#way ahead of you tbh

[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.

[bunnyboy-juice]

spent the first hour and change at work deleting some old files and am having a grand ol time laughing at myself for not realizing i was a lesbian sooner

[deus-ex-mona]

sometimes i still think about how honeypre (rip) took a hiyori mv and somehow made it aiyuu

[waywardsalt]

with my phantom hourglass replay, there are two things i noticed;

a possible theme you could glean from the game is action vs inaction, and i think it's especially prevalent before you even leave mercay the first time, with oshus frequently urging link to not go after the ghost ship, then to just wait until the broken bridge is fixed, and seems reluctant at every turn while link and ciela are more than eager to go and do something about this problem, and the people of mercay in general talking about things and their problems but never seeming to act on their fears or desires, as well as the mention that due to the ghost ship, very very few people are still sailing around, while linebeck is one of the only people we see in the game actively going after the ghost ship and still sailing around. i might make a longer post just talking more about the action vs inaction in phantom hourglass but i just noticed it a bit and thought it was a bit of an interesting sort of theme you could find in the game.

linebeck moves so fucking much. i think he moves more than any npc in the rest of the game. not just in his intro cutscene where he is very animated, just in how much he moves when just standing in his little idle post, it's damn near distracting when the camera is focused on him, he moves a lot. i don't think i've really acknowledged how much he moves, and it really gives the impression that he's antsy or eager to get going, both of which fit him pretty well with how he acts.

[meowchela]

random ass lps popular thought but i literally dont understand people who treat brooke like shes innocent solely because her mom is shitty??? like to me it seems like a very clear "villain origin story that explains why they are the way they are but doesn't redeem them". her mom is neglectful and abusive, yes, but a lot of her actions through the series are like. completely divorced from that conflict. brooke may be taking ques from her mom with the whole cutthroat social attitude she has going on but her actions are still very much her own, like she only got the baseline ideology of "you need to stay at the top to have any worth" from her mom and everything else (the manipulation, cheating, blackmail, etc) is all stuff she chose to do herself to attain that goal. and even THEN she's doing it all completely to serve herself, her mom couldn't care less about her daughter's status in high school. brooke probably knows this and is doing whatever she can to derive self worth from her social status alone because she's all too aware that her mom just doesnt give a shit. so everything she does is still on her

i guess a more succinct way of putting it is like. brooke's backstory is more of a frame for her mindset than something you should feel sorry for her over, yknow? because as badly as she's treated at home she turns around and treats everyone around her the exact same way. abuse is cyclical and it's crystal clear that brooke is willingly continuing the cycle because she's obsessed with the power it gives her, power that was stolen from her that she's now stealing from others. and the kicker here is she HAD chances to make positive changes, both with her dad treating her nicer while he was still alive which establishes that she does know how to be kind as well as savy being willing to reconnect and give her genuine friendship again which could've helped her out of this toxic mindset. but she threw both of those chances away because she's so power hungry and is CHOOSING to continue acting like her mom because that's what gets her the most power/worth.

she needs help, but she doesn't deserve forgiveness or sympathy because of all the heinous shit she's done. also, you can't help someone unless they accept the help and/or are willing to change, and we've seen that brooke is NOT willing to change at all. idk man i just dont think we should be so fast to absolve her of accountability when she hasn't shown any willingness to overcome her circumstances. like not even "oh i want to change but things are so hard" no she doesn't want to change full stop. shes stuck in her mindset and that's her downfall and that's the point

anyway brooke would fucking love marina and the diamonds. unrelated to everything

[pinkeoni]

Something about how Vecna is the “brain” of the Upside Down, something about Mike being “the heart” the vines/tentacles resemble nerve endings which make sense since it connects everything to the “brain” and something about the film over portals that look fleshy and veiny

Is the Upside Down a living organism?

[dark-elf-writes]

Zack: What do you mean Reno was your first kiss and that it was only a distraction!??!! You’re my Spike! You deserve to be wooed! Be romanced! This is a big deal! We need to get back at Reno!

Zack: *ends up getting kissed by Cloud as a distraction while hiding from Reno*

Zack: … do I??? Have to prank myself now???

[spacebugarts]

Wanted to draw a Wally after the new update! Give this poor guy a break from his terrible awful no spoons day. I related to that shit a bit too much lmao

Silly fanart for the silly puppet man :)

[elytrafemme]

How do i even fucking answer that. Genuinely. Do i even answer that. I dont really think ic are that much anymore

[mothknight42]

TELL US MORE ABT THE BYJN TRAGEDY POST PLEASE

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE ! ! !

I really like the "This story is a tragedy because it didn't have to end this way." vs "This story is a tragedy because it was always going to end this way." because I think is encapsulates Bayonetta and Jeanne as people in this series so fucking well.

Putting this rant below the cut, because it is long and includes spoilers for Bayonetta Origins. Yippie! Let's go.

Bayonetta spends most of the series actively defying fate and seeking her own path. She fights her way through every obstacle in order to save herself and the people she loves. When Jeanne is dragged to Inferno, the fate that awaits ALL witches when they die, Bayonetta says "Actually, no. Not yet." Now with the context of Bayonetta Origins, this feels especially significant, because it is a huge deal that little Cereza watches Morgana get dragged to Inferno without flinching. And yet, despite knowing how the world works, Bayonetta refuses to admit defeat and fights to the bitter end.....which means when she *does* fail, she blames herself. The tragedy for her is her own weakness. In Bayonetta 2 we see her tell Loki that Jeanne shouldn't have thrown her life away for someone like Bayonetta. Jeanne's death weighs on her, not just because it is a tragedy to lose someone you love, but because Bayonetta is convinced that it didn't have to go that way and sheis to blame (and thus does everything in her power to fix it). We see this again throughout Bayonetta 3 - while a lot of her characterization is ummmm not stellar in my opinion (lol), you can still see how this impacts her. The moment where she is confronted with having to kill Egyptian!Jeanne stands out, because she doesn't want to. There HAS to be another way! These worlds all keep ending in death, but it shouldn't be like that, there HAS to be something she can do, so she hesitates (only for another version of her to kill Jeanne, because she can't She can't accept that fate.) In France, Singularity takes over French!Bayo and then taunts our Bayonetta by asking "well what can you do for her now?" Essentially, "how will you defy fate this time?" And what does Bayonetta do? Fight and watch that version of herself die as well, helpless to stop it. Bayonetta carries the weight of every tragedy on her shoulders because she blames HERSELF for each failure. If she had been stronger, faster, better, it could have been avoided (or so she tells herself).

Jeanne, on the other hand knows that their story is a tragedy and accepts her role in it without flinching. In Bayonetta 1 she allows herself to almost be killed by the missile strike, and then again in space, because fighting the inevitable doesn't matter - as long as she does what she can to protect Cereza, she will have done enough before she dies. In Bayonetta 2 she easily sacrifices her life for Cereza, and then chastises her for coming to rescue her in Inferno - in part because it was horribly reckless, but also because Jeanne had accepted her fate, her death. We see this at its most extreme with Jeanne's Tale in Bayonetta Origins (which is one of my favorite things in the entire series oh my god I could talk about THAT alone for hours and what it tells us about Jeanne as a character). Singularity SHOWS Jeanne her death, her FATE, and says "if you walk away and abandon Cereza, you can save yourself." And Jeanne doesn't even flinch. She doesn't attempt to bargain. She boldly accepts her death, her fate. Sure, one day she will be killed. But she'll also save Cereza in the process, here and now, and maybe later too. It is a tragedy because Jeanne knows it is unavoidable. It will always end in her death. And that is okay.

The fact that Jeanne tells Cheshire NOT to tell Cereza about the vision they saw of Jeanne's own death highlights this divide between them perfectly. Jeanne accepts that they are in a tragedy, and is ready to play her part to protect Cereza in it, knowing she will die in the process. But she also knows that Cereza would NEVER accept that, and would do something reckless and foolish to try and defy that fate, to attempt to save Jeanne, no matter the risk.

In every version of this story, they don't make it. By their very nature as witches, they are doomed by the narrative, one day to be dragged to Inferno for all eternity.

But whereas in Bayonetta's eyes the tragedy is that it didn't have to be this way if only she were strong enough to forge a new path.....in Jeanne's eyes, the tragedy is it will always end this way, regardless of how hard Bayonetta fights for them both.

Bayonetta as a series plays with this idea of fate and destiny in really interesting ways, and looking at that through the lens of Bayonetta's and Jeanne's relationship is especially telling I think.

[isekyaaa]

What's the point in announcing things on your writing blog if you're not going to do them? That just seems like so much added stress you don't need.

[bangcakes]

.

[impossible-rat-babies]

not to be obsessed with imagery and themes of the divine but myths of the realm is a banger

[cat-of-starlight]

Me playing "Library of Runia" and "Limbus Company" like-

Me, a casual player, putting my funny little characters together while the Pro Gamers™ debate about character/mechanic meta

[deus-ex-mona]

wakefulness comes with a ✨price✨

[teddytoroa]

ohhhhh i get it now!!! we live because we want to experience what happens next!!