Do you think Rogue and Remy had a wholly good time in Valle Soleada? 

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Do you think Rogue and Remy had a wholly good time in Valle Soleada? Is there any chance that Rogue would have really struggled *not* having her powers or later on felt that being powerless was the only way Remy would have her? I haven't read X-treme X-men yet, so forgive any clueless assumptions these questions make! I guess this is a long way of asking how VS works out in your HC.

Interesting question! I feel like Rogue and Remy certainly had a very happy time in Valle Soleada, and that their relationship came a loooong way in that time. During X-Treme X-Men we see that they are happy and comfortable in one another’s company, that they work well both as romantic partners and as a team. The more I think about, the more I realise what I joy it was to read Romy as they were in that period. It was proof positive those two could be together in a normal, loving, healthy relationship.  They had their own life, their own place, no superheroic obligations - a space to figure out what they had on their own terms, as any normal couple would. There was zero angst, they seemed to be comfortable with one another physically (though not in way that was shoved in your face all the time), and they demonstrated such implicit trust in one another. It kind of felt like they’d taken a million steps back in all the years they spent apart afterwards.

There are numerous moments that attest to just how comfortable they were with one another, and with their relationship. It’d take me forever to go through them all, so I’ll post a few teasers here.

(First off - please forgive me for posting the objectively ugly art. You have no idea how pissed I was that Salvador Larroca was ditched to work on Namor, and we got Igor Kordey instead. I wish I could redraw these panels for you. I really do.)

1) These two are just so damn handsy throughout the entire length of the run set in Valle Soleada. Always touching, always close, always completely comfortable with one another.  I mean, I may not be a fan of Kordey’s art, but I love him for sneaking in all these little background moments where they’re just

touching one another. Where you always get a complete sense of their togetherness. They felt like a couple. They acted like a couple. It was glorious.

If that didn’t convince you they were now comfortable with one another on a physical level, the in-your-face sexy moments probably will.

Rogue even wears Remy’s underwear under her sarong! 

2) Now apart from coming to terms with all the physical stuff, it seems to me like that also came to terms with their relationship on an emotional level. Earlier on in the series, Rogue had brought him back from the literal gates of Heaven - redemption and salvation as he’d seen it - which he’d seemed to have very mixed feelings about. He wasn’t happy to have lost his powers either. But they appeared to have worked all that out, because…

Remy is totally fine with it, which indicates they’ve had some long, hard talks to get to this point.

3) Speaking of talking, Rogue and Remy are still just full of the ol’ banter, teasing one another like no one’s business.  Even their unspoken interplay is a treat. In

X-Treme X-Men #41, Remy hands out beers to everyone round the table, and takes the last remaining can for himself. On the sidelines, Rogue just holds out her hand like, Cajun, ya know that’s mine. And of course, he gives it up to her with his usual smirk. You just know these two have fun ribbing on each other ALL the damn time.

4) Rogue herself admits to Bishop and Sage that she is happy with Remy, and she’s realistic enough not to view the relationship with rose tinted glasses, saying ‘they’re working on’ being happy, and even if she ‘doesn’t have a ring on her finger’, she’s fine with where they’re at. Which I think is particularly mature of her, considering she’s inexperienced with relationships. She’s fine with taking things slow, and it appears to be working out for the both of them from the looks of it.

5) Not only does Rogue seem totally at home with Remy, but also with herself. Throughout the Valle Soleada run, she exudes a confidence she never really had before - not simply in the amount of skin she bares, but also in the physicality of her movements. The panel above is just a taster of that - but in other issues she’s bouncing around, jumping about, being completely forward, sometimes even aggressive in her gestures. This is not the woman who’d once shied away from physical contact. This is a woman who’s confident with her body, and comfortable in her own skin - something I’d hazard to say Remy had a hand in! Even better is that she even admits that sometimes, the whole experience still scares her - an admission which goes to show just how mature she is about the powerless situation she now finds herself in.

6) These two don’t just work together as lovers, but as teammates too. To quote the old adage, they make an amazing team. There are quite a few times here that they get to work on a problem together and prove that they’re pretty much on the same wavelength, both in the middle of a fight, and while piecing together a ‘crime scene’.

7) I think most of all is the idea that these two have actually made a life for themselves together. They have a home of their own, filled with all the things that are uniquely ‘them’. They’ve decorated it just the way they want (Rogue’s movie posters all over the wall always get me, as well as the full bookshelves). Rogue even has a job as a mechanic. They have friends, and a social life. They seem comfortable in it. 

To answer the part of your question dealing with Rogue thinking that things could only work between them when they were powerless - I really believe that during Valle Soleada, Rouge and Remy moved beyond the ‘can’t touch’ issue. And sure, not being able to touch wasn’t an issue in Valle Soleada, but I’m pretty sure they must’ve realised there was more to

them at that point than just the physical stuff.  That isn’t to say that they might’ve broken things off afterwards (which they did), but that they are both so much more than the physical compatibility. Valle Soleada proved to them that they worked together on an emotional level, a romantic level, as partners in every sense.  I don’t buy that either Rogue or Remy could believe that it wouldn’t work between them after her powers came back.  They might call it quits for a whole slew of reasons, but I don’t think the inability to touch alone would really come into it after VS.

And let’s be honest, I’m sure they’ve experimented enough to figure out ways to get their kicks without touching one another skin-to-skin anyhow ;)

PS: All this goes to show one thing. I have always been on the fence about Romy getting married, but if they ever did, Valle Soleada was the one place where it would’ve happened and I would’ve bought it 100%.

Inks by a shedload of people I can’t be bothered to list, but kudos to them!

In X-Men 169 Golgotha ​​is intensifying their fears and insecurities. Problem is Remy thinking that the only thing that unites them is the fact that they can not be touched and “you’d just another one-night stand”. How??? He lived a year with her thinking like that? It makes no sense!!!

@kalternativa-shipperx​ WTF, he said that?! If I’m honest, i do not remember the specifics of that run at all… I haven’t read it since it first came out. It was fucking awful. It doesn’t surprise me that Milligan would make him say nonsensical shit like that. :/

Other thing: “Not touching is the only thing that’s keep us together” (Remy for Rogue, in Golgotha), wth Remy is saying here?

@applejacks1552 I totally agree about that WTF moment in BTL! Maybe that’s why I always found it difficult to fit VS into the chronology (I started to read comics recently). For me, VS would be just before Legacy. When Rogue talks to Remy about the times in VS on the X-Men Legacy # 134, this helped reinforce the idea that nothing happened between X-Tream and Legacy.

@ludi-ling​ Oh, sure,I also think they could have continued being together after she got her powers back, and it would have made sense after VS, I was just trying to make some sense of the canon. Even so, the way they dealt with the breakup was absolutely horrible… And we never did see how she got the powers back, did we? We don’t really know if she made a conscious decision to jumpstart them of if they just came back naturally.

@galrisa​ been a difficult choice for her, esp. considering her r/ship with Remy, but NOPE - we got nothing. It’s just completely glossed over. Also, I’m not sure Rogue was OOC in VS, altho I get why some might think so. I actually saw her as hyped up by her new sense of freedom, by the fact that she was finally able to touch, had her own life, and was comfortable with her body. That made her more forward, excited, jumped-up, aggressive. But that’s just my MHO! ;)

@galrisa​ I also wanted to say, I take your point about the can’t-touch thing. However, I think it’s a possibility they could’ve worked through it after she got her powers back, and I don’t like the way they dealt with their breakup in the comics. What also bothered me was we never saw HOW Rogue got back her powers - just all of a sudden she had them back, and we never got to see why she made that decision. By all rights, we should’ve had her rationalising what must’ve

@galrisa​ It certainly is a fantastic time to be a Romy fan! ^^ And thanks for your post-analysis analysis also! <3

PS: @90sxmen4ever​ totally with you on how relationships inevitably develop when you live together after a few months. That VS was completely ignored… Another SMH moment. And @applejacks1552​ Like, I don’t think they even did read X-Treme? With Milligan, sometimes I wonder whether he was actually writing X-Men satire in his run, what with his work on X-Statix. Austen - well he started out in porn comics, that’s all I’ll say ¬_¬

@applejacks1552​ @narwhallove​ @90sxmen4ever​ @cmoineau​ OMG! I’d forgotten about Deadbit! Yeah, I think that was probably the exact moment I checked out completely. SOOOOO glad no one references it anymore! I do have my problems with Bazaldua, but overall I think he’s doing a very good job, whereas with Kordey… SMH. I think Marvel was too much for him. He’s actually a pretty good artist. Marquez redrawing VS would be like my dream come true, frankly! XD

@applejacks1552​ @ludi-ling​ Yea it’s so disappointing the story lines and lazy writing that was pushed out by Marvel for all those years starting with Antarctica and so on. You didn’t even have to be a fan of Romy to see how poorly those story lines took their development and characterization into account. That’s why I really appreciate what Kelly Thompson is doing right now.

@cmoineau​ @narwhallove​ @ludi-ling​ Oh yea the art was dreadful for VS. Imagine how much better VS would’ve been if David Marquez from the Xmen Gold Wedding issue had drawn this instead of Igor Kordey. I can’t remember anyone else drawing Remy and Rogue (and characters in general) so well and so beautifully in recent times. Lol at Bazaldua’s long con, he’s doing a good job on the art so far.

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Ludi Price. 1/3 academic librarian; 1/3 PhD in fan information behaviour; 1/3 fangirl. Obsessed with Romy half of my life. Annoying, walking X-Men encyclopaedia. Drawer of fanart, writer of fanfic, on/off collector of comics. Lover of colour, historical/vintage fashion and many other things. Mixed race. She/her. Asexual. Acafan. Ask me anything.  

**My art only blog, to cut down on confusion. If I like your art, I will ❤️ it**