#yaknow... yaknow.... the vibes.

[frownyalfred]

an immortal Batman being haunted by the ghosts of all of his children. he's busy moping about being immortal and outliving his family, meanwhile they're doing cartwheels through the afterlife, getting into fights with each other, and trying to goad him into finally admitting he might not exactly be aging to Superman.

[chasethememories]

Two bigger fools in love had yet to be born. 

[voidbits]

more swing designs since yall seemed to like them a whole whole lot!!! >:]

[enigmaticagentalice]

please Bioware just give me any indication in Veilguard that Varric and Cassandra are still friends and in regular contact, I am on my knees, one single crumb is all I need to sustain 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.

[quirkle2]

so what if . slime rancher au

[i-carry-many]

if i won the lottery i wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs (roadtrip to every marble hornets location)

[sharpiedoodleee]

let the man nap

[blood-mocha-latte]

excerpts

[torchstelechos]

Do you think there was ever a moment post-canon where the party looked over at Siffrin and went, "this fucker met god and is a wishcraft user, what the fuck" like not even in a let's all come to terms with Siffrin's mental illnesses and disorders moment but in a holy shit our bestie is literally so fucking strong and cool what the fuck am I doing with my life??? Like sure the trauma and awfulness of how that happened, but I think I'd be a lil in awe of my buddies capabilities if they did that for me.

[artist-rat]

grabbing my da ocs to give them an og story in an og setting. testing some new looks. barbie meme is the first thing i draw

this has been my announcement

[abd-illustrates]

JEEEZ sorry you had to read something like that. I hope you’re ok at least that’s so fucked up

OH yea I'm fully fine dw! it was just one of those instances where I'm like well huh hey now that sure is a LOT ain't it

[spidehpig]

Tell me why I only found your blog today😫 I’ve been reading through your works all morning and wanna bow down to your writing like the royalty it is!

For sleazy mechanic ghost, you’ve got me giggling and wondering what would happen if she Johnny couldn’t successfully chat her up and she just…leaves when her car is fixed, no giving into flirtation. Would love to hear your thoughts on if they would stalk their little bird or what not.

Omg ty anon 😭🩵 I don’t have very much posted yet since i’ve spent the last two years essentially just rambling my incoherent ideas and headcanons in friends DMs but now i’m like fuck it why shouldn’t i post them and try to get better at writing. The first and only fic i’ve done so far was really fun and i’m excited to do shameless self insert x reader stuff haha.

As for the second part im literally cackling right now because that’s well… basically the idea i have outlined 💀 probs won’t be full blown creepy stalker for this AU. but without spoiling too much yeah basically rejects Soap coming on super fucking strong that initial meeting at the shop but they just can’t quite seem shake him. Relatively small town after all, of course he’s going to spot you in the bread aisle at the grocery store and make a beeline to you to bother and harass you. and he’s gonna make sure you have to bring your fine self and your pretty car that he’s obsessed with back to the shop

[voidbits]

weird? space? core? thing?

[hungrydogs-if]

ugh the temptation to just make the prologue public now that the editing's done is something i wasn't expecting.

gotta lock in and finish all the stat stuff and reassess the demo drop date.

[irishthings]

Where did the saying "Irish goodbye" come from

Do you have any idea how long it takes an Irish person to leave a party/gathering because we have to say goodbye to ten people for forty minutes

We can't even hang up the phone without saying "bye" five thousand times