#txf txt

[deathsbestgirl]

something i love about scully seeing ghosts throughout her whole life is she secretly thinks she's crazy and at a certain point stopped mentioning it to people (like after age 7) and YET it never actually stopped. she sees ghosts everywhere, literal & figurative. she's death's best girl. it's why she avoids people & connection. it's why she clings to facts & science and the studies that show it's just specific brain activity that causes it. she's fine if that's the ~only thing happening. and her dreams are just her subconscious working things out. (this is why she remembers so clearly what mulder said about dreams, it brought her a great deal of comfort.) all of it is very scientific and she is perfectly sane & normal. her cannibalistic tendencies are just normal human nature. it's like her men in authority & the men she gives authority, her little ouroboros, her patterns. that's all!!

[moss-gender]

fox mulder over here being a 2008 era emo with the password “trustno1” lmao I’m dying

[deathsbestgirl]

i haven’t stopped thinking about this since i saw it last night and @bakedbakermom ‘s tags. until you understand this, it’s insanely hard to hold onto hope or understand people who have it. this is so perfectly stated.

and because i’m me, this is exactly what mulder & scully struggle with through the whole series (hope & belief & even understanding their love) but they do it because they both understand this (eventually) this feels like the crux of my scully is a skeptic & a believer (and so is mulder) and she is doing exactly what she’s supposed to because she’s human (or sometimes what she thinks she’s supposed to do)

[deathsbestgirl]

y'all i'm sorry, but fire + lazarus make no sense if mulder & scully wasn't intended. or the pilot or squeeze or THE JERSEY DEVIL or melissa hounding mulder in one breath or maggie letting mulder hold onto scully's cross (and him wearing it!!) or scully having his key so early on & letting herself into his apartment and so many other things like. please

[skelavender]

the delivery of mulder's "marry me" in chinga oh lord.... he MEANT IT.

[spookysexy]

Amazing writing

“But The X-Files was there, in the background, for that year and for several years after it. In my memory of that time it seems to be running, muted, on every TV in every room I enter after dark.”

—

Brian Phillips, “In the Dark,” Grantland

This is one of my favorite pieces of X-Files journalism, in part because it captures what I both knew and did not know about the series before I watched it. I knew the theme song, the grainy monsters, the lights in the woods, the two agents in suits standing by a cornfield and looking into the sky. I knew Mulder and Scully were a kind of love story, even before I understood it. I don’t know how I knew. I just knew. 

“I was already used to imagining the series as a montage of empty atmosphere,” Phillips says, “and in fact I had fallen half in love with it as such.” It’s a mood. The X-Files is a feeling that we already recognize and an idea that resonates with us before we have the words or the facts to back it up–so it talks to us like Mulder and Scully talk to each other. It’s both the darkness and the flashlight. It’s the part of us that knows there’s something to fear but wants to run toward it. It’s the cozy idea that we might be able to run with someone else. It’s “you’ll never get there” and “keep going.” “Trust no one” but “trust this person.” Strain to believe in something you’re not sure you’ll ever believe.

The fact that we all know at some unspoken level the FEEL of The X-Files makes everything nostalgic, even for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to have a 22-year relationship with the show. This is still the return of a story we feel like we’ve been hearing our whole lives. It’s affirmation that yes, you were right, there are monsters, even now. But another bedtime story is just as real: There are people who fight the monsters and who are made better and more alive by the fight. And in a way that’s nostalgia brought into the future (it’s a nostalgia ouroboros). The fact that The X-Files is still going, and that Mulder and Scully are still going, is proof that no matter how many obstacles it’s up against, hope doesn’t have to run out, the truth is still out there, and the passage of time doesn’t have to bring with it the acceptance of easy answers. You can still want to believe in everything you used to want to believe in. You’re still not alone.

(via thetvmouse)

[twogravesinsomecemetery]

This is directed at no one in particular but I don't think i've thought about Chris Carter even once. Certainly no further than: "He's the guy that wrote my favourite TV show. Cool." ...Some of you on here seem to think about him weirdly a lot.

Sure, when he was writing txf, maybe he wasn't paying attention to some things. Maybe he WAS. Maybe it's all deliberate. Maybe it really isn't. Maybe it would be better if everyone stopped giving a shit.

I see some people getting worked up over lack of continuity, or "trying to make sense of things that Chris Carter wasn't paying attention to", making him out like he's the worst person on Earth just because the choronology of some episodes doesn't really make sense or the fact that at one point Scully's apartment seemingly changes floors, (I have watched xf multiple times over the years and never actually noticed). What I mean is: you guys can watch the show without caring about any of it. Be blasé for once. It's surprisingly easy and will actually make you less pissed off every time something incremental happens and you feel the need to reply to a load of other people's text/meta posts going: "I don't know why you are trying to make sense of this, Chris Carter didn't!!!" It's. Really tedious, actually. I see see So MUCH of it. What is it even achieving?

So what if you think he never gave a shit. We enjoy it DESPITE that. If it turns out he really DID care deeply about the show he wrote for 25 years, (shocker), and just got lost and caught up in it along way then that's ALSO totally fine and we should have probably learnt by now to enjoy things for the sake of enjoying them. Like. It's OK that some things make no goddamn sense. You're still allowed to enjoy them. Conversely, if every single thing in txf DID suddenly make sense and a detailed explanation was given every time something happened, then it would be a significantly worse show, and would be the anti-txf, surely? I did not watch this show for over a decade a not learn that some things are better left unexplained.

[precedex-files]

Trying this text post thing 😅

[take-it-on-the-run]

Men be warned, the longer I am single, the more media I consume, and the more media I consume, the higher my standards become

[deathsbestgirl]

okay but scully is actually so funny in this epsiode. because her remarks about detective white really are so out of character. she never actually said anything bad about phoebe green or diana fowley and she had WAY more reason to with those two than det white. i LOVE this episode so much.

Top 17 18 Episodes of The X-Files [15/18] -> “Syzygy” | The X-Files — 3.13

[deathsbestgirl]

OKAY i know i’ve talked about how soft & gentle scully is with mulder but what about how soft & gentle he is with scully???? like those moments in beyond the sea, during the cancer arc when she’s in the hospital & she’s trying so hard to convince him to let her take the blame for the man in his apartment, and after her abduction & pfaster & really anytime she’s in danger. i need to come back to this but HIS VOICE in those scenes absolutely kill me

[twogravesinsomecemetery]

name me a better anti-smoking campaign than The X-Files (1993 - 2018)

[444starlover]

the scream i scrumpt when i saw abigail hobbs in s10 ep2 of the x files oh my god

[denyeverything69]

If the characters had ended up involved in the conspiracy from the other end, how do you think that would have gone for each of them? (be it bad end AU or .... well, just more people in Krycek's situation)

Hey, thank you so much for the idea!

Here's how I think it would go:

Fox Mulder: Fox is a really smart man, so he would eventually overpower the Cigarette Smoking Man. If Mulder wanted to, he could have the whole world wrapped around his finger.

Dana Scully: Scully would be the black widow of the Bureau; you can't tell me otherwise. She is witty, strong, and if she wants something, she will have it.

Walter Skinner: I think he would be the Bureau's puppet in a more cruel way. He'd make sure to screw people over every time they got close to covering something up. I don't think he would last long, since everyone is easily replaceable in his position.

John Doggett: John would be the hitman of the Bureau, considering his military background. He'd probably team up with Alex Krycek and Marita Covarrubias.

Monica Reyes: We all know how that one ended, lmao.

Jeffrey Spender: Same as Skinner—total puppet until he is no longer necessary.

The Lone Gunmen: These three, with enough motivation and resources, would be a nightmare for society's privacy and safety. I mean, they were able to bypass the government's security over and over like it was nothing... so I would be scared of them if they turned to the other side.

Sorry for the delay, but I had loads of homework to do. 🫶

Love you all, thanks for reading!

xx

[orangesnlavender]

Omg??? Me???? Writing fics again???? Crazy!!!

Anyway, I wrote a Cancer Arc drabble bc angst is my life <333

Willow

She laid her head down. He was sweet. Fabric softener mixed with something earthy. She imagined the weeping willow in her cousin's yard that she used to let engulf her; its weathered branches protecting her and the rope swing’s seat she’d etched her and Melissa’s initials into.

“Feeling better?” Mulder said quietly, the words traveling like a crooning saxophone into her ears.

“Yeah.” She whispered, taking a breath and releasing it slowly, not wanting her voice to betray her. It had been doing that often lately, too much for her liking.

Especially around Mulder. When he looked at her sunken cheeks and hollow blue eyes and just smiled. Smiled like nothing bad had ever happened. Smiled like she wasn’t dying.

[deathsbestgirl]

this just gave me so many feelings. i think you said it better than i could ever dream too.

i’m a big ~love is a choice~ believer. in the way that you have to continuously choose your partner(s) over and over and over. life is long & hard and there are always going to be rough patches for one reason or another. the way relationships last is continuing to choose each other, choosing to solve life’s conflicts together. and mulder & scully do that beautifully. when they’re tentative partners & mulder thinks she’s a spy, when they learn they work as partners & start to trust each other fully, when they finally call each other friends, and when they take steps forward & bckward in their romantic relationship. it’s all about choosing each other. AND i would argue long lasting romantic relationships often look like friendship at different times during life and that’s why scully’s little speech in rain king hits so hard. like. romantic relationships should have some basis in friendship. it helps more than i can express.

and just something i like to think about re: mulder & melissa: there are faiths (hinduism if i’m remembering correctly — sorry i really know next to nothing about religion) that believe when you marry someone, you’ll be with them for seven lifetimes. the way i understood it when my friend explained it to me, that doesn’t mean you’re soulmates. it makes you really consider if this is the person (soul) you want to be with. it’s a big choice, and people don’t always choose correctly.

personally i love this episode so much. i fully believe in different kinds of soulmates and each life will have your relationships look different. souls seek each other out from lifetime to lifetime, looking to learn & experience more. which includes different relationships. i think it’s so beautiful that mulder & scully have been so many things to each other and those past life relationships don’t decide this one. *they do* we may find the same souls over & over, but we still get to decide who & what they are to us (even family relationships — because you don’t choose blood, but you’ll decide what the relationship looks like).

my thoughts on the field where i died, as promised!

first of all, i just have to say, this episode is so visually stunning. glen morgan/james wong + rob bowman behind the camera is a dream team, and i’m inclined to be a bit more open to the content than i probably would be if it came from the perspective of another writer.

the criticism that i hear the most regarding this episode is that it implies that mulder and scully aren’t soulmates, but i've never interpreted it that way

the field where i died opens on an FBI raid of a cult in tennessee headed by vernon ephesian, where mulder intuitively leads the team to a bunker housing ephesian and his six wives, including melissa riedal-ephesian.

throughout the investigation, FBI focus turns to uncovering the location of the cult's weapons, in a search to find enough evidence to charge ephesian. otherwise, he will be released in 24 hours.

throughout the 24 hour holding period, multiple interrogations of melissa reveal not only the depth of the connection that mulder feels to her, but that she seems to exhibit multiple personalities, each with differing information about ephesian's crimes.

in what is possibly my favorite frame of the series, mulder suggests that these alternate personalities might actually be melissa recalling her past lives, and suggests that she try regression hypnosis, with the goal of revealing where the bunker holding the weapons is

this is where this episode starts to lose people, as both mulder and melissa undergo regression hypnosis, and both claim to recognize each other as their spouse in each previous life

however, as the wikipedia summary points out, the recollected histories all end with the two being separated.

melissa describes watching mulder's death during the civil war, while mulder describes witnessing her being taken away (by CSM?? i'll admit this is a weird one, folks) during WWII, with mulder having the line "we're always taken away."

also a frequent flyer in the past life regression session, is scully, who appears in each of mulder's previous lives, an occurrence he describes as souls coming back "different, but always together, again and again, to learn"

personally, i don't think that mulder and melissa being married in each life, or even the emotional connection that they have to each other, is implying that they're soulmates or supposed to be together.

i think that the repeated theme of mulder and melissa being separated and mulder and scully "coming together" in each life is the more meaningful note from morgan and wong. and more than that, i don't think that any of this matters at all.

if you recall, the goal of the regression hypnosis in the first place was to find the bunker. to locate the weapons, to charge ephesian, and to hold the cult members in custody.

ultimately, the regression doesn't assist in the investigation at all, and a planned FBI search of the grounds finds every member of the group dead in a mass suicide, including melissa.

the stand-out of this episode, however, comes before the revelation of the ending.

"dana, if early in the four years we've been working together, an event occurred that suggested or somebody told you that...we'd been friends together. in other lifetimes. always. wouldn't it have changed some of the ways we looked at one another?"

following mulder's regression, the episode pauses. and mulder asks scully (calling her by her first name, i believe for the first time since season one) if having known they were fated to come back together, to always be friends, would have changed things between them.

this is a conversation that is ongoing throughout the series, the question of fate vs. free will, and as the incredible @scullysflannel has written about before, mulder loves free will.

while fated past lives might be the MOTW, might be the supernatural phenomenon that we're focusing on, that doesn't mean that the episode, or mulder, comes out on the side of fate.

fate can't find the bunker. fate doesn't save anyone's life.

frequently, when this debate is brought up, as is scully's involvement in the x-files.

scully was assigned to the x-files, she was positioned there by CSM purposefully, and they both know that. but she has chosen to commit herself to the cause, and specifically to mulder. she sought him out when they were shut down, she describes herself as having "followed" him, and she continuously fights to stay involved in his journey.

this is something that mulder rebels against from time to time, feeling responsible for the things that have happened to her since she became involved in his quest

and feeling that there's more for her than what a life with him offers.

in fight the future, he tells her to leave and go be a doctor. in requiem, he laments "everything that's been taken" from her, including her health and chance at being a mother.

over 15 years later, in nothing lasts forever, he admits to the scenario he envisions, a world where she "left that basement office" and married some brain surgeon, became everyone's boss at the FBI, her family and health and babies intact.

regardless of the underlying level of guilt and responsibility that he always feels when it comes to the losses that scully has suffered

he needs this life to have been her choice, for her autonomy in that decision to have been intact, for a life with him to not have been her irrevocable, and somewhat tragic, fate

and so in the field where i died, shortly after exploring the connections of his past, he looks up at her and asks...if this were all because we're supposed to know each other, would it have been different?

and she tells him, no.

the way that in fight the future she tells him that she'll be a doctor, but her work is with him. the way that in requiem she told him that she won't let him go alone. the way that in nothing lasts forever she told him that she doesn't begrudge him anything, that her "leap of faith forward" is the future she wants with him.

maybe they have been friends in every life that they have ever lived. maybe they are fated to always come back together, to always learn from each other.

but fate doesn't save the day, fate doesn't show you what you need to find.

they choose each other, and more than anything else in this episode, that's what he needed to hear.