tony stark works in a vaccuum. he isolates himself and acts unilaterally because he believes he knows better than all the people who surround him. (for example, ‘i didn’t tell the team because i didn’t want to hear the man wasn’t meant to meddle medley’). t’challa works collaboratively, listening to his fellow council members, his family, and his community. t’challa doesn’t shut shuri out; he accepts her help and her good natured teasing.
tony stark only does things that benefit him in some way. tony does not have an overarching moral compass. he is not altruistic. tony supports the accords not because he believes its best for the world; he does it because he thinks it will help him get pepper back. we can take it back to literally the core of the creation of ironman. tony does not stop dealing weapons until that dealing had a direct negative effect on his life. tony does not build ironman out of altruism. he does it because he wants revenge. tony tries to kill bucky, knowing bucky’s actions as the winter soldier were coerced through mind control, because his need for revenge is more important.
t’challa is the opposite. t’challa has spent his entire life training to be a good man and good ruler for his people. t’challa does initially go after bucky and is motivated by revenge, but t’challa ends up literally taking bucky in as a refugee. and when t’challa finds the man responsible for his father’s death, he does not let revenge consume him. he takes zemo in alive to be held responsible for his actions. t’challa’s story arc in black panther is in many ways about t’challa fearing that he is not ready to lead his people, learning terrible things about his family history, working through it, and coming out on the other side confident and ready to use wakanda’s resources as a force for good across the world.
and let’s just talk about tony and t’challa’s relationships with women. tony repeatedly lies to pepper. tony puts pepper in danger. tony hits on his female employee at first sight (natalie/natasha). let’s not even talk about maya hansen. he bangs christine (reporter) and has pepper toss her out the next morning saying ‘i also take out his trash’. he hit’s on peter’s caretaker. what other interactions does he have with women for more than a few sentences? and, to be clear, all of these interactions are sexualized. he does not treat any of these women as his peers.
the contrast with t’challa is astonishing. t’challa’s closest confidantes are primarily women including his sister Shuri, his mother, Okoye, and Nakia. Only Nakia is a love interest, and he listens to her and ultimately follows her advice to use wakanda’s resources to help the world. he is surrounded by women who excel in their fields and he treats them, their opinions, and their bodies with respect.
i just don’t understand how people are trying to draw positive comparisons between tony and t’challa. if you respect t’challa’s values, then tony stark should disgust you. and dear jesus fucking christ if i see one single goddamn tony stan saying ‘tony should adopt shuri’ or ‘tony can teach shuri’ i swear to god i will find u and chop off your fingers so you can’t type this bullshit again.
Ok seriously we’re not appreciating M’Baku enough?? Boy challenged T’challa, lost, accepted it and left. Then like 3 days later the king washed up on his shore and he’s like “aye I could use this to become king but nah let’s save the guy until he gets better” so now he has an unconscious, barely-clinging-to-life king in his living room, but he does everything to save him. Then the servants of that king show up, offer him the throne and the Black Panther serum which would pretty much make him invincible, and what does he do? Does he go “Mhm ok niiice” and accept it, thus becoming rightful king? Nope! He shows them the dying T’challa, who they bring back to life with the serum and leave. They ask for his army, but he doesn’t want to risk his people, but in the end realises they should stick together so he barges into the battle like the fucking Icon™ he is ok I just love M’Baku let’s give him the appreciation he deserves
M’baku is the personification of honour imo. You won’t find a defeated warrior with pride and honour like his that easy. Respecting his rival, the needs of his people and Wakanda itself??? Putting all that over his ego???? Someone raised that man right yo.
At the same time, we can’t forget T’Challa’s role in all this. He had M’Baku at his mercy, and could have easily killed him or gone out of his way to humiliate him. Instead he treated him as a fellow warrior with honor, and assured him that he respected his leadership of his tribe. That very much planted the seeds of M’Baku’s respect for him, and wound up serving as his own salvation.
It’s the rarest of unicorns – two competing alpha males whose masculinity isn’t toxic.
Unexpected Benefit of Black Panther: my local pet shelters went from having something like 50-60 black cats between them to having NONE, becuase they’ve all been adopted out and named after the characters. “T’challa” is the most popular, but there are a fair number of “Okoye”s and “Shuri”s as well.
…and one very confused Elderly Humane Society Volunteer wondering why someone would name such a sweet cat “Killmonger”.
Cheloneuniverse 