“If The X-Files Was A 90s Anime.”

Sometimes I think about how and why some people had such a *bad* reaction to the end of Steven Universe, specifically in regards to the Diamonds living.

Even though they no longer are causing harm to others and are able to actually undo some of their previous harm by living, some folks reacted as though this ending was somehow morally suspect. Morally bankrupt, even.

And I think it might be because so many of us were raised on a very specific kind of kids media trope:

They all fall to their deaths.

Disney loves chucking their bad guys off cliffs. And it makes sense- in a moral framework where villains *must* be punished (regardless of whether their death will actually prevent further harm or not), but killing of any kind is morally bad for the hero, the narrative must find a way to kill the villain without the protagonists doing a murder.

It's a moral assumption that a person can *deserve* to die, that it is cosmically just for them to die, that them dying is evidence that the story itself is morally good and correct. Scar *deserves* to die, but it would be bad for Simba to kill him. So....cliff. (edit: yes, cliff then hyenas. But cliff first. Lol.)

Steven Universe, whatever else it's faults, took a step back and said "but if killing people is bad, then people dying is bad", and instead of dropping White Diamond off a cliff, asked "what would actual *restorative*, not punitive, justice look like? What would actual reparations mean here? If the goal is to heal, not just to punish, how do we handle those who have done harm?" And then did that.

Which I think is interesting, and that there was pushback against it is interesting.

It also reminds me of the folks who get very weird about Aang not killing Ozai at the end of Avatar. And like, Ozai still gets chucked in prison, so it doesn't even push back on our cultural ideas of punitive justice *that much.* and still, I've seen people get real mad that the child monk who is the last survivor of a genocide that wiped out his entire pacifist culture didn't do a murder.

THE X-FILES — 06x20

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

Leitmotifs drive me insane, like I hear *repeated melody that has an association with a person, idea, or situation* and I go *tears up the fucking rug like a dog*

i love zack addy so much. he's oblivious, he's loveable, he's dorky, he's pathetic, he's the youngest of EIGHT, he asked his friends what "take a hint" means, he wears stupid flannel shirts to work with dead bodies, he's secretly an amazing singer, his boss/mentor is practically his mom, he's only ever punched someone once and it was his best friend, he lives above his best friend's garage, he corrected the dissertation committee while he was defending his dissertation, he's a rational empiricist but his mother still thinks he's lutheran, he and his bestie put a frozen pig through a woodchipper, he broke out a psychiatric facility using a library card, he can do complex math problems in his head, he's a nerd but comic books and the likes and foreign to him, he often thinks about building robots to take over the world, he confessed to killing a man he didnt actually ever lay a hand on, and he does it all with a slightly disgruntled look on his face.

genuinely being a tv enjoyer in this current time sucks balls because tv is trying to do what movies do and it makes it WORSE. the best part about tv is that you spend time with it consistently week after week year after year and now because tv shows are fractured and have the budget of major movies they're becoming shorter with way longer time between seasons and it hurts the one (at least to me) best thing about tv!! which is that it's reliable and consistent and has longevity because tv is a long form format!!! But it's being pushed into being made more short term like movies because of all these economic pressures and bonkers expectations. I'm sick of it!!! I'm sick of tv shows being acclaimed when they don't feel like tv shows as if that's a bad thing!!! I'm sick of waiting 2-4 years for 4-8 episodes. I'm sick of reading about the best writers in the business not being able to make a living. I'm sick of it!!!! I want tv back!!! I miss my friend tv!

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 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?

DEAR ANNE, SINCE WE ARE PARTING WAYS PERHAPS FOREVER, I FEEL I MUST UNBURDEN MY HEART. YOU ARE THE FOND OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION AND DESIRE.

how to say "I love you" in x-files [105/?] ⤷ 6.04 — “Dreamland”