Heartwarming / X-Men: Evolution

Heartwarming moments in X-Men: Evolution.

• The Christmas Episode, "On Angel's Wings". It centers around Scott and Rogue, who stay at the mansion for the holidays since they have nowhere else to go. They team up to stop Magneto and bond over having similarly complicated lives and involuntary powers. In the comics, the two are friendly coworkers at best, but the show makes a strong case for shipping them (for bonus points: this was on season 1, before Scott realized his feelings for Jean).
  • In particular, Scott's confession to Rogue that he used to believe in angels. One gets the impression that he couldn't tell this to anyone else for fear of looking weak, but he trusted her with this secret.
  • And then we have the scene where the lady that Warren saved from a fire is reunited with her daughter, who thought she had died. They hug and the lady tells her kid that an angel had saved her.
• There's also the Kurt and Amanda subplot in "Shadow Dance", where Kurt tries to hide his mutation from the girl who asks him out... but it turns out she knows he's a "blue fuzzy elf" and is okay with it.
  Kurt: You won't like what you see.
  Amanda: Let me be the judge of that.
  Kurt: (turns his image inducer off and stands there hanging his head)
  Amanda: Hmm. Blue is my favorite color.
  • Also from the same episode: Todd and Freddy bemoaning how no one has asked them out, then Tabitha comes in and tells them she's taking both of them as her dates.
  • Continuing from their Relationship Upgrade from "Joyride", Kitty and Lance's interactions throughout the same episode is sweet. They're revealed to spend nights talking to each other on the phone and at school, Kitty asks Lance to the dance, which he, after jokingly saying he would think about it, accepts. During the dance, Lance protects Kitty from the creatures from another dimension.
    • It's of note that Kitty normally gets irritated over Lance using his powers to cause trouble or when he's riled up. Here, she smiles at him after he uses it again, aware that he did it accidentally out of excitement over her asking him to the dance.
• In "Survival of the Fittest", after being at odds in a contest, X-Men and Brotherhood (the high school members) get to the top of a mountain and take a picture with their entire team with the flag. When they all fly off in the Blackbird to fight Juggernaut, their instructor is left an image of everyone from the X-Men and the Brotherhood together with the flag, showing their cooperation for the first time in the series.
  • Earlier, when Avalanche's powers end up trapping his team rather than opening a way to the top of the mountain, Scott (who had gotten super competitive, wanting to beat their erstwhile enemies), upon finding the Brotherhood is stuck and asked by Toad if he would leave them there over a stupid competition, immediately says there was no way, and immediately works with the X-Men to get them out.
• The plot on Mystique's side in "Shadowed Past". After a visit from Professor X, she decides to tell Kurt that she's his mother. The only reason behind this was because she was reminded of losing her son when he was an infant and wanting him to know his origins. She was even upset when he recoiled in horror and angry that Magneto had sent his team to interfere.
• "Blind Alley", where Mystique kidnaps Scott and drops him in Mexico without his glasses. She attacks him in a warehouse only for Jean to get a Moment of Awesome and save him.
  Mystique: How sweet. Girlfriend to the rescue.
  Jean: You got that right, lady!
  • Then at the end, Jean gives Scott his glasses, kisses him on the cheek, and they embrace. Cue Logan whispering to Storm, "Well, it's about time".
    • Which itself is a CMOH for Logan, since this is literally the only version of the X-Men where he'd say that instead of a jealous "he doesn't deserve her" rant.^note In the comics, Logan has a crush on Jean because she resembles his first girlfriend, Rose. He does resent that she takes Cyclops over him, but takes it the saner way. Besides, in this show, the age gap between them is already enough that it would make a potential relationship between them creepy.
    • It's also kinda funny since it's almost exactly the same thing he said in the comics when he realized that Piotr and Kitty had finally done the deed.
• Following the above examples, Logan's interpretation in general in this show is a CMOH. While he's still a badass loner, a lot of the more unpleasant aspects of his personality from the comics (fighting within the team, lusting after Jean) is removed to make him more of a Papa Wolf figure for the kids, caring deeply for their safety above all else. The show still ventures into his trauma now and then, so it's not a complete change in characterization either. Rather the show points out a way for him to tame his inner beast is to help the other kids when their powers go out of control as well. He's been in that same hell, and he knows better than anyone how to climb back from that dark hole.
• "Grim Reminder", where Wolverine has had a chip implanted in his head that drives him insane. Kitty goes up to him anyway and is able to get him to remember her. At the end of the episode, we find out that Kitty has been checking on him in the hospital every hour to see if he's alright.
  • The fact that for most of the episode Kitty kept complaining about how crowded she felt living in the institute. By the end of the episode she's learned, not only to appreciate Logan, but everyone else a little bit more.
• In "Power Surge", when Jean's powers are going out of whack during an athletic meet, she accidentally throws a javelin telepathically, flying it towards Kitty and her other track team girls. Lance, the only person seeing this, immediately uses his powers to knock the girls over, saving them from being skewered.
  • And shortly after that, when she sends shot-put balls in every direction, Scott uses his laser blasts to save his rival Duncan, redirecting the ball with his optic blasts without Duncan even knowing.
  • At the end of the episode, Jean tells Scott after he helped her come out of the Unstoppable Rage her evolving powers forced her into, "That's what I like about you, Scott. You know me better than anyone ever has or ever will."
    • Even better because he had said the same thing about her earlier in the episode when trying to snap her out of said rage.
    • We can't forget Rogue's words after saving Jean, either: "Me and Miss Popularity there, we're worlds apart... galaxies, but then I realized something. She would do the same thing for me."
• Logan and Rogue together. In "Self-Possessed", where all the people she's ever absorbed overpower her and Logan is the one who convinces her to fight them. At the end, she comes out of her unconscious state to hold Logan's hand and smile up at him.
  • In "Turn of the Rogue", Wolverine asks where her allegiance lies. Terrified and shaking from the cold, Rogue asks if she'll be thrown out of the jet if she says no. Not only does Logan tell her no, but offers her his hand after she says she'll join.
  • Also in the same episode, Rogue realizing Scott was her friend after touching Mystique and learning she had performed a false flag operation on the X-Men to deny them the use of Rogue's powers in her debut, protecting him from Mystique when she transforms into a wolf to finish Scott.
• Lance saving Kitty from the falling stands.
• Any time Kurt & Kitty interact is either this or a funny moment. In the episode "Rogue Recruit", previously Kurt had tried to impress Kitty and just freaked her out. When she wants to prove herself to the others after Logan tells Kurt to watch the "half-pint", she ends up freaking Rogue out even more and getting Nightcrawler hurt. After pleading for him to wake up, ("Come on Kurt, wake up! Tease me! Scare me! Anything, just be OK!"), she manages to contact Xavier and get Kurt help. When he recovers she tackles him and crushes him with hugs while calling him a fuzzy elf.
• "Joyride" has Lance joining the X-Men to be closer to Kitty. While the X-Men and Brotherhood aren't pleased with his decision, especially Scott, Kitty supports him all the way while advising him not to take it lightly. Their interactions throughout the episode is rather cute with her being amused by him during his training with the New Mutants, especially when he saved her instead of Rogue in the rescue training. When the New Mutants commits several joyrides and Lance is blamed for them, he brings Kitty with him to stop them when they take the X-Jet, during which they share a tender moment after she phased it and everyone on board through a mountain. Upon returning to the mansion at the end of the episode, she tries to defend him when Scott accuses him again and after unsuccessfully pleading for him to stay, she gives him a goodbye kiss as he heads back to the Brotherhood, making him smile as he places his hand on his cheek where she kissed him, content that he earned her love.
• Kurt being at his sister Rogue's bedside, even just to be there to comfort her after the events of her power surge. He then happily tells her, (because Kurt found out a few seasons ago that he's Mystique's son and now Rogue found out recently, she's Mystique's daughter-through adoption) that he's so excited, because Rogue is basically his big sister now, and that he always wanted to have a brother or sister.
  • Rogue's dopey smile after Kurt teleports out of the room, showing she's touched by his concern and enthusiasm at being her brother.
• In "Impact", the rest of the Brotherhood had been screwing around with Mystique, now a statue, and were even going to convert her into a fountain. Wanda was already a tad disgusted by this, and when Kurt shows up, she prepares to attack him until she learns the real reason for his presence.
  Wanda: "You're in the wrong house, X-Man!"
  Kurt: "Wait! She's- She's my mother..."
  • Wanda's expression immediately turns to shock and then remorse, and she leaves the room without a word, letting him escape.
  • She later agrees to arrange a meeting with Agatha Harkness, one of the few people who might be able to restore her.
• Kitty rescuing Danielle Moonstar from the underground cavern in "Ghost of a Chance". Very few people believed Dani even existed, and no one believed she was still alive. Everyone figured that Kitty was going insane when she continues to talk about her dreams about Dani. And yet she continues to search for Dani and eventually saves her from a terrifying death via drowning.
• From "Operation Rebirth", the episode in which Captain America guest stars, the bit where Wolverine tells a cryogenically frozen Captain America how they made a good team and how Wolverine will find a cure for his condition.
  • Also in that episode, Logan saves several people from a Nazi camp. Including a teenage boy, who then tells him this: "My name is Erik Lensherr. Thank you for saving us."
    • And Magneto subsequently releasing Wolverine with the line "A little boy in Poland owes you that much."
• Whatever happened before or after, the scene where Pietro talks to Wanda in "Hex Factor" is heartwarming; he starts by complimenting her haircut — which, let's face it, not a lot of brothers would do — and tries to apologize for her time in the asylum.
• "X-23" has Logan learning of the utter hell, well, X23 was put through, and becoming utterly enraged over it. When she comes after him he finally manages to fend her off long enough to explain he's also a victim, as she breaks down crying over everything that was done to her, before SHIELD arrives and despite her wanting to stay with Logan he tells her to run, before he stands up to Nick Fury and tells him to let her go.
• She returns the favor in "Target X", when Hydra hires two bounty hunters to go after Logan, knowing she will find him. With them on their tail, X23 repeatedly tries to get rid of Logan, not because he's slowing her down as she claims, but because she intends to be captured so she can blow up Hydra, and knows if Logan follows her he'll end up dead.
• Toad, yes Toad gets one in the episode "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe": After rescuing Wanda from Mastermind and her own father she gives him a kiss (though he was in the form of a ski instructor thanks to Kurt's holographic inducer at the time, but still). After being told that he put his life on the line for her, she gives him a soft, grateful look followed by a very genuine "Thank you". Then later, at the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House, she actually talks to him in a casual manner about not being mad at her father anymore.
• Spyke's documentary about the X-Men, especially when he calls them his new family.
• After being an almost irredeemable Jerkass for much of the series, Pietro leads the Brotherhood into battle in order to help his sister and the X-Men save his father from Apocalypse.
• The end of "Uprising", as Xavier tells Leech's mother that Leech has a place where he will be welcomed... when she feels he is ready to go. It's nice to see Xavier offering a hand of support to a mother who had been paranoid about the fact her son was a mutant.
  • Similarly, the Morlocks' backing Spike up against Duncan and his hooligans with lasers. He helps them, they help him.
    • That, and the X-Men risk the obvious backlash as there's protesters at the mansion itself to help out one of their own.
  • Another one from "Uprising" that has surprisingly gone unmentioned until now. Leech's powers go overload and suddenly everything in sight loses power. The lights, the mutants, everything. Then, the light behind Scott's visor goes out. Jean removes it, and, for probably the first time ever in this version, they can fully look into each others eyes.
• "The Cauldron" for Scott and his brother, Alex. After ten years, the two discover that the other was alive and they immediately rush to each other, even Alex giving Scott a brotherly punch (payback for all the hard times Scott game him back then). However, Alex was reached by Magneto first, and Scott (unaware of the details on Magneto) is hesitant, but follows Alex through and sticks with his brother. Throughout the episode, you get the vibe they are a family and they've finally found each other. And at the end of the episode, the two are in free fall again as Asteroid M explodes around them. They reach out for each other and proceed to use their powers to slow their landing manually. Then they proceed to completely destroy Asteroid M before it falls on everyone.
  • Xavier gets one as well, not holding Scott's apparent treason in regards to Magneto against him and understanding that Scott was simply misinformed.
    • Kitty politely telling the others angry they didn't get to go to Hawaii by saying Scott is meeting his brother who thought was Dead for a decade and probably didn't want a crowd. Kurt also cheers everyone up by suggesting they go to a local beach to make up for it.
• As part of the above, unlike in many other continuities, Scott and Alex proceed to stay in contact and reform their brotherly relationship even if it is over long distance as Alex is not able to go to the Xavier Institute. Alex shows up to help fight Apocalypse, and is shown in the group shot of the Xavier Institute that ends the series. "Adrift" is another great example: they are both lost at sea in the middle of a storm with only Alex's surfboard keeping them afloat, but they'll be damned if they'll let each other die, no matter what the circumstances.
  • A special shout-out also goes to "Adrift" as Alex briefly mentions he's just recently filed to change his surname back to 'Summers'
• Scott is very dedicated in his mission to make friends. He makes a concentrated effort to befriend Rogue, even when she's being rude and clearly wants nothing to do with him (which is later rewarded with her switching sides). Although he lets his competitiveness get the better of him in "Survival of the Fittest", at the end of the episode he tells Jean that it "felt right" working with the Brotherhood and that maybe one day they'll come join the X-men.
• The two-part Grand Finale "Ascension" has a couple of endearing and heartfelt moments.
  • After Apocalypse is beaten in the final battle, we see a shot of several mutants caring for their loved ones, such as Storm meeting with her nephew Spyke one last time and Magneto's children Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch carrying their dad to safety.
  • Professor X's speech about his vision of what's in store for the X-Men's future. Even with some of the tragedies he's foreseen, Xavier states that he couldn't be prouder of how far his X-Men will go in the future.
  • The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows Magneto acting as a trainer to the X-Men, confirming he did make a Heel–Face Turn. The same scene shows Wolfsbane in the Danger Room too; her parents had previously taken her out of the institute after the mutant exposure, but this shows she returned to the team eventually.

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