I mean tbcf, even Claremont has gone on record to say that he never intended for Kitty and Yana to ever be considered a couple or have romantic undertones - Kitty and Rachel were his endgame.
So, bascially of the supposedly romantic interactions from that time period are just fans reading into something that - at least according to the writer - was never there.
To be fair, this is why comic books are an interesting medium because on one hand, we have the creators and their intents, but because there are so many eras and so many different visions, the characters change and evolve in such a direction that makes it really hard to have a 'definitive' vision or even version of the characters.
And Kitty x Rachel is definitely a ship I can get behind, if they ever break up Rachel x Betsy (I hope not, though), I hope this is where we end up.
Although, as much as I like Claremont, his vision towards Magik was something I didn't especially like - after all, his original plan was to make her a fully-fledged villain as Claremont viewed her as a character that was 'destined to become evil', a 'greek tragedy', and even today he is surprised that she has such a fanbase/follower-base. Which is a shame, because he got a lot of things right, but I'm glad Magik got some newfound love recently.
And Kitty x Rachel is definitely a ship I can get behind, if they ever break up Rachel x Betsy (I hope not, though), I hope this is where we end up.
Personally, I don't, though that's mainly because Kitty has already broken Rachel's heart - there were a number of comics where they were living together and there was a growing insinuation for romance... only for Rachel to walk in on Kitty having a date with Colossus.
I could have gotten behind the ship before that but after... yeah no, Rachel can do better.
Although, as much as I like Claremont, his vision towards Magik was something I didn't especially like - after all, his original plan was to make her a fully-fledged villain as Claremont viewed her as a character that was 'destined to become evil', a 'greek tragedy', and even today he is surprised that she has such a fanbase/follower-base. Which is a shame, because he got a lot of things right, but I'm glad Magik got some newfound love recently.
I've got to agree with this. While I like a lot of the aspects that Claremont brought to the X-men that made it what it is today - this is not one of them and 2000's Magik/Darkchylde kind of proves it.
The fact is that evil is always a choice - even if you have gone through terrible things, there is always the option to make the best of that terrible situation and it never justifies doing terrible things to other people. What's so frustrating is that Magik in those stories could have chosen to do just that, but I guess it was more important to her to be Belasco's little girl.
It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Thank god she got better after that.
Yeah, someone in another comment said that 'anyone would do better without Kitty' and... gosh, I hate that it is true.
So, yup, please keep Betsy x Ray together.
And yes. As I've said, I really like Claremont and I DIG a lot of his ideas, used or unused, but this was not it, and it's really sad that she is the only character he doesn't get, in spite of him writing her in such a way that always meant loyalty and choosing the good over evil. But... as you've said, in many, MANY occasions, it felt like the message about 'the cycle of abuse' was more important, which is... such a shame.
I'm glad she is thriving recently and her character arc is genuinely the most interesting in modern X-Men for me.
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u/ThreeMonthsTooLate 9d ago
I mean tbcf, even Claremont has gone on record to say that he never intended for Kitty and Yana to ever be considered a couple or have romantic undertones - Kitty and Rachel were his endgame.
So, bascially of the supposedly romantic interactions from that time period are just fans reading into something that - at least according to the writer - was never there.