#WRITERS KNOW WHAT I MEAN LMAO

[chryblossomjjk]

…

[threadofnorns]

big fan of Loki never mentioning Thanos, not even once, and by big fan I mean what was that

[tennessoui]

it’s like baby gorl there’s no way I, the author who wrote the fic you’re commenting on and who is the intended audience for this comment, am gonna agree with you 😿🙏 some things can just stay on your chest 🙏

[nenoname]

stan twins the canon cptsd brothers i will always think about all your unaddressed issues that would make perfect plot fuel for your spinoff

and also the whole 'stan getting that poem by bill via a website which contrasts with bill getting one from the axolotl via a website' foreshadowing thing

like idk i would love something like su future but like more optimistic, aka not an accumulated breakdown that has to be mostly resolved off screen at the end :/// but something thats being kinda addressed throughout? (although would love to see one of them turn into a monster thats always fun lol)

stan having severe issues from his dad and those years of being homeless that we keep on getting more info on but never really getting confronted on (the drifter catalogue and tijuana incident...), him being completely alone for like twenty years when running the shack before soos comes along to the point that 1998 is noted as his low point, and him not really learning about bill+what he did to ford until ages after he killed him if he ever did get the full context

while i think amnesia and everyone seeing him as a hero actually helped with stan's 'i'm a worse version of my brother' thing its still a lingering issue too and we now got him being insecure over his own hands

ford being immediately thrown from 'being tortured by bill' to 'being stuck in the multiverse and being chased by bounty hunters constantly', him fully expecting himself to die when destroying bill, and him only now being safe for the first time in 30 years ....relatively safe, he's still in constant danger because of course he is

idk in the end the series wants them to be happy and they deserve it, its why i wasn't too worried about the book being like 'ooh bill is back!! and the book is haunting ford' thing cos i knew they'll be ok

[crumb]

KYLE GALLNER as SAM COUGARS INC 2011 | dir. K. Asher Levin

[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.

[vulpixelates]

thank you to @ladyinthebluebox for tagging me to make a poll of my favorite video game ladies! 💖 i think there is one going around where it's just favorite fictional women in general but i had to limit it to video games or i'd be here for a year

tagging the following and anyone else who wants to (but no pressure!): @butchdollyparton @bardofheartdive @serawasnever @sunlians @littlebirdofprey

[uncleardyn]

man i love that character. you know, the deeply paranoid author who made a pact with a dark entity that ultimately ended with him stranded in another dimension separated from his loved ones for years at a time? takes place in the pacific northwest? has twin imagery associated with him and a reoccurring specific piece of symbology related to the unfortunate situation they're in? doesn't ever explain the reasoning behind his actions and instead just kinda goes "bro trust me"? yeah he also wears an outer layer of clothing with elbow pads on it, that one.

[lexygabe]

hiiiiii

here i am, polish supa strikas ex-writer from wattpad, who will publish some nonsense on this hellsite bcs i'm quirky like that

nico (💟💟💟💟💟💟) encouraged me to post this, so

[writer-room]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any type of media so clearly portray how my writing changed before and after I realized I was queer like Nimona. ND Stevenson’s work is just so familiar it pains me in an absolutely incredible way.

Plenty of people point out the differences made between the comic and the movie (and loving both regardless, of course). Most of them mention how the movie has a happier ending, its portrayal of its messages has shifted slightly, and its way more obviously a queer (especially trans) metaphor. I don’t know if any other writers had this happen, but if I had to describe how my writing changed from tiny little twelve-year-old me to the current day, I’d just point in the direction of how Nimona changed from the comics to the movie. It’s alarmingly similar.

Its all just...dripping with coming to terms with ones queerness. Not just from the plot, but from its very existence as a film. Its an evolution of growing up queer. The end goal, the base message, remains the same, even if the methods getting there are different. Because what someone made when they were twelve and had no idea what they were going to turn into and what they made as an adult with so much that changed, and so much left to change, are going to have so many different methods.

How Nimona was born the way she is, how the story changes from a corrupted core with no happy ending to being about ending that corruption and coming out okay, how Ballister’s grudges and issues with Ambrosius changed, all of it is just so indicative of changes made throughout ones life where these tiny little details are tweaked into something new, but still fundamentally the same story at its heart.

Even if this is just a me thing, I didn’t realize how excited I could be at seeing so much familiarity in a film. Good lord, I need to watch this movie again.

[ryssbelle]

Doctor Who specials without context

[the-voldsoy]

ooooh i want a revolution. i want the world broken apart and put back together, better this time. everything is just so wrong, at this point it would be easier to ruin and rebuild.

maybe its because of the strikes. maybe its the sudden surge of ai art in the music industry. maybe its just the music im listening to rn. but im thinking about it now and we really need to do something. we need to do more. more people should strike and more often. strikes are supposed to be disruptive, so disrupt. we as a society need to stop thinking of anything generated by ai as 'art'.

we need a revolution. these disruptions, this working as a community isnt working -- not well enough. im so proud of the writers for making a deal, but that isnt working for everyone. just look at the teachers! the nurses!

we need to throw the molotovs. remove people from seats of power they dont deserve, distribute the wealth. start taking 'eat the rich' seriously.

[todayisafridaynight]

idk if someone's asked this already buuut if you could rewrite IW to fix it somewhat what would you do? assuming like... budget/time limitations and all that.

well for starters i wouldnt have ebina's singular personality trait be an unapologetic caricature of aoki LMAO SO THAT'S STEP ONE. like im not going to repeat everything i already said in this post but tl;dr do better at making a character that's supposed to mirror another. keyword MIRROR not be a lame copy of.

another thing that felt really disappointing was akane. like for all the build up she got, not only did she just feel underwhelming but it felt as though once her plot was resolved the game put her aside. honestly, it wouldve been much better if the last ichi scene of the game wasnt wasted on the wack ass ichi/saeko plot, but it instead maybe showed ichi and akane start to bond ? idk. i just wanted more from her..

on that note though the entire ichi/saeko plot. just. just throw it out. it does literally nothing for the story and it stomps on the initial appeal of ichi's character (i.e. his emotional intelligence). absolutely nothing would've changed if they removed that plot

just a small bit, i think the reveal of kiryu's cancer shouldnt have been so early on and so. casual LMAO. i'm stealing this point from @/passports_alt because we were talking about it the other week but it would've been a MUCH better reveal if after the fire in the forest, THATS when kiryu wouldve told them (after incessant badgering of course. kiryus annoyingly stubborn still as shown through his memoirs)

i definitely have more complaints and I-Wishes but these are like. The Main Ones i think (the ones i feel like elaborating on anyway LMAO)

[sircolinmorgan]

i love audrey and siegfried and they belong together but after morse/joan and ted/rebecca i refuse to get my hopes up for anything ever again.

[gingerbreadmonsters]

6k in and my head is about to explode. STILL not allowed to say what i want :(

[chamerionwrites]

In terms of pure euphony I think Rogue One/Andor originated two of the best space names in the GFFA. “Cassian Andor” and “Luthen Rael” both just roll off the tongue so SO nicely