ibreathemyowndisaster:brilcrist:X-men First Class WWII AU.We got:-Charles as a British Airborne Medi

ibreathemyowndisaster:brilcrist:X-men First Class WWII AU.We got:-Charles as a British Airborne Medic-Erik as a German SS Officer and there’s hint of Logan, yes~? whether he’s in a friend or foe’s position.This piece was suppose to be 2nd prompts for X-Men Reverse Bangbut at the end i decide not too, since i’ll be very busy on April-July and the theme is kinda depressing….TATand well, i did a little research for the uniform, but if there’s mistake then please forgive me coz military uniform is kinda new to me:3now if u excuse me, i need to start doing commissions n pending charity artworks~I can’t believe people are being butthurt about this amazing drawing.1. THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE DRAWING. AU, as in, having nothing to do with the actual characters and story save for their likeness, name, and some personality traits. The history is entirely different. The story is entirely different. There aren’t any ‘implications’ of drawing a Holocaust survivor as an SS solider, because they aren’t the same characters here. And there is actually TONS of fic portraying Erik as a German solider, because, you know, HE’S GERMAN. 2. Erik Lehnsherr is a fucking fictional character. Just because he’s placed in real world events does not make everything drawn/written about him a commentary on those events. ESPECIALLY IN FAN ART. Similarly, the Holocaust was used as nothing more than a plot device in X-Men to give Erik the excuse to become the a-hole he did, albeit a sympathetic a-hole. Stop taking everything so seriously, stop making everything social commentary, and stop trying to find something to be insulted about in absolutely everything you see. Stfu and enjoy the beautiful fanart. Let me take a stab at this, as both a Jew and fan of the X-Men series in all its iterations. And also the Erik/Charles pairing but shhhhhhI will not deny the artist’s ability, she’s done a wonderful job and tends to do wonderful work. Neither will I say that this piece is designed with outwardly malicious intent, I am SURE that this person isn’t an anti-Semite, so I won’t be flooding her inbox with angry posts– but, to be frank, there are particular issues about this piece that I cannot help feeling extremely uncomfortable about. It’s not that I turn everything to something that is personally insulting to me (because this work is not insulting to me, just sad in the fact that artist is probably just ignorant of the implications of this piece), but the fact that the X-Men universe places the narrative of the “outsider,” whether that be Jew or homosexual or mutant, as a paramount theme in all of its iterations. And it is very, very difficult to divorce that theme even from most fanworks, which is why many people, like me, have a negative gut reaction to stuff like this, where the outsider narrative (so important for the development, personality and identity of our beloved characters!) has become displaced by figure symbolic of oppression.You make a point of separating AU from the actual canon, and yeah, I can see where you’re getting from. It’s fun to play to stereotypes and tropes to bring us to a better understanding of the works we love. But we still say, that yes, that is Eirk Lensherr, or yes, that is Charles Xavier. Most fanworks do not just borrow physical likenesses, they borrow the characters themselves. And I would have to argue that Erik’s character really is shaped by his identity as a Jew.So I would really have to take strong objection to your statement that the Holocaust was nothing but a plot device explaining Erik’s assholeish behavior. Erik’s Jewish identity not only fuels his philosophy as a mutant, it is reflective of the greater themes of X-Men, that of individual human dignity in the face extreme measures of oppression. You say that not everything has to be a commentary, but part of the franchise’s strength and its longevity is the fact that IT IS commentary. Jewish and outsider narratives have been shaping the bedrock of X-Men for decades.Look at Chris Claremont. Chris Claremont was the one who introduced the Holocaust backstory for Magneto. Until the Claremont era, Magneto was a largely one-note, flat villain with little meaning behind his motivations. Claremont, recognizing the basic themes of X-Men, drew up a backstory for Magneto that has placed him as one of the single best comic book villains, because, as a result of his dual experiences with oppression, he was, in some way, right. The Holocaust is not a plot device. It is an integral theme of X-Men, in that it says, like all we Jews say every Yom Ha'Shoah, AND like Erik says near the end of First Class: “Never again.”Claremont, incidentally, is Jewish. (As well as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, co-creators of X-Men). And since nearly all of the X-Men canon, including the films, have followed in his suit for Magneto’s backstory, I’m just going to leave you with this quote from the article I cited above:“I was trying to figure out what made Magneto tick, and I thought, what was the most transfiguring event of our century that would tie in the super-concept of The X-Men as persecuted outcasts? It has to be the Holocaust!” Claremont–who’d once lived for two months on a kibbutz in Israel, where he had met Holocaust survivors–eventually cast Magneto as a Holocaust survivor embittered by humanity’s silence in the face of Nazi barbarity. He now had a complex villain with a motive. “And once I found that point of departure for Magneto,” Claremont says, “all the rest fell into place, because it allowed me to turn him into a tragic figure who wants to save his people. Magneto was defined by all that had happened to him. So I could start from the premise that he was a good and decent man at heart. I then had the opportunity, over the course of 200 issues, to attempt to redeem him, to see if he could start over, if he could evolve in the way that Menachem Begin had evolved from a guy that the British considered ‘Shoot on sight’ in 1945–you know, 'you see him, you kill him! Don’t bother about a trial’–to a statesman who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.”My point is, that yes, fanworks can play around with different perceptions of Magento/Erik. But take away his Jewish identity, and you take away a HUGE SLICE of what he is as a character and a symbol. Secondly, being better acquainted with Holocaust history than most by the simple fact of “hey, you’re Jewish, the Holocaust museum seems like a fun and totally not scarring field trip for a fourth grader (look at this soap made from the fat deposits of Jews!) and hey, what the hell, fifth grade too and no, wait, let’s go over the Holocaust for at least a little bit every year for your Jewish education and then take a trip to the DC Holocaust Museum AND Yad Vashem and bawl your eyes out when you see the piles and piles of discarded shoes and even more shoes of people killed by the Nazi regime who you share an intrinsic cultural, religious and maybe even familial connection to,” I’m of the stance that the fetishism of SS officers is something that you simply shouldn’t do. Like, at all. Nazis are one thing, and though I can’t understand people who DO find some attraction in that, they are DEFINITELY a step below SS officers.SS officers were some sick fucks. So I can understand how you can compartimentalize things. But many of us can’t, and I hope, that likewise, you’ve come to a better understanding of that.Let us be “butthurt.” The moment we’re not is the moment that allow the testimonies of those who’ve suffered extinguish. They’re aren’t a lot of Holocaust survivors left. I urge you to talk with one, or listen to one if you can. Maybe then the concept of a tattoo on someone’s forearm won’t just become the physical trait of a fictional character to you, but rather something that has been tattooed in the collective soul of the Jewish people, including the people who have created the very character that someone has thoughtlessly dressed up like an SS officer.  -- source link
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