Wolverine and the X-Men 1x20
Dec. 11th, 2020 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsWolverine and the X-Men 1x20: Breakdown
So let's see, an episode focused on Scott, that portrays Logan as an asshole antagonist, shows us backstory, has limited action, and makes Jean an actual character...yeah, this may be my favorite episode of the season. I kind of remembered that the Phoenix arc came into this somewhere and considering what's so far been done with/around Jean it was pretty clear I remembered that right, but I couldn't remember when it actually came into play.
I have some serious questions about the timeline of this episode though. I am aware that they're trying to represent the comics' original X-men team with what we see in action here. And I'll believe that Angel is the same age as Jean and Scott (though I have some questions about how he convinced his dad to let him go to mutant school), and maybe even Beast, although he's usually framed a bit older (though I may be throwing in the movie-verse more, where he clearly is a generation before them); but the fact that Iceman is always shown as a snowman instead of anything resembling Bobby means even the writers know this can't really be the makeup of the team ten years ago (when Bobby would have been about eight); maybe they had another ice based mutant, but his skills basically seem like Bobby's. There's also clearly some influence from X3 (with the setting of Jean's house and the floating cars and her knowing about Magneto) without actually following that canon; although they could be setting up the movie version of the Phoenix as a repressed part of her personality but that makes the timelines screwy still. But since I can't quite make Scott's memories work, and I don't trust Emma, I still feel kind of suspicious that she might be tweaking some things in how he remembers things.
My other main thought at this one was that, while I mostly liked it, it should have happened around episode five or so; used the rivalry between Scott and Logan as a much bigger component of the season, especially when you consider Charles' treatment of them (which I'm still not forgiving). Although on the timeline question, how long had Wolverine been hanging around before the explosion? It's clearly implied that it's his first time at the mansion when he shows up, was Rogue there or did they already know each other but she didn't come with him, or did they meet later? How long had Scott (and Jean) had to deal with Logan's behavior before it came to the fight we saw? He has to have been there long enough to have become part of the team, for it to be even remotely feasible (still not probable or a good idea) that he takes on the leadership of the team, to have a variety of relationships with people on the team. But they're acting like it's been six months or less before Scott flies off the handle; still whether it was a week, six months, or three years I do have some other beef to pick.
I think we need to know more about Logan and Jean's interactions for me to take a firm stance on this. If Jean seems drawn to Logan and his mystery, then Scott, you need to have a talk with your girlfriend before picking a fight; but if she keeps putting him off the way she did in their first meeting then Logan really does need to back off. Sure it's all the more showing that Jean can take care of herself, and she clearly didn't want Scott fighting over her when she thought she had the situation under control, but Logan needs a serious sexual harassment seminar in that case and since the X-men don't seem to have those, Scott was inclined to give a pointed lesson. It's a fine line, that yeah he stepped over it, but Logan does come off like a terrible person, especially to be friends/teammates with when he won't stop hitting on your girlfriend.
Yes I get that we're in Scott's head, so it's entirely possible that the memories are meant to be colored by Scott's dislike of Logan; but if the show is going that way it means I get to call any instance of retrieved memories into question, so why should I buy Logan's memory that he wasn't such a bad guy in the past? And while it might make Emma less responsible for the misremembering of things than my primary dislike of her usually leads me to accuse, it does mean that she's not pulling up untainted memories and that she could probably throw in her own slant without anyone noticing. And anyway, I kept expecting some of Scott's memories of Jean to show Emma in Jean's place, showing that something was already rewriting his thoughts; there's a lot that can be done with these high level telepaths running around this show and this show is kind of limited in scope at times. I expected that or for her, once she's in his head, to find that his mind has already been messed with, and maybe we question if it was by Xavier or Jean herself.
Because this episode continues to make me uncomfortable with Charles. I do think this this show happened kind of around a time when the comics had kind of a mixed opinion of Xavier too, so it's not a surprise it bled over into the show. Plus Xavier (like Emma) is easy to view in a less than flattering way. No matter how you slice it, his kindly mentor persona always clashes with his child soldier program; and even when the former is more focused on, the existence of the latter can definitely make it feel like an artificial front he puts on. But this show does not do a good job with his character. Early on I thought the weirdest thing was having his voice be uncanny valley Patrick Stewart, but he has none of Stewart-Xavier's warmth and the writing does nothing but paint him as an asshole. Or at least the writing ends up doing nothing but painting him as an asshole, I'm not sure if they meant to. Obviously they refuse to fully commit to it, as I suggested as a reason for putting Wolverine in charge instead of any of the children he raised (unless maybe the rest of them are all supposed to be like 20 years old, making Wolverine the only adult out of them; in which case he's still a dumb idea but might be the best of some bad options; also I don't buy it of some of the characters).
Also, while I'm sure the show will not bring it up, it sure looks like a whole bunch of kids would have died in the attack/Phoenix explosion. It's been ignoring it up until now, so I expect that to continue, but at this point (when I'm betting what happened back then is about to be relevant again) maybe don't remind us that Jean/the Phoenix probably killed a bunch of people.
So let's see, an episode focused on Scott, that portrays Logan as an asshole antagonist, shows us backstory, has limited action, and makes Jean an actual character...yeah, this may be my favorite episode of the season. I kind of remembered that the Phoenix arc came into this somewhere and considering what's so far been done with/around Jean it was pretty clear I remembered that right, but I couldn't remember when it actually came into play.
I have some serious questions about the timeline of this episode though. I am aware that they're trying to represent the comics' original X-men team with what we see in action here. And I'll believe that Angel is the same age as Jean and Scott (though I have some questions about how he convinced his dad to let him go to mutant school), and maybe even Beast, although he's usually framed a bit older (though I may be throwing in the movie-verse more, where he clearly is a generation before them); but the fact that Iceman is always shown as a snowman instead of anything resembling Bobby means even the writers know this can't really be the makeup of the team ten years ago (when Bobby would have been about eight); maybe they had another ice based mutant, but his skills basically seem like Bobby's. There's also clearly some influence from X3 (with the setting of Jean's house and the floating cars and her knowing about Magneto) without actually following that canon; although they could be setting up the movie version of the Phoenix as a repressed part of her personality but that makes the timelines screwy still. But since I can't quite make Scott's memories work, and I don't trust Emma, I still feel kind of suspicious that she might be tweaking some things in how he remembers things.
My other main thought at this one was that, while I mostly liked it, it should have happened around episode five or so; used the rivalry between Scott and Logan as a much bigger component of the season, especially when you consider Charles' treatment of them (which I'm still not forgiving). Although on the timeline question, how long had Wolverine been hanging around before the explosion? It's clearly implied that it's his first time at the mansion when he shows up, was Rogue there or did they already know each other but she didn't come with him, or did they meet later? How long had Scott (and Jean) had to deal with Logan's behavior before it came to the fight we saw? He has to have been there long enough to have become part of the team, for it to be even remotely feasible (still not probable or a good idea) that he takes on the leadership of the team, to have a variety of relationships with people on the team. But they're acting like it's been six months or less before Scott flies off the handle; still whether it was a week, six months, or three years I do have some other beef to pick.
I think we need to know more about Logan and Jean's interactions for me to take a firm stance on this. If Jean seems drawn to Logan and his mystery, then Scott, you need to have a talk with your girlfriend before picking a fight; but if she keeps putting him off the way she did in their first meeting then Logan really does need to back off. Sure it's all the more showing that Jean can take care of herself, and she clearly didn't want Scott fighting over her when she thought she had the situation under control, but Logan needs a serious sexual harassment seminar in that case and since the X-men don't seem to have those, Scott was inclined to give a pointed lesson. It's a fine line, that yeah he stepped over it, but Logan does come off like a terrible person, especially to be friends/teammates with when he won't stop hitting on your girlfriend.
Yes I get that we're in Scott's head, so it's entirely possible that the memories are meant to be colored by Scott's dislike of Logan; but if the show is going that way it means I get to call any instance of retrieved memories into question, so why should I buy Logan's memory that he wasn't such a bad guy in the past? And while it might make Emma less responsible for the misremembering of things than my primary dislike of her usually leads me to accuse, it does mean that she's not pulling up untainted memories and that she could probably throw in her own slant without anyone noticing. And anyway, I kept expecting some of Scott's memories of Jean to show Emma in Jean's place, showing that something was already rewriting his thoughts; there's a lot that can be done with these high level telepaths running around this show and this show is kind of limited in scope at times. I expected that or for her, once she's in his head, to find that his mind has already been messed with, and maybe we question if it was by Xavier or Jean herself.
Because this episode continues to make me uncomfortable with Charles. I do think this this show happened kind of around a time when the comics had kind of a mixed opinion of Xavier too, so it's not a surprise it bled over into the show. Plus Xavier (like Emma) is easy to view in a less than flattering way. No matter how you slice it, his kindly mentor persona always clashes with his child soldier program; and even when the former is more focused on, the existence of the latter can definitely make it feel like an artificial front he puts on. But this show does not do a good job with his character. Early on I thought the weirdest thing was having his voice be uncanny valley Patrick Stewart, but he has none of Stewart-Xavier's warmth and the writing does nothing but paint him as an asshole. Or at least the writing ends up doing nothing but painting him as an asshole, I'm not sure if they meant to. Obviously they refuse to fully commit to it, as I suggested as a reason for putting Wolverine in charge instead of any of the children he raised (unless maybe the rest of them are all supposed to be like 20 years old, making Wolverine the only adult out of them; in which case he's still a dumb idea but might be the best of some bad options; also I don't buy it of some of the characters).
Also, while I'm sure the show will not bring it up, it sure looks like a whole bunch of kids would have died in the attack/Phoenix explosion. It's been ignoring it up until now, so I expect that to continue, but at this point (when I'm betting what happened back then is about to be relevant again) maybe don't remind us that Jean/the Phoenix probably killed a bunch of people.
