Why Scully
The X-Files is one of my favorite TV series, and I'm completely obsessed with it. Dana Scully, in turn, is my favorite character in The X-Files. I am madly in love with her.

I have an extreme attachment for strong female characters, partly because they're just so rare. I'm used to leading females who are silly and ditzy, who are annoying and/or self-centered, who can't take care of themselves and so need constant rescuing, who are mainly interested in looking pretty for their handsome boyfriends or future husbands.

Scully, however, is the complete opposite of the stereotyped heroine. She's the epitome of everything I look for in a character- she's brilliant, strong, independent, and beautiful. I fell hard for her, and she's one of the main reasons that I love The X-Files so much. An intelligent doctor-turned-FBI agent who can run in three-inch high heels, with gun in hand, after monsters, criminals, and aliens every week is a character I can't NOT love.

As a character, I admire her- she is strong, willing to make decisions for herself that others may not agree with, like leaving a promising medical career to enter the FBI, against the wishes of her father and the objections of her lover. Even when she is faced with unexplainable situations, she develops plausible theories and then looks for evidence to support or disprove her ideas. Although she appears at times to be infuriatingly close-minded, she knows who she is and remains true to that, no matter what. She won't abandon who she is just because someone may disagree with her.

Scully isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but she knows it and has never tried to say otherwise. She's flawed, but those flaws make her human and more believable as a character. Although I think she has an enviable strength of will, she does need other people to rely upon, and she seeks guidance at times, gaining comfort and power from her family, friends, and religion. She has moments of depression and self-doubt, like any normal person, but must cope with them. She becomes jealous over other women easily, tends to keep her emotions to herself, is often serious to a fault, and believes rules and protocol must be adhered to. But she loves her family, has a soft spot for her dog Queequeg, is devoted to her partner, though she'll banter freely with him.

Even given that she is a fictional character in a science fiction TV series, she has faced horrifying, almost impossible obstacles: coping with her abduction, discovering she had cancer and then fighting it, deciding her created daughter should die rather live a life she wasn't meant for, searching continuously for her partner/lover after he is abducted, and giving up her baby son for adoption to protect him, to name just a few. These are all hugely momentous events that Scully has had to cope with. But rather than break or give up, she makes decisions that she believes are right, no matter how hard they are for her to carry out. She does what she knows she must, even when the personal costs are so high.

I love the relationships Scully has- these ties to other people, both good and bad, help her become stronger as a character. In particular, I adore her relationship with Mulder. In the first season, they move from partners paired together, neither quite trusting the other, to best friends, who trust only each other. Their relationship, over the course of the next several seasons, draws them closer together, with a few speedbumps along the way, and develops into one of the best examples of destiny/soulmates/true love in fiction. They have a strong, unbreakable bond. Where some might point to Romeo and Juliet as the ultimate story of love, I prefer to look at Mulder and Scully.

I think it's wonderful that such an amazing, strong female character like Scully was created, someone whom viewers can actually look up to and admire. Scully changes so much over the course of the nine seasons, it's wonderful to watch her develop and grow, see what trials and obstacles she must overcome, what beliefs she holds or leaves behind, but overall how she remains, at heart, the same person she always was.


<< Back