#i'm going insane anyone want anything???

[fbfh]

aged up to 18+ obvs has anyone seen life as a house???? anyone losing their shit over Sam Monroe??? just me????? mayhaps this will change your mind, specifically 5:21 (cw for off screen but obvious sexual content)

in the words of Charlie Kelly, OH MYGOD. holy fucking SHIT this is gonna be a real problem for me huh. I'm literally 17 minutes into the movie but I already KNOW Sam is so the type to listen to songs for sadness and sextape by palaye royale and do a fuckton of whippits and just think about you. he's half asleep on his bed, rutting into his mattress and the only thing on his mind is you. he wonders what your skin smells like. not in a creepy serial killer way - but given his reptuation at school he wouldn't be surprised if you thought he was some crazy stalker - but in an intimate way. he wants to know what it would be like to press his nose into your neck and breathe you in. he wonders what your lips would feel like, what your mouth tastes like. he wonders if you'd pull his hair, bite his lip piercing. he'd get more if you wanted to. he'd surprise you with a tongue piercing use it to tease you until you're totally desperate for him. he knows this summer is going to suck, but he's sure it can't be that bad if he spends all summer getting high and jerking off thinking about you and making mixtapes he'll never work up the nerve to give you, which is exactly what he plans on doing.

[mythtakens]

Eddie getting shot + Buck getting struck by lightning

[ivebeenthearcher]

[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.

[efverse]

Ditto judging grand ditto for not being able to transform better to the point that she almost considered saying something...

Grand ditto staring at her all throughout the sleepover and ditto wondering if she can tell that she's a ditto too...

Until grand ditto walks up just to tell her that they think she's Really pretty. And as grand ditto walks away...

Ditto starts to realize that... she could've been one of the first people who made grand ditto feel like there's something wrong w her...

And how much dittos own mom rubbed off on her...

the next time she sees grand ditto casually transform she just thinks that they're so carefree. so unashamed. So...happy.

And ditto wishes...that could've been her too...

[duncanor]

People after the final : yaoi saved the day!

Arcane, this is what the world would look like if they died and never met :

[jawz]

i saw the tv glow is legitimately one of the stupidest, most tryhard movies i've ever seen in my entire life. absolute dogshit. and everyone is pretending it's the most lifechanging thing they've ever seen LOL give me a break! the gall to claim this is inspired by fucking DAVID LYNCH??? i can't

[trueblueboygenius]

Boygenius via Olof Grind's instagram story!

[mintfrosting]

Mally being gorgeous

[jackelated]

Some MS paint meow meows

(Some more that I am adding to the same post because I don't think they're worth a new one)

[totally-india]

Cats are liquid like water because their bones are filled with pink evil

[amalias-whatsoever]

I just finished the king's men and I can't quite wipe the smile of my face

[quatregats]

Okay hear me out. What if Hornblower and Lady Barbara but they're high school math olympians and also have a crazy psychosexual rivalry with each other

[heich0e]

mint just described higuruma eating pussy as "he goes at it like he's fundamentally missing something" and i'm not gonna recover from it

[kyouka-supremacy]

Every Tumblr user ever: I hate tiktok so much I wouldn't get near it with a ten meters pole

Tumblr every three days: Here's a brand new way we tiktokified your perfectly fine Tumblr this week

[sherlock-is-ace]

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