X-Men: Evolution/Headscratchers

Why does no one call out Xavier or any of the other faculty for creating a private paramilitary group with underage teenagers?

Seriously, their training in the Danger Room goes far beyond anything that could be plausibly labeled "self-defense." In episode 3 the students are given an intensive demonstration of potential flaws in advanced security systems. Episode 7 shows them training for covert search and rescue operations. Episode 8 has Wolverine and Cyclops running what is explicitly called a "field battle training sim."

Use of child soldiers is something you'd expect from the villains of the piece, and we do see that here with Brotherhood boys. The main difference is that Xavier takes the time to actually train his recruits so... yay, his private army will have fewer causalities when he sends it out on field missions?

Fury and SHIELD know about them at least, shouldn't he have a better response than 'Yeah, I'll help keep your child soldiers together in one happy family and then rely on them myself rather than recruit grown, adult mutants which we know exist?' Doesn't anyone in authority in this universe care about human rights or the multiple UN treaties outlawing underage soldiers and denial of human rights to children?

• Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat. But seriously, when "children" have enough power to take on a tank and win, regular standards just won't do. He's teaching them to use their powers, and battle is the best, and unfortunately most likely, way they're going to learn that.

• • Perhaps, but that's why I made the distinction that their training went beyond self-defense. They were being trained to break into facilities with advanced security systems. Subdue guards on covert missions. These are both activities generally left to SWAT teams or black-op groups when officially sanctioned, or criminal organizations when they're not. I understand and agree that teaching them to use their powers safely would probably require more intense training than would normally be considered desirable or safe for people so young. Most people can't blow up a building by panicking and losing control of themselves. But there's a BIG difference between training like that, undertaken in a safe environment, and what we see Xavier doing. Namely, firing projectiles and other weapons at them that can easily demolish a wall or decapitate a stone statue, and training them for covert operations under his leadership.

• • • Consider who he's training them to fight: Magneto. The kind of guy who would have complex security systems, guards (mutant ones), and so forth. Not to mention potential government imprisonment, which happened, and the myriad other covert agencies which want mutants for their own purposes. In a normal world, it'd be excessive. In Marvel's world, it's your average Tuesday.

• • • But on what authority does he unilaterally declare himself and his handpicked team to be humanity's protectors and law-enforcers? They may not be perfect, but there are reasons why every functional government on Earth maintains a state police force and national army. It's the same reason vigilante justice is outlawed and laws of war are agreed to. State-sponsorship ensures at least some accountability to the community and standards of behavior. Compare any even semi-functional country with an anarchic state like Somalia and this will be one of the most fundamental areas of difference.

And at any rate, most of those problems occurred because of too much secrecy, not just human prejudice. They were taken into custody by the military because they had just trashed a city battling a giant robot, and no one in the government seemed to have any clue that they were even human. Of course they were assumed to be a threat. Especially when they wouldn't cooperate even after officials gambled and broke them out of the green resin. Once mutants became public knowledge, they may have been generally feared, but they were afforded all the same state protections enjoyed by any other citizen. Duncan and his thugs were arrested for attacking the Morlocks, and even if Kelly had managed to get the kids thrown out of school, it's doubtful it would have withstood a court challenge on even cursory grounds. The same reasoning holds for the various covert agencies they had to deal with. The Weapon-X program was only able to proceed as far as it did because of the almost complete vacuum in which decisions were made. If the general public had known of the program, could they have managed even a tenth of the atrocities? HYDRA's a terrorist organization, and thus already targeted by law-enforcement. Knowing about mutants would give even local law-enforcement agencies a better understanding of possible motivations and suspects, thus making their job easier and increasing the safety of citizens.

As for Magneto specifically, he's just a terrorist without HYDRA's massive organization behind him. So again, on what basis does Xavier and his team have the right to abrogate unto themselves the law-enforcement powers of the state, without the state's sanction? This is precisely what Magneto is doing in trying protect mutants from the perceived threat humans pose. Xavier may claim to wish to protect average humans as well, but he clearly doesn't respect them enough to follow the same laws everyone else is expected to. Magneto isn't a god, and as seen in the X-Men movies can be dealt with even by powerless humans - If they are given information on what they're dealing with.

• • • For starters, the military wouldn't exactly be much use against, say, Juggernaut. He stomped them in the third season. Magneto, too, would be too much to handle, at least until they got their act together. Really, there are a large number of mutants that normal human armies would really have no ability to handle. It's easy to prepare for a specific threat. Trying to prepare for hundreds of conceivable powers doesn't pan out so well. That's why the X-Men exist: to deal with threats that regular humans simply can't. Sure, there's no legal basis behind his work, but Xavier isn't the type to let that stop him.

Despite the fact that battling a giant robot got them caught, and Magneto engineered it that way, you can't honestly believe it would be all fine and dandy to expose mutants normally. The reaction would be pretty much the same, just with less property damage and (probably) less arrests. You suddenly expose the unknown to people and the reaction will, with almost complete certainty, be mass panic and fear.

• Well Xavier had to help the students learn to control their powers and probably figured that using the Danger Room to simulate actual missions would be more interesting and interactive than just sticking them in a room and saying "okay, do this".
  • • Not to mention that the X-Men are not meant to be superheroes or law-enforcement of any kind. The best thing they can be classified as is a mutants-rights organization, one devoted to peaceful integration into human society. The training is to prepare them against foes like Magneto, Juggernaut, and Apocalypse. Furthermore they are never shown taking criminals (mutant or otherwise) into custody, rather detaining or subduing them until police, military, or other actual law enforcement officials can arrive, or until the point where doing so jeopardizes their anonymity. And when mutants actually do become public knowledge several students are taken out of his custody and returned to their parents. Even after that his efforts are to prove that not only can mutants and humans live together in peace, but mutants are indeed an asset to mankind, having abilities that can be useful in emergency situations and keep lives out of harm's way. Furthermore adults (human or mutant) are frequently stubborn and set in their ways, by recruiting teenagers he's choosing subjects who may see the world a bit more ideally and optimistically, as they might not have experienced the same level of prejudice for nearly as long.

• First, even if a mutant response force is in some way essential to deal specifically with mutant threats, there are still plenty of legally adult and even combat trained mutants to deal with this instead of teenagers. Exhibit 1: Weapon X program. Second, hiding the existence of these uber-dangerous mutants from the army does not help them prepare to deal with the threat they pose. Third, while there would have been problems no matter how mutants were revealed, hiding themselves away and training themselves for an undeclared war only heightened the perception that mutants must be dangerous and up to no good. Why else would they be hiding and training harder than most black op corps? Compare the history of the LGBTQ movement. It's never been easy, and there have been any number of violent setbacks and horrific hate crimes. But we've still come a long way from where were and it was done by openly presenting sexual identities and allowing people to see that no matter what one's orientation was, they were still the same brother/sister/friend/father/mother/teacher/coach/etc... that you always respected and loved. Fourth, why is it acceptable for Xavier to work outside the law, but not someone like Magneto? What is the fundamental difference? Fifth, although simulating 'missions' would make for more entertaining lessons, that's not what Xavier's doing. He is actually training them for these missions to occur in real life, hence the initial complaint about the Danger Room going beyond self-defense.
  • You're complaining about someone taking the law in their own hands in a superhero show? What gives Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Clark Kent, Peter Parker or any other super-powered yahoo the right to do what they do. To answer each of your points
    • The Weapon X program was a highly immoral and likely illegal vivisection program, that didn't seem to achieve much. Their only successful creations where Wolverine (who went rogue) and Sabretooth (who also went rogue and was psychotic to boot). The only other manufactured superhumans we see are Captain America and X-23. The experiment that produced Cap was flawed, hence his cryogenic suspension, and X-23 was the product of a far worse child-warfare program than anything Xavier did. The army seemed hopelessly outmatched against the X-Men (who were trying not to hurt them) while the Brotherhood would have likely massacred them.
    • Before mutants where even publicly known to exist, Sentinel's where in development- the means to defend against mutants where therefore available, and Xavier was shown to be justified in his fear that humans would attempt to destroy mutants if they knew they existed- someone had to be there to defend mutants in case of such eventualities.
    • LBGT people generally can't demolish a mountain range by looking at it. The training was designed to help them control their abilities when the time came for them to act as ambassadors for mutant-kind. Indeed, in the episodes following their outing, the X-men frequently show restraint in not using their powers (such as when they are attacked by the Brotherhood, and instead rely on the commando training Xavier gave them. More importantly, they act as ambassadors for mutant-kind by attending school, and (in Scott and Jean's case) graduating with full honours. Also Hank and Ororo gate-crash congress to argue for mutant-rights. Basically, the secrecy was so that Xavier had time to prepare them to deal with negative human reactions- note how Scott talks Logan down from directly engaging the military.
    • Xavier is teaching mutant's to defend themselves from persecution, while ultimately working towards peaceful coexistence. Magneto is a mutant supremest, and (to paraphrase Grant Morrison) a mad, old terrorist twat who thinks mutants should replace humanity as the dominant life-form. That's the fundamental difference.
      • The X-Men have to prepared. Humanity and the Brotherhood are not their only enemies. In Evolution, the world at large does not know about mutants and Xavier is savvy enough to know that when they do, they will accept them. Governments will not sit by and allow such high-powered individuals roaming free. So not only do the X-Men need to practice to learn and control their powers and help save and protect people, but to protect themselves from the military and any other organization that would rather capture or destroy them. It's simple. But yes, it's a nice bit of irony that this level of preparedness makes it easy for mutant-haters to say mutants are trying to take over the world.
    • Bear in mind: 1) SHIELD never recruited the underaged 'child soldiers' for any mission (except for Apocalypse, see below). Nick Fury told Logan (A legal adult mutant with a centuries worth of experience and who had a personal or genetic connection to the mission) about the Rebirth Formula's theft and asked him for his help. Rogue and Nightcrawler insisted on helping since Logan needed them, even thought he was against it. The time X-23 broke into SHIELD, stole files on the X-Men, and left a large number of forensic details pointing towards Logan, Fury actually wanted Logan to have nothing to do with it until he was told Logan was the only one capable with dealing with X-23. The only time Fury interacts with anyone but Logan he wasn't recruiting them for a mission, but giving them help in secret as he couldn't actively assist them. Hell, the only time he does recruit them for any mission was to fight Apocalypse. That was only because they had more information/experience in dealing with him, had at least some connection to the 'Horsemen', and Rogue's power was the only way to beat him.

2) The Training for in breaking into complexes was to "save Storm" who had "been captured", so yes, any training was essentially Xavier being Crazy Prepared in case of any possible situation and came in handy when the aforementioned capturing of Mutants.

3) The "fully trained adult mutants" that Tropers insist exist are never seen. If they did exist, they probably were either not willing to help, didn't need Xavier's training, or did work for SHIELD but were on other missions, but couldn't be sent on public missions like the X-Men. SHIELD protects the world. The many emergency situations that need mutant help happening all the time likely made them too busy for any time.

4) The X-Men never did any vigilantism, except for the Bayville Syrens episode. In that episode, the actions were both (a) Unknown to Xavier who had 'nothing' to do with it unless it was some complex Batman Gambit (b) obviously a terrible attempt by the Writers for a "girl power" episode but was laced with so much Fan Service and such a Non Sequitur Scene that we will not talk about it. The most they did was foil the Brotherhood's mischief and violence, which was not vigilantism as they never put them in jail but mostly just sent them home. They also saved people from accidents and mutant riots caused by the Brotherhood. In comparison to the other superheroes mentioned above, the X-Men did very little and were literally just heroes helping people.

5) In comparison to the comics version of Xavier, this version is mild. At least he doesn't keep a living computer a prisoner so he can train these students, or keep files on how to kill them, or even send a half trained group on a suicide mission, and then erase everyone's memory of the incident.

6) And lastly Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat. Fairly obvious.

Why has Bobby Drake not been kicked out of the X-Men?

Okay, the X-Men have been known to do some bizarre crap during their off-time (become a vigilante group, randomly get into brawls with other mutants, etc), but deciding to take an armed stealth jet for a joyride, which resulted in the U.S. Air Force being scrambled to shoot the thing down, is taking it a little far. The only reason Iceman, Jubilee, and Bezerker are still alive is because Avalanche had enough sense to try and stop them. The given excuse of "Oh, well, they probably just thought it was a UFO" just doesn't justify completely ignoring the severity of Bobby's actions. That fact that he's stolen other vehicles for joyrides (such as the armed X-Van, which was used to knock down a powerline, and could've done a lot worse if not for Dumb Luck) and has hijacked the Danger Room (which is armed with live, as in lethal, weapons) without supervision from a senior member just cements the idea that maybe he shouldn't be allowed to live in the mansion, at the very least.

• A kid with the power to freeze anything and a penchant for dangerously irresponsible behavior would be a much bigger risk out in the world than he would at the mansion. At least at the Institute, his impulses can be controlled and channeled productively (as they eventually managed after a fair amount of work). Had they dropped the kid after the jet incident, mutants would have been exposed really, really fast with an absolute crapload of property damage (dumbass probably would have hijacked a city bus and started doing loop de loops on the goddamned freeway for kicks). Compare to Spyke, who they were planning on sending home at one point. Spyke was rebellious, but not dangerous, and was likely better off at home. Iceman was not so much rebellious as lacking in any common sense, and so at home would be pretty much the same only without any equals to keep him in line.
  • Nightcrawler was given clean-up duty after he and Boom Boom busted out while grounded and nearly exposed themselves as mutants while indirectly assisting her sleezy dad in robbing the school. Considering that they have a building full of super-powered teenagers who don't always have the best common sense, there are probably plenty of times things that endangered property and people happened. For example, Kitty, Kurt, and the other younger mutants plotted to lock Jean and Scott out of the mansion and threw a party, essentially letting a bunch of teenagers wander around the mansion, and they apparently were only punished by having to clean up.
  • That whole episode was a Wall Banger for me - first, Scott is made into a huge Jerkass - more than normal - to make Lance look good. Second, the X-Babies are able to appropriate not just the van, but the X-Jet as well, hinting at a shocking lack of security. And speaking of security... even if they had the tech savvy to circumvent the electronic surveillance, what made them think they could escape Wolverine's nose? And last - OK, I know I don't get the Lance/Kitty pairing, especially since he tried to kill her in their respective first appearances...

In the first episode, after Toad and Nightcrawler finish fighting the Danger Room, Toad runs away...

...and then Scott halfheartedly shouts after him and tells the Professor, "Oh, I really tried to stop him", without even taking a step after him. Then, Nightcrawler ports away, and Scott's like "Hey, no sweat Prof. I'll get him." Considering Toad was, like, probably down the hall at this point, and Nightcrawler could have teleported anywhere, either Cyclops has incredibly stupid logic or was blatant about his dislike of Toad. Aggravating.

• Considering that Xavier's plan to reach out to Toad seemed to be "confuse and scare him a lot and hope he likes us", which brought the situation that far to begin with... I've got nothing.
• This troper seems to recall that Scott wasn't overly fond of Toad (when Xavier mentioned they were trying to recruit him, Scott said something along the lines of "He has the hygiene of a dead pig").
• That did bug me a lot. I actually felt bad for Toad for once. I mean, Xavier's method seemed to be to scare him and torment him and hope that it makes him want to join. He never put any of the other X-men through that when he tried recruiting them. And Scott could've easily caught up to Toad and then apologized or something, but like you said, he just goes "Whoops, he ran past me. That's the end of that". It seems that while they were "trying" to recruit Toad, their heart wasn't really in it.
  • If I remember, which I do because I just rewatched the episode on YouTube, Scott was injured. He was rubbing his neck and could hardly walk. When Toad began to run, he told the Prof. he couldn't stop him, as in he couldn't grab him and stop him running. Secondly, the professor was trying to see what he could do, when they did offer him a hand his reply was he wants to kill Kurt. So essentially they could do very little to actually stop him. Xavier didn't want to, and Scott would be too hurt to move at that point. When Kurt ran, Scott would have recovered. Since Kurt can only teleport within two miles to a place he knows, Scott would have found him before he got anywhere.

Nobody thinks it's even slightly weird that the kids from Xavier's, who live in a private boarding school, also go to public high school every day?

Isn't the whole point of going to a private academy so you don't have to go to public school?

• Presumably, they attend the Xavier school for specialized classes, and the high school either for general-education (Xavier's has all of what, three teachers? Four?) or to ensure the Gifted Youngsters have a chance to be properly socialized. It isn't uncommon for even homeschooled children to attend a local public school for a couple hours a day, to cover subjects the parents aren't up to teaching.
  • That makes some sense, but seeing as it's a boarding school, what might the normal kids think it was, or what they told Mystique-in-disguise/Kelly/Whatever previous principal there might have been to agree? That it was a scholarship program? If so, what for? (It actually doesn't bug me, I manage to keep it mentally filed under Willing Suspension of Disbelief.)
    • It doesn't matter what they told him. Whatever it was, Xavier could just brain-zap him to make him believe it. They could've told him they were part of a secret society of extra-dimensional aliens plotting to take over the world by creating human-butterfly hybrids if they wanted to.

In "Mutant Crush", it's okay for the X-Men to use their powers, but everyone else gets a lecture.

When Jean and Fred (Blob) are talking, Jean demonstrates her powers to smash a chair. When Fred exclaims with delight "Wow, you could really pound someone with that!", Jean immediately jumps all over him for suggesting such a thing. Even though she just smashed a chair. She couldn't have demonstrated the helpful aspect of telekinesis, by, say, cleaning up a cafeteria that had just been wrecked by a food fight. No, instead, she'll add to the collateral damage, and fuss at anyone else who appears to lack in "responsibility".

• To be fair, Jean destroyed an inanimate object while Fred was suggesting she use the power to hurt an actual person. Now if she threw the chair at someone, that would be double standards.

Scott fails at logic a lot on this show.

At the end of "Turn of the Rogue", after the Professor and his students have discussed whether it was right for the Prof to keep Mystique's disguise from them. Scott's last line of the episode is, "Thanks, Professor. It's nice to know that we all have something to learn. That's what makes us X-Men." In a word: WHAT? The X-gene makes them X-men'. Remember all those freaky powers, Scott? How could anyone in the room not have gawked at him like he'd grown a second head?

• Like you mean that possessing the X-Gene makes The Brotherhood X-MEN too, despite being everything the X-MEN aren't?
  • Right. Not every mutant is an X-men. The X-men are a group, and there were plenty of mutants who chose not to join.
    • Exactly. Just having an X-Gene makes them a mutant. Being a good guy, listening to the Professor, and learning from mistakes while fighting the good fight is what makes them an X-Man.

In "Speed and Spyke", Scott has another. First is when Spyke gets thrown in jail after Quicksilver frames him. Scott promptly jumps to conclusions with the line "Welcome to the downside, pal. Misuse your powers: go to jail." How does he know Spyke misused his powers in the first place?! How does he know it wasn't an accident as he himself has suffered several times? Especially considering the whole "defending a world that hates and fears them" kind of thing. The flip side of this scenario being that he straight-up didn't care to hear Spyke explain himself and is therefore a prick. This actually fits pretty well for Cyclops, but wouldn't have endeared Spyke to him or the X-Men one bit.

• Well, considering that Evan was being a prick the last time he saw him, wasn't bothered about learning to use his powers, earlier told Storm how he can just use his spikes to do anything he wants from fighting muggers to stopping himself when sliding on the floor, and acted like a spoiled brat, the chances are if he's being arrested he wasn't 100% innocent. It was just a comment anyway, it wasn't like he said "You used your powers wrongfully, I don't care what you have to say. Nothing excuses you of anything. Let's leave you here to rot or get very cozy with your cellmate because we assume you've been a criminal." Let's think about this. If you've only met someone once, they acted like a jerk and treated you like a tool, not to mention disappear without telling anyone where they're going, only to be arrested by the police, aren't you going to comment on their current predicament, or assume they did something to deserve getting arrested?
• Also, consider the circumstances of Evan's arrest. He was found in the school, after hours, with all the lockers broken open and their contents ransacked and looted. All the signs point to Evan being a thief. It was far from unreasonable for Scott to assume that Evan was guilty, and in the absence of any other obvious method, it was not unreasonable for Scott to assume Evan used his powers to commit the crime he was accused of.

• Scott's eyes emit destructive blasts.
  Scott wears special ruby-quartz glasses so he doesn't destroy everything he looks at.
  Scott's glasses get knocked of his face about every other episode, and he must grope around blind looking for them.
  Scott never even considers putting these glasses on a neck-cord or something.
• Inversely, it's the writers that just plain fail, as they couldn't figure out these things themselves, and that the guy who's supposed to be the tactical genius and young field leader for the team would've already thought of some of this himself...
  • Or thought up some sort of ruby quartz contacts.
  • ... so, you'd suggest he goes out in public with glowing red eyes? Which is ignoring the "minor" discomfort and huge risk that putting two pieces of what is essentially glass over his corneas (one punch to the eye and... yeah), not to mention the fact that he'd have to somehow jam said pieces of glass into his eyes as they are making a continuous energy blast. I don't see how he could do that without breaking every bone in his hands, destroying the roof/wall, or shooting fireworks into the sky. Heck, even if he could somehow put them on and avoid destruction or injury, how is he going to remove them in the inevitable fight that will break out while he and his friends are out in their civilian identities?
    • The tie-in comic revealed that indeed Scott did just wear the visor all the time when Professor Xavier recruited him. The problem was it didn't do a very good job of hiding the fact that he was a mutant.
    • Cyclops is immune to his own power so his beams don't affect him. This is why he still has eyelids. Also, the glasses CANCEL the beam so there's no force.
      • It still wouldn't work.

X-23 looks nothing like Wolverine.

I mean I get that they may have made some changes, but her facial features, eye, hair, and skin color are all different. She is supposed to be a clone yes?

• Female clone of a male character. They already screwed with the DNA to make that Y an X.
  • I thought they just copied the "X" they already had. But besides that, imagine Logan in a dress and you would see why the need of such changes.
    • She's not an exact clone. Remember, the lady scientist (whom X-23 does resemble) stated that she mixed in some of her own genes, too. They wanted Wolverine's powers, but the rest of him was less important. Plus, they wanted to mix in some of their own factors too (her being easily controlled by them, for one). It's possible her being an attractive female was intentional, to increase her power as a weapon.
      • The scientist didn't say she mixed in her own dna, the exact words she said was that they made genetic variations.
      • There is a far more simple answer to this question than you realize. The artist designed X-23's character after his own daughter's appearance, just as he designed Dr. Risman to look like his wife.
• There's more to physical appearance than just genetics. Stuff like diet, environment, and exercise are also just as important. In addition to the obvious gender difference, X-23 presumably had a very different upbringing from Logan, and that equals a very different appearance.
• Consider the fact the X chromosome was entirely Logan's mother's DNA, since X-23 is a clone. By duplicating it twice, that eliminates any physical characteristics inherited from the Y chromosome passed on from the father. Therefore, different hair, eye, and skin color isn't too far off the mark, especially when one consider's the fact Dr. Risman put in some of her own genes, as an above troper stated. As for facial structure, she does have a similar jawline and nose to him. It is possible that due to the lack of detail on the drawings, she does resemble Logan more than can be seen, but the details just aren't able to be viewed clearly.
  • uh...does the Y chromosome carry that much of what you look like? I thought it mostly handled "make this one a dude" and was kind of junk dna otherwise

How did this show have such consistently good animation?

Lots of shows have really well-animated episodes (usually the first and last ones), but this show ran for 4 seasons and more than half of those episodes looked better than any made-for-TV cartoon before or since. The only other show I can think of that's has had equally good animation as frequently is The Spectacular Spider-Man, but that's series has only had 2 seasons and features very simple character designs. Was X-Men: Evolution's budget through the roof or something?

• And that bugs you?
  • Headscratchers are for questions, not complaints. So yes.
    • Questions about stuff that bugs you.
      • It bugs me in that it doesn't make sense.
  • You've been watching too much anime. It seems western producers actually know how to balance a budget.

"The SR-77 Blackbird. Twice as fast as the SR-71 and with three times the range and firepower."

I'm sorry, WHAT? The SR-71 was a recon craft and lacked weapons of any kind. Three times nothing is still nothing.

• ...let me do the math. Nothing, and nothing, carry the nothing...
• I figured they meant three times the firepower of the (or at least an) earlier XJet, which was a modified Lockheed SR-71 and did have firepower.
• Scott might have been: a) actually referring to the A-12/YF-12, an earlier Lockheed aircraft design that the SR-71 was developed from (and which it's often mistaken for; they're nearly identical) , and which was armed (although the YF-12 and the missile that it was tested with never entered service), possibly conflating the two, or just using the more well-known aircraft's name; b) referring one of the proposed variants of the SR-71 proper (though in real life, never built) that would have been armed (chillingly, for Scott's boasting, the B-71s were nuclear strike platforms), or c) just have been being stupid, bragging about something he didn't really understand. Which also seems embarassingly in-character, admittedly.
• I'd go with the first explanation, he was reffering to an earlier X-Jet that was a modified SR-71.

At the end of Impact, why didn't Kurt just teleport to grab Mystique as she was falling?

I get that storywise, it's to build drama, tension, and angst for him and Rogue, and so Mystique could be one of Apocalypse's Horsemen. But seriously, he could easily have looked over the ledge, teleported onto his mother's statue, and teleported right back up. WTF?

• For the same reason he didn't teleport himself and Kitty out of the plane in "Grim Reminder". * Bamf, splat* Nightcrawler's teleporting conserves momentum. By the time he had a eye on Mystique, her body (made of stone and thus more fragile than humans), was moving too fast to save. Had he ported the instant Rogue pushed her, (we'll chalk that up to shock), he could have saved her, but because she went over the cliff, he couldn't.
  • That and stone statues tend to pick up velocity very quickly. By the time he's had time to get a lock on her, port down, catch a very heavy object and port back to safety, she would have built up enough force to crush him anyway.
• Presumably he was scared and not thinking clearly.

Why is Duncan still (apparently) a student at Bayville in the fourth season?

It occurs to me that in "Uprising", Duncan is still in his high school football uniform, as are all his buddies. I was under the impression that he was in the same grade as Scott and Jean, given early dialog about freshmen not being allowed to his party. Since the graduation day happened in the third season finale, either he got held back or someone messed up the episode order.

• Scott and Jean were out in that episode, so it's not out of order. It's possible Duncan was held back, or just that he was chilly and his old football jacket still fit.
  • He isn't still a student, he was seen graduating, and earlier in Uprising it's seen he's now working in some mine. Where else did he get the explosives and cool mining lasers? He's on a TV screen being interviewed about mutants. In case you couldn't tell, he's the one who claims mutants do what they want and take what they want. I assume him and his friends were just wearing their letterman jackets like gang clothes or as the troper above said to warm up.

Xavier left Wanda in the institution.

I get that she was dangerous, but that place was abusive. She was locked in an unfurnished room and food was shoved through a slot in the door. When Xavier visited, it was obvious the orderlies who were restraining her held no kindness towards her. There was never any scene showing a psychiatrist or anyone trying to talk to her. So, what, he expected her to overcome her emotional issues all by herself, in a locked room, with only him occasionally coming to socialise with her? Why couldn't he have taken her to the mansion, have her regularly see a psychiatrist or someone, and, whenever she started to lash out using her powers, he use his powers to disable her like he did in his first scene with her? Or at least, used his powers/influence to get her transferred to a non-abusive facility where she could have gotten some actual help? After that episode, this troper despises the Evo incarnation of Professor Xavier.

• Actually, Evo!Xavier isn't that far off the comic version. Anyway, the place wasn't abusive, just careful as hell. When a little wiggle of the finger can melt steel and cause all sorts of bad luck, you need to be. One would assume Xavier at least made regular visits, not to mention other therapists and such. As for why he didn't keep her at the mansion, one wrong word and the building would collapse. She would require an inordinate amount of attention to keep in check. Sort of a lose lose situation. She wasn't exactly doing better at the psych ward, and wouldn't have been much better at the institute.
  • True, she wasn't getting better in the institution. If anything, she was getting worse. Compare her eyes from the first time we see her in "The Hex Factor" to when we see her in flashbacks as a child. In the present her pupils are constricted and have a manic gleam to them as she fights to escape the wardens and Xavier. In the past, she has the look of a normal, terrified little girl, confused and scared enough that she isn't even fighting to get away - just twisting and squirming as she begs her father not to leave her. In the interim, we know that she was kept in an unfurnished room and fed through a slot in the door. Her hair also looks like it was sheared off with a butcher's knife - or more likely, child's safety scissors after being yanked into a rough ponytail. She has neither personal clothes nor even a stuffed animal to distract her from the fact that she was betrayed and abandoned by her father in the worst possible way. The staff are afraid of her and want as little to do with her as possible. The institution's entire approach toward her is not as a patient to be treated, but as a problem to managed.

With all this in mind, is it any wonder that she became obsessed with revenge on her father? And that does seem to be her only source of mental instability. Once she's free of the institution, she functions well enough to travel, investigate leads, and keep herself fed and healthy, albeit with a complete lack of concern for property damage. But quite frankly, if you had spent most of your remembered in life a facility where 99.9% of everything was designed to control you, contain you, strip of you of powers and pry and poke you like a lab animal, would you be worried about trashing a couple doors later on? In conclusion, Magneto and the employees at the institution he chose created a genuine mental instability in a normal little girl who's only crime was being unable to her control her emotions when her power to warp reality was intimately tied to them. A girl who had been naturally upset that her father was more concerned with world domination than being with his own children. He didn't even keep Pietro in the end, dumping him with an unknown guardian and needing a way to approach him later.

Xavier exacerbated this situation by leaving Wanda where she was, still with no firm human connections to distract her from her father's betrayal. He even seems to condone the institution's treatment of her as a specimen to be studied rather than girl to be healed, seeing as he didn't even blink when told that her desperately needed therapy was being cut short for MRI's, let alone protest the interruption. And however often his sessions with her were, they couldn't have been that frequent, seeing as not even Scott or Jean had any idea of her existence, not even a recognition of "Oh, that was where he was going every weekend...." Xavier saw her at his convenience and left her to hang until she proved that she wouldn't be a burden on his time or resources, exactly as her father did.

• • • I can't recall if Charles ever said how long he'd been counseling her. If you assume he took a bit (because I seriously doubt Magneto phoned the mansion to tell Charles "She's your problem now"), that would be plenty of time for the abandonment issues to set in good and leave her a very angry person. Combine that with her power and escalation of force, it is necessary to keep her in line. In short, the situation was just a train-wreck, and everything they did amounted to simply watching it. If they had treated her well, her anger might have abated somewhat, but one mention of her father and the building would be rubble. Once Wanda gets going, there's very little that can stop her.
      • I chalk up his decision (read "dick move") to a "Plutonian Syndrome" - his response to Wanda's incredible levels of power wasn't care and awe and wonder but fear and desire to have some sort of controlling mechanism in place and damage control for only potential damage. In short, he was so very afraid of the potential consequences of not having her under lock and key, and condoned study of her in order to find a way to neutralize her. I mean, Evo or not, this coming from a man who keeps detailed info about every single individual under his care, including but not limited to ways of putting them down. Besides, Evo!Xavier was rarely intrusive psychically, but he did actively coerce Wanda (if I recall correctly) to calm down by "suggestion." Suggestion in quotes.

Wanda gets better upon release because Mystique, in a rather simplistic way, gives her a target to focus her anger on. She was unstable at the institution because she was surrounded by enemies, and once that was narrowed she became functional. Xavier's problem was trying to get rid of that core anger issue without paying attention to the other factors, but in this series he does have a habit of making somewhat poor judgment calls. I think he was trying to bribe her, in a way. He knew the institution would keep her under thumb, and she'd have to get better if she wanted to leave. But this only works so well. The issue would only really resolve by getting to Magneto, and that would never happen.

So yeah, no one really went about it the right way, but given that the girl is literally bad luck to everything, one might excuse their errors in judgment as overly cautious behavior, especially in context that mutants are a secret and she is anything but subtle.

• I have a theory on this...it could be that Magneto simply asked Xavier to not release Wanda. Remember, though they're arch-enemies, Charles and Eric are still best friends with differing viewpoints...So would it be too much of a stretch for Magneto to say "Hands off" when it comes to his own daughter, and Xavier would respect that?
  • If that's the case, he's still horrible in my book. You don't agree with your friend grounding their kid or taking away privileges until kid does something but friend tells you to back off, you back off. If friend is actually abusing kid (and I do consider the mental institution to be abusive), you don't back off. The kid, whether you have any genuine affection for them or not, is more important than your friendship. Or at least, in my book, it is.
    • There's the possibility that Magneto didn't tell Xavier anything. Xavier just found out that Magneto had dumped his daughter some years ago at a mental hospital and left her. By the time he went to find Wanda, she was so screwed up and dangerous that he couldn't take her to his school right away and instead started trying to rehabilitate her.
• I would assume the main reason why Xavier didn't take Wanda out of the mental institution himself was because he's just not her guardian. She's underage, and he has no legal claim over her. Her own father put her there, presumably for a good reason. Sure, Xavier could've sued for custody under the term of child abuse, but good luck trying to put her on the stand to testify, and good luck trying to get Magneto to make an appearance. That could've taken a long time and putting Wanda through a complex legal procedure probably wouldn't have helped her any. Mystique, on the other hand, was already Pietro's temporary guardian of sorts (uh, I assume), so it's likely she'd have more of a chance to get Wanda out of the institution without too much legal fuzz. Not to mention, given her working relationship with Magneto, and the fact that he's a known terrorist whose aliases are not nearly good enough as a shapeshifter's, it's not unlikely that he would've given Mystique some kind of legal power to "handle his business"—including his kids. As good as Xavier is, he does have to get the parents' permission to bring the kids to the X-Institute, and Magneto would never have given him that.

In the Middleverse episode...

Spyke and Kitty figured out Forge's device in a matter of maybe two minutes. Sure, the important buttons are all labeled, but how did they figure out all that techno-crap they started spewing? They basically looked under the hood, and Kitty waved her hands over it...and they suddenly knew every detail of how it worked but the necessary-for-then reset feature. They were never that smart before, and never were again. WTF!?

• For those who don't remember, you can check it out here at 13:20.
• Kitty is supposed to be a computer genius in the comics. Guess they forgot their medium for a minute. Though, to be fair, Kitty shows herself to be fairly smart after mutants are exposed, knowing exactly how to short out a helicopter's weapon system without knocking down the entire craft.
• In her introductory episode, one of the two Alpha Bitches teasing Kitty about PE mentions that it's the only class she's not acing. So Evo!Kitty's pretty smart too.

What's with Kurt hating Mystique's guts at the end of the finale?

He was the only one of any of the main characters who wanted to help her; the only one who wanted her back. He hated Rogue for pushing her off the cliff and smashing her to pieces. (Who puts a gazebo on such a precarious perch, anyway?) Kurt was the only one who wanted her back, and yet in the end, he was just as disgusted with her as Rogue was. Did I miss something somewhere while she was gone that would cause him to change so drastically?

• Chalk it up to the difference between wanting to help and willingness to forgive. In the first season, he's obviously not that comfortable with her being his mother. He isn't willing to forgive all that betrayal, but isn't so vindictive as to leave her trapped as a statue.
  • She knocked him out, sure she was brainwashed, but only because it was her own fault. Since he and Rogue are back to being adoptive siblings on good terms, I'm assuming that he now understands why she did what she did.
• Kurt just didn't want her dead. That doesn't mean he actually likes the woman, or can even tolerate her after all she's done. He just thought killing her (or turning her to stone, kind of the same thing... sort of) was a step too far.

Was the tear on Mystique's statue ever explained?

I mean, seriously, What Happened to the Mouse?? Are you supposed to just forget about it, or believe that it was just an extremely coincidental bit of condensation, whether or not they had intended it as a Schrödinger's Gun for later writers?

• It's supposedly just extremely coincidental condensation; something for Kurt to see to think she was still alive.

In No Good Deed, when Kitty was phasing the one train, why didn't Jean help?

Jean tried to stop the train but only managed to slow it down, so Kitty decided to phase it through the other train. So, here's what really gets me: why didn't Jean either (A) help Kitty get through faster by pushing the train, or (B) lift the train off the tracks and go over the other?

• Because the train is out of phase. Once Kitty had it, Jean couldn't affect it. Admittedly, I haven't read much of the comics, but she shouldn't be able to affect matter that isn't solid anymore.
  • Still doesn't answer why Jean didn't try lifting off the tracks in the first place, instead of just trying to stop it at such a high speed.
    • Since when, Phoenix and Cerebro enhancement aside, has she ever been capable of that kind of telekinetic prowess? Trains are huge. There's no way she could lift something that heavy and moving that fast.
    • Still doesn't explain why she didn't try to push it through faster when it became clear she couldn't stop it. Even if she couldn't effect it after Kitty started phasing, the extra momentum might have been enough. We'd already seen Kitty phase the X-Jet through a mesa. She collapsed afterward, but the briefness of the massive phasing seemed to be what allowed her to accomplish it.
    • Kitty acted on her own, for starters. That limits Jean's ability to work as a team. Even if they had been, again, it's a train. She'd have to hit it with a lot of force to get it moving faster. Kitty managed to phase the jet through the mesa because it was moving many times faster than a train through an object that was about the same length.
• She didn't try to stop it because there was no time; she had just finished stopping the other train, which left her with very little room to stop the first train. When she realized she couldn't slow it down significantly, the train was already feet away from the other one, and kitty was ready to phase through. She couldn't lift the train off the tracks because that would be counter-productive: she'd be fighting against two forces instead of one—the force generated by the train's horizontal speed, and gravity. Jean's all about the physics of mutant powers, remember?

Having alternative control-methods over your powers is a bad idea.

I don't the full details since it's been long time since I saw this episode, but Havok and Cyclops agreed to join Magnetos experiment which enhanced their powers to the point where they could fully control them in the season one finale. Before that, Cyclops couldn't control his beams at all due to brain damage, and Havok's powers could burst out randomly and hurt him constantly even when not active. The only side effect was that both turned into splitting images of Magneto. (Everyone else turned into an enhanced images of themselves, how does it work?). And then, when Jean finds out, she gives the whole 'I don't know you anymore'-speech. Not because they joined Magneto, but because of the results. She bitched about them finally having control over their powers.

• • If I remember correctly, the machine also altered their minds to make them loyal to Magneto. That was the problem people had with it, apart from those who were already loyal to Magneto.
    • Okay, hate to do this twice, but the Ultimate continuity has a likewise situation wherein a drug gives him control over his powers, and even after his druggie splinter group goes toe-to-toe with the clean X-Men, he refuses to give it up. Scott, in both universes, seems to view his lack of control as a disability. So that's the first part. Second, he came out and right off the bat, started spewing Magneto propaganda, at Charles Xavier of all people. It doesn't take Jean long to see that he has been Clockwork Oranged.

How does super strength work without super mass?

How come when Rogue absorbed the powers of Blob or Juggernaut she gained their super strength but not their body type?

• Because she absorbed their powers, which aren't based on physical attributes on account of being comic book science that doesn't at all conform to anything resembling real science?
• Also, Rule of Cool and/or Funny; the creators did give Rogue Sabretooth's features - some of them - when she touched him and knocked him out. They even mentioned they only did it because "it looked cool".
  • And sexy.
• If Evo!Blob is like Comics!Blob, then his body wasn't because of his mutant power. He was just a glutton, and his ability to reduce his personal gravity allowed his body to handle the expansion. Blob also wanted the extra mass so that he would have more to work with when he changed his relative gravity. It wasn't he lost his powers in the comics, it was shown his power caused his body.

In "African Storm", why did Storm and Professor Xavier give up on Spyke?

In this episode, Storm and Professor Xavier decide Spyke should be sent away due to poor grades, lack of seriousness for training and school, and being "unreachable". What bugs me is that this is Professor Xavier! The same guy who still hopes Magneto will see reason one day and considers him a friend. It's also really odd since it comes out of nowhere and how quickly they come to this decision. Sure, he is an annoying character but nothing until now suggested he was "unreachable". Not to mention, sending Spyke away is a stupid decision when the Brotherhood could possibly convince or force him to reveal the weaknesses of his former teammates once he has left the safety of the mansion.

• I'm assuming that since before he's never really shown in a Danger Room lesson its possible to assume that he's always been unwilling to learn and a terrible student, Also Evan is a prick, it doesn't go without guessing that he's one to everyone. While Xavier is willing to teach anyone, it doesn't mean he will like everyone. It's possible Xavier didn't like Evan's attitude. Also, try reading the tie-in comics. In the 6th issue, the one with Mimic, Evan explodes at the Professor because Evan was late again and when Xavier warned him about it, he went on about how he doesn't even want to be an X-Man.
• They give up on Evan because his problem wasn't one they could deal with. As is pointed out in the episode, Spyke's problem was more an issue with authority rather than power control. His parents were better suited to ironing that out.
• Why the hell not give up on the little pissant?! I mean, even my hatred for his ass aside, there are so many reasons. First: he's irresponsible. He shows up to training late, if he shows up at all, and even then is on his fucking skateboard.... He can't study for shit and is stupid enough to write on Star Wars the movie instead of the Star Wars program. He's a prick. I mean, in "African Storm", he mouths off to the very people who tell him he's difficult. He tells them that they don't care, or, his classic line to Kurt, "It's not like we're friends or anything." He's unwilling to learn, going so far as to blame his training session failure on Storm and is a poor Expy of Marrow, to boot. Now, Charles Xavier's belief in Magneto - he's the dude's childhood friend and long-time confidante, with whom he's having a difference of opinion. That's it.

How can Wanda wander around freely?

She's an escaped inmate from a high-security mental institution, and she's known to be dangerously unstable and in possession of destructive powers. Shouldn't the police, or SHIELD, or whatnot be searching for her everywhere? And I mean actively searching, with patrols and "wanted" posters. Or did the asylum director just cover her escape up?

• How can any of the Brotherhood Walk freely? They're all criminals. Pietro is an escaped suspect who was being transferred by the military until he escaped. The other Brotherhood destroyed the school, attacked a military convoy, and have done multiple bad deeds. It's safe to assume that Mystique uses her shapeshifting, or Magneto has Mastermind use his mental disguise ability to break into police stations & the like, and then delete their arrest warrant, there-by making sure that they can't touch them.
• I always assumed she didn't escape, but Mystique got her out of the institution in a(-n arguably) legal way. Everything the Brotherhood does after that, though, can probably be handwaved with Mystique's shapeshifting ability, Magneto's money, or your usual mind control.

Why Does Wolverine just leave the students to die in Season 3?

In the second episode of S3, after they've been found by the military thanks to Logan himself, he runs off, taking his moterbike with him. He believes at the time that they aren't ready yet, but doesn't bother to help them escape even though it was his idea to fight them. All just because Scott said it wasn't a good idea and should instead take them out peacefully. He left a bunch of teenagers, aged 15–18, all by themselves to deal with an entire military attack squad armed to the teeth while believing that the children aren't competent enough to make their own decisions. He was being a baby.

• Even though Logan is totally irresponsible in this instance, he is well aware of what the team can do. Abandoning them like that was a dick move, but his issue wasn't that they couldn't beat the military flat out, it was that Scott refused to use lethal force. Logan thus knew that the team could and no doubt would pwn the attack choppers one way or another, and thus left them over a difference of opinion in doing so. Again, childish but not completely negligent.

Who repairs all their techno stuff?

All the robots in the danger room or security gets busted every other episode, but they are always working fine the next episode. The timespan between episodes isn't that big. Example: The episode where Jean Grey goes haywire and destroys half the building, but you don't see any repair people or X-men repairing it. Also, where do they get the money for all that stuff?

• The Professor is loaded, for one, and it's lampshaded at one point with a contractor truck coming in that says "We keep your secrets."
  • That, and they have Forge on speed-dial.

Why do Kurt's portals conserve momentum after flinging him through a 3.5-dimensional other world?

When it's just taking a short cut through the fabric of space, it makes sense, but once Forge sends a high-speed camera in with Kurt and shows that Kurt is really flying ridiculously quickly (and mostly horizontally) through Another Dimension, it loses any idea of conservation it could possibly have had. It gets even worse when they develop a way to slow Kurt and his passenger down which also eventually allows them to move about inside said Hell World, but at least then they kind of have the excuse that A Mutant Did It in that case.

• In that episode, the device Forge invented was not a high-speed camera. It was designed to prolong the time Kurt spent in the border dimension he uses to teleport. He dialled it up even further for the passenger. Under normal circumstances, Kurt's presence in the border dimension is so brief as to be imperceptible.
  • The first thing he did was send a high-speed camera with Kurt, which caught about three frames of incredibly blurred imagery, no? Then he slowed Kurt down a couple of times to take and analyze more pictures, then he slowed him down even more to send Wolverine with him (which was when they were climbing around on the rocks). Kurt's normal presence is so brief as to be imperceptible, but he gains significant horizontal momentum, unless Forge's device also increased the distance between the portals (on the inside), instead of merely slowing down the process. I could accept everything from "unless" onward if there is no canon explanation, but...
    • "Kurt's normal presence is so brief as to be imperceptible, but he gains significant horizontal momentum," contradicts itself. He's there for mere fractions of a second. That is not enough time to gain or lose any appreciable momentum. The portals provide a small amount of momentum to throw him through, but not enough to significantly alter his "real-world" momentum. Gravity obviously didn't function quite right there anyway since Kurt was floating for quite some time.
      • ...What? I seriously don't understand why that contradicts itself, or why you think you can't gain much momentum in fractions of a second. Bullets and shrapnel, for example, gain momentum in a time period "so brief as to be imperceptible" without the aid of a high-speed camera. Without that episode, his inertia seems to be thus:
        Forward through entrance portal at speed/direction X, forward through exit portal at speed/direction X.
        With that episode, it seems to be thus:
        Forward through entrance portal at speed/direction X, some horizontal direction between entrance and exit portals at extremely fast speed Y(a constant?)/direction horizontal, forward through exit portal at speed/direction X.
        It's reasonable to assume that because every particle in his body changed velocity in the exact same way and at the exact same times ('cos of quantum), he wouldn't feel any noticeable g-forces, but that still leaves the original problem of the portals "remembering" his original velocity and setting him to that when he leaves instead of incorporating his (seemingly often perpendicular) movement within the other realm in any way at all.
        Edit: TL;DR? Have a shiny drawing (Warning: Contains text). As it is, I think I'm just going to go with "Nightcrawler has a secondary power that solves the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for the sole purpose of making his primary power act complex but look simple until someone takes a closer look, because the plot requires it. Also, Forge doesn't know as much about physics as everyone thinks (a reasonable assumption considering he's a high schooler from the 1970s) and his powers run more on The Spark of Genius than knowing how things should go together to make them work properly."

Why doesn't Professor X invite the Morlocks to live in the mansion?

• Seriously, why not? Even the ones that don't look normal, the whole image-inducer technology is readily available. Mutants like the Morlocks are probably the ones that need to be reached out to the most.
  • In the comics, Xavier isn't universally respected by the mutant community. There are plenty of mutants who don't want to join Magento but also aren't interested in becoming an X-Man. That could be the (unstated) reason.
    • OP here. Yeah, that's true. And thinking about it more... The Xavier institute is mostly there for younger mutants anyway, the ones who need to learn to control their powers, which I'm sure the Morlocks can already do...
  • An X Evo comic did have Professor X try to recruit the Morlocks. Nightcrawler even showed them how his image inducer works. The Morlocks still went "Yeah, well, we still don't need your charity or your fancy-pants gadgets, so get lost!" One girl among the Morlocks looked like she wanted to join, but succumbed to peer pressure.
• I always thought it was because their attitude couldn't be made presentable.

Regarding Arcade...

• Okay, for those who are unfamiliar with the comics... Arcade was this millionaire (billionaire?) hitman. When he got bored killed regular people, he took offers to kill those with superpowers, among them, Spiderman, and the X-Men. He built this elaborate theme park called "Murder World" and trapped the people he was supposed to kill in there. He appeared in X-Men: Evolution as a teenage kid who mistook Cerebro for a video game. On top of that, how did he not recognize the "characters" as his own friends?! I really like this show, but I felt it was a waste of a pretty good villain.
  • They probably thought that Murder World was a bit too much for a children's cartoon. And who knows? That kid was too unreasonably smart to be a normal kid (he hacked Cerebro? Seriously?), maybe he'll grow into Arcade later. Though you're right about the second part, that did bug me that he didn't recognize the characters. He might not have known the others, but he obviously does know Kitty. I suppose he just assumed that they designed the game and added themselves as characters or something.
    • Not just about Kitty, but the other characters (with the exception of Nightcrawler, as he uses an image inducer at school) should've been easy to recognize. How many kids look like Evan, what with his hair and all? Same with Rogue and her hair.
    • I always just assumed he thought that the people in the "Game" were characters specifically designed to look like the people who played them. People try it in video games now adays all the time, and with the technology he had seen, it didn't seem too far fetched.

What's with the conflicting ideas of keeping secrets?

• In the episode where they recruit Rogue, they make a big deal about the fact that it was wrong for Xavier to not tell them who their principal really was, and that families shouldn't keep secrets from each other. OK, nice Aesop. So why, then, several episodes later (where we discover who Kurt's mother really is), why do Scott and Jean Grey agree that it's probably best to not tell Nightcrawler, and Rogue, of all people, saying that she's sure Xavier knows more than he's letting on, but it's OK, he probably has a good reason for keeping it secret? Those are two totally conflicting attitudes about secret keeping a few episodes apart, and interestingly, they both revolve around the same topic of Mystique.
  • I think with Mystique being their principal, that was a matter of having one of their worst enemies not only hiding among them, but hiding among them as an authority figure. Knowing Mystique was their principal wouldn't have hurt them. With Kurt, however, they figured knowing what happened to him as a baby could emotionally crush him. The Evolution version of Nightcrawler is already pretty insecure about himself.

About the mansion's sleeping arrangements...

• Rogue and Kitty were roommates in the first two seasons. At this point there were a total of nine people living at the institute and no one else seemed to share a room. In season two, the number of people living in the mansion doubled. Now I would accept that many of the New Recruits shared bedrooms, but when Lance joined up, Kitty was instructed to show him to a guest room. So what bugs me is why did Rogue have to move in with Kitty when there were more than enough available rooms for her to use?
  • I assume that they just had a bunch of spare rooms that they only open if they need to. So let's just assume that Kurt and Spyke shared, and each New Recruit shared. Every student who joins just shares with any student of the same sex who doesn't have a room mate. When Lance joined, the only males who didn't share was Scott, Multiple, and Logan. You can't expect Jamie to share with anyone older than him, for Scott to share with his rival, and Logan to share with anyone.
  • Except Kurt has been shown to always have his own room up until the mansion was destroyed. In fact his was one of the few (the other being Rogue and Kitty's) we saw on a semi-regular basis.
• I assumed it was so that they'd socialize. Especially in Rogue's case.

Magneto is weirdly indecisive.

• In the first episode of the second season, the footage of mutant powers is blocked from escaping because of a "weird magnetic interference" and it's implied it was Magneto trying to hide mutants. Then at the end of the same season, the same guy goes out of his way to reveal mutants to the world. Why didn't he let Avalanche reveal it and just deal with things then? Was he waiting to build his Acolytes? Or just trying to decide whether or not he should steal the Rebirth pod? What was up with him?
  • My guess is that Magneto had a plan in mind and didn't want the Brotherhood spilling the beans too soon and/or stealing his thunder. My guess is that it would have taken him a lot of time and planning to gather the Acolytes, find the Rebirth device and avoid detection from Xavier.

Why doesn't anyone use Rogue's name?

• Maybe in the comics we can get away with not calling Rogue anything but Rogue, but in this show she's in high school. When the teachers are reduced to calling her "the new student", since they can't be expected to use the name Rogue, there's a problem. Depending on the continuity, her real name is Anna-Marie Raven or some variant thereof. In the first film she uses Marie, and I don't see why the cartoons can't as well.
• I assumed that she forgot her name after absorbing Cody's memories. She specifically shows some lack of knowlege during that episode implying she forgot a considerable amount of information about herself. Considering it was Mystique who enrolled her into the school, its possible she merely bypassed the whole 'name issue' with principal clearence.
  • It's also possible that in her official records and information she does go by Anne-Marie or just Marie. It's just that she calls herself Rogue, she answers to Rogue and signs her name as Rogue, and no one thinks to ask just what her real name is.
    • I, too, always assumed that she forgot, but neither Destiny nor Mystique ever called her by any other name, which makes me question whether THEY know what her actual name is. Was it maybe a childhood pet name or something that they didn't need to call her something else? As for the teachers, they might have been instructed to leave the new student alone. There is a scene in Mutant Crush where a teacher deliberately avoids mentioning names when assigning passages, he just goes "you two" to Scott and Rogue.
      • Even if Mystique or Destiny didn't know what her original name was (assuming that she had one and Rogue's biological mother didn't just give her up immediately after birth) wouldn't they have given her one when Mystique adopted her? Even if Destiny homeschooled her, Rogue would still need a full name for government record-keeping purposes. I think that she just preferred "Rogue" (as the above poster mentioned, Destiny called her that in the episode they were both introduced) and requested her teachers to call her that.
      • Here's a (possible) real-world explanation: the series ran from 2000 to 2003. Rogue's real name of Anna Marie wasn't revealed in the comics until 2004, a year after Evolution ended. I figure that, since she didn't have an official real name before then, the production team didn't want to inadvertently screw up multi-verse continuity by giving her a name before the comics team at Marvel did so.

Why does the train retain inertial momentum when Kitty can no longer phase it?

Kitty's powers have never shown, to my recollection, a partially phased object continuing to move within the object it's trapped within. So why does the train car not just get stuck in the middle of another one full of gasoline, but rather smash through it creating a giant explosion?

• Because it still has a ton of momentum. Unphased or not, that energy is going somewhere.

Why does Mystique become one of the Horsemen in Season 4?

With Prof. X, Magneto, and Storm it's all understandable as to how they became Horsemen. However, Mystique is clearly shown to be turned completely to stone, which later shatters, so why in the world does she show up as one of the Horsemen?

• Apocalypse, especially in this incarnation, has more powers than you can shake a stick at, including psychic ones. He probably did something along the lines of extracting her consciousness from her body and sticking it in one he cloned.
• Also, if you'll notice, when Scott shot a beam through her in the final fight, her body reforms. I figure that she always had that ability - she just needed the boost from Apocalypse to achieve it.
• Also remember what Mystique was used as: Apocalypse's personal body guard for when he's turning everyone into mutants. Purhaps she wasn't really stuck like that, what if, Apocalypse had turned her into his horsemen then and there, and was having her stay like that until she was lost, in which case he can summon her unnoticed. They showed that they weren't expecting Mystique to be there, emphasis on her taking Kurt and Scott out easily.

Did nobody at Bayville ever noticed that Toad looked weird before the world knew about mutants?

Yes, he was always described as ugly and disgusting, in fact the name Toad was given to him before people knew about his powers, as it fit his toad-like appearence (The Evolution Comic book, which establishes that Mutants were known about all along, but not that the Xavier kids were known, even had a bully guess Toad was a mutant, not cannon, but something).

• Toad can pass for normal. His skin is greener than is normal, among other aspects of his appearance, but not so bad that that people would question his humanity.

Why does Mystique try to murder Scott in episode 7?

That action essentially caused Rogue to realize Mystique wasn't as benevolent, which led to her using her powers and realizing that Mystique had been the one who attacked her and not the Xmen. Before Mystique did that Rogue was willing to reject Scott, so in essence Mystique screwed herself over.

What's Magneto's problem with Apocalypse?

Why would Magneto oppose Apocalypse? I mean, after we heard about Apocalypse's plan to turn everyone into a mutant, I half expected Magneto to try that himself, or, at the very least, betray Xavier, and go and help Apocalypse instead.