Angst? What Angst?: Except for Cyclops, the X-Men doesn't seem to be as concerned as him about what happened to Jean.
Ass Pull: While not a big offender in terms of plot, the show has an asspull in the fights between Wolverine and Sabertooth. Their fights end up being relatively anti-climatic, despite earlier shows X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution being able to do fights between them well. The asspull comes in their first encounter when Sabertooth pulls a giant taser gun nearly half as big as he is out of his cloak, despite there being no bulk or any sign of it when you can peek into his cloak before. Making it look like he actually pulled it out of his rear end.
Wolverine, as usual. The focus on him and the Character Shilling is taken to almost parody levels. Is it right to focus on the character who's already the most popular X-Man, or is it ruining him and the series? Also, the Character Shilling sometimes not being backed up by his actions can also either mean that he sucks, or that he's still the imperfect Wolverine of the comics.
Cyclops also has some of this going for him. Some fans absolutely loved how this version was the complete opposite of the Standardized Leader that Cyclops usually is, some even go so far as to say that this Cyclops being so genuinely flawed made him more interesting than Wolverine for once, if only because he actually had flaws to struggle with. Other fans however absolutely hate this version of Cyclops for being the complete opposite everything the character has ever represented and for being degraded to nothing more than a pathetic loser who's been a useless twit all his life and having no real character development towards becoming a better person.
Can't Un-Hear It: The series provides a lot of what many fans consider the definitive voices for the characters associated with the X-Men series, though it also helps that most of the voice actors have reprised their roles in some subsequent animated series and/or video games.
Master Mold is the A.I. designed by Dr. Bolivar Trask to direct his Sentinels' efforts to contain mutants. After the world is devastated by the Phoenix Force and a large portion of humanity is killed, Master Mold takes over and becomes a dictator. Master Mold has her Sentinels round up mutants and put them in detention camps, and has turned humans like Colonel Moss into cyborg slaves, having them work as guards in her camps. Powerful mutants are sent to labs to be experimented on, so the Sentinels can reproduce their powers, and are killed after the experimentation is done. Later Master Mold captures Professor Xavier, hooking him up to a Cerebro unit so she can locate every remaining mutant on the planet, planning to have her Sentinels kill them all. After that is done, Master Mold decides Xavier is no longer useful to her and orders him to be killed.
"Overflow": The Shadow King, real name Amahl Farouk, is a cruel and merciless telepathic mutant who forced the young Storm to be a thief and would berate and threaten her if she did not bring back enough stolen goods. Xavier befriended Storm and defeated the Shadow King. Though his body was destroyed fighting Xavier, his evil spirit lived on and he gained the ability to possess others and force them to do things against their will. When we first see Shadow King in the present, he has possessed a starving man in a desert. When another man comes to help this starving man, The Shadow King possesses the good Samaritan and leaves his original victim to die in the desert. Shadow King later possesses Storm herself and forces her to use her Weather Manipulation powers to destroy all Africa, simply to spite her.
"Shades of Grey"; "Foresight" three-part series finale: The Inner Circle is an evil group of mutants with a desire to use the Phoenix Force for power and selfishness. These two leaders are the vilest and they are the ones responsible for the Phoenix Force destroying most of humanity and creating a Bad Future:
Sebastian Shaw poses himself as a well-intentioned mutant who wants to destroy the Phoenix Force, a potentially destructive cosmic entity, to save humanity. In reality, Shaw wants to use it for his own greed and power, not caring if the planet is endangered as a result. Shaw sends Emma Frost and her students, the Stepford Cuckoos, to Xavier's school to incapacitate Xavier and capture Jean Grey. Shaw's psychic attack causes the Phoenix Force to go nuts and blow up the school, putting Xavier into a coma and giving Jean amnesia. When the X-Men eventually find Jean, Emma knocks them out and delivers Jean to Shaw. However, Shaw plans to trick Jean into releasing the Phoenix Force and then have the Stepford Cuckoos absorb it, endangering their lives in the process. When the plan succeeds, Shaw orders them to kill all the X-Men and then burn Genosha.
Selene (Gallio) is a cold-hearted, sadistic mutant with a habit of draining life forces from other people. Selene is fully complicit in Shaw's plans to endanger the planet by using the Phoenix Force for their selfish agendas. Selene also has a deep disdain for Emma Frost, verbally abusing and threatening her when she is not doing her required tasks. Selene sends Emma alongside the Stepford Cuckoos to Xavier's school to incapacitate Xavier and capture Jean Grey. Her attack causes the school to blow up. Selene tries to gleefully and slowly drain Cyclops's life force and make Emma watch, before revealing that Emma was responsible for the explosion at the school, just to rub salt in Emma's wounds. Selene watches as the Stepford Cuckoos absorb the Phoenix Force and try to destroy the X-Men, Genosha, and then the world with ruthless satisfaction.
Cyclops appears to be this. The show insists at least once or twice that he used to be some kind of hero, but he is never portrayed with any sympathetic traits and never really achieves anything. However, these problems were just difficulties in character arc as a whole due to the fact that whenever he is supporting character, Cyclops is usually pretty competent and likable. The episode "Overflow" portrays Cyclops getting over himself to go help the team save Storm. To his credit, he was one of only two X-Men in that episode who actually got to help Wolverine stop Storm from flooding Africa. Another example of this is in the episode "Backlash", which gives us a glimmer of Cyclops acting more like his comic book counterpart and most versions. When Quicksilver wanted the Brotherhood and X-Men to run and abandon Wolverine, it is Cyclops who convinces him to stay and states they're going to stay there and buy Wolverine time that he needs. Cyclops even briefly took command of the situation through issuing sound orders, like getting Quicksilver to use his super speed to draw way the Sentinels fire so the group could recover. The problem was whenever episode focused on him they focused on the obsession that he had with Jean.
The X-Men as a whole may count given that they don't get to be heroic very often.
Weirdly enough, Cyclops seems to fill the role opposite Wolverine. The flashbacks of "Breakdown" reveal that Wolverine would hit on Cyclops' girlfriend Jean Grey while mocking him, at least until Cyclops started blasting him repeatedly until Jean intervened. While blasting Wolverine in the back for a petty jab doesn't portray Cyclops in the best light, Wolverine was the one who deliberately provoked him, likely figuring that he was all bark and no bite (only to be proved hilariously wrong). Given that, how exactly is Cyclops the bad guy here?
Magneto in the early episodes. Nightcrawler is shocked by him "imprisoning [his] own people" on Genosha, but it isn't made clear what offenses even landed them in prison (and at least one of the inmates, Fever Pitch, was previously seen rampaging around a public area). So we're more or less told that he's a cruel and repressive dictator when for all we know he could just be making the perfectly logical choice of locking up dangerous criminals.
Draco in Leather Pants: Emma seems to get this. While she has sympathetic qualities, fans tend to ignore every immoral action she commits, and in fact, Jean's reaction to one of them, kissing Scott while he's out cold, is frequently brought up as a reason to hate Jean.
Fan Nickname: Since Wolverine is sometimes known as Sniktbub, this show is sometimes called Sniktbub and Bubs.
The idea that the Phoenix Force could be controlled by splitting it among five people. It didn't work out in Avengers vs. X-Men either.
When Wolverine finally shows up in the Sentinel ruled future he's accompanied by four X-23 clones. Years later, X-23 would take the name Wolverine herself and her solo book's first story arc would be focused on four clones of her, one of whom, Gabby, would become a fan favourite X-Man in her own right.
As per usual, Cyclops and Wolverine fight and bicker like an old married couple.
Then there's Sabretooth and Wolverine. While we don't learn much about their past, Sabretooth's main beef with Wolverine appears to be related to the latter's romance with Mystique. More than once, Sabretooth rants about what an unstoppable team he and Wolverine used to be until Mystique came in and made Wolverine "go soft". It makes Sabretooth sound like a jilted, psycho ex-boyfriend.
And, as usual, Magneto and Xavier, what with how Magneto puts time aside to keep Charles alive on Genosha and a not so subtly flirty moment between them in the flashbacks of Breakdown.
Mr. Sinister was rather flirty with Angel when he pitched him his idea for turning him into Archangel. There's also the fact he repeatedly refers to Warren as "My angel".
Emma Frost is an agent of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, who was sent to capture Jean Grey, the host of the Phoenix Force. Emma is revealed to be the one who attacked Jean a year ago, triggering the explosion at the X-Mansion and the disappearances of Xavier and Jean. Emma then arrives at the X-Mansion offering her services to the team, where Wolverine reluctantly agrees to allow her to operate Cerebro, where she 'finds' Xavier on Genosha to prove herself, where in reality she moved Xavier there herself. Fully gaining Wolverine's trust by helping Storm fight off the Shadow King, Emma officially joins the X-Men on their many missions, while continuing to search for Jean. Eventually locating an amnesiac Jean, Emma knocks all the X-Men unconscious and kidnaps Jean, taking her to the Inner Circle. Convincing Jean they need to extract and destroy the Phoenix Force for the safety of humanity, Emma is shocked to discover the Inner Circle intended to weaponize the Phoenix. Re-allying with the heroes, Emma takes the Phoenix into herself in order to neutralize it, knowing fully well it would kill her in the process.
Mystique, real name Raven Darkholme, is Magneto's trusted spy and most successful confidante. First sent out to check on the comatose Charles Xavier, she uses her shapeshifting powers to sow mass confusion among the X-Men, allowing her to escape with relative ease. Later appearing in "Foresight", Mystique impersonates Senator Kelly and uses his authority to launch a Sentinel attack on Genosha, giving Magneto an army to use for his conquest. Afterwards, she destroys the controls to the Sentinels, preventing anyone from undoing their programming before making a hasty retreat. Intelligent and determined, Mystique ends the series avoiding any punishment for her actions.
"Thieves' Gambit" & "Aces and Eights": Gambit, real name Remy LeBeau, is a thief-for-hire and a member of the Thieves' Guild who is willing to work for anyone who pays him. Hired by Dr. Sybil Zane to steal a mutant inhibitor collar, Gambit breaks into the X-Mansion and swipes it with no trouble. When Wolverine burns his money, Gambit agrees to help get the collar back when Wolverine hires him at double the fee. Advising Wolverine into taking a subtler approach into breaking into the MRD laboratory, Gambit cuts off Dr. Zane's escape by blowing up her car, then tries to take the collar for himself to resell. Bailing on Wolverine, Gambit is amused to discover Wolverine swapped the collar out. Gambit also gets hired by Senator Kelly to travel to Genosha and steal Magneto's helmet, to which Gambit confesses everything openly before requesting sanctuary, where he charms Magneto's daughter Lorna, and uses her affection to escape from prison. Revealing his true intent was to plant charges all over Genosha to cripple their society, he leaves Lorna behind teaching her the real world was a lot like he was.
Mr. Sinister is a brilliant, devious geneticist who schemes the victory of Apocalypse. Luring Cyclops to his lair so as to test the mutant's abilities, Sinister later kidnaps Cyclops and Jean Grey to harvest their DNA for further experimentation. Stalking Angel for a time, Sinister preys on him losing his wings to convince him to undergo an evolution process that transforms him into the villainous Archangel. With Archangel by his side and the harvested DNA of powerful mutants, Sinister loyally helps Apocalypse carry out a plot to Take Over the World, seen in a glimpse of the future to have been carried out with success.
The Shadow King crossed this line before the series even began, forcing Storm to be a child thief and threatening to kill her for not bringing back enough stolen goods. He only gets worse from there.
Colonel Moss crosses it when he cripples Angel, who took blatant pleasure from attacking him and showing no remorse upon finding out that it was Warren II's son, who ordered him to do that. At least the latter feels remorseful by the end of the episode.
Mr Sinister is revealed to have crossed it when we learn his plotting leads to a future where Apocalypse rules over a dark case of The Social Darwinist nightmare future where his survival of the fittest creed is unchecked. Before this, in series anyway, he was merely a thoroughly creepy schemer. It's hard to find even the smallest bit of sympathy for a man who knowingly ushered in hell on earth.
The Inner Circle - Emma believed they were still going with the original plan of destroying the Phoenix Force by depriving it of a body and releasing it into the atmosphere; the new plan involved a transplantation from one body to five in an attempt to control it as a weapon of global conquest. And notably, the second they reveal this to Emma, she turns on them immediately.
Magneto in the "Foresight" three-parter. In the prior episode, Wolverine and Xavier showed him and Senator Kelly what'll happen if they go to war. Kelly took the Bad Future to heart and changed course, but Magneto saw an opportunity. He had Quicksilver kidnap Kelly and Mystique replace him in order to initiate the war. His reasoning is that controlling the other side of the fight meant he could avert the worst outcome for his own, but in order to truly sell mutants on the idea that Humans Are Bastards, he was going to allow those on Genosha to be massacred by Sentinels. You can see why Scarlet Witch and Polaris ultimately exiled him from Genosha.
Jean yelling "Scott! What are you doing?! It'll kill you!" when Cyclops tries to fight the Phoenix in the final episode "Foresight: Part 3" comes off being more unintentionally funny than dramatic and intense due to the way the normally reliable Jennifer Hale's voice squeaks and cracks as she delivers her lines.
Jean throwing Emma up against a wall with telekinesis, binding her there with pipes, coldly saying "You'll pay for what you've done." It's supposed to be chilling, but Jennifer Hale gives such a flat reading that the threat means nothing, and the "angry" expression on Jean's face is just silly.
Nightmare Fuel: "Hunting Grounds" gives us the Hunter that Mojo has been preparing. It turns out to be a Brainwashed and CrazyWolverine, incapable of rational thought and with a creepy-as-hell Slasher Smile fixed on his face à la The Joker.
Older Than They Think: A mutant with Armor's near-exact ability actually showed up as part of the Asteroid M story-arc in the '90s comics, even making an appearance as one of Fabian Cortez's cronies in the X-Men: The Animated Series two-parter that adapted said story.
Romantic Plot Tumor: The Emma Frost/Cyclops/Jean Grey triangle is basically this incarnate.
What little is shown of Cyclops and Jean's relationship suggests a clearly unhealthy union built on insecurity and neediness instead of love and trust. This makes it hard to root for Cyclops to find Jean since their relationship doesn't seem to work all that well.
Furthermore, the show's writers characterized Cyclops as a pathetic Manchild. They made him look weak and foolish with serious anger management issues, and one wonders why Jean ever fell in love with him. Likewise, we never get a convincing reason why Cyclops ever fell for Jean, other than she saved him from Magneto once. Ultimately, neither character comes away looking particularly good for this relationship.
Ron the Death Eater: Hoo, boy, does Jean Grey get no end of this. It seems there's not a single action the fans haven't demonized her for, and ironically, all of them are either pretty understandable, or just plain harmless. Jean engages in a bit of telepathic flirtation? She's obviously brainwashing Cyke. She gets ticked when her boyfriend blasts a (very heavy) man in the back, hard enough to knock him to the ground? She needs to lighten up! She ties down a woman who was presently *assaulting* her boyfriend? That psycho was just getting a taste of her own medicine! Serves her right!.
Rooting for the Empire: With Wolverine in full Character Shilling mode, Cyclops as an unsympathetic Jerkass psychopath, Xavier as an unlikable Manipulative Bastard, and most of the X-Men reduced to non-entities, it's slightly hard NOT to root for Magneto and the other various villains, if only because they are more interesting characters via having more personality and pizzazz.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Certain large groups of fans have become particularly fond of the pairing Forge/Toad for some reason.
A lot of fans were not happy about Cyclops and Wolverine's role swap. They also despised the fact that Wolverine was portrayed as the leader of the X-Men instead of Cyclops.
The fact that Storm was demoted to a background character did not sit well with fans, nor did the fact that Professor Xavier and Jean Grey were reduced to plot devices.
Many fans absolutely despised this version of Cyclops for not being portrayed as the Standardized Leader that he usually is portrayed as in the comics and most versions.
Cyclops's fall from grace and eventual redemption could have been an important and compelling arc, and adapting his controversial romance with Emma Frost could have made for some great tension between him and the other characters. But his intended character development never really kicks in and by the end of the series he is somehow back together with Jean Grey, without even showing a proper reconciliation between the two. No apology from either, no tear-jerking confessions, just there they are, back together.
Wolverine being pushed out of his comfort zone as the loner and being forced to be a responsible leader never really amounts to anything interesting either.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: With so many flat or just plain unlikable X-Men in such an unpleasant world it's kind of hard to care if the lot of them survive or not. You might just find yourself Rooting for the Empire.
Toad, while being with the bad guys, and being a green, slimy, annoying brat in his first appearance, tends to have a lot of adorable, slightly pathetic woobie moments. Specifically when he's curled up on the ground whimpering while everyone else is fighting Sentinels. Or when he unintentionally unleashes the Puppy-Dog Eyes when Quicksilver refuses to break him out of jail.
Nightcrawler is a blue elf with a devil tail and long hair. This was unavoidable.
Cyclops. His origin episode Breakdown is meant to portray him in a sympathetic light as it recounts the misfortunes of his life, but depicting him as a lifelong clumsy, emotionally crippled man-child only succeeded in making him look worse when compared to Wolverine.
Wolverine and most of the other X-Men fall into this as well, albeit for entirely different reasons: Wolverine is unsympathetic because he's a jerk and the other X-Men are too flat as characters to really sympathize with.
When Jean Grey is running around as an amnesiac in need of rescue, it's hard to feel bad for her because we don't know her very well, what little we see of her relationship with Cyclops could be seen as alternately depicting her as a Manipulative Bitch towards him, and her characterization pretty much ends at "voiced by Jennifer Hale".
Emma Frost, supposedly seen as a tragic anti-villain, loses quite a few sympathy points when she effectively assaults an unconscious Cyclops.
While most characters have some sort of tragic backstory, "Breakdown" portrays Cyclops with having an even worse life. His parents died in a plane crash when he was young, and was then separated from his brother and stuck in a coma for two years. He was the victim of bullying and abuse at a group home, and mocked for being clumsy. He was nearly punked to death by Magneto and abandoned by his foster father Xavier and his teammates. Even his girlfriend Jean Grey turned on him after he sucker punched Wolverine after he hit on her and taunted Cyclops.
Angel easily gets it worst out of everyone present. His father parades him around to promote anti-mutant initiatives, then he falls out with his father, thenhe has his wings amputated and gets turned into Archangel. You can see his face the moment that he realises that accepting Sinister's offer was a bad idea, and it's heartbreaking.
