Problematic because: "Usually presented as one of the great moral leaders of the X-Men, but he also has a long history of treating other people’s minds like something he’s allowed to manage. He can read thoughts, alter memories, shut people down telepathically, and influence choices, and across different versions of X-Men he uses those powers in ways that are very hard to defend. In the films, for example, he wipes Moira MacTaggert’s memories at the end of First Class, even though she’s been an ally. In broader comics canon, he’s also kept huge secrets, hidden information from his own students, made contingency plans against the X-Men, and sometimes decided that he knows what people can handle better than they do. He also recruits and trains young mutants, many of them traumatised teenagers, into a team that repeatedly ends up fighting terrorists, governments, aliens, cosmic forces, and other mutants. The school is supposed to be a safe place, and in many ways it is, but it’s also attached to a paramilitary superhero team run by the same man teaching and housing them. Charles genuinely wants mutants to survive and be accepted, but he can be paternalistic, secretive, controlling, and far too comfortable deciding that the “greater good” gives him permission to interfere with people’s memories, autonomy, and lives."
Propaganda: 1. "I like Charles because he’s genuinely trying to do good, but he’s also exactly the kind of person who becomes terrifying if you think about his powers for more than five seconds. A rich professor with a secret school, a superhero team, a machine that can find mutants anywhere, and the ability to edit what people remember is already a lot. Then he keeps making choices like “I know best, so I’ll decide what everyone else gets to know,” and suddenly Magneto’s paranoia starts sounding less irrational."
2. "Charles is one of my favourite “problematic good guy” characters because the uncomfortable parts are baked right into the concept. He believes in peace, coexistence, education, compassion, all of that. He also has one of the most invasive powers in the setting and a lifelong habit of using it while convincing himself it’s necessary. I find him more interesting than the perfect saint version some adaptations want him to be. He can be kind and still manipulative. He can love his students and still put them in danger. He can be sincerely committed to mutant liberation while also acting like his judgement should overrule everyone else’s consent. There’s something very believable about a man who wants to save the world so badly that he starts managing people instead of trusting them. And I do love the tension with Magneto. Charles has the softer dream, but he’s not harmless. He’s powerful, wealthy, connected, secretive, and sitting in everyone’s head half the time. You understand why people follow him, and you also understand why people might be scared of him."
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