Recs: XMFC, The Killjoys/bandom

[starlady]

X-Men First Class
X-Muppets!

X-Men: First Class soundtrack with extra songs (including the end credits track!)

vids!
watch me fall apart on vimeo ANNNGGST
ready for abduction
Friday night LOL

I find that I don't really care for most of the XMFC vids I've seen (not that I've seen a lot, I've mostly been following kuwdora's guidance on fic and vids), because I am so leery of reading random fic in this fandom, so leery. And true enough many of the vids I've seen have really focused monomaniacally on Erik's past and…that's not what I'm interested in exploring. The movie isn't a story about salvation (and the idea of Charles being able to save anyone is laughable, hello, Charles Xavier has massive issues of his own, they just don't make for good summer celluloid), it's a story about survival, and I find Erik's choice at the end, even though I don't actually think it's terribly consistent with the writing up until that point, to be the more interesting part of the story. Giving up true love for what you believe? Yeah, that's heroic, and interesting to me partly because I doubt I could do it. So, in conclusion, the XMFC vid for me is still talitha78's Til The World Ends, it is the essence of the story that I am interested in. But Set Fire to the Rain manages to address Erik's past without getting bogged down in it, and I liked it a lot too.

On another topic entirely
Draculoids Will Never Hurt You by sassbandit and were_duck
My Chemical Romance (Killjoys 'verse)
Gerard hates his job in the art department at BLI. The only good part of his day is hanging with the smokers downstairs, especially Frank, who shares Gerard’s frustration and rebellion against the corporate norms. But when Frank is fired, Gerard quits his job too, and with Mikey’s and Ray’s help, sets off to find Frank, irritate Korse, and turn art into revolution.

I've been hearing about this fic for months, and now it's finally here! I've never read bandom fic before in my life, and I don't know that I will again, but this fic is so good, it's the postapocalyptic anti-corporate art-based music-making revolution fic that you never knew you needed in your life, but you do, YOU DO. ♥ The master post contains art and three fanmixes, too. ♥

Comments

[kindkit]

He starts the movie already having 'graduated', already trained, while Charles's graduation scene, which is literally shown, shows a man just stepping out into the world

Hmmm, this is making me think about the way, in the film, Charles has a future while Erik has a past. XMFC Charles is at first the brilliant student full of possibilities, then the young academic establishing himself. Erik, on the other hand, is entirely focused on redressing his past; I wonder if he ever thought about what he'd do after finding and killing Schmidt/Shaw. In a way, his taking up of the mutant cause gives him a reason to live and to think about the future (beyond "when I catch Schmidt") for the first time ever.

in my read of the movie, by the time they're at Oliver Platt's facility Charles has already read Erik's mind completely

That's certainly compatible with how we see Charles use his powers. I like to believe that he didn't, because I like to believe that he treated Erik with more respect than most other people (Raven being the other exception). I guess my own preferred interpretation is that he took a peek and decided that on second thoughts, he didn't want to go wandering around in Erik's intense and rigidly controlled suffering without permission. But that's not exactly about Charles having ethics, it's about his feelings towards Erik.

[seekingferret]

I wonder if he ever thought about what he'd do after finding and killing Schmidt/Shaw.

I don't wonder this at all. I feel sure that he has clear plans that go far beyond Schmidt. I think we see an inkling of that in his Geneva hotel room where we see his map of Europe, but most of my feeling on this issue are from the scene with Erik and Charles the night before they go to Cuba, the one where in my interpretation Erik is saying subtextually something like "Charles, I know you read my mind back there at the CIA facility and you know my plans. You knew it was never about peace for me. You know that once I kill Schmidt I move on to the next part of the plan and this temporary alliance of convenience I formed because you and Moira could help me kill Shaw will be severed. But I like you and would want to keep working with you if you're willing. Are you in or are you out?"

But again, I saw the movie I wanted to see, not the real movie. I have no barometer to tell me how legitimate a reading of the film this is.

[kindkit]

I think you see Erik as much colder and more, well, villainous than I do. (I'm not, btw, implying that that's an illegitimate reading, just that I disagree.)

[seekingferret]

Nope, I see him as the hero of the movie.