#HER mulder 😭

[daynascullys]

how to say "I love you" in x-files [76/?] ⤷ 10.03 — “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”

#married

[loubetcha]

urrmmh i never posted this here

[carefulfears]

amazing that mulder came back to life not through god or science or the paranormal, not through any of the universal systems of control that he spends his life pondering, but through how fiercely the people in his life loved him. loved him beyond seeming insane or questioning the limits of the world, the way that he loves everything. skinner pulled him out of the ground because he just "couldn't live with the doubt." scully shoved her way past anyone to grab onto him, to sit and hold his hand in a hospital room for days when she knows he can't feel it, to stand in a surgical bay at 8 months pregnant and try anything (the realm of "extreme possibility" is much greater now). doggett runs through a parking garage, takes the hit.

krycek says, "we all have a life in our hands. i have yours, you have mulder's, scully has her unborn child. it's who's willing to sacrifice," and offers a choice, but ultimately they all make it out alive.

ultimately, of the dozens of people that were abducted and came back, of those that died and lived again, one remained human and flesh and blood.

[starlightseraph]

finding out that gillian anderson likes women has been the best part of my week.

[kickbutts-singsongs]

I just finished s4 e14 “Memento Mori” of The X Files

Nobody touch me

[lesbianjamies]

THE X-FILES | 2.01 - “Little Green Men”

[babymadeofbones]

someone motivate me to watch txf season 9 i've been avoiding it bc mulder is hardly in it :(

[fringephile]

How can you say that?

How can you say that, Mulder, to me?

💔

[itstimetodrew]

Deep dive into a very minor, very niche Spider-Man topic time!

The subject…WHO IS THAT WOMAN??? 🤨

It’s not crucial to the plot, and it’s not a mind-blowing theory, I just like gathering up little background details and connecting them. :)

DISCLAIMER: While obviously the Spider-Man movies are inspired by and based on the comics, I treat the movies as their own thing because tbh...I am not reading all that. It’s Movie Universe Time!

So indeed the 2002 Spider-Man movie does have a lot of cool tidbits that give extra information on characters. Sometimes it’s very subtle, sometimes it’s more overt! So we begin our journey to discover the Mystery Woman here:

95% of the words are actual Character Lore(!), with only the last paragraph copy-pasted, but Today's Focus is one particular section at the bottom of the 2nd column:

"His personal life has not been nearly as successful as his business life. Married only once, to the artist Caroline Mulder, he was divorced after ten years of what was said to have been a singularly strained and unhappy [...]"

3 whole pieces of Mystery Woman information! Her name is Caroline Mulder, an artist ("the artist" implies she's well-known at least in NYC), and they were married for 10 years before divorcing. That gives the portraits in the mansion more context, very likely that Caroline painted them.

Caroline’s impact on the story is also stated by an executive producer in a behind the scenes book when discussing how characters are developed:

"Here's a man raising his son alone—there must be a tragic story with his wife. She must have left him! Does Harry remind him of her? Does he love his boy or hate him?"

Harry does have an interest in art like his mom. In Spider-Man 3 we see him painting a still life in his spare time, after post-traumatic amnesia ironically leaves him happier than ever before. He's forgotten many details of the negative things in his life and instead enjoys reliving childhood activities and memories. It's possible painting was a passion of his when he was younger, similar to how he discusses writing a play for MJ and playing basketball with Peter during high school, but gradually became disconnected from or was pressured to drop.

Knowing the marriage lasted for 10 years helps narrow down a few things, like that the divorce probably wasn't recent. But that’s assuming he was born during the time they were married, meaning Harry could have been 10 at most. Whether Caroline is still alive also isn't clear-cut...in the movie, at least. In the novelization for the 3rd movie, Peter confirms Harry is an orphan after Norman dies. The novelizations and movie details don't always line up 1:1, so it's left open imo. I feel like the paper would have mentioned her passing if she had died but...choose your own route of angst! (And wow would that add a whole new layer of awful to Norman’s misogynistic “advice” about women to Harry if he’s shit-talking his dead ex-wife.)

If Caroline is alive that opens a new batch of questions about where she went. Do they have any sort of shared custody situation? Doubtful, as Caroline seems to be totally cut out of the picture and only exists in the story via possessions. But if the marriage ended bitterly, and some years ago, why is her art and her collections present at all? Her portrait makes sense to keep, as it's revealed in the sequel to be the cover for a hidden safe.

(That's another fun symbol, hiding treasures behind a loved one's image. A place for safety and precious things, hidden from public view.) Other pieces of art seen around the house raise more questions about sentimentality. If Norman hated any reminder of his ex-wife, why keep her work? Why keep it for so long and have it displayed prominently?

I will not let this derail into A Norman Post (it would not end I could not stop) SO my personal take is that it’s probably a mixture of some longing for the past, but mostly spite. Keeping the art is a reminder that while he lost her, he also won. What was hers is now his (son included). Which may factor into why we don’t see Caroline involved with the family at all. Either she didn’t want to be, or she was prevented from doing so. Honestly it would not be surprising to cut all ties, as I do not think many would want to test their luck in a legal battle against a vindictive person who holds a massive amount of money and potential life-ruining influence.

I could also talk about Harry forever but in short I think these details make him more interesting. It's another angle as to why he seems so conflicted and avoidant about family issues, to the point he physically distances himself from them whenever possible. He might have had a strong connection with his mother, but it likely wasn't something he could talk about without Norman taking it as a personal betrayal. Still, he's surrounded by memories of her and keeps his own mementos nearby.

^ There's a photo of her in the apartment he and Peter share, the same image as the portrait (on the middle shelf to the left 🔍). Interestingly, like the portraits, the photos of his parents are kept apart. But here his mom is given more focus on a higher shelf.

Despite the work that went into backstory creation, multiple photographs, and a painted portrait, I haven’t been able to find who "played" the role of Caroline. It would be neat! But it’s also just cool to see how background details offer glimpses of a larger story if you want to look for them. :)

[deathsbestgirl]

i was obnoxious on twitter so i thought i'd share. please take it with a grain of salt but also please listen to dana katherine scully

[zipstick]

just watched season 7 episode 11 closure... cried a bit....

[daynascullys]

how to say "I love you" in x-files [67/?] ⤷ 8.20 — “Essence”

[wickedhawtwexler]

the whole point of songwriting is to write songs about your favorite fictional characters

[daethsticks]

Scully cancer arc let's go

[pennyserenade]

gillian was out to kill david duchovny in this (and i support that)

[casmilton]

bawling my fucking eyes out at the episode oubliette.