As an introduction we thought it would be a good idea to talk about our perspective as shippers and dive right back to why we got into the ship.
When I first watched the movie, I really liked their dynamic, both platonically or romantically, I wanted to see more of them, more of them interacting and continuing to ‘deal with each other’. My heart broke when Erik died, and I hoped he wouldn’t be only a one movie villain, he had so much potential, so much to give the story. And he had power over T’Challa that nobody else had. I’m also often drawn towards antagonistic ships, enemies to friends to lovers is one of my favorite trope, because there is often more that prevents them from being together than the typical miscommunication trope in flufflier ships, they have actual barriers to overcome, and the chemistry, or sexual tension, between two rivals is often fire. The situation of both Erik and T’Challa is also a particular one, their familial relation, royal status and different political ideologies is a fertile ground for exploration of subjects and themes as well as all sorts of interaction*, and rich array of interpretation of their dynamics.
I like exploring characters with different ideologies clashing with each other. T’Challa and N’Jadaka affected each other so much in the movie. T’Challa is so empathetic that he was able to feel for N’Jakada, even after everything he’s done, and because of that N’Jadaka managed to reach him and change him. The power they have over each other, the balance that they can create, they can embodied the balance of complementary people who take on the other’s strength and compensate their weakness, who make each other grow. This is one of my favorite kind of pairing. It’s a difficult ship to write well, thus the bigger appeal, since the characters need a lot of character study and evolution for it to work. This ship has a lot of potential, it has potential to do long, angsty fics, and there are many possible “what if” scenarios the movie offered us.
I also continue to translate the dynamic they have in the movie, or would have, into a relationship. The struggle for power, the N’Jadaka who’s on the offense and full of anger, obsessed over T’Challa. T’Challa’s calmness and understanding can be soothing and reassuring, but T’Challa still has his own moments of weakness and does not always live up to his ideal of a good King, N’Jadaka is one of the people who can get to him this way. N’Jadaka can get under his skin and make him do some rash decisions on the spur of the moment. I think N’Jadaka would need the calmness and understanding, I think he felt alone in his crusade for most of his life and would desperately need someone to get him out of this isolation and find a good way to channel his emotions. He would also be able to change T’Challa change even more towards an ideal that he would champion.
N’Jadaka changed T’Challa in a day, imagine what he could do if he’d staying longer?
There’s possibility for a lot of character development for both and working off of each other. They are equals and complete each other. They both have difficulty resisting the influence of the other on their life, as much as they’d try to resist it. And their rivalry could do for some passionate sex!
Also the cousin “taboo” made it even more fun.