Thread:Rodangizzardcrusher3/@comment-26687285-20161222013026/@comment-26687285-20170415234347

5: Charles and Erik's history.

Problems: In X-Men Charles tells Logan that he met Erik when he was 17 years old and that he doesn't know why he can't find Erik with Cerebro, whilst in X-Men: First Class they met each other in their early 30's and he witnesses the effects of the helmet first hand. Also, in the first two films Charles and Erik both mention that the reason why Magneto is able to protect himself from Cerebro's influence is because he and Prof. X worked together when constructing it, even though in X-Men: First Class we see that it was actually Hank McCoy who built the machine and the two split up before the school was ever opened.

This is actually something that Bryan Singer has admitted to being embarrassed about. Looking at the first 3 films, it's pretty obvious that, at the time, the filmmakers were only focussing on the current story and were largely beholding to the comic continuity to fill in the history of the universe. And since X1 is primarily an introduction to the series it makes sense why he would have written a quick backstory establishing the connections between the characters. This is why we see Charles and Erik together in the 1980's in Last Stand, why Charles is implied to have been crippled after their break-up, why we are told that Scott, Jean and Ororo were among Xavier's first students, why it is repeatedly made clear that Wolverine had no claws before the Adamantium bonding process, why the Sentinels in X3 look much closer to their original comic incarnation, etc. Really, the true answer is: "They f*cked up". But that doesn't really get us anywhere, so let's see if we can find some rationale for these hiccups.

Solution (Charles' story): Ignoring Gonzo's "3 universe" approach, my best explination for Charles giving Wolverine a different account of how he and Erik met is that Charles didn't want to recount the exact events because of the emotional impact that it had on him. After all, Xavier has always been quite secretive about his personal life, his failings, and his pain. Perhaps he didn't want to acknowledge the role he played (however indirect) in the creation of Magneto and Mystique. Yes, that's clearly not what we are supposed to take away from that scene, but I've really got nothing to work with on this one.

Solution (Magneto's Helmet): It could just be that Charles meant that he couldn't find Erik's lair rather than Erik himself, since Logan's question can be interpreted as "unsing it to find out where he's HIDING". Similarly, Charles and Erik's comments about having built Cerebro together could be taken as them simply having reconstructed it when it was installed in Xavier's mansion. Yes, I know that logically there is no way Charles would have ever let Magneto have any kind of control over such a device once he had become a supervillain and broke up their friendship. But again, I'm trying my best here.