A take...what makes Wakanda Forever a compelling story about grief and what sets Wakanda Forever apart from the other projects about grief in phase 4 isn't just the reality that Chadwick is really dead so people bring that to the their viewing, it's that they make the cause of T'challa's death in Wakanda Forever (relatively minor spoiler so stop reading if you don't want to know) also due to illness. Death in the mcu is often so fanciful and heroic and so it's so unrelatable because even if you understand/sympathise with losing the love of your life, losing them to a giant purple alien and then building a sitcom town with a magical clone version of him, etc isn't going to be relatable or accessible or even a realistic experience with grief which is why it falls flat and hollow. So, I think the choice Ryan Coogler made ie. having T'challa die of something so ordinary as an illness no one could heal him from, then Wakanda Forever's main character archs being Shuri gaining the strength to sit with her memories without being consumed by anger and loss - THAT was a more moving and powerful narrative about grief because it's real. It's something most people have personally experienced with a loved one. because in reality most of our loved ones don't die heroic sacrificial deaths, they die from benign unseen forces in the world and it still hurts just as much to lose them. And I think Wakanda Forever taking the chance to tell that story, that people you love will die and they probably will die suddenly from things they never chose that aren't heroic or incredible that no one can save them from - and that it's still devastating and a grief worthy of acknowledgement...I appreciated that so much, and to centre Black women's grief specifically and allow characters who are Black women the space to be angry and messy and make mistakes in that grief was so beautiful. It hits close to home because it's real and I just loved it so much.
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
vaporwave
izzy806
origamiaround
dededos
romaincrisis
snowghoul
