spookystar’s basement

got tumblr to access more msr media

[madubraga05]

Which of Scully's hairstyles is your favorite?

[wintersnails]

msr are like ‘ok we can share souls and minds and hearts but not hotel rooms. that would be TOO far’

[sinnerandafool]

I'm actually going insane after watching Bad Blood.

Outside of intense moments when emotions run higher than usual, we haven't been given much insight into how Mulder views Scully and Scully views Mulder, and more importantly, how they view themselves in the context of their weirdo situationship. So seeing so clearly how they interpret the actions of the other really drives the point home.

Mulder is every bit the sad wet towel of a man I knew him to be. In his mind he is a misunderstood genius, and he tries SO HARD to get approval from others, especially Scully because he views her as an authority but also an intermediate obstacle to his goals. He also sees her as a snarky, playful opponent for the sport of verbal and physical repartee which he loves so dearly. He remembers her exaggerated disinterest, and therefore betrays how he enjoys the challenge of her. (He also remembers her saying she "does it all for [him]" which is just insane, and implies that he feels a slight sense of guilt for dragging her into his personal mission. Christ almighty.)

Scully, on the other hand, sees herself as the long suffering martyr, a victim of Mulder's wacky exuberance. She remembers him as eccentric and careless. But she also sees herself defending him, explaining him to others. She knows she is the rational element to his esoteric nature.

The differing accounts of Sheriff Hartwell are interesting too. She remembers him suave, and in her memory Mulder gets a bit fed up with her flirting. She feels it, maybe even decides to twist the dagger a bit while recalling her story to Mulder. Meanwhile he takes every opportunity to disparage the Sheriff and make him look undesirable. Oh, many, many conclusions can be drawn from that.

That was seriously one of the best episodes of TV I've ever seen, I'm so glad I decided to watch this show finally!

[volpeantica]

“No, I don’t hate it.”

A small detail from a scene of “Dreamland II” I find intriguing is when Scully exposes Morris Fletcher as fake Mulder. Fletcher has just more or less dragged her onto the waterbed, and they are both lying next to each other looking at themselves in the mirror above.

“You hate it”, Fletcher/Mulder tells her, half question, half statement. There’s a significant little pause before she answers, in a pensive, (I find) somewhat sad tone: “No, I don’t hate it”. And this is revelatory, and I love it to bits, because it so cleverly done, both visually and how GA interprets it. What she sees in the reflection is something unreal (and that’s what we see in mirrors, an inverted, alternative world, a possible threshold, think of Alice’s Looking glass), a wish: Mulder and herself together, in a bed = as lovers. But what’s meaningful, it’s what we see and hear there as well: not Fletcher, as in all the other body-switch scenes, but Mulder, speaking with his own voice. We get to see her dream-wish too.

Then Fletcher turns around, rests his hand on his face and says, “You hate it”. Scully pauses, knowing it is Fletcher but choosing to look at the “Dreamland” up there for two more heartbeats. “No, I don’t hate it”, she says in that melancholy voice and means, I wish this were real, I wish it were you. Then sits up, slips back into reality (steels herself, I guess) and proceeds to unmask Fletcher.  

There is so much in this single sentence for me, it’s so subtly done and so precious to me that she reveals what she is longing for by saying it the way she does.

[spookystar19]

Mulder having a secret brain disease during S7 that he didn’t tell Scully about was actually not canon and the writers were just bored out of their minds during S8.

[translucentshine]

rewatching "e.b.e." and "i think it's remotely plausible that someone might think you're hot" is still one of the craziest lines in this entire show 😭😭 the way mulder doesn't even glance at scully pretending to busy himself. the way she stops and looks up at him. the silence after!!!!! OMG.

[kfc-myrder-chickx]

jesus christ

s8 e17

[pearlofthewoods]

perhaps it’s just because (tmi:) I was on my period at work today and feeling miserable about it, but I was thinking about Scully dealing with her period at work;

about her working for years in a male-dominated workplace, with a male partner, often ending up in strange places at strange times of day without her usual shops available, and i was thinking about all the precautions she would have had to have taken to deal with it quietly without mulder knowing.

because to be honest I doubt scully ever let mulder know when she was on her period. at least not before they were together.

because she’s a woman in the FBI, she doesn’t want to give anyone any more reason to think her emotional, or to disregard her, or to make jokes about ‘being on the rag’ etc.

and this isn’t to say I think mulder would ever dream of saying such things to scully, but I think, like her nosebleeds and her cancer symptoms, her period is something that Scully, (the fiercely private and independent individual that she is), would never think of telling mulder about. or anyone for that matter. (except perhaps missy. 🥲 that’s what sisters are for after all.)

but then I was thinking about the IVF arc. and how brutal that first period back at work after the IVF failed must have been.

And how, this time, Mulder would have known.

because of course he’d been paying attention to her cycle and her fertility appointments lined up in the calendar, hoping beyond all hope that he could give Scully what she so desperately wanted.

And so; on that day when he knew her period was due after she had told him the IVF had failed, even if he never said a word, and even if she never acknowledged it, I like to think he took extra special care of her that week.

that he brought her thai food, cut back on his more annoying banter, silently did an unusually large amount of overdue paperwork without being asked. and I like to think Scully noticed and was touched.

[lottienats]

I always assumed that that was your area. Back there. THE X FILES, ‘Never Again’

[justexactlywhatareyouimplying]

Gillian Anderson being an agent of chaos while filming The X-Files | bloopers/behind-the-scenes compilation

[cowgirlarchive]

we were robbed of the conversation after this

[shimmeringlesbian]

would it make me a fake fan if I skipped just like... a couple episodes of season 8? I can't keep doing this somebody help me I miss the sexual tension and the interesting storiesssssss :(

[bugtheclown]

Im rewatching season 2 of the x files and i just got to my favourite x files bit: Scully has been abducted, presumed dead, in a coma, taken off life support for the past three episodes and the next episode she’s like “i wanna work 😡 put me in the active volcano Mulder” and he folds under zero pressure

[tripleennui]

So what’s the other 70% of your lack of enthusiasm with the William storyline?

Ooh boy, anon. Don’t get me started.

Basically, my issue is threefold: (1) Mulder and Scully having a baby is fundamentally incompatible with their chosen quest and the show’s basic format; (2) the writers, Chris Carter especially, were frustratingly noncommittal about the entire storyline in general; and (3) William is not a baby, he’s a plot device. Let’s break it down, shall we?

(1) Mulder and Scully having a baby is fundamentally incompatible with their chosen quest and the show’s basic format

This one’s pretty straightforward. You cannot have Mulder and Scully running around chasing monsters and aliens if there are diapers to change. Yes, I know some people argue it should have ended with them having a baby, but the idea of our beloved FBI weirdos spending the rest of their lives in domestic bliss, Mulder especially, is ludicrous. I mean, the whole Season 7 premiere posed this exact question to Mulder, it showed him what a so-called “normal,” peaceful life would be like and he rejects it. And as much as Scully claims to want a “normal life,” she will never give Mulder up for such a thing. She chooses Mulder over William multiple times.

(2) The writers, Chris Carter especially, were frustratingly noncommittal about the entire storyline in general

The William storyline is the epitome of trying to have your cake and eat it too. It’s like, we want Scully to have a baby, but also we kind of don’t want Scully to have a baby because we also need her to do autopsies and chase monsters and shit. We want Mulder to be the father but also we don’t want Mulder to be the father because that would make those stupid shipper fans happy, so apparently Scully is the Virgin Mary and immaculate conception is also an option. Except haha you idiot it wasn’t immaculate conception either because fucking medical rape is also a possibility (what the fuck?!). And we want the baby to be a special baby with alien powers for some reason, but whoops! never mind he isn’t a special alien baby, turns out he’s a miracle child sent from God or whatever…except he still kind of is a special alien baby because he has mind powers and can shapeshift. Except none of this matters because he’s getting in the way of the story so let’s get rid of him until we need him again for the revival. And that leads us to the third point:

(3) William is not a baby, he’s a plot device

Scully might as well have given birth to a pile of scripts. It comes across as the writers lacking confidence in the audience’s investment in the show, particularly after Duchovny’s departure. Which is understandable, but was a pregnancy plot really the answer? Is this a soap opera?William is only there to yank the audience’s chain or make Scully sad, and in the end it all adds up to a whole lot of nothing because CC and co. were more interested in shock value than exploring what having and giving up a child you longed for but never thought you’d have would do to that child’s parents. There is some attempt to rectify this in the revival with “Founder’s Mutation,” “Home Again” and “Ghouli” but to be honest those attempts fell flat for me, primarily because James Wong and Glen Morgan were painfully unfamiliar with what happened in the show after they departed in the original run. (I mean, Scully calling Mulder “Fox” after 20+ years of exclusively calling him Mulder? Scully worrying that Mulder of all people would see her as an “incubator?” Come on, guys.) And I shouldn’t even have to mention the “My Struggles,” which somehow made an already sexist and violating storyline even worse.

As a personal note, I do not care for Virgin Mary/immaculate conception stories, besides the one in the Bible, I guess. It’s tired. Star Wars tried to do it too. It’s a lazy way to say your character is special without actually giving the character any personality traits that make them special. Prequel Anakin is good at flippy flips and driving space cars and making things fly. William can move things with his mind and shapeshift, apparently. So fucking what. I don’t care. Give me something to chew on, something with actual meaning. What we got was just disappointing.

[fullmoonfancyfun]

Things in the X-Files that have no platonic explanation:

Scully's reaction to Pheobe Green. Scully's first dick joke "Oh is THAT what you were extending?"

Worm checking in Ice like they were trying to tear each other's clothes off.

Mulder wearing Scully's cross when she was missing. He didn't keep it safe, he wore it. On his body. Close to his anatomical heart.

The hug in Irresistible. The chin tip, the kiss on her head. That's a lot to comfort a "coworker."

The shower scene in Die Hand Die Verletzt. Mulder rolls his whole ass body over hers to protect her. While wet. And tied up.

"You never draw my bath" in Revelations. Not an appropriate thing to say to a coworker. Ever. But it's Mulder so it's ok.

Scully's reaction to Dr Bambi.

Scully's reaction to Detective White.

Mulder's observation about Scully's body in Quagmire.

When Mulder voices that he's turned on by Scully's ability to identify a P52 Mustang.

The penlight joke in the cut scene from Home. Is this canon? I count it.

Lying to Congress

Mulder's jealousy of Ed Jerse.

Mulder being the first person Scully calls when she gets her diagnosis. Her journal entries.

Scully not pulling away from Eddie Van Blundht when he tries to kiss her

The sleeping bag joke in Detour.

Mulder's proposal in Chinga.

Mulder asking if his "boyish agility" was turning her on.

The "you're my one in five billion" line is a lot to say to a "friend."

Scully's jealousy of Fowley.

The Hallway Scene.

Mulder kissing 1939 version of Scully then confessing love to 1998 version of Scully.

The ghosts saying Mulder and Scully have "intimacy through co-dependency." The ghosts are correct.

Scully's "switch has been flicked" monologue.

Everything Mulder says and does in Arcadia.

Scully's reaction to Karin Berquist.

Mulder's reaction to Phillip Padgett.

Philip Padgett observes that "Agent Scully is already in love." Not "Agent Scully *loves him*". Agent Scully is IN love.

"It's not a bad piece of ash huh?"

Scully's journal entries in Africa.

Egregiously long forehead kissing and lip brushing.

An extra toothbrush in Mulder's bathroom in Orison.

Messy hair and "he's had a rough night" in Sein und Zeit.

"Not in the widely understood definition of that term."

Dressing in Mulder's bathroom, leaving Mulder sleeping in the bed with no evidence of pyjamas on his body.

Hand Holding on a film set, going on a date using the bureau credit card.

Bed cuddling in Bellefleur. Wearing the same clothes the next morning as you were wearing when you went to your partner's motel room.

Asking your partner to have a child with you.

Having a child with your partner.

Living together and sharing a bed.

[duchovnys-teacup]

Whoever told me there's no canon MSR until their kiss in s7 fucking lied to me. You think i am so dense i can't read subtext? You think its fine for a guy to kiss his female coworkers forehead and have it not mean anything?

I wasn't safe in season 3 OR season 4. The subtext got so stupidly obvious and catering to the shipping crowd, i as a noromo felt very disrespected. Especially cuz i really believed S7 would be the first time they have anything romantic. I am not a dumb person, i'm not delusional either like some of you have suggested, i know when to drop the show. I should've dropped it after season 3 because of how ass the setting was and how there was like 1 good ep in season 4.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

what the fuck do you think skinner had to do to get permission to dig up mulder's body.