Xavier and Magneto contrast
an old post on tumblr that's my most popular post there, for archiving purpose:
I 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 unbridled 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.
Yeah, I think their powers also inform them to a great deal. The power that Xavier has means constant awareness. It’s both a potentially overwhelming burden and, as you say, a constant advantage. The constant knowledge that help is a thought away. It also forces him to consider different point of views - literally that’s what his power is - to see people in their individual personhood. And, of course, it’s a constant temptation (again, the importance of self control).
And Xavier had his power since a very early age, and grew up hiding that fact, knowing that he had to hide that fact in fear of repercussions. And in comics, Xavier kept the fact that he himself was a mutant hidden - even as he was presenting himself as a mutant rights advocate and expert - for a ridiculously long time, and was only outed by Cassandra Nova pretending to be himself.
It’s not like Xavier only embodies the idea of passing, because he’s also (most often) disabled in a very visible way; but it’s something that is a much larger element of his makeover.
Erik grew up as a visible minority (by law, visible and stigmatized and soon enough segregated in ghettos); then was a visible refugee (by accent, very probably, at the least) who had to suffer from it; and only then came onto his power. And from then on Magneto spends very little time passing. And when he does, it’s very much being undercover.
There’s a lot of things in the movie about passing/being visible; to a large extent because they lean the most on the LGBT metaphor; of course.
Erik’s power is also, overwhelming, about being powerful. It’s how his character is built around, much like Xavier’s built around thinking through different point of views, communicating and being subtly manipulative. It’s also built onto his survivor’s guilt: He survived so he could be prevent the same things from happening to mutants now that he has the power to do so. He’s the man who can now rip the doors from his hinges (like he couldn’t when he was a child).
Erik’s rejection of humanity is also something that is very interesting to see in the frame of his background. Because for a lot of people, what happened during the Shoah was something that lead to deeps questions about humanity. What does it say about us that we are capable of this, and to let it happen? Does Humanism mean anything in the fact of complete orchestrate dehumanization? and so on.
And Erik was capable to deal with that by rejecting completely on humans, to the difference of mutants. Mutants are new, they provide a tabula rasa, and opportunity to build a revolutionary society where such injustice would not happen. That’s the core of Magneto as a radical figure of mutant supremacy. That’s what he says to Magda when she questions what he is: “You… are not human” – “Far more than human, I suspect. Better than human, I vow.” From the observation of factual difference to the framing this different as an ethical project funded on fundamental othering in one sentence.
So I agree he thinks he isn’t, was not, and will never be one of “them”.
OTOH, he’s perfectly capable of viewing humans as individuals (witness many of his relationships with humans). He just doesn’t do it as part of the ideological construct through which he view the world.
I 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 unbridled 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.
(from razielangelofsecret)
I feel there’s another side to this.
Charles has always had the benefit of his powers. Not matter how many times he can pledge he won’t use them on someone, we’ve seen he doesn’t always keep his word. He’s had the benefit of foresight through mind reading. He has multiple different view points depending on who is around him.
Erik has only ever seen through one view. The view of the oppressed. The view of the mutant. The view of the downtrodden. He doesn’t see any other way because he has grown up with the one way. He doesn’t think about the people who are putting him down as individuals. He doesn’t sympathize with human beings because he isn’t, was not, and will never be the same as them in his eyes. He has one view, and one method to fix it.
Charles is a man who would use diplomacy to open doors.
Erik is a man who would rip the door from it’s hinges.
Yeah, I think their powers also inform them to a great deal. The power that Xavier has means constant awareness. It’s both a potentially overwhelming burden and, as you say, a constant advantage. The constant knowledge that help is a thought away. It also forces him to consider different point of views - literally that’s what his power is - to see people in their individual personhood. And, of course, it’s a constant temptation (again, the importance of self control).
And Xavier had his power since a very early age, and grew up hiding that fact, knowing that he had to hide that fact in fear of repercussions. And in comics, Xavier kept the fact that he himself was a mutant hidden - even as he was presenting himself as a mutant rights advocate and expert - for a ridiculously long time, and was only outed by Cassandra Nova pretending to be himself.
It’s not like Xavier only embodies the idea of passing, because he’s also (most often) disabled in a very visible way; but it’s something that is a much larger element of his makeover.
Erik grew up as a visible minority (by law, visible and stigmatized and soon enough segregated in ghettos); then was a visible refugee (by accent, very probably, at the least) who had to suffer from it; and only then came onto his power. And from then on Magneto spends very little time passing. And when he does, it’s very much being undercover.
There’s a lot of things in the movie about passing/being visible; to a large extent because they lean the most on the LGBT metaphor; of course.
Erik’s power is also, overwhelming, about being powerful. It’s how his character is built around, much like Xavier’s built around thinking through different point of views, communicating and being subtly manipulative. It’s also built onto his survivor’s guilt: He survived so he could be prevent the same things from happening to mutants now that he has the power to do so. He’s the man who can now rip the doors from his hinges (like he couldn’t when he was a child).
Erik’s rejection of humanity is also something that is very interesting to see in the frame of his background. Because for a lot of people, what happened during the Shoah was something that lead to deeps questions about humanity. What does it say about us that we are capable of this, and to let it happen? Does Humanism mean anything in the fact of complete orchestrate dehumanization? and so on.
And Erik was capable to deal with that by rejecting completely on humans, to the difference of mutants. Mutants are new, they provide a tabula rasa, and opportunity to build a revolutionary society where such injustice would not happen. That’s the core of Magneto as a radical figure of mutant supremacy. That’s what he says to Magda when she questions what he is: “You… are not human” – “Far more than human, I suspect. Better than human, I vow.” From the observation of factual difference to the framing this different as an ethical project funded on fundamental othering in one sentence.
So I agree he thinks he isn’t, was not, and will never be one of “them”.
OTOH, he’s perfectly capable of viewing humans as individuals (witness many of his relationships with humans). He just doesn’t do it as part of the ideological construct through which he view the world.
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