I take your views completely on board and you have in fact mentioned a couple of examples of where I had noticed that Mulder does show some signs of insecurity, so I do concede that point, along with the one you make about how a person can seem outwardly confident while being pretty insecure underneath. I don't know what else to say here except that I still feel it's been rather overdone in this story, to the point of emasculation (as an earlier commenter described it), and to the point where I start feeling almost embarrassed for him. I really adore the character of Mulder, and this take on him is kind of sweetly endearing, but I still don't accept that this portrayal is completly true to the canon character (but we all see & interpret the characters in differing ways, so it's no surprise that we don't completly agree!)