High Thoughts About The X-Files

*taps on mic* so what is a normal amount to think about killing yourself? This is just a place for me to collect thoughts I have when watching The X-Files while absolutely Flavorblasted®

[katebeckets]

how to say "I love you" in x-files [185/?] ⤷ 3.22 — “Quagmire”

[not-aliens]

[wonder-xphile]

I’m just throwing the “Dana Scully is a Disney Princess” thing out there again because her undercover hood outfit deserves it.

[jtt-033-1613]

[paxamericana]

the x files is funny because at the time it was “progressive” or whatever to have the ultra-rational, levelheaded character be a woman

but it’s also a show where all the fucked up alien shit actually is real, so she’s just constantly wrong about everything

[cryptid-sighting]

What’s funny is how often they’re both wrong. Mulder will be like “the victims all had their livers scooped clean out this is obviously the aliens escalating from cattle mutilation” and Scully will be like “don’t be silly Mulder this is clearly just a serial killer who’s really good with surgical tools” and then it turns out the actual killer is an immortal sewer man who comes out ever quarterly century to feast on human liver.

[hound-slut]

I cannot stress enough that this is literally the plot of an actual episode

[catharsisxf]

~these two make kevlar look good~

[icedteainthatbag]

mulder helping scully up

[cutemothman]

yeah my love language is acts of service *helps you fake your own death and then lies to the fbi when questioned about it*

[cutemothman]

but can i also say ghost in the machine going hard in terms of

mulder looking at this guy who stole his profile, who came down to give him such a bullshit non-apology and mulder very gently saying "all you had to do was ask. i would have helped you with the profile" scully turning to him during that meeting, claws already out like "??? isn't that your profile?" and mulder telling her to let it go. he's so so trusting because he wants to believe that people are good even when they hurt him over and over.

and you can tell that scully knows IMMEDIATELY that this guy is a Fucker. from the first moment that jerry shows up and hugs mulder, she can see how uncomfortable he is. the way her body language changes whenever jerry shows up after that. she watches mulder to make sure he's okay. ready to pounce. ready to step in if she needs to. even before he stole the profile, she knew that he was shady and after he showed his true colors all bets were off. just another person that takes advantage of mulder's trusting nature. but still!! she saw how upset mulder was that jerry died and the first thing she does is find him and try to comfort him. a few episode ago she was holding a man at gunpoint demanding that he take her to mulder, her touch is lighter in the episode but she still has his back.

[scullyblues]

oh Gillian that wasn't in the script

[haven-the-yearner]

this is such a small thing for me to obsess over but like. leaning down like this cannot be comfortable for Mulder. yet, he doesn't ask to hold the umbrella instead of Scully, or ask for her to hold it higher. i love little gestures like this, that make it clear how close they are.

[rosenkranz-isnt-dead]

I Am in Eskew, episode 4: Culpability // The X Files, s3e22: Quagmire

[carefulfears]

one of the few moments between them where they threaten to break the act down.

he knows the answer to the first question; do you believe that? have you ever believed that? all she can do is stare at the floor, almost like she’s been caught. because she doesn’t. and he knows she doesn’t.

her role in this thing that they do is to not believe in aliens. she answered him on that first day, does she believe in the existence of extraterrestrials? she had to say no.

she can’t answer him this time, though. she stares at the floor. but he knows.

he knows the answer to the second question too, though. what do you think happened to her?

scully can stand in front of him and tell him that he’s just being emotional all she wants. tell him that it’s manipulation, that it’s impossible.

but her role in this thing is that she is the rational one, and he knows what the rational thing to think about 8 year old girls who disappear from their homes and don’t come back is.

even if it’s not this killer, even if it’s not this man, the rational thing to think is that it’s another.

so after four years of seeking and chasing and following after as he walks into the same room every day, as he wants to believe, what does she believe? what is she really saying when she says no, she doesn’t believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?

and can they keep the act up, when this is what it means?

[xfilesfanficexchange]

Still Walking Into That Room

Author: @agent-troi​ For: @baronessblixen​ Scully and Mulder talk about what motivated him to act as recklessly as he did in Demons. Ao3 Link

#XF1in5Billion2023 1/33

[opentheskies]

More vague MSR ✌️

[slayerbuffy]

season 1 // season 10.

[gaypriori]

X-Files Episodes Organized by Philosophical Topic

Metaphysics

Fatalism: Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (3.4), Monday (6.14)  Interactionism: Shadows (1.5), Fire (1.11), Excelsis Dei (2.11) Determinism, compatibalism, and/or human freedom: Aubrey (2.12) , Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (3.4), Syzygy (3.13), Wetwired (3.23), Talitha Cumi (3.24), Synchrony (4.19) Disembodied existence: Shadows (1.5), Beyond the Sea (1.12), End Game (2.17), Elegy (4.22) Personal agency/autonomy: Ice (1.8), Pusher (3.17), Hell Money (3.19), Kitsunegari (5.8), Empedocles (8.17) Personal identity: Lazarus (1.15), Born Again (1.21), End Game (2.17), The List (3.05), Apocrypha (3.16), Herrenvolk (4.1), The Field Where I Died (4.5), Dreamland (6.4), Dreamland II (6.5) Psychological continuity: End Game (2.17), Herrenvolk (4.1), The Field Where I Died (4.5) Reincarnation: Lazarus (1.14), Born Again (1.21), The List (3.5), The Field Where I Died (4.5) Time travel (see David Lewis): Synchrony (4.19) Parallel universes: 4-D (9.4)

Epistemology

Belief [This is a major theme in the entire series, but it is especially prevalent in these episodes] (see James, Clifford): Beyond the Sea (1.12), E.B.E. (1.16), Colony (2.16), Quagmire (3.22), S.R. 819 (6.9) Cartesian skepticism: How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (6.6), Field Trip (6.21), Via Negativa (8.7) General epistemology: Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (3.4), Jose Chung’s From Outer Space (3.20), Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (4.7), Demons (4.23), Bad Blood (5.12) Pragmatism: The Erlenmeyer Flask (1.23), Little Green Men (2.1), all things (7.17) Fideism: all things (7.17)   

Ethics

Animal ethics: Red Museum (2.10), Fearful Symmetry (2.18) Biomedical ethics: Eve (1.10), Colony (2.16) Divine command theory ethics: Revelations (3.11) Environmental ethics: Darkness Falls (1.19), Quagmire (3.22) Ethical subjectivism: Home (4.3) Ethics of scientific research: Demons (4.23) Kantian ethics: Home (4.3), Small Potatoes (4.20) “Lifeboat” ethics: Død Kalm (2.19) Moral relativism: Excelsis Dei (2.11), Fresh Bones (2.15), Hell Money (3.19), Teso Dos Bichos (3.18), Kaddish (4.12) Moral responsibility: Irresistible (2.13) Virtue ethics: Apocrypha (3.16), Avatar (3.21), Zero-Sum (4.21) Moral education: Home (4.3)

Philosophy of mind

Artificial intelligence: Ghost in the Machine (1.6), Kill Switch (5.11)

Philosophy of religion

Faith and reason: Revelations (3.11), All Souls (5.17) Religious ambiguity: Essence (8.20), Improbable (9.13)

Philosophy of science

Abductive inference (see Peirce): Pilot (1.1) Axiological & normative issues in scientific research: Ice (1.7), Young at Heart (1.15), Soft Light (2.23)  Folk theories and scientific explanations: Teliko (4.4) The “Unexplanable”: Without (8.2), Invocation (8.5), Dæmonicus (9.3) Paradigm shifts (see Kuhn): The Erlenmeyer Flask (1.23)

Political philosophy

Government’s proper role in society: Blood (2.3), Musings of a Cigarette Man (4.7), The Pine Bluff Variant (5.18) Freedom of Religion: Roadrunners (8.4)

Existentialism

Beyond the Sea (1.12), Jose Chung’s From Outer Space (3.20), Talitha Cumi (3.24)

[gaycrouton]

Someone on Facebook used AI to see what Mulder and Scully’s kids would look like and they’re all just as attractive as you’d imagine

Credit: Frank Navarro from the Facebook group titled “AI Art Universe”