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#x-men 97 – @ludi-ling on Tumblr
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Libris Veritatus

@ludi-ling / ludi-ling.tumblr.com

Rogue and Gambit nerd from somewhere near London. Librarian, academic, writer, artist. Ace. Curing Romy Comics Disillusion (RCD) since 2003.
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New ficlet up!

There are a lot of things going on in the Romy fandom right now. S1E9 kind of broke something in a lot of us. Here's me, doing the whole psychological roadmap to a thing, for my own sanity. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is a Rogue we've never seen before, who's had to see death on a mass scale, but more importantly the death of a man who thought she chose someone else. Guilt and rage will do crazy things to you. Don't look back in anger, some say. Others walk the path of vengeance, when they have nothing left.

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Nothing

               Remy’s dead.

               That fact becomes more and more real to you every moment of every day.

               He’s dead, and you don’t recognise the person you’ve become in the wake of that. You’ve become a walking ball of hurt, and unquelled rage at the injustice of it all.

               Because he was a good man – the best of men – and the saddest thing was that you never even realised it until he was no longer there for you to appreciate it. He died so you could live. He died so many could live. He became the hero he never believed he was.

               The truth? – he became a better hero than you, than any of the people who call themselves the X-Men.

               You see them now. Toing and froing. Backing and forthing. Their words wash over you, and they mean nothing. You want to shout and scream at them, because none of this is important. He’s here with you, in the coat that smells of him, and that you wear now, because it protects you, it shields you from... what?

               It doesn’t matter. He’s here. You’ve brought him here with you to listen. He’d be standing here with you, sending you raised eyebrows and cynical grins, because damn, chere, why these couyons so serious all of a sudden? But you’d always know the truth. That he cared. He cared, first because you did. And second because you taught him to believe there is a greater good, a greater truth worth fighting for. Even if he only ever really fought for that truth because of you.

               You raised him.

               You laid him low.

               Because you know the real reason he’s dead now.

               That rage inside you? You can’t bear to acknowledge that the real person it’s directed at is you.

               You.

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I've reached season 4 of XTAS and I now know why I was so 😡 about Rogue and Bobby being a thing in the X-films as a kid and just why Romy imprinted on me as a toddler. Literally, Bobby and Rogue was happening and I was like 😡 she's supposed to be with the guy who throws cards. This is wrong! And lo and behold Romy is everywhere in the background and overtly lol!

On the other hand, the Phoenix arcs and Season 3 have really made me hate Scott and Jott. Like I thought Scott was a stick in the mud and boring in Evolution and the movies, but I just wanted Wyngard to kill him and the Phoenix to burn him to a crisp lol.

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Yeah, Rogue and Bobby was such a weird relationship, and they way they transplanted it into Ultimate X-Men was also irritating. Ironically, we finally got some nice Romy in that series, and then Gambit died. Which is too rich right about now.😭

Also, I feel at least like XM97 is at least doing something interesting with Jott. I don't hate them or anything, I just usually find them to be really boring. But the cartoon is doing them some kind of justice drama-wise (says someone with no dog in the race).

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I'm fascinated by Forge/Storm in Lifedeath... definitely got Pygmalion vibes. I feel like I don't know much about Forge besides him being the Hephastus who builds everything when you need it lol. Power dampening collar? Ask Forge.

On another note, as a horse chick, I feel so seen lol.

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There's something really compelling about their love story... not merely the tragedy of how it starts out, but just the romantic juxtaposition of Maker meeting Windrider... master of machines meeting the primeval mother nature...

I feel like they meet on some really beautiful symbolic ground where they both learn so much about themselves through the other, by opening up uncharted territories in one another. I'm sad they broke up. 😔

PS: I'm not a horse chick, but I really loved that scene. 😊

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Also! Didn't Storm have the mohawk and the all black punk inspired costume when she lost her powers in the comics?

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So a few days ago I re-read the comics, and yes, Storm made the change right before she lost her powers. So the show is correct, although it doesn't explain why she made that change. Maybe it'll show it in the prequel comic?

This is how Storm describes why she changed her look in the comics:

-Uncanny X-Men #186 (Lifedeath)

Script by Chris Claremont, and art by the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith (check out his art if you haven't already. It's amazing.)

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My friend saw the third episode and texted me. She was like I don't get it, I feel like I'm missing something. It feels rushed and cheap. And I was like yes, it is rushed, but here's all the context. It ended up being a 2-hour conversation lol. As soon as I saw pregnant Jean, I knew there were shenanigans! Lol.

But...question need some help with this:

I was just never all that invested in Charles/Magneto relationship. For some reason, it never hit me as extremely gay coded until X-Men: First Class at which point, I was like OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!! But yeah... feels like a flavour of Tennyson and Arthur Hallam?

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LOL! I love how men having a close and loving friendship is automatically evidence of them being gay. 😂

But seriously though, I can see why Cherik has such a huge fanbase, because you can argue that a lot of their relationship was and is gay-coded, and fans are gonna fan and run with that subtext.

Me, personally... I see it as a classic complex bromance. Two men admiring one another's minds, respecting (if disagreeing with) each other's ideological stances, and loving one another sincerely though platonically despite that. This is a male relationship that used to be a socially accepted one, but that nowadays society teaches us to read as gay-coded.

I was so happy that X-Men '97 was brave enough to describe Xavier and Erik's friendship as love. Because two men can love one another deeply, without that love being sexual. Philia should always be celebrated. 😊

And yeah, episode 3 does feel rather rushed, but that's the sad thing about only have 10 episodes a season. Damn streaming for destroying longer seasons. Remember the days when shows used to have 24 episodes a season???

Nowadays I think that's kind of excessive, and runs the risk of having pointless 'monster of the week' episodes shoved in there, but I think 10 eps is way too short for a show like XM97, where there is obviously going to be a LOT going on. Sigh.

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Also with X-Men 97 coming out, my best friend decided to watch it. She's watched some XTAS (and I've made her watch all the X-films once), but it wasn't necessarily a core memory or something in her fandom. That being said, I'm getting such a kick out of her reactions. Her reaction to Rogneto is hilarious. "But Rogue and Magneto were a thing?????" I had to call her and give her the complicated comic history full of clones, rebounding and everything...

As for this:

Storm without powers, Magneto in charge, Jean doppelgängers showing up?? What a hell of a cliffhanger to end the episode on.

My mouth is shuuuuut lmao.

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Duuuuude, that makes me realise just how front loaded this show is with shenanigans. There is SO much going on and I love it. 💘

I have to say, one thing I'm really excited about is Storm/Forge. They are my OTP for Storm. Lifedeath is beautiful. 💖

Hahaha, you must be having so much fun with your friend! There is the potential to mess with her, but I'm sure you're not that cruel! 🤭

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I sense people are gonna @ me with the Rogneto stuff (for some reason - I always get asked about the Rogneto stuff, I have no clue why).

Full disclosure - their relationship during the Mike Carey run didn't bother me that much, but over the years I've developed a lot more of an intolerance towards it, so I'm kind of over talking about it now.

If you wanna know how I feel about Rogneto, you can read some of my metas on it in the following posts:

These posts largely still stand.

I try to be reasonable about Rogneto. You sail that ship, guys. It's not for me. Please don't @ me with Rogneto stuff, unless you want a grown ass discussion about it. 😅

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