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General
- Making Magneto the heir to everything Xavier had built may seem like a major demoralizing blow to the X-Men, and a rather foolish move of Charles—who on the team would want to work for their worst enemy? But Xavier is The Chessmaster in many a continuity, and he knows that Magneto's pro-mutant tendencies could get the better of him. Thus, it would actually encourage his X-Men to stay to keep an eye on Erik, ensuring he stayed in line and didn't try to force humanity to his whims again.
- The portrayal of Cyclops has been praised for making him more likable as a person and more daring as a superhero, complete with a revamped fighting style, compared to the original series where he was an uptight milquetoast (a portrayal that carried into the movies). Pop culture in the 90's was all about being "cool" and "edgy," and thus Wolverine, Gambit, and Rogue took centerstage due to their checkered pasts and carefree personalities, while Cyke was made a stick-in-the-mud to contrast. Thirty years later, the urge to make everything superficially cool has long since died down, giving the writers room to let Cyclops shine in his own way.
- There are many production reason for why Wolverine's voice has a smoother dilivery in this iteration as opposed to the raspier voice he had in the original, but there is also a in universe explanation for it, as well as an explanation for why Logan is no longer seen with cigars in the show. Jean got pregnant, and Logan quit smoking because no one wanted a pregnant lady around second hand smoke.
Season 1
To Me, My X-Men
- Trask's Aesop Amnesia regarding Master Mold makes sense when two things come into play: the fact that Gyrich would have undoubtedly wanted a backup just in case, and the fact that Gyrich's assassination of Xavier would have undoubtedly emboldened more anti-mutant sentiments as much as it increased public sentiment for them. If the most prominent mutant in the world was proven killable, why not take his followers too?
- However in Episode 6 , it turns out that Trask was Forced Back Into Evil by Mr. Sinister who made him as his puppet to restart the Sentinel program and create the Tri-Sentinel to attack Genosha. Trask was so guilt-ridden and horrified, he outright begged to be killed.
- Gyrich's sentence of 25 years, with the option of being brought down to 10 with cooperation, is an early indicator of Xavier's survival, which will be fully confirmed in episode 6. That sentence would be far too lenient for murder, but it tracks with an attempted one.
- The NOT! line in general has fallen out of favor in public and is generally regarded as a relic of The '90s. However, the show is called X-Men '97, which takes place in the The '90s, and it hasn't been so long since the classic show's Grand Finale. So, when Cyclops re-used the NOT! line as a Call-Back, it's still making sense and not something too outdated.
Fire Made Flesh
- With The Reveal in the third episode, and the fact that it's "Jean" (actually Madelyne) who is the one to name the baby Nathan, it's very likely she subconsciously chose the name "Nathan" after her own creator's true name, "Nathaniel" (or rather, Mister Sinister subconsciously planted the idea in her head given his disgusting ego).
Montendo/Lifedeath, Pt. 1
- As much as he probably wants to give Jubilee a day to celebrate her birthday, there have been far more eyes and scrutiny on the X-Men ever since Magneto has become its new leader. He wants to keep Jubilee within the mansion walls to protect her for now.
- Of course Storm would be quick to reject Force's advances. After all, the last time a man has tried to woo Ororo within moments of meeting her, he turned out to be a psychotic alien dictator. There's no way Storm would let herself fall that quickly for a man again.
Remember It
- Creator Beau DeMayo has specifically stated that Episode 5 was meant to serve as a mutant analogue for 9/11, the Pulse nightclub shooting (as DeMayo himself is gay), and similar massacres, which even extends to the episode title — perhaps "Never Forget" would have been too on-the-nose.
- Apples grow best with a winter dormancy period, meaning a tropical island like Genosha would have to import them and, being a young nation that recently underwent a regime change, it probably doesn't have many trading partners yet. It makes sense that they are so expensive as Gambit pointed out when he noticed the price tag.
Lifedeath, Pt. 2
- When Professor Xavier's psychic class session goes awry, his globe catches on fire. But it's not normal fire or even random psychic energy; it's pink fire. Gambit's energy signature.
Bright Eyes
- The Prime Sentinel Trask, calling back to the first episode, mockingly asks a helpless Cyclops how it feels to be abandoned by the future. Cyclops is then saved by an EMP grenade by Cable, who is from the future. The fact that Cable is Nathan Summers is another whammy: Trask calls Scott an orphan, but it is by Scott's own son, whom Scott agonized over "abandoning" him to save his life, that the X-Men live to fight another day.
