YMMV / X of Swords

• Alternative Character Interpretation: White Sword happens to send the exact right number of warriors to even the score before the last two matches. It is entirely likely that he did this on purpose to give Krakoa a fighting chance.
• Arc Fatigue: The tournament itself drags on quite a bit, with three whole issues devoted to showing that the fights themselves are completely rigged and none of it matters because Saturnyne will just decide on a whim who wins. It gets very old very fast... except it's not fast. It's actually very slow.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Summoner turning out to be *gasp* evil. Given his design just screamed bad guy, and his being Apocalypse's grandson, it's more surprising the X-Men actually didn't see it coming.
  • Annihilation being Genesis, Apocalypse’s wife. The plot twist was so obvious and so often foreshadowed, that most of the readers predicted it long before the reveal.
• Catharsis Factor: After seeing anti-mutant Saturnyne orchestrate a tournament in which 20 mutants kill each other and overall being a complete asshole in the events leading up to and during the event, it's incredibly satisfying to see the Braddock twins play her oh so cleverly and take the Starlight sword.
  • Wolverine finally pays back Summoner for his betrayal by skewering him through the eye with Muramasa. It did end up costing him the match but damn if it wasn't satisfying.
  • Those frustrated with Saturnyne's behavior will likely appreciate the ending: She saved Otherworld, gets rid of Betsy and restores the Captain Britain Corps. Except she didn't get Brian's love and all those Captain Britains are based around the woman she despises instead of him. The final panel solidifies that, even though she got what she needed, she didn't get what she wanted and she's more alone than ever.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Pogg Ur-Pogg, the crocodile beast of Arakko. His boisterous personality, unique design and general ridiculousness (including sharing his name with his own sword) made him an instant fan-favorite.
  • White Sword. Cool design and powers with a badass persona make him this. Also it helps that he is very respectful to the rival side.
  • From the Krakoan side, there’s Gorgon. He has the least amount of screen time, doesn’t have any issues focused on him, doesn’t even appear on the main covers, but ends up having an epic fight scene, wins his side the biggest amount of the points and dies like a true Krakoan, standing on his feet. Not bad for someone who was a ruthless villain not long before.
• Funny Moments: Among the many losses Krakoa suffers is Magik losing a combination riddle and spelling bee because she spelled the answer (Magic) like her codename. This also implies that her codename is basically a typo.
  • In the opening feast, the champions of Arakko get into a fight with the X-men over attempting to poison the competition. While they're working out their problems with their fists, Apocalypse and his wife are sitting across from each other in a three-panel sequence where they say nothing for the first two panels. And then this exchange happens.
  Apocalypse: I see you did a fine job raising the kids.
  Genesis: I did my best.
  • Nearly everything involving Sinister and the Hellions during their side-mission, like Essex's obsession with his cape, Empath turning Greycrow into such a sycophant it annoys him, Orphan-Maker's giddiness at getting a horse and Psylocke being the Only Sane Man. And then the aftermath of that mission...
  Kate Pryde: Excuse me... our people are in a death match with swords, your team was wiped out and you... stopped for a cape?
  Sinister: Excuse me... before Emma took pity on you, you looked like you were dressing yourself with the remainders from the Xavier's School lost and found box. So I don't think I'll take any fashion sass from you.
  Emma Frost: Well, that motion is... regrettably seconded.
  • Cable telling his parents about Cypher's new wife. Jean's reaction is hilarious.
  • One of the challenges required the characters to risk the siren call of some jagged rocks on the beach. Gorgon fails to resist and goes to have sex with them.
    • In-Joke for fans back when he was still an active supervillain, Gorgon had the sexual fetish/hobby of turning women he was sexually attracted to - mostly his own henchwenches - into stone statues against their will using his mutant power. The writer of the story is the head writer of this franchise and the architect of this crossover.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: New X-Men fans were not terribly taken with Rockslide being Killed Off for Real, continuing the general treatment of the New X-Men cast being sidelined and ignored except when the writers want to use someone as a Redshirt.
• Memetic Mutation: In-universe, Saturnyne makes it clear that she wants to bed him, but her main goal is to make him Captain Britain again. Fans started joking about Brian fucking Saturnyne in order to get the team a win. Once we got more romantic subplots between the competitors and contestants, this spiraled into memes about turning the whole tournament into some sort of sex-based competition. It doesn't help (or does?) that Hickman's run is already subject to memes about how weirdly horny everyone seems to be.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Summoner crosses this when he kills Rockslide, making it impossible for him to be resurrected.
• No Yay: Saturnyne's attraction to Brian and the insistence of some fans, and Wolverine, that he should just pimp himself out to her to resolve the conflict, is a particularly gross idea to anyone familiar with Brian's history with Saturnyne. She's an Alternate Universe counterpart to his ex-girlfriend, Courtney Ross, who was killed and replaced by another Alternate Universe counterpart, the tyrannical Sat-Yr-9. The latter has on multiple occasions raped Brian, at one point keeping him as a Sex Slave while torturing his teammates. Though Saturnyne isn't the same woman responsible for this, she does look exactly like the woman who raped him, so understandably fans of Brian are not exactly fond of the aforementioned suggestion that he should be pimped out to someone who looks just like his rapist.
• Unexpected Character: Of all people, Gwenpool (having retconned herself as a mutant and joined Krakoa) makes a guest appearance in the final issue.
• The Woobie: By Arakkii standards, War. She lost her husband in a duel (to her own cousin who was his rumored extramarital lover no less!) then she lost her son in another duel. Then she loses a duel with both men's opponents, who had tagteamed against her, then she Loses her left hand in the said duel, but she still doesn't die.

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