My two cents about Professor X and why he didn’t make more of an effort recruiting the Brotherhood:
Todd: Professor X actually was interested in recruiting Todd (Storm was the one who was kind of judgy), and offered the toad-boy to join them. Todd refused because 1) Mystique got to him and pressured him to sneak into the mansion, and 2) he most likely wasn’t a fan of being attacked before being invited to be part of the X-Men
Lance: Professor X was also interested in talking to Lance, but having a vague idea of the latter’s background and learning from Jean how Lance was trying to ‘seduce’ Kitty into more delinquent-esque behavior, probably tried to focus more on Kitty because regarding her relationship with her parents and her own background, she would be the one more likely to convince. Didn’t help Lance’s case when in retaliation to Kitty choosing not to go with him, he responded by making the school’s office’s roof and walls to land on her <- ‘But he knew she could phase through—’ Did he though? From what I gathered in the episode, all Lance knew was that Kitty was just barely learning about her powers, needed help learning how to focus and control them, and had limited experience as to how much stuff she could phase through and how many people she could phase. Professor X most likely held off on recruiting him because 1) why at this point would Kitty be comfortable with Lance? In the next episode, we see she is still kind of uncomfortable and overwhelmed with the rest of the X-Men—especially Kurt—and warms up later; 2) Mystique got to Lance super quickly as well. It is not until the second season that Lance WILLINGLY goes to the Institute and wants to be an X-Men…AND PROFESSOR X IS COOL WITH IT! At this point, he has an idea that Kitty and Lance have since grown closer (Kitty has since forgiven Lance for what happened in their debut episodes?), and is thus okay with them being in close proximity to each other. It’s Scott and some of the other X-Men, plus I guess the rules of the Institute, who wound up driving Lance away in frustration.
Fred: …Do I really need to spell out why Professor X probably did not make more attempts to actively recruit Fred by the end of his debut episode? After what the latter did and attempted to do to Jean?
Pietro and Wanda: As much as I think Professor X could have and should have tried to help Wanda get out of the Asylum, I don’t think Magneto would have been cool with his ex-friend recruiting his kids. As much good as that did everyone in the long run, I think Professor X wanted less reasons for Magneto to actively attack the X-Men.
Tabitha: TABITHA was the one who willingly left. Professor X had been willing to keep her on even in spite of how rebellious she was, and had even did his best to prevent her father from getting to her. And I don’t think mind-wiping the dad would have prevented Tabitha from coming to the decision that as much as she likes and appreciates the X-Men, she wanted to be free to do her own thing for a bit. Plus, she was still trusted and welcomed back whenever she came back.
I’m not trying to excuse Professor Xavier from his choices, per se, because he’s not a perfect character, and some of his decisions made me face-palm, but I think there is more to him not recruiting the Brotherhood than prejudice.
Just my opinion, though.
