Why Killmonger Is My Favorite Marvel Villain

Why Killmonger is my Favorite Marvel Villain

Erik “Killmonger” was told stories of the utopia that was Wakanda by his father and saw the worst the world had to offer. When he was just a boy his father was taken from him by the very people he was told stories about. The people who had the means to stop the violence and save others like them had taken his fathers life because he wanted to “share” their technology with their less fortunate people. I believe that the death of his father caused him to adopt his father’s ideals and work towards the realization of them with unparalleled focus and resolve. To him Wakanda was the villain for killing his father and denying the rest of “their people” their technology. His ideal was noble, but it was taken to an extreme because the world had taken all he cared about and never gave him anything in return. The rage and hatred he held was there boiling just below the surface and the only reason he didn’t self-destruct was because he had a cause to channel it towards. Erik’s life was a tragic story of a man working towards a “noble” cause that got warped because of loss and neglect.

T’Challa ended up learning from Erik. He realized he couldn’t keep Wakanda’s resources separate from the world. That doing so was wrong and was the reason for his current conflict. He saw the ideal that Killmonger had beneath the radicalization and ended up acting on what he learned. The best villains are the ones the heroes can learn from

The Last Jedi- The Importance of the Throne Room Scene and Kylo Ren’s development

The throne room scene was when we finally see what Kylo Ren is thinking. Kylo believes both sides of the force have failed him. First the light side with his teacher Luke and now the dark in his mentor Snoke. Both believed him to be a failure for different reasons. Luke because he feared Kylo’s tremendous power and Snoke because he believes Kylo is weak and that he has found a more fitting successor in raw strength in Rey. Snoke believed he was only luring Rey to him through the interactions between Kylo and Rey he forced upon them throughout the movie, but in reality he was causing both to find someone who truly understands the other. This caused Kylo to strike out against Snoke and lead to his demise. 

The subsequent fight against the guards showed how in sync Kylo and Rey were. Kylo believed he had found something in between in Rey. Something not quite pure light side or pure dark side, but in the middle. He had come to reject both sides of the force and wanted to make his own way by destroying the old “antiquated” systems and creating the world anew. He rejected Rey’s offer to join the rebellion and stop the first order because he saw that the rebellion would just put the old systems in place, the systems he believed failed him. He could only achieve his goals of change if he stayed with the first order and lead them. He wanted Rey by his side because he saw his goals for the new system in her, but Rey didn’t agree with his methods to reach his solution though tearing down the system through violence. 

Kylo didn’t know another way to achieve his goals but through violence. This was the disconnect. Kylo was taught his whole life to fight (through Luke) and conquer (through Snoke). Whereas Rey was taught to remain passive and accepting. Rey learned that to make change she would have to take action, but only when need be, while Kylo slowly resorts to action in escalating extremes. 

Reyna and Nico-the Perfect Unlikely Friendship

Both Reyna and Nico suffer from isolation and loneliness brought upon by their respective reaction to their negative past experiences. Reyna strove for power to have the ability to prevent tragedy to herself and others and ended up causing herself more pain through the isolation the power brought. Her pursuit is ironic in that her pursuit to prevent pain caused her pain. She is truly isolated from her peers not truly of her own free will, but because the position requires her to be strong for everyone around her. Nico on the other hand isolates himself. This is due to the negative atmosphere created by the community he initially lived in. The community was strongly anti-gay and he was forced to fear a part of himself. His isolation is ironic because in his want and need to be accepted he didn’t give anyone a chance to really get to know him and accept him. 

Both Nico and Reyna have trouble trusting others and hide behind tough exteriors. They hide the broken remnants of their respective lives. Reyna through her position. Nico through self isolation. Because of their similarities in dealing with their hardship and shared isolation and loneliness they are able to find someone to open up to. Nico and Reyna share a mutual understanding of loneliness and loss. This coupled with their quest together created a bond that is my favorite friendship in the Heroes of Olympus. I look forward to seeing Reyna in the Tyrant’s Tomb and hope this friendship get more focus in the coming books.

This. I understand that people want a redemption arc, but they can't erase what Lotor has done. Erasing what he has done takes away from the complexity of the character. I want a redemption arc as well. A redemption arc isn’t about being innocent all along. It’s about someone learning from their mistake, acknowledging they were wrong, and moving in the right direction. I'm also fine with Lotor ending up a villain because he seems like someone who took his goal too far and those characters make some of the most complex villains. He was also a character bound for tragedy in one way or another. Many people, including myself, feel like they didn't take enough time to explore those complexities that could make him either a hero or a villain before making him into a zarkon 2.0 and that was disappointing. I liked the idea behind what the voltron writing team was going for, but found the execution somewhat lacking.

I'm certain they aren't done with Lotor because of all the plot points and reveals surrounding his character and past in seasons 5 and 6. Hagar had just found a cure for quintessence poisoning right before Lotor himself fell victim to it. It wouldn't make sense to completely discard of him after all the set up they created. I hope they explore more of the complexity of his past and character in the future.

My problem with the whole #justiceforlotor tag going around on tumblr and twitter is that I wish it focused more on his wasted potential as a character rather than advocating for his innocence. I agree that he is a victim of his parents and his terrible upbringing, but his crimes are still pretty heinous, so he’s far from innocent at this point. If anything I just wish the wording on the photo was less “Lotor is innocent give him a redemption arc!” and more “Lotor is a very nuanced, morally ambigous character who deserves more screen time to show that, and shouldn’t have been turned into Zarkon 2.0 for shock value.”

The Dark Tournament-My Favorite Shonen Tournament Arc

I recently rewatched Yu Yu Hakusho and upon seeing the dark tournament for the second time I was struck by just how well done Yoshihiro Togashi made this classic shonen arc. He uses all the traditional shonen tropes to their greatest strength and he creates his own twist on them. This arc used background elements to accentuate elements that play into the story and tournament itself. All of these elements create my favorite shonen tournament arc.

The setting of the tournament is fascinating in that it is used to increase your emotions inn regards to each fight. The entire arena, except for Botan, Keiko, and Shizuru, is against Yusuke and his friends as well as the tournament committee. This makes each win seem so much more hard fought and each loss even more crushing. When the crowd finally cheers for Yusuke it is out of self preservation and creates an atmosphere of desperation for the final battle with Toguro. I’ve never really seen this done in a shonen quite like it is here. Most series I’ve read just focus on the reactions of a select few characters the protagonist knows and everyone else is mostly irrelevant. When you think about sporting event or competitions in real life part of the intensity of it all is the crowd cheering when a goal is scored for their team or being frustrated when they think the referee made a bad call. When sitting in the stands if fans for your team are in the minority you’re usually more excited when the score and win the game because they overcame the odds and won in “enemy” territory. The fact that it utilized this aspect of competition when it could have been thrown away like it so often is was really refreshing.

This tournament firmly established the personalities of all of the major players within this arc and the series moving forward. This tournament is what made me love Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke. Whether it be Kuwabara’s big heart and empathy for others, Kurama’s calm calculation, Hiei’s confidence and quiet fury, or Yusuke’s confidence and determination I enjoyed how these characteristics played into each fight and their interactions between the fights. It wasn’t just the heroes either, but also the villains. Toguro is a deceivingly complex villain with a sadness underlying his cold and brutal facade. His final conversation with Genkai was cathartic and managed to incorporate themes of desire, love, and loss in a single two sentence exchange “Don’t ever regret what happened between us.” “No, but it would have been a beautiful life.” Toguro, when all was said and done, truly was a “man with a wounded heart and a broken dream.” The fact that after seeing all the awful things this character has done the story manages to make me empathize with this character is a testament to the character writing put into it.

All of the fights were well animated and had something that kept my watching. In Kurama’s fights it was his intellect and seeing how he gets out of the situation at hand even with handicaps. Yoko Kurama’s first appearance was incredibly memorable and had me in awe of his overwhelming power and control of plants. In Hiei’s fights it was his ingenious uses of the dragon of the darkness flame. In Kuwabara’s fights I was interested in seeing how his empathy interacted with his actions and how he competes against the odds. In Yusuke’s fights it was interesting to see him grow through the obstacles until he couldn’t grow through just physical means and had to accept and grow emotionally through learning how to be outwardly genuine by embracing his emotions.

This is why I found this to be my favorite tournament arc in anime. I understand if others have a different opinion. I know of many anime that have a great tournament that uses conventional and unconventional methods to create a compelling arc.

Spider-man Homecoming Review

Spider-man Homecoming was better than I could have hoped. When it was first announced that Disney and Sony were teaming up and rebooting spider-man I was a little frustrated that this was happening again and I thought that moving Black Panther to make way for spider-man was just a cash grab. I have never been happier to be wrong. The Movie mixed the school and hero aspects of Peter's life wonderfully. He was the awkward nerd that everyone loves and remembers. Tom Holland was excellent and brought the character to life. His rendition of Spider-man was a fresh take on a character that has been brought to the big screen on numerous occasions. He made me feel for Peter and his struggle to prove himself to others and stay true to his ideals. This movie also addressed important questions every spider-man fan has asked himself time and time again like how does spider-man get places if he has no buildings around to websling on? and what does spider-man do when there isn’t a world or city threatening enemy to fight? He runs the places he wants to go and gives little old lady’s directions to where they want to go.

             As a lifelong spider-man fan I was impressed by the cast and how they portrayed their characters. Jacob Batalon was loveably humorous and geeky as Ned Leeds. Tony Revolori portrayed the classic high school bully to the T and was fun to watch. Zendaya was quirky and strange yet endearing. Tom Holland blew it out of the water and convinced me time and time again that he is Peter Parker and Spider-man. Marvel has yet to miscast its heroes. Michael Keaton fixed the villain problem and brought a 3-dimensional character to the vulture.

             I did have a few problems with the film and almost all of them came from the completely forced love subplot between Peter and Liz Allen. I found Peter’s one-sided attraction to Liz endearing, but it made no sense that she would return his feelings. He constantly let her down and every interaction they had I could barely believe they were friends. They were closer to acquaintances that didn’t really talk that much and that Peter was really awkward around. She doesn’t know he is spider-man so throughout the movie she sees Peter being unreliable. At the beginning she doesn’t even think to invite him to her party until Ned says Peter knows spider-man. This was however a rather small blemish considering it didn’t take up that much of the runtime.

Overall this movie was a blast to watch and I enjoyed the ride from start to finish. This movie was worth the money I spent to see it and I will be seeing it many more times to come