On The Bent Bullet website:
Under The Trial of Magneto-Erik Lehnsherr: "I did not shoot your president...but I know who did, and you'll never find her. She has a way of hiding in plain sight."
Under Magneto's Last Words-Erik: "Whoever said that was Oswald in the warehouse?" "Whoever said the killer was a man?"
Earlier in the article, Oswald has no idea why he's being arrested that fateful day. Statements from his wife claim he was a different person in the weeks leading up to the assassination.
Considering Erik's telling Charles he didn't kill JFK, because he was a mutant, but that he was trying to save him from anti-mutant operatives; isn't that a direct retcon of DOFP's own viral marketing campaign, which has brilliantly woven little fill-in details into the events before, during and after DOFP?
All signs on the website point to Raven being the President's assassin. It might at first seem like a tiny continuity error. But if the President was Raven's first kill- not Trask-wouldn't that hold alot more weight in the actual film? Especially between Charles, Erik, and Hank. They may have figured her beyond saving; Erik would've saw her as killing one of her own. Even if he thought Raven didn't know JFK was a mutant when she assassinated him, wouldn't he bring that up to her during their conversations in DOFP?
Erik could be lying to Charles. He's done that before. To me, that would be the easy way out, and another example of the lack of attention to details by the filmmakers. Nevermind continuity problems amidst the X-saga; this is happening in ONE movie!
Who says it was Mystique? Sure Erik's words makes us think it's her, but it could've easily been Emma Frost, still hellbent on her anti-human hate train. Though, you would think she, being a telepath, would've known that...
On the subject of the whole JFK thing, I actually called that being a plot device over a year ago, though I thought at the time that he was the one they needed to save rather than Trask. It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up: Magneto bending the "magic bullet" to kill the leader of the human free world? How on Earth could he resist?
Though, JFK being a mutant was a nice surprise, as was Magneto trying to save him. I don't see any reason at all to think Erik would've lied about that just to butter up to Charles. Erik is many things, chief among them being the self-proclaimed savior of mutants. He would not stoop to labeling an inferior being (human) as one of his own just to deceive Charles, his best friend whom he has directly hurt.
A lot of people got upset over this plot detail, and I'm not sure why. Was it tragic? Of course. A conspiracy? Almost certainly. Was this an X-Men film? Yes. Why
not bring these things together? "Respect for the family"? I'd say that family has had more disrespect thrown at them over the last half-century then most others, and a passing mention in a clearly fictionalized film is the least of their concerns.
^Good point, I didn't think of that. I recently went on that Bent Bullet site again and am confused who exactly killed the president, was it Oswald, was it Raven, was it one of Trask's men etc.
Didn't Erik say, "I tried to stop it, but there were too many of them..."
I think a blending of real life conspiracy theory X-film history is the answer here. The government, by and large, clearly has an issue with mutants since they intervened at the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK was an issue for the military industrial complex/big oil/communists/pick your favorite real-life conspiracy. JFK being a mutant? If word of such thing got out (as was likely given the Intelligence Community, wire tapping, JFK's...ahem...way with women), even on a small scale, the Human factor in the government would've wanted to make damn sure he was taken out, properly, with no mistakes.
Imagine Erik catching wind of this, somehow, via Emma, Azazel, Mystique, whatever, and he stands there in Dealey Plaza, diverting bullet after bullet (like in the end of First Class), trying his best to save the best hope for the free world AND mutant kind, only to fail, and then be blamed for it? It's no wonder he was as angry as Charles was, locked away for a crime he didn't commit, blamed for the very thing he trying to stop, and he seized the first opportunity to "get even" with the very people who damned him in the first place.
If he was lying to Charles, it would make his attack against Nixon very troublesome. Why try to kill ANOTHER President, knowing the next one will be put in? He is a tactile genius, remember? "Killing one man isn't enough."
BUT, he had the vast majority of US government at his mercy, ready to set things straight, killing the men that killed his best hope for peace.
