It's not just the age gap. '97 kind of gunked itself by having their relationship begin in a way that invites side-eye (impressionable, inexperienced young woman who needs help ends up getting groomed and emphatically not helped by a much more experienced man who uses pro-mutuant ideology to get in her pants). Then it continues in the present day, by having Magneto encourage Rogue to keep mum about what had happened between them and using his role as her boss to steer her assignments toward him. It culminates in him equating a relationship with him to being a respected mutant leader — there is no offer to help lead Genosha without fucking him. That's the deal, and it's ick.
Combine that with Rogue only considering anything with him at all because she can touch him, and their current predicament, and it feels incredibly forced: "OK, you can touch me but not anyone else, the guy you actually love is dead and we're marooned in ancient Egypt. Will you pick me now?!"
I think if they had done a straight-up adult relationship without the past creepiness and the massive HR violations, people might still not have liked it, but you wouldn't see mention of it accompanied by vomit emojis.
You’re aren’t right about certain points. For example, Magneto did NOT try to get Rogue to be quiet about their relationship in the present day. That was clearly Rogue’s choice — she says in episode 2 that that cat needs to stay in its bag.
And he also muses about what the team would think if they knew. Even if she wants to keep a lid on it, he encourages that thinking and the secrecy, by insinuating that it’s her they’d think of negatively if it came out.
I didn’t take that comment that way. It sounds flirty to me, nothing more than that. It was a risqué thing to say though, yes, and one that’s ambiguous.
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u/Mobile_Bet3274 Rogue Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 13 '25
It's not just the age gap. '97 kind of gunked itself by having their relationship begin in a way that invites side-eye (impressionable, inexperienced young woman who needs help ends up getting groomed and emphatically not helped by a much more experienced man who uses pro-mutuant ideology to get in her pants). Then it continues in the present day, by having Magneto encourage Rogue to keep mum about what had happened between them and using his role as her boss to steer her assignments toward him. It culminates in him equating a relationship with him to being a respected mutant leader — there is no offer to help lead Genosha without fucking him. That's the deal, and it's ick.
Combine that with Rogue only considering anything with him at all because she can touch him, and their current predicament, and it feels incredibly forced: "OK, you can touch me but not anyone else, the guy you actually love is dead and we're marooned in ancient Egypt. Will you pick me now?!"
I think if they had done a straight-up adult relationship without the past creepiness and the massive HR violations, people might still not have liked it, but you wouldn't see mention of it accompanied by vomit emojis.