X-Files RPF

Early X-Files fandom did not embrace RPF or "actorfic" as it was known then. Even with the increasing popularity of popslash and bandom, X-Files fandom has been resistant to change and RPF is still considered taboo in many X-Files communities.
Gillian Anderson/David Duchovny is by far the most popular pairing.
See more about Gillovny (as it's known today) and its three waves: 1994-2007, 2008-2012, 2012-today at Gillian Anderson/David Duchovny History.
==Early RPF on Gossamer==
RPF was archived on Gossamer until 1999. In 2012, one of Gossamer's archivists said: 
==Gillian Anderson/David Duchovny==
Gillian Anderson/David Duchovny is the biggest pairing. Snogger was an often derogatory term for fans of this pairing.
After the new series in aired in February 2016, the Duchovny/Anderson pairing took on new legs. See Gillovny.
==Other X-Files RPF Pairings==
* David Duchovny/Mitch Pileggi
* Gillian Anderson/Chris Carter (shipped ironically)
==Some Examples of Early X-Files RPF==
===1994===
* David Fantasy by Julianne Lee is the very first X-Files RPF (1994)
* The XXX-Files: A Personal Fantasy by Kirsten M. Berry (1994)
* Gillian Fantasy by Steven Han (November 1994)
* Adventures of Chris Carter & Co. by 	Andrea A. Pappas and Tony Anderson (December 1994)
===1996===
 
* Playing Tourist by Lapis Lazuli was inspired by "David Fantasy" and is a self-insertish/Mary Sueish story (1996)
===1997===
* Round Files was hotly debated when it was written. It was considered by many fans to be metafic and therefore acceptable. (1997)
* Interview with a Creator by Greenfish, a fairly unflattering fic about a fan, Chris Carter, and Carter's wife Dori (October 1997)
* Tales from the Spotnitz Sanitarium by Greenfish (November 1997)
* When You Say Nothing At All (1997) The author's comments: "I really hope David, Gillian, Tea, and Piper don't mind my writing a story about them... Summary - A David/Gillian romance story. David and Tea are not married in this story, nor does the topic of marrage [sic] come up. So this is a good romance story."
* The Murder of Tea Leoni by Agent Dare (1997) 
* untitled story by Zachary Carleton, embedded in the comments The Murder of Tea Leoni (1997)
===1998===
* David Du-what? by Chim Johanssenn (1998)
* The File on the X-Files A parody about how Chris Carter got his ideas. (1998 or before)
* The X-files Show, pt. 1, The X-Files Show, pt.2, The X-Files Show, pt.3 by Julie Raines aka Jewlz (1998)
* Best Performance By (1998) is an example of a story many fans cite as "acceptable." That it contains no sex, is humorous, and involves only adults, worked in its favor. The trope it uses originated thirty years later in the Star Trek: TOS story Visit to a Weird Planet (1968), and in the well-known Blake's 7 story, The Totally Imaginary Cheeseboard (1988).
===1999===
*A bad day by anonymous (1998)
===2000===
* Raping David Duchovny (2000), and Homewrecker (2000) are two poorly written, possibly purposely provocative stories cited many times by early fans as to why actorfic was immoral, distasteful, and wrong. Some fans consider them as part of a straw man fallacy; a reference to them distorts other fans' actual positions and substitutes these stories as distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented versions of that position.
* "The Romance of Gillian and David" (2000) Was posted to this site with this link, but was not archived by the Wayback.
* Shipper School (2000) was also met with a mostly positive reception. Most fans recognized it as the parody it was. Again, it was aided by the same elements of Best Performance By. This story won a Morley Award for best humor in 1997.
==Some Examples of Later X-Files RPF==
* There's just something about WBD. by scullythealienslayer love triangle between 'Mitch [Pileggi] and William B Davis' and the girl named 'Ashley'
* Bone Her by Eyeseeyooh Badfic, dubious content. "After David's funeral, Gillian and Mitch get playful...or do they?"
* Long Night Searching for Grace by embroiderama (Mitch Pileggi/David Duchovny pairing Alternate Universe
===Gillovny RPF===
Fan Fiction works of the second and third wave of the David Duchovny/Gillian Anderson pairing no longer hid in member only messsage board and LiveJournal communities. Authors emancipated themselves an started posting their often explicit work on Archive of Our Own often inspired by recent appearances and quotes by the actors.
* Moving Forward by Sembell, AU WiP currently on chapter 51
* Three Down by elapses the current oldest Gillovny RPF archived at AO3.
* Tweeting at the same time by sunshinetoday "Little Gillovny ficlet - from June - when our favourite dorks tweeted at the same time...Again!"
* Happy Birthday by sunshinetoday
==Some Fan Comments==
===1998===
===1999===
===2000===
Some fans equated actorfic, bookfic, and fics about boybands to be universally avoided: 
Much warning about the internet and visibility: 
===2002===
The archivist for the Spooky Award posted that she was moving the site to a different server as she had lost a way to access the old one. While there were no comments to her post, she had felt actorfic was important enough a topic to mention: 
===2007===
===2008===
===2009===
===2015===
===2016===
Shortly after the new X-Files series aired, a fan said: 
In May 2016, a fan explained the history behind the name of their Tumblr, fuckyeahdavidgillian, and how it related to fans discussing the actors' relationship with each other. An excerpt: 
==A 2003 Discussion: The Line Between "Real Life" and "Self-Referential"==
When a fan in 2003 complained about too much cross-pollination between details about the actors themselves and the characters, other fans pointed out that the show itself was full of self-referential characteristics.
Excerpts from this March 2003 discussion are below. The full conversation is here: Long time gone, any recs?.
==The "Rolling Stone" Factor==
Much of the mainstream press and media fanned the flames of speculation regarding the relationship between Anderson and Duchovny, and Chris Carter, at least with the 1996 cover of "Rolling Stone" which portrayed him, Gillian Anderson, and David Duchovny in bed together, seemed only too happy to add fuel to the fire.
From the May 2009 interview in that magazine:
[Rolling Stone]: How do you explain the celibate sexual heat between them?
[Chris Carter]: I'm adamant about not putting them in a romantic situation. Their passion would be directed toward each other, and all the aliens, mutants, and other ghosts and ghoulies would run amok. But when you have two smart people who are passionate about what they do and happen to be physically attractive, you get sexual heat. Fox is very respectful and protective of Scully. He's gentle with her and playful, and people take it as flirtation.
[Rolling Stone]: So then what do you make of our cover shot?
[Chris Carter]: That's David and Gillian in bed, not Mulder and Scully. 
==The Téa Leoni Factor==
Téa Leoni and David Duchovny were married in May 1997, at the height of the show's popularity. Outspoken fans who'd imagined Duchovny paired with Gillian Anderson created quite a bit of friction in the fandom. A fan remembers: "The high wank point was probably when he and Tea Leoni got married. It made goss look like kindergarten." comment at fail-fandomanon, November 4, 2015
In some ways, Duchovny casting his own wife as a "love interest," or at the very least, an intimate character in the episode "Hollywood AD," foreshadowed the controversy and wank surrounding Sherlock, and that show's 2013ish decision to cast Martin Freeman's real-life partner, Amanda Abbington as his character's wife.
==The "Hollywood AD" Factor==
The episode "Hollywood AD" (April 2000) helped muddy the waters for actorfic. It was written and directed by David Duchovny himself. The episode was written with a "self-referential" tone and featured many guest stars, including Garry Shandling and Téa Leoni, actors who portray Mulder and Scully in the episode's fictional movie. The episode itself contains several in-jokes and references deliberately placed by Duchovny.
At alt.tv.x-files.creative in May 2000, fans hotly debated actorfic and whether "Hollywood AD" was an example of this genre. See HAD question -- "actor-fic" for the full discussion:
==The Sex Addiction Factor==
When news of David Duchovny's sex addiction and treatment hit the mainstream news in 2008, many fans felt conflicted about writing X-Files RPF. Some fans backed away, feeling that fanwork attention was now exploitative. Some fans felt it made the actor more interesting.
Comment from a fan who was having conflicting issues about keeping her GA/DD story available to other fans: 
==Places to Find RPF==
* tagged at at Archive of Our Own
*love in an elevator LiveJournal community
==Further Reading/Meta: Usenet==
* (July 14, 2000)
* Writing about the actors as oppossed to characters (August 1, 1997)
* (September 16, 1998 )
* David and Gillian romance; archive link (August 6, 1999) 
* comment at (August 8, 1999)
* (February 18, 2000)
* (March 26, 2000)
* (April 2000)
* HAD question -- "actor-fic" (May 2000)
* Long time gone, any recs? (March 2003)
* RPF: Actors, Characters, Writers, Readers (September 2008)
==Further Reading/Meta: Other==
* RPF: Actors, Characters, Writers, Readers, by wendelah1 (September 2008)
* , by wendelah1 (January 2009)
* RPF & Why I Write It, by flourish (November 2016)
==References==
Category:X-Files
Category:X-Files RPF