Board Thread:Movies/@comment-3048593-20171206004220/@comment-1895174-20180503081152

The purpose of the trope is to be reinforce the villain as a dark reflection of the hero. Like how Sabretooth (and the X-24 clone in Logan) are like Wolverine if he were to give in to all of his most feral instincts. Following that doesn't make the trope better - it just is what it is.

That being said, I don't think Killmonger cares about Wakanda or at all. You can thematically see this when he burns the Heart-Shaped Herb, and when he breaks the spear before his duel with T'Challa to make it more like a sword. He only sees Wakandas as a weapons depot for his greater ambitions. As for how he's a reflection of T'Challa - Killmonger is both a representation of what could happen if Wakanda opens itself up to the rest of the world (and his plans involve exactly that) and a product of the isolationism that fear manifested. By the end of the movie, T'Challa chooses to share Wakanda's prosperity with the rest of the world; rejecting both his ancestors' isolationism and Killmonger's plans for Wakanda to join in the world's conflict.

That's what I like about Killmonger. If only the movie could've done something else with him in the third act other than make him a palette swap for Black Panther.