Comments | sour_idealist: And this time, I actually know what everyone is talking about while they are talking about it!

sour_idealist

And this time, I actually know what everyone is talking about while they are talking about it!

Jun 12, 2011 00:13

By which I mean: Tonight I saw X-Men: First Class.

To the surprise of nobody, I have thoughts!

( Spoilers... )

Comments 30

wake_the_dragon June 12 2011, 14:22:56 UTC

I have to say I liked Charles in this movie but at the same time almost no characther annoyed me more than him. Mostly it was his complete lack of understanding of people that bothered me: he couldn't understand why mutants like Mystique and Hank weren't happy about their mutations, and he completly messed up with Erick (really "They're just following orders" really Charles). Also, his mindwiping of Moira really bothered me. I think what they were trying to do was show that he wasn't always the wise Professor X and he had to learn from his mistakes ( ... )

sour_idealist June 12 2011, 16:25:03 UTC

Yeah, I definitely see what you mean with that. I'm glad they decided to go the flawed route and I definitely think that some of it was supposed to be annoying, but yeah, he's definitely fairly low on actual empathy for a telepath. (I bet that fed it, actually - he could read people's minds and so he never thought had to try to figure out how to connect the way the rest of us have to do.) And YES, UGH, mindwiping Moira was an asshole move there.

And yeah, all the fix-fic for Darwin. And Angel/Banshee could definitely have potential, at least as much as any of the other side-ships; I'd write it.

For all my grumbling, I did like the movie as I watched it, as well.

simply_shipping June 12 2011, 17:25:52 UTC

Darwin dying, just...ugh. Not only does the black dude die first, but it's the black dude whose power is that nothing can kill him, just for bonus side-eyeing. And Charles, well. I loved his characterization, even as I would never want to be friends with him. And a lot of his issues regarding Raven speak towards them being siblings. He just doesn't pay attention to her, because she's his kid sister. Not that it's still not rather asshole-y of him, but it works for me.

In other news, all the ships. Just. Yeah. This movie is so freaking shippy, in every direction. And I may have possibly spent a large portion of the last week on one of the kink memes, where they totally do need more femmeslash.

sour_idealist June 12 2011, 19:46:10 UTC

Yeah, SIDE-EYE SIDE-EYE SIDE-EYE to Darwin's fate. I'm hoping they're going to make another film and he'll turn out to be only mostly dead. And yeah, Charles's characterization did make a lot of sense, as does the oh-she's-my-kid-sister thing, I just wish... I don't know, someone had explicitly said DUDE YOU ARE BEING A DICK HERE. Who wasn't... slipping into world-destroying megalomania as he went.

ALL THE SHIPS EVER. Which kink meme, xmen_firstkink or 1stclass_kink? Also, if you've been writing, are you gonna crosspost?

simply_shipping June 12 2011, 20:10:37 UTC

Yeah, it definitely would have been nice if someone had actually called Charles on his bullshit (though I do like the conversation in the kitchen with Raven, even though it didn't quite seem to hit him). And at least with Darwin there are dozens of "Bring him back please" AU requests on the kink meme. Hopefully the filmakers will make some of them non-AU. *fingers crossed*

I've been looking at the prompts on xmen_firstkink, but only filling on 1stclass_kink so far. Probably going to crosspost once I clean up the fills though the one I'm working on now is turning out to be a bit monster sized, so who knows when it will actually be done, much less cleaned up.

sour_idealist June 12 2011, 20:40:42 UTC

Yeah, that was something, but it was also the start of Raven turning to the other side, soooo... basically I want someone to think Charles is being a dick without being evil.

I've been kind of avoiding 1stclass_kink on grounds of that seems to be where the wank lives, but perhaps I'll prod there too.

Thread 13

fae_boleyn June 18 2011, 01:44:56 UTC

My impression of Charles was that in a lot of ways he's a typical 20-something when the movie starts - hence awful-but-hilarious-in-their-awfulness pick up lines, and his double standard over his little sister (also, that is so Truth In Television, from what I know of older brothers, which is not much but still). A lot of the other issues for him, to my mind, were that he's a mostly good-intentioned guy, but they took him from 20-something to putting Patrick Stewart-type lines in James McAvoy's mouth. Guys, guys! He's not old enough to be the venerable Professor X, I highly doubt he had this philosophy so very developed already!

Also, I think you've just made me realize why this film is making Charles/Erik try to push my longheld Magneto/Mystique ship into second place. Snarky domesticity. (Is a snark!kink possible?)

sour_idealist June 18 2011, 04:41:22 UTC

Yeah, I think most of the issues came from trying to give him some abilities as a leader with nowhere for him to get those abilities, so he had distinct shades of self-righteous jerk to him. Also the standard invasive behavior of telepaths.

HELL YES snark!kink is a thing. (Long answer: Arthur/Eames, Other!Arthur/Merlin, ET CETERA ET CETERA.) I'm finding my main interest in Charles/Erik comes from the two of them running the school and interacting with the kids.

fae_boleyn June 19 2011, 01:10:08 UTC

Telepaths... yeah. I've written one who tries really fucking hard not to read minds - well, not her friends. Enemies, the bets tend to be off because when you're fighting, you use every damn advantage you have. It's a tricky power, especially when you can't block out other minds entirely. I think the older Charles learned, to some extent, what lines to walk, but the FC one isn't there yet ( ... )

sour_idealist June 19 2011, 17:09:00 UTC

Oh yeah, in combat all bets are off, but among friends it gets tricky, especially if it's the kind of power that's active by default, so it takes a great deal of focus not to use it - particularly since you'd be born thinking that everyone saw the world like this, and it wouldn't be until you got older that you really absorbed the concept of minds as private places, when your whole life things hadn't worked like that. I bet it would be really, really easy to end up reading people's minds accidentally too - you'd be trying to figure out what they were thinking using mundane means and then the next thing you know you're giving yourself that extra edge by accident. Especially with people you know so well you'd often be able to tell what they were thinking without extra powers - you wouldn't even realize you were reading their mind as opposed to their demeanor, I suspect ( ... )

Thread 15