Deep Fantasy and Black Panther
Firstly, a few disclaimers: I don’t know much about Marvel Comics, or whether the movie Black Panther is authentic in its portrayal of ‘African culture’ which of course, like the continent, is incredibly diverse. As a Deep Fantasy writer, I was keen to see the movie for the Deep Fantasy tropes it might reveal, but I also wanted to see a film where black actors played characters, not black people. There were lots of wonderful parts to the film, but I’ll focus on the Deep Fantasy elements.
I was firstly struck by the similarity of Wakanda to Themiscira (Wonder Woman’s home island). Both exist ‘outside’ time, either being totally hidden from the outside world, or their true essence hidden (Wakanda appears to be ‘just another poor third world nation’). A place outside time, is outside the ‘normal’ constraints of the (known) world. This is the liminal. The place of change, danger, infinite possibilities. The place that must be passed through for rebirth to occur.
The movie opens with the murder of Wakanda’s king and the ascension of his son. This is the classic movement of one life stage to another, and the son’s (T’Challa) struggle to make this transition, is the crux of the entire movie. All the secret metal stuff is irrelevant!
Firstly, T’Challa must see off challengers. This is partly a conscious fight, and partly an unconscious one, delightfully illustrated by the fight taking place thigh deep in water, and on the edge of a precipitous waterfall. Water represents the unconscious, but he is not fully submerged. In the first challenge, he successfully defeats the challenger, and graciously offers him honor in defeat. This is a conscious action, of the ‘civilized’ ‘ritualised’ society.
After the fight, and as part of his ascension to the kingship (next life stage), he descends further into the unconscious (caves under the city) where, after imbibing a potion from a flower, he is literally buried and descends still further into the realm of death, where he meets his ancestors (his father), who he idolizes. He then returns with an exhortation to ‘breathe’ from the attendants. Ie he is reborn as king.
At this point, archetypally, he should be reborn in every sense, but he isn’t. He is essentially indecisive. He doesn’t know how to be king or lead his people and is desperate to be as his father was, not as he is. The woman he wants as queen (Nakia) recognizes this and refuses him. T’Challa is still in the liminal, the place between, and that puts him and his country (now leaderless) at risk.
Enter the aptly named Killmonger, also a creature of the liminal. Neither of Wakanda nor of America, his rage is unrestrained by ritual or law. He works as an agent for the CIA (also outside the law) as wrecker of countries and legal murderer, but his main driver is the want for revenge: for his own homelessness/lack of place/entity and for the historical oppression of Africans.
He challenges T’Challa and ‘wins’, which is unsurprising given T’Challa’s weakened state. T’Challa plunges over the waterfall (deeper into the unconscious) and is found and kept in suspended animation (by being packed in snow), which is symbolically apt given his ‘between’ state. It’s fitting he’s found by a tribe whose guttural chants are more on the primitive (unconscious) range of the spectrum too.
Meanwhile, Killmonger goes about his wrecking business, both of Wakanda and of the outside world. His lack of ritual understanding means he gains nothing from visiting his ancestors, and he returns not ‘reborn as a king’ but as the savage, juvenile wrecker he was prior.
Given the last ritual flower to revisit his ancestors, and buried in snow this time, T’Challa speaks with his father again. It is a very different meeting. He has since discovered his father is flawed, and partly responsible for leaving Killmonger caught between two worlds. He returns as king, and mortally wounds Killmonger, deep underground (totally in the unconscious) (not in the half in, half out unconscious of the water). He emerges as king this time, and sure enough in his station to offer Killmonger the chance of life. But Killmonger is a creature of the liminal and lacks T’Challa’s strength and skill to transition.
The final marker of T’Challa’s rebirth, is his acceptance by Nakia as a worthy husband. I could go on more about the female element in the unconscious (the anima) but this blog is long enough. Even without all this, Black Panther is a great film. Enjoy!
I was firstly struck by the similarity of Wakanda to Themiscira (Wonder Woman’s home island). Both exist ‘outside’ time, either being totally hidden from the outside world, or their true essence hidden (Wakanda appears to be ‘just another poor third world nation’). A place outside time, is outside the ‘normal’ constraints of the (known) world. This is the liminal. The place of change, danger, infinite possibilities. The place that must be passed through for rebirth to occur.
The movie opens with the murder of Wakanda’s king and the ascension of his son. This is the classic movement of one life stage to another, and the son’s (T’Challa) struggle to make this transition, is the crux of the entire movie. All the secret metal stuff is irrelevant!
Firstly, T’Challa must see off challengers. This is partly a conscious fight, and partly an unconscious one, delightfully illustrated by the fight taking place thigh deep in water, and on the edge of a precipitous waterfall. Water represents the unconscious, but he is not fully submerged. In the first challenge, he successfully defeats the challenger, and graciously offers him honor in defeat. This is a conscious action, of the ‘civilized’ ‘ritualised’ society.
After the fight, and as part of his ascension to the kingship (next life stage), he descends further into the unconscious (caves under the city) where, after imbibing a potion from a flower, he is literally buried and descends still further into the realm of death, where he meets his ancestors (his father), who he idolizes. He then returns with an exhortation to ‘breathe’ from the attendants. Ie he is reborn as king.
At this point, archetypally, he should be reborn in every sense, but he isn’t. He is essentially indecisive. He doesn’t know how to be king or lead his people and is desperate to be as his father was, not as he is. The woman he wants as queen (Nakia) recognizes this and refuses him. T’Challa is still in the liminal, the place between, and that puts him and his country (now leaderless) at risk.
Enter the aptly named Killmonger, also a creature of the liminal. Neither of Wakanda nor of America, his rage is unrestrained by ritual or law. He works as an agent for the CIA (also outside the law) as wrecker of countries and legal murderer, but his main driver is the want for revenge: for his own homelessness/lack of place/entity and for the historical oppression of Africans.
He challenges T’Challa and ‘wins’, which is unsurprising given T’Challa’s weakened state. T’Challa plunges over the waterfall (deeper into the unconscious) and is found and kept in suspended animation (by being packed in snow), which is symbolically apt given his ‘between’ state. It’s fitting he’s found by a tribe whose guttural chants are more on the primitive (unconscious) range of the spectrum too.
Meanwhile, Killmonger goes about his wrecking business, both of Wakanda and of the outside world. His lack of ritual understanding means he gains nothing from visiting his ancestors, and he returns not ‘reborn as a king’ but as the savage, juvenile wrecker he was prior.
Given the last ritual flower to revisit his ancestors, and buried in snow this time, T’Challa speaks with his father again. It is a very different meeting. He has since discovered his father is flawed, and partly responsible for leaving Killmonger caught between two worlds. He returns as king, and mortally wounds Killmonger, deep underground (totally in the unconscious) (not in the half in, half out unconscious of the water). He emerges as king this time, and sure enough in his station to offer Killmonger the chance of life. But Killmonger is a creature of the liminal and lacks T’Challa’s strength and skill to transition.
The final marker of T’Challa’s rebirth, is his acceptance by Nakia as a worthy husband. I could go on more about the female element in the unconscious (the anima) but this blog is long enough. Even without all this, Black Panther is a great film. Enjoy!
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