christel-thoughts:

Black Panther made it very clear that white Hollywood just doesn’t know how to write a female warrior in love.

Okoye loved a man too, but her story wasn’t ABOUT him.

• He didn’t have to teach her a damn thing
• She didn’t give anything up for him.
• She didn’t go evil for a quick second and go on a rampage, losing herself, because she lost him.
• She didn’t entertain, for even a miliisecond, compromising herself for him
• She wasn’t crying over him
• Their relationship wasn’t shoehorned in for no reason other than “there has to be a romance”
• Most of her scenes had nothing to do with him

Except for the last point, all of that applies to Nakia too… but in addition

• When he interrupted her work, she was angry and allowed to say something along the lines of “you ruined my mission!” unapologetically
• She continued to do her job
• She continued to thrive separate from him
• Love for a single man didn’t outweigh her love for humanity and it wasn’t something she had to agonize over. It was a simple decision that wasn’t considered a real conflict for her.

In general, love didn’t make these heroes and warriors weak. It didn’t make these women vulnerable in a way that didn’t fit their personalities or compromise their duties.

In fact, we only saw love do that twice – when T’Challa saw Nakia and when T’Challa watched Zuri die.