“You are a good man with a good heart. And it’s hard for a good man to be king.” – King T’Chaka
Black Panther, released in theaters on Feb. 16, 2018, celebrates its fifth anniversary today. It remains one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s finest achievements. The film tells a bold, worthy story about traumatic loss—of family, of identity, of home—and it asks us to identify with its villain as much as its hero.
The best villains are the ones that we empathize with. We knew Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) was wrong, that his plan to arm the oppressed people of the world would result in a pyrrhic victory at best and a slaughter of his people at worst. But damned if we didn’t feel his rage and his willingness to burn the world down because he’s traveled it, lived it and seen the worst it has to offer.
On the other side is T’Challa, a good man with a good heart. He could have killed his cousin without giving him an audience. He could have kept a shameful family secret buried forever; his father, whom he idolized and placed on a pedestal, was deeply flawed. But T’Challa believed that the ugly truth was preferable to a well-intentioned lie.