(Untitled)

[sour_idealist]

Title: The View From Up Here
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
Characters/Pairings: Charles, Erik, Angel, Raven, Sean, Alex, Armando [ Skip] Implied Charles/Erik, Raven/Angel, and Alex/Armando.
Ratings/Warnings: G, barring lots of exceedingly foul language.
Written for: At the encouragement of gyzym  and littledust after a conversation with gyzym  about this picture.
Wordcount:

Comments

[moonfoot_gamgee]

Eeeeee! I love this omg. I love how it starts out all silly and lighthearted and then BAM, it's serious and emotional. You managed to put conflict in a fic about Charles in a tree (which clearly doesn't count as conflict in itself when it is so hilarious). I AM IMPRESSED, YO. Also, their voices are spot on. I hope you write more for this fandom, but regardless, I am going to search your fic for more awesomeness. A++ wonderful job.

[sour_idealist]

Thank you! I got partway through and realized I had no idea how to end it effectively - just getting him down from the tree would be ridiculously anticlimactic - and I'd spent a while discussing how Charles's abilities, and how casual he is about using them, turn really creepy if you think too hard about it. Hence, this. Again, thanks a ton. :D

[moonfoot_gamgee]

Re: Charle's casual use of his abilities. I KNOW RIGHT? Charles is a tool. A lovable tool, but I tool nonetheless. I have such mixed feelings about him. I like and dislike him simultaneously. He tries so hard to do good, but he comes at everything from such a privileged, douchey, higher-than-thou vantage point, that I often want to strangle him. Get off your fucking high horse and LISTEN to people for once, you nitwit. You can't just be all like, Be the better man! BE THE BETTER MAN!!!1!!!11! GOOD NOT BAD. YOU DOING BAD, ME DOING GOOD. at a dude who has been treated like crap his entire life and expect him to magically understand you. All Erik has ever known is that good gets your mother shot and not much else besides sex with Charles (but I'm pretty sure bad gets the same result, lol). *siiiiigh* Right. Okay, I'm shutting up now. *sheepish*

You're very welcome. :3

[sour_idealist]

Pretty much, yes. I can't quite make up my mind what I feel about him; I think if the movie actually addressed how many issues he has with things privilege and called him out at all, I might be able to really like it, but as it is... I just. I can't like him. The fact that he's trying to be good does not really negate the massive asshattery. I'd entirely be on Erik's side if he weren't, y'know, trying to kill everyone else. (And the whole thing with the comics using the X-Men as a metaphor for real-world minorities renders the whole thing even more problematic, because then if you extend it the message of the movie becomes 'minorities should stop being angry and wait quietly for normal people to expect them,' and within the movie all the 'good' minority stand-ins are played by white men... and this is getting well off the topic of Charles now.)

Will you think me a horrible attention whore if I mention that Charles's ignorance of his own privilege has sort of turned into another fic?

[moonfoot_gamgee]

I entirely agree. It's so frustrating because the movie could be so much better than it is. *sigh*

The X-Men as a metaphor for real-world minorities makes me uncomfortable as well. Yes, violence isn't the answer, but people shouldn't be expected to just sit idly by as missiles hatred and intolerance are thrown at them. There's also a huge difference in that, you know, people of color and lgbtq people don't actually have a power advantage over everyone else. Quite the opposite. It's the same with True Blood. The racism parallels are mighty uncomfortable because, um, black people won't...try to eat you. The vampires of True Blood are dangerous and vicious and the humans in the story have more than enough reason to be afraid of them. Even to hate them. SO PLEASE STOP TRYING TO EQUATE IT WITH RACISM, UGH