#because yaknow

[takethebunny-andrun]

Being auto spec often sheeps it's way into my relationships. My platonic attraction especially. I often feel so drawn to people that share the same personality traits as me. Just meeting people like me I'm like "PLEASE PLEASE BE MY FRIEND!!" I feel closer to people that are more like me. Of course not always. My best friend is pretty different from me but I love them just as much! My auto spec identity also often ties with my ficto identity. I see a character that's just like me, or I may even be them, and I just get the biggest mesh on them., I swear.

[b1nb1nth3v1nv1n]

Derse dreamer.

[wolfythewitch]

Hiding my face I'm watching top gun Maverick and trying to stop myself from making an au

[crystaleevee4]

oh

skizz as some kind of,, like... griffin hybrid? for one thing he's already kinda lion coded and also bird coded. and the whole protecting treasure thing. skizz protects his treasure, his friends. hi. and then imp and skizz podcast episode uhhhhh i think actually the first episode. skizz saying "i've always had this kind of... protective aura around you" (paraphrasing i don't have the clip rn) about impulse. being fiercely loyal, a trait often associated with lions at least. hi. hi. griffin hybrid skizzleman. can anyone hear me. hello

[torchstelechos]

I love that In Stars and Time gives the nonconsensual kiss a proper horrified reaction, by the way. Most media where a character can kiss someone out of no where either make it a funny thing or the "romantic" thing, but here Siffrin kisses without permission out of no where and Isabeau reacts correctly! He pushed them away! Because thats surprising, and fucked up to do to someone with no lead up and no permission! Isabeau had no context, and at the time when the kiss happened, was under the impression that Siffrin didn't like touch which can have a variety of horrible reasons for it. Not only that but... We don't know what face Siffrin was pulling and I don't think it was a nice one. Which, again, means that we don't have all the context either! This is a horrible event that has horrible consequences and I love that it does. Because it's something that is horrible and objectively one of the worst things Siffrin did to one of the others in the loops, so I'm just!!! So excited it had bad consequences!!!

[catadromously]

I needed to do some proper art for Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, which has shaken me so so deeply.

[alien-slushie]

I'm sorry, but is anyone else flabbergasted that, as far as Deruth knows, his "drunk" 18 year old son randomly brought home and man one night and just kinda...kept him?

Like, Deruth, honey, why did you not question that?

Like, I get it: "it's a story and blah blah blah it doesn't matter in story or in the plot!", but realistically if my child brought home a random man while hammered I would be very concerned.

[into-the-clintoris]

Hhhjjjj they said it so offhandedly but Murph pointing out how Gerard as a battlemaster is working really well and how Gerard is discovering he's really effective when bossing people around is one of the juiciest character details floating around right now, and it's so good because it's so intrinsically connected to his subclass too.

What I'm getting at is that the intrepid heros laughed it off -- wow, big surprise, the prince loves ordering people around. But it's character!!! Growth!!! Remember his flashback? Remember Elody poring over plans and war strategies while Gerard dismissed it and insisted they kick back and not worry about it? And now he's finding value in that leadership, he's noticing that directing his friends in battle is working, and that he's crazy good at it. Up until now he's just sat on a throne that was merely symbolic, and now he's slowly becoming a leader. I wonder what Elody would think if she met him now???

[gumy-shark]

Do you ever think about Mobs repressed anger. Do you ever think about his manga lines about just how badly Reigens lies fucked him up. Do you ever think about how he felt like nobody would actually come to help him, nobody would actually be there if he needed, nobody would actually be around him if it wasn't for the Mob persona. Do you ever think about how he felt like any good traits in him were a lie he made to be liked. Do you ever think about how he thinks the only way to be truly seen is to tear apart his life from the ground up so nobody will try to use him anymore. Do you ever think about Shigeo

”the only one who ever saved me was me” but angry! because he shouldn’t have had to save himself! (and also him Needing to shatter everyone’s perception of him in the most destructive way possible because if there’s even a chance that they genuinely liked him. that they would accept him even when he’s the monster he’s been afraid of his whole life. then everything he’s done and believed and every part of himself he’s suffocated to death- wasn’t necessary. if people other than tsubomi (or possibly ritsu as per the manga) can understand and accept him as he “truly is” then he could’ve been a Person this entire time!!)

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

The Reds and the Feds

Some warmups that i got uhhh very carried away with!! But twas fun to draw blorbos together

Individual pieces and the snippets of the little scenarios that go with these under the cut

vvvv

-Donut and Neko-

“Impressive!” Neko nearly fell over when someone spoke. But he caught himself, and played off the wobble as merely switching which hand he was balancing on, which did give him a line of sight on the speaker. “Hi Donut,” Neko grinned, switching the angles of his legs to see the sim trooper better. “I had no idea you were so flexible!” Donut beamed, watching Neko shift his weight ever so slightly. “You could be in a circus with skills like this!” He shouldn’t, Neko reminded himself, because it was rude to lie apparently, but…sometimes it was just too easy. “So, funny story about that—“

-Sarge and Pavoz-

Sarge wasn’t really paying attention to him, Anton realized. He leaned out of the way of an arm swinging out with a broad gesture as Sarge recounted a story about Agent Washington and someone called the Meta— how much of it was accurate, Pavoz would have to confirm with Agent Washington another time. But for now? He watched Sarge’s face and spun his good pen- the one that had been a gift- between his fingers, and started drawing.

-Lopez and Soares-

“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Hughs misunderstood something when he said you needed my help with the Warthog,” Soares said. Lopez pushed himself out from under the body of the vehicle to look up at the medic. She raised an eyebrow at him, visible only because she wore her under-armor suit and not her actual armor. She must’ve been off duty. Lopez would almost feel bad for interrupting- almost. He didn’t actually feel that bad. “<Yeah. It’s not the warthog i need help with,>” He stood, and gestured for Soares to follow him to one of the other parked cars. Lopez crouched, and waited for her to do the same before he lifted the hood. Portuguese may have been a different language than Spanish, but being fluent in cousin languages meant that there was some understanding. Certainly better than whatever Donut claimed to understand of Spanish. But Lopez was a man robot of few words, so he instead opted to point at the problem instead of explaining. “Are those… teeth marks??” “<You tell me.>”

[grahamcrackerss]

Thinking about Will Grahams relationship with the ideals of family and how Will was so angry that he lost even the concept of a child with Margo, a woman he never really loved. He became so immediately intimate with the idea of being a father that it seemed like a cruel joke to have it torn from his hands by (to his understanding) Hannibal and his Web of intricate manipulation.

Yet, when faced with the concept of losing Molly, a woman Will DOES love and had spent time growing a proper life and family with, a woman who came with a child that accepts Will so easily and that Will is clearly already comfortable being paternal towards, there's the to-be-expected turmoil but also an eerily calm acceptance despite the fact that this also was an instance clearly influenced by Hannibal.

Why, when faced with losing a family he built on his own, is Will not seemingly nearly as angry as he was over a child that was barely even a concept?

I can't help thinking about how Will must have known that he wasn't going to hold this life for long- this facade of a family. That no matter what, he knew that even with Hannibal behind bars, he wouldn't be finished with him so easily.

I just think about how Will, after tucking their boy in at night (his son at this point) and kissing Molly goodnight after settling beside her, would stay wide awake staring at the roof. I think about how he would probably spend hours tracing his fingers over that so called smile on his lower stomach thinking about how he's got everything he ever wanted, and yet something within him still yearns for an older sting long since healed that he misses. Almost boiling under the surface of that scar. Something he thought he'd never think twice about ever again.

I think about Will's slow realisation over the time that Hannibal's locked away that maybe his dream of always having a family weren't as forefront as they used to be. And maybe, alongside knowing he'd never be fully free, there was also something tugging that told him he didn't really want to be. That his palette had changed and so had his appetite for normalcy.

It's like Will was almost relieved to have Hannibal, despite his compromised position, take a baseball bat to his white picket fence.

The fact that Hannibal gave him everything he ever wanted and it still wasn't enough - it's as if Hannibal had pulled back the curtains to what Will really craved despite being entirely unable to be there physically himself.

Do you think about how - when the world really did become maddeningly polite- the only person Will could think of was Hannibal.

[blanceyblance]

*looks around* Can you guys tell me where are you seeing Alpha macho Irep and soft boy Peri?

Because most of the content I see of them is just little shit/annoying clingy loser Irep and bitchy sassy neurotic mess Peri.

And there is only like 70 works for that ship in ao3 and most is them is co parenting Dev or them being bitter exes.

Honestly, why are we now shaming creators when the ones that write the "problematic yaoi tropes" are in the minority?

[jaguarys]

I unironically think Dagan Gera is such a good fucking representation of the pitfalls of Sithdom and what leads to it. Like yeah he's weird and obsessive and doesn't see the bigger picture. Yeah he's bitter and annoying and needs to fucking chill. We've had too many SW projects trying to convince us Sith are cool. No more cool Sith. Only cringefail loser Sith

[telluricdog]

kingisle whenever they need to coax older players back: HEY YOU PERSON WITH A WALLET!!! REMEMBER DRAGONSPYRE?!? REMEMBER HOW SAD THE LAST ACT MADE YOU FEEL? HERE'S SOMETHING REFERENCING DRAGONSPYRE!! ISNT THAT YOUR FAVORITE?!

[torchstelechos]

Me to Siffrin at any point in the story: