hello, sunshine.

Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.

Be wary of being offered everything you want by those in a position to take everything you have.

Erik Stevens is a CIA covert operative; basically, he’s a spy. So is Nakia. And when you look at their various actions through the lens of “who accomplished their mission better?”, it becomes pretty clear that Erik spent 20-some years preparing to destabilize T’Challa’s reign, including having inside knowledge and a birthright on his side…and Nakia spent roughly 36 hours successfully destabilizing his reign, in turn, with nothing but her incredible ability to network disparate resources.

Let’s just review her actions over those 36 hours okay:

- Gets the surviving members of the royal family successfully out of danger within seconds of the coup (aka the only living people with a competing blood claim to the throne aka the greatest threat to his regime)

- Sows enough doubt in the “greatest warrior in the country” about Killmonger’s ability to lead that when the time comes, Okoye and the entire Dora Milaje all defect (eventually saving hundreds of lives)

- Steals a heart-shaped herb from under his nose as he’s identifying it as the most important power resource in the country and trying to prevent it falling into anyone else’s hands, lol too late buddy

- Immediately identifies the person in the country with the best platform to mount a counter-insurgency (M’Baku), identifies what it will take to get him on their side, and casually resolves a centuries-long division in their country while she’s at it

- Correctly predicts Killmonger’s opening move of distributing vibranium to the war dogs, and assists in a comprehensive strategy that shuts it down cold–a strategy they wouldn’t have been able to use if she hadn’t gotten Shuri, Ross, and T’Challa all in one place with the right information at the right time

Another thing Nakia was good at was identifying where the necessary resources weren’t, namely in herself. That was why she argued Ramonda out of the idea of taking it herself. It wasn’t self-effacement or modesty, it was a clear-eyed calculation of what it would take to win and the best chance was with M'Baku, not her.

Okoye loved a man too, but her story wasn’t ABOUT him.

He didn’t have to teach her a damn thing

She didn’t give anything up for him.

She didn’t go evil for a quick second and go on a rampage, losing herself, because she lost him.

She didn’t entertain, for even a miliisecond, compromising herself for him

She wasn’t crying over him

Their relationship wasn’t shoehorned in for no reason other than “there has to be a romance”

Most of her scenes had nothing to do with him

Except for the last point, all of that applies to Nakia too… but in addition

When he interrupted her work, she was angry and allowed to say something along the lines of “you ruined my mission!” unapologetically

She continued to do her job

She continued to thrive separate from him

Love for a single man didn’t outweigh her love for humanity and it wasn’t something she had to agonize over. It was a simple decision that wasn’t considered a real conflict for her.

In general, love didn’t make these heroes and warriors weak. It didn’t make these women vulnerable in a way that didn’t fit their personalities or compromise their duties.

You are a good man, with a good heart.

“I think the first [female character] I’m going to talk about is actually Shuri, played by Letitia. That character, to have a little sister, it’s not very often that you see a superhero with a little sister. So I think that is probably not going to occur to people that that, it’s not unheard of but it’s an unusual thing, so I think it brings out a different part of his character. […]