Awesome / Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

A God-Emperor and a Queen face off in a personal bout.

Previews

• While there is a bittersweetness to the teaser due to the death of T'Challa (and by extension, the real-life death of Chadwick Boseman), it's crazy to watch as Namor the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's very first Super Hero, is confirmed to be making his MCU debut. Doubled by the fact that, based on the teaser, he has appeared to have flooded Wakanda and taken the throne room.
• A group of Dora Milaje board a ship via grappling hooks to take on invading Talokan soldiers. They may be out of their depth against sea-dwellers, but they are fearless and fully ready to fight on their uneven ground. The official trailer also shows that a line of Jabari troops are backing them up and holding the line and their grappling hooks. If you need someone to hold the line, look no further than these mountains.
• M'Baku jumping at Namor without hesitation.
• Production designer Hanna Beachler, who won an Oscar for her work on the first film, returns for this film, and her drawing on Aztec influences for Talokan makes a culturally vibrant and relevant realm to counter Wakanda.
  • Beachler has confirmed that the Talokan throne room has megalodon teeth incorporated into it.
• The official trailer has a brief, but imposing shot of M’Baku beating his chest with both hands as he roars.
• On the Talokan side, throughout the trailer they are overwhelming Wakanda in a way that Thanos and his forces were incapable of doing. From Namor and a small group entering Warrior Falls by water, to Namor being utterly unfazed by rapid gunfire from the sky while his fellow Talokan dive for cover, to them outright flooding the main palace, including the throne room. They are dangerous and capable enough to seemingly push Wakanda to its Darkest Hour.
• Throughout the trailer, the Wakandans are shown struggling against the soldiers of Talokan in a way that even fighting Thanos couldn't do. So how does the trailer end? Namor on his hands and knees, struggling to fight the new Black Panther.
• Namor puts in some serious work throughout the entirely of the official trailer, ranging from staring down Queen Ramonda to going to town on the Wakandans while using his foot wings to take on their air support.
  • Special mention to the way his flight is shown when he moves, looking like he's essentially sprinting through the air. It's a truly unique interpretation of flight via foot wing that has never really been shown in film before.
• Riri taking flight in her new suit, especially a shot of her taking to the skies at night like Tony Stark before her.
  Riri: Let's GO!!!
  • Awesome moment for Tony as well: despite the immense intelligence of Shuri and Riri, the unassailable resources of Wakanda, and whatever is publicly known about the Iron Man suit, none of the armor they built is more sophisticated than the Mark IV. No extra weapons, no gimmicks— while they'll undoubtedly grow more sophisticated none of them can touch the nanite suit he built for Endgame. Even after death, Tony Stark IS Iron Man.
• The official trailer ending with the new Black Panther, complete with her silently landing in full view is nothing short of epic.
  Ramonda: Show them who we are...
• The D23 trailer showcases a scene of Ramonda arriving at a UN council. She proves herself a true queen in being diplomatic about withholding Vibranium, authoritative about her country's survival... And then she brings in a squad of soldiers who attacked a Wakanda mine and were captured, in a grand gesture of mercy and strength.

Film

• A team of mercenaries attempt to forcefully acquire Vibranium from an outreach facility. They are met by the Dora Milaje, who proceed to swiftly incapacitate the mercs and later bring each of them as prisoners to the United Nations meeting, where Okoye forces them all to kneel.
  • Ramonda reveals the mercenaries were sent by France, shaming the nation and confirming her earlier claims that Wakanda was well aware of how the member nations were conspiring against Wakanda in its moment of weakness.
  • She caps it off with an ultimatum to all of the member nations: The fact that they brought the mercenaries to the UN for judgment was a show of mercy, not weakness. Wakanda is as strong as ever and the next nation to try attacking them should expect no such compassion.
  • The fact that the Dora Milaje took the mercenaries down non-lethally is this in the first place. They could have easily killed them yet they took them alive, not only as a show of skill but as a demonstration of restraint and an outright denial of Klaue's assertion from the previous film that Wakandans are savages, a narrative that the other nations could have played had the mercenaries been killed. Wakanda's people are ruthless in defending her and her resources, yes, but they are not savages.
  • Pretty much every scene that features Ramonda. In every appearance, even when she is being pushed to her utmost limits, she exhibits poise, cunning, and dignity befitting the world's oldest and most powerful nation.
• The first Talokanil attack we see in the film. They immediately establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with, wrecking the CIA ship's attempt at finding vibranium in less than ten minutes. The attack starts with them drawing the majority of the ship's crew into the water, making them commit mass suicide with a haunting song. Once the ship's forces have been decimated, Talokanil soldiers overrun the ship and take out everyone they see with spears and sheer strength, shrugging off bullets until the only people left are a single research and a helicopter pilot. Then, just when they think they're about to get away, Namor appears to send the helicopter careening into the ocean. How does he do that? By grabbing hold of it with his bare hands and spinning it around, throwing it into the water. It would be more accurate to call it a massacre than a fight.
  • Special mention to one guy who rips the door off of the helicopter in the effort to keep the humans from getting away. Getting shot meant he was too injured to stop them himself, but it shows just how dedicated they were to protecting their home and resources.
  • To her credit, Graham, the CIA agent supervising the search for vibranium, beats an impressive retreat, holding off Talokan warriors with nothing but a handgun and almost gets away if not for Namor grabbing the helicopter by the tail.
  • When the helicopter first takes off, Namora and the others watch it for a moment, then turn and walk away. At first, it seems acknowledgement that there's nothing they can do, these humans have successfully escaped them. But no, it's soon revealed they turned away for another reason: Namor is on top of this and will deal with them. An excellent Establishing Character Moment for the film's villain.
• Attuma absolutely trashes Okoye the first time they fight, but shows his honor and his love of battle by tossing her spear back to her after disarming her.
• During Namor and Ramonda's first encounter, the K'uk'ulkan keeps up a friendly facade even while implicitly threatening the queen. However, he drops the act for one line, which may be one of the most straight-up badass warnings in the MCU thus far:
  Namor: I have more soldiers than there are blades of grass in this land.
• Nakia finds and infiltrates the entrance to Talokan in less than a week to rescue Shuri and Riri.
• Namor finally declaring war on Wakanda after Nakia kills two of his citizens, sitting upon a throne with the jaws of a Megalodon and uttering a Battle Cry, his entire nation seeming to respond in one voice.
  When we are done with them, they will never think of approaching Talokan! RISE, TALOKAN!
  • The attack on Wakanda is brutal, quick, destructive, and a complete victory on the Talokanil side. The Talokanil invasion is viciously efficient, infiltrating the city, flooding the streets and destroying dozens of buildings. This is Wakanda— a city that stood strong against the might of Thanos' legion— and under Namor's leadership, the undersea kingdom deals out what can only be described as a Curb-Stomp Battle. Then, when most of the army has retreated, Namor singlehandedly takes on a gauntlet of Wakanda's aerial fighter ships and smashes them to pieces, before flying directly to the throne room. While it's horrifying to see Wakanda brought so low, it's also undeniably impressive to watch Talokan and especially Namor tear their capital apart in so short a timespan.
  • When Namor first strikes at the throne room, he goes straight after Ramonda, and would have speared her right between the eyes had the windows not been strong enough to take the blow (impressive in and of itself). Ramonda doesn't even blink.
  • Namor did what the Children of Thanos and the Outriders could not... Breach Wakanda's impenetrable defenses, up until destroying the throne room, and killed the reigning Queen. All while delivering one final ultimatum to prove his point, while still being slightly civil, letting them grieve.
    Namor: She did this! In one weeks time, I will return with my entire army...and you will join us against the surface world...or I will wash Wakanda from the face of the Earth. Bury your dead. Mourn your losses. You are Queen now.
• When Shuri enters the Ancestral Plane, she fully expects to see Ramonda upon the throne— but when the camera turns around, she finds herself faced with none other than Killmonger, who wastes no time in stating that the only way she could see him is if she wanted to be consumed by vengeance, urging her to give in to her hatred and become like him.
• Shuri's first appearance as the new Black Panther, dropping down before everyone in Jabari-land from her ship (The Dora Milaje, the Elders and the Jabari). M'Baku challenges her to an arm-wrestling contest without a word. She slowly overpowers him, to his delight.
  M'Baku: She has done it! The Black Panther lives!
  • He then begins the traditional Jabari chant with his fellow tribesmen while the four elders surround Shuri and touch her in support and the shaman sings the traditional Panther song.
• Before the final showdown between Wakanda and Talokan begins in earnest, Shuri leads her forces in a rousing chant of "Yibambe!", just like T'Challa did against Thanos' legions.
• Riri's performance in her completed Ironheart armor proves that she's every bit the Gadgeteer Genius Tony was. In addition to blasting her way through scores of Talokanil, she manages to hold her own against Namor long enough to complete her part in Shuri's plan.
• Wakanda may be outclassed against Talokan, especially once Namora cripples their ship, but they still put up a ferocious fight. The Dora go off and battle along the side of the ship with a group of Jabari holding their tightropes. And they fight for a prolonged amount of time, killing many of Talokan’s warriors. And the Jabari never show any struggle of holding onto their assigned Dora, easily holding out even with their roughly 120+ lb charges jumping around and fighting to the death. When a retreat is ordered, the Jabari effortlessly pull back to begin pulling their Dora back up.
• After their disastrous first fight, Okoye evens the score with Attuma by sending him flying from the barge when they duel again near the film's end.
• When things look their worst, even M’Baku admits they may be about to join the ancestors as the Talokan army begins cornering them. As Aneka insists they will take as many with them as they can, she, Ayo, Okoye, Nakia, M’Baku, and Riri all form a line in front of their troops as they are forced to the edge of the ship, making their final stand.
• The entire final fight between Shuri and Namor displays the tenacity, strength, and wit of both parties.
  • The final battle against Namor has Shuri demonstrating a combination of brains and brawn, weakening Namor by trapping him in the Royal Talon fighter and dehydrating him (even taunting him with the line "What's wrong? You need a glass of water?"). But even so, Namor manages to break free and ragdoll her across a beach by flying faster than she can see, finally impaling her with a spear. The fight would have been over then if Namor decided to make sure she was finished off instead of trying to get to the water.
    • Remember that Shuri's Panther Habit is made of vibranium and can also absorb and redistribute the energy of impacts, meaning that Namor was strong enough to punch through the suit entirely (whereas even when T'Challa fought Killmonger, he had to rely on the train system neutralizing Killmonger's suit to deliver a killing blow).
  • Shuri using her claws to cut off the shaft of Namor's spear, and pulling herself right through what remains. Notably, despite clearly being brutalized by the fight beforehand, Shuri keeps going after this.
  • Namor is dehydrated, beaten to hell and back, and just watched Shuri power through his most brutal blow and destroy his weapon. Does the God-Emperor of Talokan back down for even a moment? No. Namor raises his fists and simply utters two words.
    Imperius Rex.
  • Shuri manages to finally put Namor on the ground by blasting his back with the jets of the downed fighter, scorching him half to death and leaving him at her mercy.
    Shuri: WAKANDA FOREVER!
  • Ramonda coming to save her kingdom one last time, speaking to Shuri from beyond the grave to prevent a Forever War and finally convincing Shuri to let go of her vengeance.
  • The sight of Namor and Shuri, the king and the princess of the most powerful nations in the world, united on the same craft and causing their armies, fighting to the death mere moments ago, to obediently stand down. In particular, Tenoch Huerta's powerful delivery as Namor commands his people is gloriously epic.
    Namor: TALOKANILE'EX!
• It bears mention that, despite having been beaten and burned at the end, alongside losing many of his people, Namor won. His faction's strike on Wakanda left them severely weakened and in a state of repairing their nation, even slaying their monarch and (seemingly) leaving only one of the royal bloodline left, no doubt leaving the surface nations to focus on Wakanda ... and as he notes, he's engendered enough sympathy with them that when the invasion comes, they'll have nowhere to come but Talokan. Namor may have yielded, but it was all part of a much grander plan ... and though Wakanda's princess may have won the battle, the war has hardly begun. (However with the Avengers scheduled to make a comeback, Talokan might not be Wakanda's only ally for long.)
• Shuri doesn't show up to her own coronation, implicitly letting M'Baku take the throne in her stead as a trusted leader. It drew wry smiles from Ayo, the Border Tribe elder and the Merchant Tribe Elder in addition to his tribe.
• The Stinger is a mixture of Heartwarming Moments and awesomeness. Nakia approaches Shuri with a little boy... the son of T'Challa, the previous T'Challa having the foresight to prepare his wife and child for his own death. His Haitian name is Touissant, but his Wakandan name is that of his father. Though he may not yet be the Black Panther, T'Challa's legacy lives on in his child.
• When the Talokanil invade Wakanda, M'baku sees the raging flood waters and his response is to hand his weapon to a comrade and leap into the torrent so he can save fisherman swamped by the attack. Then he fistfights a killer whale.

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