One of the things that were already made clear to us before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released was the fact that the antagonist was Namor, who is making his first run in the MCU even though he has been prominent in the comics for a long time. Of course, the reason why he is the antagonist in the film is the fact that he attacked Wakanda and even killed Queen Ramonda. So, why is Namor attacking Wakanda in Wakanda Forever?
Namor is attacking Wakanda because he retaliated against the actions of Nakia when she rescued Princess Shuri and Riri Williams from Talokan. However, he also attacked Wakanda because he wanted them to join him in his plans to attack the surface world. In a sense, Namor tried to coerce Wakanda to join his war.
As an anti-hero, Namor is simply a complex character that isn’t necessarily evil but isn’t exactly good as well. His motives could be seen in the way that he approached Wakanda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as his attack was an ultimatum on his part when he simply wanted to protect his country from the surface world. So, that said, let’s look at why Namor attacked Wakanda.
Why Is Namor Attacking Wakanda?
It was never really a secret that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was going to explore Namor as a character, as this was his introduction to the MCU. In this storyline, he was an antagonistic character that was willing to kill as long as it meant protecting the secrets of his people from the rest of the world. And he also wanted to keep Vibranium out of the hands of the surface world because more than 400 years of experience had taught him that the people of the surface are capable of some of the vilest things imaginable.
Of course, while Namor’s hatred was always directed towards the surface world, which he thought was eventually going to find a way to mess with his country, he was also quite antagonistic towards Wakanda during the better part of the second half of the storyline. Namor originally introduced himself to Queen Ramonda and Princess Shuri when he told them what the surface people have been doing in relation to their mission to find Vibranium outside of Wakanda. In that regard, Namor wanted them to deliver him a scientist named Riri Williams, who was capable of creating a machine that could detect Vibranium.
However, the Wakandans were not willing to give Riri Williams up to Namor, and this was what led the people of Talokan to capture both the scientist and Shuri. It was during her visit to Talokan, a beautiful country found underwater, that Shuri learned of the history of Talokan and its people and how Namor came to be. She also learned that Namor intended to wage war on the surface world because he knew that the humans would eventually find a way to learn more about their secret underwater nation and disrupt their way of living.
As such, Namor simply wanted to make the first move by attacking the surface. He told Shuri this because he wanted the Wakandans to join Talokan in its battle against the rest of the world, considering that Wakanda was the only other nation that could understand why Talokan needed to keep its existence a secret. Of course, Queen Ramonda, who was one of the few people who knew about the existence of Talokan, threatened to tell the entire world the secret of Namor and his people if he didn’t release Shuri and Riri.
So, while Shuri rejected Namor’s offer because waging war on the rest of the world was madness, Nakia found a way to infiltrate the underwater prison of Shuri and Riri to rescue the princess and the scientist. However, this led to the death of one of the people of Talokan, as it was only natural for Namor to try to seek retribution for what the Wakandans did.
In that regard, Namor attacked Wakanda because he promised to kill Queen Ramonda if she decided to do anything out of line in relation to Shuri, who was still in possession of the people of Talokan when the queen threatened to expose them to the rest of the world. Of course, it was also his way of seeking retribution for what Nakia did when she rescued Shuri and Riri.
There is also the fact that Namor also threatened Shuri that he would destroy Wakanda first when he was going to wage war on the surface world. That’s because Namor believed that Wakanda was the greatest threat to his nation’s plans of pacifying the entire world, which he thought was going to be too dangerous to leave alone. As such, he told Shuri that he was going to destroy Wakanda if she and the Wakandans would not join his war against the surface.
In a way, Namor attacked Wakanda for two reasons. The first is that he wanted retribution for the threats of Queen Ramonda and for Nakia’s actions when she rescued Shuri. And the second reason is the fact that he wanted to intimidate Wakanda into joining his war on the surface, as he told Shuri that he would return to destroy the entire nation in one week’s time.
Does Namor Want To Destroy Wakanda?
Even though Namor attacked Wakanda and killed Queen Ramonda, that doesn’t mean that he actually wanted to destroy the entire nation. His attack on Wakanda was for retribution and for the sake of intimidating the entire country to go to war with him against the rest of the surface world. Namor had no reason to destroy Wakanda because his war was against the surface.
However, he also said that Wakanda was going to be the first nation to be destroyed if he were to launch his attack on the surface. Namor had to tell Shuri this as a way to intimidate her and to make sure that the secrets of Talokan would be kept safe with the destruction of Wakanda. After all, the Wakandans were the only ones who knew about the existence of Talokans, and destroying the entire nation would ensure that Talokan would be successful in its attack against the surface.
In a sense, Namor threatened to destroy Wakanda because he knew that this was the only way to intimidate the nation into joining Talokan, as both Namor and the Wakandans realized that they could never win a war against the underwater nation. Namor had no true reason to destroy Wakanda, as he would have done so during his first attack when he killed Queen Ramonda.
