With Bones And Criminal Minds Happening In The Same Place At The Same Time, We Really Should Have Gotten

Mulder, Scully, and the 5 Love Languages

(Credit to: @reduxfiles)

I find MSR-- romantic and noromo-- intriguing when viewed through the 5 Love Languages lens.

Mulder's love language: physical touch. Undoubtedly. His exes could betray him, his father could ice him out, his mother could slap him, his partner could snipe at him, but he will always, always reach out.

Scully's love language: acts of service. Starbuck to her Ahab, habitually acting on her abilities to bring justice to a world filled with villainy. She accepts physical affection, gifts, and one-on-one time with her close loved ones (even if sometimes accompanied by an upturned eyebrow); but the natural language of her devotion, platonic and romantic, is in her work ethic and steadfast loyalty.

The genius of this dynamic: Mulder and Scully don't communicate "normally" because they don't need to in order to share and receive love (largely.) Mulder feels loved without verbal confirmation as long as he's physically included. Scully, too, feels loved in silence as long as Mulder acknowledges her strengths as a doctor and scientist. Both don't exchange gifts frequently (Tempus Fugit), don't intentionally carve out quality time together (Small Potatoes, The Unnatural), don't regularly exchange words of affirmation (Fight the Future)-- and yet, they remain uncannily in sync.

The weakness of this dynamic: Mulder and Scully avoid intimate, personal, or revealing conversations in order to shrink from rejection. No "I appreciate you", no "I love you", no "I need you"-- instead, they code their allegiance in terms committed to the work: "Mulder, I wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you"/"You have to believe me... you're my one-in-five billion."

Why it succeeds: Mulder and Scully take their sweet time healing and working on themselves before canonically tackling a relationship. By weaving around words of affirmation, in-depth quality time, and personalized gifts, they are able to sustain plausible deniability as long as possible without feeling excluded, discarded, or used-- until it's time for a direct approach. As their partnership progresses, so, too, do the fundamentals. So, too, do their communication and expectations. So, too, do they.

bones is my emotional support copaganda show because never before has a straight couple exhibited such homosexual levels of yearning

Is your ship really that iconic if one of them haven't been buried alive and the other haven't tried to dig them out with their bare hands?

and what are we going to do when the HP series comes out and we start seeing a resurgence of the fandom here including gifsets and fics. like are u guys gonna bring up your neurodivergence and cry "can we separate the art from the artist!!!!! you dont need to pay to watch it!!!!!its my comfort show and I'm DEPRESSED and AUTISTIC"

what then

Dana Scully 🥼🔬

Throwback to when I just finished watching the X-Files—for the first time—a few years ago and then immediately started up the first episode again...

I think I'm having déjà vu. The light, the forest. As if all of this has already happened before. A glitch in the matrix.

Dark - S01E01 - Geheimnisse

The reason why Scully and Mulder clicked so quickly and mesh so well as a pair is because they both posses a very natural, intense curiosity. It manifests in different ways, and in slightly different areas of interest, but the spirit is one in the same, and I think they recognize and love this in one another.

Scully is different, and so immediately endearing to Mulder, because she’s the first person to want to know what he thinks, and why he thinks the way he does, instead of writing him off outright. He's an interesting puzzle to her. Even if she’s steadfast in her constant disagreement, her curiosity itself is—in a way—an act of validation, respect, care.

Mulder is so immediately endearing to Scully because the way he thinks is unusual for their profession, and probably refreshing. He's anti-bureaucratic, emotionally sensitive, unapologetically strange. A "lone wolf" yet so open and easily taken by her. It turns out, his curiosity in the supernatural was born from something equally fascinating, and all too rare: his care for other people.

And love is a kind of curiosity… a deliberate interest, a constant desire to know…

The X-Files S1E2

- action sequence right of the bat, nice

- I think that guy messed up the count

- that rash is NASTY

- it's the meme music!!!!

- that is..... that is the shittiest, most low-budget ass title sequence I've ever seen I love it

- GILLIAN ANDERSON

- sir that is not how you approach a coworker

- "it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon Agent Mulder" these chuckleheads are flirting already

- (sorry I'm still thinking about that title sequence. It's oddly..... refreshing??)

- guy at the bar is sus

- ah yes, it was the Russians excuse

- don't corner people in the restroom. It's disgusting and violating and disgusting

- (like really, is anyone else tired of those highly specialised prestige TV intros? I'm getting worked up about something I didn't even realize was bothering me)

- Mulder gets in trouble bc he refuses to stop investigating..... and now he has tiny scary lady working with him. Worst Fucking Nightmare

- damn she pretty

- I refuse to believe this wet cat loser can coo- his phone is tapped!!! and he's being watched!!!

- HIS HAND ON HER BACK

- "the government is not above the law" HAHAAHAHAHHA (internal sobbing intensifies)

- that man is Gone (hope he gets better)

- alas some people deal with trauma by pretending it doesn't exist

- height difference

- SUCKER

- she's gonna have a damn awful crick in her neck

- oooh light show, also how many apple boxes is she standing on?

- spies? terrorists? nah stoned kids

- fed thosw dumbasses dinner and dropped them off at home? Mulder and Scully you have my heart

- Scully looks so cute when she's smiling her "you idiot" smile (that's what it's called now, no arguments)

- Roswell! Wasn't that also a show?

- Mulder's kinda gotta a point

- "Mulder you're crazy" no hesitation, none, love it

- please stop making women run in heels, also that smile. Why are you smiling like that at Mulder, Scully?

- 'came back wrong' is one of my favourite tropes, I love this

- it's not him. Clone? Brainwashing? Selective memory wipe?

- Mulder's kinda got a point again

- Mulder's got jokes

- Scully can't watch Mulder being hurt. Second episode, this is the second episode

- "something else?" She is so done with him

- this groundwork being laid as to how both their thought processes work is really well done

- Scully's face when she hears the car

- I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the kids helped him. If a single camera caught them, they could be in serious trouble, I mean, look what they're doing to their own soldiers

- Scully misses the proof again

- no don't hurt the wet cat loser!!!

- they cut the phone lines didn't they?

- hey that actor that shows up in a lot of shows in bit parts. Get that paycheck sir

- so Mulder was right beat for beat. Experimental aircraft derived from UFO technology. The poor pilots were collateral damage

- reporter guy??? Dammit Scully left her gun

- he was the one in the car earlier! Also love it no hesitation from Scully

- get his ass Scully

- man those kids are so good. Came back to tell her about Mulder. I headcannon nothing bad ever happens to them and they live long happy lives

- they're wiping his memory

- wait the security guy wipes at his eye right after the scene Mulder is administered something in his eye (thematic parallel). Is this base keeping even it's own security on a tight memory leash? Sheesh

- Scully.... took an army security guy hostage.... to save Mulder..... in the second episode

- (screams)

- yeah he knows she'll shoot his ass. Keep cooperating asshole

- Mulder! What did they do to my boy?!

- shut up asshole

- dammit Mulder saw a UFO and they took that away from him. Y'all gonna catch these hands

- that poor woman

- I think Scully's scared, she can't quite look at Mulder for long

- she makes a point to mention in her report that she saw those weird lights too

- you walked all that way to conspicuously have that conversation in the middle of an empty football field??

- is this guy supposed to be the Deep Throat? As in THAT Deep Throat?

Absolutely hilarious to me that the ton is gonna be speculating on why and how Penelope and Colin ended up engaged and there’s definitely gonna be some entrapment/pity rumours going around but the actual truth of it is that Colin chased a carriage down, fell to his knees and went “please please please please please please please”