[ SECRET POST #4081 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4081 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 16 secrets from Secret Submission Post #584.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/rBoBweq.png

[(Anonymous)]

Wish fulfillment, mostly.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it different from the Mary Sue traits ascribed to fantasy white royalty all the time?

[(Anonymous)]

People find all royalty fascinating. Not sure why you think African royalty would be any different.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, yeah. There's plenty of "fascination" with royalty of all races and colors in fiction. Not just African.

[morieris]

You don't understand why a demographic of people who came from slaves (inb4 'Black people weren't the only slaves', we are talking about black people here, and as the secret says 'black' and not from any specific country in Africa, I'm rolling with the context that they mean those of us whose ancestors were slaves), wouldn't be excited about African Royalty?

Do you dislike white royalty too? Or is it different because they were anointed by "divine right" (I was going to add 'and don't really do anything these days' but that's admittedly out of my wheelhouse).

[(Anonymous)]

Not the OP, but do people fetishize white royalty in the same way, though? I'm not sure I see modern audiences fixating on "divine right" this way, so I don't know that this is a good analogy. I think people are fascinated by the wealth, exclusivity and long history, but I don't see them assigning desirable physical traits to the bloodline, per se.

[morieris]

'Strength and grace' can mean a lot of things, mainly inner qualities. I've never seen anyone say "Wow, our king is really fucking ripped." or anything in fiction, to any race. The royals might have magic powers (sometimes combined with their physical fighting strength -- like MCU Thor, but I admit I haven't watched anything but Ragnarok, I could be wrong.).

[(Anonymous)]

Da

Well, considering that "divine/God-given right" is a big part of what monarchy is in general, I would say yes, but as to assigning desirable physical traits, I'd bet most people think of the British monarchy when they think "monarchy", and, well, yeah...we've seen the BRM, lol, so I agree with you there.

[(Anonymous)]

Even the British monarchy is still, to some extent, a cultural figurehead for the nation as a whole - an icon to whom people assign a specific meaning.

If you're asking about the specifically physical/heroic element, well... the reason that the physical element is more pronounced is because Black Panther is a superhero, and the British monarchy are actual human beings who haven't been blessed with the power of a panther spirit.

[bur]

Man, I fetishize the hell out of Aethelflaed of Mercia for pretty much being the picture of strength and grace, so sure?

OP

[(Anonymous)]

If it counts for anything, I’m also super annoyed by the magical princesses in My Little Pony. Thankfully, white people as divinely blessed rulers is out of fashion in the kind of fiction I read. (Well, most of the kind of fiction I read. Some YA fantasy royal protagonists make me want to gag on my own tongue.)

[(Anonymous)]

It's not uncommon to fantasize about being (or being with someone) from a royal bloodline.

[erinptah]

Are these people saying that *only* royalty can be strong and graceful, or are they just gushing over strong-and-graceful black characters, some of whom who happen to be (fictional, in T'Challa's case) royalty?

I've seen plenty of the second (it also gets applied to black athletes, singers, actors, etc), but haven't come across the first.

[morieris]

Yeah, I'm confused here, because I never took 'strength and grace' as 'royal eugenics'.

[(Anonymous)]

That's possibly because European royalty are more inbred than pugs.

[(Anonymous)]

US History lesson time.

Back in the 1970's there was a push for black people to claim their heritage. It came from their own community and was a great thing. Instead of seeing themselves just as grandchildren of slaves they began to get in touch with their roots. It caused a huge sense of pride. With that pride came a lot of good things like taking charge of their own communities, self-respect, a larger voice in their own community, higher expectations for their children, better education, etc... It's also when black people started adopting more African sounding names, clothing, and researching what they could about where their ancestors came from. That's when the whole descended from African Royalty is from. Of course a lot of these steps forward slipped away in the 1980s when crack was introduced into the community but that is a different lecture.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not saying that afrocentrism is irrelevant here - it definitely is - but I just want to point out that the basic impulse behind it is by no means unique or distinctive to black people, you know what I mean?

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, I messed up my phrasing - should be "I'm not saying that afrocentrism isn't relevant here, because it definitely is".

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Don’t know what you mean. Care to elaborate?

[(Anonymous)]

Mmmmmm. I don't think it's a question of genetic superiority. That's certainly misunderstanding what people are looking for in those stories.

Rather: people like belonging, and having some notion of historical roots and identity and greatness and all of that stuff. And narratives connected to monarchy are often a part of that. I mean, one of the central conceptual features of monarchy is that the monarch is, to some extent, the personification of the state - if not literally, at least metaphorically. So a monarch is a hero, an instantiation of the particular qualities of a nation as a whole.

Now, if you want to reject the idea of nations and historical belonging as such, fair enough, but it's not quite the same thing as what yr talking about here.

[nightscale]

I see this all the time with white-royal families, so what if people are doing it with an African one?

Most of it seems to be along the lines of 'THEY'RE SO COOL' rather than them being genetically superior anyway.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

Isn't his movie incarnation kinda the Marvel Disney Princess(tm)?

[(Anonymous)]

*squint*

You didn't watch the movie, did you?

Obvs. all royalty, European and elsewhere, is mad keen on bloodlines and inherent betterness.

But Wakandan royalty is not that -- the Throne is open to whoever defeats the current crown prince in a power-free battle. So of the Tribes, any of them will be "royalty" at some point.

Meaning...all their bloodlines are pure? Better? Stronger? That can hardly be. Ergo, Black Panther is a movie about strong black people, yes. But not about strong royal bloodlines.

[(Anonymous)]

You can't understand why people who have been torn from their roots and ancestry would take an interest in stories where they regain a sense of what was lost? I'm not black either and I can at least empathize. There are endless stories about white and asian royalty, but almost nothing about black royalty. Of course people want to hear stories like that when most other big blockbuster roles featuring a majority black cast are about slavery and jim crow and how much life fucking sucked for them.