#shuri half believes in the ancestral plane

[fuckitwhenifeelit]

Shuri was gonna [redacted] herself in the riverbank. The water. Where her mother said to sit and heal. Where Namor was.

And for her... the place where peace could find her [redacted].

Got emboldened to post this snippet:

Shuri, in a large bathtub filled to the brim with water,

contemplating, and then immersing her whole body

and she doesn't come up for air

for so long that Griot has sent alerts to General Ayo and the nearest Dora.

She has succumbed to a death sleep.

-

Princess Shuri has been trying to [redacted] herself for some time now.

The last member of the Golden Tribe. The Black Panther.

She was the queen who abdicated, the daughter who was now orphaned.

She just wanted to see it for herself. Her family... on the other side.

It was either the ancestral plane or the end of this grief.

She thought of only those two choices. There is no losing.

-

Nakia arrives. A boy with her.

Shuri never permitted to be awoken.

So she doesn't see.

-

Namor arrives. An army with him.

She was just stuck in an empty, black plane. It was infinity.

She doesn't see.

-

Then she returns.

She's awake when the terror of nightmares comes to her.

Namor sits on the throne and he is not alone.

Now she sees, the boy standing tall... Finally.

-

Shuri doesn't know how long yet, but it already felt to her like forever.

She had morphed into someone physically weak. Limp limbs, taut and swollen skin.

Her hair had grown past her shoulders, because she had slept too long.

While Prince T'Challa, son of King T'Challa, turned ten.

[agentem]

I’ve started writing a Black Panther sequel in my head. I don’t want to. My head won’t stop. (This is something I do when I am anxious.)

It is set after the Snap and it’s about grief.

First scene is Okoye having to tell Ramonda that T’Challa is gone. She feels guilty. Then Nakia comes back to find her whole family is gone and is bereft.

We cut to Warrior Falls. It is a shadow of what we saw in Black Panther. Half as many people, everyone sad, no dancing. In my head, M’Baku sits with his feet in the water because fuck it.

Shuri is the natural choice for queen. M’Baku still doesn’t like how much she relies on vibranium but much of the fight in him is spent.

She takes the heart shaped herb and prepares to meet her ancestors. T’Challa is not on the Ancestral Plane. Bast denies her (like in the comics, except not because she is jealous of T’Challa. Hinted that Bast knows what is to come.)

Shuri very sad. Nakia very sad. Everyone very sad.

M’Baku takes the throne but not the Black Panther mantle. A compromise. He starts hunting down the remaining Outriders from IW (did they just go away when the Snap happened???) and, in the process, making Wakanda more isolated. Ramonda doesn’t agree with his choices. Achebe begins preaching that T’Challa brought in outsiders and the outsiders caused all the problems. They got him killed.

Despite this, Okoye remains in touch with the Avengers. Natasha promises her that they will get everyone back “whatever it takes.” Okoye looks hopeful.

Nakia turns to mysticism. Herbs. Altar of resurrection. All stuff we know is bad and will turn her into Malice.

Shuri studies the panthers of the past and their powers. She is a girl of science and this is not her area. She turns to her mother for reassurance she hasn’t failed her country. Ramonda loves her. Bast must have rejected her for some other reason and Shuri worries it is because she is not T’Challa. Ramonda reminds her that none of them are T’Challa.

Ramonda encourages Shuri to study more of the mysticism of the Panther cult.

Nakia, in her grief, accidentally creates a vibranium monster (this would be similar to the plot of “Wakanda Forever” but implied she was trying to resurrect T’Challa).

It threatens cities outside of Wakanda and M’Baku says it is not their problem. Okoye disobeys him and alerts the Avengers. Natasha says she will send Rhodey but Okoye says no.

She goes to fight it. She appeals to Nakia saying she is sad too. And to blame her, not the innocent people. She failed to protect the king. There is a cool fight but ultimately they embrace.

M’Baku is angry Okoye left her role—protecting him. Achebe believes the Avengers have corrupted Okoye. He stirs up controversy, suggesting she killed T’Challa to the public.

There is much unrest. Shuri believes the country will be ripped apart without a Black Panther, she goes to Nakia (in jail?) for help, and Nakia is surprised to hear that T’Challa was not on the astral plane. Shuri thought this was an extra cruelty from Thanos. He took their souls with him. But Nakia doesn’t believe that is possible.

Does Bast know something they don’t???

Nakia and Ramonda help Shuri go to the Ancestral Plane again. My initial idea was that she would talk to T’Chaka but another tumblr user had a brilliant idea that it would be Killmonger who would tell her he’s not dead—yet.

When she wakes up, Shuri has the strength of the Black Panther. But she knows it is not permanent.

She hears Achebe preaching against Okoye and she and Nakia go and rescue her. The three fight against Achebe’s guards. We learn he’s intentionally stirring up trouble because he hates T’Challa and wants to destroy everything he built. More cool fighting. The sight of the female Black Panther stuns the crowd.

M’Baku arrives and has Achebe arrested. Maybe he is an isolationist but T’Challa was his “brother.” Shuri has proven herself to him as a warrior.

As the film ends, there is Shuri voiceover where she explains that the Black Panther is the protector of Wakanda, similar to what T’Challa said to Nat when T’Chaka died. We see Okoye interfacing with the Avengers. Nakia studies to become a priestess (like Zuri was in the first film). Ramonda gives a speech at the United Nations. M’Baku and the Jabari fight aliens and do their cool war chant. Shuri sits on the throne.

And I want some not sappy sentiment here about how they are all a little bit the Panther. (Like Spiderverse’s anyone can wear the mask but more about the strength of community .) They will work together to preserve what T’Challa started.

And the ancestors (Killmonger, T’Chaka) will watch over them.

That’s what I have so far. Someone help me with the end? What do you think?

*I am conflicted about whether I want Shuri dusted or not. I mean, I want her there but Marvel says she was dusted. I don’t approve.

[orderoftheavengers]

Just Because A Spell Works Doesn’t Mean it Can’t Be Improved 

PRINCESS SHURI 

Summary: Princess of the most advanced wizarding nation on the planet

House: Ravenclaw

Species: Human

Blood status: Pureblood

Wand: Baobab wood, nine inches, fwooper feather

Broom: Builds herself a new one every other week; but she prefers dragons as transportation

Patronus: Great Blue Turaco

Specialty: Creating magical talismans, using spells that include, but are not limited to: transfiguration; invisibility; teleportation; flying; astral projection....

Sorting

Okay, we've seen some sharp Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, and half the geniuses in this AU seem to be in Slytherin. But Shuri's intelligence and pursuit of knowledge is her number one strongest trait. Stark, Strange and the niffler are all brilliant; but their brains are in competition with their Slytherin determinism and temperaments. Shuri never backs down from a challenge, but she is usually far more quick to accept when it's time to quit than those three fuzzballs. She is brave as hell, but when no one needs her protecting, she is usually content to stay in her lab and continue inventing. In fact, she invented a way to fly brooms and dragons halfway across the world without having to leave her lab.

The princess, of course, is not a regular student at Hogwarts; the magically concealed nation of Wakanda has the most advanced wizard school on the planet, sans possibly the Kamar-Taj School of Wandless Magic in Tibet. But Wakandan royalty are all expected to study abroad, to gain some perspective on the outside world. Shuri has already spent a semester at Kamar-Taj, as well as Ilvormorny, Mahoutokoro, Durmstrang, Beaubaxtons, Xavier's School for Gifted Witches and Wizards, and a few quaint Muggle schools like Oxford and the University of Hong Kong. Hogwarts was low on her list, and she has only finally gotten around to doing a semester there at age 16.

The Sorting Hat is all too happy to get her out of the way, after spending half the Sorting Ceremony listening to her nonstop commentary on how she could speed up the process with various spell combinations.

"It's so cute and oldschool," Shuri says, as she finally swaggers to the stool. "I made myself a talking hat, when I was three or four. She picked out my outfits for me, so I wouldn't have to lose time from the lab thinking about color combinations and fashion trends..."

As she approaches, the Sorting Hat is hunched over, its pointed tip balled into a fist.

"... In Wakanda we have six Houses, but they're not decided by a magical piece of hardware. We us the Heart-Shaped Herb to travel to the Ancestral Plane--oh it's so nice to be able to just blurt that out and not have to memory-charm the whole room anymore! My brother really does have some good ideas after all." She sits on the stool and places the Hat over her cinnamon-roll hairdo. "I think if I were to design a Sorting Ceremony for a wizarding school, I'd use a Legilimency charm to combine a Portkey with a Pensieve..."

While she muses, the Hat on her head silently spins her around on the stool until she is facing the Ravencalw table, and then sends her off with a shove, not even bothering to speak telepathically.

She continues to relate her hypothetical Sorting Cat ("Because only a panther should pick your Houses, obviously...") to an exasperated werewolf; a mildly interested legilimens; a politely attentive golem; an enchantingly-befuzzled Peter Parker, and a metamorphmagus who has lost interest and begun digging into her dragon steak.

Ravenclaw Among of Ravencalws

Within the House dedicated to intelligence, Shuri is loved and hated for her stand-out intelligence. Wanda and Vision like her, because she's their only hope for removing the Mind Stone from the golem's head. Bruce Banner feels stupid around her. Peter Parker is falling in love. And Ministry of Magic agent Everett Ross has already been adopted by her.

When Ravenclaw and Slytherin take classes together, Shuri is advanced enough to be in the same classes as the seventh-years--which for Slytherin, includes Tony Stark, Stephen Strange and Rocket the Raccoon/Niffler Hybrid. It is fire and gasoline. Or more precisely, firewhisky and dragon blood. The results are the same.

Between the Drunken Quidditch Brawl and the War for the Infinity Wand , Antonius Stark pays a visit to Wakanda, where Shuri introduces him to the Bleeding Transformation Spell he incorpporates into his next broom. She oversees Tony and Bucky make up. She completely enchants Peter Parker, who is her equal in age, but opposite in school years (despite being a brilliant Ravenclaw himself). After the Dusting Curse, the princess also helps Tony, Bruce and Rocket build Time Turners. Obviously the princess was not a victim of the Dusting, that would just be FLAMING CHINESE FIREBALL SH*T!!!

Shuri and Tony's arguing is interrupted, when a Muggle laptop comes crashing through the stone wall of their lab, and just barely misses Rocket. Even Bruce, in full green wolf-form, pauses his rampage to curiously pick up the crushed computer gingerly in his paws. When he pries it opened, the four geniuses observe this very post.

"There goes the forth wall," Shuri says grimly. "Serious damage really has been done to our universe."

"Then let's get to un-doing it!" Tony declares, already using his wand to magically pull the Muggle artifact apart for scraps.

Patronus

the Great Blue Turaco is a flamboyant blue bird with "hair" to rival Shuri's. Aside from looking like the princess in avian form, the Turaco is also a very resourceful bird. Its wings are not the best for flying, so it cheats by gliding (comparable to how Shuri prefers to "cheat" at flying with astral projection). It also has unusually flexible claws, that make it a great climber. The bird's call is often as loud and intruding as the princess's infamous snarky tongue. Despite it's bold nature, Turaco's can warm up to humans surprisingly fast, to the point where they can be fed by hand. And maybe adopt a part-hobbit "colonizer." 

And while there is no reason a witch's patronus or wand need to be from the same part of the world she is, Shuri's clear pride in her heritage (decorated all over her lab) makes it no surprise that her patonus would be a bird right from Africa's equator, where Wakanda is located! 

Wand

The "baobab," or Adansonia, tree, is one of the most recognizable trees in Africa. (It's Rafiki's tree.) Like Shuri, this tree offers a wide variety of resources. It not only grows edible (albeit weird) fruit, but even its leaves can be eaten as a vegetable. Baobab sees can be used to make vegetable oil, and in Tanzania its pulp is added to sugarcane to help fermentation in beer brewing. The Harry Potter wiki curiously has nothing to say about this iconic tree's wood, but if it did, you can be sure these wands would go to multi-talented wizards and witches. 

The fwooper is almost like a magical answer to the Turaco. Fwoopers are brightly colored African birds (orange, pink, lime green and yellow), whose songs will drive listeners to madness. They lay patterned eggs, and Uric the Oddball believed their songs to have medicinal purposes.

Princess Shuri’s Contributions to the Science of Magic:

Strengthened her brother T’Challa’s Royal Animagus spell, making his panther form even more durable and powerful than before 

Astral-Projection-Aviation: A spell allowing one to take control of a broom or magic carpet, and partial control of a living being like a dragon, from miles away. She teaches Ministry of Magic Agent Everett Ross how to use this trick in battle.

Developed a magical shield that can protect one from the Imperius Curse, successfully tested on vampire Bucky Barnes

Upgraded “arm-or” (cue groans) for Bucky, to replace the one Tony blasted off during his breakdown. 

“Sneakers:” Shoes of invisibility. She isn’t aware that “sneakers” are already a Muggle thing.

Countless new magical features and designs for wands, brooms, flying carpets, portkeys, time turners, and so forth 

Notes: I took far too long to do Shuri, because I feared not doing her Wakandan motif justice. Deciding to forgo the fancy background really helped. Otherwise, I don't feel I have much to explain about this one.

[blackpanther2018dirryancoogler]

Saw Black Panther for the second time tonight. I’m gonna put my thoughts below the cut because they won’t be spoiler free.

I just want to start by saying that this movie changed my life, and if it had that much of an impact on me, I can’t even begin to understand how much more it will mean to people of color who finally get to see a superhero who looks just like them. This movie is long overdue, but worth every ounce of hype it’s received.

The mixing of Wakandan and English shows how much their culture means to them, and also gives them the ability to talk about people right in front of their faces, like T’Challa and Okoye do in South Korea with Ross.

The tech, as anticipated, is out of this world. Shuri is the smartest person in the entire world at just sixteen, and she uses her resources to her benefit. The use of holograms in both the rescue mission and in their everyday life are so casual but so crucial to their way of life.

There were so many small moments of humor, and none of them felt forced or awkward. Shuri especially brought humor in, which I feel is expected when you have a sixteen year old involved, even if she is a genius.

Okoye tells T’Challa not to freeze when he’s going to rescue Nakia, and he says that he never freezes when he sees her. Turns out he does end up freezing and letting out a really awkward “hi”, and when he returns home to Wakanda, the first thing Shuri asks is if he froze. Okoye says, “Like an antelope in headlights” and T’Challa says, “Are you finished?” It’s a nice little exchange.

It’s also great to see Shuri wearing more contemporary clothes in different scenes, a sign that she’s branching out with her fashion but also staying close to her roots.

The interactions between Shuri and T’Challa are so heartwarming and feel very natural for a brother/sister pairing.

When T’Challa returns home and Shuri says that she wants to upgrade his tech, he asks her why she needs to do so when it worked perfectly.

Shuri says, “How many times do I have to teach you? Just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.” T’Challa replies, “You are teaching me? What do you know?” and Shuri follows it up with a quick “More than you.”

There’s so many great cultural moments in the movie, like when all the different tribes are dancing on their rafts on the way to the ceremonial challenge. Each tribe is represented and has the opportunity to fight for the throne, but no one wants to. Until Shuri raises her hand and says that her corset is too tight and they should all just hurry up so she can go home. I love that she does it for the drama of it all. M’Baku shows up and when he walks toward Ramonda and Shuri, the Dora Milaje automatically get into a defensive stance.

I love the burial/rebirth ritual, and I love the shot of T’Challa in the ancestral plane. I especially love T’Challa’s white robe and the contrast between that and the black panthers in the tree, and also himself bearing the mantle of the Black Panther. Also white usually means purity or good intentions, and I think in that part of the film, T’Challa has the best intentions when he goes to speak with his father. He really does have a sort of innocence to him, because he hasn’t experienced much in the way of being a king yet.

“I am not ready to be without you,” he says to T’Chaka, to then continue on by asking him how he can be a good king.

Shuri showing her brother all of her inventions is a great chance to see her lab, and also get a taste of what she’s making at this point in the MCU. I can’t wait to see what else she invents as the years go by.

I love that she’s always teasing him, from what shoes he’s wearing, to filming him getting blasted with kinetic energy from his suit. Speaking of, it’s so awesome and resourceful of her to have the suit build up the energy in order to use it.

Nakia and T’Challa matching when they’re in South Korea is the best thing in the world. Also it’s so cool that T’Challa understands Korean. Shuri using her tech and driving the car from Wakanda is...so cool, I don’t even know what else to say about it. The moment when she runs over someone and asks what that was, and T’Challa says, “Don’t worry about it, you’re doing great” is so good because I’m sure eventually she found out she technically ran someone over.

Also I’m not sure what Shuri made Okoye’s shoes out of, or what tech is in them, but they’re also pretty cool.

One thing I loved about the movie was the constant talk of the white characters being repressive or just not useful, and the Wakandans are almost always annoyed with them. Especially when Klaue is being interrogated in South Korea, and T’Challa and Okoye are speaking in Wakandan about what they’re going to do with Klaue once Ross is done interviewing him. Ross touches T’Challa’s shoulder and Okoye says that if he does it again, she’ll put him through the desk in the room. Then Ross asks T’Challa, “Does she speak English?” and Okoye replies, “When she wants to.” When Ross leaves the room, T’Challa has to remind Okoye to play nice.

It’s clear that T’Challa really cares for Nakia, and obviously so since they mention him having a crush on her and them being exes, etc. There’s a moment after Erik (N’Jadaka) breaks Klaue out where Okoye calls T’Challa back and when she mentions Nakia’s name, T’Challa goes running because he thinks she’s hurt.

When T’Challa, Okoye, and Nakia bring Ross back to Wakanda for Shuri to help heal him, she says, “Great, another broken white boy for us to fix! This is going to be fun.” Nothing has ever been more accurate in a Marvel movie. Then later when he wakes up, she says, “Don’t scare me like that, colonizer!”

While Shuri is explaining her inventions to Ross, she’s also explaining them to us and giving us a better idea of how things work, like the sonic stabilizers in the trains.

While T’Challa is grappling with the fact that his father wasn’t the perfect man he thought, Nakia reminds him that no one is perfect but he doesn’t have to be the same kind of king T’Chaka was. She tells him that he gets to decide what kind of king he’s going to be. He takes the advice later on when he nearly gets beaten in a ceremonial challenge against N’Jadaka and has to basically be reborn. He sees T’Chaka and tells him that he’s going to be a different king, and that he can’t die yet. Nakia’s advice is also what leads him to open Wakanda’s borders and share their technology and inventions with the world at the end of the movie.

When everyone believes T’Challa to be dead, Nakia asks Okoye to run away and work on overthrowing N’Jadaka, but Okoye says she can’t go because she is loyal to the throne, and therefore the king. Nakia mentions that Okoye is the greatest warrior Wakanda has. That line makes me wonder why she wasn’t sent with T’Challa in Civil War when he was meeting with the others in Germany, but why Ayo went with him instead. Okoye is also the leader of the Dora Milaje, but maybe he had her stay behind in Wakanda to look after things.

Another big thing about the Dora Milaje is that they’re all so revered in Wakanda, and it’s an honor to be a part of the Dora. It’s such an amazing thing, seeing a group of strong black women acting as the security force for the king of the richest country in the world.

The one part of the movie that is the most gut-wrenching is when N’Jadaka is watching the sunset before his death. T’Challa says maybe he can still be healed, because there must be something Shuri can do, and it shows his compassion to offer healing to the man he stabbed. N’Jadaka says he won’t be healed because he knows he’ll just end up locked up. Then he says, “Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, ‘cause they knew death was better than bondage.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get through that scene without crying.

T’Challa, after deciding to open Wakanda’s borders and share information, goes to California, where N’Jobu died at T’Chaka’s hand. He buys the building, and the ones surrounding it, and then tells Shuri that she’ll spearhead the science and information exchange, and Nakia will be in charge of the social outreach for the first Wakandan international outreach center. There’s a group of boys outside playing basketball and one looks at T’Challa and asks who he is. You can see in his eyes that he’s amazed by this man, who looks like him, dressed like royalty. Of course he’d wonder who T’Challa was, and he’d want to know more about Wakanda.

Finally, in the end credits, Bucky returns. His hair in its half bun is one of the things I’ve wanted to see for years. Literally ever since Winter Soldier when I first saw him with long hair, I imagined what his hair would look like in a half bun, and Black Panther finally made that dream a reality for me. But beyond that, it was so nice to see Bucky looking relaxed and rested and feeling safe.

Shuri will give him a new arm, replacing the metal one that had the communist star on it. I’m sure it’ll have some incredible technological abilities, and I can’t wait to see what they are. For now, it was just great seeing Bucky able to relax and feel safe for a while. Shuri started by calling him Sergeant Barnes, but he said, “Bucky,” reminding her to call him by his nickname. When she asked how he was feeling, he said, “Good” and I think that’s probably the first time in over seventy years that he’s been able to say that. It’s good to see him at peace for a while.

But Bucky is absolutely not the focus of this movie, and in fact, he’s nowhere close to being the focus. As always, the end credits scene just pushes the narrative forward, and sets us up for Infinity War. I don’t think they could’ve gone without mentioning Bucky because he was in Wakanda for a few months, and it would’ve been nearly impossible to think that Shuri hadn’t come up with a way to fix his head in that time.

More importantly, the film is about much more than Bucky Barnes being out of cryofreeze; it’s about the lack of representation for people of color in film, and showing what African countries could’ve been like without colonization. I can’t wait to learn more and more about this movie, the cultures, and the people involved as time goes on, and learn more about small details in the film the more times I watch it.