#i mean he was like 18 when he met phoebe. ‘she was brilliant. i got in over my head.’

[carefulfears]

And my girl Scully figured out that Diana and Phoebe were abusive to him and that’s why she was ready to disintegrate them with whenever they breathed Mulder’s air iktr. (Also to me that’s part of the reason Mulder was oblivious and defended them, people who are in abusive relationships are not always aware of it)

YUPP you’re literally dead right, anon, in my opinion. it really bugs me when people talk shit about mulder for “trusting” both phoebe and diana, as though that’s not like…the only thing he’s been taught to do.

i’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between scully’s reactions to phoebe vs. diana. when phoebe showed up, scully had only known mulder for a few weeks. and still she knew almost instantly that something wasn’t right.

i didn’t notice until i rewatched fire the way that she never leaves him alone with her. if mulder and phoebe are working on something, you can see scully. against the wall, peeking around the door, pacing in the hallway. he tells her that she’s “off the hook,” that he’s not going to “put her through this” with “phoebe’s little mind games,” and she takes it upon herself to investigate phoebe’s case herself, until she solves it and phoebe can go the fuck home.

girlbosses catch serial murderers singlehandedly to get their best friend’s shitty ex away from them.

when phoebe was around, scully is passive aggressive as hell. constantly hanging around and making little quips and mocking her accent.

when diana shows up? five years later? she’s just aggressive.

she said nah, we aren’t doing this again 😭😭

(one of my favorite scully moments is when she snaps “and not just because i think that woman is a….well, you know what i think that woman is” and mulder is just like “no you hide your feelings sooo well” lmfao)

i really do think meeting phoebe so early in their partnership informs a lot about the way scully reacts to his exposure and relationship to other people throughout the series. she really doesn’t trust a soul around him.

i always think of this line from madness by kittenscully (a post-syzygy fic, addressing the detective white incident):

“A surge of righteous indignation at the notion makes her sit up straighter, and she bites her tongue to avoid a very unpleasant comment from slipping out. As always, she thinks of Phoebe, of his wide, trusting eyes.”

diana was scary levels of manipulative and violating. but diana loved mulder, scully knew that and used that to plead with her in the end.

phoebe didn’t care about anything but playing with fire. she got off on scaring him, crossed state lines just to fuck with his head and hurt him, just like in their relationship a decade earlier. mulder knew this, he knew from the start what she was doing and what she wanted, and he helped her anyway. he praised her anyway. he connected with her and invested in her anyway.

y’all know i’m always thinking about the script note about phoebe’s coldness “eliciting some old need in him to have her affection.”

by the time diana came back around, scully had sat on the floor of a hotel and watched phoebe smile and shake hands with bureaucrats while mulder couldn’t breathe.

scully had stood in the next room when his questions to his mother got him little more than a slap to the face.

it’s different with diana because there’s a lot more history and connection there, and because at that point there is heartbreak and jealousy on scully’s side (when phoebe was in town, she hung around in doorways. when diana reaches for mulder’s hand, she turns around and holds back tears in the car.)

it’s a difficult position for both of them. he doesn’t know how to do anything but appease and trust and be loyal, to help whoever asks. he doesn’t care if it hurts him, he’s been groomed his whole life for that, to feel like he deserves it.

it makes scully crazy. he’s her best friend. she can’t believe anyone would look at that kind of softhearted hope and want to exploit it or crush it, rather than look up to it, follow it, nurture it.

and it hurts!! it hurts to watch him fall back into these traps, and especially with diana, it hurts to feel that your input and relationship doesn’t matter enough to have influence. to not be listened to, to feel like you’re not being chosen.

she doesn’t know that he went to search diana’s apartment after she told him not to trust her. she just heard, “i know her. you don’t. scully, you’re reaching.” and watched him leave.

it’s just this perfect crossroads of each of their most vulnerable spots. scully wants to protect him, always, and she also wants to be chosen.

mulder has to stand by his allegiances, to seek ‘affection’ in cruelty, to play his role in the larger scheme. this is what CSM knew when he recruited diana into the conspiracy, and he knows because he “created” it.

you can’t judge either of them, they’re both following their natures, and furthering the narrative they were chosen for.

(until scully stands in front of diana and begs, “i just want you to think…stand there in front of me, look me in the eye”…and breaks the whole thing down.)

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Damn now I’m thinking about Kelly Kessler being friends with Bud and Phoebe!!! I would have loved if she actually got to meet her grandson, Diana already loved her so she would have been adorbs with both kids!!! Obviously little Kelly would’ve had other name, but can you imagine grandma Grimm with her little hexenbiest and tiny Grimm/Zauberbiest grandkids!!!! ❤️ I also think she would’ve been friends with Adalind, they weren’t enemies or anything so it would have been easier, I think they both liked each other back in s3. Another thought that I have is how much Diana actually loves Kelly (Burkhardt), like even if Nick and Adalind had more kids, I think he would always hold an special place. I dunno maybe that’s just me. I would think that maybe since Kelly was born to the definable episode 18 months or so passed but somehow it’s been like 6 months. It would’ve been adorable if we had seen Kelly having dinner with his parents at the loft, or maybe all of them hanging out, can you imagine Monroe, Rosalee, Hank, Wu or Trubel with a toddler Kelly. I wanted to see Adalind and Nick deal with a toddler ☺️ Adalind deserved to be on the group meetings when they solved the cases, I bet they would’ve solved some cases faster, she was brilliant (even Sean’s mom said so, that’s a big deal). And speaking of that, I wanted to see Elizabeth again, meeting Diana, reacting to baby Kelly, pretty much anything, I loved the character

SO I can finally sit down and answer this. 

May or may not be writing about Mama Grimm somehow ending up with Bud and Phoebe as Family now. ;)

I really wish she could have met Kelly jr. as well. Plus, we never really got her reaction to Nick and Adalind getting together, which I think would have been interesting. I mean, she was so opposed to Nick being friends with Monroe and Rosalee at the start. And even though she grew, and she raised Diana for awhile, I think “My son is in love with a Hexenbiest” would be a bit of a hurdle for her, even without the whole “backstory” thing. I think it would have been really good eventually (and Kelly Jr. would have helped), but I think that would have been an interesting arc. 

That said, I definitely think Kelly and Adalind would end up as friends, and Kelly would feel very maternal toward her, especially once she found out how Catherine raised her. 

Agreed, Diana will definitely always have a special connection with her little bro. ^-^ 

Oh my goodness the Grimm timeline drives me up a WALL, why did Kelly not age at all in two seasons, what was that??? XD And how old is Diana supposed to be, anyway? She was born midway through Season Three, but she’s like? Seven or eight at least? Anyway, yes, I would have loved to see the kiddo as a toddler. That would have been great. 

Definitely agree about wishing Adalind could have been part of the cases more. On the other hand, I do like that she went back to being a lawyer; I really wish they’d done more with that. (I also wish Juliette/Eve had gone back to being a vet in the end, but y’know.) It would have been interesting to see a thing where Nick and Adalind had cases that overlapped, though! 

Finally, ELIZABETH. Oh my goodness yes, Elizabeth was an amazing character, and I really wish we could have seen more of her. It’s hard to believe she was only in 7 episodes. I have so many Thoughts about her meeting Diana (not to mention Kelly Jr.), and interacting with Team Grimm, and an AU where she befriends Kelly Sr. (is Sr. correct for a woman? I’m not sure but I’m going with it.), and just. So much. She was absolutely one of my favorite secondary characters, and I wish they’d explained more about her. Not to mention offering some sort of explanation for why she disappeared!