idk why I all of a sudden thought of this, but I just really love when, in The Legacy Quest, Storm (who is under the mental influence of a demon) offers her allegiance and herself sexually to Shaw, who has been pursuing both throughout these books, and he not only turns it down and NOPES OUT OF THERE because of the altered mental state she’s in, he SHIELDS HIS EYES to not look at her in her white negligee and for a second he even reconsiders everything he’s been doing up to that point because this has horrified him so much
like it really GETS to him seeing Storm like that, it’s NOT how he wanted this at all
because his attraction to Storm, both romantically/sexually and in terms of wanting her for an ally, in fact is NOT based purely on her mutant abilities. It’s not like with Jean where all he wanted was the Phoenix Force and he was just like yeah let’s just telepathically brainwash her as our weapon, it’s very much STORM HERSELF he’s about
which makes sense, because when Storm was the White King of the Hellfire Club, she LACKED POWERS. And yet still co-held the seat with Magneto, while leading the X-Men, while ruling the Morlocks. Shaw KNOWS her capability has little to do with her genetic gifts, and he of all people, whose own mutation is very incidiental to his talents and accomplishments, values that and HE RESPECTS HER. Which includes respecting her agency and free will in a way that is surprising but also MAKES SENSE FOR HIM (and is in stark contrast to how villains who lust for Storm usually try to deliberately TAKE AWAY those things from her) as someone who values individualism and self-determination (though he also has no problem trampling the rights of other people in almost every OTHER way) and I just...really love that, both the attention to his character and the careful crafting of this dynamic, and that the writer did NOT go for the cheapest, tawdriest, low-hanging-fruit option that would have been SO easy but so tasteless. Like this is just honestly SO much more interesting and says so much more about Shaw’s mindset as an INDIVIDUAL than just another Bad Guy Rapes The Heroine/Villains Want Storm.
Which is not to say he deserves a cookie for not being a rapist or that it makes him a good guy, HE’S NOT, he’s 110% evil, BUT he’s Very Specifically Evil, not Generically Evil, and also being horny and kinky doesn’t make him...that...and I like that’s what writers went for over the more “obvious” alternative (especially since it’d ruin my enjoyment of him then and there if they had)
