#345: Lara, Marc, and Link discuss Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, its representations of grief, and how we resonated with the storytelling.

Marc Cuiriz 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Marc Cuiriz and I am joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hey,

Marc Cuiriz 0:25
And Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:26
Hello.

Marc Cuiriz 0:28
So guys, this has been a long time coming, Huh?

Link Keller 0:32
Hmm

Lara Taylor 0:33
I mean, I’ve been wanting to talk about it. When? When? Like, November, November? November.

Marc Cuiriz 0:40
November, yes,

Lara Taylor 0:41
November. Yeah, November.

Marc Cuiriz 0:44
Whew, man.

Lara Taylor 0:45
It’s been months. Yeah.

Marc Cuiriz 0:47
Yeah, Wakanda Forever. ooooh Finally touching you guys because they finally came out on Disney plus, what was it Friday? Right?

Lara Taylor 1:00
I don’t know. Because I watched it in the theater twice.

Marc Cuiriz 1:06
I mean, yeah, I watched it in theater. Opening night and I cried.

Lara Taylor 1:14
I cried a lot too. I feel like a lot of people cried a lot.

Link Keller 1:19
I watched it last night. I did not cry.

Lara Taylor 1:23
That’s so sad.

Marc Cuiriz 1:25
that’s big sad.

Lara Taylor 1:27
I cried at the beginning and the end.

Marc Cuiriz 1:30
So So tell me guys what what were your what were your thoughts?

Lara Taylor 1:35
I loved it enough to go see it again. Although, to be fair, the first time I saw it, we were the drive-in the car battery died. Spoilers time already. Right before Ramonda dies. And so I missed all of that. Except for the parts with subtitles. And I was still moved by what happened. I just didn’t see exactly what happened. Because I was dealing with getting battery jumped. But I saw it the second time around. And again, I loved it. And also like, oh, that’s what I missed. Okay. Now some other things make some more sense. But I thought it was great. I thought there were a lot of good themes of grief in there. And growth. So those are my thoughts.

Marc Cuiriz 2:33
Link, what, what sort of thoughts did you have?

Link Keller 2:39
Um…here at Geek Therapy. we try not to be too critical or yuck people’s yums so I’m going to do my best. It was not my favorite movie. There were parts about it. I enjoyed. I do think that the stuff where they were touching on grief was the strongest part of the movie. And clearly the weight of that is so important because of Chadwick Boseman’s death. So both the fictional characters and also all of the real people who knew him were grieving his actual loss. And I definitely thought that that was the strongest part of the movie but I wish that they had honed in and focused on just that instead of trying to do all of the other stuff that I felt like really undermines the emotional parts and it felt like too much like Marvel movie setup stuff that I did not really vibe with. But I will say Ruth E Carter, the costume designer. Ruth if you’re listening to our podcast, will you marry me because oh my god. Every outfit is a 10 out of 10 I could not look away it was a visual treat. Absolutely loved the costume design. i

Lara Taylor 4:05
If she does not win the Oscar for costume design it is it’s over?

Link Keller 4:11
I am because I am I gotta check if it’s still happening there was at the Seattle Museum

Lara Taylor 4:19
The costume

Link Keller 4:19
Yeah, they had her exhibit up there and I was gonna go with a friend and something didn’t work out and we ended up not going and I’m like super bummed like God I hope it’s either still there or it comes back again so I can see it because I love her costume design is so gorgeous. But yeah, that’s my baseline feelings about about Wakanda forever I thought the the opening not not the opening scene but the beginning part of the movie when they are doing the funeral procession was the coolest part of the movie i loved that

Lara Taylor 4:58
which was which was taken from actual like, so I can’t remember which tribe or tribes but act from actual African like funeral processions

Link Keller 5:09
that I am I am not familiar with most African funeral ritual, I do have some familiarity with like American, like black American funeral rituals, but I thought it was really beautiful to see and it definitely felt real. So yeah I liked that a lot

Lara Taylor 5:32
I don’t send them into into space in a thing.

Link Keller 5:36
I mean, I’m, I’m not gonna say that. I don’t know

Lara Taylor 5:40
Yeah, who knows? Maybe there is?

Link Keller 5:42
Who knows? But yeah, no, I thought that that was really emotionally impactful. I thought the, again, the costuming having everybody in White was so beautiful. Having the the use of the slomo in that scene was really great. It felt very much like, respectful of people who lose somebody and what that that feels like to exist within. while also bringing, you know, the big screen experience of getting to see so much stuff happening at once like that. It was really cool. I really liked that scene.

Lara Taylor 6:22
Yeah, yeah. Um, one of the things when you brought up Link your offline talking about your thoughts, and I had a feeling, overarching narrative, like wasn’t going to be what you were drawn to, but like the individual stories of grief and the individual character, the characters we love, and I think, yeah, you’re asking for like more of that.

Link Keller 6:47
If it had been a movie that was just focused on women’s grief, which it did in a lot of parts, like that was like the emotional through line there is is looking at the Queen and the princess dealing with the death of T’Challa. And how that ripples out through their community, including internationally, like having it be narratively focused on that I felt like would have strengthened to the entire thing, but it had to squeeze in so many other things happening.

Lara Taylor 7:19
Of course,

Link Keller 7:19
I was like, okay, all right. Okay, like, uhhhh

Lara Taylor 7:24
some things I was like, Okay, we did we, I felt most lost when like our CIA. Friends were around. I really liked Riri Williams, and I’m really looking forward to her show. But, yeah, my favorite parts for Shuri, Ramonda, Nakia, Okoye. uhh It was, those are the important pieces and looking at especially Shuri, who has literally lost her entire family. And what that does to her

Link Keller 8:07
What do you think, Marc? Hmm,

Marc Cuiriz 8:11
you guys are bringing up a whole lot of just tidbits of goodness here. And I think when I watched it, because I’ve only seen it, I only saw it once I didn’t go see it again. I haven’t had a chance to rewatch it. But when I watched the first time I think that a lot of my opinions of it and my views of it or were skewed because I was like oh, this is a Marvel movie. This is Black Panther. Like the first one was so good. And so I walked in. And just with it being a Marvel movie, I guess I was able to turn my brain off to my analyzing side of it, and just sit there and be able to enjoy the movie for what it was

Link Keller 8:55
there is something very wonderful about having that power.

Marc Cuiriz 8:58
It’s it’s a wonderful superpower.

Link...