#he IS ahab

[pennyserenade]

i'm being forced to read moby-dick, so i think its only right that i get to come on here and talk about it in relation to the x-files. the first order of business i want to bring up is the curious relationship first shared between the characters ahab and starbuck. after ahab announces to the whole crew that his motivations for this three year whale voyage is so he can find and defeat moby-dick, starbuck is a little perturbed. later, to himself, he muses, "my soul is more than matched; she's overmanned; and by a madman!…but [ahab] drilled deep down, and blasted all my reason out of me! i think i see his impious end; but feel that i must help him to it." starbuck is seemingly possessed by ahab's mission, though he can't entirely understand it and doesn't readily want to dedicate himself and all the ship to it. like dana scully, our life-long starbuck, we see starbuck become enraptured in a quest that is not entirely his own for a purpose he cannot express.

later still, we get an insight into ahab's thoughts on starbuck. melville writes, "starbuck's body and starkbuck's coerced will were ahab's, so long as ahab kept his magnet at starbuck's brain; still he knew that for all this the chief mate, in his soul, abhorred his captain's quest, and could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself from it, or even frustrate it." in episode one, dana scully and fox mulder share this relationship: she is presented to him as someone who could, if she'd like, effectively destroy him and his mission. he understands the importance of psychology and--dare i say it--manipulation the way ahab understands it with starbuck here. in order to continue his mission, ahab and mulder both know they must capture and hold the interest of their starbuck, lest their starbuck turn against them. while their white whales make sense to an ardent few, ahab and mulder know that it is starbuck alone who will make or break them. and starbuck, beyond all reason or doubt, commits.

[quortknee]

CURSE YOU BAYLE ‼️

Igon from Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree (bonus non-summon version because yeah) You can get a print of this illustration [here]

[marzipan-alligator]

[bigusbossus]

he's sending this to whoever you think he's sending it to (bb)

[probably-an-alien]

I just finished Moby Dick.

Man, this book has destroyed me.

I feel all gutted and wrung out emotionally.

During those last few exhilarating chapters I so so wished that old Ahab could have relented and turned back to Nantucket, although I knew the ending already. I wished Starbuck could have seen his wife and child again and that Queequeg could have safely come back to port together with Ishmael. I knew it could not be, yet treacherous hope still made me yearn for a better ending for the Pequod and her crew.

[carefulfears]

i so love the scully that only exists around mulder. with her cheeky dirty jokes and her eye rolls that no one else sees and her tears. there’s something so special about how she exists next to him, outside of the pressures, and the image that she’s constructed.

[pocketchoir]

Captain Slayfab

[hwestil]

Somehow, I didn't expect Melville had it in him - or I had it in me - to write a last line that nearly made me scream.

ONLY FOUND ANOTHER ORPHAN

[mmmmmmky]

limutuals another poll

part of a new series of limbus polls i think reblogs with your answers and such would be appreciated :>

[spacelazarwolf]

Captain Ahab showing off the place on his little tum tum that he had to get shaved for an ultrasound. (He is fine, we had to pay $700 to find out that he didn't like his cat food anymore and stopped eating in protest)

i have heard so many stories abt ppl taking their cats to the vet bc they're worried they're not eating and something's wrong only for the vet to tell them "nah he's fine he's just being a little bitch" and it cracks me up every single goddamn time.

[appendingfic]

"I’m all aleak myself. Aye! leaks in leaks! not only full of leaky casks, but those leaky casks are in a leaky ship; and that’s a far worse plight than the Pequod’s, man. Yet I don’t stop to plug my leak; for who can find it in the deep-loaded hull; or how hope to plug it, even if found, in this life’s howling gale?"

When you know you're not Doing Good, but also have Zero ideas what to do about it so you just keep plugging along

[basilsbestpainting]

Ahab tempered his harpoon in *what*.

Then decided to speak *latin*?

Do they have a fucking priest on this boat bc I think home boy needs a God Damn exorcism.

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID: A traditionally drawn and watercolor painted portrait of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick based on Le Génie du Mal by Guillaume Geefs. Ahab is an older chubby and muscular Persian man with short curly greying dark hair, a pointed beard, a lightning scar across his face and body, and several other scars. His left leg is amputated below the knee. Ahab wears nothing, but has a deep red cloth draped across his lap. He holds a harpoon iron in one hand across his lap, and his other hand rests on top of his head. He looks down pensively, with a troubled expression. The background is colored in light blues and browns. End ID.]

ungodly, godlike Ahab

I miss drawing traditionally, this was so refreshing ;-; the statue this is based on is the really hot Lucifer one with the crown btw: le génie du mal, definitely look it up :) anyways I love drawing Ahab in religious imagery and going completely batshit insane about it

design from the stellar @pocketsizedquasar as always :3

[demonrubberduck]

Moby Dick: the end

RIP the crew, but I’m super distracted by this sub-sub librarian extract section. Herman Melville just control+F ‘whale’ from his research and dumped in all in like a student trying desperately to get their page count up.

[miquella-everywhere]

CURSE YOU BAYLE!!!!!!!!