Why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Tastes GOOD (Act One)
UF Dictionary, Wakanda Forever Breakdown Post 1 of 3
Series Spoiler List: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, The Woman King
Argh! I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out how to come at my Wakanda Forever post in a way that wouldn’t go on too long (like most Marvel movies other than this one).
But, after days of going back and forth with myself, I eventually conceded that me writing a short, snappy post for this epic movie belongs on that list of fantasies that definitely don’t happen in real life.
So, we’re rolling out the butter list for Black Panther as a three-parter, starting with all the butter from Act 1.
First up on the Butter List, the movie’s main Universal Fantasy: an Epic Journey Through Grief with a Beginning and End.
If we’re out here comparing ourselves to superheroes, I will say that my mother dying without warning when I was 19 is a huge part of my origin story.
What followed her death was a near decade of guilt, mental anguish, wild bursts of depression, a general distrust of happy relationships, and a whole lot of veering off onto different paths to find myself. It was a messy, often contradictory journey through grief, and I still can’t point you to the exact moment when it came to an end.
One of the most heart-wrenching things I’ve discovered throughout the years is that many people can relate to this nebulous journey of grief, no matter when and how they lost their dearly beloved. Grief is just messy. No two ways about it.
So how nice was it to see Shuri navigate her Grief Journey in less time than it took me to convince my three children to clean their rooms last weekend?
No, I actually mean that.
There is something incredibly comforting about watching (and usually crying along with) a character as she clearly walks through a grief that’s not yours—but somehow is on a human level.
In a way, the Journey Through Grief in Wakanda Forever was even more relatable than most. Many of us were rocked by the news of Chadwick Boseman’s death while we were still deep in the first throes of the pandemic.
For this reason, it was great to see his onscreen sister, Shuri, process the death of this beloved character while buttery situations popped off all around her.