I would have included the fight with the Imperial Guard, but it would just be the X-Men fighting characters I hate. I decided to concentrate on the important moment instead.
Claremont has acknowledged that Scott's monologue at the end is pretty awkward. Because the ending was changed at the last minute, he wasn't able to foreshadow Jean's decision earlier in the story, so he felt like he had to justify it after the fact via Scott's speech. I tend to agree with you that it wasn't necessary. But, given the massive clusterfuck surrounding this issue, it's a miracle it came out at all, never mind that it's widely regarded as an all-time classic.
Oh, well, if Claremont acknowledges it's not his best, then I'll retract some of my grumbling. (And to be fair, as I understand it there was quite a bit of behind-the-scenes fracaing... fracing? Which would leave anyone a little distracted.)
Oh, definitely. It was just "failure to communicate" all the way up and down the chain of command. There's a really good interview in a book called "The X-Men Companion", where Claremont lays out step by step everything that went wrong:
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(And to be fair, as I understand it there was quite a bit of behind-the-scenes fracaing... fracing? Which would leave anyone a little distracted.)
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https://tombrevoort.com/2023/01/01/the-x-men-companion-1-chris-claremont-interview/#jp-carousel-38110