the thing i love about t’challa wasn’t just that he took killmonger to see the sunset, it was that he was in tears as he listened to killmonger’s story – that he was arguing that killmonger wouldn’t exist if t’chaka had simply shown compassion, that he understood the black panthers of the past had maybe been wrong. you can feel his empathy for people, and why it makes him the black panther whose story is being told; the most special thing about him isn’t his powers, or his suit, because there were black panthers generations before him. his fighting skill isn’t revolutionary – he gets beaten. the thing that made him special was that he has a big heart. t’challa is a good person. genuinely, a great one.
not to be dramatic, but Okoye telling her bitch ass husband she would end him without hesitation when he tried to manipulate her changed me as a person and cured my depression.
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.
“We did a totally Afrocentric, natural hair movie,” Ms. Friend said. “There was not a pressing comb or relaxer on set. That wasn’t happening. We’re in a moment when people are feeling empowered about being black. And that’s one thing you see when you watch ‘Black Panther.’ The hair helps communicate that.”
Camille Friend, the head of the “Black Panther” hair department.
Beautifuldifferences 