Thread:Rodangizzardcrusher3/@comment-26687285-20161222013026/@comment-26687285-20180802172825

Marvelfan94 wrote: 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 telepathic influence is because he and Prof. X worked together when constructing Cerebro, 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. 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. 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. The filmmakers probably also didn't expect that they were ever going be making an origin film for these characters. And considering how tainted the series had become by 2011, they decided to place innovation above consistency.

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's 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 "using 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 after he had become a supervillain and broken up their friendship. But again, I'm trying my best here.

Problems: How on earth could a walking Charles Xavier and a released Erik Lehnsherr possibly be going to visit the Grey family together in the early 80's when we saw Charles get paralyzed and Erik form the Brotherhood, and subsequently being incarcerated at the Pentagon, 10-15 years earlier? And just how/when did they decide to settle their differences given that in 1973 the two are still separated and their antagonism towards each other remains very strong? And let's not forget that (if we view all the films leading up to Days as one timeline) this is supposed to be the version of history where the events of DoFP didn't happen, meaning that Erik would not have been broken out of jail in '73 and Charles would've continued to use his serum indefinitely.

Pff... man, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of excuses now. Let's just be honest, there really is no way to explain or fix these particular inconsistencies that is even remotely sound or coherent. As I've mentioned several times, the first four films in the series clearly stick to a more comic accurate continuity when it comes to specific parts of the universe's history. It is made pretty obvious that events like Charles being crippled and Erik becoming Magneto and forming the Brotherhood of Mutants happened after the opening of Xavier's school and the formation of the OT's X-Men, not in 1962 through the events of FC. And again, this is why Gonzo's video is so important to keep as a side. This issue along with Raven and Charles's first meeting are the areas where the "3 universe" theory does the most to clear things up. But let's set all of that aside and once again look at everything as one ongoing history.

Solutions: If you're familiar with the Bent Bullet viral marketing campaing for DoFP, you will know there was a "Free Magneto" movement that campaigned for Erik's release, believing him to be innocent. This kind of public pressure could concievably have convinced the U.S. government to let him go around the late 70's, which would've led to the events of the OT. But again, even this just doesn't add up. Because if that were indeed the case, why isn't the entire country still houding Erik as the man who committed the most devastating political assassination of the 20th century? I finally decided to finish writing the rest of this entry. Let me know what you think.