This Year's Model of Humanity

I've been reading a lot of X-Men fic recently. Unsurprisingly. Both gen and also Charles/Erik (occasionally it's hard to tell where the two types diverge). There was a line from one of them (I don't even remember which) that really struck me - about Charles and his mutation.

( spoilers for First Class )

It's so weird to me that the three different things that I've recently gotten into all have "be the better man" (than you currently are ETA: possible better wording; maybe more like "please live up to the potential that I see in you") as such a strong theme. I've watched a lot of shows and while I know that this is frequently a subplot, I don't remember it being so consistently the major character arc of something.

( spoilers for both shows and for X-Men: First Class )

But, yeah, it's just odd to me that the three most recent pieces of media that I've consumed all have that as an extremely strong theme.