#xtas

I always liked Gambit and Ororo's friendship. Somewhat related, I really liked Storm and Rogue's friendship in the 90s X-Men Animated Series. That's another thing I felt was missing in 97.

Heartwarming! This shapeshifter just got hit by a beam of pure holiday cheer!

We're well over a year later now and that Rogue/Magneto crap in XM97 still pisses me off. And what makes it all the more infuriating is that there's still the assorted weirdo here and there who tries to defend that creepy af story.

And their typical go-to method of excusing it? "It happened in the comics."

Okay... first of all, no it fucking didn't. Not like that. The Savage Land story in the comics lasted two issues and nothing actually happened between Rogue and Magneto. The most they ever did was share a hug in one panel. Then Magneto reminded everyone that he was a murdering psychopath and that was the end of it.

There were only two times in the comics that Rogue and Magneto were ever officially a couple and neither made a good case for adapting it in anything else at all, much less this show. The first was years later during AoA, (an alternate timeline, the whole point of which was that everything about it was wrong) where it literally began with her being his groomed student. And guess what, it was creepy af then too.

The second was years after that during a time when Rogue and Gambit weren't together; that didn't make the poison pill go down much easier, but at least Rogue was a legal adult atp. And it really only even happened because she was confused by the memories of a Rogue variant from another alternate timeline being stuck in her head.

In 'comics time,' the relationship lasted maybe 2-3 months tops and it ended as quickly as it began. Rogue got uncomfortable, decided it wasn't working for her, she went off to find herself and they've barely interacted since. The whole thing was later hand-waved away as something Rogue only did because she was afraid of her feelings for Gambit.

Second of all, even if you're still citing the Savage Land story from the comics as a thing that legitimizes the Rogue/Magneto retcon in XM97 or somehow makes it NOT absolutely gross, let me remind you that Rogue was a kid during that story in the comics too.

Rogue's time with Magneto in the Savage Land took place during UXM #274 & 275.

Now as a reference, here's a page from UXM #246, just 28 issues earlier:

"Rogue's a child."

Given the sliding timescale of comics, do you know how much time would've passed over 28 issues? Certainly not enough time to make Rogue NOT a child, that's for sure. She's only a few years older than Kitty Pryde ffs.

Not convinced yet? No problem. Here's a page from UXM #269 showing the moment Rogue met up with Magneto in the Savage Land:

"I did, child, what had to be done to save a life."

There you go. Not only did the X-men consider Rogue a child at the time this story happened, Magneto did too!

So, yeah. When Rogue was in the Savage Land, she was definitely still a teenager. And she might have been barely legal if any pervs in the audience feel like pointing that out, but that's a shitty argument too, because if we're going by the established timeline of XTAS, (which we have to, because XM97 is the continuation of that series) then when she met Magneto in the show, Rogue probably wasn't even old enough to drive.