phew just finished bad sign, the syzygy novelization by easton royce, and it is absolutely the best adaptation so far. he did the DPO one as well which i said was the best of the juvenile series, and this blows that out of the water bc well it's syzygy! it's already a standout ep and paired with a capable author it was actually fun to get through. snippets below and you can read it here.
such a good opening line when you know the ending
[smiling and blushing with hearts emoji x7]
yes!!! that's her!! just as insane!!! also just realized easton royce was the author of the DPO novelization, which was easily the best of the juvenile series. from here on out my hopes are high
gah idk just setting up the ep so well like we're scully pov rn and internally she's like this is a waste of time we shouldn't be doing this (obv out of character) and then this with mulder fuck i'm so glad they have a good author doing a good episode
okay i kind of forgot that i'm 50/50 on loving and hating syzygy. like this is awesome but also I'M going to gag
why did this actually make me sad don't do that to herrrr
same as DPO such a good use of narration to add to the story. also the prose is good! in a lot of these books it's. not
god the added tension of her gaslighting herself is so good. and mulder being subtly cutting in a way he knows only she will pick up on is so deliciously cruel and (intentionally) out of character. also i barely go here but slight scully autism supporting evidence lol
mulder as hypocrite yesssss. also i would say this telling of the story paints scully as far more sympathetic than the episode, where the narrative wants you to think she's being irrational (tbf it wants you to think that about mulder too). but here there's more scully pov than mulder pov so far so she seems normal if a bit testy and he seems like a complete douche lmao
sorry long but godddd exactly!!!! exactly mr. royce!!!
don't have a particular example to go along with this observation but royce is very good at translating the meaning of an image and not just the image itself. i find in a lot of these novelizations visual symbolism is lost, which is a shame, bc it is possible to include in prose! you just have to think a bit instead of writing down exactly what you're watching lol
gahhh such good focus on this scene. it actually uses alternating pov and even within mulder's pov paints him as clueless and callous. also there is a line suggesting (well really outright stating) that the one wearing perfume is their suspect lmfao which i certainly never caught in the episode. then again i also didn't catch the transmisogynistic cross-dressing bit??
just so awesome like the horror of recognizing something is wrong of recognizing that your emotions aren't your own but acting on them anyway and not even knowing why. lowkey pms metaphor lmfao and whoop there's more trans mulder supporting evidence
there are authors that get their dynamic and authors that don't and royce absolutely does. combine that with the ability to meaningfully translate from screen to text and you get sweet little insights like this
not much to say about the motel scene it was played pretty straight
professional and otherwise say thatttt
nice coming to awareness moment and also extremely interesting to imbue the climax with mulder's fear of their relationship ending. raises the stakes significantly and also obv fun to see him grapple with that from msr perspective
wry smile :) climax in the police station was good, same compliments as the rest of it i.e. translated and written well. easily best novelization so far.
