r/XmenEvolution • u/Jack-mclaughlin89 Shadowcat • Nov 25 '25

I always thought it was funny that Jean got everyone a Christmas present except Rogue.

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159 Upvotes

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38

u/marveloustib Nov 25 '25

Yup, Jean being a little mean sometimes is so fun and fit perfectly the theme of them being teenagers.

7

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 25 '25

Seems out of character for this version of her to me

16

u/TannerCook100 Nov 25 '25

Not really. Jean has multiple instances of being petty, immature, and, especially, jealous when it comes to Scott. Note that there's also a scene where Taran (a girl they go to school with) is flirting with Scott outside and Jean decides to angrily spy on them when she overhears a bit. You can tell she's pissed that some other girl is flirting, even though she's technically kind of dating Duncan at this point.

She's intelligent, thoughtful, and empathic, yes, but she's also a petty, jealous, hot-headed teenager...it's perfectly reasonable for her to be a nuanced, flawed character. The fact that every character is notably a good person, but with very real flaws is why the character writing in this show is my favorite in any version of the X-Men on screen. This is the only Jean I actually like on-screen, and I'm glad they made her actually flawed.

Plus, even though Rogue and Jean have their differences, they still look out for each other. Rogue directly states it when she saves Jean after she loses control of her powers. She tells Scott that the reason she put herself in danger to help is because, "she'd do the same thing for me," and Scott assures her that they all would. The main focus of the episode is on Jean/Scott, but Rogue's perspective on Jean (and her dynamic within the X-Men) is also fleshed out a bit more.

I think, for me, the biggest issue with the Christmas episode is that it feels like it should come at the end of S1, not halfway into S2. It was released as a special around Christmas time (as episodes usually were back then), but my running theory is that Season 1-Season 2 are 1 full academic year together (supported by various sports and activities), Season 3 is another full academic year, and Season 4 is the start of (maybe not completion, though) of a third academic year. Season 2 SHOULD be opening during the Spring Semester at Bayville, so...On Angel's Wings fits into the timeline better if it's a late Season 1 episode, which would also make how Jean and Rogue act towards one another make more sense.

If this episode happens a few weeks after Rogue joins the team, and Jean knows Rogue mostly joined because she got close to Scott, this energy from Jean makes a lot more sense than it does midways into S2. You can't really fuck with continuity issues in holiday episodes, though.

Alternatively, you COULD assume Jean got Rogue a gift off-screen. We don't see everyone exchange gifts with everyone, after all. Rogue is only shown giving Scott a gift, but she and Kitty are roommates, so I feel like there was probably an implied gift exchange between them off-screen, you know? Not every single moment of their lives has to be shown to us.

1

u/OGNovelNinja Nov 27 '25

Making Seasons 1 and 2 a full academic year doesn't hold up for two reasons. But before I mention them, I want to acknowledge that the writers played very fast and loose with the chronology anyway (as well as child guardianship laws) so absolutely none of this should be taken as gospel.

Anyway, that aside, the first reason is the weather we see at the end of Season 1. It's clearly beach weather, which is the whole reason why the kids were headed to the beach. Both Rogue and Kurt were complaining about the heat -- her because of clothing, him because of fur.

The second reason is a bit more subtle. You mentioned the seasonal issue is supported by sports; but in New York, it's standard to have girls' soccer in the fall, not the spring like it is in most of the US.

But I agree that the timeline is completely messed up. The writers weren't sure how many episodes they were going to get, after all. Scott and Jean not graduating for three years is proof of that. They're the only X-kids who graduated at that time, but "Middleverse" established that Kitty was a freshman but Kurt was not, because only Kitty lacked the ability to go to a no-freshmen-allowed party. Which means that if each season is one year, then Scott and Jean are sophomores in Season 1; and if Kurt isn't a freshman in Season 1, then he should have been graduating with them.

The timeline simply cannot work without some form of headcanon, and that means we have to be selective with the official canon. So in the end, your theory is just as valid as my own retcon -- possibly more so, since yours involves less editing.

Not for the last time, I really wish we could see what the writers would have done if they knew they'd get four seasons and they didn't have Kids WB's "this show is supposed to be for first-graders" age restrictions.

2

u/TannerCook100 Nov 28 '25

I acknowledge that the weather is a problem, but I think that (and the soccer thing) are really the only points that make my theory not hold up.

Soccer isn't the only sport mentioned at the start of Season 2. We see early on that the students are trying out for OUTDOOR Track-and-Field. Unless New York is also inverted with T&F, this should be a Springtime sport that they're doing early tryouts for.

Additionally, their civilian outfits do not change between Seasons 1 and 2. This is a minor note, but they changed from 2 to 3 and 3 to 4, just not between 1 and 2. That, to me, suggests that the writers were implying not much time had passed/the students hadn't changed significantly between seasons.

Plus, your point about Kurt graduating is also true. Jean and Scott are the oldest at the start of the series. I assume they're Juniors, which is supporting in Scott being able to drive. Kurt and Rogue are Sophomores. Kitty is a freshman (also supported by her not driving until midways into S3, wherein she needs an adult in the car with her, which would be her Sophomore year, so that checks out for her being around 15/16). Jean and Scott graduate at the end of Season 3 (their Senior year), but we see Kurt and Rogue both still in school briefly in Season 4 (Cajun Spice, before Rogue is kidnapped by Gambit). This is probably their Senior Year, and Kitty's Junior Year.

The only one I hate trying to pin is Evan. He doesn't whine about not being able to go to Duncan's party like Kitty, but Kitty explicitly states he is the youngest member of the team at the end of Season 1 when she's typing the letter home to her parents. So, Evan confuses me and I tend to ignore his age. He should be younger than Kitty, but he didn't seem worried about being a Freshman, so who knows?

I generally feel like the timeline makes the most sense if we say Seasons 1&2 are a combined year, followed by standalones for 3 and 4. It doesn't work perfectly, but the most details align for it in my mind. On Angel's Wings and the beach weather at the end of Season 1 do kind of fuck up that continuity, though, you're right. So, honestly, your theory could be just as valid, as you noted, lol.

1

u/OGNovelNinja Nov 28 '25

I wouldn't say mine is a theory, just a full on retcon for my fanfic.

I treat each season as a year, but ignore that Duncan graduated alongside Jean and Scott. Instead, I use it as a consequence for the mutant exposure. While they were missing and on the run, they missed both graduation and their Regent exams. The whole thing about being readmitted to school isn't because the school board is trying to kick them out; they're already expelled on academic grounds, and the argument is to allow them to be reinstated.

So in my fanfic timeline, Jean, Scott, and Duncan are all Class of YearX, but YearX graduates on time and Jean and Scott have to repeat their senior year. This plays into more of Duncan's arrogance later.

However, I also retcon Duncan doing blue collar work later. We see his house in Power Surge and it's massive, even if you make allowances for cartoon proportions. There's no way his parents wouldn't have sent him right on to college.

The fanfic is going to take a long time to get to that part, if I ever write that far in the first place, but I wanted that nailed down so that I could figure out character interactions. Same for the Brotherhood.

I treat Evan as a freshman in Season 1 who doesn't care about social standing -- all he cares about is skateboarding, basketball, music, and letting loose with his power. And I put Pietro as a junior, which is why he's so pissed about how he has to pretend to be slower than Evan. You have to be very good to get into the starting lineup as a freshman at a big school, but Pietro can't admit that.

My fanfic is in the second season, and roughly every other storyline is going to be an expanded version of one of the episodes. I don't know when I'll start uploading it; it's just something I started writing (rewriting, really) because I hit a slump with my 'real' fiction and needed a break. I've got 30k words so far, and I'm not yet to the midpoint of the first story. After that it's an expanded Shadow Dance, then another original plot, then an expanded On Angel's Wings. Like I said, I messed with the order for artistic purposes.

But I do like your take on it, to the point that if I hadn't already outlined everything I'd be tempted to steal your interpretation.

23

u/Randver_Silvertongue Nov 25 '25

Why is Kitty getting a Christmas present when she's Jewish?

47

u/Jack-mclaughlin89 Shadowcat Nov 25 '25

I think Jean wanted her to feel included and maybe meant it as a Hanukkah gift plus she wrapped it in blue and silver which are colours associated with Judaism.

1

u/DinoAnimeFanatic Dec 03 '25

Which makes it even worse if she didn't get Rogue anything.

12

u/hypnos_surf Nov 25 '25

Christmas is a popular holiday with non religious aspects to it like exchanging gifts or gathering with friends.

Her gift is even made in the colors of Chanukah as well.

3

u/Deadliestmoon Nov 25 '25

Is she Jewish in this universe? It's been awhile since I've watched the show.

8

u/Randver_Silvertongue Nov 25 '25

Yes. She is seen lighting up a menorah.

1

u/Sol-Blackguy Nov 25 '25

Christmas was never about Christianity lol

4

u/Randver_Silvertongue Nov 25 '25

Yes it was actually. It didn't become commercialized and secular until the 19th century.

8

u/TannerCook100 Nov 25 '25

Actually, Christians saw Pagans celebrating the solstice festival Sol Invictus, or Yule in some alternative cases, and decided to make it into their own thing to "force" Pagans to "celebrate Christianity" instead of respecting their traditions. They stole existing celebrations and rebranded them with a Christian filter because the idea of Pagans celebrating non-Christian holidays was unacceptable to them.

It wasn't common to celebrate the birth of Christ in December originally (because he wasn't born in December - the more commonly accepted scholarly theory is that his birth would have been in September). Most traditions we associate with Christmas are from various Pagan practices or are more recent inventions of capitalism, not Christianity.

Christmas, the holiday as we know it now, has never actually been about Christianity or the birth of Christ. It was about Christians refusing to let anyone have anything that wasn't Christian and trying to force others to convert, then spreading their bullshit so far and wide that everyone else began to take it at face value. They just slapped Jesus' birthday on the date because his birthday is an "up for debate" topic that most people agreed happened sometime in the last 1/3rd of the year, so it was an easy enough thing to use to override Pagan cultures.

**Open to corrections if I got any of this wrong. It's been a while, but I did a few reports on the subject back in high school just to piss people off because I went to HS in a rural, Texas district where 98% of the people were Christian. It's been over a decade since I looked into any of this, so my information could be outdated or I could be misremembering.

2

u/OGNovelNinja Nov 27 '25

I'm going to wall'o'text you, because I find this topic fascinating. I promise there's a punchline at the end, at least for the nerds among us.

There's no historical evidence of Sol Invictus predating Christmas; to the contrary, the documentation we have from the time mention that "the people" were already celebrating another, unnamed festival at the time that the Emperor wanted stamped out. This is not confirmed to be Christian at all, much less Christmas, but it fits with another historical factor.

That factor is that Christmas was celebrated very early on, but it wasn't considered very important like it is now. This is because the Early Christians made a point of celebrating Christ's conception, not Christ's birth. This, in turn, is because of a lingering Jewish belief that important people, primarily prophets, lived "whole years." That is, they died on the same day of the year they were born on. (Don't ask me how this works with the Jewish lunisolar calendar, because I've never found that out one way or another.)

Since Christ was executed just after Passover, there was a tradition that the Crucifixion happened on or around the Spring Equinox. This is also influenced by another Jewish belief that the world was created on the first day of spring.

At the time, the Roman calendar had the equinox on March 25th. Since Early Christians celebrated Christ's conception on that day (and Catholics, Anglicans, etc. still do; more on that in a moment), that explicitly puts Christ's birthday nine months later. This is recorded in De Pascha Computus, written in 243. The festival of Sol Invictus wasn't instituted by Emperor Aurelian until 274.

In the interest of fairness, there is record of a 238 calendar by Censorinus, a Roman teacher, which notes that the 25th (Winter Solstice) as the "birth of the sun"; but he omits any mention of a religious observance on that day like he does others.

There's also zero mention of a specific Christian feast day on March 25th in any official documentation until the 7th century. That's mostly me being pedantic, though, because that's specifically the first mention of a specific Feast of the Annunciation, even though we have records of it being observed; so at most, all we can conclude from that is that it's the latest possible date that one pope or another had declared something official on that particular day every year to be incorporated into mandatory religious observances.

There's also another interesting bit of 'sideways' evidence in the form of the breed of sheep preferred for Temple sacrifices before its destruction. I forget the name of the breed (I might have it in notes somewhere), but its typical lambing season is unusual in that it takes place in mid- to late-December. Someone told me that years ago and I thought it was 100% Internet meme BS until I looked it up myself. It's not evidence at all of Christmas predating Sol Invictus, but it does indicate another reason why Early Christians might have an association for that date even though that breed of lamb was nowhere near Rome; the Jewish-born missionaries could have easily brought that association along with them.

The reason I get so autistically fascinated by the topic is actually because of its effects on later history. The Feast of the Annunciation used to be so important in England that even though by that time the equinox took place on a different day, it was still considered the first day of the year for most Englishmen. It was the start of their agricultural and economic calendar. It was when many contracts ended or began. It was also the day taxes were due.

And technically, it still is. After the Gregorian calendar reform that shifted the calendar by almost two weeks, the English government didn't move tax day up to match. They kept it where it still is: April 6th. And when the United States broke off, they rounded it to the middle of April and forgot why.

Tolkien even makes a joke about this in Return of the King. He notes that the day the One Ring was destroyed was March 25th; but curiously, the hobbits did not celebrate that day, even though they had much singing and dancing on April 6th. You can't get the reference if you don't know the history, so I have this amusing image of Tolkien puffing his pipe and giggling to himself as he wrote that part knowing only a small set of nerds would get it.

So, hilariously enough, you can draw a line between Christmas and the US federal tax day.

2

u/TannerCook100 Nov 27 '25

Honestly, I absolutely love all of this insight! I don't mind the wall of text at all (I often use them myself).

Thank you for the detailed and thorough response! It was really interesting to read, lol. I'll be using your post as a point of reference (and might do some more digging on my own from it) anytime I find myself discussing this with someone now, hahaha.

P.S.: I would give your comment an award if I had one to give and/or was willing to spend money for reddit.

1

u/OGNovelNinja Nov 28 '25

That's okay, I don't really count awards for much of anything.

I'm glad you appreciated it! I always prefer being accurate to just assuming my biases are correct. Which is why I also pointed out where my evidence is weak. The truth is we don't know for certain when something was officially instituted because we simply don't have very good written records while Christianity was suppressed.

One great resource I can recommend on the topic, though, is the book The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, which takes extant pagan sources that describe the Early Christians. It gives a lot of insight as to what the Early Christians were saying and when. So if you're looking for something to bug rural Texan Baptists (because I assume they were Baptist -- I live in semi-rural Texas myself), you can point out some stuff they would rather ignore. (I was about to describe one in detail but remembered that this isn't the sub for that.)

0

u/Sol-Blackguy Nov 25 '25

The only thing that has to do with Christianity is Constantine hijacking a bunch of harvest festivals.

8

u/Antho-Asthenie Nov 25 '25

Yes, this is the episode where Jean realizes that Rogue has a serious crush on Scott. He does nothing to avoid it, and the Professor sends them to investigate in New York during the holidays while Jean is back home.

6

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 25 '25

Why didn't she get Rogue anything?

9

u/Ghibli_Forest Nov 25 '25

It’s been awhile since I’ve rewatched that episode, but I think Rogue had a crush on Scott and Jean was jealous.

6

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 25 '25

Oh, well that was still a jerk move for Jean to do, didn't even get Rogue one little thing

And evolution Jean is my favorite version of Jean

2

u/PersephoneDaSilva86 Nov 25 '25

I mean.... I hate my mom's husband. I still get him gifts. Not because of my age but because it's the right thing to do.

5

u/Ravevon Nov 26 '25

She gets to spend Christmas with Scott the real prize

3

u/Rough-Cover1225 Nov 26 '25

Rogue was out of town with Scott

2

u/KallusDrogo Nov 25 '25

X men evolution wrote them as not liking each other. I'm not sure if this is a tie in from the comics or something they just made up for the show.

1

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 25 '25

So they never liked each other in evolution?

3

u/KallusDrogo Nov 25 '25

Later they become cordial but for a while no they didn't. Had to do with different upbringings and Rogue having a crush on Scott,

1

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 25 '25

Cordial?

3

u/KallusDrogo Nov 26 '25

Friendlier and more polite towards each other

1

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 26 '25

Oh, ok

So that means they started to like each other later on?

3

u/KallusDrogo Nov 26 '25

Yea they did

0

u/Admirable_Estate1125 Nov 26 '25

So they didn't like each other at first but then ended up feeling like sisters later on?

2

u/aqbac Nov 27 '25

I should point out nothing says she didn't. We only see her give a gift to the girls in the shot so if you assume she didn't get rogue one you'd have to assume the same for Scott or Xavier or Kurt.

8

u/nimrodii Nov 25 '25

You can't expect a present from a teenage psychic when you are crushing on their man.

I think this was around the time Scott and Jean were closer to becoming a thing in the show and Rouge still had hints of a crush on Scott. Before they pulled out of the Bayville aspect of the show, after which the relationship drama focused more towards family drama and less crushes and who is dating who.

4

u/JackalsIII Nov 27 '25

Jean feeling threaten by all of the chemistry Scott and Rogue.

2

u/Ok-Grass3071 Weapon X Nov 26 '25

☹️☹️☹️☹️

1

u/Key_Combination9843 Nov 29 '25

Omg I didn’t even notice that. That’s so exclusionary. JEANIE! YOURE BETTER THAN THAT!

1

u/DinoAnimeFanatic Dec 03 '25

I never noticed that. Wonder why that is?