#kind of correct quotes

[ironspidersblog]

Tony, returning home from multiple traumatic months of captivity: hmm I want a cheeseburger

Pepper: GO TO THE HOSPITAL

[carlyraejepsans]

Sometimes I think I’ve got a good idea of sans character then I remember deep down I consider him kinder then papyrus and I have to come to terms with the fact that I have also fandom-fied him and it hurts, anyway congratulations on staying true to his character your the strongest soldier out there

lol don't beat yourself up. i wouldn't use "kind" as a qualifier, but i do think papyrus can come across as much blunter than sans. he's loud and banging and over the top in a way that exaggerates his other attributes, and one of those is his social awkwardness. he's shameless! both when he's being positive and uplifting AND when he's being a bitch. sans is more... contained. less vocal. but that's something that applies to his character in general.

more than anything i think—as jaded and more pessimistic as sans has become with time and his reset knowledge—both him and papyrus start from the same core personality. papyrus' kindness is obviously important to his character, but people tend to play it up too much in my opinion. he's just as capable of disregarding people's suffering and unhappiness for his own interests (empress undyne ending, king mtt ending, remaining our friend in spite of our actions) as his brother. he's just... very loud about his positivity and caring for other people and DOES want what's best for everyone... when it's not particularly inconvenient to him. lol.

[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.

[luckycloverforducks]

[Swap AU]

Alastor : I'm going to kill everyone in this room and then myself.

Husker : Al, buddy, I'm trying to be nice here but for the last fuckin' time, that is NOT an appropriate response to dropping your microphone cane.

Alastor :

Husker : You do this everytime. Sometimes you even actually try. I genuinely don't get it.

[anothersarcasticdolphin]

Cause it is quite funny, here is my outline for the first half (ish) of Daemon V from Second Conquest:

Daemon: Burn the Triarchy Corlys: Defeats the point Daemon: We are going nowhere, might as well. Corlys: Burning shit isn’t how to make friends with Volantis. Daemon: And dying on Bloodstone isn’t going to help us. You suck. Corlys: Warmongering pyromaniac Daemon: You’re useless. Rhaenys is better. She’d burn them with me Corlys: *eyeroll* Daemon: If you aren’t willing to do what needs to be done just pay the damn Triarchy. Corlys: *Has an idea*

[horror-aesthete]

Birth/Rebirth, 2023, dir. Laura Moss

[acourtofquestions]

Help, my wife got wine drunk and tried to set our marriage certificate on fire, saying “good luck returning me without the reciept”

— Things I think Rowan Whitethorn would have tweeted in the universe where both he and Twitter exist.

[teruel-a-witch]

Danny's face journey in this scene is absolutely priceless, he's so green with jealousy it's actually a wonder you can see him against the greenery. He doesn't say a word but his face says it all.

he can feel justified in his suspicions all along and insist it was about a gut feeling not jealousy but the truth is this was his immediate reaction to seeing Steve's closeness with another man that wasn't him. He had no reason to be suspicious of anything in this instant he just looks scandalised that Steve had other....friends before him 😏

Verdict: The accusations of jealousy stand.

[wizardnuke]

head in hands. i spent two days on that essay. i thought it was bullshit. what do you mean it was the only a in the class. what are you talking about. why.

[ironspidersblog]

Tony: [is basically dead]

Hulk: RAHHHHHHHH WAKE UP BITCH

Tony: please tell me nobody kissed me

Steve: we won

Tony: yippee okay no one heard that right? great I’m hungry let’s go get shawarma

Thor, wondering what is wrong with earthlings: ???????

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

Ashrah & Raiden: Sareena, no Kung Lao: *taking out his cell phone* Sareena yes!!! -- Kuai Liang: Brother, no! Smoke: Brother, yes!!!

[ivyprism]

Clemensia + Vesperi: Your hand in my hand… Vesperi, brushing Clemensia's hair out of her face with a smile: I could never choose to love another… Clemensia, softly as her eyes shake a bit: Maybe, one day, I could learn to love you… *When Vesperi looks away, Celadine looks towards him before she turns away and goes back to being Clemensia* Celadine: too…

[unproduciblesmackdown]

like hearing an autistic person talking abt realizing like "oh so friendships for some ppl don't involve always having to maintain a performance" and going damn right yeah and now "oh so friendships for some ppl involve their getting to expect that the other ppl will be interested in them and provide support" like huh go figure. more surprising like oh right i guess i always felt like interactions require maintaining a performance that can only go wrong (generally true; like there's no "well you're ruining things by keeping ppl from being the Real You so just Be Yourself" like a] masking isn't Real or done by Yourself or b] like if you unmask people like you now & ableism is over, b/c it was your fault for reacting to it in the first place) & thus also that i should be interested & provide support but not expect that in turn / the sense as well that you are/can only come up short and have things to make up for anyways while lucky whoever's even providing the time of day

then it's always an Exercise to go "oh right well beyond going [my god autistic character] the whole time, what Things re: winston billions was i still not quite seeing as as unusual / Not Good as they are. even for billions" like sure noticing he's holding on to the hopes of some kind of positive / actual relationship w/rian for like year 950 & this manifesting with the Determined Friendliness but zooming in like oh i guess that adamant amicability sure involves winston suppressing a negative reaction to negative treatment and yet still hoping for an improvement, which like, was always Possible but a) hinged on rian simply choosing to change how she regards/treats him (or someone intervening to change the situation) & b) apparently is not going to happen. thinking like yeah that's very Friendly of him. and knowing like man winston's sure still trying to keep this friendliness offer open for like two years. but also now more specifically going like Yeah and pretty fucked then that his baseline expectations don't include that Mutual Interest & Support (though someone being abusive is definitely interested just not in any good ways. and certainly not (actually) supportive)

[itsagayhumannn12]

Yes I did get wrong a question about a hyperfixation I had for years but it's okay since everyone makes mistakes. Anyway I'm on my way to jump off a cliff.

[totally-correct-shenanigans]

Murray, in the Northern Lights Battery: [on the verge of tears] 🎶 Feelin' really bad, and my van is a boat, feelin' really sad and my boat is a van- 🎶

Bentley, attempting to cheer him up: 🎶 THE NIGHT YORB, is comin' for us-

[undertheknightwing]

Rachel: "Doesn't this maple syrup smell delicious?"

Gar: "Honestly? No."

Rachel: "Oh. Why?"

Gar: "I can smell every single ingredient used to make it. It smells awful."

Rachel: "How do you eat?"

Gar: "Without breathing. Also there's a campsite a mile or so away and they're making smores."