A Blog

trying to get my soul to adapt to this wretched bag of flesh

[blunt-goose]

i'm sorry but chris carter removing the msr scenes from the new director's cut of iwtb is objectively so fucking funny

he's literally the dumbest man on earth, i almost have to respect the decades-long commitment to making sure mulder and scully never get to be happy

[wordfather]

i am not immune to a well choreographed fight scene with a fun song in the background

[vanyahendricks]

This man is SUCH a fucking bottom. And you can't convince me otherwise.

Like look at him. I can just see him on his knees begging Scully to fuck him senseless. He has so much bottom energy.

[vrtualdreamgirl]

we can’t talk here contact me in my dream tonight

[gingertomcat]

Special agent Dale Cooper trying to have a covert conversation in Twin Peaks:

[daenystheedreamer]

everyone is always yelling at george being mean to him but sorry he wrote jaime lannister he wrote brienne of tarth nothing else matters he could do nothing else for the rest of his life it wouldnt matter because he wrote jaime lannister and he wrote brienne of tarth

[blunt-goose]

why was david duchovny almost exclusively making soft-core 90s porn before the x files?

[dappermouth]

Wild, green-crawling world — Gainesville, Florida

[blunt-goose]

scully telling mulder "i must remind you this goes against the bureau's policy of male and female agents consorting in the same motel room while on assignment" in detour will always be so fucking funny to me

like... scully... be serious for one second. on your first (1st!!) case together you went to mulder's motel room, undressed in front of him, asked him to inspect your lower back, hugged him and lay in his bed while having a deep personal conversation by candlelight

since when have you cared about fbi policy scully?? you have spent FIVE YEARS at this point finding increasingly elaborate ways to be alone in motel rooms with this man and NOW you’re concerned about bureau regulations???? what are you TALKING about??

[katebeckets]

how to say "I love you" in x-files [280/?] ⤷ The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)

[icedteainthatbag]

[blunt-goose]

An Absolute Overanalysis of Religious Symbolism in The X-Files

so this is going to be a really long post that maybe only appeals to a few people (and maybe has all been said before) but i just find it so interesting how much religious symbolism is found in the x files mythology. particularly how often mulder parallels jesus and how that symbolism also gradually shifts toward william and even scully's new unborn child

i'll separate this into different sections so it's easier to follow

mulder as a prophet, scully as an apostle/mother mary

first is the obvious: mulder is a prophet-like figure trying to find and spread the truth sacrificing his career, reputation and personal life while fighting against shadowy, corrupt forces. his whole life is defined by an absolute, unwavering faith in the unseen ("i want to believe"), sparked by a foundational trauma/revelation (samantha's disappearance) that functions like a divine calling

meanwhile, scully often fills the role of his disciple/apostle as she consistently stands by him and defends him through public scrutiny and persecution by the fbi, the syndicate, etc. when mulder goes missing, she is the one teaching agent doggett and passing down mulder's "gospel", showing him how to navigate the x files, and basically acting as the apostle training a new disciple to keep the work alive

scully is also explicitly catholic and always wears her cross as a physical symbol of her faith. most obviously, she heavily mirrors the virgin mary through her 3 "miraculous conceptions" (emily, william and her yet unborn child)

aliens and religion

also very interesting how in the sixth extinction (in s7) they find alien ships inscribed with the writings of every major world religion, suggesting that (within the show's mythology) aliens may be the origin of humanity's religious traditions. if aliens are the root of all religion, then mulder's search for extraterrestrial life is elevated and can actually be seen as an analogy for understanding divine truth itself; he's chasing the literal origin of humanity's idea of god and spirituality

mulder's resurrections

there are also repeated death-and-resurrection motifs surrounding mulder. he effectively "dies" 3 times throughout the series (in one sense or another) and is "resurrected":

the first and most heavy-handed christ parallel happens in anasazi/the blessing way (in s2/s3) when after being in a boxcar that is firebombed mulder is in an in-between state of life and death and is brought back by a navajo ritual led by albert hosteen. he is canonically 33 years old (the exact age jesus was at his crucifixion) and his symbolic resurrection takes place over 3 days (again exactly like jesus). albert hosteen also says that the exact moment when mulder was granted his miracle of coming back to life a white buffalo was born on the northern plains which is a powerful omen amongst several native american nations signifying great changes coming to the world

the second time comes in deadalive (s8) where mulder is returned from his abduction in a state so close to death that he is thought to actually be dead and is consequently buried. after 3 months he's brought back to life and is canonically 39 years old when this happens. very similar to the first resurrection, with the recurring symbolism of the number 3 (9 = 3 × 3) and the christ analogy continues with the death, entombment and rebirth

the third death is not actually mulder's per se but has heavy symbolism relating to him: in my struggle iv (s11) william takes on mulder's appearance to trick csm into shooting him in the head before the reveal that he has actually survived. so although not actually mulder, in a symbolic sense william "dies" in his image while inheriting mulder's christ imagery through the death and resurrection

amor fati and temptation

honorable mention to amor fati (s7) where the jesus symbolism isn't even subtle anymore. mulder is literally strapped to a cross-shaped operating table with a metal headpiece mimicking a crown of thorns while csm harvests his brain tissue and genetic material to steal his immunity. this is like a screwed up, inverted eucharist where the devil (csm) literally consumes the body of the messiah to gain immortality

the entire episode is actually a direct homage to the last temptation of christ, with csm playing satan, tempting mulder with a hallucinated vision of a normal, quiet life where he gets to age (with diana fowley of all people) and die peacefully while the world burns outside. the title amor fati ("love of fate") directly echoes jesus in the garden of gethsemane accepting his "cup of suffering" before his crucifixion: mulder has to actively reject the comfortable illusion and choose his destiny to save humanity. to top it off, scully is the one (guided by the spirit of albert hosteen) to reach mulder telepathically like a prayer and pull him out of the temptation

william as christ/antichrist

william actually also has a lot of very heavy jesus symbolism, beginning obviously with his miraculous conception. the whole series is vague about this but it is clear that he was somehow scientifically engineered with alien dna and did not have a normal/natural conception. his birth also notably has really strong parallels with jesus' birth: when scully goes into labour she gives birth in an isolated, rustic location that strongly echoes the stable in bethlehem where mary gave birth. alien super soldiers become the first witnesses to his birth, which feels reminiscent of the shepherds in the fields arriving to witness the birth of christ. meanwhile, mulder says he tracked scully and a newborn william by following a mysterious, brilliant light that appears in the sky which mimics the star of bethlehem that guided travellers to the birthplace of jesus. lastly, byers, langly and frohike visit a newborn william together, acting as the 3 wise men, bearing witness and bringing gifts to the "miraculous child"

also throughout s9, multiple factions compete for custody of william because they believe his existence carries prophetic significance. this again directly mirrors the nativity story, where christ's birth immediately attracts both devoted worshippers and people like king herod desperate to kill him

interesting though that while mulder is originally thought to be william's father (paralleling him to god), we get the reveal that csm (arguably paralleling the devil) is his actual father, or at the very least the one who scientifically engineered william's conception. this maybe hints that william is not supposed to be seen as a true saviour but instead maybe an antichrist figure disguising himself as a christ figure (e.g. believed to be mulder's child, taking on mulder's appearance during his supposed resurrection, etc), especially considering how manipulative and morally ambiguous he becomes as a teenager

the new pregnancy

finally at the end of s11 (in my struggle iv), scully reveals she's once again pregnant with yet another miraculous conception and mulder is the implied father. if william ultimately isn't the promised saviour he was originally thought to be, then perhaps the series is trying to transfer that symbolism onto this new child. with the baby implied to genuinely be mulder and scully's and therefore the child of the god/christ figure and the mary figure respectively, this baby could actually be the true messiah

that also makes the title card salvator mundi ("saviour of the world") at the beginning of the episode really interesting because it could arguably refer to 3 different people at once: it could refer to mulder himself (whose future actions might still save humanity), or it could refer to william seeing as he literally saves mulder's life (thereby saving the saviour), or it could refer to the unborn child as the new messianic figure

anyways this could all be complete overanalysis on my part and i'm not sure if all of it was intended this way, but i find it interesting none the less just how many parallels you can find. i hope one day we get a conclusive ending that wraps all this up in some way (not sure chris carter knows how to do this though so i don't have high hopes). i'm sure there's plenty i've missed as well, so if anyone has other examples of religious symbolism in the series i'd genuinely love to hear it (especially if it's not christian/catholic as that's all i really know)

[yuriartillery]

nice mechanical watches are wasted on wealthy men. a billionaire who will wear it once every four years and leave it in a case the rest of the time doesnt deserve a marvel of engineering like that. *i* deserve a watch like that because i get sexually aroused by clockwork

[embers-braincells]

jokes on you, i have a mechanical watch with transparent windows, which means i can see it ticking, and it (the watch) is just as sexy as you think

[yuriartillery]

you really are out of your league here on all counts. look up the vianney halter deep space resonance and understand my suffering

[embers-braincells]

oh dear god you are right, i need that watch carnally

[sentient-tent]

For anyone who needed to see her in motion.

[anx1ous-op0ssum]

We have to get normal porn back on this hellsite

[ruffboi-mags]

no no, i want to see more of this

[cowgirlarchive]

we were robbed of the conversation after this

[mortalscience]

i like that you think they actually addressed this head on and didn't just repress repress repress

[blunt-goose]

why would i take mind altering substances if i can just stick my eczema riddled hands under scalding tap water and reach nirvana?

[sophsun1]

The X-Files – 6.03: Triangle

[lottienats]

GILLIAN ANDERSON as DANA SCULLY The X Files, ‘Fearful Symmetry’

[slimetony]

Just tried to play an ancient flute and it started filling the room with this awful miasma that wont go away

[slimetony]

Why does staff still allow people funnier than you to leave tags on your posts. They should have fixed that by now