{"id":4114,"date":"2006-12-15T05:07:58","date_gmt":"2006-12-15T10:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2016-02-22T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T04:11:09","slug":"chris-claremonts-plot-points-of-future-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2006\/12\/chris-claremonts-plot-points-of-future-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Plot Points of Future Past"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I've been talking about Chris Claremont a lot, recently. In the recent review of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/yo\/ml14_psy.php\">ML14 Psylocke<\/a>, I mentioned that Claremont has certain \"tics,\" little things you can always count on in his stories. Here's a partial list:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Repeated Stock Phrases<\/b>: \"I'm the best there is at what I do.\" \"I am now his... body and soul!\"<\/li>\n<li><b>Foreign Words<\/b>: foreign characters will speak perfect English, except for simple words and phrases, which will be in their native tongue. Da, tovarisch? Also, clumsy attempts at conveying accents, me boyo.<\/li>\n<li><b>Possession\/Mind Control<\/b>: Jean's transformation into Dark Phoenix. The entire \"Muir Island Saga,\" and Proteus before that.<\/li>\n<li><b>Telepathy<\/b> as an intrusive assault - \"mind rape.\" Related to the above entry.<\/li>\n<li><b>Torture<\/b> as a transformative agent for female characters. Psylocke was raped, her boyfriend was killed, then she had her eyes gouged out.<\/li>\n<li><b>Body Modification<\/b>: As above. Rachel Summers had \"psychic tattoos.\" Storm was turned into a child. Anyone infected by a Brood alien transforms into one painfully.<\/li>\n<li><b>Faked deaths<\/b>: as when the entire team relocated to Austalia<\/li>\n<li><b>Stuck in alternate dimensions<\/b>, whether via kidnapping or simple mistakes.<\/li>\n<li><b>Slave traders<\/b>: related to the kidnappings above.<\/li>\n<li><b>Bondage<\/b> and other sexual humiliations. Often happens after a kidnapping. By slave traders.<\/li>\n<li><b>Flirting<\/b> between platonic friends. It comes out of nowhere, makes no sense, and is eventually forgotten.<\/li>\n<li><b>Age-inappropriate relationships<\/b>: Colossus and Shadowcat. Psylocke and Cypher. Professor X and Jean Grey. Gambit and child-Storm.<\/li>\n<li><b>Mentoring<\/b>: usually a \"soul bond\" between an adult woman and a teenage girl. Or a teenage girl and Wolverine.<\/li>\n<li><b>Family connections<\/b>. It's never enough for a character to be by themselves - their family has to be specially targeted at some point, or they have to be related to new characters. Cyclops' dad is a space pirate who works with Professor X's alien girlfriend and is hunting Marvel Girl.<\/li>\n<li><b>Betrayal<\/b>. Dark Phoenix, Archangel, Gambit, etc.<\/li>\n<li><b>Property Damage<\/b> that is easily repaired, cartoon-style. Characters will comment on the damage they cause to buildings and such.<\/li>\n<li><b>The United Kingdom<\/b>: there will always an excuse to go to England or Scotland.<\/li>\n<li><b>Old characters<\/b>: even when writing <i>Fantastic Four<\/i>, the X-Men and their villains were constantly showing up. He brings his favorites with him from book to book, even if they don't really fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Psylocke fits almost all of those themes. Poor girl. Can you think of any more?<\/p>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><H5>&lt;i&gt;And now, some more OAFEry:&lt;\/i&gt;<\/H5><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"When asked, all of them described it as \"uncanny\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2025\/06\/when-asked-all-of-them-described-it-as-uncanny\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">When asked, all of them described it as \"uncanny\"<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Rustin's Spoils of the Week #142\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/rustins-spoils-of-the-week-142\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rustin's Spoils of the Week #142<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"MODOK World Domination Tour addendum\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/modok-world-domination-tour-addendum\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">MODOK World Domination Tour addendum<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"GI Joe Fury Force customs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2009\/12\/gi-joe-fury-force-customs\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">GI Joe Fury Force customs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Rustin's Spoils of the Week #31\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2011\/09\/rustins-spoils-of-the-week-31\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rustin's Spoils of the Week #31<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I've been talking about Chris Claremont a lot, recently. In the recent review of ML14 Psylocke, I mentioned that Claremont has certain \"tics,\" little things you can always count on in his stories. Here's a partial list: &lt;i&gt;And now, some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2006\/12\/chris-claremonts-plot-points-of-future-past\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,34,37,25,11],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addendums","category-commentary","category-lists","category-marvel","category-toybiz","tag-x-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21923,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions\/21923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}