Veelk
Man, went through the trouble of typing up a reply to your comment regarding the ceremony on a tablet and nothing back on your end?
This post is 70% just to repost this reading of mine, but also 30% because you were interested in the discussion and I wanted to discuss it.
Been busy.
That's an interesting take that I haven't thought of. I'm not sure that I agree with it being just a lipservice, since it seems that M'Baku definitely wanted to take the throne from T'Challa and made a sincere effort of taking the W and certainly came close to it. If he had won, who of the royal blood clan would have been able to beat M'Baku in basic, physical combat if T'Challa couldn't? And we don't have any reason to doubt that the other clans don't raise their own warriors to challenge T'Challa on equal grounds if need be. For all we know, all the clans have their own fighers at the ready to take the crown should T'Challa fail his people.
Thus, the elders not objecting to T'Challa's rule seems to be more because they legitimately just don't have any issue with T'Challa continuing to rule as his father did, which I guess can work as a very roundabout way of submitting a complaint.. It's just...that's a strange lack of greed and power lust that I'm simply not used to seeing out of people, but it's believable enough that Wakandan culture can sincerely just not be prioritize power conflicts within their ranks. But if we do take your interpretation that it's just a system, it still relies on a code of honor between the clans. If they make their grievances known and T'Challa is just like "I don't care", then what is their recourse outside an actual takeover?
Point being, I think it's a messed up system regardless of how you choose to take it. If you want to look at it that it's just a farce that's meant to give the illusion of fairness but actually just keeps T'Challa's family in power, sure, I guess that adds another layer to it, but even the trial is genuine, it's extremely exploitable, leading Killmonger to being able to become king just by roughhousing a dude bad enough.
On an unrelated note, I've been thinking about how perfect Black Panther is as a concept for empowerment. Genuinely, I cannot think of a more empowering hero that is hidden away in the world in a place that is far more advanced than anything in the world for an underpowered people. If you were to task me with creating a better black superhero, if only as an idea, I genuinely don't think I could come up with one better than Black Panther. I am usually someone who doesn't believe in good ideas or bad ideas, only good and bad execution on easy/difficult to pull off ideas, but this is an exception: Black Panther is an idea that is absolutely perfect.
