Ok seriously we’re not appreciating M’Baku enough?? Boy challenged T’challa, lost, accepted it and left. Then like 3 days later the king washed up on his shore and he’s like “aye I could use this to become king but nah let’s save the guy until he gets better” so now he has an unconscious, barely-clinging-to-life king in his living room, but he does everything to save him. Then the servants of that king show up, offer him the throne and the Black Panther serum which would pretty much make him invincible, and what does he do? Does he go “Mhm ok niiice” and accept it, thus becoming rightful king? Nope! He shows them the dying T’challa, who they bring back to life with the serum and leave. They ask for his army, but he doesn’t want to risk his people, but in the end realises they should stick together so he barges into the battle like the fucking Icon™ he is ok I just love M’Baku let’s give him the appreciation he deserves
M’baku is the personification of honour imo. You won’t find a defeated warrior with pride and honour like his that easy. Respecting his rival, the needs of his people and Wakanda itself??? Putting all that over his ego???? Someone raised that man right yo.
At the same time, we can’t forget T’Challa’s role in all this. He had M’Baku at his mercy, and could have easily killed him or gone out of his way to humiliate him. Instead he treated him as a fellow warrior with honor, and assured him that he respected his leadership of his tribe. That very much planted the seeds of M’Baku’s respect for him, and wound up serving as his own salvation.
It’s the rarest of unicorns – two competing alpha males whose masculinity isn’t toxic.
T’challa is a Good Male Protagonist ™ mainly because he is humble and without the ego you see from so so many other male protagonists in blockbuster films
He defers to the wisdom of his mother, his sister, his general, his love, the women around him. He was a sweet and loving son who expressed and enjoyed physical and emotional tenderness from his father.
He’s proud but doesn’t ever disrespect anybody. He values family, affection and emotion and expresses it freely, but still retains the poise of a king.
That’s kind of rare in a lot of the mostly white, mostly male Hollywood protagonist lineup.
What a death sentence it would be for art if everyone strived to create Good Male Protagonists. Do you really believe that fictional characters should exist to embody admirable traits? Drama comes from flaws.
Aye…nobody asked you.
… What?
How would it be a death sentence for art of everyone strove to create good male protagonists when clearly black panther had one and was a really good movie? Did this person even bother reading the post?
“Drama comes from flaws” no drama comes from conflict which is not the same thing.
T’Challa is humble, respectful, gracious, kind, altruistic, all these wonderful things. His drama comes from trying to apply these noble traits to the world and figuring out the best way to do it. Should he focus on running his own country? Should he reach out to diaspora communities? Should he accept refugees? Which argument is compelling enough to him to cement his decisions? How should he handle people who disagree with his decisions? How will his enemies use his good traits against him? How will he recover from setbacks?
Yes drama can stem from flawed individuals, but you don’t have to write a dickhead as your protagonist in order to get an interesting story out of it.
And you know what? T’Challa is flawed. He’s indecisive. He’s inexperienced. He can get emotional, and that distracts him and clouds his judgement.
Those flaws are enough to help drive a story. Your character doesn’t need to be amoral or callous to be “flawed”. You don’t need someone who kills indiscriminately. You don’t need someone who is arrogant or cruel or self-centered. “Flawed” doesn’t have to mean “grimdark,” and “grimdark” does not always mean “good drama” anyway.
Reupload. I was highly annoyed by how slow the orginal set was so I’ve been playing around with the set and got the speed to match the scene a lot better. 🙂
tora42's nonsensne 