#i paraphrased the quotes in this don't @ me

[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.

[softichill]

Attempted to throw together a bingo card for the first part of the finale? I'm not super great at these fjsbgksng

[kiingleoturtles]

Best thing to come out of Apology Tour had to be

"I've been listening to love ballads all morning but that's the GAYEST thing I've heard all day!

[grewlikefancyflowers]

a key aspect of wwx as an inventor is his resourcefulness. he rarely invents wholly new things, he repurposes things that already exist.

the primary example is obviously ghostly cultivation, in which he repurposes the resentful energy of ghosts for his own means. wwx notes this himself, saying 'why waste it when it can be useful'.

and there is the yin hufu. the sword had been in the xuanwu for years, absorbing centuries of resentful energy from those who'd died, it even harmed wwx at the time. but he still thought 'this can be made into something useful' months later, he even remembered it and went back for it.

his evil-attraction talismans were made directly from evil-repelling talismans. he wasn't just inspired by them, he literally added a few strokes in his own blood to the evil-repelling talismans the wens had set up, reversing their function.

this is a constant of wwx's characterisation, he remembers the protective embroidery in the lan's robes and uses it to shield sizhui at mo manor, he needed a flute and so carved one directly from a nearby bamboo tree, in yi city he immediately knows to find a building with a living(ish) resident so he can have access to a stocked kitchen to make healing congee, and he repurposes the funeral paper effigies to fight for him. in any scenario, he instinctively notes and uses the resources around him, often repurposing them in a unique way.

this is fundamental to wwx—he innately thinks outside the box, is never confined by norms and expectations and is unafraid to directly challenge them. these traits are the source of his genius as well as his defiance of his society.

[nixnmatch]

Ordis. Need I say more?

Cannot decide what line is my fave from him. Cause like-

"I am Ordis, ship cephalon. I make new memories." is such a banger buT ALSO:

"Operator, I am just a bug addled cephalon, but if you ever need someone to talk to... Ordis would be happy to hear about how depressed you are!"

[lulu-draws-stuff]

Ok I'm done hoarding these doodles

Have some more guys

The sketch book design is kinda based on @/amii-stuff 's sketch book design

[bisonofyesterday]

I've been reading a lot of conspiracy theories lately for fun and it's wild, sure, a glimpse into the mind of an insane person, but honestly it does kinda get boring after a while once you recognize all of the tropes

It's a real thing that happens and it was a fear for me at first but now? I genuinely don't get how "conspiracy reading for fun" could act as a pipeline to being a conspiracy theorist, like are you stupid?? Were you already susceptible to this brand of thought??? Literally all of these are either odd interpretations of economics, wishful thinking, reboots of antisemitism, or just plain regular bullshit, and like it's really easy to see that, like all of this is dumb, people who believe this are dumb, it's absurd

Fantastic fiction though, these could be good books or games or movies, and like that's what they are and that's their primary audience, people who want to pretend they're the protagonist of a movie, of a grand plot, every bad thing doesn't just happen or are perpetrated some random disturbed people! It's an organized movement at the top of everything responsible for every bad thing ever to keep us in line! It can be a kind of anti-religion in that sense, malevolent gods are better than none

There HAS to be gods at the top of it all, who put ridiculous references to themselves in everything and monolithically control the entire world, because if no one is in control, then that'd be terrifying

[brittlebutch]

Elementary!Holmes talking about his somewhat abrasive personality / social skills using phrasing that could have been pulled Directly from popular autism acceptance essays, like ok man. i see you.

[anthrokiaera]

you ever just Some character you love: “AVAST YE MATEYS. YA SCALAWAGS.” “Ya ain’t go- a roIGHT booone in ya, ah joost knoow et” I’m talking about @konnorhasapen‘s Redacted pirate!AU btw. great. now I absolutely HAVE to picture David sounding like a scot (...or at the very least someone from Pirates of the Caribbean.)

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Leeli’s interactions with Peet are the CUTEST THINGS and they kill me every time she doesn’t even KNOW HIM YET but she trusts him and cares about him so much already I’m dead, I’m dead

“He just needs some friends!” indeed, Leeli, indeed

[humanmorph]

Good lird even just vaguely browsing looking for a place to rent is depressing

[starpros-sunshine]

Nothing like the feeling when you feel like you're supposed to be productive but there's not really much you can do so you just sit back and simmer in your inferiority complex and contemplate the fact that grades really are more of an arbitrary method of judgement in a way certainly influenced by personal bias and the teachers mood and opinions and the students day and overall mental state and that they really say nothing about a students abilities and capabilities and even if my teacher told me i produce a slodge of unhelpful wordmaterial that doesn't mean I suck at the english language and am incapable if bringing things to the, to put it in her words, " 'points' which are often repetitive" with my limited analytic vocabulary. As if the grasp I have on the english language isn't at least native level. As if I'm not perfectly capable of being short and concise. Just because I'm not the best at interpreting short stories and mark my quotations wrong which, I might add! wouldn't be a bloody issue if they actually told you what to do different when they correct their blasted rigged exams. But yeah sure me not revising is the issue.

[lesbianjudasiscariot]

you're really cool & i want to interact more. but i'm terrible at interacting :')

hehe tyty ♡

[songofwizardry]

r/ukvisa is a treasure trove of useful info and experience and has saved me so many times by digging up home office policies buried on the website that could get a visa rejected but boy does it not take a lot for several people on that sub to throw disabled people/"illegal" immigrants/asylum seekers/the entire concept of taxation and socialised healthcare/etc under the bus

[fickes]

Comments from a Hurt Man

The other day I read the first panel's quote (paraphrased) as a comment from a cis man on a trans man's physical transition.

For some reason, of all the vile things hurled at trans people, this statement in particular stuck with me. It repeated in my head for a week. Probably, it resonated my own fear that cis men see me as a masquerader among them. That they think I don't take it as seriously as my own skin.

So I let the comment rattle around in my skull and out onto paper. Who was this hurt person? Why was he threatened by trans men simply being joyful of their bodies? What more might he say - and what would it really all boil down to in the end?

[gigidragonbbxxx]

success story

"The opposite happening in the 3D does not mean you are not getting your desires. It could probably be part of the "how"."

I just wanted to tell a story from one of my own friends in the law of assumption community. afaik, she does not have a tumblr. I will be either changing details or keeping things vague for privacy but this story is true and just happened last week.

The quote I have above is a paraphrase from Dylan James. I don't listen to everything he says and sometimes I have conflicting opinions BUT I appreciate the knowledge that does resonate with me and when I came across this saying it had me thinking: how is this true?

Well, I got my answer.

My friend lives in Seattle. She's from a European country and here for work and school. Her sponsorship for her green card was through her work. My friend is a master manifester. She's manifested men, her move to the States, people repeating her affs back to her. She had been affirming for a while that she made a certain salary (six figures so let's just keep it at $100,000).

My friend would keep affirming "I love my job and I make 100,000"

The reality was that her workplace environment was toxic as fuck and she wasn't being paid what she deserved but bc of her green card, she wouldn't be able to leave.

BUT GUYS. What do we always affirm?

Everything and anything will MOVE and BEND for me to get what I want.

This past week my friend got fired and of course, she freaked out.

So what did she do? Did she spiral?

no reader. she's a master manifester. she cried while affirming. she cried as she listened to aff tapes. she kept on affirming. she sent me voice notes rampaging.

SHE WAS STRESSED BUT SHE PERSISTED.

and guess what unfolded?

she found a dream job that paid exactly what she wanted, had better working conditions, AND she found a lawyer who saw a great loophole for her green card. i can't elaborate further regarding that.

the funny part is her being fired versus her quitting meant she had to get a severance package so she's getting paid as she's settling into her new job.

her losing her job = the way for the universe to give her the new one

THE OPPOSITE HAPPENING DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT THIS IS PERSISTING!!!

PERSIST.

xx, gigi