#pretty much anyone tbh

[molinaskies]

An interesting “side effect” of the canonization of the “classic era” meaning “younger era” is that the classic era now reads as “cute fun times” before the core cast became teenagers/tweens and things got super, super complicated.

Because the characters are “younger,” there’s an air of “little rascal innocence” to everything they do now. The new releases like Mania and Superstars now feel like little throwbacks to the young heroes just learning how to work together and make a difference in the world.

I don’t think this is a bad thing at all.

[ruporas]

pre-trimax

[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.

[gnomeantics]

STARKID TRENDING CATEGORY 5 AUTISM EVENT

[piosplayhouse]

Rumors are going around on twitter and weibo that starember might have left the tgcf manhua team omg.. they're unfounded right now but can we get a prayer circle going for hoping that it's true!! 🙏🙏🙏I'm so tired of their consistent racism and orientalism being passed around in the manhua space, people have been raising the alarm on it for literal years now

[justarandombrit]

Current mood: Scrags during I Fuck With Christmas

[elfsyellowflowerzart]

take two of yesterdays little doodle, using the ref this time

[ganondoodle]

i have grown kinda tired of all the studio ghibli and totk comparisons bc i love most of miyazakis movies and its so annoyingly obvious that if totk actually took inspiration from them its all just the surface level aesthetic and none of the good story telling

[uo6ep]

Q: Do you only use one type of prosthesis? How about trying something different?

[oh-cosmia]

I don’t think I ever shared my solo au doodles here? Here they are

[jjinpang]

Is it okay if I ask why you add an "S" to Zack's name? Is it a nickname of sorts that you came up with? I'm sorry if this is rude to ask.

not at all rude!

short answer: habit!

long answer:

In japanese his name is 「ザックス」 romanized it'd be "zakkusu" with a distinct S/X sound at the end. For a pretty long time it was officially spelled "Zax". This is a super duper personal preference thing but I didn't like the spelling even at the time and spelled it "Zacks" instead.

Later Zacks' localized name became "Zack" losing the S/X sound. I felt this made his name a completely different name altogether and stubbornly decided to keep calling him Zacks. (been spelling it wrong long enough anyway lol) In Japanese his name has not changed at all and is still 「ザックス」 with the S/X sound at the end.

It's something I'm doing by myself and I totally get it if it seems weird.

[hinata-boke]

Opinions on bokuto?

(I love him)

i love him too! honestly the first time i watched haikyuu i thought he was pretty funny but he wasn't one of my favorites. it was probably after i got more attached to akaashi that i got more attached to bokuto by proxy haha

he's a ton of fun to draw and i love his dynamics with a lot of the characters, whether they've interacted much in canon or not. he's also a very skilled and cool player and fun to watch/read when he's at the top of his game, or even when he's going through one of his moods. he's a huge baby and a bit simple-minded, but he also gives out great words of wisdom. he has hair like a horned owl. he's just a lot of fun!

[fulgurbugs]

Oh hey I hope you don’t mind me asking, this is purely out of curiosity but if you had to picture other duopath runs which characters would you pick and why? :)

Therion & Tressa are such a good combo I’m curious about which other traveler combinations would work well

hm thinking about which ones would be fun…. i think i can think of some that’d be fun

ship ones obvi would be funny, so alfyn/therion Primrose/Haanit, Olberic/Cyrus etc, also i think all of those combos are pretty good and can cover each other, i think Alfyn/Therion probably has the easiest time of it (due to access to steal for equipment and then concoct is just really good) and olberic/cyrus probably has the hardest time of it? i think thats purely because cyrus is frail and might take some investment to make sure he’s not dying every 2 seconds. then again, olberic as a duo is pretty good since he always has incite access. basically cyrus needs saving grace asap i think

Prim/haanit i think mayyybe more middle of the road? you do always get sealticge but its more of a whole thing with just two party members instead of 4, but haanit can hit the big damage and having dancer prim she’s probably easier to minmax damage potential on since you can lion dance her etc… if you run one of them as thief you can probably do some kind of armor corrosive lion dance setup and let haanit just hit the double digit thousands

i think one of the things that would be difficult about both haanit/prim and olberic/cyrus is definitely the lack of path action to acquire npc items, you get literally soooooo much shit out of it it’s super helpful lol.

other ones i think would be fun

Alfyn/Ophilia: healerpath run. while you won’t have to rely on item healing (like i did for the majority of duopath), i think this one would be a fun like, find your damage method one. plus, these two are the ones who usually sit back as supports (at least in their base class roles), but push when push comes to shove- sorry you guys gotta do all the hard work of killing these guys on top of the healing. also the stretch between their ch3s and ch4s would be miserable for them sorry you two

Therion/Primrose: the two traumatized ones with loner streaks, that’s right we’re putting bff bracelets on you and forcing you to work together. i think these two have a kind of kinship friendship that they don’t quite share with any of the others, so they get along quite well, even though i think i’d find it hard to stick them together permanently without the glue of the rest of the party. but as a duopath, i think they could still be pretty fun, and i want primrose to have some help stabbing those guys. gameplay wise, having therion would be a huge benefit for path action reasons, plus thief is like. imo one of the best subclasses paired with anything so i think any duopath he’s in gets some added benefit.

Olberic/Tressa: i always liked their dynamic, as the oldest member and the youngest member they might have an almost parental kind of relationship, and something abt tressa’s plucky enthusiasm and Olberics more stoic, seasoned nature is always fun to me. Tressa is another items-getter path action (though slightly less good than steal, you’ll likely rack up enough money grinding that prices are trivial) which is a help, and merchant is extremely good in duopath due to hired help being one of the best damage options for any character who might not be able to set up huge numbers. olberic however, can set up huge numbers, which means that i think this duo would be super duper set in the damage department.

ophilia/cyrus: i think this is the one i’d do if i really wanted pain, because these two have no hp and will die. this is like, the challenge mode option, because one of the things about duopath is you’re going to be taking a lot of damage on your two characters where you would have that spread across your party. so this duo would require some interesting strategizing to raise those hp stats, figure out how to tank, and then, on top of that, how to dish out the big numbers. while magic is *good* ive always found that when you’re trying to hit big on breaks, you’re better off going for brand or aeber big hits. as well, you get no items path action to work with for them. as for the dynamic, they’re both friendly and agreeable so i think there’d be not much conflict between them, but i think you could have some fun especially by the end if they start to draw the galdera connections between them…

[buckera]

i am gently considering making a teeny tiny sideblog for my smallville things for that 3 people who followed me here for that... only cuz i'm getting through the show slowly and i don't think they wanna see the absolute insanity this blog will become once 911 s8 goes live

[gtbutterfly]

Gt con last Saturday was great, but I made a vore-ish joke that basically felt like this:

[canon-gabriel-quotes]

Sorry if this is an invasive question, but have you read any specific fics and/or would be comfortable sharing which?

I don’t have an ao3 account so I don’t have a way to keep track of what I have read. But it’s really not that many. Probably like 10-15 in total.

Not really the person to ask for refs as ive barely read any ¯\_(ツ)_/¯