Asgard is either a land of gods or an alien kingdom. Either way, there's no need to tie it to the real world. Wakanda is tied to the real world.
I have no problem with Wakanda being a closed but advanced nation. In fact, I think that's part of its charm. Here's the thing, though. Wakanda needs to be an African nation. It can't just be a fantasy land like Asgard is or Attilan will be. That means there needs to be some sensitivity with that and some attempts to tie it to the real world. You don't want it to come off as "the dark continent written by white people" and you don't want it to come off as Disneyland (or Tomorrowland, I suppose). For people to buy Black Panther, they have to buy Wakanda as a real place. There's no need to buy Asgard as a real place since it's literally a place of legend.
Mike gets it.
Wakanda is fictional so it doesn't have be 100 percent realistic.
No one is going to boycott the movie because Wakanda is a mixture of indigenous traditions and space age technology. I find the compelling concept refreshing.
People get passionate about this because dumbing down Wakanda to make it more believable is insulting and destroys what makes it an ideal, Utopian place in Marvel Universe.
Wakanda is a concept that legitimizes the indigenous tribe in various ways. It suggest that the African tribe is not uncivilized and stupid but a way of life that would be preserved by a highly intelligent society.
All the lack of realism concerns could be solved easily.
Tony Stark could ask T'Challa why do they live still isolated with primitive traditions and T'Challa could briefly explain how nature is sacred and their way of life preserves nature while the rest of mankind is destroying the Earth.
Boom, indigenous traditions explained.
No one said Wakanda needs to be 100% realistic. No one said anything about boycotting the movie. No one has had a problem with the mixture of tech and indigenous traditions. No one is dumbing down Wakanda. No one has said Wakanda needs to be uncivilized.
My ideal Wakanda would be a place isolated by terrain and tradition. The people are advanced culturally, socially, and spiritually. While they do not accept outsiders easily, or often (read: ever), they are not unworldly. They send their best and brightest to discover the outside world, to learn, and bring back and adapt new ideas and technologies to improve their way of life. They are not a dumb people. This is my utopia.
This is a universe where we have a guy who can create an armour suit that can allow him to fly and shoot, a hellcarrier that floats in the air, a man that can transform in to a big green monster, a girl that can manipulate reality but Wakanda coming off as an advanced nation than any other country is a problem?
You must have missed the part in the other thread where I stated (if this isn't obvious) that Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, et al. can't exist without their powers. Black Panther can exist without Wakanda having space-aged tech.
Didn't know there was much of controversy. I think a good country reference would be like North Korea but without the dictatorship and a stable civilized Tomorrow land esque society. An isolated nation that is able to use there power and influence to stay out of the media. There's alot of African nations that the average person doesn't know exists. I wonder how many people have heard of Togo or Eritrea? Throw in a bit of comic book fantasy and suspension of disbelief and I think it would be an easy sell.
There is no controversy. The problem is coming from folks who don't want anyone taking liberties with the source material (as if Marvel, both MCU and comics, hasn't done that already). I have a different idea of how Wakanda should be presented and was called a racist for it (not cool).
The basic issue with Wakanda is how it has achieved it's technological superiority with it's limited resources and self-imposed isolationism and managed to escape any scrutiny even though it is the most advanced place on Earth by leaps and bounds. You can't hide a city, how do we not know it's there? We have planes and satellites, we can see you. These are very basic questions of which there is no good answer for.
I like my version of Wakanda (I admit there may be some bias). I think my version addresses the issues I have with the country. I am under no illusion that my ideas will change anything. You do not have to accept my ideas. I will repeat what I said in the other thread, I am concerned about the audience buying some of the more fantastic elements of Wakanda. All we can do is wait and see what the reaction is. I hope this movie is successful. I bet it will be.
