X-Men'97Season 2 Episode 8, Underwhelming or a good compromise?

Now, I think we all predicted that at some point Remy Lebeau was going to come back from beyond the Grave and become the Horseman of Death to Apocalypse, and I guess given the last two episodes we definitely thought this is the way things are going.

But I guess me myself and everyone else missed what was really happening in these scenes.

Because it wasn't a straightforward revival like we were thinking of it to be, this was more than that, Gambit came back, changed but as well, the strength of bringing someone back from the dead was probably too much for Apocalypse.

Now this is the point where I would like to re-emphasize, I have not seen the original X-Men the Animated series because it is not available in India as Disney Plus is not available in India, yes that is true.

We simply have a shit-take called Jio-Hotstar which picks and chooses what to and not to show on this side of the Ocean.

And since it is controlled by Jio, I think we all know that it is owned by, like all things in India, by Anant Ambani

Oh no wait, the owner is Mukesh Ambani, Anant is the son, and a man who shares my birthday T-T.

But thanks to Anil Amb.... oh no wait that's the Brother.

Anyways, thanks to Mucked up Ambulance's infinite genius we in India do get Peacemaker and X-Men'97 on the same streaming platform alongside Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD who are supposed to be on peacock from what I hear, but we do not get the swath of older T.V. shows that Disney Plus so Graciously released on Disney Plus.

Not to mention thanks to Bobby I grow into a politician hopefully deciding that he is going to acquire Hotstar through Disney's acquisition of Fox and by extension Star India, and then integrate fucking Disney Plus into it, a whole fucking year later and not just release Disney Plus straight away, we already were late on the Mandalorian.

Now, we can't get important context for their new shows thanks to them not releasing that in India and the Ambulance thinking he wants another gem in his Infinity gauntlet.

Am I oversimplifying a situation I have absolutely no Idea of to just two people who have way too much money just so I can bitch about them? Yes I am absolutely.

You should try it, it's very therapeutic.

But the point of it all, was, that I do not know if in this continuity apocalypse has previously been successful in reviving the dead.

So I don't know if him turning into a shriveled grape is bullshit or not.

But what I do know, is that this is not properly the story we were promised, for one, this season meandered quite a bit in the middle with all the different villains of the week it was trying to introduce, and while yes, on the whole it did a good job with them, the first three episodes seemed to imply a much more focused narrative, and why not?

That's what happened in the previous season?

And while yes the creator, head writer, and executive producer Beau DeMayo of the first season was fired just before it's premiere due to egregious misconduct, he did finish writing season 2, so it seems that a lot of the loss of Focus is due to the new Creative head Matthew Chauncey and so far the only thing that has even come close to quality to X-Men'97 season 1 I have seen him involved with is Marvel's agent Carter.

And he was only Assistant producer on that.

Ms. Marvel and eyes of Wakanda come close to the same but suffer from the same problem of being way too short for their own good.

And the remaining are contributing writer to Troll Hunters and 3Below: Tales of Arcadia which I have no clue about but were mainly tied to Guillermo Del Torro.

He played the Same Role Beau DeMayo played in an Audible original podcast/audio series called Retreat, again, outside of my view.

And he provided additional literary and continuity material/script work for both Thor Love and Thunder and Fantastic Four First Steps.

Now Fantastic Four First Steps wasn't that bad, but Thor Love and thunder's treatment of Gor the God Butcher doesn't fill me with confidence, even though I did like the movie.

But there is one other project left over, one that I feel is very characteristic of the approach the second season took.

What if...?

Now I put Infinity Ultron here to categorically say, I like what if...? that doesn't mean its without its issues.

Particularly, What if...? has been a micro-chasm of the Larger MCU as a whole, a lot of disconnected stories that are suddenly tied together at the end.

Now that specific thing sounds very similar to what X-Men season 2 has been.

While the individual stories have been good, the over all plot has meandered quite a bit.

Matthew was Writer and story editor for earlier seasons, moving up to co-executive producer and head writer for Season 3 and by far I feel Season 3 was the best of all the seasons, it really put in the effort to make every single story of the anthology series have its own identity and that works well for a series like What if...?

But what was good for What if...? can spell disaster for X-Men'97, this show has 9 to 10 episode seasons with each episode about 30 minutes which is no where near enough to meander like this.

Overall I think there is a very applicable comment to this situation in this very episode

A murder of this plot's potential that is!

But I do believe I am being somewhat unfair, because the point is, I can appreciate what the team were trying to do with this particular episode.

I do still believe that they needed more to do justice to other plotlines, but that is its own thing.

What happened here isn't exactly a problem, because on the whole the plot boils down to a simple thing: Gambit is now back, but whatever he was is corrupted.

Now one way to do that would have been to go the Horseman route, but that was very clear from the start that that wouldn't go anywhere if at all, because Rogue is back and she freed Archangel.

So obviously this is what they will end up trying.

But two problems with this, whatever Gambit does can be blown off as being from Apocalypse and so we do not get the beautiful scene of Gambit trying to court Rogue in his corrupted form.

And that brings me to the second problem, if that had happened it would be over in like ten seconds when Rogue touched him.

But now, things are different Where earlier there was no physical contact, now there is, and Rogue doesn't know how to feel about that.

To add to all that there is a slight chance that Gambit isn't just Gambit, but the successor to Apocalypse, his power over the Dead and to brainwash people seems profoundly like Apocalypse's power to create horsemen, and on the whole he does call himself Apocalypse's Successor to his old lover X-Ternal.

Now from what a single google search tells me like I did for Marcus Chauncey the X-Ternal is intricately tied to Gambit's past in the thieves guild of New Orleans acting as a goddess or guardian entity of sorts.

And I guess that is why she recognized him, and he knew about her.

To be fair, I did think he learned about everything to do with her the same way he learned about apocalypse's failed past relationship.

Through his memory.

But it seems, truly, that everything he was doing, was straight up for the sake of marrying Rogue, going to the Thieves Guild, finding out the X ternal's back story, having her surrogate Brother there, all so they could rule the world as the best most cutest couple ever.

Sorry, I fanboy sometimes.

But with all that there is the slight problem of him wanting to become apocalypse and oh yes, Apocalypse is alive in there.

So all things considered, while I didn't get what I wanted, something did, a generic threat replaced by an emotional one.

Killing Gambit means killing apocalypse but will anyone have the will to kill someone they thought they lost and now have again?

Subverting Audience expectations is something that has definitely taken a loaded meaning in the general populace, because it has been used to defend certain things that the General Audiences didn't respond well to...

But think about it, would you like a show that is one hundred percent as you expected?

Well yes, some times.

But in those cases, you mostly like it in spite of that, you know, its predictable but what is happening is so amazing that I can't stop watching.

Just like, it was quite predictable that once Cable got it in his head that he needs to kill Gambit and by extension Apocalypse to "fulfill his Destiny" he was pretty obviously going to join forces with X-Force, or rather an exasperated Cooper was going to join hands with X-Force if it meant getting the Professor out of the way.

You know just like Remy noticed a similarity between himself and Apocalypse in being a jilted lover.

Something which Rogue also told Apocalypse might help him be a better person, so rogue again something they both share

There is a similarity between Cable and Apocalypse in sensing their shared destiny.

And how far they are willing to sacrifice their ideals for it.

The show may actually be feeling a lot like the earlier Animation now, at least that is what I am hearing.

But who knows, maybe I am being too critical and the Finale will make up for it...

I mean no joke they actually do have a pretty good chance because in spite of all of my complaining the things they did cover were actually quite poignant, and I do actually like this season, I just feel they could have done so much better, have done so much better with season one.

And then there is the Firing of DeMayo which he alleges to be due to his post supporting Pride Month but who knows.

We have no details of his wrong doings do it.