Illyana Rasputina: Magik Appreciation 2020

[Dipter]

It’s gonna be interesting to see how they transition from her being scared by all the haunted house antics to slicing everyone up.

I'm pretty sure it will be something corny, like the power of friendship giving her the courage to face her fears.

[Havok83]

It’s gonna be interesting to see how they transition from her being scared by all the haunted house antics to slicing everyone up.

You're assuming she is even scared

[sunofdarkchild]

There have been 2 scenes of her getting scared that we've seen. The first is when she sees the image of those faceless men standing over her child self. The other shows her screaming as the doctor injects something into her neck, probably a tranquilizer to calm her down. The first is completely self-explanatory. Suddenly being forced to relive a childhood trauma will do that. A similar thing happened in the issue where Rogue joined the X-Men and in the issue where S'ym attacked the school when she joined the New Mutants. It's something she would presumably get over fairly quickly and go back to being badass. It's the second one that has me scratching my head. That's presumably earlier in the movie, and there's no context for it at all.

[Fokken]

Maybe the scene with Illyana being subdued (and possibly sedated) is tied to her lashing out at Dani. That scene where she lunges with the soulsword making contact with one of Cecilia's forcefields. I remember an additional scene during that zoom special they did just recently, that had Illyana mocking Dani's ignorance of her own powers.

[sunofdarkchild]

The scene where she's being subdued takes place in the same hall as the scene where she summons her armor in newer footage, and she's wearing the same clothes.


magik subdued.jpg

Note also that there's no one else around. When she mocks Dani for not knowing her powers everyone is there - she even hits Sam - and she's wearing a different shirt. The same goes for when she attacks Dani.

magik vs mirage.jpg

There seems to be a lot of bad blood between Illyana and Dani. The second to last shot in the latest trailer has Illyana looking like she's choking Dani and trying to push her into a portal to Limbo.

[Fokken]

I can understand why. Dani is the cause of all their fears coming to life. She's pissed at her for that. She's pissed at appearing vulnerable. She's angry that Dani is (from her perspective) some dumb kid who doesn't know what's she doing and its causing everyone pain.
Perhaps the sedating scene is Cecilia blitz attacking Illyana, when she sees her busting out the armor/sword -- fearful she is going to attack one of the other kids.


God I want to see this so bad.

[sunofdarkchild]

Here's an interesting excerpt from an interview Boone gave after the comiccon panel where he talked about Anya Taylor Joy/Illyana.

"And you know, there’s a precedent for Anya—like that was the character that was sort of already a superhero. Like, she’s already done so much more than the other kids that are trapped there with her. And she can escape with ease to a place that she made up—it’s in her mind that she’s sort of the queen. It sort of gave her a different way to kind of act above everybody, which informs a lot of the interpersonal relationships in the movie, sort of her her overconfidence."

On the one hand, it confirms that she is much more experienced with her powers than the others at the start of the movie. The scene of her teleporting and slashing the smiley men on the staircase shows that pretty well. On the other hand, there's the implication that Limbo is just in her head, which is not a change I would be pleased with and seems to contradict what the footage of Limbo has shown so far, since all the stepping disks seem to go to Limbo and her teleporting isn't in her head.

The big question from the time it was announced that the kids would be held in a medical facility and have to find a way out has been what Illyana is doing there in the first place and why she doesn't just teleport out. Presumably she's there by choice more than anyone else, but why? If she has the experience and thereby the control the others lack, why bother with this at all?

Another aspect that worries me is what exactly is her character arc supposed to be in the movie. If this was set in the school I think her story would be about trying to fit in after spending most of her life in Limbo and therefore not knowing how to interact with her classmates and being an outsider even in the mutant school while being afraid to reveal her true powers, and only gaining the confidence to be herself towards the end of the movie when the action heats up and she can't afford to hold back anymore. In this setting it makes sense that she'd be the confident sassy badass from the start, but where do they go from there? Is her 'overconfidence' to set her up in a 'pride before the fall' scenario? Is it just about learning to work with others? Or is there no arc for her in this movie and that was being saved for the then-planned third movie covering Inferno, so in this movie she'd just be the badass with the cool action scenes?

[Fokken]

Perhaps her motivation is tied to her backstory. Boone also implied during another interview that Illyana has a past with child abduction & trafficking. And that is what those Smiley face men represent. I believe, despite all the grandiose and mythic elements, they're doing what they can to ground the rest of the narrative as realistic as possible.
Illyana recognizes "This isn't a hospital. Its a cage"
Perhaps she's staying by choice to determine whats going on with this alleged hospital and what exactly they are doing with children like herself. I'm curious how the others found their way into the narrative. Who brought them and/or did they admit themselves,

[juan678]

[juan678]

[sunofdarkchild]

Hmm. Fokken, looks like you may have been correct about the sedation scene having to do with a fight or attack on Dani. Juan678 just posted some behind the scenes footage, and it turns out that Illyana is wearing her white shirt in the scene where she tries to choke/send Dani to Limbo, the same shirt as in the scene where Reyes sedates her. Then she seems to see something and freak out, which would line up with the need to sedate her.

I still think that this happens pretty early in the movie, but it makes the context for her attack on Dani there even more confusing. When I saw the trailer I thought it was probably something to do with trying to move the problem to Limbo and maybe how the bear ends up in Limbo where Illyana is more powerful and better able to kill it. Now that it can't be part of the climax that theory is out the window. So why attack Dani there? Why summon a portal to Limbo? What is the freakout about?

It also now seems there won't be any mystery about Illyana's powers and that she'll show off the armor, stepping disks, and Limbo very early on. The sword and glowing eyes might still be a later reveal.

[juan678]

[Fokken]

The freak out: Dani made Yana see something she didn't want to see?

Then again, if the sword swinging into the forcefield above scene is later, perhaps they've already been made aware of the Demon Bear, and Yana's solution is to give the bear what it wants --- or if the bear and Dani are linked, her solution is to cut through Dani to sever said link.

[sunofdarkchild]

From Around the 3 minute mark.

[G0RM]

Empire: X-Men #2 is quite possibly the most Magik-Centric comic I've seen in years!

War Captain In The House (of X!)