Black Panther Appreciation 2020

[chief12d]

Ancient Egypt is just overused when it comes to African Fantasy. I'm kinda over it at this point but I agree that it feels less original. Even though the film uses Bast, I'm so glad the overall aesthetic of the film hardly used Ancient Egypt.

They could have really just kept it as it was or inspired Wakandan god's by another African pantheon. There are many to choose from.

In hindsight they should have probably used Sekhmet instead since she's more commonly associated with war. But I think Bast is fine now.

In hindsight I wish the Panther God were never named Bast. It opened up the entire mythos to being Egyptified in ways that are inconsistent with what Wakanda is supposed to be. I'll admit that Priest covered his bases by tying in the inspiration for the Egyptian gods and culture to black Africa, but the harsh reality is most writers (and general society) don't see it that way. You already have this idea in Western culture that the only African civilization worth a damn is Ancient Egypt so when Wakandan religion is based around that rather than drawing ideas from other African civilizations it's a missed opportunity imo.

I agree the movie took the right approach and for the most part so have the comics. It's only when I see things like Hickman's Fantastic Four where you got Wakanda looking like a lost Egyptian colony that I'm really bothered by Heliopolitans in the mythos lol. But I'd still prefer the Wakandan gods and faith was 100% original and didn't directly take names from other African cultures regardless of their location. It can still tie in to the Elder Gods and all that, but I've never been big on adding deities from Egypt, West Africa, or even East Africa. Wakandan naming conventions are so arbitrary that there really is no reason to steal names from obscure African gods, like Coates did with the "Orishas".