Different Kinds of Strength

[ysabetwordsmith]

This quote, from this article, made me drop my brain. Spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past.


"But there’s also been no outcry at Kitty’s absence from the meat of the action because no one misses a character they hardly know."

What. The actual. FUCK?

Kitty Pryde saved the whole world, human and mutant alike. She did this by sending Wolverine's mind to the past. She sent him decades back, when her previous efforts were a few days to a week, maybe a month at most. That is beyond exhausting; it is life-threatening. And then she kept doing that after Wolverine unconsciously stabbed her, while she was bleeding to death and crying from the pain. We know she was bleeding out because Bobby explicitly remarked that she was losing too much blood.

In my mind, this is heroism equivalent to Tony Stark carrying a nuke through the wormhole. Kitty knew she was dying; they all did; it was their last stand and their last chance. She did her job anyway. And this is somehow not enough for people? What did you want to see her do, fire a machine gun with her magic snatch?

Fuck that noise. There's more than one way to be a hero and Kitty was IT in that movie.
 

Comments

Had clicked off--

[dialecticdreamer]

the article within about the first two paragraphs. It /seriously/ annoyed me, and not merely for the reasons you list above.

The /tone/ of the article comes off as downright pompous. Snotty. "I know better than everyone else how THIS topic should be handled."

Turns me right off.

You make an excellent point about her sacrificing herself, but it wasn't "BIG" and dramatic. It was quiet and dramatic, sad, frightening, emotional... I think the open display of emotion is what made the other -- I can't type the word 'writer' or 'author' without a full-body shudder-- /person/ may have been dismissive of.

I mean, Tony Stark saved the world in a MANLY way. A flicker of emotion, then just "get the job done". Sure, he was presumably banged up inside the suit, but he wasn't bleeding from deep puncture wounds and trying to hang on to the person he considered a mentor for what, /twenty years/?

Kitty Pryde is not Tony Stark, but somehow the expectation was that she would save the world /in the same way/ that he did? Meanwhile, what about the efforts of the other X-Men? Not even worth mentioning because someone has an I-hate-Kitty-Pryde rant disguised as "disappointment" in the movie portrayal?

My dad had an expression about opinions and ... noses, yah, that'll work... everybody's got one.

[whitemage]

Wow, yeah, that is painfully stupid and myopic on their part.

It's just so exemplary of how quiet sacrifice is never rewarded. Which is horrific, because that really is heroism: doing your duty for the sake of the work and not the fanfare.

[siberian_skys]

WTF says it all. The author of that article completely missed the point. If it weren't for Kitty then all would have been lost before it had even started. How did that get missed? I think I'm going to have to take a second trip to the movies this afternoon to support Kitty and her quiet badassery.

[snippy]

Women are just support systems--even if long-term support is required--for the real efforts made by men, who are the only real people.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but...

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't so much get "Kitty's not a hero" from that article. I got more of an, "if they'd managed to give one of the main players in one of the X-Men's biggest plotlines ever something to do in her previous 3 appearances in the series other than steal Rogue's boyfriend, maybe they'd have been able to make her the main character instead of a big damn hero who dies early," vibe.

--Jessica

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

AMEN! Preach it!