#i do not have my citations handy so yk. take this w a grain of salt bc i am not pulling panels.

[wellnoe]

Why did the Phoenix choose Jean Grey?

because jean was desperate, and needed it, and didn't want to die. the secondary implication here is that the phoenix was drawn to jean regardless of the shuttle crash, that they were made for each other, that the title of phoenix just IS jean's. this is pretty much classic x-men's stance. its one i like, bc its really clear phoenix is changed by jean and defined by jean. and also bc i tend to read 'now and forever' as being like. prescriptive for both the future and past.

some other x-men comics, including grand design, have stated that phoenix, as fire and life incarnate and as something very closely tied to death, was drawn to jean after jean's reaction to annie's death, where jean tried to pull annie back from death telepathically, and subsequently fell into a coma. i kind of like this idea, and i think you could pull in inferno as evidence if you wanted? like one of the very significant memories maddy gets from phoenix contact is annie, so much that its the one she tries to hold onto as her own to claim her personhood.

like i said i like this idea bc it ties into the jean baggage i'm interested in, and it also gets into the ways phoenix muddies the division between life and death, and also bc its kind of a transgressive thing i can see jean being attracted to?