It's so nice to see some really thoughtful X-Files meta. It's been a while. And I think it's really cool that someone took the option to write meta for ladiesbigbang.
As context for my reply I want to emphasize that I'm definitely coming at this one from the other side of the aisle: I'm a Scullyist. Without question. I watched the series once or twice by myself, and then I watched it again with my mother, who turned out to be a Mulderist. That was the first time that I found myself actually looking at Mulder when he was talking. Before that I had watched Scully when she wasn't talking, as you do, and also watched Scully when she wasn't talking, in order to see those wonderful reaction shots. So the third time through it was like seeing a different series entirely. This says a lot about me.
Even so I think it's very, very hard to write Scully-without-Mulder. It's almost as hard to write Mulder-without-Scully, because the whole point of the show on a relationship level is the codependence, the enmeshment, the way that the universe narrows around the two of them until there's almost nothing left.
People do write slash about Mulder that leaves Scully out entirely. This puzzles me greatly. Those people are really watching a different series from me. But there is at least a possibility there. Mulder does interact with Skinner and Krycek, they are people who move in his orbit in a way that Diana and Marita (isn't it weird that I feel the need to use their first names?) don't move in Scully's orbit. Scully has her mother, and I find that refreshing, but besides that all she has is her dead sister and a friend that she hasn't seen since season one. It's not easy to be woman-centric with Scully for the simple reason that she's not woman-centric herself. She lives in a male world and when it comes down to it this is one of the more important things about her.
Mostly when I write, I use Mulder as a way of viewing Scully. Not as a way of understanding her, because I understand her far better than I understand him, but as a way of seeing her from the outside, viewing her through a lens other than her own.
Having said this, for my own part there was a point where I really did feel like I had to get rid of Mulder to... I don't know what exactly, but to get rid of Mulder. Hence the Samanthaverse AU, which really did let me breathe more freely in some ways. It ends up being more about Samantha than it does about Scully--actually I may find Special Agent Mulder's inner life more interesting when she's a woman. So writing radically woman-centric X-Files fic means, for me, less of a focus on Scully.
Your mileage, naturally, may vary. Hope that some of my dramatic monologue was interesting and/or relevant.
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As context for my reply I want to emphasize that I'm definitely coming at this one from the other side of the aisle: I'm a Scullyist. Without question. I watched the series once or twice by myself, and then I watched it again with my mother, who turned out to be a Mulderist. That was the first time that I found myself actually looking at Mulder when he was talking. Before that I had watched Scully when she wasn't talking, as you do, and also watched Scully when she wasn't talking, in order to see those wonderful reaction shots. So the third time through it was like seeing a different series entirely. This says a lot about me.
Even so I think it's very, very hard to write Scully-without-Mulder. It's almost as hard to write Mulder-without-Scully, because the whole point of the show on a relationship level is the codependence, the enmeshment, the way that the universe narrows around the two of them until there's almost nothing left.
People do write slash about Mulder that leaves Scully out entirely. This puzzles me greatly. Those people are really watching a different series from me. But there is at least a possibility there. Mulder does interact with Skinner and Krycek, they are people who move in his orbit in a way that Diana and Marita (isn't it weird that I feel the need to use their first names?) don't move in Scully's orbit. Scully has her mother, and I find that refreshing, but besides that all she has is her dead sister and a friend that she hasn't seen since season one. It's not easy to be woman-centric with Scully for the simple reason that she's not woman-centric herself. She lives in a male world and when it comes down to it this is one of the more important things about her.
Mostly when I write, I use Mulder as a way of viewing Scully. Not as a way of understanding her, because I understand her far better than I understand him, but as a way of seeing her from the outside, viewing her through a lens other than her own.
Having said this, for my own part there was a point where I really did feel like I had to get rid of Mulder to... I don't know what exactly, but to get rid of Mulder. Hence the Samanthaverse AU, which really did let me breathe more freely in some ways. It ends up being more about Samantha than it does about Scully--actually I may find Special Agent Mulder's inner life more interesting when she's a woman. So writing radically woman-centric X-Files fic means, for me, less of a focus on Scully.
Your mileage, naturally, may vary. Hope that some of my dramatic monologue was interesting and/or relevant.