YMMV / Moon Knight (2022)

• Accidental Innuendo: In Episode 4, after Steven and Layla kiss, she immediately says "I'm gonna go down first." She's talking about entering the tomb, but given the context it's certainly eyebrow-raising and Steven does not react to it at all.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • A minor example, but was Elias Spector ignorant of the full extent of his wife's abuse of Marc? Or was he an Extreme Doormat and a Henpecked Husband who silently and quietly put up with it all, aware of Marc's situation but turning a blind eye? Or, perhaps, even worse, considering his wife's mental health by this point, was he made to turn a blind eye?
  • Was Khonshu truly interested in recruiting Layla El-Faouly as a future avatar were Marc to fail him, like he hinted at in the show's earlier episodes? Or was he simply conning Marc into staying as his avatar to make it easier to keep him under his control?
  • Is Osiris really an "old softy" as Taweret claims? Or did he resurrect Marc and Steven in order to get revenge on Harrow for killing his avatar? Or were they just a Godzilla Threshold now that the avatars were dead? Some combination of the above?
  • Why did the Ambiguously Evil Jake Lockley kill one of the men in the hospital during The Stinger? Some have interpreted as an indication that Jake is a straightforward Superpowered Evil Side who enjoys the killing for its own sake. Others believe that he is an extremely ruthless Well-Intentioned Extremist willing to leave whatever collateral damage is necessary. Yet others believe he is actually just as straightforwardly heroic as the other alters despite his brutality, and that he does not kill without reason but went after the hospital employee because he was probably one of Harrow's cultists helping him from the inside (as implied by Harrow's relative contentment as well as the first episode's statement that he has hidden cultists all over the world), and thus had it coming.
• Adorkable:
  • Steven is a lovable dork who keeps a pet goldfish, calls his mum every day, and chats with a street performer posing as a statue (who, being a statue, can't respond). He is a complete Egyptian mythology nerd whose excitement on getting to personally experience parts of it manages to overcome the terror of the situation at odd times. As Mr. Knight, he's absolutely peppy, and gives a dorky rhyme as he punches a jackal monster in the face!
  • Taweret is an adorable hippo goddess with an infectuously cheery demeanor who has a lovely voice. She has to use cheat sheets so that she knows how to take Anubis' place as a Psychopomp. Needless to say, these aspects of her immediately made fans and audiences smitten with her.
• Alternate Self Shipping: Although Steven Grant and Marc Spector are metaphysically treated as two separate people who happen to share the same physical body (which is in line with contemporary understandings of DID) and are treated as separate souls in the afterlife, it's common to depict the two as manifesting in separate bodies akin to Literal Split Personality for the purposes of shipping.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Moon Knight has not been well-received in Turkey, due to Arthur Harrow acknowledging The Armenian Genocide in the first episode. This resulted in much review-bombing from Turkish critics.
• Anvilicious: Director Mohamed Diab publicly criticized Wonder Woman 1984 for its stereotypical depiction of Egypt. Layla in Episode 6 becoming the Scarlet Scarab, with abilities and armor that resembles an Egyptian version of Wonder Woman's, followed by a conversation with a civilian that very bluntly lampshades that she is the MCU's first Egyptian superheroine, is a very clear Take That! aimed at that film's controversies.
• Ass Pull: While it was shown early on that Jake Lockley is quite the fierce force in combat, there was absolutely no indication that they could overpower an Ammit-empowered Harrow who was in the middle of destroying his body, especially considering the admittedly limited arsenal of abilities Khonshu bestowed upon them. That said, given that a precedent for Jake's tendency to engage in Stealth Hi/Bye had already been established beforehand, this is not something that most viewers particularly mind.
• Award Snub: While the series did rack up a respectable eight nominations at the Emmys, Oscar Isaac’s acclaimed performance as multiple roles was not nominated for acting.
• Base-Breaking Character: Harrow is easily the most divisive character on the show, with the fandom neatly split between those who think he's a fantastic villain who has a surprising amount of depth and nuance due to the heavy amount of improvisation from Ethan Hawke, with a lot of praise given to the Dr. Harrow version in particular, and those who consider him to be a bland, shallow, and insufferably Smug Snake who actively drags the show down with his presence and takes screentime away from the far more interesting drama of the main protagonist(s).
• Better on DVD: A frequent criticism of the show, not unlike the Marvel Disney+ shows that debuted ahead of it, is that the story of the show might have worked better in a movie format, and that binging the entire show in one go makes for a better viewing experience. Several articles arguing as much had already been released halfway through the shows' run. Fortunately, with all episodes now released, experiencing the show it that manner is now available.
• Broken Base:
  • While general reception of Steven Grant as a character leans positive, the changes the show made to him by giving him equal focus with Marc Spector (who tends to be the "main" alter in the comics), and for Steven to be changed from a savvy Idle Rich American resembling Bruce Wayne into a bumbling working-class Brit, are fairly controversial. Detractors think the changes turn him into an annoying joke of a Spotlight-Stealing Squad who hogs development from Marc and is an insult to the source material because of how incredibly different he is. Meanwhile, supporters believe the changes are an improvement from the source material by making Steven more unique and relatable, as his comic counterpart was regarded as bland and increasingly Out of Focus, with some further arguing that the show's increased focus and emphasis on Steven's intelligence and morality actually constitutes some long-needed Character Rerailment, and that making him an Audience Surrogate was a clever way to introduce the show's version of the lore while simultaneously Reimagining the Artifact.
  • One inherited from Moon Knight's comics fandom: Depending on the Writer, Moon Knight has oscillated between the two ends of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane and everything in-between. Because of this, the base is split between those who believe the character works best as a complete Badass Normal who hallucinates Khonshu and any supernatural aspects of his adventures Through the Eyes of Madness, and those who believe the character works better in an Urban Fantasy setting under the assumption that Khonshu and the Egyptian pantheon are totally real. That the show mostly takes the latter stance with slight insinuation of the former and gives Moon Knight overt superpowers to boot, is seen by one half as a huge betrayal of the source material and an In Name Only adaptation, and by the other half as validation of their belief that the pure madness angle came with too much ableist baggage and that the gods are Real After All and able to interact with the rest of his cast was for the best.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • In episode 5, Steven realizing that Marc is the primary host alter of their shared body, not he, is treated as a grand Tomato in the Mirror revelation, except that it was strongly established since the first episode that the Marc identity had a much larger life history and circle of people around him compared to Steven's much more insular world, on top of the fact that anyone with even passing familiarity with the comics being aware that Marc Spector has always been established as the "main" alter.
  • Many fans were able to correctly guess that Jake Lockley was the third mysterious alter.
• Catharsis Factor: A twofer in one go. In The Stinger for the final episode, Jake Lockley checks an Ammit-possessed Harrow out of a psychiatric hospital and, after a quick speech from Khonshu, shoots them twice in the heart. After all the shit they pulled throughout the series, it's extremely satisfying, especially after Harrow attempted to guilt-trip Marc with the death of Randall.
• Crazy Is Cool: As per the norm with Moon Knight. Steven/Marc is mentally ill, having DID. He also dresses up like a mummy wearing a cape and beats up a jackal-headed monster like it owes him money.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Khonshu appears as a giant monster with a massive bird skull for a head, and he stalks Steven down a dark hallway into an elevator like Pyramid Head.
  • Moon Knight is a white-clad vigilante with glowing eyes with an outfit that invokes the linen wrappings of a mummy, who stalks his victims and deals out punishment to the point that a monstrous hound thing scrambles away in fear. It's even more pronounced when Steven's eyes suddenly take on a white hue and the outfit manifests around him as if possessed.
  • Arthur Harrow is an enigmatic cult leader who walks with broken glass shards in his feet, calls himself an avatar of Ammit, and seems to have followers everywhere.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Steven waking up from whenever Marc takes control helps to highlight how little control he has over his own life and showcases the tragedy and horror that such things can cause. But some of his reactions to whatever he's just woken up to are downright hilarious, such as when he finds himself inexplicably holding a gun, or driving backwards down a road. The same goes for Khonshu's biting commentary to Steven, while Steven is in the middle of life-or-death situations, which makes the deity come across as an extremely cranky boss who is just fed up with how bad of a job his employee is doing.
  • Khonshu ordering Marc to dangle a young boy over a ledge to interrogate him? Not funny. The boy saying "Praise Ammit" and ensuring his own death? Absolutely not funny. Khonshu defensively saying he thought the boy would talk? Hilarious.
  • Shoving your entire hand into the body of a mummified Alexander the Great is as disturbing and a little squicky as it sounds. Marc enthusiastically cheering Steven on as he's doing so? Now it's just flat-out hilarious.
  • Harrow being abducted from the psychiatric hospital by Khonshu? Ominous. Jake Lockley childishly kicking away Harrow's wheelchair followed by his shit-eating grin as he shoots Harrow and then driving away in a limousine with a 'SPKTR' vanity license plate? Delightfully ridiculous.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Steven Grant/Eddie Brock has been gaining popularity as the series progresses, in part because of their similar experience of sharing a body with someone else who is violent (Marc and Venom, respectively) before eventually coming to befriend them. Whether Venom and/or Marc are against the relationship or Shippers On Deck varies, but tends towards the latter.
  • Shipping Steven Grant with Paul Atreides is surprisingly common, due to Oscar Isaac having played the latter's father in Dune (2021).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Taweret is the last character introduced in the series (or second-to-last). She also has only a handful of minutes on-screen. She was a fan favorite from the moment she waved and said "Hi!"
  • The third unnamed alter, who is considerably more brutal and efficient than Steven or Marc, combined with the fact that he usually seems to appear to protect the body when they're in great danger. In the mid-credits scene of the finale, it turns out this is indeed Jake Lockley, Marc's third alter from the comics, as many viewers expected.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • In the "Marvel Studios Waiting Room" video, Oscar Isaac mutters something along the lines of, "In the end, Ja-" before May cuts him off. Fans immediately assumed that Oscar was mentioning Marc's third alter, Jake Lockley. Indeed, Lockley does appear in the final episode in order to abduct Harrow and kill him in his limousine.
  • There is a growing theory that the village where Arthur and his cult are first introduced is actually part of Latveria, the country ruled by Victor Von Doom / Doctor Doom, a theory which gained more notability with the Fantastic Four reboot in production.
  • Fans theorized that Bruce Banner would make a cameo at one point to connect the otherwise largely standalone show to the greater MCU, due to comments from Oscar Isaac suggesting that he would get along well with Marc which were interpreted as foreshadowing. Than some fans spotted Banner's actor Mark Ruffalo in Budapest when the series was filming there. He ultimately did not show up and it turned out Ruffalo was in Budapest to film for a different project.
  • Many fans theorized that due to the focus on Egypt, there would be mentions of Rama-Tut, one of the many identities of Kang the Conqueror to tie the series into what seems to be Phase 4's Myth Arc regarding The Multiverse and Time Travel. Fans spotted the pharaoh's pschent on the jacket of one of Harrow's men in Episode 3, which New Rockstars appears to have gotten verification that it was intentional from the crew themselves, further fanning the flames.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Unlike most cult leaders, Arthur Harrow is shown to be a legitimate Well-Intentioned Extremist who cares very much about his followers (for the most part) and has Undying Loyalty to Ammit herself. His Affably Evil persona contrasts perfectly with his genocidal objectives, and Ethan Hawke really delivers on portraying him.
  • While Jake Lockley isn't purely evil, as he does dish out punishment to those who deserve it and refuses to hurt young people, he lacks much of Marc and Steven's morals and restraint. He is shown to be a snazzy dresser who drives an impressive limousine and gives Harrow his comeuppance in a quick, easy, cool fashion. And he sure is bloody handsome.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • After the end of Episode 5, in which Steven topples out of Taweret's boat and ends up petrified in the Duat, many fanfics were written where Steven was rescued in the nick of time and he and Marc entered the Field of Reeds together to give Steven a happy ending.
  • Marc and Steven learning about Jake Lockley is another popular fanfic idea. Same with them teaming up with the Avengers. Other stories like to focus on Marc and Steven living a normal life.
• Fan Nickname:
  • In Latin America, due to their uncanny similarity, especially with Moon Knight's TV version, many Latin American fans call the titular hero Capitan Centella^note Captain Flash, the Latin American Spanish name of the Japanese Tokusatsu series Moonlight Mask.
  • Many fans have described the awesome-looking armor/costume Layla has as the Scarlet Scarab (while in the role of Tawaret's Avatar) as making her into "Wonder-Falcon", particularly in how Layla uses the costume's bladed wings in combat similarly to how Sam Wilson uses his own armored wingsuit in fights, she can deflect Harrow's magic in a similar way to Wonder Woman's magic bracelets, she is given the suit by a benevolent goddess in a similar way to some takes on the Wonder Woman mythos, and she saves Marc/Steven's life from Harrow with a flying dive kick (a.k.a. the Signature Move of the Falcon in previous MCU films).
• Fan-Preferred Couple: While Marc and Steven are canonically both in love with Marc's wife Layla, and their relationships together have for the most part been relatively well-received by the fandom (with praise being given to both the series' writing and May Calamawy's acting skills making Layla significantly less of a Satellite Love Interest compared to previous love interests in the MCU), the most popular pairing for the show is Marc and Steven with one another, due to their bond being the show's primary emotional focus and because Steven sometimes functions as The Not-Love Interest to Marc.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The final episode was originally supposed to feature a scene of both Marc and Steven seamlessly transitioning into one another as they confront a vision of their mother in a white void over her abuse. The scene was cut for pacing reasons, but Mohamed Diab and Oscar Isaac both expressed disappointment at its exclusion since it provided closure to that plot thread and to Marc's character development, and clarified the thematic purpose of Ammit in the show. As it stands, two of the most common criticisms of the finale are that it feels rushed due to its shortened length and that Marc's defiance of Khonshu is confusing and lacking in context, so fans feel that keeping that scene would've improved or fixed both issues.
• Fanon: Because Steven Grant is strongly implied to be on the autism spectrum, furthered by Word of Saint Paul, and autism is a neurophysiological condition, it's commonly assumed that Marc (and by extension Jake Lockley) is likewise also autistic, but learned to hide it better.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Quite a few MCU fans were rubbed the wrong way by the fifth episode's reveal that an afterlife exists in the franchise. While previous installments such as Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War had already utilized the concept of an an afterlife existing in the forms of the Ancestral Plane and Soul Stone in their stories, most fans were accepting of it due to the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane nature of how they both worked. Meanwhile, this show makes it explicit that Marc and Steven are explicitly dead, due to namedropping elements that both characters couldn't possibly know about (including the aforementioned Ancestral Plane), which confirms that souls and the afterlife are indeed real. This made fans a little more irritated due to the Logic Bomb questions it brings up.
  • Another common complaint from Moon Knight fans is the gratuitous use of Adaptation Personality Change for Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, as many felt that they made him sillier and more comedic when it wasn't necessary. However, many characters within the MCU had gone through Adaptational Comic Relief, including the likes of Thor, Scott Lang, Bruce Banner and the Guardians of the Galaxy amongst other characters. That said, many people were accepting of their funny moments at the time due to the characters being popular enough to warrant a change in pace, or were obscure enough to the point where people wouldn't notice a change in personality when adapted for the big/small screen. While Moon Knight wasn't exactly super well-known, he had enough fans for people to notice the changes done to Mr. Knight, which miffed a few of them.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Surprisingly, fans of this show have gotten along well with fans of The Batman, due to them being more serious, psychological takes on the superhero genre that premiered in the same month (March 5th for the latter and March 30th for the former). The titular characters also have some similarities to each other (Moon Knight has been called "Batman with mental health issues," which is not inaccurate... beyond the fact that Bruce Wayne is pretty messed up himself when you get down to it.).
  • With the Venom films, as mentioned in Crossover Ship above, since while it's played for more comedic purposes, those films also feature a man dealing with a more dangerous and powerful personality that shares his body and who he comes to befriend.
  • Fans of The Kane Chronicles got on board after the end of episode 4 had the debut of Taweret in what looked like a mental hospital, as Taweret in The Kane Chronicles runs a nursing home for old and forgotten gods. Moreover, the books also dealt with the Egyptian gods using people as vessels, similar to what is going on with the Egyptian pantheon in this show. There's also the fact that the Two-Person Love Triangle between Layla, Marc, and Steven functions similarly to the romance between Sadie, Walt, and Anubis.
  • With themes of DID and Psychological Horror in a Marvel TV Series, fans of Legion (2017) came in droves, particularly in the end of episode 4 where where it looks like the entire series had been entirely in Marc's head as he was being held in a mental hospital.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! fans also got on board due to the dynamic between Marc and Steven being very similar to that of Yugi and Yami Yugi, not to mention the mixture of horror and Egyptian themes that was prevalent in the first few volumes of the manga.
  • Fans of Assassin's Creed Origins are enjoying Moon Knight as well, since both deal heavily with Egyptian mythology, and the Moon Knight armor does resemble an Assassin's hood.
  • Star Wars fans ended up mingling well with those of Moon Knight, because Oscar Isaac stars in both of them and is friends with the Mandalorian. Additionally, the Moon Knight finale was on May 4th, a significant date for the Star Wars fandom (i.e., May the Fourth/Force be with you).
• Genius Bonus:
  • The series logo is surrounded by a cartouche or shenu, which was used in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to enclose the names of people of royalty. However, a standard cartouche has a line on only one of its two ends (denoting the direction to read it in), whereas the Moon Knight cartouche has a line on both ends — this could reference the titular character's multiple identities, who are seemingly at odds with each other.
  • The image on the background of Steven/Marc's phone is Egyptian artwork of a crocodile. In Egyptian mythology, the crocodile-headed god Sobek was heavily associated with both healing and protection from evil, fitting imagery for a DID system that becomes a superhero. Likewise it's a reference to Ammit, a crocodile-headed goddess of the underworld who devoured the hearts of those were judged to be impure, binding their souls to eternal restlessness. As she is the deity Harrow's cult worships, this serves to foreshadow the show's overall conflict.
  • One of the items in Steven's apartment is a replica of the Nebra Sky Disc, a Bronze Age artifact believed to be the earliest known depiction of the cosmos, a suitable decoration considering Steven's interest in history and link to a deity of the moon.
  • Harrow mentions that Khonshu often throws temper tantrums and acts like a two-year-old. While this may be just an offhand insult, it may also allude to the fact that in the actual myths, Khonsu was associated with youth, among other things; besides his bird-headed depiction, he was also sometimes pictured as a young boy.
  • Harrow summons the jackal with a chant in the Coptic language, which is the modern-day descendant of the Ancient Egyptian language. Coptic is also spoken by the other gods' avatars when they imprison Khonshu in stone.
  • The implications that Khonshu and Hathor were once close in the past in Episode 3 is a reference to the fact that, while Hathor is more frequently depicted as the wife of Ra or Horus, in some versions of Egyptian mythology Khonshu is her husband instead.
  • In the tribunal for Harrow in Episode 3, Harrow manages to dodge the Ennead Council's examinations by re-directing the questioning to Marc, who seems forced to admit his DID, when he seems to know that this would harm his and Khonshu's case against Harrow. In Egyptian myth, the judgment of the dead was based on negative confessions (i.e. "I did not do X"), which means that if you don't say anything, then it is assumed you did do that sin. And lying was grounds for being devoured as much as a sin itself. By redirecting to Marc, Harrow was able to avoid having to say a lie or not answering at all while also forcing Marc into the same difficult situation.
  • Taweret being in charge of the Barge of the Dead in the Duat seemingly makes little sense if one knows anything about Egyptian mythology; she is a protector of women in childbirth, while the passage to the afterlife should be in the hands of Anubis. But then, (a) someone paying close attention to the ushabti statues of imprisoned gods under the pyramid may glimpse what seems to be Anubis there, and (b) Taweret needs help from cue cards to do her job. In other words, Taweret is the good-hearted, well-meaning temp brought in to do an important job after management canned the one person who actually knows how to do it.
  • In one of the flashback memories shown in Episode 5, there are only seven candles on Marc's birthday cake — more specifically, on what is heavily implied to be the last birthday he had before the creation of the Steven Grant alter. Modern research around Dissociative Identity Disorder has shown that alters can only form within someone prior to their eighth birthday^note well, more or less, as brain chemistry and maturation is slightly different for everyone due to how brain maturation works, making this a clever case of Shown Their Work.
  • As many viewers have noted, Steven's English accent sounding forced and kinda fake actually works in the show's favour for Steven as an alter of Marc, since it's been said that many alters can develop accents that differ from your own, subtly telling the audience from the very beginning that Steven isn't the 'original' like he thinks he is.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Quite a few Egyptian fans tuned into this series due to it providing much-needed representation for their country in a Hollywood production. It helps that one of the show's directors, Mohamed Diab, has advocated for better representation for Egyptians in movies and TV as a whole, and had previously been involved in writing and directing films about Egypt's social issues and recent history. A few have even gone as far as to describe the show as "Egypt's Black Panther (2018)".
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the third episode, Khonshu berates the Ennead Council for choosing not to actively assist humanity like before, and accuses them of abandoning them. Those accusations ring painfully true when Thor: Love and Thunder reveals the existence of Omnipotent City, where several gods, including the Egyptian goddess Bast, are shown actively engaging in hedonistic vices amongst themselves. Even worse is that not only do the gods in the city approve of Human Sacrifice in their name, but they compete among themselves for how many sacrifices they can get, meaning that Khonshu's complaints are far from being in bad faith.
• Hollywood Homely: Half-example. Steven is presented as highly undesirable in-universe, between his mention of his struggles with romance, his date being quick to cut him off after he stands her up due to his dissociation, and his Brutal Honesty boss dismissing him as unappealing. The thing is, he shares a body with someone described as handsome in-universe, is played by the famously Mr. Fanservice actor Oscar Isaac who gets at least one Shirtless Scene in this show, and his appearance isn't toned down other than making him slightly more disheveled than usual (which ends up causing him to be seen as an Unkempt Beauty out-of-universe).
• Ho Yay:
  • Harrow's interactions with Steven in the museum in Episode 1 is laced with sexual undertones. The camera angles repeatedly emphasize Harrow's invasion of Steven's personal space, his dialogue (which is about convincing Steven that he needs Harrow's help) is peppered with innuendo and is delivered in a whispered and seductive tone, and Steven is breathing heavily as Harrow approaches him and touches him. Granted, the fact that all of this is happening against Steven's will also makes it very No Yay, especially since the possible purpose of the aforementioned framing is analogizing his kindness towards Steven to an abuser making excuses for forcing himself on him, to underscore Harrow's sinister nature.
  • In Episode 2, where Steven and Marc properly speak to each other for the first time, Steven is suspicious of Marc. Steven then feels the need to add in, "I don't care how bloody handsome you are", to make it clear that he hasn't come to trust Marc yet.
  • At the end of Episode 2, Khonshu attempts to intimidate Marc by declaring that his body belongs to him.
  • When Mogart confronts Marc over Senfu's sarcophagus, he orders Marc to get on his knees, complete with Marc making a particularly odd face in response.
  • Episode 6 has Marc reject an eternity in paradise to join Steven in the hell-realm of Duat, complete with a teary confession of (platonic) love that is then accentuated by him holding hands over their shared heart.
• Improved Second Attempt: One of the recurring criticisms from more casual audiences and critics has been on the sheer number of cameos from previous MCU properties, to the point of encouraging Continuity Lockout. As if in acknowledgement of this, Moon Knight is the only Disney+ series (barring one-shots like Werewolf by Night (2022)) to not contain any cameos from previous MCU works while still being recognizably set in the same world as the other series and films, helping provide more of an entry point to new potential fans without having them worry that much about being needlessly confused from being left Locked Out of the Loop. As such, its standalone nature causes it to be generally regarded as one of the better Phase 4 works since it has more room to focus on telling its own story and avoids the most common criticism of the other shows as clumsy setup for upcoming films.
• Jerkass Woobie: Marc Spector. While Steven is a well-mannered everyman who'd really rather not have to deal with the chaos of Moon Knight's life, Marc is an abrasive person who is constantly cold to others and frequently hijacks Steven's life to use the body for himself. It's really hard not to feel bad for him when you see what's going on with him and his mission, not to mention his debt to Khonshu and Khonshu's threats to make Marc's wife Layla his new host, which, combined with his massive Death Seeker levels of self-loathing and his struggle to not get accidentally bodyjacked by Steven, clearly do a number on his sanity. This is compounded after "Asylum," when it's revealed that he created Steven to cope with his mother's abuse after the death of his younger brother, which he also blames himself for. The entire reason that the tragic cascade of events that led to him becoming Khonshu's servant kicked off was because his DID cost him his legitimate job as a soldier, giving him no recourse but to turn to the murderous Raoul Bushman for work.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Arthur Harrow wants to wipe out future criminals before they commit any crimes, and thus is willing to kill millions of people, but is quite popular due to his charismatic personality, sympathetic goals, and tragic background. Similarly, Khonshu is pretty popular despite him being a Jerkass Bad Boss to Marc and Steven due to F. Murray Abraham's hilariously dickish Large Ham performance and awesome Magnificent Bastardry. Heck, even Ammit, the overall Big Bad of the show, has her fans, what with her creative design, Saba Mubarak's attractive vocal performance, and the surprise reveal that she's completely genuine and isn't just leading along Harrow in that she sincerely wants to make a "Heaven on Earth". In sharp contrast, Marc's mother Wendy Spector is one of the most hated characters in the whole series due to beating Marc and blaming him for his brother Randall's death when they were both young children, and the trauma she inflicted on Marc is the very reason that Steven exists — Steven is meant to be the happy, innocent child that Marc could never be. People have even gone so far as to put her up with Odin, Ego, and Thanos as the worst parents in the MCU (one reason arguably being how any fantastical elements like with them aren't present or even needed).
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Many hardcore comic fans were ecstatic that Moon Knight would finally be getting a show and more exposure to the mainstream audience given that he's considered one of the more obscure and complicated heroes in Marvel's repertoire.
  • Others who aren't deep in the Moon Knight mythos were more excited for the presence of Oscar Isaac as the titular Moon Knight and/or Ethan Hawke as the main villain, as both are highly-regarded for their acting abilities and penchant for Doing It for the Art, but also because both were highly improbable candidates for major roles in the MCU to boot^note Oscar Isaac had previously expressed some degree of burnout with blockbusters and was vocally critical of Disney over the Executive Meddling that plagued his previous work with them, whereas Ethan Hawke had expressed a lack of interest in superhero genre films in general. Both credit the relative absence of Executive Meddling on this project as a significant motivator to sign on. After the episodes all came out, Isaac's acting has been unanimously praised as worth watching for its own sake, even among those who otherwise disliked the show.
  • Egyptian Mythology aficionados picked up the show for it willingness to showcase some of the more obscure aspects of the mythos in a well-researched way.
• Like You Would Really Do It: You didn't really think they would let Steven stay dead, did you?
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Khonshu is the Egyptian God of the Moon and the patron of the eponymous Moon Knight. Cunning and ruthless to a fault, Khonshu nevertheless values the independence of humanity and strives to stop his hated rival Ammit from slaying millions around the globe based purely on their potential guilt. Khonshu wins his "Fists of Justice" through insidious manipulation; when his previous champion Arthur Harrow abandoned him, Khonshu earned the loyalty of Marc Spector by granting him a Leonine Contract after the latter had been betrayed and left for dead, transforming Spector into the Moon Knight. With his influence on Marc's life cast possibly even back to the day that Marc was a child, Khonshu ends up giving Marc and his alter Steven Grant their freedom—while concealing that he has a third alter, Jake Lockley, who has been loyal to Khonshu from the start. Khonshu ends the series cornering Arthur Harrow and allowing Jake to execute him, driving off ready to keep using Marc as his pawn for however long he sees fit.
  • Arthur Harrow is the delightfully pleasant leader of the Disciples of Ammit, seeking the restoration of Ammit and the cleansing of all evil from the face of Earth. A former avatar of Khonshu who grew disillusioned with the depravity he saw in the world and Khonshu's method of dispensing justice only after evil had been done, Harrow reshapes himself into a reserved, charismatic schemer and devotes his life wholly to Ammit. Harrow hopes to unleash Ammit from her prison and assist her in killing every last person on the planet who has, is, or ever will perpetrate evil, leaving only Harrow's diverse, educated followers to prosper in the aftermath. Outdoing Moon Knight and skillfully weaving his way around Khonshu's attempts to expose his scheme to the Ennead, Harrow successfully decimates the Ennead; duels Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab at once; and offers himself up for judgement before Ammit upon her release, showing himself to be truly willing to die for his cause for the evil he has committed.
• Memetic Loser: The members of the Ennead Council have been given this treatment, considering they're easily duped by Arthur (though their dislike for Khonshu didn't help matters) and when they realize Khonshu was right, it's too late and an Ammit-empowered Arthur kills their Avatars as easily as stepping on an ant.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Fans have had lots of fun comparing Oscar Isaac's British accent to Dick Van Dyke's Cockney accent from Mary Poppins.
  • A fair number of jokes have been made about Moon Knight being a Magical Girl Warrior show in disguise due to their similar premises, especially those comparing it to the genre's most famous example Sailor Moon. Common jokes include the parallels to the similarly-named and Middle Eastern-themed Moonlight Knight, as well as fans riffing on the fact that Marc and Usagi's henshin sequences are very similar.
  • After seeing the Marvel Studios Waiting Room clip — in which Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy are stuck in there so they can't reveal spoilers for the show — the fans joked that Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo have been there before due to their spoileriffic antics. Others joke that this is where Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were hanging out to stop them spoiling Spider-Man: No Way Home.
  • Khonshu preferring Marc over Steven, which evolved after the finale into Khonshu treating Jake as his favorite son. ^ExplanationThroughout the scene in the Alps, Khonshu can barely hold back his disdain for Steven, calling him an "idiot" and a "parasite" and demanding that he give control over the body to Marc. This has led fans to begin making jokes about how much Khonshu seems to hate Steven to hilariously petty degrees. After the show revealed that Khonshu treats Marc similarly poorly, and after the post-credits scene of the series finale showed that his real goal was to make Jake his avatar, the target shifted.
  • After Episode 3 implied the existence of a third, more violent alter responsible for most of the mook fatalities on the show, many memes were made of Marc and Steven squabbling with each other over who's fault it was while Jake Lockley laughs in the background.
  • East Asian fanartists have come to associate the two main alters with different Animal Motifs: Steven/Mr. Knight with hamsters (because of his easily-spooked personality), and Marc/Moon Knight with flying squirrels, since they are also small rodents and the scene of him leaping down with his cape spread out in the shape of a crescent moon also resembles a flying squirrel's patagium.
    • Relatedly, it's also common to depict Steven as a dog or with dog-like traits due to Word of God comparing him to a puppy. Likewise cats are associated with Jake Lockley because of his independence and unpredictable nature.
  • "Goat..." "What? Oh, yes!" ^ExplanationDuring the second episode, Steven points out a random goat that can be seen wandering the town of Arthur's cult, which initially confuses the latter before he recognizes it and agrees with Steven. Seeing as though GOAT is particularly used to describe the "Greatest Of All Time", fans quickly began to use this scene to have Steven nonchalantly point out and people that they consider to be amazing, such as Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or even Oscar Isaac himself, with Arthur agreeing with him.
  • A viral clip of Oscar Isaac breaking into song with Jimmy Fallon made the rounds again after Episode 4, usually presented in the form of "spoilers without context". Said spoiler in question has him encountering Taweret, the Egyptian hippo goddess.
  • Fans quickly began to compare Taweret to Gloria from Madagascar, as both of them are female hippos. In the same vein, fans immediately clamored for the plushie hippos from the first episode upon realizing they were foreshadowing Taweret's arrival.
  • "Egyptian gods walk among us."^ExplanationA line said by Harrow in Episode 4, which has gained some attention from fans thanks to the popularity of the video game Among Us and the enduring memes that superficially reference its title or elements.
  • "Oh my God it's Jake Lockley"^ExplanationCaptioned on tangentially-related images, in reference to the character's appearance only being teased until late in the show. Sometimes a mustache and cabbie hat are badly photoshopped in for good measure.
  • Episode 4 ending parodies^{Explanation (Spoilers)}Marc and Steven's screams of terror are edited to be at someone else other than Taweret, usually abominable characters such as Scrappies like Jar-Jar Binks or Apocalypse from X-Men: Apocalypse.
  • [Kills you in Spanish] ^{Explanation (spoilers)}The general summary fans love to resort to when describing Jake Lockley's memorable singular scene.
    • [X in Spanish]^{Explanation (spoilers)}...Which in turn has led to fans describing almost literally everything Jake is doing or will do as this.
  • "Ayo Marc, u seeing this shit?^Explanation A popular snowclone on Twitter, this phrase is associated with a still of Khonshu looking down from a ledge, often used as a reaction image. This often causes other users to reply with Marc and Steven's reactions to what they're seeing as well, as well as an image of Jake's coffin from Episode 4.
  • All in his mind?^ExplanationSimilar to the "Does he know?" meme from The Batman (2022), a Youtube thumbnail from New Rockstars of a confused-looking Steven is a popular reaction image to unexpected events or off-the-wall theorizing.
• Moe:
  • Steven. His ridiculously Adorkable kind-hearted nature, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Quirky Curls, Cute Oversized Sleeves, and overall nerdy-yet-endearing sense of style has gotten many viewers to root for him and want to protect him just as much as Marc himself does.
  • The end of Episode 4 has Taweret, a hippo goddess who looks oddly adorable with her tiny ears and high-pitched voice introducing herself to Marc and Steven with a "Hi!". The stuffed plushies of her in the first episode are also quite cute as well. The Moe-ness continues throughout Episode 5, where she is shown to be nothing but pleasant, friendly and rather dorky.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Many viewers have fallen in love with Oscar Isaac's British accent as Steven, particularly with his "I can't tell the difference between my waking life and dreams" line.
  • Taweret's only line in Episode 4 is to say "Hi!", yet many fans find a talking hippo goddess saying it to be adorable.
  • "Hoy te toca perder."^English"Today, it's your turn to lose." Really, just hearing Oscar Isaac speaking in his native tongue, especially as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, is something else, especially after everything Harrow and Ammit have done.
• Narm: The fairly dramatic chase scene as Steven attempts to flee Khonshu in the storage locker hallway ends with a highly-lit frame of Steven's face frozen in what is not exactly the most dignified-looking scream, and it inexplicably lingers on this shot for multiple seconds.
• Narm Charm:
  • Whether or not you find Oscar Isaac's British accent believable (and Word of God has admitted to at least some degree of deliberate Stylistic Suck), it does very well to endear Steven to many viewers, especially in emphasizing him as a meek but adorable little man who you'd want to protect from jackal monsters, cultists, and bird-skulled Egyptian gods. It also fits with the kind of over the top B-Movie character Steven was based on.
  • In the series finale, Layla saves a van full of innocent civilians in Cairo from Harrow's magic. A little girl who Layla has just saved and is now watching on the "sidelines" briefly interrupts the fight to ask Layla if she's "an Egyptian superhero", to which she confirms "Yes" before continuing with her rescue. On the one hand, it's a bit of a hokey Big-Lipped Alligator Moment considering it comes completely out of nowhere and isn't brought up again. On the other hand, it's both weirdly adorable and strangely inspiring to see Layla confirming that yes, she really is an Egyptian superheroine and is fully intent on saving innocent people from certain damnation. It also serves as a nice allusion to how genuinely inspiring many younger people of a minority background find the increasingly diverse superheroes in the MCU to be and why diversity is actually important/valuable in modern media. After all, a not-insignificant people of Egyptian background tuned into this series out of hopes of seeing a more positive portrayal of their homeland and people than the Orientalism more often given from Hollywood.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Steven waking up in a grassy field with his jaw dislocated, and the sounds it makes as he realigns it while his teeth are stained with blood.
  • On the topic of mouths, there's Steven shoving his entire hand into the mouth of a mummified Alexander the Great. Definitely not for the faint of heart if you're squeamish.
  • While the gutting, courtesy of a zombie Heka guard, of Billy (one of Harrow's men), is thankfully kept mostly offscreen, we still get to hear the sounds of squelching flesh and see the horrified reactions of Steven and Layla, as well as a few shots of the Heka guard placing the bloody organs in a jar.
• No Yay: Arthur Harrow is a creepy cult leader explicitly modeled after real-life David Koresh, who was infamous for sexually exploiting his female followers. As such, Harrow's tendency to frequently invade Steven's personal space and touch him while speaking gently takes on a degree of discomfort that Steven himself shares.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Treating the existence of the Egyptian gods and afterlife as real and giving Moon Knight explicit superpowers instead of leaving it ambiguous that Marc is possibly hallucinating them is not a take original to the show. While later series imply it to possibly be him imagining everything, older runs sometimes would portray him as explicitly superpowered depending on the phases of the moon, with the 1985 relaunch and the character's ensuing time in West Coast Avengers both making it clear that Khonshu was real and had granted Marc actual superpowers. Likewise, the comics from Moon Knight (2014) onward have increasingly leaned in the direction of Khonshu being some kind of Real After All, with the somewhat controversial Age of Khonshu in 2019 removing any lingering doubt as to whether he exists or not.
• One True Threesome: A popular solution in fandom to the Two-Person Love Triangle on the show is to pair Layla with both Steven and Marc.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now: The fifth episode, "Asylum", ends with Marc arriving at the Egyptian afterlife with Taweret, and Steven having fallen into the Duat (a sandy sea-like plane on which Taweret's vessel floats) and Taken for Granite. Taweret herself, the goddess of rebirth, notes that even she cannot return Marc and Steven to life in their body as they were shot and dying, unable to heal and survive without Khonshu's powers, and meanwhile Khonshu is currently a Sealed Good in a Can inside a tiny statuette deep in some secret location only accessible to the Ennead and their avatars. This leaves Marc — and Steven, if he can still be retrieved from his apparent Character Death — completely reliant on outside material-world assistance to stop Harrow and the cult of Ammit, who Taweret notes have already released their goddess and begun prematurely judging souls just as they had planned, making it basically a case of The Bad Guy Wins already. One small ray of hope exists, however: when they were still hoping to return to Marc's dying body, Steven asked Taweret to tell Layla that she needs to free Khonshu so he can help them. With at least one goddess at her side, Layla might actually stand a chance. And if all else fails, there's that third alter still in there...
• Popular with Furries: Thanks to the Egyptian deities Taweret, Ammit, and Khonshu all being depicted as humanoid animals in elaborate costumes, furries have taken quite the interest in the show. Taweret is a sweet Adorkable large hippo lady, Ammit is a strong crocodile woman with both beautiful long braided hair and a contralto many people find sexy, and Khonshu is a giant scheming bird man who was implied to have been quite regal-looking in his youth.
• Questionable Casting: Oscar Isaac's casting raised quite a few eyebrows, given his last major role with Disney (Poe Dameron in Star Wars) left him on infamously acrimonious terms with them, and indeed showrunner Mohamed Diab has stated in interviews that it took a lot to convince him to take the role. Another source of consternation came over the fact that Marc Spector is one of the few overtly (Ashkenazi) Jewish superheroes, while Isaac is not. The casting led to fears that Marc Spector's Jewish background would be Adapted Out, which were misplaced.
• Realism-Induced Horror:
  • While the specifics of Steven's issues may be unusual (most people's alters aren't international mercenaries fighting as vigilantes, for one thing), the broad strokes are very relatable to anybody with a serious mental condition — struggling to cope with daily life while your issues take more and more of a toll on you, the stress of losing time and trying to figure out what exactly happened and why people are mad at you, and so on.
    • Episode 3 gives a more specific case with Harrow using Marc's D.I.D. to discredit his testimony and make him seem unstable. How many people with mental illness in real life have had the same tactic used against them in real life when trying to report abuse or other mistreatment? Add to this the subtext that one of the supposedly neutral authority figures seems to be either in league with or at least sympathetic towards Harrow (who has tried to have Steven killed at least twice, three times if you count his attempted judgment in the museum), and you've got a situation that many viewers will find horrifyingly familiar.
  • Many people feel this way towards Wendy and her Abusive Parents tendencies. To many, her willingness to go barging into Marc's bedroom to beat him with a belt when he was just a kid is far scarier and more relatable than any of the Egyptian mythology supernaturalism or existential horror related to the Moon Knight personality system going on.
• Song Association: Engelbert Humperdinck's "A Man Without Love", which plays over the montages of Steven's day-to-day life and Marc's too after the two have integrated, is strongly associated with this show.
• Ship Mates: It's very common for Marc/Steven shippers to also ship Jake with Khonshu as a form of Pairing the Spares, since the otherwise Jerkass God Khonshu does express some fondness for the latter.
• Signature Scene:
  • Khonshu and Mr. Knight winding the night sky back over a thousand years to help align the stars with the map to Ammit's tomb at the end of Episode 3.
  • The end of Episode 4. While chaos has been brought up a few times, nothing else really captures the meaning of abrupt chaos like a massive hippo goddess greeting our heroes with a "Hi!", followed by both Marc and Steven screaming like little girls.
  • Mark breaking down into tears upon learning of his mother's death and calmly switches to Steven, who blissfully starts "calling" her while walking away from Wendy Spector's shiva.
  • The Stinger in the Series Finale. Jake Lockley, after having been teased throughout the show, finally makes his proper on-screen debut. And he does so by way of offing Harrow/Ammit in the most cold-blooded, but gratifying manner.
• Special Effect Failure: For a studio that's renowned for its visual effects, the CGI in the show is rather dodgy compared to the likes of previous Disney+ Marvel shows like WandaVision or Loki (2021), with the jackals Harrow summons being rendered as invisible creatures for parts of their scenes. That said, the quality of the effects improve as the show continues, with some visuals (such as the spinning night sky in the third episode) looking substantially more impressive.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • The trailer looks like something out of Silent Hill, due to the Psychological Horror aspects, Steven being an everyman character, a mystery cult being the Big Bad of the series, and the use of a Split Personality. The scene of Khonshu chasing after Steven down a hallway is reminiscent of Pyramid Head chasing James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2, elevator included. Steven's career in working at a museum gift shop isn't that different from James Sunderland being a clerk, whereas the fact that Steven/Marc are also an amnesiac mercenary also brings to mind Alex Shepherd from Silent Hill: Homecoming, who is also fighting a cult in the Order and secretly is doing Pyramid Head's job of punishing people, not to mention can become a Pyramid Head in one ending with the revelation that Marc accidentally had his little brother die via drowning similar to Alex Shepherd's past of accidentally causing Joshua to sink into the lake. Moreover, just like Alex's parents became distant after Josh's death, Wendy Spector became reclusive and bitter after Randall's own. In fact, Episode 4 and 5 have the mental asylum essentially be Marc's personal Silent Hill, as the only way for him to move on from it is to confront his traumas.
  • Some fans pointed out that this is a superhero version of Memento as Steven has to unlock memories of his time as Marc to figure out what's happened in his past.
  • The use of jump-cuts to skip through time and space, combined with the aspects of Psychological Horror, is similar to that of Perfect Blue. Like Mima Kirigoe, Steven is having trouble differentiating his real life from what is fake, not to mention that he's battling with an identity crisis, similar to what Mima goes through over the relationship between her innocent Idol Singer self and the actress who goes for mature and darker roles. Bonus points, both of them have pet fish that act as a Spotting the Thread for someone else masquerading as them the main difference is that when Mima finds out, it turns out that she has a stalker trying to take her image whereas the literal Replacement Goldfish for Steven was more of an Ignorance Is Bliss situation. The constant mirror motif and scenes of reflections not being in sync or even glaring at Steven is also a parallel to Black Swan, the Western equivalent of Perfect Blue, and has earned the show a fair share of Memetic Mutation based on those similarities. Speaking of which, Nina Sawyer's battle in Black Swan was about her balancing the two sides of her with Nina herself being the White Swan, just like Moon Knight's entire color motif is white.
  • A mild-mannered everyman finds an ancient Egyptian artifact that gives him supernatural powers and another identity that makes him considerably more dangerous, while also attracting the attention of numerous nefarious forces. Sounds a lot like Yu-Gi-Oh! without the card games. It helps that Yu-Gi-Oh! had a lot of horror themes before (and to an extent even after) the card games took over, one of the Millennium Items was the Millennium Scales that functions just like Arthur's tattoo, and Shadi did summon Ammit to devour Yami Yugi in a Shadow Game. The ending scene of episode 4 is akin to the soul rooms that Yami and Yugi shared, with both Marc and Steven capable of talking to one another in that shared space (not to mention that one of them is wearing black and Yami is Japanese for "Darkness"). Moreover, Steven sacrificing himself so that Marc can go to Duat is similar to the Waking the Dragons episode when Yugi lets himself be sacrificed to the Seal of Orichalcos so that Yami could live.
  • Steven's job at a museum combined with the Egyptian themes, is reminiscent of Night at the Museum, as the tablet that brings artifacts to life came from Ancient Egypt, with the third movie specifically stating the tablet was powered by Khonshu. There's also a scene of someone in a sarcophagus begging to be let loose.
  • Episode 4's ending of a clean hospital with Taweret involved evokes The Kane Chronicles, as in that series Taweret runs a retirement home for lost and forgotten deities. Khonshu also appears in both works as a manipulative and untrustworthy deity, and in the final episode, he even appears wearing a pale suit, much like his depiction in the novel.
  • The whole situation in the ending of episode 4 of Marc waking up in a mental hospital with the patients and staff being comprised of characters we've met before, being told that everything that has happened so far is all in his head, as well as the main villain being the protagonist's main psychiatrist who also has a cane in both the real world and the hospital is all heavily reminiscent of The Darkness II, which preceded the Lemire run of the comics this sequence also draws from.
  • The truth behind Marc's Dark and Troubled Past in episode 5, along with the plot deliberately homaging genre fiction while also incorporating mythological and Jungian themes, particularly that of disparate halves joining together to create a stronger whole, has caused some viewers to regard it as the closest thing to a Western take on Xenogears. It's revealed that Marc was violently abused by his mother throughout childhood, while his kind-but-negligent father refused to intervene until it was far too late. The abuse leads to Marc developing DID as a trauma response, resulting in a Freudian Trio of alters: the guilt-ridden and suicidally self-loathing host who has primary control of the body (Marc himself), a gentle Momma's Boy (Steven Grant) whose purpose was to maintain the illusion of a happy childhood with a loving mother before going dormant for most of their adulthood and who comes to be on good terms with the host, and a red-themed Superpowered Ambiguously Evil Side (Jake Lockley) hidden from the other two who is strongly implied to have borne the brunt of the actual abuse from his mother and channeled the resulting anger into resentment at the world for allowing it to happen. Said backstory and the relationship between the alters is nigh-identical to that of Xenogears' protagonist Fei Fong Wong.
    • By extension Moon Knight is also sometimes described as the MCU's take on the former game's Creator-Driven Successor-slash-remake Xenoblade Chronicles 2, due to its focus on two main alters, who are naturally equated to protagonists Pyra and Mythra (themselves composited Expies of Fei who are also seen as having the magical equivalent of DID). Steven and Pyra are the first of their respective Split Personalities to be introduced, and are more immediately likeable but comparatively poor fighters, although they are made of stern stuff where it counts. Meanwhile the chronologically-earlier Marc and Mythra initially come off as their abrasive, somewhat violent Polar Opposites until the truths of their pasts come to light: Steven/Pyra represent Marc/Mythra's idealized selves, borne from a traumatic past that left the latter guilt-ridden and suicidally self-loathing. The finale also has Steven and Marc develop the ability to function as instantaneous Swap Fighters very similarly to how Pyra and Mythra operate in-game and in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Various aspects of the show's approach to Marc's DID, including his adapted backstory of parental abuse and the show's use of mirrors to communicate it have led to some comics fans declaring Moon Knight to be a more accurate adaptation of The Incredible Hulk than the MCU's depictions of the Hulk himself. This may not entirely be a coincidence given that Oscar Isaac himself stated that Marc and Bruce would likely get along well.
  • The scenes of Marc talking to Steven through a mirror is similar to the Twilight Zone episode "Nervous Man in a $4 Room", in which Jack Rhoades is a meek man isolated in the titular hotel room and gets talked to by his cooler, gutsier persona John Rhoades who eventually takes over to kick ass (with Jack being okay being a reflection).
  • Episode 3 and moreso Episode 4 see Marc/Steve and Layla searching for a scarabaus and investigate a historical wrong, while there is some tension between them and the tomb provides some creepy scenes. That's why some fans see it as a better remake of The Mummy (1999) with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz than The Mummy (2017) with Tom Cruise ^note which to be fair isn't really meant to be a direct remake of the former and more intended as reboot to the original Universal Horror-depiction of the 30s..
  • With the show's emphasis of Egyptian mythology and magic, and the fact the the principle lead characters both share an avian Animal Motif, this may be the closest we'll get to a Hawkman TV show. Steven's occupation even parallels Carter Hall's museum curator, his personal struggle between being a good man and acting like the warrior of violent times he'd been in his many past lives resembles his relatioship with Marc/Jake, and Layla could easily be a stand-in for Hawkgirl.
• Stoic Woobie: Marc is this in spades. He's usually a stone-cold, pragmatic type of person, especially when compared to Steven, but he holds a lot of trauma, depression, and regret over the things that have happened to him in his life. When his levelheaded nature breaks, it's gut-wrenching to see.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Detractors of the show often cite its version of Steven Grant as a major complaint. In the comics, he's a rich, confident ladies' man who always wears nice suits, and pays for Moon Knight's crime fighting efforts with his fortune, serving a similar role as Bruce Wayne in Batman (whom Moon Knight was prominently based on), and not usually prominent compared to Marc Spector or Jake Lockley. But in the show, none of that is true, with this Steven starting out as a lower-middle class schlub working a blue-collar job who is fairly socially inept. He also gets equal or greater screen time to Marc for most of the show, while Jake is so little seen you'd think he was Adapted Out until The Stinger in episode 6, which greatly alters the dynamic between Marc and him, and detractors tend to find him overbearing and annoying rather than entertaining. Apparently the creators did this to move Moon Knight away from Batman, but fans who disliked the show thought this was pointless given the comics version has undergone significant Divergent Character Evolution in the time since his release.
  • A number of comic fans were displeased to see Mr. Knight given a dose of Adaptational Wimp — insofar as the suit does give Steven enhanced strength, he's not a trained fighter — and Adaptational Comic Relief in episode 2, as the character is primarily known for being a suave, intelligent detective-like character who is still capable of kicking ass if the situation calls for it. Episode 6 does finally show Steven in the Mr. Knight suit being just as capable a fighter as Marc, with his own distinct fighting style utilizing the dual batons, as well as showing a more confident personality while negotiating with Khonshu.
  • In general, many comic readers didn't like how the show is explicitly supernatural in tone. While this isn't the first interpretation of the character and his mythos as this, Moon Knight's popularity stems primarily from street-level crime stories with a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane element in regards to his powers and abilities, as well as his ability to see and speak to Khonshu. Thus, many people noted that making the Egyptian pantheon and all of Moon Knight's abilities real not only raised the stakes significantly when it seemed unnecessary, but also makes him feel less distinct from the other MCU characters.
  • The downplaying of Marc's Judaism is also a contentious debate amongst comics fans. While its importance to Marc is heavily Depending on the Writer, those familiar with the comics often consider it a defining character of who he is due to several of the character's most iconic runs (including the Jeff Lemire run, which the show draws a lot of inspiration from) placing a lot of focus on it. Thus, many of them consider the show's decision to relegate the character's religion mostly to Informed Judaism to be a slap in the face to how the character is represented.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Hathor's avatar Yatzil suggests that several of the other gods and their Avatars are secretly in league with Ammit with her being the only other Defector from Decadence along with Khonshu, but all of them including her are swiftly killed off by Arthur in an offscreen fight, seemingly all in the dark about Ammit's plans.
  • While Arthur Harrow has been used in ways that no one expected for what was essentially a one-shot character, Ammit herself seems woefully wasted in comparison, especially as they don't appear into quite late into the series. Her appearing in the last episode led viewers to be quite interested in her very quickly, only to be apparently Killed Off for Real with Harrow in the last few minutes of the show, leaving a few viewers disappointed that she would no longer play a part in things.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Although Harrow hints at some of the things he did while under Khonshu's control, it's never actually explained how exactly Khonshu's behavior supposedly broke him and turned him towards service to Ammit.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: Aside from the research going into Egyptian mythology, many viewers learned about DID and the accurate term for someone with the condition calls their other personalities "Alters" (which is what is used to denote Steven and Jake Lockley throughout the trope pages).
• Unexpected Character:
  • With guesses ranging from Sun King to Dracula, the last character anyone expected Ethan Hawke to be playing was Arthur Harrow, a character with exactly one appearance in the comics and not even an entry in the Marvel Wiki prior to the show's trailer.
  • While Marc's other alters have always had their days in the limelight, Marc has always been the host alter in the comics, and the one that the audience spends the most time with. The first trailer implies that Steven Grant will be the protagonist of the show (while implying that Marc is still the main host and that something has happened to cause Steven to unknowingly take over).
  • Seeing Mr. Knight in costume is also unexpected as well, as he wasn't one of the original identities and was made much later in Marc's vigilantism in the comics.
  • Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and motherhood, has barely had any significant role in the original Moon Knight comics (if at all). Suffice to say, many fans were just as startled as Steven and Marc were to learn that she would be an important character in the series when she unexpectedly arrives at the end of Episode 4.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The writers have stated that their intention was to portray Wendy Spector as a severely flawed but not evil Troubled Abuser whom audiences are meant to feel pity for. However, the sheer amount of cruelty and abuse she subjected Marc and Steven to as children, unreasonably blaming them for something that wasn't even their fault, and the severe lingering trauma that ensues means that any sympathy the audience has for her will be rather low, even if it's presumably the not-so unintentional part. Another factor could be Fan-Preferred Cut Content above, which could have given a proper resolution.
  • While Elias does have sympathy points for having to live with so much tragedy, many fans don't have as much pity for him either since, as Marc states, he did nothing to help Wendy or Marc and just let Wendy abuse her only child without ever thinking of stepping in to protect Marc, giving lame excuses of "she's going through a rough time" and being unaware that Marc has had to make a British-speaking alter to protect himself. It also hasn't been fully established wether or not Wendy may have abused him as well, so he can't be given those points just yet.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Some minor quibbles over things like the jackal monsters aside, there are some excellent sights to behold in this series, usually involving the title character’s various outfits or else his patron god Khonshu, which all look great. Most agree the scene of Steven and Khonshu turning back time in the night sky in Episode 3 is particularly breathtaking.
  • Scenes where both Marc and Steven are in the same shot are edited and utilize special effects so they're done in an incredibly seamless manner, to the point where it can be incredibly hard to remember than Marc and Steven are technically being played by the same actor at different times.
• Watched It for the Representation:
  • The show is popular among Arabs and Muslims due to its focus on modern-day Egypt, its Arabic soundtrack, having several Middle-Eastern creatives and actors, and for airing during Ramadan.
  • The show pulled in some viewers due to Oscar Isaac being the first Latino actor to get a headlining role in the MCU. Likewise a number of Jewish fans also took interest in the show due to to Moon Knight being the first overtly Jewish superhero in the MCU^note Although Wanda and Pietro Maximoff precede him, their Jewish (and also Romani) heritage was Adapted Out.
  • Because the protagonist has Dissociative Identity Disorder, the show picked up a following among viewers with DID in real life hoping to see a more nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of the condition, given that DID is often heavily sensationalized in extreme ways (see Split Personality for how it is often depicted in media).
  • A lot of people on the autism spectrum also got into the show because of its depiction of Steven Grant, who is all but stated to be autistic, and who uses his neurodivergence as a strength while averting Hollywood Autism and Inspirationally Disadvantaged.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Steven. He can't account for where his body half the time, has hallucinations of a giant monster with a bird head staring down on him, and discovers that he's part of a DID system that he himself had no idea about. Combine this with his characteristic Puppy-Dog Eyes, and you just want to get him a hug and perhaps a therapist. Episode 5 makes it even worse when it's revealed that he was created by Marc as a defense mechanism for when his mother would beat him, essentially gaslighting Steven into thinking their mother was kind and loving, and into their adulthood he believes his mother is still alive, despite passing months before the start of the show. Upon discovering The Reveal, it's no wonder why he punches Marc and chews him out for hiding the truth.
  • For that matter, Marc's father Elias Spector. The poor guy outlives his younger son and sees his family disintegrate over the years because of that.

---