Huh! It actually never even occurred to me that interpretation of his words; I think this is a case of my knowledge of his later character tainting my reading. So I guess I should have prefaced this whole discussion with "actually I'm not sure I can look at the movie as a lone entity."
I don't find his failure to forgive those who trespassed against him, so to speak, monstrous at all. And I honestly don't think, unlike the essayist, that Erik killing Shaw was the point of no return, because I think that Charles had pretty much accepted that Shaw was going to die, even though he tried to argue against it. But while I found Xavier's "following orders" line grotesque in the extreme (which was pretty much the point) I don't think that single-handedly destroying an entire fleet full of human beings is acceptable morally or even strategically. I mean, they walked in there to stop a war, even Erik was on board with that- what, exactly, did he think that blowing up all those American and Russian fleets would do? He would be single-handedly condemning his fledgeling race to a witchunt that would soon become global in scale. I think that scene rendered him unheroic not because of his moral choices, which were sketchy but understandable, but because of the sheer idiocy of his moment of rage. Charles Xavier wasn't flawless, and he certainly wasn't guiltless, but I do think in that context that for all his sense of privilege and naivete he did genuinely have a better grasp on both the politics of the situation and the predictability of human nature.
And a side note, because hey it's not like this comment isn't epic already, another thing I see Erik lauded on in comparison to Charles is his treatment of Raven. And yet his campaign of "self-acceptance" instead feels deliberate and manipulative; the scene where she comes to his bed and he kisses her before sending her away skeeved me right the hell out. And not just because of later movies- although what he did to her in the third movie, when she takes the shot meant for him and is turned human against her will, and he walks away from her like she is no longer of any importance, definitely colored my reading of all of his interactions with her. I couldn't help but see all of his actions toward her as predatory and self-serving.
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Date: 2011-06-11 05:03 am (UTC)I don't find his failure to forgive those who trespassed against him, so to speak, monstrous at all. And I honestly don't think, unlike the essayist, that Erik killing Shaw was the point of no return, because I think that Charles had pretty much accepted that Shaw was going to die, even though he tried to argue against it. But while I found Xavier's "following orders" line grotesque in the extreme (which was pretty much the point) I don't think that single-handedly destroying an entire fleet full of human beings is acceptable morally or even strategically. I mean, they walked in there to stop a war, even Erik was on board with that- what, exactly, did he think that blowing up all those American and Russian fleets would do? He would be single-handedly condemning his fledgeling race to a witchunt that would soon become global in scale. I think that scene rendered him unheroic not because of his moral choices, which were sketchy but understandable, but because of the sheer idiocy of his moment of rage. Charles Xavier wasn't flawless, and he certainly wasn't guiltless, but I do think in that context that for all his sense of privilege and naivete he did genuinely have a better grasp on both the politics of the situation and the predictability of human nature.
And a side note, because hey it's not like this comment isn't epic already, another thing I see Erik lauded on in comparison to Charles is his treatment of Raven. And yet his campaign of "self-acceptance" instead feels deliberate and manipulative; the scene where she comes to his bed and he kisses her before sending her away skeeved me right the hell out. And not just because of later movies- although what he did to her in the third movie, when she takes the shot meant for him and is turned human against her will, and he walks away from her like she is no longer of any importance, definitely colored my reading of all of his interactions with her. I couldn't help but see all of his actions toward her as predatory and self-serving.