#txf

[sashacalle]

series appreciation • 20 characters: [1] dana scully, the x files

I think the dead are beyond caring what people think about them. Hopefully we can adopt the same attitude.

[benoitblanc]

DANA SCULLY + FEAR

[caridrea]

Mmm 🥹🙊

[bigcalpico]

i was gonna kiss every inch of your body but whatever bro

for @parsedforthescreen

[trusttnno1]

LAZARUS

[sp00kyactionatadistance]

what i looove about quagmire and detour is that mulder and scully get to be more casual with each other. their talk about moby dick and the conversation in the woods are one of my favorite pieces of dialogue from the show bcs they highlight how great of friends they are, not just partners. i wish we had more moments like those.

[movieslover05]

“i stopped watching the x-files the moment they made mulder and scully about romance" clearly these people never watched past Mulder and Scully meeting

[sculderand-mully]

some halloween costume ideas

[hollyyy555]

I present to you: my favourite genre of image

[azure-firecracker]

Today I was thinking about Mulder and Scully and lies/truth. Because obviously lies and truth are central themes of TXF as a whole, and “the truth is out there” is iconic for a reason. And likewise, the two of them are always dancing around the truth between them. Whether you see them as platonic or romantic, both of them always just avoid admitting what they mean to one another, the truth only slipping out in moments of desperation, usually when the other isn’t watching (Endgame, Redux) or when they know the other needs to hear it (Irresistible, Teliko) enough so that it overrides their fear of caring for each other.

And I think this combination of love and lies is reflected in their relationship with one another.

Because Scully is precious to Mulder, and even though he never demeans her, there’s nothing he wants more than for her to be safe. And so he lies to her all the time, often by omission. He doesn’t tell her where he’s going, doesn’t tell her how dangerous his quest is about to be, doesn’t want her to follow because he’ll bear all of the darkness in order to keep her afloat.

And Scully knows that, to an extent. And she knows that she is Mulder’s beacon of truth, the one constant anchor in an ever-changing web of lies. So while Mulder lies to her in many ways to shield her from the worst of what they face, there is only one lie that she tells him, because she knows he needs it.

I’m fine.

[denyeverything69]

#txf

[b0oker18]

X Files Poll

These 'plot points' (i.e. horrible mistakes) seem to be the most debated as to what was the worst in the fandom over the years, so I ask you, which is THE worst. Cuz I gotta know!

[ellivia]

this made me actually laugh

[caridrea]

"She knows I'll find her no matter what."

We know too, Mulder 🥹💚🥰🥰

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder Is Not Allowed to Mourn

While working my way through Tempus Fugit and Max, this scene struck me.

Mulder walks over to Max's corpse, somber and mournful; carefully unzips the plastic coverlet from his friend's face; and stares at it deeply before automatically reaching down to explore the body as evidence. A cry catches his attention, and he looks up to a family of mourners a few feet away. Mulder watches them, then stares back down with a strange expression-- as if he is moved by their grief but denied that same open display of emotion.

**Note**: While I don't inherently disagree with these takes, the hypothesis below is, overall, ill-formed. But it shall be left up for posterity's sake~.

We know the extensive history of The X-Files's traumas on one Dana Scully. It's rather self-evident, for one; but it's also obvious, played up for plot points to grow her character or progress the plot forward. And that principle extends to Mulder, too, right? Yes... but it differs in one key area.

Mulder and Scully suffer gendered violence repeatedly on the show. The Syndicate often reduces Scully down to her body and reproductive system (reluctantly coming to see her as Mulder's equal, if not their own, because of her intelligence and professionalism.) Mulder, however, is beaten over the head with trauma, and isn't allowed to mourn-- is supposed to, as the saying goes, "take it like a man."

And this wasn't an accidental flaw of (chiefly) Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz's writing: it was intentional. Nor was its bent misogynistic. Mulder suffered trauma; and the exploration and revelation and closure of that trauma served as the series' backbone. Specifically, Mulder suffered trauma through a gendered lens, propagated by his closest mentors (e.g. his parents and Bill Patterson), his label-and-dismiss peers (e.g. "Spooky Mulder"), his higher ups, and his society at large. Men are supposed to suffer in silence, if they must; but most importantly, they're not supposed to suffer at all.

We see this belief stem back to Mulder's parents, to the Consortium generation, to A.D. Skinner, to the 90s vulnerable males who feel a sense of shame or discomfort at being "failures" or "victims". Each crumbles or bears their cross on their shoulders as a form of duty. They feel, as Mulder demonstrates in Tempus Fugit, that they aren't allowed to mourn, minimizing and backing away from their pain for a later (inconvenient) date. They can feel loss, and sorrow; but aren't supposed to feel it for long.

Mulder's and Scully's characters served to break traditional barriers: he the believer, she the skeptic. He opened himself back up to painful memories to recover what he lost while she repressed and avoided them. He more openly expresses pain, she does not. However, the narrative-- or David Duchovny, or both-- shows time and again that Mulder also serves as a magnifying glass of mens' issues and expectations. In the early seasons, Mulder's trauma is exploited by shadowy informants, ex-girlfriends, malicious higher-ups, and his own mother. Whenever Scully is in peril, Mulder is expected to leave her in the dust and run after the truth; and is yelled or sneered at when he deviates from that expectation. In Fight the Future, it's revealed his father spared him so Mulder could grow up and stop the Conspiracy: yes because Bill loved him, but also because he expected his son to "save the world." These Mulder moments aren't written as a glorification of the strong and silent suffering male, either: in fact, Carter and Spotnitz often slow the script down just enough to touch on the toll it takes on Mulder-- and the toll it took on Bill Mulder, CSM, Bill Patterson, and countless others.

While Scully's traumas are explored and the men who do it to her are demonized, Mulder's are largely shoved aside-- despite them serving as the central mission of The X-Files-- because Mulder himself shoves them aside. Even though Mulder is the "believer", he is still a man; and despite breaking many of society's rules and expectations regularly (and with delight), Mulder is still twisted up in self-loathing and shame, seeing his needs-- and an expression of those needs-- as secondary to everyone else's. He is desperate to save his sister and his partner; he is devastated he can't save his father, his mother, and (again) his sister. But he constantly redirects that devastation away from himself, not facing it as Scully allows herself to do in therapy or after her remission (or after Milagro.)

There is an inherent message left unaddressed in the middle of each script, scene, and episode: Mulder is repressed, Scully is seeking repression. Mulder and Scully both judge themselves on societies' expectations for men, and both feel shame when indulging in painful emotions. But while Scully will seek space for herself-- will grieve or cry in the shelter of isolation-- Mulder refuses to allow himself that relief. And despite not being "that type of show", the writers (usually) slow down the scene to allow brief glimpses into the wrongness of that expectation and its damage for both.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[trusttnno1]

PILOT