The title is deliberately ridiculous, this episode was amazing.
Now I will admit, that at first I was a little pissed at the episode because, this entire time I had assumed that in the finale of the original 90's cartoon, Charles Xavier had actually died, I mean, the show certainly treats it that way, and the scene that is available online only shows the emotional part, i.e. Professor X saying goodbye to all his X-Men, even th trailer for X-Men'97 focused on only that part.
That, in combination with the fact that Disney Plus or Hulu actually dont exist in India, because stupid country locality laws and what not... Oh how do I watch all the Disney Plus shows? Well it's on Disney Plus Hotstar, originally just Hotstar, I guess Disney found it much easier to put all their Disney Plus releases on a streaming service that already exists than to renegotiate to get Disney Plus in India.
Did you know, because of the Delay in Disney Plus releasing in India, all the Star Wars fans this side of the Pacific Ocean couldn't watch Mandalorian Season one and two as they came out? Absolutely unacceptable...
But digressions aside. Hotstar, as one would suspect is mostly for Indian serials(those fucking soap operas...) and movies, and as such a lot of stuff that is available on Disney Plus isn't available on Hotstar, one of these things being... You guessed it, the original X-Men the animated series.
There's also an unnecessary delay in something releasing on Disney Plus and then on Hotstar, what that leads to is, I am literally unable to join any watch parties for Disney Plus shows... F*ckin sacrilege if you ask me.
Now all that to say that I currently do not have access to the original nineties cartoon, and every bit that I have seen here and there, doesn't really show, that actually, Profesor X didn't die, instead he was just taken by his Shi'ar lover Lilandra Neramani.
I mean can you blame me though? Lilandra literally came out of no where and takes Charles away at the last moment.(If you're looking only at the scene from where Charles starts saying his last words, I know that in the series they actually call out to her using Charles' powers.)
As such, in spite of having an open mind, I kind of found the beginning of Life Death part 2 a little ridiculous. I mean, here we had the best episode of this season, literally an entire nation is dead, and here we are, seeing Xavier Marry a random Bird. And I also questioned for a bit, if this really is Charles Xavier, since he is acting a little cooky and... In love... Like cooky lover boy is not who you think of when you think Professor Charles Xavier, but okay... That's who he is in this episode.
And while we are on that topic, the very first scene is not of Charles and Lilandra, it's of Lilandra's sister Deathbird, fighting alongside Gladiator, against Ronan the accuser, who looks surprisingly a whole lot like his MCU counterpart what with the Hammer and the face.
And Deathbird is looking for the supreme intelligence, who has fled somewhere apparently. The Kree Supreme intelligence for those who don't know, the supreme intelligence is an amalgamation of all of the great thinkers and warriors of the kree race that leads the Kree race and looks like a rotten fat cabbage in a fish tank.
No seriously, that's what they went for, I guess both the supreme intelligence and mojo came from the same brand of ugly.
And then we switch perspectives to Xavier being married off as a royal consort to empress Lilandra Neramani of the Shi'ar and everyone looks disapprovingly at his bald head in contrast to whatever ridiculous thing they wear on their own heads.
This side of the episode focuses on themes of imperialism and how great empires both of the past and the present, treat the existence of other cultures as an affront to peace and believe that assimilation into one giant culture is the only way to peace, because presence of any outside empire means competetion and competetion means discord and a lack of peace right?
And in their crusade(this wording is very deliberate) for peace they cut other cultures at the knee and till over them to assimilate them into their one giant culture, homogenising the galaxy further only hurting their chances of evolution and further prosperity... In the name of peace and prosperity...
This theme is very deliberate, to go in tandem with the previous episodes theme of inherent extremism seen in many forms of human bigotry, as an entire nation of people just being themselves is completely obliterated just because of they are and because their mere existence makes some people uncomfortable,
I... definitely do not see any real world parallels there.
This theme is very neatly tied into the episodes inter personal themes of putting on facades and masks for the sake of the greater good, lik for example, Lilandra doesn't be her true self to her empire because they won't accept her like that, Charles is forced to grapple with getting married and living a happy life while his X-Men, his children are left to fend for their own.
And further is forced to forsake his earthly heritage for the sake of his star crossed romance with Lilandra, and there is an argument to be made that indeed Charles has earned his rest after everything he has done for and suffered both for the sake of mutants and mutant kind and humanity.
Before this argument is made, there is a very on the nose scene where Gladiator wildly misinterprets a memorial of their ancestors who were from different empires falling in love showing their unity inspite of their diversity. Where as Gladiator sees it confirmation for his belief in peace being achieved only through assimilation and uniformity.
Xavier almost gives up his human life and in his moment of hesitation Deathbird goes full racist and a battle ensues forcing Charles finally realised that he had indeed forgotten a part of himself and who he was allowing him to use his best weapon, teaching.
And it is interesting that Lilandra assumes Xavier's teaching to be no different from indoctrination as she says "you will bring your ways" and is proven harshly wrong by the end of the episode as Charles literally schools the entire council along with Lilandra, Gladiator and Deathbird into how they have it completely wrong.
On the other side of this episode, we are reminded that this is indeed Life-Death part 2 and storm is still on the journey to regain her powers as the adversary tortured her while she struggles to take care of Forge who is still reeling from the Adversaries poison.
The Adversary tortures her with hallucinations using her own words and events from her past, forcing her to once again struggle with who she is and confront the questions she has about her identity, just like Charles on the other side of the Universe.
To fight the Adversary we see Forge use magic, which looks surprisingly like Doctor Strange's Aeldrich magic, now this could be a deliberate hint towards there being some connection there, or just an attempt to maintain uniformity across Marvel properties or(less likely) laziness.
So far whenever asked the writers have claimed that X-Men'97 is separate from the rest of the MCU, but I guess we shall see if this is still in the same multiverse, and perhaps there is some chance/room for a crossover.
But digression aside Storm is once again forced to confront her fears, specifically her Claustrophobia as she is forced to go into a small cave to retrieve a flower for Forge's antidote, the cave has some significance to the past of Forge as the indigenous people of this land were suppressed and forced to work in this cave in the past and were told a white lie of progress that kept them captive.
Storm is also believing a white lie that is keeping her powers suppressed along with the gun that initially took them away, a lie that she is responsible in part for all the mutant hatred that is generated each time she uses her powers for good.
In this way and the mention of the grand lie that the Shi'ar tell themselves to justify their Imperialist ways as mentioned by Charles Xavier to the Shi'ar in the astral plane, this episode connects it's two themes of self identity/self doubt/loosing oneself and imperialism/supremacy/racism/bigotry into a single theme as Storm soars into the sky having regained her powers.
She banishes the Adversary again, who had been resummoned by her fear and self doubt while getting the flower from a claustrophobia inducing tunnel.
Showing once again that our demons exist to make us stronger.
She regains her powers and Charles almost convinces the Shi'ar council of his ideology, but both the victories are interrupted by the stunning realisation of the news of the destruction of Genoshia.
Charle decides to abandon his life with Lilandra and return to his X-Men as the unthinkable has happened and Storm almost looses herself in tears right after she just regained her powers.
The episode ends on the cliffhanger of these two realising what had just happened and then in a post credit scene, we see Bolivar Trask running away from... something, and he gets hit and it is revealed that he gave his DNA for the control of the Sentinels to... Mr. Sinister...
It seems he was responsible for the recent attack on Genoshia and it seems indeed that he is hellbent on creating the perfect mutant race through his genetic experiments and in order for the new race to thrive wants only the best of the old race and wipe out the old race in some sense as well, or something like that. The comics do go crazier though, but I choose not to read them for fear of spoiling my self.
But it is needless to say that if it keeps up this pace, X-Men'97 is building up to be one of the best, possibly the best Disney Plus Marvel project right above something like Werewolf by night, which I will still say is a close second, as that was really something else.
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