[scullee-inactive]

x files + text posts 1/?

[just-a-leech-boy]

Fox Mulder is absolutely insane. He's delusional he's an insomniac he has an oral fixation he's mentally ill he has no friends he's a porn addict he's a poor little meow meow and sososo in love with his coworker. He also has a big coat and a lot of ties.

[carefulfears]

Can you imagine if we had an episode with flashbacks of toddler Mulder. Like I’m already a simp for his grown-ass self but seeing him as a small little boy, little toddler Fox I would actually have melt into a glittery pile of pink goo 😩

horrifying realization that they casually had a baby named fox running around

[carefulfears]

he must’ve been like 8 or 9 in these pics he put by his deskjob computer in s2 of him and sam and it still makes me 🥺🥺

i always think of him describing the burnt photos in his mom’s house as “all she had left of us.” like, in his mind, who he is as a person is so frozen in time, in these captured “before” moments. to the point where he can be standing in his mother’s house and still describe himself as lost to her, because he doesn’t exist as whole outside of a world where samantha is in the same frame.

i feel like we all kind of recognize something very hopeful and childlike in mulder, but that’s what makes it very contradictory and emotional. it’s like that audries fic line, “he grew all the way up at twelve, and still somehow never really did.”

[randomfoggytiger]

Amazing that a man as bereft and carved out as Mulder has been was able to realize he would trade all of it-- give up the quest, give up the answers-- if it meant saving Scully.

And even more amazing is that S2 was a singular focus on his one-minded drive and how it was killing him not to pursue those answers and his sister... until Ascension-3-One Breath broke him, tore him apart, and rebuilt him. And we get a differently-inclined Mulder after that: still driven, but always willing to rip his blinders off and turn aside from the chase if Scully is hurt.

[soufflegirl]

The X-Files: Max (4x18) // Closure (7x11)

[bisexualfbiagents]

THE X FILES | Kitsunegari (5.08)

[evastratt]

I’m homesick (Homesick - Noah Kahan)

[yesandor]

Orestes, trans. William Arrowsmith // The X-Files, 2x2

[theangelsgrewlonely]

The funniest thing about the x files has gotta be mulder’s expense report. Just imagining some poor fbi accountant being like “what the fuck do you mean mulder flew to Hong Kong??? Who approved this???”

[winterholmesart]

Then you were frozen. And I remember I hugged you until you were not frozen anymore.

[psygull]

most people can agree that the x-files mythology episodes devolve into nonsense pretty quickly, but i still like to watch them anyways because there's a good chance my friends the lone gunmen show up

[bisexualfbiagents]

oubliette (o͞o′blē-ĕt′) a dungeon, the only entrance to which is through the top [from the French oublier meaning to forget]

Fox Mulder in Oubliette (3.08)

[carefulfears]

thinking about that creepy doll that mulder saved after his mother died, then wrapped in “baby” paper so scully would have a present to open, and how it probably belonged to samantha (or at least was played with by her) and how by the time he had to go clean out the house, IVF had already failed and he had no real reason to keep it. but he did, of course he did, just in case.

[carefulfears]

one thing that stands out to me about the IVF arc is the way that, for as much as i make fun of her for asking her coworker if she can have his babies, scully asking mulder to be involved in the biggest process of her life (and the most important thing in the rest of her life) is such a healing and reverent experience. like he says “i’m absolutely flattered,” but it’s so much more than that. it’s like…spending your whole life feeling like you should’ve died at age twelve and then being told someone just wants more of you, more and more and more, in everything.

[carefulfears]

yeah. and “not only do you deserve it, but i want that for you. i want that for us. i want you for this.”

[scullys-scalpel]

Maybe it's because the 30th anniversary of the pilot is approaching or maybe it's because I recently did a rewatch or maybe it's because I am a sentimental sap or maybe it's all of those things but TXF Pilot is just so good. I mean what a great introduction to Mulder and Scully. When they first meet in the basement and she shakes his hand OMG (you'd think sparks flew). Their dueling dynamic (that makes them oh so great) is introduced right off the bat. Scully is challenging the hell out of Mulder's theories, respectfully of course. A foundation of trust is built between them *swoon* throughout the episode. They are also such precious baby agents that it's impossible not to fall in love with them. THE RAIN SCENE IN THE CEMETERY! The episode just fucking slaps all across the board. And I will always go back to it when I want to remember how it all was.

[powwhamteaching]

I rewatched this recently, and one of my favorite things is that after Scully comes around to Mulder's theory (in an absolute masterclass of getting her and the audience to accept the fantastic because it really is the simplest explanation), Mulder stops her and asks if she is ready to stand behind this and insists they go back for evidence because it's *her* reputation at stake. It really sets up the dynamic that Scully isn't a supporting character to Mulder's story; she's an equal, and her goals, reputation, and career are just as important as Mulder's. He is her partner too.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

I'm sure he's not the first in history, but for me definitely, the reason Fox Mulder was such a revelation is that I'd never seen a character before who seemed totally conscious of masculinity as a performance, while also being pretty good at that performance.

Like, we kid, but Mulder is doing pretty well, as a man! He's got a badge and a gun, prestigious credentials and a bunch of sharp-ass suits. He's smart, he's funny, he's hot, he's not primarily a fighter, but he can fight when he has to. If there's a fairly straightforward, down-the-line Socially Acceptable way to be a (rich white) man in the 1990s, Mulder is basically ticking all the boxes correctly.

What's cool about him -- and I personally think this is what Duchovny specifically, a known weirdo, brings to the character -- is that Mulder's subjective internal experience of the world is that he's a weirdo. He knows that. In his head, he's preoccupied with this wild psychodrama of his guilt and his paranoia. He lives kind of like a weirdo, when he's not on the clock. He seems to like and trust weirdos. He's pretty introverted and he has a weird, bleak sense of humor.

The feeling I always got about Mulder is that he knows he's ticking boxes. He wakes up every day conscious of the fact that he has a job to keep and he has to Act Normal, so he does things like get his suits tailored and work out and he's clearly playing a role, and he's only as invested in that role as he judges he'll benefit from. He doesn't actually give a shit personally, except that he needs people to tolerate him to a certain degree in order to be functional in the world.

I think he's so appealing to me because he was the first character I ever saw who seemed to be self-consciously participating in the game of Being a High-Value Man (before that specific lingo was coined), while clearly viewing the game as a useful absurdity. He's literally putting on and taking off his Patriarchal Authority Figure drag, for his own purposes, and that's a big chunk of what I've always loved about him.

[xfilesposterproject]

If you missed out on the epic X-Files 30th Anniversary Fan Fest this past weekend but wanted a final chance to get some of my exclusive XF episode prints from the event, I've just added my last remaining stock to the shop for ship-to-home. Supplies are limited.

[oliviadunhams]

DANA SCULLY — 02x21, The Calusari