#going insane about this holy shit

[long-suffering-little-spoon]

Last of the Time Lords // The End of Time

[putterphubase]

You said I can ask you if there's anything I don't understand, right? Then please teach me. How to kiss.

THE TIME OF FEVER (2024).

[territorial-utopia]

Huzzah! It's birthday time! I'm slowly accumulating more and more things I like (latest additions this vest I made and a travel typewriter! Still need to fix the latter one though)

Sure has been a year.

[lighthouseas]

girls when. girls when see you in the fabric of the universe. girls when they cross interdimensional planes to be with their star crossed lover. girls wh

[egharcourt]

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot saying that heaven and hell are a state of mind and nothing can obstruct you from salvation and the love of God except your own guilt. And despair being such a dooming force that even if Jesus were to appear in front of you himself and repeatedly remind you how much he loves you, hell, he'll try to hug you and wash your feet even, you can't be let free from the prison of suffering that you've confined yourself in. All because you're so disappointed in yourself that you're gripping the bars refusing to let go. How you cannot love God without first forgiving yourself. How the ultimate tragedy in this poignant dark comedy of a play is that Judas' damnation comes not from the fact that he betrayed Jesus, but from his self-disdain and perceived unworthiness that he basically condemned himself into an eternity of solitary anguish. I can go on about this play forever and ever. Do you get it.

[eluminium]

SKIZZ KNEW.

HOLY SHIT I WATCHED THE LIFE SERIES IMP AND SKIZZ PODCAST EPISODE AND. AND HOLY SHIT. SKIZZ KNEW. IMPULSE TOLD SKIZZ THAT HE WAS GONNA BETRAY DOGWARTS BEFOREHAND. SKIZZ WAS PLAYING DUMB THAT ENTIRE TIME. SKIZZ WAS LETTING IMPULSE HAVE THAT CONTENT- AND IMPULSE DID IT BECAUSE HE KNEW SKIZZ WAS GONNA CALL HIM OUT ON BEING A TRAITOR, HE KNEW SKIZZ WAS GONNA SNIFF HIM OUT NO MATTER HOW SNEAKY HE WAS. AND SKIZZ AGREEING WITH IT!!! SKIZZ SAYING THAT AS SOON AS IMPULSE TYPED OUT THE “wait for me!” MESSAGE IN CHAT, THE SIGNAL WORD TO THE CRASTLE, HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN. HE WOULD HAVE SAID: "I've known him for 20 years. He just turned on us. Kill him now". THATS SO FUCKING INSANE, HOLY MOLYYY-

[moeblob]

What's an otome?

You read a picture book to romance fictional characters, anon.

(for reference: on page 2 the second panel characters are from Steam Prison. Vita touch mechanic mention is Bad Apple Wars and the sexism call outs is in Sweet Fuse.)

I struggle personally with the self-insert intended otome because I look at characters and go "that's my son now" and I can't romance my son! That's why I prefer games with a designated design and some bare-bones personality protags. THEY can romance my son.

[the-kingofdoritos]

Today's ep was wild, but HERE IS HOW SASHA JAMES CAN STILL COME BACK

[wanderingmongoose]

Kill me if you choose, pet. You're the only one who can.

If I must live with your hatred, then I will not live at all.

[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.

[keirientez]

band au rahhhhhhhhhhh

[shima-draws]

Dunno if you've followed much on latest SAO-game but have like, seen the Yujikiri-food there - it's grown to a freaking wedding feast 😢

YUJIKIRI WEDDING CANON????

THEY’RE FUCKIGNGN MA R RI E D???????

[detective-shirogane124]

MOM HOLY FUCK

[moonlit-minuet]

Guys can you imagine after Hellbent if Alex invites Darlington to go with her to California for thanksgiving?

Like surely it can be brushed under the rug as a "safety" concern, mayhaps a way of Alex understanding that Darlington would technically be alone for it at Yale and not wanting that (the man has technically been alone in hell for like a year now he needs time with people again). The awkward shenanigans of having to explain to Mira that "no, we are not dating yet". Mayhaps a continuation of their chat at Il Bastone near the end of Hellbent

like please tell me someone sees the vision these two make me go insane

[thatonefandomjumper]

Sometimes all you need to become utterly obsessed with a ship you'd never even thought of before is a single fanfiction...

[soup-is-here]

As many "toxic yaoi Jimmy x Curly" jokes I've made I could write a whole ass essay about their relationship and their codependency. They have such a shifting power dynamic throughout the entire game and none of it is romantic and I'm not entirely sure if any of it could be counted as love at all. It's more primal. It's obsessive. It's a failing survival instinct neither realized they had until it was too late and everyone else had to suffer the consequences

I just can't describe it without going into a full essay cause they both have this obsessive need to fix everything in their lives by fixing others and making things worse. They both want control so bad they're willing to steal it from everyone else in different ways. Curly is complicit in Jimmy's actions but he is not at the same level of maliciousness that Jimmy is

You can tell how desperately Curly had to cling onto the idea that Jimmy is a good guy. He could just talk to him and fix him and Anya would be okay again. He could fix this cause he knows Jimmy is good. Curly needs things to be okay or else he failed his one job of making sure everything is okay and having a terrible copilot is not okay so that means he needs his copilot to just not be terrible problem solved!

And the entire game is watching Jimmy fall apart as he realizes he can't just fix the fucked up shit he did. Curly announced the message and Jimmy suddenly decided he can't survive anymore and crashed the ship. He can't untraumatize Anya and now he can't uncrash the ship and Curly laying on his medical cot is a constant reminder of that. If he can just save Curly then he's okay he's fine again. He's undone his harm

They hate each other so much to the point where they need the other to give them purpose. I don't know if they're necessarily good friends, but we know they had a long relationship before the game's time and the announcement set Jimmy off since he felt like Curly was leaving them. Leaving him. Jimmy needed Curly to help give him a purpose and Curly needed Jimmy to give him a purpose and this one message fucked that up and they both got swept up in this codependent fight for survival. That one announcement triggered Jimmy's fear that Curly had been enabling and encouraging and now Curly's stuck in a cryopod listening to his "friend" tell him how much of a hero they both are. They did it! They fixed everything! They fixed each other!