I have no idea how he's managed to con everyone into thinking he holds some sort of moral high ground for all these years.
When the main alternative's approach looks like "Kill ALL the humans!" the bar is set pretty low, I guess. Xavier doesn't actively want to murder anyone so he's one up on Magneto there.
I love Charles in First Class enormously, but I'm also a little puzzled by him. I loved that he used his nerdy genetics spiel as a pickup line, and I loved his drinking and sluttiness, and I loved the way he blurted out things he picked up telepathically before realizing he should keep his mouth shut. And I especially loved how freely he used his powers, because of course a dude who can read minds and control people isn't going to be ethically nuanced about it at first, especially when he has to hide it from nearly everyone; once he started meeting more and more people he could actually tell, and dealing with their reactions, then I could see him developing some ethical guidelines. But I think it makes sense that he wouldn't have them before that point, so I loved how casually terrifying he was with his powers in XMFC.
But... he can read minds and did so freely, which has me fanwanking his moments of (heh) insensitivity. It just seems like someone who could read minds would be a little more understanding of, for ex, Raven's struggle with her appearance; even if he's not reading her mind, he's reading enough other people to know how fraught the issue of appearance was for nearly everyone. (Charles saying 'I don't know what's gotten into you lately, you're awfully concerned with your looks' to a shapeshifter was one of the stupider lines of dialogue, I thought. I get that it was likely meant to be funny but imo it sacrifices characterization for a very faint joke.)
Tl;dr I also love Charles and his dumb mistakes and awful chat-up lines. :D
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timeasmymeasure
tl;dr I love Charles too
Date: 2011-10-09 11:34 am (UTC)When the main alternative's approach looks like "Kill ALL the humans!" the bar is set pretty low, I guess. Xavier doesn't actively want to murder anyone so he's one up on Magneto there.
I love Charles in First Class enormously, but I'm also a little puzzled by him. I loved that he used his nerdy genetics spiel as a pickup line, and I loved his drinking and sluttiness, and I loved the way he blurted out things he picked up telepathically before realizing he should keep his mouth shut. And I especially loved how freely he used his powers, because of course a dude who can read minds and control people isn't going to be ethically nuanced about it at first, especially when he has to hide it from nearly everyone; once he started meeting more and more people he could actually tell, and dealing with their reactions, then I could see him developing some ethical guidelines. But I think it makes sense that he wouldn't have them before that point, so I loved how casually terrifying he was with his powers in XMFC.
But... he can read minds and did so freely, which has me fanwanking his moments of (heh) insensitivity. It just seems like someone who could read minds would be a little more understanding of, for ex, Raven's struggle with her appearance; even if he's not reading her mind, he's reading enough other people to know how fraught the issue of appearance was for nearly everyone. (Charles saying 'I don't know what's gotten into you lately, you're awfully concerned with your looks' to a shapeshifter was one of the stupider lines of dialogue, I thought. I get that it was likely meant to be funny but imo it sacrifices characterization for a very faint joke.)
Tl;dr I also love Charles and his dumb mistakes and awful chat-up lines. :D