#the whole txf.... thing seems to have been very insular

[figureofdismay]

It's been interesting getting back into both Sam/Jack and MSR at the same time, I get to compare and contrast really similar themes (secret duty, dangerous truths, aliens, government oversight, honor, loss of family, pining, devotion etc) from really different framing. The X files is a much darker show overall and Chris Carter's misogyny problem and hand of fate baby arcs are frustrating and painful, and yet the MSR fic has so much more room to be much sweeter and more openly domestic and a lot of times the stakes are lower because as much as it affects their own lives, the Syndicate and the threat of Colonization is much bigger than what they personally alone can bring about or prevent. They have guilt and repression and fear of losing each other or the work to contend with, but we're also shown that as long as they have each other they're generally okay even without the work -- I mean aimlessness and depression (and out of character writing choices) yes, but the Syndicate operations aren't that closely affected by if Mulder and Scully are in the basement office or not, so you can conjure up a wide variety of believable paths for them to be together with or without 'the files.'

Meanwhile Sam and Jack could literally be prosecuted for disobeying orders/getting involved within the same chain of command, they could get their team or the whole program taken apart thanks to that excuse in the hands of Simmons or similar, they're directly on the front lines for 8 years and they're repeatedly shown via the quantum mirror that Sam and Jack both being active members of SG1 is the only reason Earth wasn't decimated in a hostile Goa'uld invasion so they can't just resign and be together. For a second you think there's a window but then there's a new war and they make Jack everyone's boss and send Sam to a different galaxy and then put her up on a ship, and you go; Oh. So that's an endless set of circumstances, then. There's so much 'be miserably, honorably apart, serving and pining forever or the destruction of Earth will directly be your fault' baggage baked into Sam and Jack's narrative setup that you're boxed into either character-bending wish fulfillment (which is satisfying to read but hard to commit to writing ime) or the soul excoriating 'hanging on waiting for what can never be' flavor of overly believable quiet tragedy.

I'm finding I'm spending more time with the show where the skinny grey aliens with big eyes are a lot more evil and the themes are more bleak but the characters are less entirely trapped by their own best intentions 💀😭😭