Black Panther: Wakanda forever spoilers

[FitzTheRuke]

Funny story for y'all: I foolishy posted on a Facebook thread that I thought Namor was great, and some rando responded to me: "Obviously you know nothing about the comic books!"

... Which is hilarious, because (as many of you know) I own a comic book store (for 29 years and counting!) I also have an encyclopedic knowledge of comics.

Maybe I just thought he was cool?

 

[Tonguez]

Funny story for y'all: I foolishy posted on a Facebook thread that I thought Namor was great, and some rando responded to me: "Obviously you know nothing about the comic books!"

... Which is hilarious, because (as many of you know) I own a comic book store (for 29 years and counting!) I also have an encyclopedic knowledge of comics.

Maybe I just thought he was cool?

yeah he was cool, I liked the changes they made to him, taking Mayan inspiration but keeping him a driven coloniser hating anti-hero.

One thing that confused me though is that the Talokan people appear to be 500 years old, other than Namor do they age? are they all immortal or stuck in a suspended time bubble?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

One thing that confused me though is that the Talokan people appear to be 500 years old, other than Namor do they age? are they all immortal or stuck in a suspended time bubble?

I don't think I noticed if Attuma and Namora were alive in the origin story. What makes you think that they are that old? I was under the impression that one of the reasons they think of him as a god is because he's always been there, ruling them.

One of the things they "changed" that I liked was that the Talokans (I still think of them as Atlanteans) are only blue when exposed to air. That's a cool effect.

 

[Imaro]

in Wakanda the ceremonial role of Black Panther and the Kingship are distinct, so while they have usually been held by the same person they dont have to be. Shuri is Black Panther by the blessing of Bast but she is not compelled by tradition to turn up and claim the kingship. Im sure the Wakandans officiating understand that.
Equally Mbaku as follower of Hanuman really cant claim the mantle of Black Panther either

Shuri doesn't have the blessing of Bast. Its one of the things that bothered me about how this movie treated the mythology of the Black Panther. Shuri has forsaken belief and created an artificial herb... for all intents and purposes she's a pretender to the mantle... and she never actually sees Bast on the ancestral plane (honestly I have a theory she was never actually on the ancestral plane).

 

[Tonguez]

I don't think I noticed if Attuma and Namora were alive in the origin story. What makes you think that they are that old? I was under the impression that one of the reasons they think of him as a god is because he's always been there, ruling them.

yeah on reflection Im not sure if they were there either and I probably got the notion from the various news articles still referring to Namora as Namors cousin - which would be weird with a 500 year age gap.

but yeah the people being born normally with Kulkukan as immortal ruler is a cool justification for his god status.

I did wonder about the status and whereabouts of Tlaloc in their beliefs (Tlaloc is referenced as the god who led the shaman to the underwater flower). Also a neat detail is that in modern Nahua shamanism access to Tlalocan is via a whirlpool - which we see when Shuri is taken there by Namor.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There is one thing that I didn't understand - at one point in a fight on a bridge, Attuma seems to resurrect some "dead" soldiers (who had been speared by Okoye) and they go on to fight. Then later, some Talokan guards are killed, and everyone is sad. What happened in the first instance (Attuma's "necromancy"?) that couldn't occur in the second? What did I miss?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

There is one thing that I didn't understand - at one point in a fight on a bridge, Attuma seems to resurrect some "dead" soldiers (who had been speared by Okoye) and they go on to fight. Then later, some Talokan guards are killed, and everyone is sad. What happened in the first instance (Attuma's "necromancy"?) that couldn't occur in the second? What did I miss?

It's just bad writing. I read the bridge scene, and Okoye's explanation of it to the Queen later, as showing how big, bad and dangerous the Talokanians are. Then, later when they need to be tissue paper to further the plot, they are.

 

[Dire Bare]

yeah he was cool, I liked the changes they made to him, taking Mayan inspiration but keeping him a driven coloniser hating anti-hero.

One thing that confused me though is that the Talokan people appear to be 500 years old, other than Namor do they age? are they all immortal or stuck in a suspended time bubble?

In the movie, Namor explains to Shuri that he is different than his people, that he was born a mutant. He's got the ankle-wings, he can fly, he can breath air unaided, AND he's immortal (or very long-lived).

 

[trappedslider]

In the movie, Namor explains to Shuri that he is different than his people, that he was born a mutant.

He said the thing!

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Oh yeah, Namor gets to be the first one to say "mutant" in the MCU.