Black Panther

And it's rather understandable that someone like T'Challa would want to show mercy to Killmonger. This is his cousin that he never even knew existed. This is family.

edited 24th Mar '18 8:11:02 AM by M84

He's also just spared the man who murdered his father because he found out the man was a suicidal wreck of a human being out for his own revenge.

Killmonger, sadly, spit on T'Challa's mercy to the end.

And how! If memory serves, Killmonger basically compares T'Challa to a slaveholding plantation owner.

Which doesn't make sense at all in context, unless you believe rich southern landowners were also counter-terrorism operatives, but whatever. I guess that's just where Eric's mind was at.

edited 24th Mar '18 8:35:41 AM by Gault

It's almost as if Erik Killmonger is a screwed up asshole with a warped worldview.

I feel like they should have given T'Challa the last word. "Your ancestors struggled to build something under nightmarish conditions and forged for them a life. You, on the other hand, are a coward."

That might have been too harsh, though.

I agree that it was really refreshing to see T'Challa's mercy actually pay off. I always get annoyed when the hero shows mercy only for it to backfire or immediately be rendered pointless. It just happens so often, especially in superhero films, that it gets frustrating after a while.

It's definitely a Family-Unfriendly Aesop: "Never show mercy to your enemies. They won't appreciate it."

Daredevil (2015) is the worst about it in the MCU.

Definitely applies to the Alt Right.

No, I mean giving them freeze peach is a mistake and they won't return the favor.

edited 24th Mar '18 8:53:55 AM by TheHandle

That's more a case of never realizing they were enemies to be taken seriously in the first place. Not-So-Harmless Villain basically. They're still pathetic and deserve to be mocked, but they aren't harmless. But this is going off-topic.

edited 24th Mar '18 8:49:48 AM by M84

I'm late to this discussion, but I do agree that T'challa's mercy paying off is a good lesson. Yes it's true some people won't appreciate, but it is kinda annoying to always see No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, just as much as it's annoying to see everything always go right for the heroes when they need it.

It doesn't even make sense for mercy to not work in a superhero movie. In comics, the reason Save the Villain never pays off for the hero is because it's only meant to keep villains alive so they can be used in future stories since for the most part Status Quo Is God in comicbooks.

edited 24th Mar '18 9:31:39 AM by M84

I'd say it's more an issue in the comics or tv shows which are more serialized. In movies, the villains are either locked up or killed off (sometimes by the hero but not always) and the question of mercy is rarely ever brought up.

And now, I'm wondering what a Killmonger who pulled a hell face turn would have been like. Especially with all the comparisons to Vegeta.

“hell face turn “

He bargained with Mephisto ?

T'Challa actually did sell his soul to Mephisto and had all of the Black Panthers jump him.

Yes, that was a thing. Silver Surfer did something in a what if.

Spider-Man Homecoming kind of does this a bit as well. Peter spares Vulture's life, and saves the latter's daughter as well, and Vulture (who despite being a baddie takes the concept of family seriously), repays him by not ratting him out to the other villains.

Really between CW and this, you can clearly see T'Challa's character growth on this front.

Yes, the bit where T'Challa was Too Spici For Yog Sothoth was amazing and hilarious. Did not slow Achebe one bit, though.

Is it ever explained how the fuck a Christian priest went to the Hajj? Did he convert in either direction? Why does anyone ever listen to Mr Biscuits?

Achebe is the most natural villain for the sequels. He's going to come with the refugees and make a hot mess.

But is Mephisto introduced? Is a Ghost Rider film in Canon?

Is Nicolas Cage reprising?

edited 24th Mar '18 11:45:09 AM by TheHandle

Right as T’Challa in the film is being urged by his mother to not accept Killmonger’s challenge, he’s examining Killmonger’s necklace with his father’s ring on it. It’s pretty clear he was thinking over how his own father had killed Erik’s father and exiled him as a child. T’challa possibly thought Killmonger deserved a concession from the royal family as amends for their crimes to him.

edited 24th Mar '18 12:56:06 PM by Tuckerscreator

See the moral of this story is that all challengers to the throne need to be quietly killed off and publicly discredited. You don’t really need to worry about the people, rule effectively, keep them fed and they’ll never really care about how the sausage is made.

Nah, the moral is: don’t let your opponent use a bladed weapon.

Because that is why T’challa loses. He wins against M’baku by fighting hand-to-hand, then loses against Killmonger when it’s a sword and spear fight. Makes sense, since as the Black Panther he’s nearly always fighting with his fists, legs, and claws so that type of combat has more muscle memory.

Black Panther is responsible for almost half of the movie tickets sold so far this year[1]

They'll just assume that it happens. But they don't need to see the room where it happens.

edited 24th Mar '18 1:34:48 PM by TheHandle

I also like T’Challa sense of mercy because it comes from a place of understanding in addition to idealism. There’s a sense that he wants to show himself a merciful, compassionate king, but at the same time every time he extends mercy it’s through knowing why his enemy is acting the way they are and acting in relation to who they are - M’Baku especially - and every time he revokes it is in times he’s come to realize his compassion isn’t enough. It’s a very regal and mature way of acting that sells him as being destined to be a good king.

Glad someone else noticed that T'Challa got his second wind in the M'Baku challenge when he lost his weapons and started fighting hand-to-hand like he prefers. I thought that was a cool detail.

(Just watched the film, it had a lot of good bits in it.)

Another good detail for me was how Klaw breaks the artefact handle, at the beginning of the film, symbolising his disrespect for Wakandan traditions, while later on in the challenge Eric does the same to his spear before the fight, showing that they are Not So Different. A nice touch, I thought. Or how Eric later mentions Vibranium isn't detected by metal detectors - which is why they don't go off in South Korea.