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Captain Marvel – Story Structure Analysis

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Avengers: Endgame is going to hit cinemas in nine days – and I haven’t done the analysis for the last Marvel film, yet. Eeek! Time to change that: here goes my take on the Captian Marvel’s story structure.

Mandatory SPOILER ALERT!
Don’t read if you haven’t seen the Marvel’s Captain Marvel yet: spoilers galore ahead!
As I usually do, I use KM Weiland’s story structure to identify the beats of the rising action as well as the setbacks of the story and its climax.

Story Structure – Overview:

Hook: Kree Starforce member Vers suffers from weird nightmares.
Inciting Event: The Kree Supreme Intelligence clears Vers for a Kree mission with her commander Yon-Rogg
Key Event: The mission is a trap, Skrulls take Vers captive
First Plot Point: Vers escapes from the Skrull’s ship, crash-lands on earth, and meets Fury
First Pinch: Skrull leader Talos shapeshifts into Fury’s boss Keller
Midpoint: Vers learns about her past as Carol Danvers, the origin of her powers, the Kree manipulation, and the Skrull’s refugee status
Second Pinch: Yon-Rogg and his crew take over Mar Vel’s ship in Earth orbit, thwarting Skrull rescue plans
Third Plot Point: Carol successfully fights the Kree Supreme Intelligence’s mind manipulation and sets free her full powers
Climax: Carol/Vers fights her former Kree team incl. her mentor and commander Yon-Rogg, and protects Earth from Kree Accuser Ronan’s missiles
Climactic Moment: Carol refuses Kree teachings, allowing her to fully taps into her powers.
Resolution: Carol sends Yon-Rogg back to Hala with a warning/promise and leaves Earth to aid the Skrulls in their search for a new home

Detailed Analysis of the story structure: rising action, setbacks, and climax:

Captain Marvel starts out with setting the mood for the movie: the visuals of a battlefield with the heroine, battered and bloody amidst the remains of her vessel, facing an approaching enemy (Skrull). The audience soon learns that the scene is one of Kree Starforce member Vers’ dreams – reoccurring and disconcerting nightmares she can’t seem to shed nor make sense of. This works well as a hook: for one thing, most people relate to the trouble nightmares cause and for another, the obscure meaning of the dreams, their unknown cause as well as the questions attached to it, immediately pique the interest of the audience.

Vers’ night visions prompt a visit with the Kree Supreme Intelligence (SI), who tries to ascertain Vers’ ability to fight/function as a member of the Kree Starforce. The SI reminds Vers of her duty to use her powers for the benefit of the Kree race (or lose them again). Vers affirms her ability and willingness to fight in Yon-Rogg’s team of spec-ops. She is granted permission to join them on a search and rescue mission, extracting a Kree spy from behind the frontlines (inciting incident).

The mission turns out a failure. The whole thing is a set-up, a Skrull trap contrived to capture Vers. After abducting her, the Skrulls probe the same warped memories that feature in Vers’ nightmares, forcing her to re-live the same scenes over and over again (heavily featuring an older woman by the name of Wendy Lawson). In the process, she becomes aware of her situation and breaks free. She fights the Skrulls and escapes their heavily damaged ship on a rescue pod. The pod crash-lands on Earth. Some of the Skrulls make it off the destroyed ship and to the surface, too. These events qualify as the classic First Plot Point: Vers is stranded on a foreign planet = literally in another world, and she can’t easily remedy the situation.

Marooned on Earth, her gear somewhat damaged, and only mid-1990’s tech available, Vers try to contact Commander Yon-Rogg is shortlived. The connection is brief, barely long enough to submit her whereabouts, then fails. Now, Nick Fury of SHIELD shows up. His original amusement over Vers’ declaration of her status as “member of the Kree Starforce” vanishes when the Skrulls attack again. Vers’ Kree training kicks in and she springs into action at once. While she pursuits the Skrull on foot/public transport, Fury follows in his car. The chase ends with one Skrull dead, the other(s) escaped, Vers in possession of a Skrull data crystal, and a flabberghasted Fury, looking down on a Skrull corpse.

We arrive at the First Pinch Point when the antagonistic forces (the Skrulls) show their cunning and power. Fury, who can’t very well deny the alien’s existence flat-out anymore meets his boss Keller at the Skrull’s autopsy in the mortuary. But it’s not Keller, but Skrull leader Talos disguises as Fury’s boss. He deftly contains the scope of the investigation to Fury only. Meanwhile, Vers has accessed the data on the Skrull crystal and gleaned some hints where to continue her search for the ominous Wendy Lawson and any information that might shed some light at the whole business of seemingly contradictory dreams/memories/recollection.

She and Fury team up. They use Fury’s access to secret SHIELD facilities and gain knowledge about to Dr Lawson and more details of Vers’ past on Earth. They learn the whereabouts of Vers’ former Airforce (?) comrade and close friend Maria Rambeau. A shocked Maria provides Vers with her real name, Carol Danvers, and some more puzzle pieces for her still sketchy memories. The last pieces fall in place at the Midpoint, when Skrull leader Talos openly (and as himself) approaches the group in a last desperate bid. He succeeds – Carol, Fury, and Maria listen to the black box recording of Carol and Lawson’s plane crash. Vers/Carol finally remembers what has been purged/suppressed from her mind: she’s not a Kree at all, but a human who survived the explosion of a prototype engine core; Yon-Rogg is not so much her mentor but her captor; The Skrull are the victims, and she’s been deceived into believing otherwise.

The group decides to help Talos. With Carol and Maria’s help, they identify the coordinates Talos was looking for (supposedly to find the power core to help them flee the Kree oppression and start somewhere new) in close range to Earth. Skrull tech-guy Norex (?) refits the cargo plane for space usage, and they reach Dr Lawson’s (aka Kree rebel Mar Vel’s) cloaked lab in orbit. There, they not only find the power core she used to power her experimental engine (the Tesseract) but a large group of Skrull refugees, including Talos’ family. Unfortunately, the antagonistic force now comes back with a vengeance. (note: the antagonist has changed: the Skrulls are no longer the bad guys, but her old crew and the Kree in general are.) At the Second Pinch Point, Yon-Rogg and his crew arrive on Earth. He finds out Vers/Carol knows the truth about his deception. He kills Norex, calls for Ronan the Accuser to come and destroy Earth and takes over Mar Vel’s lab and captures Carol.

Carol is subjected to the mind-game of the SI once more. It’s even sassier than before, desperately trying to salvage any use of Carol as a puppet. But she’s having none of it. She realizes that she didn’t get her powers from the SI, but soaked it up in the explosion of the Tesseract-powered engine. She sheds restrictions imposed on her by the SI, escapes the imprisoning grip of its meta-plane, and comes back to herself. She is now finally able to use her power to its full extent. (Third Plot Point)

Carol’s break from the SI has blown the restrictions the Kree put on her. She can tap into her full powers, but she’s not yet capable of controlling it. She now tries to get the hang of her abilities while fighting against Yon-Rogg and her old crew, who are after the Tesseract. Since she left the artifact with Fury (later swallowed by Goose), this fight serves mainly as a distraction to allow Fury, Maria, and the Skrull refugees enough time to flee the ship. The group makes it to the cargo jet, off Mar Vel’s lab and back to Earth, Maria as the pilot. Unfortunately, now the stakes rise for one last time: Ronan the Accuser turns up and launches a massive attack on Earth. (Climax) Carol, earthbound in free fall, embraces her human core and the emotions she has been suppressing. This is her Moment of Truth (Climactic Moment) – the end of her character arc – where she finally sheds the last of the Kree teachings and banishes the lingering traces of the ‘Lie.’ As a result, she gains full control over her powers.

Now, an empowered Carol brings down Yon-Rogg, destroys the missiles Ronan launched and in a display of power forces him to retreat. She turns to Earth where she blasts Yon-Rogg one last time after refusing his bait to fight her sans powers, and sends him back to Hala with the promise/warning aimed at the SI, that she’d come and make an end to the Kree’s unjust war. The rest of the Resolution centers around her promise to help the Skrull find another home far from the reach of the Kree. She says goodbye to her friends and promises to return if Earth would be in dire need, leaving Fury a modified pager and the (at the time Goose-protected) Tesseract.

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed this post. Anything to add? Write to me in the comments.

Former Posts in this Category:
Marvel-verse: Black Panther and Black Panther Character Arc, Avengers: Infinity War
DCEU: Wonder Woman and Aquaman

Aquaman – Story Structure Analysis

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The last two story structure analysis posts concerned movies from the Marvel universe. Today, I want to switch back to DC. You can find the last one I did in the DC-verse here: Wonder Woman
I need to admit that I was positively surprised by the whole movie. That’s not just because Jason Momoa in action is nice to look at. The story structure is solid, the character development is well done and they did a good job with the visuals, too (no, not just the body-hugging Altantian-clothes.)

And the mandatory SPOILER ALERT!
Please don’t read on if you haven’t seen the movie yet and want to keep the suspense intact. As I usually do, I use KM Weiland’s story structure to identify the rising action and the main story points.

Story Structure – Overview:

Hook: Arthur Curry’s parents meet
Inciting Event: (pre-movie) Arthur’s half-brother King Orm decides on a war against the surface
Key Event: Orm’s flash floods almost kill Arthur’s father
First Plot Point: Arthur agrees to help to stop the war
First Pinch: Orm beats Arthur at the Ring Of Fire challenge
Midpoint: Arthur and Mera retrieve directions to the trident from the Kingdom of the Deserters
Second Pinch: Orm’s killer squad attacks in Sicily
Third Plot Point: Arthur wins King Atlan’s trident
Climax: Arthur enters the great battle at the border of the Kingdom of the Brine
Climactic Moment: Arthur refuses to kill Orm
Resolution: Arthur is declared king and his parents meet again

Detailed Analysis of the story structure and the rising action

The movie starts out with a series of scenes setting up Arthur Curry aka Aquaman’s history, starting from how his parents meet up to the point his mother decides to leave again to protect him. We get some glimpses from Arthur’s childhood, most notably the one in the Boston Aquarium where his ability to ‘talk’ to fish is introduced for the first time (Foreshadowing).

It’s a bit tricky to identify the Inciting Event here. One could argue that Arthur’s parents’ chance meeting (and his subsequent conception) could be a viable candidate because without that none of the movie’s events would have taken place. But since the movie’s main conflict is about the Atlantean forces threatening war on the surface (we’d be so screwed) the Inciting Event needs to be a moment that set this specific conflict in motion. Arthur’s mother Atlanna’s conviction for treason and her subsequent death in the trench comes to mind. That, at least, is the reason Orm hates the surface. But his deep dislike and suspicion of the surface dwellers don’t necessarily mean he’s bound to wage war on them. So only when he decides to do so and starts to pursue a war against the surface, does he start the chain of events that will lead to Arthur’s involvement in this conflict.

Orm’s plan (as becomes clear only in later scenes) is to force the other underwater kings to join him in the fight and declare him Ocean Master. To achieve this, he plans to stage an attack, seemingly carried out by the surface. This requires a submarine. The acquisition of said vessel is when Arthur gets in touch with his brother’s devious plan for the first time. He intervenes when Orm’s mercenaries, pirate Manta & his cronies, are about to take over a Russian submarine. He doesn’t know he’s interfering with his half brother’s plans.
Arthur rescues the submarine’s crew members (those still alive) but leaves Manta and his (incapacitated father), telling them to “ask the sea for mercy.” Manta’s father is killed and Manta himself is bound on seeking revenge. The submarine sinks but is later used for the intended purpose: an attack, seemingly by surface dwellers, on King Orm and King Nereus. Orm’s plan works; Nereus agrees to fight on his side.

But Arthur just brushed the conflict by his interference in the submarine. He is not yet personally involved. This changes when Mera seeks him out, asking his help. Classic “call to adventure.” Also classic: He (politely) declines. The Key Event hits, when Orm’s “retaliation flash flood” hits the coasts and he and his father get caught in it. Now, he’s personally affected. And offended. The guys who killed his mom now threatened his Dad, his only family left, as well. It’s not uncommon for the First Plot Point to follows right on the heels of the Key Event. When Mera helps to rescue his Dad and renews her plea, pointing out the dangers once more, Arthur can’t ignore her any longer. He agrees to take action, at last, entering Atlantis for the first time with her help. There, he meets Vulko again, his former Atlantean teacher/mentor. Vulko & Mera lay out their plan: “win the hearts of the people by proving to be worthy. Prove to be worthy by retrieving King Atlan’s lost trident, the legendary Trident of Neptun (*1), then challenge and dethrone Orm.

Quite the plan but bam! all goes awry when Orm’s soldiers capture Arthur right there the next scene. Orm baits Arthur into challenging him for the throne right then. They battle in front of a huge crowd and it goes increasingly bad for Arthur. We arrive at the First Pinch Point when Orm smashes Arthur’s trident. Luckily, Mera shows up. Arthur flees with her and they (barely) escape. Notable here is how they do that: They hide in a whale’s gullet after Arthur tells the beast to help them. This is the second time his ability to talk to fish (or let’s say sea creatures since a whale is technically a mammal) crops up and saves the day.

With the last sequence of scenes being action and tension heavy, it’s now time for a breather. The pace slows a little and we get some much needed comic relief. Arthur and Mera go back to their and Vulko’s original plan: retrieve the legendary Trident of Neptune, the key to the heart of Atlantis. For a change, things go well. They make it to the lost Kingdom of the Deserters, survive the fall/slide through the sand dune and the first room they walk in is the hall they were looking for. The artefact fits the hologram-machine-thingy and, with some coaxing, it even works. Neat. Here, at the Midpoint, Arthur and They Mera acquire, if not the trident, the next clue. They walk away unchallenged with a glass bottle and a map, showing where to go next.

They make their way to Sicily and, amidst some slightly cheesy exploration of the romantic subplot, find the place where to look for the next clue, and get the next location. Of course, it would be far to easy to just go on now, so the Second Pinch Point comes up, just in time to display King Orm’s extensive reach and his willingness to win this conflict by all available means. His forces arrive in the form of a killer squad headed by Manta. There are other scenes along the way that display Orm’s ruthlessness, e.g. when he kills the Fishermen Kingdom’s king and threatens its heir into joining him. But the attack on Sicily fits the characteristics of a pinch point better. For one, it’s a direct confrontation where both Mera and Arthur actively defend their lives. But also, because it involves Manta again, picking up a subplot from the first act. His enmity and brutality are hardly surprising.
Arthur and Mera battle their way out of this tight situation. However, it’s a narrow win and Arthur is hurt in the process. Of course, it’s nothing serious. By the time he comes to, he’s all but restored by the wondrous aid of some seaweed Mera applied to his cuts and stab wounds.

Arthur and Mera are en route to the next location. Alas, it’s in the Kingdom the Trench, the very place Arthur’s mother Atlanna was sacrificed for her treason twenty-odd years ago! But there’s no help for it, so down they go. Attacked and followed by an impressive swarm of Trench-creatures, they make it to the thunderbolt-lighted whirlwind/hurricane portal that looks like an underwater version of the Star War’s Maelstrom in-and-out of Kessel. Both Mera and Arthur are sure to be ripped apart inside but of course they go in anyway. And end up at The Hidden Sea where prehistoric beasts roam an undiscovered Jule-Verne-like Earth’s core complete with ginormous diamond crystals. In a not-so-surprising twist, Atlanna is here, too. She’s a bit worn and scrubby after her solitary confinement to the place for such a long time, but alive and well. (Such a sweet moment when they meet as adults for the first time.)

The only way out is to retrieve the trident from the late King Atlan’s grasp. Only snag: The Karathen, another mythical creature come alive, guards it. A nice touch at this point in the movie is Arthur’s inner growth in this and the next scenes. Much of his anger and resentment rested on the loss of his mother and the cruelty of the Atlantean sentence. (*2) To him, it equalled punishing his mere existence and he partly blamed himself for Atlanna’s death. Now she’s here and urges him on. He’s not fighting for is own inner lust for revenge anymore but to protect the people from Orm’s war.
So in he goes. He battles the Karathen and gets his ass whipped until, finally, the third instance (*3) of the heavily foreshadowed “talk to sea creatures” ability does the trick in a classic “the power is in you!-moment” that would make Dan Wells quite happy. (*4)
Karathen, sufficiently impressed by Arthurs words, calms down. Arthur claims the Trident of Neptune at last in a satisfying Third Plot Point.

Now everything moves on fast. Orm exposes Vulko and has him arrested. He then sounds the charge on the Kingdom of the Brine, the last one to bow the knee and make him Ocean Master. Thankfully, Karathen gives Arthur and his two ladies a ride home from the core. They engage in the conflict at the Brine’s border. Arthur wields the power of Atlantis via the trident, all the creatures come to fight for him. We get the climax of the romantic subplot now, too, complete with “fireworks.” (Dan Wells reference again, check out his 7 Point Structure talk!) Next, Mera’s father backs down and the Fishermen’s teenager-queen follows suit. She wasn’t all that eager to fight anyway.

So now it comes down to the Climax: the fight between Arthur and his little brother, warmonger Orm. This time, Arthur forces Orm to fight on land (thanks for the suggestion, Mera). Here, Arthur’s got the advantage and he uses it. The brothers battle. Arthur does well, his brand-new (or ancient – depending on how you want to see it) trident shatters Orm’s weapon. That, however, isn’t yet the climactic moment. That would be when Arthur refuses to kill Orm, distancing himself from the brutality and mercilessness of Atlantean habits. He’s better than this; he’s learned differently from his parents.

Now the resolution’s scenes begin. Atlanna calms down Orm. Vulko comes up, free and reinstated as vizier. Arthur is declared King. And last but not least, we circle back to the beginning and the relationship of Arthur’s parents. Tom Curry reunites with Atlanna. Perfect HEA. (I’m not crying; you are crying!)

This is where the movie officially ends. BUT…
Fast forward to the after credit scene. Surprise! Manta isn’t dead. And to top it off, he’s fished from a plank in the middle of the sea by the crazy, Atlantis-obsessed Dr Stephen Shin, the guy who’s been all over Breakfast-TV with his (not so wrong) speculations about Atlanteans. Patched up and on the mend, Manta vows to go after Aquaman once more, setting up the Aquaman 2 movie with the continued conflict between both men.

Annotations:

(*1) I’ve read some pieces where King Atlan’s trident is called a classic MacGuffin/McGuffin. It’s not!
By definition, a MacGuffin is usually established in the 1st act as a motivator for the main character(s) and has its importance decline from then on. It is often not narratively explained nor serves a deeper purpose in the plot.
None of that is the case for the trident. The trident and its pursuit don’t come up until after the First Plot Point. Then, the trident’s history is explained at length and so is the reason for Arthur’s pursuit of it. It’s not a mere plot device for motivation either because by then, Arthur has already made up his mind to go against Orm. Later, the trident serves a significant purpose in the plot.
Therefore: NOT a MacGuffin at all.

(*2) Arthur isn’t the only one who’s inner conflict is based on Atlanna’s untimely demise. For both sides, protagonist & antagonist, her sentence and subsequent death in the Trench is the reason to resent the other. Both their inner motivation is to revenge her and that’s a nice touch. Of course, both act from opposite sides of the conflict. While Orm wants to wage war on the surface as a punishment for luring his glorified mother into treasonous acts, Arthur seeks revenge for the brutality of the sentence she received for loving his father (and giving birth to him). To Arthur, the conviction of his mother passes judgement upon himself and his existence.

(*3) The rule of (the) three, often used in storytelling (literature and film) states that a device/fact/action/motivation is employed three times for maximum impact and satisfaction of the audience. Read up about it here.

(*4) Dan Wells‘s a well-known author and podcaster with Writing Excuses. Check out his talk(s) about the 7 Points Story Structure to know what I’m referring to here. I recommend it for everyone interested in story structure. It’s brilliant. You can find a good summary of the corresponding Youtube clips on Karen Woodward’s blog. If you watch all of the five clips, you’ll see where the “The power is in you!” and “Fireworks!” references come from.

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed this post. Anything to add? Write to me in the comments.

 

Black Panther – Part II – Character Arc

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At the beginning of the week, I posted Part I of my Black Panther analysis – it covers my view of the structural building blocks of the screenplay/movie. Today, I’ll look into T’Challa’s character arc, his goals, wants and needs and how these change during the course of the story. 

Please note: all opinions and conclusions are my personal take on the subject. I neither picked the script writer’s mind nor do I claim to have the ultimate truth on how to interpret this story. This is an exercise in character arc analysis – nothing more and nothing less. If you don’t agree with parts of my point of view, please feel free to discuss in the comment section.

Attention:
For all who have not yet seen the movie, please be aware of major spoilers if you read on – obviously I’ll have to go into detail when analyzing the story’s character arc. 

Additionally, and because character arcs and character motivation has been one of my chief research topics on the craft in recent month. If you are not familiar with the Lie/Truth vs Want/Need – method, I recommend K.M. Weiland’s blog. It’s a treasure!

T’Challa’s Character Arc – Overview

Want: Be as good a king for Wakanda as his father was
Perceived goal: resolve the one failure of his father and protect Wakanda through continued isolationism
Need: find his own way for his kingship and Wakanda’s future

Lie: T’Chaka was a paramount king and to prove myself worthy I must carry on like he did.
Truth: Wakanda’s power can do good for more people than just its own citizens.

T’Challa’s Character Arc – Detailed Analysis:

Starting with two major setup-scenes, the movie then summarizes the recent tragic events in Vienna via a newsreel and establishes T’Challa on the move with Okoye in a highly advanced aircraft. T’Challa, trained and educated by his father T’Chaka has been prepared to succeed to the Wakandan throne one day. But T’Chaka’s death in Vienna is untimely, understandably upsetting T’Challa emotionally and pushing him into the new role without proper time to prepare. Still, he’s determined to fulfill his duty and prepare to be as good a king as his father was. T’Challa holds the believes and values he learned from his father dear. In a way, he starts out with two misconceptions: he learned and firmly believes that isolation is the only way Wakanda can whether the times relatively unharmed and the Lie that his father was a paramount king and a wise man, nearly infallible.

After T’Challa defeats Jabari Tribe leader M’Baku in ritual combat, he sheds the status of an interim king and wins the crown rightfully. During his anointment as Black Panther, he meets his dead father on the spiritual plane. There, he expresses his fears of not living up to the standard he thinks everyone is expecting from him and that he demands of himself, too. Assured by his father’s spirit and reminded of the necessity of maintaining Wakanda’s isolation to keep it safe, he returns to present time, soothed and determined to do right by his people.  His main goal, being a good king, solidifies in keeping things the way they always were.

But not everyone in Wakanda is d’accord with the current secrecy and isolation approach. Even Nakia, T’Challa’s ex-lover, worked tirelessly to help suppressed and persecuted people of other nations. She’s done it in the past, she’s set to go on with it now. Their different views on this issue lead to tension between T’Challa and Nakia and repeat the underlying overall conflict of the story on a personal level. In fact, we see T’Challa confronted with the Truth (aka Wakanda can do good in the world if it chose to employ its resources to help) when T’Challa and Okoye extract Nakia from a mission abroad to join the upcoming enthronement ceremony. 

One of the few failures of T’Chaka’s reign was that he never brought justice upon Ulysses Klaue for attacking Wakanda, killing many people, W’Kabi’s parents among the dead. When, after years of evading Wakandan justice, Klaue is expected to make an appearance in Busan to sell stolen vibranium, T’Challa does what he thinks must be done to achieve his two main goals in the process. On the one hand, he now has the chance to right the one wrong his father was unable to correct during his lifetime: capture or kill Klaue in order to settle a longstanding request by W’Kabi and bring about atonement for his parents’ deaths. On the other hand, he’ll bring back a stolen vibranium artefact that might compromise Wakanda’s secret and therefore fulfilling his goal of maintaining the isolation of the country.

With these new plot goal set, T’Challa sets out for Busan in company of Okoye and Nakia. They mess up and Klaue ends up in CIA custody, with Agent Everett Ross in charge. When Klaue’s team, Eric Stevens among them, breaks him free, Agent Ross saves Nakia from a bullet. Torn between the urge to pursue Klaue to fulfill his promise to W’Kabi and Nakia’s plea to bring Agent Ross to Wakanda and save his life there, T’Challa, to Okoye’s dismay,  opts for the latter and acts in accord with the Truth – using Wakanda’s assets to do good.

Up to the midpoint, T’Challa has learned on at least two major occasions how Wakanda’s power made a significant change for the better: The human trafficker Nakia was spying on, were thwarted and the kidnapped women freed, and Agent Ross’ full made a full recovery in Shuri’s lab. But that’s not all. T’Challa, having seen one of the attackers in Busan wearing a ring like his own on a chain around his neck, goes straight to Zuri and pressures him for the truth about a past long buried. He learns of a decision his father made long ago that now bears grave consequences. The image of his father as infallible and perfect king begins to totter. And it encumbers him with guilt for the actions, a need to make it up this wrong.

Unfortunately, the moment to do just that comes when Eric Stevens aka Killmonger delivers Klaue’s body to M’Kabi, securing his confidence and pitching him against T’Challa. Eric Stevens is the antitheses to all the things he believes in and still, he feels indebted and rattled by the revelation about his father’s and Zuri’s deed. He agrees when he is challenged for the throne. But T’Challa is encumbered by his doubts and has trouble keeping up with Killmonger. When Zuri is killed after trying to intervene, it’s the last straw. He is thrown over the waterfall and left for dead.

On the brink of death, his mother administers the heart-shaped herb to T’Challa and he once more visits his ancestors on the spiritual plane. Here, he confronts his father over the abandonment of Eric Stevens, ultimately leading to him becoming the monster that’s on the throne right now. This marks the destruction of the first part of the Lie: when he realizes that his father was human after all and not free from error. He vows to do better and returns to fight for his people, his country, and his throne.

Restored to the Black Panther power, he learns about Killmonger’s plan to wage war with Wakanda’s weaponry. The new king is striving for ultimate power, not seeing how this makes him just like the white suppressors he’s so eager to fight. T’Challa witnesses, how part of his people openly support this strategy.

During the climax, he resumes his battle with Killmonger. He has relinquished the Lie (My father was infallible and to be a good king I must do as he did) but has not yet incorporated the Truth (Wakanda can do better and help their brothers and sisters abroad) In a way he still pursues the original goal (keep Wakanda’s secret from the world) that was but a perceived solution to his want to be a great king like his father, while the real solution would be to embrace Wakanda’s long-neglected responsibility to use its resources to do good in the world.

When Killmonger is fatally hurt and reveals himself as a deeply troubled human who has never found a safe haven to grow up in, T’Challa realizes that he needs to find a better way. Eric Stevens is but one person gone astray due to lack of support, lack of a caring community, lack of peaceful opportunity. Eric chooses death. He can’t go on, facing imprisonment, knowing he did not succeed in bringing about change for the suppressed he was fighting for.

With Eric dead, all five tribes joined for the first time in peace and mutual respect, T’Challa sets about changing Wakanda’s way, reaching out and offering help. With the post credit scene in front of the United Nations where his father died giving his speech, we circle back to the beginning and T’Challa fully commits to the new role Wakanda is to play from this day forth.

Conclusion:

Black Panther is a powerful movie with a strong and valuable message: If you possess the power to do good, you should not shy away from it. Or, as we know it from the Spiderman motto: with great power comes great responsibility. 😉

Themes include progress vs. conservation, suppression, responsibility, and destiny.

Do you agree? Please comment!

Black Panther – Part I – Story Structure

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Last year I wrote a post about the story structure and character arc of Diana Prince aka  Wonder Woman and thought I go ahead and try the same for Black Panther. Since the post about Wonder Woman turned out quite long, I chose to split the analysis of Black Panther into two parts. First the story structure and later this week the analysis of the corresponding character arc. 

This post covers my take on the major story structure elements. Please note: all of this is solely my opinion. I neither know what the scriptwriters had in mind nor do I claim to have the ultimate truth on how to interpret this story. This is an exercise in story structure analysis – nothing more and nothing less. 

Attention:
For all who have not yet seen the movie, please be aware of major spoilers in the following text. I obviously have to go into detail when analyzing the story’s structure. I’ll be using the basic Three-Act-Structure to do so. Like most successful stories, Black Panther follows it’s typical outline.

Additionally, and because that’s been one of my chief research topics on the craft, I want to look into the character arc for T’Challa, Black Panther and King of Wakanda. If you are not familiar with the Three-Act-Structure I recommend K.M. Weiland’s blog. It’s a treasure!

Story Structure – Overview:

Hook: old legend/history story about Wakanda
Inciting Event: Young T’Chaka kills his brother N’Jobu, saving Zuri
Key Event: after T’Chaka’s death T’Challa becomes interim King/Black Panther
First Plot Point: T’Challa gains the throne via ritual combat
First Pinch: the capture of Ulysses Klaue fails
Midpoint: Killmonger arrives with dead Klaue and lays claim to the throne
Second Pinch: T’Challa dies (seemingly)
Third Plot Point: T’Challa is resurrected and resumes the fight for his kingdom
Climax: T’Challa and Killmonger fight on the tracks of the Vibranium trains
Climatic Moment: Killmonger chooses death over imprisonment
Resolution: King T’Challa ends the isolation of Wakanda

Story Structure – Detailed Analysis:

The movie starts with an animated legend-story Hook that is a classic “setup via mythology.” The scene serves several purposes: 1) We get an introduction of the treasure hidden in Wakanda (Vibranium), the origin of the Black Panther (Bast/Bastet and heart-shaped herb) and the political/society setup of the four Wakandan tribes. 2) it showcases the longstanding isolation all former Wakandan kings have enforced on the country. This, in fact, informs about the main conflict of the movie, too: the habit of guarding their secret despite chaos, slavery, and war raging just beyond their borders.

With this information set up, the story resumes directly with the Inciting Moment. We witness an incident in Oakland, CA, in the late 20th century between the late King T’Chaka and his brother Prince N’Jobu. We learn about an attack on Wakanda, a lethal robbery of vibranium and the prime suspect, the criminal Ulysses Klaue. The further revelations lead to N’Jobu losing his life by T’Chaka’s hand. But his life, as we will only learn later, will not be the only thing lost that day. The Inciting Moment deepens the main conflict and adds another layer: part of the royal family is no longer willing to hide Wakanda’s power behind the shield of the carefully crafted illusion of a poor third-world-country but instead use it to help overcome the suffering in black communities all over the world.

Following right after that follows the Key Event. We are back to the present day where we get a “newsreel” summary of the events that took place in the “Avengers: Civil War” movie, to bring all those who haven’t seen it (are there any?) up to speed about the death of T’Chaka in Vienna. T’Challa, T’Chaka’s designated successor, is preparing for the sacred ritual that will make him King of Wakanda. I identify this as the Key Event because T’Chaka’s death is the moment when T’Challa gets personally involved with the main conflict: he is the interim ruler and therefore responsible for protecting Wakanda’s future until a new king is chosen.

Even though T’Chaka’s death seems good enough a “doorway of no return”, it is not the First Plot Point. Just now, T’Challa, acting as an interim king, is not yet officially chosen by his people. At this point he could still walk away, decide the burden of kingship is too much to bear and let others step up – his sister Shuri for example. Only when he proceeds with the ritual and defeats the surprise-contender M’Baku from the Jabari Tribe in ritual combat, does he chose the path of kingship and truly takes up responsibility for Wakanda’s future.

Anointed and made Black Panther again by means of the heart-shaped herb, T’Challa’s first challenge as King comes by way of the discovery of the long-time fugitive and enemy of the state number one – Ulysses Klaue. The mission to extract the man from Busan, South Korea, fails and marks the First Pinch Point. Klaue, who’s unscrupulous methods have been showcased in earlier scenes, wrecks havoc in the underground casino and escapes at first, gets then taken after a wild car-chase through Busan’s streets with the help of CIA agent Everett Ross, but is ultimately broken free from CIA custody by his gangster-crew, severely wounding Ross in the process.

Coming back to Wakanda empty-handed is a bitter setback for T’Challa. He not only falls short of his pledge to W’Kabi to bring back or kill the criminal Klaue, but he’s brought back a stranger/colonizer/white man on the brink of death, who is a CIA agent to boot, choosing to help the man who saved Nakia in favour of going after Klaue right away. Naturally, W’Kabi is upset. The will prove to be important soon after, when the Midpoint comes along in form of Eric Killmonger, disposing of Klaue and his team and delivering Klaue’s body to W’Kabi.

The Midpoint is an excellent plot twist and picks up on a “loose end” of the early setup-scene in Oakland. The audience learns that Eric Stevens aka Killmonger is not only of Wakandan heritage but of royal blood and T’Challa’s cousin. Shaped by his father N’Jobu’s views and later radicalized by his own experiences, first as a young boy left behind and later as a back ops soldier for the US special forces, Killmonger is after the throne and determined to use Wakanda’s technological advancements to strike back against the ongoing white suppression all over the world. This raises the overall tension somewhat. Not only do we know he’s got the means to overthrow T’Challa, he is in a way entitled to claim the throne by ritual combat. Furthermore, his presumed plan to end Wakanda’s reclusion and openly fight white suppression is antithetical to what Wakanda has been standing for centuries. 

T’Challa, having learned about the events leading up to the abandonment of Eric Stevens as a young boy, agrees to a ritual combat for the crown. The Second Pinch Point arrives when this fight takes a turn for the worst possible outcome. T’Challa struggles to fight the experienced Killmonger, Zuri tries to intervene and is killed, which in turn upsets T’Challa in such a way that he can’t win the fight against Killmonger. He is overpowered and thrown into the river.

With T’Challa presumably dead and Killmonger anointed as king, Nakia rushes to bring the rest of the royal family and Agent Ross to safety and elicit help from whatever sources possible. Okoye declines to turn against the throne, her sense of duty does not allow it. Short of allies and just in time before Killmonger orders the whole stock to be burnt, Nakia manages to steal one heart-shaped herb, hoping to coax M’Baku of the Jabari Tribe into taking it, fighting to free Wakanda from the rule of a war-crazy outsider. The story arrives at the Third Plot Point, when Nakia, T’Challa’s mother, his sister, and Agent Ross arrive at the M’Baku’s seat and offer the herb to him, he leads them to a not-yet-but-almost-dead T’Challa who is then revived and restored to full health and the power of the Black Panther with the help of the heart-shaped herb. The prominent death that’s usually featured with the Third Plot Point is inverted here. The presumed death took place at the 2nd  Pinch Point and now we witness a resurrection instead. 

T’Challa’s revival wraps up the 2nd half of the 2nd act neatly by pitching the two main characters against each other in open fight. Their views regarding the main conflict are diametrically opposed. With both of them clad in Black Panther suits and enhanced by the heart-shaped herb, this fight is quite balanced. Nakia, Shuri, and Agent Ross join in the fight on T’Challa’s side, as does Okoye as soon as she realizes the ritual combat is not finished.

We near the Climax, when the Jabari Tribe joins the melee while T’Challa and Killmonger duel on the train tracks in the vibranium mine. There’s a side-climatic moment when W’Kabi yields to Okoye, ending the fighting between Wakanda’s citizens. But T’Challa and Killmonger are still hacking away at each other in the train tracks. The sonic disruptors mess with both their suits, exposing vulnerable spots. Exploiting Killmongers arrogance and certainty to win, T’Challa manages to stab him.   

Critically wounded, Killmonger reveals a shred of humanness as he remembers his father and all the broken promises and lost opportunities. We get a glimpse of a deeply troubled and lonely person. T’Challa, recognizing at last part of Eric’s state of mind as a direct consequence of T’Chaka’s actions, shows compassion and leads Eric, the deadly weapon still embedded in his chest, up to the mouth of the Black Panther cave/mine to witness the fabled and longed for sunset in Wakanda. This leads directly to the climatic moment. Eric/Killmonger isn’t dead yet. When T’Challa offers to heal Eric, he declines, choosing death over life in prison, forced to witness the ongoing suppression of his people. He pulls out the lance, sealing his fate and leaving T’Challa the rightful king and sole Black Panther once more.

The Resolution of the story wraps up several story strands. We see M’Baku join the tribal council, uniting all Wakandan tribes for the first time. T’Challa, changed by the events, reconsiders Wakanda’s stance on secrecy, rejects the isolationism of all the past kings, and moves to set up the first outreach-center in Oakland. In the first post-credit scene, the movie comes full circle, wrapping up the sincerity of T’Challa’s plans by showing him back in Vienna, announcing Wakanda’s new stance in front of the United Nations council.   

Conclusion:

Black Panther is a well structured and expertly crafted movie. The story hits the major structural points just right. Any variations made, add to the overall tension and enjoyment. 

Do you agree? Please comment!

And here’s the link to Part II – Character Arc again.