN O’BRIEN (a very accurate and impressive representation of a teenage girl). and can i mention the dynamic between thomas and teresa would be a lot more interesting if they were twins. it’s the drama of the last of your family making a decision completely opposite your own instead of some random coworker you have no real chemistry with

BRENDA is just like Cool Action Girl i have no thoughts on her but i don’t dislike her. i don’t think we like ever see her interact with the whole maze group but they’d all be scared of her because she’s not fucking around and i think she would be mean if needed. she’ll fit in

this is the part of the tumblr post where i get to the best characters but have nothing to say about them 😔

MINHO is too cool for this series. i’m confident every single one of these teens is in love with him and he knows none of them are good enough. in cats terms he’s munkustrap because without him everything would be a mess but he’s got the range for the rum tum tugger. minho is the one who says “guys why don’t we just say fuck like normal people” after a week of everyone saying stuff like “shuckface” to which gally or any other rule abiding freak is like okay that’s IT time out. get on top of the fridge. and he screams THIS MAZE IS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE

newt :-) NEWT is mr mistoffelees in cats 1998 (NOT 2019) because he’s gay, he has the panache of a cat twirling around in a light up jacket shooting lightning out of his paws, and he’s saying things like “the rum tum tugger is a terrible whore” to RTT’s face and getting away with it. i love when he asks thomas if he still likes teresa and gets in his face about it and screams like what was that even about that was homosexual activity. i really love newt.... like can i talk about his fashion choices again the scarf and fingerless gloves in scorch trials even tho it’s a thousand degrees he looks good. and the shearling jacket in the death cure literally STYLIN... it’s very important that newt is the only british person in this whole thing i think. what’s up with that. i love it. he’s the most likely to think “wow this glade thing is kinda like love island” but the least likely to say those words out loud

[thestaffofgrayson]

1-100 for the unusual asks, you meme lord

Mmmmkay so I cant help being sassy but also wanna give a real answer so we gonna do this -> Anything in parenthesis is a real answer everything else is sass central station

1) Spotify, SoundCloud, or Pandora?  Im a dank soundcloud rapper check out my soundcloud at nobodycares540.soundcloud.fuck (I dont really use any of em tbh)

2) is your room messy or clean? *glances over* clean (m e s s y)

3) what color are your eyes? All 16 of em are different colors actually (blue)

4) do you like your name? why? No because its not Jojo (Yes!!! Love the name Perrin gonna be honest)

5) what is your relationship status? *sets status to its complicated* you could say im a bit of a player (deathly single)

6) describe your personality in 3 words or less? Im sorry who? (Described meme lord)

7) what color hair do you have? Minecraft Steve Brown (Ver Ver Pink)

8) what kind of car do you drive? color? No I run like sonic next question (nope fuck driving fuck boulder)

9) where do you shop? Uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh (For what Next question)

10) how would you describe your style? Goku Black cosplay (Goku Black cosplay)

11) favorite social media account? The one with the Z U C C (Tumblr fuck snapchat)

12) what size bed do you have?  Uuuummmmmmm my size OBVIOUSLY next questions (Dont know tbh queen maybe?)

13) any siblings? Little shit brother (thats not even a joke)

14) if you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? why?  Why this world fuck you what about mars (uuuuhhhhhh no idea gonna be honest)

15) favorite snapchat filter? Oh man! Love this one altho its not well known what ya gotta do is hit the delete button and when it asks if youre sure say yes :D (they change so often I dont pay attention)

16) favorite makeup brand(s)? Whatever it is Genji uses as eyeliner (dooont wear makeup)

17) how many times a week do you shower? I get clean by rolling around in the snow so maybe like 3 times a year (depends usually once a day with exceptions)

18) favorite tv show? I dont watch tv I AM the tv (The Office or if its Anime then Jojos Bizarre Adventure)

19) shoe size? M Y   S I Z E (size 10)

20) how tall are you?  hOWs ThE wEaTHEr dOwnTHeRe (5′9 - 5′11 somewhere in there)

21) sandals or sneakers? Gadget Shoes (legit those are cool but sneakers)

22) do you go to the gym? I think theeessseeee muscles speak for themselves (nope but I do martial arts)

23) describe your dream date  Killing all mortals and achieving a state beyond that of a god (iiiii dont know I dont really see myself going on a date)

24) how much money do you have in your wallet at the moment? Why do YOU wanna know (no really why tho)

25) what color socks are you wearing? Well I’m at home on the sofa playing sonic the hedgehog and typing up responses to an ask on tumblr that about 5 people are gonna see. That being said, Dragon Ball orange. (not wearing em but I have a fuzzy pair of polar bear socks my friend Ana sent me that I love!)

26) how many pillows do you sleep with? Wait what do you mean not everyone sleeps with 25 pillows are they mad? (One for my head, one on each side, smol pillow, pillow pet)

27) do you have a job? what do you do? I am assistant regional manager at a paper supply company named Dunder Mifflin. (Not currently but I’m gonna apply to Gamestop and Costco here soon)

28) how many friends do you have? Toooooooooooooo many I hate mortals (honestly I’m too lazy to try and count rn)

29) whats the worst thing you have ever done? Well I haven’t seen Mulan don’t call the cops (Iiiiiiii’m not sure I guess cheated on my Chinese final freshman year but hey I needed to pass that)

30) whats your favorite candle scent? V o i d  (I dont use candles that much and I shooouuulld)

31) 3 favorite boy names Jo[seph] Jo[estar], Jo[taro Ku]jo, Jo[nathan] Jo[estar]  (uuuuhhhh I like my name so it would be Perrin, Joji, Donovan)

32) 3 favorite girl names Jolyne Kujo there is no 2 and 3 (Jolyne yes I know but I actually really like the name, Perrin is also a girls name so, Milly)

33) favorite actor? Shrek from Shrek the musical (Robert Downey Jr and Chris pratt)

34) favorite actress? Taylor after she sasses me and acts like nothing happened (Millie Bobby Brown)

35) who is your celebrity crush? McCree (Matt Mercer)

36) favorite movie? UM IS THIS A QUESTION LIKE??? OBVIOUSLY THE SHREK AND BEE MOVIE CROSS OVER SHREK B: HONEY AND SWAMPS (I LOVED Black Panther and Thor Ragnarok but Secret Life of Walter Mitty’s stuck with me for a loooong time)

37) do you read a lot? whats your favorite book? I don’t read cuz I’m not a NERD (I mean actual books I don’t ask me about it another time but comics I sure do I love the Marvel Civil War storyline)

38) money or brains? They say Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy me more games! Eat that SUCKERS (Honestly brains because then you can be smart which can make you a lot of money. So many more benefits)

39) do you have a nickname? what is it? Perriushium, destroyer of life and bringer of the new age (Pey given to me by my brother when he was still a baby and couldn’t say my name)

40) how many times have you been to the hospital? Enough to be immune to every disease known to man NOW IM UNSTOPABLE MWAHAHA (none for any of my own conditions or injuries but for family stuff about twice)

41) top 10 favorite songs All Star, All Star, All Star, Chum Drum Bedrum, All Star, All Star, All Star, Never gonna give you up, All Star, All Star (Bloody Stream, Sono Chi no Sadame, Flying Battery Zone, Stardust Speedway, Stand Proud, Goku Black theme, Halo theme, The Apparition, Shovel Knight main theme, Hooked on a Feeling)

42) do you take any medications daily? I take a shot of cold hard whiskey when I get up (nope I dont have anything)

43) what is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc) The largest organ of my body I’ll tell ya that much (I honestly dont know?? Smooth and soft I guess?)

44) what is your biggest fear? The Communists lol jk Communism is the only way (I’m not so sure on this one gonna be honest I do fear something I just cant think of it at the moment)

45) how many kids do you want? I mean I’m a 16 year old teenager in high school with no job and no relationship that being said 5 (NONE EVER NOPE 0 KIDS)

46) whats your go to hair style? Super Saiyan 3 (Idk I just kinda comb it to the left)

47) what type of house do you live in? (big, small, etc) All Star. Wait fuck wrong quest- (Two floor medium sized house) 

48) who is your role model?  Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh (uuuuuhhhhhhhhhh)

49) what was the last compliment you received? A like on my post we did it guys we hit one like so I’m here making this 1 like special (I was told that everytime my friend see’s my dyed hair it absolutely makes his day :D) 

50) what was the last text you sent? Yeah that’ll be $5000 for the kill nice doing business with you (Maaaannny pictures of Genji Shimada)

51) how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real? WHAT SANTA ISNT REAL????!!!!!?!?!?! (It kinda faded over the years my last strands of belief were gone by 12)

52) what is your dream car? Odie’s car from Garfield Kart (The Mach 5 from speed racer there’s a street legal car look it up)

53) opinion on smoking? Jotaro does it so I do it too (PSA: Smoking doesn’t make you cool or look cool you’re just killng your lungs. I won’t try and make you stop as long as you’re aware I don’t want you smoking around me and you understand the consequences)

54) do you go to college? After that SAT I meeeaaaaannnn McDonalds might be hiring (I’m still in High School but I want to)

55) what is your dream job? To stand in a corner for 8 hours with a lamp shade over my head and make a clicking sound every so often (I would like to be able to draw, animate, design and/or play games for a living. Achievement Hunter would be a fantastic job but I doubt that’s happening)

56) would you rather live in rural areas or the suburbs? I wanna live in a cloud In the sky and abduct people to harvest their DNA and make clones which I can fight to the death with (eh somewhere quiet and disconnected from people tbh)

57) do you take shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels? They fetch pretty high prices on eBay you’d be surprised (Nope I dont use them at all I bring my own and take my own)

58) do you have freckles? My face is a giant freckle little known fact (not really thank god I would look real bad with em)

59) do you smile for pictures? *leans in* I’m gonna let ya in on a secret kid. I wait until the photographer is just about to take the picture and then I hold a middle finger over my face to block the proper shot. Do it enough times then they’ll be payin YOU to get the picture done (I do but I only open my mouth slightly)

60) how many pictures do you have on your phone? They’re all of people I’ve killed because they showed me a stale meme dont worry about it (960 exactly and they’re all either memes, fan-art, or my cute friends)

61) have you ever peed in the woods? Ew no I don’t go outdoors thanks (Yep once on a school field trip in which we hiked to the top of a mountain it was fun)

62) do you still watch cartoons? Well I mean SOME ONE spoiled my belief in Santa earlier so I’m a bit too old for that now. I have a boring desk job thanks LAZLO (I do spongebob is really funny to me still and I LOVE the original Teen Titans)

63) do you prefer chicken nuggets from Wendy’s or McDonalds? McWendy’s next question (I dont eat either so)

64) Favorite dipping sauce? Drip dip dip I’m boutta rip please i want to die (I dont use dipping sauce either call me a heathen all you want)

65) what do you wear to bed? Well I take off the clothes I wore for the day, take off my earring, ring, necklace, eyes, hair, 3 layers of skin, and call it a night (Pajamas mostly and sometimes sweatpants)

66) have you ever won a spelling bee? *Obligatory Bee Movie Joke* (I’ve never even heard of a spelling bee in any of the schools I’ve been to)

67) what are your hobbies? Well I like to kill all mortals #ZamasuWasRight  (I enjoy martial arts, drawing, video games, game design, and walking around my house with nothing to do)

68) can you draw? UH BOI YOU DONT KNOW WHAT ART IS UNTIL YOUVE SEEN A SHITTY JOJO DRAWING OF MINE (I mean yeah but not well)

69) do you play an instrument? Electric Triangle (Actually, I play the Violin but not super well)

70) what was the last concert you saw? SORRY WHAT I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THE CONCERT (I’ve never been to one that seems like the opposite of fun for me personally I hate hyper loud music, people, and crowds)

71) tea or coffee? Coftea next question (tea. I don’t drink caffeine if i can help it)

72) Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts? I need my sugar sonic rings (Again, Don’t drink caffeine)

73) do you want to get married? I’m already getting married. MARRIED TO THE LIFE OF CRIME THAT IS UP TOP (I mean I would like to one day)

74) what is your crush’s first and last initial? My  Self (I don’t have anyone I’m crushing on)

75) are you going to change your last name when you get married? What’s crimes last name? Smigglesworth? (If my partners last name is something with an S cuz then I can be PJS)

76) what color looks best on you? You know the color mario turns when he uses the super star? T-that (Pink and Black)

77) do you miss anyone right now? PPFFFFFT NOOOOO WHATS A FEEL *CRIES* THOSE ARENT TEARS ITS JUST SWEAT IVE ANSWERED A LOT OF QUESTIONS OKAY (I miss all my internet friends :(  *cries*)

78) do you sleep with your door open or closed? It is neither open nor closed it is in a hyper dimensional state between open and closed in which no mortal can enter or exit but also cannot be blocked from passage (clooossed because otherwise the cats are gonna kill my fish)

79) do you believe in ghosts? I mean how else would I make a long and successful career as a ghost buster (I do!)

80) what is your biggest pet peeve? My pet, Peeve! Biggest one I know! (depends on for what tbh the other day a guest speaker was talking to the class and this kid was playing music in his headphones really really loud and it pissed me off)

81) last person you called? Called what? Called them a nerd? A good bean? A meme? MAKE MORE SENSE YOU ******* **** *** ******** (Well according to my phone, the name listed is “Mom”)

82) favorite ice cream flavor? I’ll ice your cream if you’re not careful (Vanilla with chocolate syrup mixed together is hella everyone GO TRY IT)

83) regular oreos or golden oreos? The fuck is a golden oreo?? (No seriously, what the actual is a golden oreo)

84) chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? *mario invincible star song plays as I flash color and dash down rainbow road* I’ll have to think about it (rainboooowww!)

85) what shirt are you wearing? Well I…. You see… The thing is…. excuse me for one second (yeah I can’t think of sass to this one but my favorite shirt! Sonic mania that my friend Tasha bought for me and I love it!!!)

86) what is your phone background?  RYUJIN NO KEN WO KURAE!! “What do you think of this color? Is it not beautiful?” If you dont know those HOW DARE YOU LEARN THEM AND WE ARE WATCHING DRAGON BALL (Genji lock screen and Goku Black home screen)

87) are you outgoing or shy? Does THIS answer your question >:D (Outgoing when I want to be, but I’m antisocial so it’s like I CAN be outgoing and personable but it’s highly on my terms ya feel?)

88) do you like it when people play with your hair? My hair is a pride to my race the Saiyans hair is a sacred thing I will advise you not to touch it (YYYEEESSSS I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT BUT THAT HARDLY EVER HAPPENS)

89) do you like your neighbors?  …..the what? Never heard of it before is that a type of appliance? (I mean they’re chill we don’t interact a lot which I’m cool with)

90) do you wash your face? at night? in the morning? Nothin can cure this ugly face fest of spring 2018 (I use face wash when I shower which is typically right after school not sure why it matters but there ya go :V)

91) have you ever been high? “I’m high on LIFE maaaannn” -Incorrect Shaggy quotes (N o p e  never have don’t plan on it)

92) have you ever been drunk? shots ShotS SHOTS SHOTSSHOTSHOTS (nope but I will one day maybe in College years)

93) last thing you ate? The shattering realization that my friends will keep saying OWO to me every chance they get (Pancakes! asked for french toast but I loooove the breakfast food so no complaints)

94) favorite lyrics right now someBODY Once Told Me The World Is Gonna Roll Me… (The lyrics to Bloody Stream dude it’s a  g r e a t  op)

95) summer or winter? Sorry I’m on Mars weather its ZXAR right now (eeehhhh winter cuz then I have an excuse to be inside and it’s also the ski season)

96) day or night? I am the darkness. I am the night. I am BATMAN (Night honestly I’m a fan of the darkness)

97) dark, milk, or white chocolate? Plllleeeeaaase its like asking if you’re heart is pure of evil or not. Dark Chocolate is a sin (Milk chocolate is the best chocolate fight me on that)

98) favorite month? See, some may argue for their birthday months, christmas, new beginnings to the year, but I say there’s only ONE spooky time :3 (Altho I’m one of the fools that’s gonna have to go with March because it usually has my favorite kind of weather for where I live)

99) what is your zodiac sign  I refuse to go by Zodiac signs until Ted Cruz is proven to be the Zodiac Kill————–”OLD MEME ALERT THIS IS THE MEME POLICE”   “I AINT GOIN BACK TO JAIL”  (Cancer! I wear a necklace of my sign all the time fun fact for ya)

100) who was the last person you cried in front of?  Me after writing all these (Don’t know actually I try not to cry in front of people ever)

[renamusing]

reuenthals replied to your post: reuenthals replied to your post: ...

in the folder re: konhiji like we’re not told how old toshi was when he met kondo but probably a teenager considerin sougo was 6-8 so i always thought toshi’d place kondo in a place similar to tamegoro but misunderstand those feelins as smth else bc he’s just a baby + kondou’s the first to show him real (or any) affection outside tamegoro n not fear or resent him in any way but actually want to help him (he later in life realizes hed just misplaced/misunderstood their 

nature). from that same era, i think his feelins for mitsuba would fit a similar narrative as in bc of circumstances she HAD to be the woman he loved bc all men must love a woman plus she had feelins for him (tho tbh i also dont think hers were any different from the familial love she had for kondou and it was also a matter of circumstance but thats another matter) so it was a done deal but still easy to leave behind for a new life n have as backup/excuse for any other

woman hed meet or more like a shield from havin to open up w/unravel to any feelins of love of a non familial nature for anyone. his take on love is rly naive n pure (contrasted to ofc my baby whos smart n no fool) bc it also serves as shield n hes also said to be unable to relate/open up to women multiple times but is defenseless towards men (n sorachi loves that trope esp w toshi n gin chan in which theyre ‘men that are more attractive to other men than women’) which

i think is why hes so well defenseless towards gin chan durin their duel in the rooftops like for gin chan thats just a ‘crazy cop attacked me again’ moment but for toshi it like shakes the foundations of his whole bein he like lies there all wistful like wtf…..im gay? no… w a blossomin crush that only gets worse the more he interacts w gin chan (cant blame him tho gin chan is an angel) but like the way hes constructed specifically as an archetype hes too set in

performin masculinity (kyuchan says this but he also says this abt himself also multiple times) n sorachi is aware to an extent (plus hes drawin from men who were practicin mlm themselves) what this trope entails wrt sexuality n its expressions like for toshi its comfortable not to think abt love or any of that bc he has a goal n the excuse of a dead woman but its impossible to read him as anythin but not straight no matter the degree to which he is aware of it (which

tbh i think its a lot more than what ppl in fandom give him credit for) i have more detailed backed up analysis of this somewhere but i cant find them but basically at the end of the day i think toshi meetin kondo n at least havin some mixed up feelins abt what he feels towards him that hes able to resolve as bein brotherly later on in life set the path for him realizin he can love other men not in a brotherly way n in the way he (as a man) is supposed to love women

wow long but yes like toshi’s archetype in other manga/literature is easily read n can be coded as mlm/gay n is often the case but his issues run too deep for him to even consider that part seriously (at least tbh until 551 maybe baragaki but i dont think that early) so he has to suffer for it he deserves the worst the only reason gh is okay is bc he provides economically for gin chan n would be willin to pay any outstandin debts as shown in the soul switch arc. the end

i feel like this was just a sneak peek into that folder, but I loved it 200%! it’s super hard for me to reply without going into my own headcanons about gh and how they relate to one another, cause the way toshi relates to gin is so different from kondo in my perspective; in fact, it’s why i can’t get romantic konhiji at all, though i admit you make a fair point when u address the transition of toshi’s “most important person” from tamegoro to kondo (at that young age mixed feelings would be acceptable) plus, i always saw kondo as the character that ‘saved’ toshi, while gin was the one that ‘healed’ him. ofc both relationships go way beyond these dynamics, but without any actual canon romantic proof it’s difficult to postulate from toshi’s limited pov. 

so, while the shinsengumi became his substitute family and kondo tamegoro’s substitute (the family core), it’s a given that toshi perceives this love as unconditional, would-die-for etc. however, it would be interesting to explore his feelings for kondo back then in relation to mitsuba; like in an effort to answer the love of a woman (as you so brilliantly put, that in those circumstances toshi HAD to love a woman) he tried to shift his romantic feelings/attraction to kondo’s masculine figure to her ? (IM ONLY  REALIZING NOW THAT THIS WAS PROBABLY WHAT YOU MEANT BEFORE? IM SORRY) tho i don’t agree that mitsuba’s love for him was familial cause ponytail toshi, mack, like pls, she had to be blind ???

then we come to ginchan, whose whole relationship with toshi is based, imo, in the fact that they not only see a part of themselves in each other (the guilty, self-hating, rebel part) but that in seeing it they understand themselves better and are able to open up, share their experiences and encourage one another; not to mention protect what’s dear to them. aka they love each other. there is literally no other explanation for ginchan waiting in the rain for toshi so they could go out for a meal? i mean, sakata gintoki sat in the rain, under his umbrella, looking all complacent & shit. ALRIGHT. 

btw i bolded some of your bits cause i rly relate to them in the way i see toshi, especially the ones about him putting up a shield. toshi has always had problems dealing with his feelings, even before we knew of his past with his brother (which for continuity’s sake was probably what triggered him to bottle  everything up), he had always been written/regarded as a cold, level-headed character who doesn’t let emotions get the best of him. his rank in the shinsengumi further emphasizing this (and his otaku persona as well). so, without disregarding ginchan’s merits, i think that kondo’s influence (and even mitsuba’s to some extent) may have contributed to lowering toshi’s shield enough that he was able to give himself a chance to connect with someone outside his comfort zone/past. the fact that that person happened to be a man only makes more sense given his background and the hints that tell us he was never able to relate to women or feel like he could make them happy. it’s Tough on my heart to say that ginchan is basically ideal because, even though he is the mc, it’s like he was made to play that role in toshi’s life. he doesn’t bring all the answers but rather more questions cause there’s no way toshi can be confused now because his attraction to ginchan cant be excused with the role of ‘brother’ or ‘fated woman he was supposed to love’, gh bond is their own, their closeness in canon SHOULD raise suspicion cause it sure doesn’t seem straight.

well, i digressed WAY more than i should, but yeah that’s it, kudos on that folder. 

[tumblunni]

OK BUNNI GONNA MAKE A PERSONASONA

Right so my civilian design would probably just be like <------ my icon thats my dumb attempt at drawing cartoon me

Tho that’s cartoon me as of right now, so it’d have to be like a personaverse where its about people at college rather than high school i mean I could design a ‘sona based on how i looked back then, but i wasn’t out about my gender identity during highschool, so it’d be kinda Uncomfortable drawing that old fake self of mine But yeah uhh.. if anyone wants to know what ‘thought I was a cis woman’ bunni looked like, basically just futaba with brown hair + overweight. And without a budget for the sort of cool clothes futaba has, and also walking around squinting without glasses cos my dad never let me see the doctor. Aaaand now current me is pretty much futaba in personality and Relateable Social Anxiety Moments so i guess i am futaba in all of the ways a futaba can ever be. i love futaba

ANYWAY BACK ON TOPIC! I think probably I’d be best at being a support type like Futaba, though honestly I want to be a fighter. Makoto is the other super relateable one to me, cos i was also a shy-as-fuck super teacher’s pet nerd whose frustrations with life led to ‘I WANT TO RIDE A GIANT POPE MOTORCYCLE AND PUNCH DEMONS WITH MY FISTS’. Its a relateable feeling! A common emotion! Also I’m kinda the sort of person who cares the most about protecting my friends, yes, but its hard for me to access any of my Nerd Skills when i’m in that emotion. I am like LET ME FUCKIN BEAT UP ANYONE WHO’S HURTING YOU, LET ME TAKE ALL THE BULLETS, LET ME CARRY YOU ALL ON MY BACK TO SAFETY AAAAAA So if I was a support type, I think my special abilities would revolve around taking damage for the other characters rather than futaba’s buffing skillz. Like, have the support persona’s stats actually matter. Have an actual HP bar that shows the limit of how much damage i can divert from the others, and like.. maybe also have other support spells that cost HP to cast? And then my recklessness can mean that i can be taken out and everyone loses the support until i’m revived. OR I could just be a regular fighter who gains the whole ‘can take a fatal attack for protagonist’ skill very early in my social link. And probably have a bunch of other more supporty skills, and/or a lot of stuff that costs HP. I’m thinking maybe like a primarily physical attackher with a small amount of MP, but the spells I actually gain are pretty useful. Also i totally wanna be Curse element! I always pick dark/ghost/whatever in videogames, I gravitate towards whatever is the ‘always born bad’ underdog monster character, cos i can relate to that. Tho I dunno what my weapon would be, tbh! I tend to just go thru periods of being obsessed with whatever weapon a fave character uses, like I kept googling all about Chakrams back when I liked Axel, and I really wanted to buy a giant 5 foot tall spoon when i first played FF9 and Quina captured my heart. And now lol I wanna have makoto’s cool brass knuckles or haru’s axe!

I DO NOT KNOW what persona I would have, cos Loki is already taken by an important plot role in P5 I can relate a lot to Loki, and I had a huge Special Interest obsession with norse myth during my teenage years I dunno if there’s any other deities that like.. have LGBTQ themes? I don’t know a huge amount about mythology in general, just a splattering of facts from various mythologies i obsessed about as a kid. If there’s any actual nonbinary deities out there, I wanna obsess about them too! Oh, but in P5 everyone is folk heroes of literature instead of strictly deities. And lol i know EVEN LESS about classic novels! I only know the ones we were taught during school, and the only one I genuinely enjoyed was Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Hmm.. to be honest I could make a cool persona out of poor Louisa Gradgrind! And Bounderby is already like a cartoonish cariacature, he could be inserted as an enemy shadow without any changes needed XD He’s pretty much kamoshida?? Or Haru’s fiancee. Or both combined. Also my love of Louisa is probably why i love Haru, tbh. Also, my copy of Hard Times is still sitting here on my desk, taunting me, drawing me into obsession agaaaain! Its been my monitor stand for like five years, I can never stop falling back into dickensian quicksand until i find an equally sized book as a substitute!~!

Hmm, or maybe.. try looking for rabbit-based mythological figures? I’ve already seen someone else make a perfect Brer Rabbit persona-sona, and the moon rabbit deity was already done in P4 Arena apparantly? (haven’t played that one) Maybe just like a Jackalope persona? i do like the idea of having a very small and harmless looking persona that kicks ass, none of the supporting characters have ever really had one of those, only the protagonist can fuse a few but theyre never really lategame viable. Tho I dunno if I’d rather have a tiny cutie who’s ferocious, or a tiny cutie that turns into something huge during battle? i do like the weird idea of everyone having chibi versions of their persona during downtime. I really liked that in P5 everyone gets one scene of their persona talking to them when they first make the contract, and Arsene gets like.. two scenes. I was so dissappointed after that that you dont actually get to talk to your persona all the time and have them as like a social link! I like whenever everyone is shown hanging out with their personas in the 4-koma mangas and stuff. I WOULD HUG ARSENE AND FEED HIM SNACKS! Anyway, whether Jackalope is an actual small rabbit or some sort of badass humanoid warrior type, I think it would be good cos it would have a built-in good idea for a mask:

Even if I picked a different persona, I do like the idea of a one-eyed mask! Or maybe some sort of jester or stage magician type costume? A top hat could work if my persona was the white rabbit or march hare from alice in wonderland... i mean you cant really categorise those as the ‘hero’ of the story tho. But cool clockwork designs!! And/or teacup stuff!! A giant teacup weapon!!

Oooh, or maybe I could have Arachne or Anansi? Just cos I love spiders as well as rabbits. Man I love a lot of animals aaaaaa....

Or if I could pick one of the personas that wild card protags can fuse in other games, I’d probably go for Choronzon or Nidhogg. I tend to like the underloved super monsterous types, I find them weirdly cute from what little personality you see in demon negotiation! I just imagine having a tiny pet floating orb of screaming skulls, and feeding him snacks. I WANT TO FEED EVERY MONSTER SNACKS every monster deserves a friennnnnnddddd aaaaaaaaa man probably that could be my social link rewards, i’d be all helping with demon negotiation n stuff PROTAGONIST HERE FEED A SNACKS TO ARSENE YO except i dont know how to cook so i mean i’d just be buying conveinience store stuff MAN I WISH I COULD COOK ARSENE BETTER SNACKS thank u for always protect protagonist, sir i hope he at least gets to sneak some of sojiro’s curry while no-one’s looking

[jasonvtodd]

Hi, could you recommend some great tv shows? The more the merrier, I'm really desperate for anything GOOD.

Yes! I’d love too :) 

Ok so no order but…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) - yes its old school late 90′s, yes its one of those shows like charmed and other shows from that kinda era where when you watch it you gotta remember that for its time its ok for a shitty ass werewolf costume to not be laughable XD i meann. you can laugh at it if you want liike i do but id also fight to the death for it. also probably one of the only great/good things that has come from joss whedon. it has so many layers, so many things that even though its a supernatural based show… it deals with a lot of real life issues and mirrors them very well in a different unique way. also it was the first time they showed you a f/f relationship on tv properly and in depth, willow & tara, who shatter my heart just thinking about them ok. this show was the first tv show i ever got into when i was younger and started collecting the dvds every time i was out shopping i’d go searching down any seasons i could grab. honestly, 20/10 would recommend, always holds a special place in my heart and ive lost count of how many times ive watched it so theres that

Supernatural (2005-current) - like buffy, this show was the second show that i got heavily into. look. just ignore the fandom, watch the first 5 seasons when it was actually good and quality, and cry over swan song (finale of s5) which is the end of the show yes (cause look the creator kripke, only ever planned for 5 seasons and so he left after swan song cause he set out what he wanted to do. they should have ended it there but they didnt sigh) honestly the relationship between dean and sam.. their brothership is like… everything to me ok goddamn those boys would and have died for each other and i love them so very much. it was the first fandom i got into too online and lool honesly sorry if i have any mutuals who are spn blogs (fairly certain i dont though) but that fandom is insane, ridiculous and way too much so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ take that on board but please dont dismiss this show because of it, which is really what everyone else does these days but i cant even really be mad

Band of Brothers (2001) - ok… so… im about to talk about three shows (this one is one of the three… part of the hbo war trinity) which honestly mean a lot to me as well… but also cause of how heartbreakingly real they are and how important i think it is for everyone (who is ok with gore/violence/death etc) to watch as it is a part of history that happened and many men who gave up their lives so that we could all be where we are today. band of brothers is about history of easy company (and others) which were part of the 101st Airborne Division and their mission in WWII Europe and there part in it. its based on stephen ambrose band of brothers book and im just going to steal something from wikipedia here All of the characters portrayed are based on members of Easy Company. Some of the men were recorded in contemporary interviews, which viewers see as preludes to each episode. The men’s identities are not revealed until the finale. and honestly… is just such a masterpiece and all the actors took their roles very serious. they had to all go through a intense bootcamp with an instructor who did it for a living training all sorts of divisions and here i cried about it here before honestly if you want more info on it/more pain/reasons to watch it… go to @thomasflint cause this is getting long and i havent even expressed 5% of my proper feelings regarding it…. but when i rewatched it i was just yelling/crying nonstop via text to hira to the point where it was basically like she was watching it with me and then sh ewas crying too isduhfjdhf this show will ruin you man

Generation Kill (2008) - josh ray person is a piece of shit and id die for him the end

ok im joking only not really. but no ok this is marines It is based on the 2004 book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq annd ive finally got my hands on the gk book, im not even halfway through reading it… and im so livid of how much they took from the book, word for word they did everything on point and its so great and all these boys from all these shows mean everything to me so im being repetitive here but… i love all these dipshits so much goddamn aisduhf all their dynamics are great and unlike band of brothers & the pacific… their commanding officers are going to get them killed for all the stupid shit they pull and have basically no experience compared to the men they’re supposed to be leading but these guys… my marines of gk.. are badfuckingass ok. like i was reading about the shit they have to go through and the screening process basically and god these guys?? i just?? click here and basically just read the first page of chapter one and the first two sentences on the page after it i just iaushd godd my guys ausdh also again, ask hira ( @thomasflint ) i quote josh ray person too much. if you ever hear me saying yeah homes, we pimpin … ya, blame ray. again, like all these hbo war shows i could write essays on why i love these shows but ill try talk about other shows too hi

The Pacific (2010) - 

#drink everytime emily says that

ok so this is during ww2 and the story of a group of marines who fought against the japense in the pacific and again, all based on real people who went through this themselves. once again, all the dynamic between the men in spite of what they’re going through makes it worth while… dont talk to me about eugene ‘doc’ roe or webster with his choclate oh ok wrong series thats bob but they should be mentioned ok or hoosier and his attatchment to a blanket and cuddling a dog to save it from being blown to shit or snafu opening shit for his boyfriend or never forget how fucked areyou now and ok since we’re sharing songs… gory, gory what a hell of a way to die and ok liike i am not really doing these shows justice by properly talking about them but aoisudh i just think they should all be watched if you have the time and dont get triggered by gore/death/violcen/etc (probably google for an extensive list of triggers but those are the main) or go get hira to yell at u about them too cause she will happily do so. and ok so these videos have spoilers buuut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW1vxHrug7I and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhspHQGZLI ha ahahah im now bawling cheers hira you dickshit 

Black Sails (2014-2017) - no seriously just ask @thomasflint​ im getting tired of yelling  here iasduhfb shes the whole reason i fell into this gay pirates path with all the badass women and im so emo over flint and his lover isudhf 

ok so im too lazy now to cry about more shows in detail (though i do love so many more ok tv show junkie hi) but the next ones are still favourites and quality tv my friend

Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014) -A man in his early 30s struggles to find a balance in his life between being a new dad and his involvement in a motorcycle club.

Smallville (2001-2011) - A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville, Kansas.

Warehouse 13 (2009-2014) - After saving the life of the President in Washington D.C., a pair of U.S Secret Service agents are whisked away to a covert location in South Dakota that houses supernatural objects that the Regents, an Authority above and outside any government, have collected over the centuries. Their new assignment: retrieve any lost objects and investigate reports of new ones.

In the Flesh (2013) - Four years after the Rising, the government starts to rehabilitate the Undead for reentry into society, including teenager Kieren Walker, who returns to his small Lancashire village to face a hostile reception, as well as his own demons.

Justified (2010-2015) - Old-school U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is reassigned from Miami to his childhood home in the poor, rural coal-mining towns in Eastern Kentucky.

Nikita (2010-2013) - A rogue assassin returns to take down the secret organization that trained her.

honestly anything that is bolded here is worth looking into. hopefully there’s something that catches your eye here, otherwise jsut hmu if you want more information/emily crying about something

[bootycallofcthulhu]

thoughts on RE7 (very minor spoilers ahead):

First off, since I wasn’t allowed to play M rated games until I was like 15 (I grew up in a really strict household) my experiences with Resident Evil are basically: five year old me watching a neighbor playing RE2 thinking it was the funniest thing you could punt a zombies head, excessively reading the wikis because I was really into zombies in my teenage years and looking to write my own zombie-based story, borrowing RE5 from a friend, beating the shit out of Wesker with only a knife, playing the remake of the first game on PS4 (or rather, watching my roommates play it because they were better than me and I wasn’t used to the backtracking), then finally playing Resident Evil 7 yesterday. 

I’ve beat it twice in two days. This isn’t because I was in love with the game, but rather I had originally beaten it on my friend’s PS4 and was afraid one of my old friends from back home would look at my PSN profile and give me crap for not finishing it b/c I was too scared or something (it should be noted I was basically afraid of everything except horror movies in high school). 

So here are my thoughts on the game now that I’ve beaten it twice:

As far as survival horror goes, it definitely does do a decent job at fufilling the genre. Whether or not this is what the genre needed I can’t really say (I personally consider Bloodborne to be a great survival horror but that really depends on how you wanna define the genre). A lot of the game’s elements do capture the spirit of the first game in terms of atmosphere. In the transition from fixed-camera third person to first person shooter (one of my least favorite genres minus a few key exceptions) the game manages to retain the same suspenseful atmosphere the first game had. 

At least for like the first half. Which isn’t a bad thing (I’ll touch on this later). 

The first half of the game is spent exploring the Baker family’s plantation in the middle of a Louisiana bayou. The extremely large house with its various passages probably at one point looked really nice, but in its current state, is broken down and lifeless, minus the antagonists of the game. Its dimily lit, trashed, and overall 3 spoopy 5 me. 

The game utilizes this environment to its fullest. Most of the tension comes from the lighting. Most of the house, as said above, is not well lit, with a lot of the lighting coming from lamps or randomly better lights compared to the rest. Using these lights, the game generates a lot of the tension through the shadows cast. I definitely prepped my guns more towards shadows I or other objects such as desk fans than anything else in the game. 

The house is also pretty empty and as a result, quiet. There isn’t a lot of music in the game except maybe towards the end. Most of the game’s sound is voices, footsteps, or random bangs from either plot devices or the house just falling apart (this last part had me jumping a lot during my first play-through, and occasionally during my second). 

The other element of horror is the Baker family. Now I’ve jokingly described them to my friends that the Baker family is basically the American Horror Story version of the Simpson’s. The primary family members in the household are: 

Jack: The balding father

Marguerite: The wife 

Lucas: Actual piece of shit son

Zoe: The level headed daughter. 

Other than Zoe being a major character, you’ll find out why I think that of Lucas if you read the files and YOU SHOULD. The files in the game are how you get any semblance of who these characters were. This is pretty standard for RE games but read them files. 

I’ll also note right here: I don’t like the major antagonist as I feel its a bit of an annoying trope. This is purely me being picky but if you play it just know I hate this trope. Otherwise, I do like the direction taken with the major antagonist and the Baker family as a whole and I felt they were what made the story great when you combine it with the files. 

Now while you do get some development on the first three Bakers, characters like Zoe, Mia (your wife), yourself, and the major antagonist of the game don’t really get a lot of explanation as to who they were prior to the major events of Biohazard. Well, Mia sort of does but personally as a guy who likes character driven stories, I would have liked to know more on Ethan (you) and Mia’s relationship other than “they were married” to explain why this guy would brave through this entire house for his presumably dead wife and not say “yeah fuck that” as soon as he saw the first corpse. There was also a lot left to be desired when it came to the baker’s such as why their plantation has a morgue complete with an incinerator room. Like I think all I know is their grandma once went to the doctor but I’m still not too sure if that was their grandma or the mom and I like these things answered. Lucas does get a little fleshed out, but thats the most you see outside of the tapes.

Now the tapes get their own paragraph because I thought this was one of the cooler features of the game. As far as exposition goes, the game uses VHS tapes and by watching those, you can assume the roles of two other characters besides Ethan: Clancy, a camera man for a web-series about haunted houses, and Mia prior to Ethan’s arrival. While these don’t give you a lot of insight into the characters themselves, they tell you a little more about the happenings of RE7, as well as give a little more detail to the major antagonists. Not only that, but by taking the time to actually watch the tapes, you can basically give yourself clues as to what to look for/do in upcoming areas (basically answers to puzzles). 

I won’t spoil the story, but I will say I really enjoyed it, but the game is at most 8 hours long pending your difficulty. 

In terms of combat, I thought overall it was very well done. The guns felt nice to use, the enemies posed a threat, but were manageable and the bosses were fun. Granted, this is from a guy who played easy, as I’ve heard the bosses tend to have a little too much health. Minus one particular boss, I thought they were fun, but I can see the complaint that there are times where you just don’t know what to do, and the boss fight is basically a puzzle. They can also take away from the tension of the game with the one-liners used (an example being one of the characters picks up a chainsaw and says “groovy,” a throwback to Evil Dead that had me laughing pretty hard during what was supposed to be a tense situation). 

Now the cheeky one-liners, combined with Ethan’s kinda character development is what leads to the game being a lot less spooky during the second half. The game almost stops doing things to scare you, and instead seems to encourage you to go in guns-a-blazing (which is a dumb idea given how limited ammo is). The tension is still there, but most of it is replaced by a burning hate-fire. I really liked this, for the most part. It felt a lot more personal in the sense you weren’t playing as a person named Ethan, but rather you WERE Ethan, and you sort of feel this anger with him. At the same time, the game’s scare factor going down this way also means some of the late-game things that are meant to scare you feel really forced (that and some kinda poor voice acting but that might just be me being picky). 

As a whole, I really enjoyed the game and its story. Aside from wanting to learn more about the characters (which I hope to see in the DLC), my only big complaint is that

and it should be noted this might be a bit spoilery

 the ending sort of sets it up to cycle back into games like Resident Evil 5 and 6, where its more action focused. Given the ending, I can’t see something similar done unless they scrap these existing characters and keep coming out with new scenarios that tie together somehow. 

[the-kipsabian]

maaaads can i ask for all of them w asagao!dan? (minus champagne cause y'know, he'd technically be a teenager here)

frost blue: does your muse enjoy the snow and cold? or are they the type to enjoy summer more?i really wanna say that hes more of a summer boi tbh? he wouldnt mind winter, its really just the facts that putting on so much clothing can be annoying plus with the crazy hair during winter when it gets all static and stuff? yeah thats a pain (plus during summer he can. wear ponytails so!!)

peacock blue: is your muse honest? what sorts of lies do they tell, if not?he tries to be as honest as possible. sometimes theres little white lies to protect friends feelings if they are required in the moment, but usually hes very honest and straightforward with things tho

lapis lazuli: does your muse prefer the idea of exploring the depths of the oceans, or the boundless expanses of space more?oh, space for sure. first of all, dan thinks space is amazing. second, hes afraid of big bodies of water and sharks so. yyyyeah

reddish brass: how likely is your muse to step up and take the role of a leader? are they willing to take the challenge, or are they more apt to being a follower?hes not. super willing tbh? he will if he absolutely has to, but more often than not hes happy to just be a follower in most cases. unless its. something hes very passionate about, like music or such, then hes more likely to take charge of things

burnt umber: how stable is your muse, mentally and/or emotionally?i mean. he has his issues tbh? but hes not like. completely broken. he is an emotional man i can give him that, but in a really good way. mentally, well.. he struggles with some things more than most people, but then again, dont we all

tea orange: what is something that your muse is fascinated with?i. really wanna say unicorns to this tbh lol

malachite: has your muse ever done anything that they winded up feeling incredibly guilty for in the end?oh im sure. some examples that come to mind would be saying something to a friend that he regretted or having like a really bad breakup or something similar. nothing too drastic tbh, but something along those lines

olive: is your muse prone to feeling envious of others? if yes, what is it that they typically feel envious over?nah. like, not really at all. he does his best and knows his limits and doesnt push them too hard unless its. something he really cares about, so if anything its usually others being envious about dan and his work ethics tho?

vermillion: is your muse courageous, or would they consider themselves to be more of a coward?well. technically not a coward, but in fight or flight situations he would definitely choose to flight as he tries to avoid confrontation as much as possible? if this is not like. physical confrontation related, i’d say he can be very courageous tho? like stepping on a stage to perform or sing in front of a crow and whatnot. that he can do without a doubt and not be afraid of it tho

bougainvillaea: would your muse consider themselves as blunt, or do they beat around the bush instead?it depends? who hes talking to and what about mostly? he can be very blunt, mostly for comedic purposes tho, so i guess he beats around the bush more often? i mean dan says things fairly straight, but not in a blunt way? does that make sense??

currant: what's something that absolutely disgusts your muse (can be a person, place, thing, ect)?mmmmmm is there. really such a thing?? like apart from obvious stuff like inconsiderate assholes and just generally unpleasant people and stuff? mmm probably like. most fast foods? i mean also kinda not as he doesnt care if you consume that stuff, just really dont force him to eat it and hes good? idk dan likes. pretty much everything as long as its not harmful to anyone so like. yeah

crimson: how passionate is your muse about the things they love most?oh, VERY. extremely passionate and he loves to share those things with his friends cause he wants everyone to be able to experience them and yeah

raspberry: what food and/or drink can your muse not get enough of? do they indulge in it often, or is it something reserved for special occasions?sssskittleeeees. he consumes them like. ALL the damn time. which is probably bad but also he doesnt care tbh

baby blossoms: does your muse have a favorite scent? what is it, and why?..my instant first thought was ‘what do unicorns smell like’ so mmm. something slightly sweet maybe? i high key wanna say vanilla but idk?

mallow: what sorts of things might remind your muse of those close to them? any scents, objects, sounds?welp for starters im sure dan has like. songs he associates with each of his friends and such. as for objects, he absolutely treasures any gifts he ever gets, and then theres. the game grumps club jackets woo ~

aubergine: does your muse prefer the day, or are they more of a night-owl?i wanna saaaaay he prefers to actually be awake during the day more? he can be a very sleepy boi and has more energy during the night to take care of things so yeah. plus hes. relatively loud so its much easier for him during the day time when people arent constantly yelling at him to shut up when they want to sleep tbh

acacia: how much does it take for your muse to hate someone?oh, a LOT. dan isnt a hating type at all, like you have to pretty ruthlessly fuck up something really major for him to hate on you, and even then hes. pretty fast to try to forgive and forget and patch things up honestly? hes not one to hold grudges at all

cadmium yellow: what subjects or topics does your muse avoid, because they bring up harmful / painful memories?i mean. personally not much as he doesnt really have those kind of things? and even if he does, dan is pretty open to talk about his life and stuff thats happened, even if for nothing else than to share things with others to show that hey shit can be fucked up but you’ll survive and come through as a stronger person, you know? as for others, yeah if you tell him you dont like certain topics around them hes completely down to not bring them up for you and thats really that - hes not gonna question you or tease you about it or anything like that. dan just gonna take it as it is and be cool with it

honey: when your muse loves someone (whether it be romantic, platonic, or familial love), how do they show it?he can get very physically affectionate tbh. a lot of hugs and cuddles and hand holding. hes very much into sneaking little kisses on your face if your close enough. if youre not down with pda or are a friend or family, then its using words to tell you how much he likes and cares for you, and getting gifts to people of things he knows you like and stuff that makes him think about you when hes picking it out

chartreuse: if you had to describe your muse with a color, what color would it be and why?bbbbllluuuuue. like, a soft shade of blue. not like baby blue, but. blue. cause its his favorite color and i mean maybe this is a personal thing, but to me blue has never been a “cold” color, and knowing what kind of a soft warm personality dan is. yeah

anise: when it comes to self-care, what does your muse do to take care of themselves? do they take care to spend time on it, or do they feel they don't deserve it?he knows his self-worth, thats for sure. tho hes. really bad at taking care of himself if he has a lot to work on, especially when it comes to thinks hes passionate about? like if dan is in a creating mode its really hard to get him to sit down and chill out even for a hot moment, but outside of that he takes pretty good care of himself - doesnt put himself in situations he doesnt like and that get him stressed, actually eats pretty well and gets a decent amount of sleep too, spends time with friends and whatnot

new leaf: what message would your muse send to their past self, if any?mostly he would tell his younger self that things are going to be alright and get better, no matter how things seems to look like now (see ‘danny dont you know’ for example lol)

moss: how easily does your muse adapt to any new situations they're thrust into?hes pretty fast to adapt to new things, honestly. he gets along with people really well as long as they arent straight up assholes, and he loves to get to know new people and places all the time so being thrown into new stuff isnt scary or uncomfortable to him pretty much at all

silk: does your muse care about appearances much? do they spend a lot of time on their own appearance, or do they just go with the flow each day?oh he doesnt really care one way or another tbh. hes a tall boi with a crazy hair, its already hard enough for him to find fitting clothes and keep his hair in some sort of order, he doesnt need to stress about anything else lol. as for others, he doesnt really care either as long as. you dont smell awful tbh. hygiene is the one thing that he cares about honestly

sanguine: does your muse typically have an optimistic, pessimistic, or some middle ground outlook on life?hes an optimist for sure. sure like everyone he has low days, but even then hes trying to keep the outlook on life as positive as possible, no matter what

atoll: if your muse could go anywhere, without any restrictions whatsoever, where would they go? why would they go there?..i just high key wanna say to visit his grandma cause we all know how much he loves her mmmm. probably some other places too, but as far as im concerned, dan is just mostly content being anywhere he is or going or anything as long as he has people he loves around him tho

cool grey: if your muse could ensure one thing for certain in their future to come, what would it be?a stable music career tbh. and/or having people he cares about and who care for him around him

black: does your muse have a 'bucket list?' list some things your muse wants to accomplish before they die.im sure he does, dan is the kind of a person who would like to have some kind of goals in mind for life mmm. well, again with the music career tbh cause thats. kinda obvious. he probably would want to visit as many places in the world too. have like so many dogs. know that he has made someone happy in their day to day life, no matter in what way or who they are. stuff like that ~

colorful headcanons ~

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MIA: This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me

Maya Arulpragasam is bringing dancehall, hip-hop and grime to this years Meltdown. Is the outspoken British Sri Lankan the best argument for positive cultural appropriation?

The Guardian said that you couldnt shag to my record. As conversational openers go, MIAs beats the banal niceties of, say, Hello, how are you doing?. Its no surprise that she charges straight into a chat about why her last album was considered too confrontational for the bedroom by this paper. Its an icebreaker moulded to MIAs very own design: abrasive, compelling, underpinned by sex. Yeah, she finally concedes with a grin when I suggest we move past it, you cant have it all, can you?

Its a theme she warms up to when we talk about her edition of Meltdown at the Southbank Centre, which were ostensibly here to discuss. Usually, I wouldnt do something like this, she says, slouched under an oversized khaki coat dress. [But the organisers] were like: Hey, you can do whatever you want. Still, putting on the South Banks annual festival, curated in previous years by the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne and Patti Smith, has turned out to be a fairly arduous affair for MIA who says she doesnt do computers at the moment.

They didnt tell me it was nine days long. I thought it was a weekend. And then all my lists were, like, Well, this person wont be in London and that person is doing Glastonbury. Organising festivals is actually really complicated, she stresses. It wasnt just about dreaming something and then it appeared. Programming literally means, like, programming.

For all that Maya Arulpragasam didnt quite know what she was letting herself in for, one suspects the Southbank Centre didnt either; logistics aside, the mornings photoshoot has already been met with some flapping from the press officer made nervous by MIA climbing on the roof without safety clearance. Still, her lineup dancehall, Brooklyn hip-hop, depressive Swedish rap and Nigerian grime is perhaps the most underground the festival has seen in its 24 years. How much is she expecting to shake up its comfortable concert halls, cafe bars and conference-room spaces?

Click here to watch the video for last years Go Off.

When I was a teenager in London, I would just get a Travelcard and go somewhere, explore the city and go to weird places, she says. I would never judge the place, like, This is middle class and white. This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me, but there wasnt ever a limit on where I could go or what I could do.

A long, elliptical digression on London then and now follows, which takes in the optimistic multiculturalism of the 90s, Tamil house parties, empire and British identity. Its the bento box of an MIA interview: individually contained ideas that dont obviously bleed into one another and yet, overall, make a collective sense if youre prepared to go with it. Thats the key thing about MIA: you have to be willing to go with her to properly get her. Given that she still looks and sounds like a beautiful, bratty, art-school upstart and is prone to labyrinthine tangents, its easy to portray her as inarticulate or unhinged. But MIAs intelligence is instinctive rather than intellectual, and fuelled by the political.

The Mehrabian maxim that reckons that only 7% of communication is verbal is one that might best be proven by the transcript of a chat with MIA removed of all tone, attitude, context and body language. Take, for instance, her explanation of why only the future remains relevant:

As humans, we dont use our past and our history to work out the importance of what our role is in the present, she says. And if you cant use the past to define your present, then it should not be an element that holds back the future. Greece is a perfect example. More than Britain, they were brought to their knees, and not a single white country thought about saving them. And it was part of their heritage. Its where their mythology comes from or their concept of capitalism and democracy comes from. Nobody cared, everybody cared about the modern. Right?

Kim Kardashian is actually more powerful than Greece. She has more money than the whole of Greece, she continues. Therefore, thats where the power lies. If you then define it that way, then you kind of just have to live with that. And maybe whats happening in modern society: that if youre going to judge it by that, then other countries are gonna come in and define the future.

In print, its a statement that seems lacking in logic and coherence. In the moment, Im fairly sure Im able to follow her and we go on to consider how and where this future is being defined (for the record: You cant ignore the fact that China is going to be doing their thing in the next 50 years) and how Arulpragasam believes the immigration issue has become a red herring covering up a truth that can explain the American and British swing to conservative populism.

With Brexit, the idea was to get away from Europe and reinvent our identity, she says. And really, that identity was going to be American, but then they gave us Trump! So, everyone now is like, Oh shit, what is Britain? Are we going to rewind back to the 1800s? We cant. Its too late for that. So, going forward, we need a charismatic leader who then va va vooms the British identity. And we dont have that either.

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted … MIA. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith/The Guide

The prime minister has called a snap election on the day we meet. Does MIA have any faith in our political system? Or in the left?

Everyone keeps going, Corbyn cant do this, but its, like, well, who else is there? she says. If people just left him alone to actually do the job and actually gave him some support, maybe hed be different. Treating him with so much contempt fighting that takes all his energy. How the fuck do you expect him to do interesting things? In any case insists the estranged daughter of a Tamil revolutionary, politicians are people who couldnt get jobs somewhere else.

MIAs politics, unwieldy and unslick though they may be, have often made her an easy target for tedious sneering in the press; the most insistent narrative is that, like Banksy, shes big on arch, subversive statement but lacks substance. Or that she is a hypocrite for making herself the poster girl for the worlds most marginalised people. And yet, shes one of the best pop stars Britain has ever produced. For all the ear-clanging experimentation of her five albums, MIA has always kept a sleeve full of pop bangers Bucky Done Gun, Paper Planes, Bad Girls, Finally that have sounded like little that came before or since her. Even if she didnt have the tunes, here is an art-school refugee Sri Lankan single mother with a visual aesthetic co-opted by everyone from Vetements to Versace who was born into political rebellion and revels in controversy. Gleefully gauche and carefree, MIA is the best argument for when cultural appropriation works. Bland singer-songstress beloved of Radio 2 playlists she isnt. So how much has the criticism bothered her?

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted because Im not, she ays. I just had to fight for shit, and I still do. I just dont care any more. I dont know. She stops and starts. What I deal with as an artist, the media, the public persona, its a walk in the fucking park, compared to how confusing the universe really fucking is. Theres so much beauty in it and theres so much mystery, theres so much confusing shit in it. That is way more interesting to think about than why, like, Patricia hates me. You know what I mean? I laugh. Its like, Who the fuck is Patricia? and How can Patricia say this shit about me?. It just does not matter to me at all.As it is, she says shes most preoccupied with how to be a functioning grown up, an adult and a mother to an eight-year-old son (whose father Benjamin Bronfman is son to the billionaire heir of the Seagram fortune) born into immense privilege.

When the war came to an end in Sri Lanka in 2009, it actually did affect me, she explains. Everyone was, like, What the fuck does she know? Shes, like, a pop star, but that was my life. It was 50% of who I was, it was my identity. I didnt know what to do with myself. So I had a kid. Its the year the cause died, but the year my personal cause my son was born. And then, OK, I have to figure out what to do in very small parameters: I have a son, how is he going to see his grandma, am I going to make it there on Saturday? Can I make sure that I dont mess up his head by being depressed about certain things?

She struggles to reconcile her upbringing poor and living in Sri Lanka for her childhood to poor and living on a council estate in Mitcham, south London, in her adolescence with her sons. Im not very straightforward as an immigrant. That whole My kids would never see the pain that I saw; Im not like that. Im totally up for reintroducing him to the pain. I dont have any qualms about that. Her problems havent changed, she says, because of money or better circumstances. Whether Im in a mansion or a council flat, I would feel the same anxiety waking up going: I need to write this thing in a scrapbook, wheres my notepad? I would still have all those problems. I might still overcook the fish fingers. Those things are not going to magically transform because your house has changed. At the beginning I thought that money couldve saved my family. Very quickly I realised that money is not the thing.

Her conflict in wanting to being huge and commercial versus credible and ahead of the curve has been a persistent tension threaded through MIAs career. When I got into the music game, it was never an option to shut up and make lots of money. she says. To be a huge pop star, I would have to be, like, Yes, I think bombing Afghanistan was a great idea, I love our democracy and what it has achieved. I love the American flag and Im going to make a jumpsuit out of it. I just think it was important to have all of those Arab Springs, and its great and lets drink Coca-Cola. I had to do that, and do it all in a thong. Could I have done that if it meant that my mum had the nicest house in Chiswick by the river?

Click here to se the video for MIAs Bad Girls.

Does she worry about money now? If youre preaching living within your means, you have to, to some extent. But I also know that if youre someone in society that speaks out about injustice or political issues, one of the things that happens is that you get economically punished, 100%. I take that hit all the time.

The most recent, obvious example was MIA being forced to quit her headline slot at Afropunk last year, following a contentious quote in which she asked in an interview why Beyonc and Kendrick Lamar might not discuss why Muslim lives matter or Syrian lives matter. I dont regret [raising the issue], she says, with triumphant chutzpah. You saw how bad it was. And the Muslim ban didnt happen just with Trump, it was already happening under Obama. But you couldnt say that about him, you couldnt say that he introduced the Muslim ban, or banned seven different countries, or was already monitoring people, or dropped more bombs than Trump has. In truth, Obamas administration did identify the seven countries on Trumps list for additional screening measures, but it didnt bar their nationals. Shes already skipped ahead. The quantity of damage cant be quantified right now, she insists. Well have to wait the four years. After eight years of Obama, we kind of knew [his failings], but we just werent allowed to say them because he was so great. He was better than any person in Hollywood that I wouldve watched. He was really likable and just had loads of swag. That doesnt mean that you have to deny the truth, though.

This (and much more) comes moments after she tells me she has no time for opinions these days. She claims she doesnt read the news any more and that her primary sources for information are customers at the local kebab shop, taxi drivers and then sort of figuring it out. What about the state of the world? MIAs moment as an agitprop pop activist has never seemed more potent. Politics? I have no time for these things because Im so stuck in the zone. Ive become a hermit. [Meltdown] is actually giving me the chance to actually go out and meet people again. Ive gone for weeks without talking to a person, I do that happily. I tell her I dont believe her, as I suspect it would be a recipe for her to go fully barmy.

Im actually quite an extreme person, so I dont see that as madness. I see that as, like, solitude, doing a phase of solitude is not that bad. After declaring her fifth album AIM to be her final one, shes also trying to find new ways to channel her creativity. Im trying to write a film. I havent stepped into it yet because I want it to be good. Once you hit the start button you cant really stop it. She has, she tells me, the added complication of ADD to contend with. When was that diagnosed? I just have it. Dont even need diagnosis, its a waste of time, its a waste of the NHS. In truly blithe MIA style, she adds: Its just when you have too many ideas and not enough ways to get them out.

MIAs Meltdown is at the Southbank Centre, SE1, 9-18 June

Read more: http://ift.tt/2rBtxTD

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[trendingnewsb]

MIA: This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me

Maya Arulpragasam is bringing dancehall, hip-hop and grime to this years Meltdown. Is the outspoken British Sri Lankan the best argument for positive cultural appropriation?

The Guardian said that you couldnt shag to my record. As conversational openers go, MIAs beats the banal niceties of, say, Hello, how are you doing?. Its no surprise that she charges straight into a chat about why her last album was considered too confrontational for the bedroom by this paper. Its an icebreaker moulded to MIAs very own design: abrasive, compelling, underpinned by sex. Yeah, she finally concedes with a grin when I suggest we move past it, you cant have it all, can you?

Its a theme she warms up to when we talk about her edition of Meltdown at the Southbank Centre, which were ostensibly here to discuss. Usually, I wouldnt do something like this, she says, slouched under an oversized khaki coat dress. [But the organisers] were like: Hey, you can do whatever you want. Still, putting on the South Banks annual festival, curated in previous years by the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne and Patti Smith, has turned out to be a fairly arduous affair for MIA who says she doesnt do computers at the moment.

They didnt tell me it was nine days long. I thought it was a weekend. And then all my lists were, like, Well, this person wont be in London and that person is doing Glastonbury. Organising festivals is actually really complicated, she stresses. It wasnt just about dreaming something and then it appeared. Programming literally means, like, programming.

For all that Maya Arulpragasam didnt quite know what she was letting herself in for, one suspects the Southbank Centre didnt either; logistics aside, the mornings photoshoot has already been met with some flapping from the press officer made nervous by MIA climbing on the roof without safety clearance. Still, her lineup dancehall, Brooklyn hip-hop, depressive Swedish rap and Nigerian grime is perhaps the most underground the festival has seen in its 24 years. How much is she expecting to shake up its comfortable concert halls, cafe bars and conference-room spaces?

Click here to watch the video for last years Go Off.

When I was a teenager in London, I would just get a Travelcard and go somewhere, explore the city and go to weird places, she says. I would never judge the place, like, This is middle class and white. This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me, but there wasnt ever a limit on where I could go or what I could do.

A long, elliptical digression on London then and now follows, which takes in the optimistic multiculturalism of the 90s, Tamil house parties, empire and British identity. Its the bento box of an MIA interview: individually contained ideas that dont obviously bleed into one another and yet, overall, make a collective sense if youre prepared to go with it. Thats the key thing about MIA: you have to be willing to go with her to properly get her. Given that she still looks and sounds like a beautiful, bratty, art-school upstart and is prone to labyrinthine tangents, its easy to portray her as inarticulate or unhinged. But MIAs intelligence is instinctive rather than intellectual, and fuelled by the political.

The Mehrabian maxim that reckons that only 7% of communication is verbal is one that might best be proven by the transcript of a chat with MIA removed of all tone, attitude, context and body language. Take, for instance, her explanation of why only the future remains relevant:

As humans, we dont use our past and our history to work out the importance of what our role is in the present, she says. And if you cant use the past to define your present, then it should not be an element that holds back the future. Greece is a perfect example. More than Britain, they were brought to their knees, and not a single white country thought about saving them. And it was part of their heritage. Its where their mythology comes from or their concept of capitalism and democracy comes from. Nobody cared, everybody cared about the modern. Right?

Kim Kardashian is actually more powerful than Greece. She has more money than the whole of Greece, she continues. Therefore, thats where the power lies. If you then define it that way, then you kind of just have to live with that. And maybe whats happening in modern society: that if youre going to judge it by that, then other countries are gonna come in and define the future.

In print, its a statement that seems lacking in logic and coherence. In the moment, Im fairly sure Im able to follow her and we go on to consider how and where this future is being defined (for the record: You cant ignore the fact that China is going to be doing their thing in the next 50 years) and how Arulpragasam believes the immigration issue has become a red herring covering up a truth that can explain the American and British swing to conservative populism.

With Brexit, the idea was to get away from Europe and reinvent our identity, she says. And really, that identity was going to be American, but then they gave us Trump! So, everyone now is like, Oh shit, what is Britain? Are we going to rewind back to the 1800s? We cant. Its too late for that. So, going forward, we need a charismatic leader who then va va vooms the British identity. And we dont have that either.

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted … MIA. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith/The Guide

The prime minister has called a snap election on the day we meet. Does MIA have any faith in our political system? Or in the left?

Everyone keeps going, Corbyn cant do this, but its, like, well, who else is there? she says. If people just left him alone to actually do the job and actually gave him some support, maybe hed be different. Treating him with so much contempt fighting that takes all his energy. How the fuck do you expect him to do interesting things? In any case insists the estranged daughter of a Tamil revolutionary, politicians are people who couldnt get jobs somewhere else.

MIAs politics, unwieldy and unslick though they may be, have often made her an easy target for tedious sneering in the press; the most insistent narrative is that, like Banksy, shes big on arch, subversive statement but lacks substance. Or that she is a hypocrite for making herself the poster girl for the worlds most marginalised people. And yet, shes one of the best pop stars Britain has ever produced. For all the ear-clanging experimentation of her five albums, MIA has always kept a sleeve full of pop bangers Bucky Done Gun, Paper Planes, Bad Girls, Finally that have sounded like little that came before or since her. Even if she didnt have the tunes, here is an art-school refugee Sri Lankan single mother with a visual aesthetic co-opted by everyone from Vetements to Versace who was born into political rebellion and revels in controversy. Gleefully gauche and carefree, MIA is the best argument for when cultural appropriation works. Bland singer-songstress beloved of Radio 2 playlists she isnt. So how much has the criticism bothered her?

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted because Im not, she ays. I just had to fight for shit, and I still do. I just dont care any more. I dont know. She stops and starts. What I deal with as an artist, the media, the public persona, its a walk in the fucking park, compared to how confusing the universe really fucking is. Theres so much beauty in it and theres so much mystery, theres so much confusing shit in it. That is way more interesting to think about than why, like, Patricia hates me. You know what I mean? I laugh. Its like, Who the fuck is Patricia? and How can Patricia say this shit about me?. It just does not matter to me at all.As it is, she says shes most preoccupied with how to be a functioning grown up, an adult and a mother to an eight-year-old son (whose father Benjamin Bronfman is son to the billionaire heir of the Seagram fortune) born into immense privilege.

When the war came to an end in Sri Lanka in 2009, it actually did affect me, she explains. Everyone was, like, What the fuck does she know? Shes, like, a pop star, but that was my life. It was 50% of who I was, it was my identity. I didnt know what to do with myself. So I had a kid. Its the year the cause died, but the year my personal cause my son was born. And then, OK, I have to figure out what to do in very small parameters: I have a son, how is he going to see his grandma, am I going to make it there on Saturday? Can I make sure that I dont mess up his head by being depressed about certain things?

She struggles to reconcile her upbringing poor and living in Sri Lanka for her childhood to poor and living on a council estate in Mitcham, south London, in her adolescence with her sons. Im not very straightforward as an immigrant. That whole My kids would never see the pain that I saw; Im not like that. Im totally up for reintroducing him to the pain. I dont have any qualms about that. Her problems havent changed, she says, because of money or better circumstances. Whether Im in a mansion or a council flat, I would feel the same anxiety waking up going: I need to write this thing in a scrapbook, wheres my notepad? I would still have all those problems. I might still overcook the fish fingers. Those things are not going to magically transform because your house has changed. At the beginning I thought that money couldve saved my family. Very quickly I realised that money is not the thing.

Her conflict in wanting to being huge and commercial versus credible and ahead of the curve has been a persistent tension threaded through MIAs career. When I got into the music game, it was never an option to shut up and make lots of money. she says. To be a huge pop star, I would have to be, like, Yes, I think bombing Afghanistan was a great idea, I love our democracy and what it has achieved. I love the American flag and Im going to make a jumpsuit out of it. I just think it was important to have all of those Arab Springs, and its great and lets drink Coca-Cola. I had to do that, and do it all in a thong. Could I have done that if it meant that my mum had the nicest house in Chiswick by the river?

Click here to se the video for MIAs Bad Girls.

Does she worry about money now? If youre preaching living within your means, you have to, to some extent. But I also know that if youre someone in society that speaks out about injustice or political issues, one of the things that happens is that you get economically punished, 100%. I take that hit all the time.

The most recent, obvious example was MIA being forced to quit her headline slot at Afropunk last year, following a contentious quote in which she asked in an interview why Beyonc and Kendrick Lamar might not discuss why Muslim lives matter or Syrian lives matter. I dont regret [raising the issue], she says, with triumphant chutzpah. You saw how bad it was. And the Muslim ban didnt happen just with Trump, it was already happening under Obama. But you couldnt say that about him, you couldnt say that he introduced the Muslim ban, or banned seven different countries, or was already monitoring people, or dropped more bombs than Trump has. In truth, Obamas administration did identify the seven countries on Trumps list for additional screening measures, but it didnt bar their nationals. Shes already skipped ahead. The quantity of damage cant be quantified right now, she insists. Well have to wait the four years. After eight years of Obama, we kind of knew [his failings], but we just werent allowed to say them because he was so great. He was better than any person in Hollywood that I wouldve watched. He was really likable and just had loads of swag. That doesnt mean that you have to deny the truth, though.

This (and much more) comes moments after she tells me she has no time for opinions these days. She claims she doesnt read the news any more and that her primary sources for information are customers at the local kebab shop, taxi drivers and then sort of figuring it out. What about the state of the world? MIAs moment as an agitprop pop activist has never seemed more potent. Politics? I have no time for these things because Im so stuck in the zone. Ive become a hermit. [Meltdown] is actually giving me the chance to actually go out and meet people again. Ive gone for weeks without talking to a person, I do that happily. I tell her I dont believe her, as I suspect it would be a recipe for her to go fully barmy.

Im actually quite an extreme person, so I dont see that as madness. I see that as, like, solitude, doing a phase of solitude is not that bad. After declaring her fifth album AIM to be her final one, shes also trying to find new ways to channel her creativity. Im trying to write a film. I havent stepped into it yet because I want it to be good. Once you hit the start button you cant really stop it. She has, she tells me, the added complication of ADD to contend with. When was that diagnosed? I just have it. Dont even need diagnosis, its a waste of time, its a waste of the NHS. In truly blithe MIA style, she adds: Its just when you have too many ideas and not enough ways to get them out.

MIAs Meltdown is at the Southbank Centre, SE1, 9-18 June

Read more: http://ift.tt/2rBtxTD

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2rbYbGf via Viral News HQ

[tumblunni]

MAN I tried messing around starting newgame plus on Digimon Cyber Sleuth, even though I’ve played more than enough already so I’m not really gonna play again so soon after finishing. And... WHAT THE HELL?? Seriously this is like a one game microcosm of how you don’t realise how much you’re being mistreated until you see how the other side lives. Specifically on the subject of weird minority stereotypes... The difference between the designs/animations/general presentation of the two gender options is REALLY BIZARRE?? I had no clue! Playing as the girl you just kinda think ‘yeah thats weird maybe’ but you dont realise the dude doesnt have the same problems. Like... she VERY MUCH suffers from the ‘miss male character’ trope. She’s the weird sort of ‘lol sexy genderswap deviantart fanfiction’ version of a female option. I thought I was just reading too much into it with how the girl is posed like a supporting character on the boxart and literally never appeared in any of the promotional material until the game came out... Its just so... ODD! Everything EVERYTHING about her is defined to be this overthetop stereotypical idea of ‘we have to let them know she’s the girl version’. She’s far more sexualized, she always does these ‘girly’ or ‘hot’ poses for LITERALLY EVERYTHING! Like, the dude’s animation is just running but she has to run with her arms wide out to the sides, skipping like a five year old and swaying her hips. And her standing pose also has the hands out, her toes inturned, her chest thrust forwards and this general sort of ‘tee hee hee’ thing?? It really REALLY started to bug me how her chest is ALWAYS thrust forwards, I started to get super anxious about ‘holy shit am I ever doing that when I walk and i dont know it? is this really how female bodies are supposed to work??’. Its like her resting pose is this thing and its extremely painful for her to fold her joints back into a normal mode. And she’s always always posing when the dude isnt posing AT ALL, even her selection screen image is her doing the ‘one leg bounces back while you kiss someone’ type pose, contorted into a wild accordion while he’s just looking at the camera. I jsut... didnt even realise what was bothering me so much about playing as this character, til i saw the total absence of it on the dude... SERIOUSLY! He doesnt have some overstereotypical super huge macho animation set, his design isnt made to yell ‘I’M MALE’, he isnt sexualized, he isnt the ‘one body type everyone in this gender has to have’. He’s a scrawny androgenous waif that could have worked equally well if you slapped the label female on that design, somehow to make him female they decided they had to scoop out holes in his waist and hips and shove them on his chest. While also adding a bazillion extra animations that make her walk around everywhere like that one damn gif of terrible ragdoll physics as some guy walks down a road. I did not understand that whole assassins creed controversy about ‘but women need more animations, it’d be too much work to add them’. NOW I UNDERSTAND. Why on EARTH do they think they need these animations?? Women dont have to do everything differently to men to prove theyre women, in real life literally nobody worries about accentuating stereotypical gender roles while doing COMPLETELY NORMAL THINGS. Women dont put huge effort into looking cute or sexy while they’re just frickin walking down the street or standing alone in the privacy of their own home. Its like these people know so little about women outside of hollywood femme fatale movies that they legit think that sort of walk cycle is biologically ingrained into one gender???? The fact nobody ever acts like macho bodybuilder walk cycles should be given to normal tiny teenagers in every situation makes it pretty clear the difference here... And seriously, what is even this universal THING that ‘male are default, you need to mark a character as different to show she’s female’? Which usually means making her more feminine than the real female actor playing her, like that even makes a damn lick of sense :P I mean seriously if we’re gonna talk actual biology, men are the ‘different’. A species cannot exist with only men, the only one sex species are all female. Or lack a sex, or contain both sets of genitals. Also there is at least one bird species that has two male genders as well as female. And male seahorses get pregnant, and male clownfish can physically transition into females as part of their natural life cycle. And all sorts of far more diverse things we humans can barely understand! And like... you can say ‘women are the different and men are the blank, because women have boobs and men don’t’. But you can also say that women are the default because men are the same thing with penises added. And seriously, boobs are just nipples that actually serve their intended purpose. Women have this extra function compared to men because MALE BREASTS ARE VESTIGAL! The organ still exists, it just sits there doing nothing and never changes at puberty. (Though even that is more fluid that you’d expect, there are ways to induce lactation even if you’re a cis man. i dont really know why anyone would want to do that, it wouldnt exactly work as well, but whatever.) Aaaaand OF COURSE this entire thing is a stupid argument anyway because it only talks about biology, which is not the same thing as gender. Not to mention that biological sex isn’t all cut and dry either, the human species has A LOT of different intersex conditions. You can even have people who don’t have significant enough outward symptoms to be recognised as intersex at birth, who go their whole life thinking they’re a cis male only to suddenly find out they had an undiagnosed hormone condition and are technically a trans man. There is most definately no magical biological guideline for how men and women act. Especially frickin stupid nonsense like overspecific cultural guidelines on what’s cute for a woman to do while running, geez. You really can;t just ‘tell’ that someone is ‘really a woman’ or ‘really a man’ cos of how they act, and thats why this stuff pisses me off even when the story isnt saying anything about trans people. I’m so used to seeing this overexaggerated japanese concept of feminine/masculine mannerisms being used on trans stereotypes, it bugs me even seeing it being done to cis women... gahh this has gone wildly offtopic and I’m just venting Everything Bad About Stereotypes rather than the specific thing about this specific game I need to logoff and go cheer myself up. OH BUT yeah this game also literally has a friggin ‘we can tell this man is really a woman because mannerisms’ scene :P which also dissappointed the hell out of me cos it seemed like a trans character and instead it was the cliche I Had Some Reason To Pretend To Be A Man thing... Also apparantly instead of acting like that male persona, the male persona was magical brainwashing virtual reality stuff. What a wasted opportunity! You could have told us a lot of stuff about her personality from comparing how she acted while under this other fake personality, and what it implies she hides from other people. Like ‘hey, maybe she actually can be confident as long as she’s wearing a mask!’ Nah, everything badass or tough or sassy she did was just mind control. And she’s not trans. And blehh being outed by ‘acting like a girl’... Its so weird cos the game actually does have one trans npc in a sidequest, and has trans themes with a few major digimon. In the sense that they were male in previous seasons and have designs considered ‘masculine’ but take female forms when disguising themselves as humans. (and the player-controlled versions of these digivolutions even have different masculine voices matching earlier seasons!) Gahhhh at least I can sit here hugging my ambiguously genderqueer alphamon headcanons and nobody can tell me those arent canon cos the question was never answered either way! I hate the cliche answer that ‘yes all alphamons are male cos they ‘look male’, this one was just a man disguised as a woman’, but still even if that was the intent, it means the character is trans coded! EITHER OPTION IS TRANS TIME protect me, alphamon protect me from super gender essentialist game how do you even EXIST in this game?? seriously even your human disguise was super fanservicey weird female stereotypes mannnnnn i guess I had a few problems with this game aside from the one stupid rape scene :P aaaaand the problem of the game clearly being written assuming nobody would play the female option, so characters still constantly call you ‘he’ and such the only good consolation being that the game accidentally becomes Hella Gay, though I would have preferred canon lesbians instead of this weirdness WHY CANT FEI AND YUUKO BE CANON IT GOT SO CLOSE TO BEING CANON THEN FEI DISSAPPEARED FROM THE PLOT FOREVER only reappearing as a postgame newgame plus bonus boss that makes it impossible to complete the damn Masters Cup damn you fei damn you awesome amazing hella gay fei whom i love you deserved to be in a better game you deserved to be the matt-esque rival, i will never forget that you started off teasing that role and then just vanished... HELL, CAN SHE BE THE PROTAGONIST OF A SEQUEL OR SOMETHING game entirely about her and yuuko’s amazing story of love! also alphamon wandering in just to yell ‘I AM CANONICALLY TRANSGENDER’, make everyone a cup of coffee, and leave aaaaa why did i spend so long rambling every single complaint about this game, games in general, gender stereotypes in gender, life in general... its weird how just realizing ONE THING about a stupid walk cycle animation made me realise my general nebulous feeling of uncomfortableness that I could never explain about this game :P I am really excited for digimon world next order being better than this!