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salineaI think one of the most interesting thing about the way Xavier and Magneto contrast is how you can root their difference of attitude from their background.
Like, Xavier comes from a very privileged background and is idealist and optimistic, and Erik is has lived through the Shoah and is cynical and pessimistic. But there’s much more to it than that.
Xavier lived in a dysfunctional family, in which he felt very out of place. He found respite in school - an institutional environment. He saw first hand in Cain how people can turn from victims into abusers because of that abuse. His concept of evil - and of how to fix it - is very personalised. It’s something individuals do, because they’re wrong headed. It’s also something that’s rooted in um-brindled force, and in lack of self-control; so Xavier tends to stress the importance of self-control a lot in the way he sets up the school, and he picked Scott - the one who absolutely needed to be in control of his power at all times - as leader.
Erik grew up in a very loving and functional family unit. He has a very solid sense of self and ego despite everything else he’s lived. The evil he’s suffered is institutionalised. It’s not something done by individuals, it’s done on large scale by society as a whole, fostered by indifference, and orchestrated by the use of excessive control. There’s no simple appeal or polite request that can stop it. Only violence was able to counter it. So he’s not interested in fixing it, only in uprooting it.
And also other stuff but they were part of discussions so I don't really feel like reposting them.
Like, Xavier comes from a very privileged background and is idealist and optimistic, and Erik is has lived through the Shoah and is cynical and pessimistic. But there’s much more to it than that.
Xavier lived in a dysfunctional family, in which he felt very out of place. He found respite in school - an institutional environment. He saw first hand in Cain how people can turn from victims into abusers because of that abuse. His concept of evil - and of how to fix it - is very personalised. It’s something individuals do, because they’re wrong headed. It’s also something that’s rooted in um-brindled force, and in lack of self-control; so Xavier tends to stress the importance of self-control a lot in the way he sets up the school, and he picked Scott - the one who absolutely needed to be in control of his power at all times - as leader.
Erik grew up in a very loving and functional family unit. He has a very solid sense of self and ego despite everything else he’s lived. The evil he’s suffered is institutionalised. It’s not something done by individuals, it’s done on large scale by society as a whole, fostered by indifference, and orchestrated by the use of excessive control. There’s no simple appeal or polite request that can stop it. Only violence was able to counter it. So he’s not interested in fixing it, only in uprooting it.
And also other stuff but they were part of discussions so I don't really feel like reposting them.
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Date: 1 February 2013 12:39 am (UTC)i'd never thought of it this way, and i know this is about their original versions, but it fits with how i saw them in xmfc.
it's reminding me of a discussion i had with someone who was bummed that erik and alex never interacted in xmfc/erik wasn't his mentor (alex had failed to save angel and darwin from shaw the same way erik had failed to save his mother).
i agreed it was a missed opportunity, but in the great scheme of things, alex (and sean) was always meant to be under charles's wing because he needed to learn control, while raven (and hank, but self-loathing got in the way) was meant to be under erik's, because they needed to learn to let go.
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Date: 1 February 2013 05:09 pm (UTC)Great point about Alex vs Raven (and too bad about Hank). They benefit from different teaching, yes.
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Date: 2 February 2013 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 February 2013 04:52 pm (UTC)