hey fish! i was wondering if you have any recommendations for the portrayals of erik that are more on the sweet or tender side of the spectrum? or especially tender moments some actors have done? thanks!
Yeah sure! These are the actors who come to mind offhand.
Earl Carpenter (with Rachel Barrell)
Ted Keegan (with Emilie Kouatchou)
Josh Piterman (with Kelly Mathieson)
And the OG Michael Crawford, but I would actually direct you to this audio clip for him.
And here are some other tender moments that I like!
James Gant (with Holly-Anne Hull)
John Owen-Jones (with Celia Graham)
Laird Mackintosh
Saulo Vasconcelos (with Irasema Terrazas)
Michael Nicholson (with Olivia Safe)
Jeremy Stolle (with Samantha Hill)
Also this audio of Greg Mills
(Do most of my favorite tender moments involve hair and/or hands? MAYBE SO)
EDIT: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list! Please feel free to add your own!
Updated my Cassie design since she has an actual clear model now! Also some headcanons for her have changed, you can read below 👇
-She’s still an Emily! And she’s still Sammy and Samantha’s daughter, however, she and Gregory aren’t siblings anymore, Gregory isn’t a member of the Emily family.
-Gregory and Cassie were friends in school. More so really each other’s only real friend. Cassie was the star student while Gregory was rather ostracized amongst his peers. They found comfort in each other as Cassie was disliked for being seen as arrogant for her intelligence and Gregory for his lack of interest in essentially anything.
-Full name is Cassiopeia Valentina Franz-Emily. She prefers Cassie since no one at school ever seemed to pronounce her name right.
-She has a love for sweets, carrot cake being her favorite.
-Sammy isn’t her biological father. Samantha became pregnant via a donor as she was already set on wanting kids before she and Sammy started dating. She was about a year old when her mother and Sammy’s relationship started. Sammy eventually adopted Cassie! She’s extremely close to her father.
-She’s fluent in English, Spanish, and is studying French.
-Her favorite animatronics are Roxy and Bonnie. She loves Roxy since she was comforted by the wolf during her birthday that her “friends” didn’t bother to show up to (except Gregory), she tended to frequent Roxy Raceway after that. She loves Bonnie as he’s Sammy’s favorite animatronic and gave plenty of hand-me-down Fazbear mech to Cassie featuring Bonnie that she treasures.
-She can come off as rather cold and matter of fact to those who don’t like her, she’s like this however strictly to those who pick on her. She’s actually more insecure than her peers think, and rather sweet to those who show her kindness (ex: Roxy), she’s also rather curious by nature, always eager to learn.
-She painted her nails green to match Roxy!
-She knows very little of her family’s history, as Samantha and Sammy intended to protect her from the trauma’s of their childhood. Sammy and Henry were on no-contact for years, and she knows that Sammy had a sibling he gets upset when he talks about. And she knows her mama had a sister who died young. She does however spend time with her Granny Cynthia (Mrs. Emily) and her Abuela Patricia! (Samantha’s mom)
-William targeted her in hopes to gain a new follower by testing her survival abilities and usage of the V.A.N.N.I mask. To put it bluntly she passed with flying colors. (Will get a (real) job! Stay away from her!!!)
-Roxy rescued her after the elevator crash because I fucking said so.
-After Gregory’s supposed betrayal she sets off to find a way to get both herself and Roxy out, she’s now hurt, angry, and she still swears every time she puts her mask on she can hear some old British guy whispering ideas of revenge to her. Best to ignore that. I’m sure it’s nothing.
While thinking over the ending of Closure, I was struck with a realization.
The late Tena Mulder appears before her son in the same spectral form Samantha also later visits with... which should be impossible, as she and her daughter died from different causes. But if, as the show posits, they are, that suddenly broadens out the horizon of paranormal visitations... and oddly, fits into established lore.
WHO SEES THE DEAD?
Previous to Closure, Mulder hadn't been able to see ghosts without the help of Native American rituals or varied paranormal means. It was his partner, Scully, that was constantly visited by the unnatural (posts here and here.)
But if, as Closure posits, Samantha Mulder's form was a ghost-- albeit a form of starlight-- like Tena's, that leads us to some interesting conclusions.
Mulder saw the ghost of his father on an astral plane, missed the ghost of his mother in his sleep, and saw the ghost of his sister in the forest.
Scully saw the ghost of her father and daughter, and heard the voice of her deceased sister.
The victims of various paranormal visitations or reincarnated spirits only saw their would-be attacker if they had a personal connection to that phantom or were about to join them in the afterlife.
The victims of said visitations or reincarnations who were unharmed were being warned about an impending same fate (Elegy.)
In short, The X-Files posits anyone can see a ghost... but only under very specific conditions.
The ghosts Scully and Mulder saw were both linked back to themselves-- each visitation was from their loved ones.
The MOTWs followed this schema, too: villains saw their victims (Beyond the Sea, Miracle Man); the dying saw ghosts if near them (Elegy); gray-area characters saw the ghosts of the people they've let down or betrayed (Fresh Bones, The List.)
(If that be the case... guess S9 Krycek was pretty close to Mulder.)
But what sets apart the Clyde Bruckmans or Melissa and Maggie Scullys-- and even Scully herself-- from the common man?
There seem to be select groups of the population with inherited or developed supernatural ability, be it experiencing visions from the future or sensing presences from other living entities. The maternal Scully lines canonically to fall into this category, with Maggie receiving foretellings in her dreams and Melissa communing with her sister's aura or Scully herself being pulled into unwanted visitations with the Dead: bearing witness to Luthor Lee Boggs's transformations, being visited by Mulder in her dreams and elegies in her waking nightmares, hearing her sister's voice, seeing her daughter's form, and foretelling the deaths of her father and partner.
Mulder doesn't fit into the former category (until S9-- curse you, Krycek-- then never again) because his visitations were "only" personal in nature (i.e. his family.)
CONCLUSION
Which leaves one to wonder... how many ghosts have Mulder and Scully been visited by and not seen?
Ok, so i haven't seen a comparison for the new vs old poster design, and it is different, so I'm going to go over everything I notice that looks different and say which version I like better
I've broken it down into 3 parts, the skull on top, the bottom image with the lodge, and a specific part for the lineup of characters at the bottom
The skull doesn't look much different, but there are a few things that are definitely changed. Another thing that's different is that the old one has a transparent gradient that makes it so you can see the snow that's pouring down onto the lodge in the bottom half of the skull, almost making the skull look like its made of ice, while you can't see that in the new one. The new skull is slightly thinner and taller. And the new skull has more a pronounced red glow. I prefer the transparent bottom, but I like the shape of the new one, and the red glow being stronger
The bottom scene is a little more different, with the lodge being visually facing a whole other direction. The windows are lit in the new one, and there's now snow and ice around the base of the hourglass. The lodge itself looks more impressive and imposing. I overall prefer the new bottom half
The row of characters at the bottom is super interesting, because it implies a lot. Now right off the bat you can see them better in the new one. As best I can tell, the original goes, from left to right, Chris, Sam, Ashley, Mike, Matt, Emily, Josh, Jess. Sue me if I'm wrong. The new one, much easier to see, goes Matt, Ashley, Chris, Mike, Sam, Josh, Jess, Emily. I this the new order makes more sense, with Mike and Sam, the main character archetypes, in the middle, Josh and Chris, both huge players in the story, next to them, then the characters who have less decisions and large impact, Matt, Ashley, Jess and Emily, on the outside. Prefer the new lineup
The 2023 favourites that are on my backlog..in this very specific category :D
Really looking forward to reading these! My partner is a high fantasy reader so I'll probably end up knowing the stories for these second hand if my partner gets to them before me. That's not a problem though, I'll forget the story 72 hrs anyway and I won't feel guilty about not reading them immediately lol.