#i'm not even mad i'm just disappointed.

[astramachina]

the driving force behind this project is in part my need to constantly outdo myself but also the realization that i can literally do the things i've always wanted to do. "if i'd made this movie/series, i would've done it like this" THEN BITCH DO IT!!!! the learning curve is so steep it's practically a vertical line but i have strapped on cleats and i'm going for it, baby.

nick nocturn said "all these programs are free, youtube is free, you have no excuse" and i took that personally.

[demigods-posts]

I've seen a lot of discourse about Virginia Kull's portrayal of Sally Jackson in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series, and I'd like to say that I loved her. Don't get me wrong. I love Sally from the original book series, and I, too, would fight the God of War on her behalf. But something that I enjoyed about Virginia's portrayal of Sally that we don't get in the books is the character depth. We don't hear much of Sally's backstory in the TV series, apart from a couple of flashbacks with younger Percy and that scene with Poseidon (Toby Stephens). However, those scenes do an excellent job of showing us that alongside being Percy's mother, Sally is also a young woman who fell in love with a man she could not be with and is enduring the natural consequences of having Percy. She struggles to communicate with him when she's frustrated, gets teary-eyed when she lies to him to prolong the inevitable, and actively sacrifices her happiness to ensure his safety. Virginia Kull's portrayal of Sally Jackson reinforces the character's humanity, imperfections, and determination, and it's everything to 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.

[awesomewithoutme]

I don't wanna generalize an entire website because there's some really nice people on here, but sometimes it's reeeeally scary and obvious how much most of tumblr hates women. (It's definitely not just tumblr, but that's the only website I use.) People constantly make gross violent threats towards Taylor Swift because apparently she's the devil herself, and Swifties are just brainless npcs who couldn't possibly be Real People, right? People on tiktok or wherever the hell were mad at Chappell Roan because *checks notes* she doesn't want to be stalked or harassed. Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber haven't been together in like, 12 years or whatever, but people are STILL pitting Selena against Hailey Bieber. Not to mention the bodyshaming and endless fakes nudes made without consent that get posted and reposted all over. Maisie Peters was on the Eras Tour, but people started bullying her about her voice. It was all fine and well to like Sabrina Carpenter, but only up until she got popular. Because popular = bad, right? Apparently choosing to wear more makeup than other people is a punishable crime on tumblr.com. People are trying to find "acceptable" ways to be awful because they can't get away with calling women sluts or whores anymore, but I literally see right through it, and it's not cute.

[aleksanderscult]

Honestly, I have a strange suspicion that Mal isn't really “good” at sex, despite Alina insisting he is. The sex scene between him and Alina was so monotonous and boring that I almost fell asleep reading it.

The Darkling, on the other hand…

An awkward rhythm at first, then slow and steady as the beat of the rain.

The way I would have just called an Uber and leave the next morning if I was Alina.

He gloats of having many conquests and in the meantime his only sex scene that we read about is the most underwhelming moment in the trilogy (second perhaps to Alina's final battle against the Darkling). Alina just never had experience with it and ✨idealizes✨ Mal's image so she thinks he's good.

Just compare this shit to the Winter fete make out and the name reveal scene. And they didn't even fuck!

[addicted-to-the-knife]

I think it's very important that we bring back this inherent understanding that actors are also just some fucking guys (gender neutral)

[essektheylyss]

Why do a solid 7% of wordle players use "adieu" as their opening word. It's coward behavior. It has no personality. It's unoriginal. It's not even a strong opening word. It will rarely if ever tell you where the vowels go, which means it's useless considering you already know there will be a vowel or two involved, and there are only five to choose from. I don't even think it should count as a word for this purpose because it's not even really a loan word. It's fucking French.

[iliothermia]

Packages are a bit late to go out because someone stole my debit card a few days ago and things that ran out require a card 😭 that's why there's no shop update today too. The person is still shamelessly trying to use it on everything they can but thankfully I got my money back and it's cancelled. They also stole my brand new arcade card, the only thing I really allow myself to enjoy without worrying.. I hope they win nothing

I'm expecting things to go out normally by next week!! But I'm working on packing what I can so they'll go out immediately after that.

[duncanor]

The most cruel thing to have happened in arcane season 2 is showing us that there isn't a timeline where the sisters get to stay together, no matter how hard they try.

[paradiscake]

I believe we shouldn't debate "Rhaenys was right/wrong to spare the Greens in Aegon coronation" when this is the state of mind of the writer of that episode:

If the writers don't respect the audience enough to think things through, why should we, the audience, give any validity to their writing by debating it as some deep in-universe plot point? It's not worth it.

[james-stark-the-writer]

19:45 into the absolute rom-com classic Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na bc i wanted to feel good today and revisit a little bit of nostalgia and i was in the romcom mood so. here we are. anyway, this movie is like Camp Excellence, and also astonishingly well directed, i'm glad young me had great taste, this movie is very much from the year 2008, but, along with Mamma Mia! which somehow also released in 2008, nothing else even comes close to making me love love and life as this does.

[who-is-page]

Just read a conference paper that mentions fictionkin and... does a fantastic job at completely misunderstanding the phenomena and confusing it with KFF, but worse than that is that it uses a grand citation of a TikTok for that part. How is this going to be a foundational part of your paper's point when you can't even be half-assed to actually look into it. One of the authors has a PhD.

[pardonmydelays]

been making plans with my friends for my birthday for like a month just to find out two days before that they're all busy and can't meet after all :)

[sir-adamus]

the FFXIII trilogy ends with Claire "Lightning" Farron taking the collective souls of humanity and shaping them into a massive sword with which she kills God,

but now because of the whining of internet dipshits, 16 gave us mardy Clive and his girlfriend who might as well not be there for how fucking little she contributes

[yyshcul]

i think i got accepted into the 2D animation class at my university #win #success #awesome

[symmetrycrypt]

thinking about how much i fucking hate totk again, like sorry, it really tainted my entire love for the series that was literally my special interest for so long growing up