What Do You Want?

[rionaleonhart]

In case anyone who might be interested missed it on account of my terrible timing: I posted an X-Men: First Class fic whilst Livejournal was being difficult! No common sense. It is about Raven and Erik and Charles and their relationships with each other. It is also, inevitably, about Pokémon.


Over the weekend, I stayed with mogamus_ii! She had the first two X-Men films on DVD, so, at my request, we watched them.

I went into the films hoping to see more of the fascinating relationship between Erik and Charles. By the end of X2, they could have had sex right there on the screen and I wouldn't have noticed.

I am 'shipping Rogue and Logan more than I have ever 'shipped anything in my life.

No, seriously, it twisted my insides when I realised that the films were going to go the Logan/Jean route instead. I was so oblivious to any tension between them that, close to the end of the first film, this happened:

Jean: I think she's a little taken with you.
Logan: Well, you can tell her my heart belongs to someone else.
Riona: Wait, what? NO. NO IT DOESN'T. Who?
Logan: How's the professor?
Riona: He's in love with Charles?

Not that there necessarily wasn't any tension between Logan and Jean; it's quite possible that they were constantly setting the air between them aflame and I simply didn't notice because I was so busy hoping for more Logan-Rogue interaction.

I don't know how this pairing hit me so hard and so fast! During the truck scene after Logan and Rogue's first meeting, I was fascinated by the atmosphere and the dynamic, although thoughts of pairing them up hadn't occurred to me yet. By the train scene, I was shouting 'GET MARRIED' at the screen.

And then there was that intensely awkward scene at the beginning of X2 between Logan and Rogue and Rogue's boyfriend and I was dying with how much I needed Logan and Rogue to be together. X-MEN FILMS WHY ARE LOGAN AND ROGUE NOT MAKING OUT CONSTANTLY

I MEAN, YES, ROGUE'S MUTATION WOULD KILL ANYONE SHE MADE OUT WITH, BUT OTHER THAN THAT YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.

Comments

[vzg.livejournal.com]

I am not totally all about the Logan/Rogue, but partly that is because I am always seeking slash and partly (mostly) because I can't get past the part where she can't touch him. Strangely, that didn't deter me TOO much when Pushing Daisies was on!

But I never saw the Logan/Jean. It was like, "oh, yes, she's supposed to be hot and wanted and then there's the toddler 'I want what he's playing with!' thing" but they hardly even interact at all before he decides he's in love with her, and she really doesn't show any real interest in him.

Yyyeah. Basically my favorite parts of the movies are Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Mystique, and then a few of those who showed up for a mere few seconds in X-2 piqued my interest, but then NEVER SHOWED UP AGAIN. Also: Nightcrawler. Needs to be in more films.

[rionaleonhart]

I find it reassuring that non-Logan/Rogue 'shippers also had trouble seeing Logan/Jean and I wasn't just completely blinded by Logan/Rogue being the best pairing. Although obviously the fact that Logan/Rogue is the best pairing would be an argument against Logan/Jean even if the latter did make sense. You have the best pairing right there! Why have Logan pining after Jean instead? I don't understand.

Rogue, Nightcrawler and Mystique are all pretty great!

[vzg.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I think they were (quite futilely) attempting to avoid some fanboy rage with that. The Rogue-Logan relationships kind of started out like the Jubilee-Logan one in the comics (I think? I still don't understand most of what goes on in the X-Men comics, really), and I know even with the general acceptance of Rule 34 I saw people freak out way back on scans_daily when one comic suggested that Jubilee might have some physical attraction to him.

But that is mostly conjecture! Probably also part of it would have been the "but she needs to be with Gambit eventually!" argument, or what have you. Although I don't think that was ever permanent in the comics, but then, what is?

Of course, so much got changed anyway, notably the aging-down of Rogue in the first place, that it probably would have even mattered. Although the aging-down probably factored in. I can only think that they did that to show a mutant coming-of-age, but they could have done that with any number of other characters and oh god I am rambling.

That or they seriously underestimated Anna Paquin's ability to be sexy. Because even with it not being my favorite pairing, I do think it would have vastly improved the films. I mean, really, the two hottest people on that set were Anna and Hugh.