She Says This To Mulder Every Chance She Gets

sleepy gaang >>>> everyone else

Funniest x files moment is the jersey devil episode when scully goes on a date and it doesn't go well and she has a character development moment about weighing how much she wants a normal life and relationship vs being dedicated to her career and the x files. And then it cuts to mulder looking intently at a drawing of a bigfoot with boobs

not wanting to be outdone by the benders in the gang, sokka invents the flamethrower, the supersoaker, the leaf blower, and the concept of throwing rocks at people

THE X-FILES: (03x03), d.p.o.

— Ursula K. Le Guin

dana scully may be the girl of all time

“If The X-Files was a 90s anime.”

credit: MabooCraboo on imgur

No, because I actually love them interacting more before this. We actually see them being "best friends" and bonding.

But they are friends. Sibling coded. JJ as much as I loved her, she doesn't listen to Spencer, his info dumps and many interests. You just cannot write in that characters like these are in love after 14 SEASONS of evidence that would say otherwise.

Erica Mereditch, I am actually your biggest hater. Even the cast didn't like this, who fucking approved the script??

Then in S15 trying to fix it and Spencer struggling as if he still had those underlying feelings?? Girl i can't. I'm not even in the head space to vent about this properly. Might just skip through some scenes

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.