And this is where the problem comes in Nell. The blame fully goes on Kinberg, Penn, and Rothman. It seems you're not understanding that all three have contradicted themselves in terms of Cyclops.
Kinberg and Penn have both said many times it was THEIR idea. They wanted to show how "dangerous Jean was" and that if she could "kill the man she loves, then no one is safe."
Those were their exact words. I don't know if I blame Vaughn or not since he didn't film anything nor did was he involved from the beginning. However, the blame for what happened to Cyclops lies solely on Kinberg, Penn, and Rothman.
Oh, I do not believe in the least bit that Vaughn is blameless in this.
Before he came along, the script that had Cyclops dying off was non-existant. It could have been in Kinberg or Penn's drafts somewhere, but when Vaughn came around, he was the one talking about how he wanted to have contriversial decisions that would have the audience on the brink of tears. The character death talks started after he arrived, not before.
Do I believe that Kinberg, Penn, and Rothman have their share of the blame? Absolutley. You are absolutley right that Kinberg and Penn (or at least Kinberg) stated that it was a creative decision to show how dangerous Jean was. Penn heavily implied in his final posts over at X-Verse that it was studio mandated, though he refused to go into any detail about it. Rothman has a history of holding a grudge, as shown in his throwing Singer off the Fox lot. And the death talks came after Vaughn started talking about killing characters. And the script that killed off Cyclops was written under Matthew Vaughn. The AICN script that was reviewed was the 6 day script written under Vaughn.
So I think there's blame to go around for everyone.
Kinberg and Penn say Cyclops wasn't even supposed to be in the movie at all, and they had to fight to get him in just long enough to kill him off.
Kinberg said Cyclops' death was a creative decision to show Jean's true potential.
That's a blatant contradiction there.
I don't know where the blame lies, but I don't think anyone involved is blameless.
What I don't get is how you say I don't understand that Kinberg and Penn contradicted themselves about Cyclops, and how they said it was their decision to show that "nobody is safe", when I said EXACTLY that they contradicted themselves, and that they said it was a creative decision to show Phoenix's destructiveness in the very post of mine that you quoted:
Nell2ThaIzzay said:
I have heard things that have indicated it was a creative decision to kill Cyclops, and that they WANTED to do it. There have been things to indicate that it was studio mandated.