#bc we wanna get to the point we wanted to make!!

[xf-cases-solved]

today we are sitting in our office at 6 in the morning thinking about...

that scene in "squeeze" that everyone knows by heart, where mulder asks scully, "do you think i'm spooky?" and it's very cute and weirdly sexually charged like all of their interactions are, but also that scene is really important to their character development actually??

this is episode three, and with the understanding that these two are unhinged and kind of speedrun the whole "i would die for you, you're everything to me, you jump i jump, etc" thing, ostensibly they're still getting to know one another, and, more importantly, mulder's still trying to gauge if scully is hashtag legit. like, his gut tells him that, yes, for some reason the fates aligned and made it so the shadow government fucked up real bad and actually sent him an ally instead of an enemy (and also she's not hard on the eyes either, just sayin'), and also she held a security operative at gunpoint for him just one episode earlier, so i think by this point he does genuinely trust that she doesn't have a secret agenda

what he is LESS certain of, however, is whether or not she is going to want to stick around once she fully understands just what a fucking bummer it is to be fox fucking mulder, resident hoover building loser. like she is this literal genius agent and medical doctor, who's professional and hot and kind, and she could easily have an extremely promising career ahead of her, and he doesn't think she understands just how detrimental it is for her to go all in with him. and this case, with these by-the-book buddies of hers, is the first time they are really facing that issue head on

going back to the aforementioned scene, mulder is testing her. through that whole bit, he's testing her. ("why didn't they ask me about the case?" "bc they're my friends and they're more comfortable with me" "why would i make them uncomfortable?" "bc of your reputation" "rEpUtAtIoN?? who has a reputation???") like he is trying SO hard to get her to stop talking around the issue and just say "they think you're a fucking freak, mulder," which ofc she won't, which is why, when she gives him the perfect set up with, "they think your theories are..." he IMMEDIATELY swoops in and asks, "spooky?"

and then he looks her in the eye and asks, "do you think i'm spooky?"

and he says it in his joking tone, but i fully believe that there is a genuineness there. he already knows before talking to colton and his cronies how the conversation is going to go, and he doesn't care, bc he doesn't care about their opinions, but he DOES care about her opinion, and i think that scares him. i think it's been a very, very long time since he last gave a shit about what someone thought of him, and he's extremely uncomfortable. i think that's why he goes so hard just seconds later with the straight faced "aliens are actually grey" thing with colton. he doesn't do it to taunt colton, or for his own amusement, but bc he wants to show scully flat out, "this is what they think of me, and this is how i am going to act in response. can you handle it? can you handle being a social pariah? or do you think i'm spooky?"

the theme comes up repeatedly in this episode, actually. he outright admits to being territorial over her, but in the same breath gives her permission to work on the case with colton instead of him, bc he KNOWS what a shit meal she's been served by the fbi, pairing them up together, but then she's like, "hmmm, idk, i think you must know more than you're saying and i wanna know what it is," and he is so delighted, bc not only does it mean that she's really committed to finding the truth, not just closing the case as fast as possible, but it also means that she's choosing him over them, and that N E V E R happens

but later in the episode he also makes the remark about how in thirty years she'll be "head of the bureau," which is another peek into his mind grapes, showing us that he's still very stuck on this idea that working with colton & friends is going to make her suddenly come to the realization of "oh wait, what am i DOING with this loser??" he's afraid of that happening, and he's afraid about the fact that he's afraid of it in the first place, and bc this is mulder and scully we're talking about, and neither of them are physically capable of saying what they're feeling, he just keeps making jokes and quips and being a dick to colton (who deserves it, but still), bc the alternative is admitting to scully, "hey, i really like your company and would kind of really very much like it if you didn't leave me for the cool kids agents," and he's not going to do that. not just bc of the vulnerability aspect, but bc he would view it as selfish, bc he fully believes that being stuck with him is bad for her (lol i wonder if that will become a theme throughout the entire series ha ha)

but anyway, turns out his worries are unfounded, bc it turns out scully will take being mrs. spooky over climbing the career ladder any day

"do you think i'm spooky?"

"no, i think you're a fucking nerd, now shut up get me my own desk. if we push them together we can play battleship, and then later we can get to know each other carnally"

or something

they're in love, your honor

this is only episode THREE

unhinged

[boarloved-art]

Wei Wuxian should be able to get drunk for once. I think he'd either be singing bawdy drinking songs on the roof of the Jingshi or he'd be getting irrevocably lost no matter where he is. He's found in the bushes behind the mountains like a cryptid, and then he's like "I can't believe you all got lost" (extremely slurred) as if he didn't get embarrassed by something Lan Wangji had said and just somehow disappeared when everyone looked back at him

oh ABSOLUTELY im walking with u and nodding and agreeing, i can see him becoming an absolute menace to keep track of at his drunkest.

anyway heres wonderwall The Gang (Wangxian & their fave group of ducklings) in a city known for its STRONG wine and wuxian being like well. ur all grown now, youre technically not juniors anymore. we have to see whos lasting the longest against this stuff!, smash cut to a suspiciously wei ying-less group of the worlds drunkest cultivators being wrangled through the woods by designated driver hanguang-jun, with at least 2 of them clinging to his robes at all times.

[moeblob]

Impulsively shoving a guy's hand in your mouth after having the thought "oh just like when my little sister used to prick herself on a rose thorn" and then immediately being treated like a pet who ate something they shouldn't have? Wonderful. Thank you, Thane.

(also not pictured is Thane apparently trying to scrape your tongue with his hand BEFORE pouring the holy water down your throat because NO. BAD.)

[pyreo]

☝️☝️☝️

I feel like you can't really even compare Natlan to the prev two regions because they've completely changed tactic. For me Sumeru and Fontaine's strengths outweighed their weaknesses bc they were fundamentally stories about people doing things wrong. The wrongness of Nahida's imprisonment, the dismissal of curiosity in favour of ChatGPT, Scaramouche's entire thing. Furina being asked to give herself up as a person for her people. The entire justice and incarceration system being downright ridiculous. Those things grabbed you because they were human problems and humans needing change.

Natlan flipped that into 'oh no, war' and just had the abyss become the entire force of antagonism in the chapter. None of the characters had any downsides. They're all nice and available and on your side, with no personal distance like how Nahida was kept away from you, or Cyno and Alhaitham kept slapfighting or Furina was too famous to approach or Wriothesley had his own domain that he could threaten to keep you trapped in.

I cannot understand why people who demonstrated decent mastery of narrative coherence just up and abandoned it, but my pessimistic side thinks they internally changed tactic from a story driven game to just a 'good job hero' simulator where women with their tits out tell you you were a good boy (and nobody plays as lumine obviously). Mavuika is like... okay? But she has nothing going really other than whooaaa determination whooa

I mean when her character's vindication is to cheat her prophecied death and be allowed to live 'for herself' after essentially cutting her 'real' life short so she could see through her plan... shouldn't we have some idea what she wants to do with her life now its her own? Shouldn't she have some 'if only I could have lived long enough to ___' to drive it home? She doesn't die and then just kinda looks around like 'huh. um. okay'. Genshin also always has huge problems trying to stretch out its second act to fill time and this was one of the worst. The characters can't have issues or problems, so we just fuck around with chasca and citlali for a million years until the devs nod and go 'yeah that's long enough, they should all want to gamble for them now'.

The only characters who had something approaching a growth problem were kachina and ororon, kachina's being a simple 'I'm not good enough' (joins war and immediately dies) and ororon's... actually he's fine with himself, but everyone else is awkward about him because they tried to make him a human sacrifice as a baby and it didn't take but he's fine with it or something?? But it's not expanded on?

Anyway I loved how you put this

I wish there was more fanfare or resistance over her not being the one to sacrifice herself in the end omg. She just gets talked down a bit by Citlali & Traveler & then just kinda stands there like “oh…ok :(“ when Capitano shows up with a power point presentation about why this should be His self sacrifice moment now

like... YEAH. I think the strongest part of the AQ could have been the foils of Mavuika and Capitano that at least the shippers have latched onto. It was all right there. Opposing elements, evenly matched in strength, ending up aligning on a common goal, but the writing seemed to do everything possible to avoid letting them have any true contention or really to show anything in lieu of just telling us and moving on.

The idea of Mavuika being prepared to die a second time because it's demanded by the rules of the universe only to be outplayed by her counterpart who's been cursed to never die is really good, I just wish that had commanded the narrative and not hey. look at chasca's sister. look at her. she's hiding in a bush. are you attached yet? hey go look at citlali's house. she gets drunk sometimes don't you wanna fuck her? here's her house key. here's mualani. she's peppy. that's a personality right? here's iansan. she's uhhhh (looks at post it note that says 'To Do')

I used to dislike alhaitham a little for always getting to be right, but now I feel like I'd do anything to have him sit down and ignore us and rebuff any attempt at conversation, that was funny. I'm not into the 'yayyy everyone worships you wheee' type of Traveler.

Guys as someone who really enjoys the Archons on a thematic level the way they executed Mavuika as a character kills me omg

[puppppppppy]

learning abt friendship decay and "not reaching out to your friends for months at a time unprompted is not neurotypical behaviour" has me feeling a certain way

[usercelestial]

tbh i think a lot of the people saying "well both sides are wrong"/"bt stans are just as toxic" are just not exposed to other perspectives in this fandom. as a buddie fan who's been watching this show since s1, i can safely say that buddie fans have always been toxic. like as fact. to me, to say that bucktommy fans are just as harmful or just as annoying or just as bad as buddies consistently are is just. delusional. indicative of at worst a biased opinion and at best an uninformed one. buddie has been here since s2 and fans have ruthless ever since. bucktommy has been here for 3/4 of a season and for the most part, stay in their lane. i'm sure there are bucktommy fans who suck, like that's just being on the internet, but you have to be blind to ignore how insane buddie fans are and genuinely how much worse they are in comparison.

i don't want to generalize and i think constantly adding that disclaimer is annoying as hell bc obviously i'm not talking about everyone but because buddie has been here for so long and taken up so much mental space of very die-hard, passionate fans, you're going to see much more intensity on that side. after season 5, i had to step away from the fandom and the show because of how frustrating it got. it was annoying to see people swear up and down buddie will be canon by the end of s3-no wait s4-no wait s5-no wait- and ultimately it sucked my enjoyment out of a show i otherwise enjoyed because i got swept up in the Buddie Of It All and forget about why i watch the show to begin with. we've been left to stew in our theories and now we can't tell what canon and what's fanon anymore, and when the show reminds us, the disappointment and frustration kills our hopes.

i was also active in the dan and phil fandom and supernatural fandom, like ik why people think we're annoying and it's because we are. we make everything about the one thing we like, we comment on every post begging for it to become canon, we're violently disappointed when the show doesn't play into our fan theories because we've convinced ourselves buddie is going to happen by the end of the next episode or actually the end of this season or actually maybe the end of the next season. we've torn a part every female love interest, either making them boring or making them unlikeable in our fanon. all that to say is that when people call us annoying, they're telling the truth and when bucktommy fans say buddie fans are toxic, they're coming from a sincere place. i mean we can't even enjoy our own ship because we're so quick to get our hopes up and be let down about something as stupid it becoming canon. who cares if it becomes canon, just like it to like it.

and it makes sense why there's perceived "toxicity" on the bucktommy side. our energy is being matched; the obsession, the passion, the surge in fandom. if you don't like it or even just find it annoying, i suggest you guys look back on your own posts and comments and behaviors towards other people in the fandom and other characters and unbiasedly compare it to the Toxic Bucktommy Shippers you're claiming you hate. if bucktommy fans are obsessive, it's because we've set the stage for that. if bucktommy fans are getting aggro and defensive, it's because buddie fans have been on the opposition and don't know how to turn it off. we've gone from underdog to bully somewhere in the last 6 seasons.

[morninkim]

As a show of good faith toward the remaining Decepticons at the beginning of a new, united Cybertron, newly appointed Senators Bumblebee and Soundwave allowed Shatter and Dropkick to enlist into Autobot City's Defense Team.

These two turned out to be... not the best choices.

The city may have fallen to Insurgent Decepticon occupation had it not been for young recruits Hot Rod and Arcee's accidental interception of Shatter's communication with the fugitive Starscream.

To replace the errant Defense Team members, Springer and Blurr were reassigned from Iacon to Autobot City in their stead.

[fagnumopus]

I wanna start by clarifying that there are a lot of circumstances in which like... the room is not right, the vibe is not right, the people are shitty, your story isn't interesting or related to the vibes, your story is going for too long, etc etc... so like yes there ARE moments in which this won't work, and you do just kinda have to figure that out with experience... BUT, that being said, there are ways to demand attention without coming off as entitled or bitchy. I urge y'all to look at Drag Queens and the whole culture of being loud and obnoxious and taking up space while still being SO goddamn charismatic. Saying stuff like, "HOLD UP HOLD UP y'all listen, and after that...", interrupting an intereuptor with "girl if you DON'T let me talk" with a smile and a playful tone, continuing with a "wait cause I'm not done, here's the kicker...", stopping someone from segwaying with a random part of your story with "bitch hold the questions for the end of the class"

Ofc different crowds demand a different approach and language, but the idea is the same: you can bring the attention back to yourself in a playful tone, and it both calls out the people who aren't being socially mindful and also doesn't come off as entitled

[skitskatdacat63]

2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix - Qualifiying - Fernando Alonso

[miiiwu]

can we not do fucking tme vs tma discourse about trumps ‘protecting women from gender ideology thing’ holy shit. shut the fuck up and go outside.

[dragon-cookies]

Slightly related to my last point but not related enough to tack onto the same post

Why have we seen everything between aggressive "flirting" and on-screen sex between male characters yet Charlie and Vaggie haven't even kissed

[starbuck]

going into my final week of classes and we always have one last week after the final paper (so the professors have time for grading) where typically the only work we have is one last discussion post.

usually, this post is pretty simple and light (to go easy on us after the final). my ethics class is like “summarize your conclusions from your final paper! :)” and my communications class is like “tell the class about your career goals! :)”

meanwhile, statistics…

[elibean]

also we are at the halfway point and like, nothing substantial has happened

[bunnyboy-juice]

spent the first hour and change at work deleting some old files and am having a grand ol time laughing at myself for not realizing i was a lesbian sooner

[skunkes]

Need to get to the point where i can drive by myself, FAST!!!! NEOWWWWW

[brainrot-stitch]

How 2 do well in school, which is starting soon, no glue no borax