Marvel Cinematic Universe fans love few things more than picking as many holes as possible in the plot of any film or television project, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been opened up to an entirely new wave of scrutiny since being made available to stream on Disney Plus.
Whether it’s the sequel being lambasted for Thor: Love and Thunder-level CGI, inconsistencies in the storytelling, or the reevaluation of Namor’s reputation as one of the franchise’s finest villains, there’s been no shortage of discourse swirling around the comic book blockbuster.
In a surprising turn of events that’s also most welcome, though, a potentially major oversight has been explained away in the most straightforward of terms. On the forums of Reddit, users were questioning why Namor would attack Shuri and slam her into the rocks during their climactic beach showdown, when there was a body of water right there that would have re-hydrated the antagonist to full strength.
As much as “because comic books” is a valid explanation, replies have broken it down to a matter of emotion and rage. Namor wouldn’t have expected or been used to somebody being capable of going toe-to-toe with him in a brawl, and given that he was becoming increasingly weakened as the fight went on, he let his fury and ego get the better of him.
Not everything in the MCU needs to be trashed upon a second watch, then, but at least it’s hard to fault the reasoning behind a beat that could have painted the smackdown in a different light.