- Your heroes are imperfect
- In the story, T’Chala becomes king and Black Panther when his father is killed in a bombing at the UN. He struggles with becoming king, wondering how he will ever live up to his fathers legacy. He truly idolizes his father and thinks of him as a great man and a great king. But latter T’Chala learns of his father killing his uncle (his father’s brother) and leaving behind a young nephew in America. This seems clearly wrong to T’Chala, and he struggles to understand how his father could have made that decision. Going through life, you will have the opportunity to meet people that you previously idolized. Without a doubt, there will be things about those people that disappoint you. Remember that all people are people.
- Trade, not war will improve the world.
- The initial philosophical battle, both eternally between characters, and internally within the king, is between isolationism (his father) or intervention (Killmonger). At the end of the movie, T’Chala has chosen a third path—peacefully sharing their technology with the world. They show the creation of science centers in Oakland, but not much more about how they plan on doing it. Whether it is through trade, or making everything open sources they are not only helping the world get better but will also enrich Wakanda by connecting and trading with the outside world instead of hiding.
- Political power is dangerous.
- Wakanda has a traditional structure of power and ritual methods for selecting and checking a new king. But once confirmed that king has exceptional power. A council can question them, but not overrule. And they rely on the king respecting tradition for ritual challenges and to give up the extra power of the Black Panther. This works only so long as a dangerous person doesn’t end up in control. The lesson you don’t see, but that the Wakandans should consider after Killmonger is to create a system with more checks on the king so that an unstable and violent man can’t win control and do something stupid that the tribe doesn’t agree with.
- Victimization leads to violence
- Most righteous and violent acts are commited by people who view themselves as being deeply victimized the others and life in general. Killmonger sees himself as being deeply victimized by Wakanda and the world in general. His father died, his mother appears to be absent, and he grew up in a poor and violent area of Oakland. He grew up without stability, safety, or control. As a resort, he is desperately and obsessively aiming at gaining control. He becomes a killer, joins the military, and creates an elaborate plot to gain control of Wakanda’s weapons so that he can start a war with other countries and eventually take over the world. In his worldview, he has been hurt and wronged by the world. He wants vengeance and he wants control to make sure it won’t happen again.
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