rionaleonhart | Please Explain To Me The Scientific Nature Of The Whammy.

We've almost finished season three of The X-Files!

I haven't seen much American television from this era, and I'm struck by the way the shadow of the Vietnam War hangs over The X-Files. In some ways, it's reminiscent of the lingering impact of the Ishbal genocide in Fullmetal Alchemist, although of course the atrocities of the Vietnam War were very real.

I remember being surprised to learn that 'the war' without context is sometimes used to mean the Vietnam War in the US. To me, in the UK, 'he fought in the war' has always meant World War II.

'Pusher': Mulder woke Scully up by stroking her face! They're such weird colleagues. I love it. ('You and your pretty partner seem awfully close,' the murderer they're pursuing observes shortly afterwards.)

I really enjoyed that entire episode, actually! Lots of Mulder and Scully having very intense feelings about each other, and that's very much what I'm here for. Scully slept on his shoulder! Mulder was forced to play Russian roulette with her! They held hands while trying to process their trauma!

When Mulder's in a dangerous situation, we don't see Scully making the decision to go in after him; we just see her going in after him, because of course she does. That was never in question.

Huh! I just looked it up, and apparently the writer of 'Pusher', Vince Gilligan, went on to create Breaking Bad.

'Jose Chung's From Outer Space' was also a hugely enjoyable episode for very different reasons. I loved the different perspectives and Scully censoring all the swearing. And she's so put out to learn someone said she threatened them!

I love the sequence in 'Quagmire' where Mulder and Scully get trapped on a rock in a lake. Asking each other about cannibalism! Mulder aiming his gun at a duck! Strangely reminiscent of the Peep Show episode where Mark and Jeremy get trapped in a building together and have nothing to do but talk to each other.

Scully: You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.
Mulder: Scully, are you coming on to me?

It's fun to consider Mulder and Scully investigating odd happenings from different canons. Mulder and Scully go to Silent Hill to investigate a series of disappearances? Mulder and Scully try to work out what happened on Rokkenjima? Mulder and Scully go looking for Luz Noceda and find the portal to the Boiling Isles? "Have you heard about the morphogenetic field, Scully?" Mulder asks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yep. It was culturally huge. I was born several years after the Vietnam War, and it was “the war”. And when I went to work in Vietnam for a couple of years, there was a lot of jokes because “Vietnam” or “‘Nam” genuinely was used to refer to the war, not the country by a lot of Americans.

I love Pusher! Such a great episode! I mean I’m cheap for “Do something psychologically distressing to Mulder” in the first place, but that one was amazing!

And yes, Vince Gilligan wrote several X-Files episodes before Breaking Bad, including the one where Bryan Cranston would appear on the X-Files.

Having them trapped on a rock and talking to each other was a great episode, yes.

If Mulder and Scully both went to Silent Hill, how would that work? I don’t really know what Silent Hill would do with two people who arrived together and largely stayed together. I know that what Silent Hill would look like for Mulder would be different from what it would look like for Scully.

Thank you for the additional Vietnam details; that's really interesting!

I mean I’m cheap for “Do something psychologically distressing to Mulder” in the first place

A person of taste!

If Mulder and Scully both went to Silent Hill, how would that work? I don’t really know what Silent Hill would do with two people who arrived together and largely stayed together. I know that what Silent Hill would look like for Mulder would be different from what it would look like for Scully.

My notes on this:

Mulder and Scully in Silent Hill? Investigating a series of disappearances?

It might be fun if only one of them could see the darker side of Silent Hill. The immediate assumption would be that it's Mulder, as Mulder is more screwed up. However, that's the less fun option, as Mulder is better equipped than Scully to handle Silent Hill's weirdness.

Therefore: only Scully experiences the weirdness?

"I swear this is real," she says. "I swear, Mulder, I need you to believe me--"
"I believe you." His hands on her arms feel like an anchor. "You've seen the things I'll believe, Scully. Why wouldn't I believe you?"

Mulder gets frustrated that the town is hiding from him. Just seeing a mundane abandoned town is a worse experience for him than the monsters would be.

And then Scully is attacked and visibly wounded by creatures Mulder can't see, and it turns out that's not actually an improvement.

Oh, that’s really good! Because Mulder would find weird paranormal stuff easier to deal with, and would get some inherent satisfaction from that, whatever else the town throws at him. While Scully would be far more likely to worry that “Weird stuff happening that connects to her personal history and traumatic experiences and also Mulder can’t see it” meant it was all in her head, or at least get freaked out that she was the only one seeing it.

And of course Mulder would believe her!

:D You're making me so nostalgic for The X-Files 🤣

It's such a fun show! I'm glad to be watching it at last.

Test post!

Okay, that was me. I wrote a reply to your most recent post and it is adamant that I do not have permission to reply, so wanted to check if it's a dreamwidth wide issue or it having a strop about that particular post. Seems to be the latter. Fortunately, having been burned by dreamwidth in the past, I always copy and paste replies before I post them, so I think I'm just going to post the reply on this post. Sorry for the spammy test post!

"Yeah, growing up with the internet I learned to never click on banner ads ever. I feel like people are much more prone to doing this now as they're much more targeted, but to us "was regularly using the internet 20+ years ago" crowd, they are a virus plague that is never to be touched!

This reminds me: I mentioned I was rereading Max Barry's Lexicon recently, and that it gets quite philosophical at times. One concept it explores is the categorisation of people based on beliefs, interests, personality etc. Later on, it touches on using this sort of information for targeted advertisements promising people different things, and the linked idea of people who become entrenched in beliefs then only see things that agree with those beliefs and dismiss everything else as being deliberate falsehoods (but the stuff they belief is definitely not falsehood). One thing that comes up amid this is the concept of the online quiz and surveys, which are another thing very much of that era. It points out that you ask for information and people are very resistant to giving it, but if you put it in a quiz, people are tripping over themselves to answer it and categorise themselves. It really is quite an interesting book (also kind of a horrifying book). The banner ads reminded me of the thought!

There's something so magical about videogames when you're a kid, before you really grasp that everything in there was intentionally programmed in, and there's only so much they can feasibly contain. There were whole unfathomable worlds in those discs and cartridges.

When I was a little kid, I was convinced that combat in games was you being secretly matched with some other player and them mysteriously controlling the enemy AI instead of it being, y'know, AI. I used to play games on multiplayer with my neighbour on the playstation which is where I think I got the idea. Also, Pokemon and those link cables on the gameboy, "proving" everything had to be done via other people.

-timydamonkey"

Ah, I'm sorry Dreamwidth's giving you trouble! I've got anonymous commenting turned on on that post, but I think Dreamwidth have been trying out new spam filters since switching hosts, so maybe something went awry there.

The early Internet really drilled 'never, never click on an advertisement' into its users, much to the chagrin of advertisers.

One thing that comes up amid this is the concept of the online quiz and surveys, which are another thing very much of that era. It points out that you ask for information and people are very resistant to giving it, but if you put it in a quiz, people are tripping over themselves to answer it and categorise themselves.

I'd forgotten how many online quizzes I used to do! Some of them were not intended for kids of my age and I'm not sure how I ended up on them. I remember at one point being asked 'what are your personal erogenous zones?' and having only the vaguest notion of what that meant. I felt like it was something to do with sex? But the options included 'neck', and I didn't think necks had anything to do with sex? I suppose I should choose the bum; that seems like it might be right?

When I was a little kid, I was convinced that combat in games was you being secretly matched with some other player and them mysteriously controlling the enemy AI

I love this! That's absolutely delightful.

Please Explain To Me The Scientific Nature Of The Whammy.

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