Mystique is an X-Men character who requires keen attention. Her narrative is not a straightforward one--and that's really saying something for the X-Men franchise. Newer versions of the film have implemented shifts in the character makeup of Mystique, and on top of this, the character has been played by numerous actresses over the years.
If Mystique doesn't get enough credit, much of it is likely due to the fact that her character hasn't had the proper chance to establish a solid foundation for us to get to know her. But if you do pay close enough attention, Mystique is by far one of the most fascinating and nuanced characters. Here are 10 facts about Mystique that you may not have noticed.
She Began As Magneto's Equal And Ended Up A Henchman
In X-Men: First Class we go back in time, before the time Professor X was referred to as such--when he was just Charles Xavier, a young man who recently graduated from college and who lives with his best friend, Mystique--then referred to by her given name, Raven. Raven is a well-rounded character, and when she meets Eric--Magneto--they are friends.
When he breaks away from Charles (Professor X), she joins him as a comrade. This differs from the first X-Men film, where we only know her as Mystique, someone who does Magneto's dirty work and scarcely speaks a word in the whole film. But, better late than never!
She Used To Hate How She Looked
Mystique was drawn to joining Magneto's ranks because he was the first person to value her for exactly how she was born. Charles loved her as a person, but he always dealt with her looks awkwardly, imparting her with a feeling of shame even if he didn't mean to.
Because she has the power of controlling how she looks at any given moment, people don't seem to consider that it matters to her if they don't like her when she's in her natural, blue form. But to her, changing her appearance is a constant effort in hiding who she is.
Her Focus Is Compromised When She's In Disguise
As Magneto points out in X-Men: First Class, while Mystique is using her energy to maintain her appearance as anything other than her blue state, she is unable to give anything else her total focus.
This offers the viewer a view into the fact that Mystique's state of being is not a relaxed one--conforming to societal standards of "normal" takes constant effort and jeopardizes her attention to other aspects of her life, not to mention the toll it would take on one's mental health--explaining why she gets more and more irritable and depressive before she finally decides to quit hiding.
She Never Explains Why She Doesn't Wear Clothes
Mystique's nudity is confusing. All the power to her, her character is very empowering--but the treatment of her form is inconsistent. Her nakedness is, at times, not considered on-par with nakedness--it's regarded as part of her mutation, as if necessary to her power, or as if she is respected as a creature different from them.
Yet, when she walks into the kitchen to the James Mcavoy version of the Professor, he winces and asks her to put clothes on. She doesn't need to be nude to use her power, and other than being blue and a little scaly, her body is pretty much the same visually as a naked human. So, why the nudity?
She Feels Like Xavier's Pet
Xavier first finds Mystique when they are children. He lives in a large mansion, and upon hearing noises downstairs goes to investigate..finding a tiny child Mystique in his kitchen. They remain friends from then on, Xavier telling her she will never have to steal again. But this creates an unfortunate power dynamic.
Mystique obviously cares for Xavier, but she asserts that she feels like a pet to him--this is brought on because of his tendency to treat her blue form as exotic or less than human, but the admittance also reveals underlying power conflict.
She Is Over-Simplified In The First Movie
It's a wonderful thing, what they do with Mystique's character in the second movie--giving her a back story, allowing her to be a multi-faceted, conflicted, thoughtful character and inspiring female. It's hard not to feel a little sad, though, when placing her improvement in the technical timeline of the story.
If we go by the chronology of events, not the release of films, Mystique's character becomes weaker with the series. It's nice to take solace in the idea that in the ideal world of the fiction this is not the case, and is merely the result of the angle the films in X-Men.
She's Sensitive
So many versions of Mystique show her as tough and down-to-business. Even when she isn't functioning as a soldier in some mission, she is usually joking or acting as if she is unaffected by things. But her moments of softness reveal her other side.
From the moment she gets frustrated with young Xavier hitting on a woman in a bar, we know Mystique has a sensitive side. Did she have feelings for Xavier? Not necessarily, she may have just been angry that he called the girl's eye color 'mutation' cute when he won't say that Mystique's mutation is beautiful.
She Joined Magneto On Good Terms With Charles
In the later days of the school of the X-Men, when Xavier is old and grey (or, bald), Mystique and Xavier show little sign that they ever had a connection, and she actively works against him.
Back in the day when she signed on to live in solidarity with Magneto's objective to resist humans--separating them from Xavier, who seeks harmony with humanity--Mystique left with Xavier's blessing. He knew it's what she wanted, and they seemed to part as friends. Yet we see little sign of that later on, which is sad.
She's Hurt When Beast Doesn't Find Her Beautiful
When Mystique and Beast first meet they bond over the fact that they are both insecure about their mutations. Mystique doesn't like how she looks when she isn't working to disguise herself as a blonde, traditional beauty. Beast doesn't like that he has huge, hand-like feet. Being a scientist, Beast uses his skills to try and make a cure for them.
But by the time he's done with it, Mystique, having been told by Magneto that she's beautiful the way she is, has changed her mind. She tells Beast that he is beautiful too and that he should be himself. He declines, however, to return the compliment, and she looks shattered.
She Has One Good Line In The First Movie
As we've established, the Mystique from the first movie can't hold a candle to the later versions of her. We mostly see her scampering around, given the behaviors of an animal without the personality traits to make us see her as anything much beyond that. She does have one moment in the film, however, when we are offered a small piece of who Mystique is a person.
In a quick moment between scenes, she remarks to the anti-mutant politician: "people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child." While this could be said by pretty much any mutant, and therefore doesn't give Mystique much substance, it remains a good line and is true to who we later learn she is.