#what is the popular opinion about Dyson these days I’d love to know

[roykleinberg]

Unpopular Tron opinion: Dyson is waaay less interesting in canon than the fandom makes him out to be. 🤷‍♂️

(I elaborated on this but changed my mind and cut three paragraphs lol)

tron confessional with moss

ohoh see now this is a Hot Take

and one that I don’t necessarily disagree with

I’ve said before and I’ll say again that I have gripes with Uprising, and unfortunately I think a good number of them come down to the fact that it’s an unfinished narrative. I really didn’t feel like the characters started to gel in an interesting way until post-Scars, and then the rug got pulled out from under us. so many plot threads and character development pieces never came to fruition — and I think that can definitely be felt with Dyson. it’s natural for any fandom to expand on characters well past their canon, especially in situations where things were cut and opportunities for canonical development were lost. I clearly have side character brainrot so I can’t really judge lol

but regarding Dyson specifically. hmm. yeahhhh. he seemed relatively one note in the show to me, honestly more so than Clu even — and there’s a sidebar discussion to be had there, because my tangential unpopular opinion is that I think Uprising took away from Clu as a character by having so many secondary villains. I liked the Argon antagonist trio a lot, but Dyson’s presence specifically removed some of the personal edge that made Clu’s whole deal interesting to me in the first place. by having Dyson be Tron’s bestie that turned on him and tortured him while Clu was kinda just. there. it squashed a lot of the tension between Tron and Clu, because I always felt like Tron’s repurposing was another deeply personal middle finger at Flynn — and foisting that process (or at least the start of it) off on Dyson just didn’t hit the same for me

and other than that there’s just never been anything super compelling about Dyson to me personally. or at least there’s nothing particularly unique about him? Cyrus also turned on Tron and whatever was wrong with him was way more interesting. Paige was a willing Occupation participant based on anti-ISO lies and was again more interesting to me. Dyson apparently just has a massive shift to fantasy racism after a single incident, and then proceeds to become an evil cop about it — without any of the nuance that Paige had

one other additional point that ties into this a bit but also my general why does everyone hate Flynn sentiments — it drives me up a wall that no one acknowledges that one of Flynn’s biggest dickhead moments, when he brushes Dyson off after the riot, comes entirely from a flashback from Dyson’s perspective. and based on his feelings and present day loyalties I don’t think we have any reason to believe he’s a reliable narrator, or that his memory of that interaction isn’t tainted by super obvious biases. Flynn clearly wasn’t perfect, but I’ve always side eyed that scene for being a little ooc based on who was recounting it

but like I said, I do wonder if a second season would’ve added more to Dyson, and I don’t suppose we’ll ever know :’) also please come back with your paragraphs I would always love to hear More Thoughts

[free-martinis]

Words by ROBIN SWITHINBANK 

Photography by MATT HOLYOAK

Styling byGARETH SCOURFIELD

“It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect to hear a movie star say, at least, not one who has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of all time. ‘I’m not part of the Hollywood A-list,’ says Martin Freeman, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I’m genuinely not. No. Nowhere near.’

That might sound unduly modest, but the thing is, despite appearing as the titular figure in Peter Jackson’s $3bn Hobbit super-franchise; despite being part of Marvel’s universe (twice, most recently in Black Panther); despite appearing alongside the likes of Billy Bob Thornton (as Lester Nygaard in the Coen-brothers-inspired TV hit Fargo) and Benedict Cumberbatch (as Dr John Watson in Sherlock); and despite being an Emmy and BAFTA-award winning actor (both for Sherlock), he’s not.

‘For a lot of people, the Hobbit was played by Bilbo Baggins,’ he says, that familiar look of knowing resignation writ large across his face. Surely playing the heroic halfling has transformed his career and spun him into the red-carpet superstar galaxy? ‘I don’t know how many people after that thought: “Get me that guy.” I genuinely don’t know. It didn’t feel like it made a massive difference to me. Honest to God.’ Perhaps that will explain where he keeps those awards. ‘On my roof,’ he quips. ‘So people can see them.’

It’s tempting to cast Freeman as unhappy. There’s certainly a tension in him. In person, he’s courteous and engaged – he says words like ‘genuinely’ and ‘literally’ often and fervently – but there’s a sharpness to his opinions, and there’s plenty that riles him. That said, he seems at one with his lot. Mostly. ‘I will allow myself to be proud of that,’ he says of his awards, clearly trying not to big himself up. ‘I do alright. I do OK.’

Martin Freeman might have done some blockbusters in his time, but his first love is independent film. His latest vehicle is Ghost Stories, a proper spooky, throw-your-popcorn-in-the-air fright fest. It’s also an anthology – the fashionable format of our time – featuring the mercurial talents of Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther and Andy Nyman. Freeman appears in the third and final act as a wealthy city trader with a ghost problem no prominent psychiatrist has been able to explain. It’s a bleak piece, but it’s funny, too, particularly when Freeman’s natural comic talents are front and centre.

‘People are being hit badly. I’d happily vote for someone who’s going to tax me more’

It is also, for reasons that can’t be explained without spoiling the film, another reminder that the 46-year-old is one of our most versatile actors (‘To be a good comic actor means you’re a good actor, right?’). We spend 10 minutes discussing the film, which Nyman co-wrote and co-directed with Jeremy ‘League of Gentlemen’ Dyson, before it dawns on us that we can’t really talk about it. Not on paper, anyway. One salient detail gets the full treatment, before Freeman jumps in: ‘Don’t give that away, for f**k’s sake!’ he implores. ‘This is my first interview for the film and I’ve already f**ked it up…’

Freeman is not known for his candour. He doesn’t do a lot of interviews and he’s no self publicist (he’s not on social media), only letting it slip that he and Sherlock co-star Amanda Abbington had split after two kids and 16 years together in an interview with the FT a year after the event. Is he with anyone now? ‘Well,’ he says, folding his arms. ‘I would never tell you if I was.’

Conversation about his background and family is therefore a bit stilted. He was born in Aldershot and grew up the youngest of five siblings in Teddington (‘yes, those are the facts.’). His parents split not long after he was born, but he recalls a happy home. ‘We kissed a lot and hugged a lot,’ he says. ‘I mean, it wasn’t The Brady Bunch – we also f**king screamed and shouted a lot.’

They were creative, too, a ‘showy-offy family, no wallflowers’. He’s the only career actor, a path he was encouraged to follow, particularly by his mother, who never got the chance. ‘I was only met with support,’ he says. ‘I didn’t have to leave home, I wasn’t booted out. I know people who faced active hostility from their parents, because it’s so unsafe and it’s in the lap of the gods whether you’ll be able to feed yourself or not.’

These days, Freeman is certainly able to feed himself. Over the past 20 years, his talents have served him well. His big break came in The Office, the mockumentary cringeathon that also made household names of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Mackenzie Crook. ‘I’m very proud of it,’ he says of the show that in 2004 became the first British sitcom to win a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical. ‘I still think it’s a phenomenal show. And I still think the central performance [Gervais’s] is one of the best things I’ve ever seen, let alone acted with. I could not have wanted a better break.’

The apocryphal stories surrounding the show are legion, but the one about him originally auditioning to play Gareth, Crook’s character and the butt of all the jokes, rather than Tim, is true. Gervais and his co-creator Merchant spotted something in Freeman audiences have come to know him by. ‘The Office is basically a room full of Laurels and one Hardy, which is Tim,’ Gervais once told The Sun. ‘Tim’s character is pretty common in comedy – that person who thinks they’re better than everyone else, but it doesn’t seem to get them anywhere.’

For a time, it seemed Freeman might suffer the same fate. He became known as the guy that did ‘that face’. He once appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and was invited by host Simon Amstell to do a ‘sigh-off’ with Gavin & Stacey’s routinely put-upon Mathew Horne. Did he worry he’d never lose that tag? ‘Yeah, I was nervous about that,’ he admits. ‘The thing is, I can do that face. But that face, it’s Oliver Hardy’s face. Not my face. He did it 70 years before I did. That’s just me channelling Oliver Hardy.’ Gervais was right, then.

During the mid-2000s, he picked up roles in Love Actually and Hot Fuzz, and played the lead in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Then came Sherlock, The Hobbit, Fargo, the awards and a lot more public attention. ‘I was out last night, having a drink with a friend, walking around town. There are people following you around with camera phones in your face – it’s not pleasant.’

The public is never far from Freeman’s mind. He’s openly political, not exactly in a ‘Ladies and gentleman, the next President of the United States of America’ kind of way (we’ve established he’s not Hollywood – he doesn’t even own a home in the US), but he did front a party political broadcast for the Labour Party in 2015 and endorsed Jeremy Corbyn’s successful leadership bid later that year. A question about fairness opens the floodgates. ‘I do genuinely think this Government is f**king up. I really do,’ he says. ‘And that’s not to say that a Labour Government would be doing much better. But I think people are being hit genuinely really badly, who shouldn’t be. That’s why I’d happily vote for someone who’s going to tax me more.’

Pardon? ‘I think I should be taxed more. I’ve got more money than a lot of people. In my lifetime, there have always been homeless people. Now there’s even more. Food banks, and people being made homeless by not being able to afford their houses, and not enough social housing being made or built, and austerity on and on and on… I don’t know what we expect to happen, but if you’re doing that and cutting the police, what the f**k do you think is going to happen?’

‘We’re getting more polarised. The inability to see the other side is a problem. Social media has helped do away with nuance’

He’s only too conscious of the conflict in being a very wealthy movie star who thinks more should be done to support the disenfranchised. ‘I get it,’ he says. ‘I get why people say: “Who is this prick?” I get it. Most people aren’t as lucky as me. That’s just the truth. So I can see easily why it comes across as pontificating, why it comes across as being champagne socialist. Which is what we’re all called, as soon as you’re not on the dole. If you’re vaguely famous and say anything left wing, it’s a very easy stick to hit you with.’

That’s the natural framework of popular discourse, though, surely? A binary response is easiest. ‘But we’re getting more polarised,’ he retorts. ‘Definitely. The inability to see the other side is a problem. Unless someone is actually driving down your street in a Panzer, then I think you have to keep dialogue. Social media has helped do away with nuance. If me and you have a disagreement here, we can still have a cup of tea. But we do it on social media – then you’re a Nazi.

‘We can’t go on like that. I will easily say I think Trump is a vile pig, but I don’t think every single person who votes Republican is a vile pig. That would be crazy. And I certainly don’t think that about everyone who votes Conservative. It’s not my team. It’s not my party. But do I know Conservatives? Do I like ’em? ’Course I do. Can I not stand some Labour people? Yeah, I can’t stand some of them. So, my hope would be, genuinely, that we start to put our phones down for a minute, and actually not get involved in these f**king wars, which are so safe to have, and so self-righteous… It costs you nothing to be an armchair activist.’

In Ghost Stories the themes of guilt, good and bad and choice run through the piece, holding it together. In one particularly chilling scene, Freeman’s character utters the deliciously portentous line, ‘I didn’t believe in evil until that night…’ He was brought up a Catholic, but isn’t ‘card-carrying’ now. Does he think the film is a modern parable, a wake-up call to burst our secular bubble?

‘Maybe,’ he says reluctantly. ‘I’m one of the only people who I know in my world who isn’t an atheist. I like the questions. That’s where the interesting stuff happens. I’m equally uneasy with hardcore unquestioning atheists as I am with born-again Christians with their hands in the air and their eyes closed. In the same way that yes, I’m of the Left, but there are people and things about the Left that make me very uncomfortable. The sort of unquestioning, demonising of anyone who doesn’t agree with you, kind of thing. I see that in atheists – if you don’t agree with me, you’re intrinsically a moron. And that isn’t helpful. The older I get, the more I realise you need dialogue.’

This, it seems, is the real Freeman. Vocal, ardent, yet nuanced. But he’s not claiming the soapbox. ‘Let’s face it, I wasn’t a very good omen in 2015,’ he says of his virtual doorstepping days. ‘I don’t want my voice to be a political voice. I’m not some political genius. There’s one thing I’m good at, and it’s acting. I have absolute faith in my ability to do that.’

Like it or not, he has a voice. Thank goodness, it’s not the hashtaggable, awards-season friendly voice of many of his fellow actors. He’s more balanced than that. More open to argument. That’s what we saw – and loved – in Tim. In Lester. In Bilbo. In Freeman, we see life’s ambiguousness, its ludicrousness, its ordinariness.

Freeman has to go. He’s got ‘kiddy things’ to do. He’s an active father when he’s not working, and frankly, I’m holding him up. In a flash, he’s gone.

[surveysonfleek]

1295.

Favorite day of Homecoming Week? we don’t celebrate that here. Which youtuber have you learned the most from? hmm. geography now lately lol. What is your favorite type of church that you’ve visited? my friends got married at a cathedral a couple months ago. i was in awe of how grand it was. it was amazing. What different types of churches have you visited? so far i’ve been to catholic churches, russian orthodox churches, buddhist temples and a hindu temple. What type of church do you hate or dislike? don’t really have a type that i hate.

Who would you want to be the flower girl at your wedding? no idea! depends when i get married and the girls that’ll be in my life around then. Do you want to be married within the next ten years? yeah for sure. Do you feel like your life is too fast-paced, or do you wish it were busier? life has been passing me by. Do you prefer to be busy or bored? i’d prefer a super busy day and then a day of complete peace after. What are your current favorite hobbies? eh, not sure. i’ve been doing a ton of diy party stuff for my sister’s upcoming 21st. i’ve tried making a huge cake, balloon garlands and a huge 3d 21 sign covered in tissue paper made to look like flowers. What are some hobbies which you want to pick up? not sure. i haven’t had much time to think up of new hobbies. Does anyone encourage you to go after your dreams? yes. What group are you most active in on facebook? probably the group i’m in for work. it’s the one i use most anyway. Are you ashamed of anything? yes. where i am in life. What were your favorite Disney rides as a kid? i only went to disney like twice as a kid. i always loved tower of terror. What were your favorite rides at Cedar Point? never been. What are some places you want to visit that you’ve never been? japan, the bahamas, bora bora, new zealand. What are some places that you’ve been that you’d like to go to again? amsterdam, san francisco, singapore. What kind of dog is your favorite? i love corgis. List five youtubers you love. jkparty, itsjudyslife, daily dose of internet, no idea what else. i’ve been getting over youtube lately. What DIY project do you want to do next? probably more party related stuff. When was the last time you wore a sweater? yesterday. What color was the last sweater you wore? brown. Have you ever owned a succulent? nope. Favorite type of tea to drink in the fall? chai. Do you support small businesses? i will when i can. lately i’ve been saving hard so i haven’t done much spending. If a brand were to sponsor you, which brand(s) would you prefer? dyson. i just want their new air styler thing. Have you read the entire Bible? nope. Do you make bucket lists for each season? no. What is the next hobby you want to start? cooking seriously i guess. What do you need to buy at the grocery store next? idk. How old were you when you first dyed your hair? umm. maybe 12? it didn’t work since my hair was so dark. i didn’t bleach it until when i was about 15. Do you dye your hair regularly? i haven’t dyed my hair in over 3 years. What is the most comfortable type of pants, in your opinion? leggings. oh and sweatpants. What makes you depressed? life. What magazine would you like to be in? none lol. magazines are pretty obsolete. Do you think you could ever be famous? no. Do you think you have what it takes to make it big in the entertainment biz? nope. What industry is it that you want to go into? no idea. maybe the travel industry. Do you have a job now? If so, what is it? yes. What are some jobs you’ve had in the past? i’ve worked in retail, food and bev and social media. What are some jobs you want to or would like to have? List five. idkkkk. What are some jobs you have considered? i’ve considered so many different paths. i’m in between applying jobs so we’ll see where that takes me. List 10 favorite girls’ names. i can’t even name two. List 10 favorite boys’ names. ^ Which stereotype do you fit the most? none. Are you thankful for social media, or do you wish it didn’t exist? i didn’t mind back in the myspace days where it didn’t take over our lives too much. now it’s everywhere. businesses rely on it, there’s ads scattered everywhere and it’s a damn popularity contest. Do you think social media is beneficial? Or is it destructive? it can be both. i don’t really delve into social media that much. i use it everyday but don’t share too much about my life so i’m cool with that. Have you ever been socially awkward? yes. Have you ever acted awkward in front of a crush? duh. How old were you when you started puberty? hmm. 11 or 12. Do you think of baby names you like often? not really. i’ve liked the same names since i was a kid. What health issues do you have? idk. What are some health problems you have had in the past? idk. What are some of the best medications you’ve ever had? birth control for obvious reasons. painkillers. What is your favorite Vitamin? idk lol. Do you swallow vitamins or chew them? i don’t take them. What is your favorite pizza topping? all meats! Do you shop at thrift stores? not really. i check them out every now and then. Who are your favorite small youtubers? idk. Have you ever made money off of youtuber? yeah i have actually! and then they changed their conditions. What color is the rim of your full-length mirror (if applicable)? i don’t have a full length mirror. What was a video you watched over and over as a kid? maybe disney movies? Have you ever dyed your hair a wild color? not all of it, i used to have fire engine red streaks though. Do you own a pair of fishnets? no. Sugar skulls or zombies? sugar skulls. Are you sore right now? no. Have you ever experienced depression as a side effect? i don’t think so. Have you ever been suicidal as a withdrawal symptom? no. How old were you when you got braces? never had braces. How old were you when you started wearing glasses (if applicable)? later in life. i had reading glasses at maybe 18 but didn’t start wearing them everyday until i was about 23. Have you ever been told you have an accent? yeah. What is your favorite accent? idk lol. i don’t have a fave. Do you know a lot of people who were loving, and then turned cold? sure. Do you own anything plaid? nope. What do the first pair of Lularoe leggings you got look like? never owned them. Do you think Lularoe is too expensive? - Do people think you look your age? yeah i guess. i still get carded though. Are you good at guessing people’s ages? not at all. Are you good at remembering names? not really. i’m better at remembering faces. Do you prefer common names or unique ones? don’t mind. unique names are easier for me to remember though. What does your name rhyme with? reese.