Politics V: Black Panther & The Origins of Executive Power | Running The Game

welcome to the channel everybody my name is Matt Colville this is the last video in the politics series we're talking about how to make your story more sophisticated give it more depth politically and in order to do that we need to think politically and black panther is a brilliant clear strong blueprint for this kind of thought watch this video and then with these ideas running around in your head go watch the movie again and I think it will change or at least inform how you think of executive power black panther comes out in 2018 and receives a lot of praise deservedly so but something I didn't see anyone talking about was how clearly it shows us where executive power comes from what is its source this is absolutely one of the things black panther is about it's one of the major tensions of the film but I never really saw anybody bring it out and it's very useful to us as storytellers because even though it is set in the Marvel Universe which is a science fictional version of our modern world what Conda is ruled by a king there's no Parliament no democracy it's a lot like a kingdom in a generic D&D world so we can learn a lot about how our own medieval campaign setting works we can learn the complex reality underpinning the surface politics by watching this movie our fictional world becomes more sophisticated if we learn from Black Panther why is T'Challa King well if you asked me when I was maybe nine I would have said because he's the oldest son of the King and this is a fine answer for most D&D games but if you want to run a politically sophisticated game if you want to run the kind of game I enjoy running then I think it is helpful to think a little more deeply about this it's okay if your players don't think more deeply about it if your campaign becomes about this stuff then your players will get caught up in it so he was the prince he was the eldest son of the King the king died and so now he is king this is the self-evident at face value answer but that is not why he is king there's a moment in the movie where the prince has to defend his title in ritual combat he has to prove that he is their greatest warrior in order to hold on to his title and in my opinion this is the hallmark of a chaotic society I don't mean chaotic as in random I mean in the sense of the alignment chart a chaotic society is one where the strong rule a lawful society the laws the rules say well this person got the most votes or the most electors or whatever the rules say they are in charge therefore we're all going to act like they're in charge even if we all know this person to be an unqualified boob the rules say they're in charge so we will pretend like they're in charge and therefore they are in charge that is a sign of a lawful society we follow rules first people second what Condon's are like the Fremen in doon a chaotic society where only strength matters it is impossible under this tradition for an incompetent person to become leader because the only virtue they're interested in is strength might makes right might determines who is our leader sort of stay tuned there's a moment in Doon where everyone knows Paul is the best fighter in the tribe he's the best fighter any of them have ever seen and he's probably the best fighter in the galaxy count has Sameer fen ring accepted of course and all the Fremen know this so they're all sitting around trying to figure out why Paul hasn't taken over yet why hasn't he challenged still garv the current leader killed him and taken over this is what everyone expects but Paul likes still guard and furthermore still gar was the best warrior until Paul came along which means now he's the second best warrior and why should we kill that dude just to prove what everyone already knows that Paul is better Paul has to walk a fine line and basically convince the Fremen that this is maybe a short-sighted way to do things this is not easy to do changing the culture is not easy in femen's society the best warrior is leader and you prove that by killing the previous leader in ritual combat these are people who have to fight to survive so what other possible metric could you use if anyone but our best warrior is in charge we could all die to chala also has to prove he is the best fighter and this tells us a lot about what condon society and it also helps set up some pretty important drama later so this is the second layer of complexity first face value layer two chollet is king because he's the son of the king and his father died second layer little deeper down he's the king because he's the greatest warrior but this is also not why he's king and if we watch if we pay attention the movie shows us where executive power comes from and it does a really good job of it it builds an entire argument over the course of the movie so that without anyone ever talking about it we all see it happen and believe it it does good job I'm making a video saying we should all be ripping off in fact I think this might be the point of the movie there's a subtext which is that it's hard for a good man to be king I love it when movies just come out and say what they're about so I love that moment if a movie is good then it leads us all the way up to this point and we instinctively understand the issue but maybe we can't put into words so the movie does it for us and if everything is working if the movie has done a good job leading us there then when we get the thesis statement when someone finally just comes out and says what the movie is about we are deeply satisfied yes this is what it's about this is true this is real that's good storytelling anyway there is the subtext but I think the movie is actually trying to teach us why the people in charge are in charge so first the movie teaches us how things normally work the King dies the prince has to prove he's the best warrior but this seems like mostly a formality no one seriously expects anyone to challenge the prince notice in the scene it's all ritual these characters all know what's expected of them and they're all doing their part we can see the leaders of the tribes all gathered and lots of other people are here it's all done out in the open under the open sky everyone needs to see that the traditions have been followed the people in other words need to see not that T'Challa is the strongest warrior but that their own leaders accept his authority and no one says this but they are showing it to us this is foreshadowing the people don't look to chala they look to the leaders of their own tribes the tribal leaders grant that T'Challa is king and now to chala is king yeah but we don't want the audience to think this is all purely ceremonial that would not be dramatic remember it's the writers job and the dungeon masters to create drama so we have to show people this is real like the Fremen if you're a good enough warrior you can be king so let's meet mbaku if we are savvy moviegoers we know this isn't the bad guy this is a good guy who just disagrees with T'Challa we've already met a bad guy so we love mbaku because of the everything of him but because he and T'Challa disagree on the best way to run the kingdom they are at odds and we cannot wait for them to team up and be on the same side that's good storytelling so of course they fight we know they're gonna fight before we even see this dude there's quite a lot of foreshadowing in this battle and we know it right there's not a waterfall here by accident but the thing I like is how T'Challa gets mbaku to yield first he beats amok then he says yield and mbaku says I would rather die that is good writing these are the stakes ghost dog told us the stakes but mbaku is letting us know he believes it he would rather die than yield of course he has to say that otherwise there's no tension remember drama is tension and resolution so he refuses to yield and T'Challa says don't make me kill you that doesn't do anything the dude has already said he would rather die so T'Challa says your people need you again this movie is about the relationship between the people and executive power how do we show that mbaku is a good leader we show him the one thing that is more important than his pride or his desire to be king or even his sense that he is right and Wakanda is badly led there is something more important to mbaku than all of this and it is the well-being of his people your people need you is the magic word that unlocks the end of the scene and shows us what is really important to mbaku that's good storytelling so then movie happens and it's kind of standard Marvel plotting about MacGuffins and betrayals and reversals nothing wrong with that but eventually kill monger who is the bad guy maybe the best bad guy in a Marvel movie just a brilliant brilliant character played to the hilt by Michael B Jordan eventually kill monger is done collecting all the plot coupons and he arrives in the wakandan throne room to redeem them kill monger wants to be king he's the son of the King's brother so there's this great duality where he actually has just as much right to the throne as T'Challa he is following tradition he's not just a warlord come to take the throne by force if he were I would be wrong about what this movie is about but this movie is about the origins of executive power and in order for there to be real drama here we need to believe kill monger is not only a scheming evil villain he is also a better fighter than T'Challa and has a legitimate claim to the throne one of the reasons I think he's the best Marvel villain possibly in a tie with the vulture is that he's right like the stuff he says we agree with that's a good bad guy he's wrong he's just evil in other words the movie does not let us off the hook if he weren't obeying all the forms it would be easy for us to dismiss him but the movie did the hard work of showing us all the rules of the game of wakandan succession and kill monger shows up with all the Aces he presents them to the five people in the throne room and something we do not ask but we should is why are these people here they're here to show us where power comes from if T'Challa were an absolute monarch he could just say begone monger of kills and that would be the end of it but there has never been and can never be a monarch with that kind of power the people in the throne room are not just the heads of the different wakandan tribes they are also the heads of the wakandan government like Maccabi he's not just the head of the blue outfit tribe he's also the head of the army which is awesome for us as GM's and storytellers the writer who is also the director Ryan Coogler has just done an enormous amount of work setting all of this up these people are not only the hereditary rulers of the tribes and the keepers of traditions they are also the different branches of the government so what someone like what kabhi thinks about all this is super important if T'Challa had absolute power wouldn't matter what this dude thinks but no leader has that kind of power no matter what you might think the movie foreshadowed all of this went to Chawla told hobby that claw slipped through his fingers we see what kabhi is disgusted and disappointed your father did nothing with you I thought it would be different but it's more of the same someone like what kabhi isn't really worried about ethics he's interested in action I don't care why Klaas gaped only that he escaped I don't care what we use our army for only that we use it so if you're not going to lead us in a manner that produces action war I will back someone who will again he never gives any indication that he cares who is in charge only that he gets to use his army this is normal this is typical there's a moment during the challenge between kill monger and T'Challa where kill monger has won and by the way even in victory is still making his case he doesn't just win in other words he continues arguing he is a persuasive leader his argument is well thought out and he does not stop making his case he says is this your king the one who's supposed to lead you protect you why is he talking if beating T'Challa in ritual combat means he is king why bother with the blahblah because kill monger knows where executive power comes from in this confrontation there are no normal citizens only the heads of the tribes he needs them to agree with him so there's this moment where a member of the royal guard looks to their captain and says is there nothing that can be done and this is so important God Ryan Coogler is such a good rider he's not just a good rider he is a good architect of story because this person is basically saying what what Conda would say if Wakanda were a character hey we like that guy who just got stabbed and we think this new dude might be a total sociopath does it matter that he's right does it matter that he's obeyed all the forms do we have to put up with him in other words couldn't we just decide not to so the camera pans around to Ocoee the leader of the royal guard she's conflicted but just like we know what cobby's motivation i would like to use this nice army we have a quarry is motivated by duty the forms of cannily have been obeyed so according to a Corey's worldview no there is nothing that can be done the movie has shown us where executive power comes from if what kabhi cared about the character of the king kill monger wouldn't have stood a chance he would have never made it past the first post if we'll call a cared about the character of the king well it wouldn't matter that kill monger won the challenge the Royal Guard would cut him down if either of these characters were differently motivated none of this other stuff would matter the challenge his ancestry kill monger would never be king and in case there's any doubt the movie is going to show us of course kill monger doesn't kill T'Challa that would be the end of the movie he knows he's a character in a Marvel movie so he dramatically throws to Chawla over the waterfall and you know I buy that I buy that kill monger would do something dramatic like that and I believe he would believe it was certain death everyone else obviously did in fact it's probably more fantastic that T'Challa survived then that kill monger didn't just execute him so that's good storytelling afterwards in case a coy use motivation wasn't clear Nakia shows up and says okay let's go solve this problem Kohei says what problem and Nakia says well this Wang Raj just killed our King and stole his throne and Akoya points out what we should already know if we've been paying attention the forms have been obeyed we might not like the outcome but we are a nation of laws and according to the law this is our new king so maybe they're not a chaotic Society thanks to people like Akoya now we link our little video essay back to Don Kagan's book on the origins of war and the preservation of peace caking does not appear to be a subscriber to the great man theory of history where the only thing that matters is the story of these important leaders but neither disease subscribe to the it's complicated theory espoused by political scientists Kagan argues history isn't only about these great leaders but it is about people it's about people like Theo Field Elka say who just decided it would be better in the long run not to go to war with England this guy wasn't prime minister or King he was just a bureaucrat it's about people like a Koya who decides to follow the law support the current king she is going to act not according to her personal feelings she would quite evidently rather serve to chala but she puts the country first and she believes the country would be better if we followed the rules in fact it's why we have rules so the country is not just governed by the strongest person and man this dialogue is its ace Nakia says well she chooses her words very poorly but dramatically she says help me overthrow kill monger and maybe she had a chance before that maybe she could have used a different argument and appealed to a Khoya his sense of duty but she says exactly the wrong thing and a co 8 spits it back in her face Okoye says I am NOT a spy she's reminding Nakia and us the difference between them Nakia is a spy spies are typically by any means necessary but the koieie is a warrior a soldier and not just a soldier the head of the Royal Guard she says I am loyal to the throne yes because that's great characterization there are real people like this in the real world we admire a coy a because she has principles and it's great drama great character development great drama a plus writing meanwhile and this is important if not actually relevant to our point meanwhile kill monger makes sure to destroy the plant that gives Black Panther power he is an experienced operative he knows how to destabilize the country he knows how to consolidate power he manipulated the traditions of his country to get on the throne and now that he has it he destroys the infrastructure that supports those traditions so no one else can ever be king classic dictator behavior only through me only I can save you only I know the truth listen only to me follow only me destroy anything that supports the idea that anyone else could ever legitimately be king when kill monger ascends the throne and reveals his master plan he talks about how they're going to go to war basically take over the world kill monger uses this classic revolutionary language very well-reasoned but I wonder if he believes any of it because his ultimate goal is not I want to free all our brothers and sisters across the world and slavery and poverty that's just the clever justification he comes up with he wants to take over the world like let's say you agree with his points about Africans and their descendants being historically oppressed which you do because it's true if you agree with that does this dude seem like he's gonna hold elections after the Revolution establish an independent judiciary no way he wants akanda to rule the world while he rules Wakanda he is a classic movie villain he's just updated his language ryan coogler no one making super girl movies is doing what you're doing not even close so this is important because in this scene we get a shot of what kabhi nodding in agreement yes he's saying this kind of action I can get behind why are we meant to think we're copy is a nationalist or revolutionary nope he's just the guy in charge of the army the last dude had no interest in doing anything with it but this new guy is definitely going to use it so he likes the new guy why is kill monger King because of people like Ocoee and Maccabi the Royal Guard support him the military support him so the country will support him yes ultimate executive power comes from the people always in every culture if literally no one in the country thinks you're the president then you are not the president but how do the people evaluate who their executive is they look to these folks they look to the folks in charge of the military the police the Church the press the holders of power and tradition and if those people say you are king then and only then are you King the flipside of this is if these people say not then you are not King and we got another 45 minutes of movie left to show us that by the way I laughed out loud when kill monger said the Sun will never set on the wakandan Empire I think I was the only person in the theater that was laughing that depressed me more people should know how brilliant this movie is meanwhile Nakia is just as much a political realist as kill monger and has spirited away the last will Condon super soldier plant and plans to give it to Baku Tina Turner says hang on is this a good idea I don't trust that dude a whole lot more than kill monger maybe you should take the urban Nakia says something brilliant and once again the movie doesn't explain it she just says it she says I am a spy without an army it's because she's a spy that she knows how all this works she wants to do to kill mongers a new Wakanda what he did to her Wakanda she needs to challenge its legitimacy and in order to do that you need someone like mbaku who is not only a tribal leader which Nakia is not but also the leader of a pretty dope army of his own how do you gather and establish executive power well it helps if you have the traditions and the military on your side and mbaku has both this stuff happens in the real world all the time the people who can remove the old king wait they don't act immediately they look around for someone the people will rally to and this is usually an exile a popular leader who opposed the government and left before they could be disappeared they approach this person and say if we take care of the current problem in the executive can we count on you will you come back and if you follow real world revolutions this is something people talk about when you remove the dictator who's going to take their place the military well that's not good news but if there's some popular leader someone who could win an election probably somebody living in exile then your revolution has a chance because the people will rally to this person military leaders are often very charismatic people admire them but they rarely make good Democratic leaders there is a lot going on in this movie fathers and sons colonialism there are many and threads running through this film but above them all is this constant dialogue between all these characters about authority legitimacy who has it why how do you get it how do you challenge it not how do you challenge the person how do you challenge Authority so Nakia says to mbaku hey you could be king because not only are you the hereditary ruler of one of the tribes and not only do you have an army but also I have a super soldier drug so you could be kill monger in the ritual challenge this is a smart thing to do we know mbaku wants to be king but like so many other people in this movie he is not just motivated by his own desire for power or his personal feelings about who should be king personally he thinks he would be a better king but personal is not the same as important when mbaku sees the super soldier earned he stands up he he seems bemused unsure how to react and we imagine it's because he's considering the vast scope of what Nakia is suggesting and weighing its moral implications but that is not what this dude is thinking he's thinking poop I think I got to do the right thing because he is not a power-hungry warmonger he is a man of principle he shows them to chala lives he knows this is the dude who should eat the herb why well we don't know but I suspect it's because T'Challa beat him in the challenge in other words he is a true wakandan this stuff isn't all for show he believes it this guy beat me without the herb he should be king give the herb to him I love that this movie leaves it to us to understand these things without explaining everything all the time again where does executive power come from people like baka so they give to Chava the herb and he gets to hang out with his ancestors for a little while and another brilliant really surprising turn he basically agrees with kill monger kill monger says it was always wrong for us to hide not use our technology so let's take over the world T'Challa says well I don't know about the take over the world stuff that sounds like you're actually literally insane but yeah as a matter of fact I think it was always wrong for us to hide look what that did it produced kill monger kill monger is an externalization of a Condon foreign policy this realization this growth is how to chala earns the right to be king again he's gonna come out of this whole experience not just a great warrior but a wise leader with a new vision for Wakanda that all these other people will be able to get behind in other words he's not gonna say hey follow me because I'm not a sociopath or because I'm authentic Lee the king he is actually developing a better idea than anyone else has and that idea is going to inspire everyone let's announce who we are and use all this power to help people that is a good idea and it helps that he's not a sociopath Baku says well good luck with that but you're on your own and this is mostly about creating drama right Achilles in his tent we need to see this dude swoop in at the absolute last moment so until then Go Fish when T'Challa shows up reveals to kill monger and everyone else that he is still alive what is he saying he doesn't say I'm here to kill you little bill he says I never yielded you didn't kill me I never yielded therefore the challenge continues the forms have not been obeyed and here we see kill mongers true character like when he killed his partner just for a shot at claw like when he destroyed the heart-shaped herb he doesn't care about traditions or rules or people he only cares about power he says none of that stuff matters anymore why why does he say that because he thinks he has successfully consolidated power if I can get enough of the right people to say the votes don't count then it doesn't matter how the press calls the election it doesn't matter what the electors say none of that matters if I have successfully subvert 'add the right people but kill monger made a mistake after Okoye and Wakaba agreed to support him publicly he should have had them killed they have authority that people recognize better get rid of them ideally kill monger would have chosen someone in the Royal Guard in the military and instructed them to kill Ocoee and Maccabi promising to promote these murderers in to their place afterwards then these new leaders don't just Oh their position to kill monger they have blood on their hands they would be locked into conspiracy if they ever thought about being disloyal Kelm owner could reveal what they did destroying them and maintaining power but he'll monger hadn't watched this video and he left Okoye and wakati alive which means now there is a succession crisis when kill monger says none of that challenge stuff matters anymore he's wrong because the people it matters to are still alive kill monger orders the head of the military to kill T'Challa and Okoye still bound by duty reminds Maccabi of his duty the challenge is not complete and just like one of a coy as lieutenants asked earlier can nothing be done now one of what cobby's lieutenants turns to him and says what will we do this movie is about the origins of executive power it is showing us these people equate what kabhi later mbaku they decide who is king kill mongers authority comes from them because this is a movie we get a lot of internecine fighting which is necessary for the drama but also pretty realistic stuff like this the military versus the Royal Guard really happens all the time in history in the end it comes down to what cobby when Okoye says she absolutely will kill him to preserve what Conda he surrenders he wanted to use his army and he got to but he looks around and he sees all he did was create more strife because he used it against what Conda he never says it but I think were meant to understand this is the moment when he realizes maybe it should be might for right instead of might is right black panther is brilliant because in an era where big summer blockbusters have to appeal to these vast foreign markets with different cultures and different values than ours movies tend to focus on family as the only virtue worth fighting for black panther not only allows its heroes and villains to have actual points of view it shows off some classic American hero nonsense the kind of nonsense I grew up with the fantasy of being magnanimous in victory total Captain Kirk stuff there was a moment at the end where I really believed to challahwood find a way to bridge the gulf between them and begin to rehabilitate kill monger I thought that was going to happen but that would not have been true to kill mongers character if he can be converted then the hate and pain that motivated him wasn't everything and we know it's everything it's all he has to chollet makes the offer but kill monger rejects it poetically I thought because he can only see the world in terms of masters and slaves that was his whole plan with Wakanda be the Masters so he interprets two challahs offer as just a chance to be someone else's slave and he kills himself T'Challa is king because he sees a better way I hope I have not let my obvious and an allied admiration for this movie get in the way of my point which is it is a great example for us as world builders of how to structure our medieval societies so that we can have these complex political dramas we need to know where does power come from why do people do what the King says because of people like a coy a hobby Zuri and mbaku who is the head of the Royal Guard the military who's the head of the church if there is a crisis to whom will the people turn who else has the legitimacy that could be co-opted subverted or even pressed into service if you know the answers to these questions then you are ready for some real drama I once said that bards in vast Lauria my medieval European analogue certify the law people imagine I was talking about like a class feature or some homebrew rule and they asked me how it worked but it doesn't have anything to do with game mechanics it's about culture because the press in this case the bards are part of that authority that certifies executive power how do the people know what the King said because the bards told them what if they told the people something else how did the people know what God wants because the church tells them what if they said God would be happier with a different King that's it folks when I first started this channel I used my campaign as a running example and folks said how do you do that how do you build such a politically complex world and I took the question seriously but I didn't know how to answer that question without teaching you how I think over the course of these five videos I've tried to give you all the tools I use we talked about to the central tension the axis around which your political narrative will rotate we talked about diplomacy about realpolitik and how actual nations gather power keep power and deny it to others we talked about peace about how hard it is to establish and keep we talked about war how it and why finally we talked about where executive power comes from why do people listen to the king put these together and you will have a politically sophisticated complex world that will impress your players thanks for watching everybody I know we've been in sort of run silent run deep mode but this is mostly because of the global pandemic and the fact that I have to finish the core design of kingdoms in warfare and the chain of Acheron will return in fact I am planning on running each player through a solo adventure while we wait for things to get to the point where all the players feel safe being in the same room together if you have any questions about any of this stuff please come by our discord it's one of the largest tabletop RPG discards out there and thanks to the tireless work of our mod team the community is friendly and respectful also by the way Adventure lookup got a major update if you don't know what this is it is a website we host that has community developed the idea is companies have been making high-quality adventurers for D&D for almost 50 years probably whatever adventure you're planning someone has already published something similar that could save you a lot of time this is just a catalog no adventures are hosted here but where possible there are links to online stores where you can buy the adventure you can filter by almost anything including level Edition publisher even stuff like monsters maybe you're looking for an adventure featuring a lich or Vecna or a specific magic item like the infernal machine of lum the mad not only did they update the visual design of the site you can now write reviews and give adventures a thumbs up or a thumbs down so you can filter and then sort by popularity which is hugely useful so please check it out it is pretty amazing I get folks on Twitter telling me it has helped them all the time finally as is tradition we will do a live hangout here on YouTube this Friday July 24th at 11 a.m. we can talk about this video the politics series or anything else you're interested in if you want to support the channel we have a patreon which we are developing some exclusive content for stay tuned for a full announcement probably in like 6 weeks maybe sooner you can also pre-order Kingdoms and warfare or any of the incredibly dope minis we're working on we might do a whole video just on one of these thanks for watching you buddy I hope you're well make sure you wear a mask if you go out wash your hands when you get inside see you Friday until then peace out

Channel: Matthew Colville

Views: 221,017

Keywords: Matt Colville, Matthew Colville, Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, Running the Game, Running D&D, Playing D&D, Playing Dungeons and Dragons, roleplaying, Black Panther, Politics

Id: w8xcK69brd8

Length: 30min 54sec (1854 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020