Come on, Erik is so in the right here. Charles’ childhood might not have been great (hiding his telepathy, having a distant mother, if we go by comics canon a nasty stepfather), but he was nevertheless incredibly privileged - he was rich, was sent to the best schools and universities, and in XMFC canon even had company in the form of Raven. Erik, on the other hand, had nothing. Nazi propaganda and legislation would have cut off any way for his parents to earn a living (in the comics canon, Erik’s father, who’s a civil servant, manages to keep his job until 1935 because he served at the front during the First World War, but even then they’re never more than getting by). What money they had would have been taken from them. None of his family would have been safe outside their home. In comics canon, Erik was expelled from school at the age of nine. Eventually they were deported to a ghetto in Eastern Europe, which would have been worse than a slum. No food, no sanitation, no access to new clothing, no medical care. In Magneto: Testament, his family survives because Erik steals food and smuggles it into the ghetto by crawling through a hole in the wall. And then finally, they would have been moved to a camp… and well, you know what happens.
Even if suffering isn’t quantifiable, there is no way on earth you could compare Erik and Charles’ childhood experiences. For all his goodness and kindness, Charles is and remains incredibly privileged, and (much as I love him) he’s a bit of a prat.
Except that I truly believe that Charles wasn’t so much a prat; but just speaking from a position of not understanding the psychological damage that was done to Erik. A child doesn’t survive the Holocaust..unscathed by the brutality of it all.
Can Charles really believe that a few months of hanging around; fucking around (maybe) would make everything better for Erik? That he could forget and forgive? I have people on a shit-list for doing a lot less to me. And I’m sure many of us are the same.
Which is why during the beach scene; when Charles spoke those unfortunate words, “…they are just following orders…”
Excellent (IMO) direction by Vaughn. Look at that scene; the look on Erik’s face. To be reminded again, barely what - 20 years later - “…they are just following orders…” This time the missiles are coming to kill his NEW family. But he’s stronger now - he’s not a child anymore.
I’m telling you; if I was Erik - I have a bad temper. I would have probably slammed Charles on the head with something metal. LOL
Definitively! Regarding Charles being a prat or not - I certainly don’t think he means it, but he really doesn’t get what other people go through. He is so certain in the universality of his own experience that he misses that other people have had much worse lives than he and will not heal simply through his kindness. Everything he does, he does because he think it is the nicest and kindest thing to do, but because of his lack of insight it doesn’t work. That is the great irony of his mutant powers. He’s a telepath who still does not understand other people’s minds. Much of his work with other mutants stem from a variant of a white saviour complex. Despite being a mutant, he can easily pass as human, so he tries to teach everyone that it’s best to embrace their powers while at the same time being careful and trying to pass, completely missing the reasons why for instance Mystique and Beast struggle with their appearance. In the same way, he misses other forms of inequality. Because he and Erik are friends, he assumes that they work in the same way and have the same perspectives, despite the fact that they have very different backgrounds.
