Okay - hear me out! Logan as Princess Mononoke and Mariko Yashida as Prince Ashitaka.
From Uncanny X-Men # 243
X-Men looking through the detritus of the abandoned mansion. Logan is looking at a picture of him and Mariko from back when they were together. 😭
hot-claws reblogged
look at how excited this man was to see his m’iko 😭😭😭
From Uncanny X-Men #122
"Flamin' broads-- what d'you all want from me?!"
Being a Wolverine fan is hard, knowing that a lot of his motivation comes from women and children who are brutalized for Wolverine's continued and unending suffering. Besides Melita Gardner, I think every one of his serious love interests has been fridged in some way or another (famously Silver Fox, but also Jean, Mariko, and Itsu, off the top of my head).
But there's something about not feeling worthy of someone's love, but feeling like you want to be a better person for someone that does resonate a lot with me.
It's like in the same vein as "Love Like You" the ED song from Steven Universe rings. "I always thought I might be bad / now I'm sure that it's true cuz / I think you're so good and I'm nothing like you / look at you go, I just adore you / I wish that I knew, what makes you think I'm so special?"
I don't think Logan would ever try so hard if it wasn't for the people around him and his undying need to protect those that he loves and adores. And I think he just hopes that eventually some of that goodness will rub off on him. I just wish this story could be told in a way that doesn't brutalize women and lets them live as their own people too.
Again, I wish we had more moments between Logan and Mariko. Sometimes, I feel like as modern readers, their relationship is codified in retrospect and it's almost jarring to see them do something as normal as argue.
From Uncanny X-Men #176
I wish we had more insight into what they did as a couple. This is technically a dream, but I'd like to think they went horseback riding.
From Uncanny X-Men #162