In the early books? or the later books? or the movie? bobby has been the perennial teen. He was the one who was always the wiseass and if anyone was gonna get into trouble it was him, I think. even today, in the books, he can be a smart mouth and a dissenter. But this dissention, instead of blossoming naturally into open rebellion against the prof's rather rigid dictates, just peters out in "foolin' around" and he is not to be taken seriously. I think, as he matures in the books this personna is beginning to grate on him, as the others of the original team simply do not take him seriously as an adult... which he surely is by now.
I don't think Xavier had to sit too hard on Scott. Scott was always too old for his age...too serious... too stuffy in some respects. so he didn't need sitting on. Henry, even at his most gregarious was the quinessential nerd/intellectual and probably didn't need much nudging, either. Bobby would have needed he most subtle"go do your homework and be quiet" kind of nudging. But Xavier did most of his subliminal shit with jean. she was the one he had feelings for and he kept her close and virtually made her his confidante and right hand girl. The fact that he was trying to "help" her with HER telepathic abilities...her telekinesis...was the obvious ploy for them to be close. You know, the old birds of a feather...
But to my mind, I always had the feeling he was holding her back and keeping her down or contained or manipulated. It was just a gut suspicion. then in the movieverse.. which is, of course, parallel to the books but not entirely the same... we see that the logical thing was that she had the budding phoenix pwoer all the time and Charles knew it and supressed it...instead of telling her about it and working with her to gain control over it as it... and she... manifested. The movie makes total retroactive sense and explains a lot of crap the books do not... or don't want to.
there are threads and storylines in the books to indicate that Charles had worked with jean before we see her show up on his doorstep as a "student". Back story as it were...because the relationship between Xavier and Jean was too cozy from the beginning. Why would a teen age girl go to an ...up till then.. all male enclave? No parent in their right mind would send their teenage daughter into a school where there were no other females... and we never saw any other staff or females in that school...especially in the early days. It was like a family home situation.. but it WASN'T a family home situation. Yes, kids go away to co ed schools... but those schools have rigourously separate girls and boys facilities cuz teens are not to be rusted with hormones raging. Jean's whole ambience in the early books was sister/mother/private seretary to Xavier and the guys. Oh, yeah... and go on missions, too... between doing the dishes, bringing Xavier his tea and plotting with him to keep his secrets... even from the other members of the group.
I am sorry, from a female point of view, it was just not a healthy or kosher environment in that early school. I would not have let my girlchild go there with no female chaperones. so were Jean Gray's parents coerced into letting their teen girl go to a basically guy's academy at the time? Sure looks like it to me...
then we come to the recruitment of ADULTS! Storm had no reason to leave her adopted people in Africa to drought and possible starvation. she was stabilizing the weather patterns to help them survive. What happened to them afer she left? did she ever take a backward look? Well, yes she did. she made at least one, and possibly more, journies back there...and it was on one of these that she wondered if Charles had manipulated her mind to follow him instead of staaying with these folk and helping them. At least they appreciated her... Of course, maybe she was just bored with being a "goddess"...right...
Moira McTaggart... another manipulated female who ..retroactively, of course... was found to have a whole genetics facility on Muir Island. What the hell was she doing turning up on Xavier's doorstep to be a HOUSEKEEPER???!!! this was a brilliant geneticist! she had a son by Xavier that needed help and attention... so... she turns up as a housekeeper??? Ahhh but Charles had his hooks in her and when he wanted or needed her, no matter what she had on the stove, it was put on the back burner and she came running.. and I postulate it was because she had no choice. He mentally said "come" and she came... to hell with everything else... including her responsibilities to a wildly out of control child... whom we found out about much later.
OK...so this is writers mucking up and convoluting the storyline...but if you try to make some sense of it all, it all goes back to Chuck and his manipulation of people via his telepathy... and then it DOES make sense. All of it. It is amazing how it makes sense. When something doesn't make sense, you gotta lood for the factor tha DOES make sense... that makes the whole scenerio work. and so much goes right back on silken threads to Charles. the manipulation factor makes sense of a lot of things that on the surface have no ulterior motives. A girl teen in a boy's school...sure... a goddess leaving her people to starve...sure... a national treasure and asset being wisked right out of the heart of the Soviet Union in the height of the cold war when even cultural exchanges were heavily guarded so the people wouldn't defect...riiiiiiiiiiiiight. C'mon... doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the mental manipulation here... cuz that's the only way some of this stuff could have logically happened!
and I don't care what Xavier's motives were. He's not god and he has no right to play with someone .. anyone... as if he was god! Just because he CAN is no excuse. If a bully knocks you down, and steals your money and beats you up is it OK for him to do that just because he CAN??? Is it OK for a doctor to do a surgical proceedure on you just because he CAN.. even if it would be beneficial to you? No. you have to give consent. But with telepathic interference, who is to say whether that consent is freely given or "nudged". And there's the rub. We have only charles' word for his honor. And I simply don't believe him. Initially it was a gut feeling... but over the years, the case has built in canon for massive manipulation by dear old benevolent chuckie.
I don't care if what he is doing is for the good of mankind or the society or anything else. Osama Bin Laden did what he did for the "good " of his society...he thought! In his own mind and the minds of his followers, he is not a terrorist villain...he is a herioc religious jihad fighter and savior of the arabic way of life! Archaic and anachronistic as it may be...the boys have it GOOD there and they don't want their little applecart upset. there's always a good excuse for doing what you WANT to do...even if ithers suffer... and if the suffering isn't massive or overt, then who is to say it is there at all? Maybe it is...maybe it isn't. depends a lot on your point of view.
But I digress...
Bobby was the type to get waaaaaaaay outta control in the original group but he didn't. His own good sense or did Xavier sit on him and control his excesses? Good question. I'm betting the latter, cuz as he has grown away from Xavier's control, he has still exhibited the lack of control and juvenile mentality that would have made him a much more boistrous teen than he was shown to be, but logically his behavioral patterns would indicate he WOULD be.
I guess the whole problem comes when you take comic characters who arenn't real... nor are their situations real... and try to make them as real as possible...searching for real reactions, motivations , etc... While this makes it easier to identify with them and makes them more interesting characters, you do have to deal with and explain anomalies in behavior pattrns, social anomalies and such. If you just want the characters to be a good, superfical shallow read, fine...you don't worry about the subliminal and convoluted possibilities. But if these characters are REAL people to you... and you want them to act and react like real people, then you have to go digging for the anomalies or your suspension of disbelief goes byebye. We can "wink" at the existance of mutant powers but the rest has to have a modicum of reality that would fit into the world as we know it. so all the behavioral stuff and scenerio anomalies comes under scrutiny and has to be explained... at least in some fan's minds. which is where you get heated debates on the net and wild and often very good fan fiction... explaining what the "pros" haven't explained or probably haven't even thought of.
Most of the writers of today don't do their research. They think they can write just anything... but they can't... cuz there ARE fans out there who will call them on canonical error, scientific error, historical and social error...the whole magilla. The writers used to have the honor to admit when they made a mistake...today they just gloss over it and say"we'll fix that.." and then proceed to warp the science, history or social situation to "fix " it. Which means it is not fixed at all but merely painted over and will blister and peel if someone tries to use it later.
It is a whole convoluted mish mosh and getting murkier by the moment... and no one is "fixing" anything. they are only digging them selves in deeper and deeper shit.
I don't wanna be around when the outhouse explodes...it ain't gonna be pretty!
Paty