Marvel Cinematic Universe

I mean, just because Colleen owns a dojo doesn't mean she knows anything about fixing an injured finger. I broke my thumb in Taekwondo class years ago and my teachers didn't believe me when I said that it was broken. Just because the muscles in it still worked a little bit, they assumed that it was fine when the bone was actually fractured.

I mean, if the mere mention of their name can make hardened criminals crap their pants, does it really pay to be stealthy? If I were an immortal ninja I'd probably just run around in a silly costume too because nobody's powerful enough stop me and nobody's going to dare question my fashion sense.

If they aren't going to even practice ninjutsu, then they aren't even really ninja. They're just vaguely Japanese zombie-thugs wearing pajamas.

edited 19th Sep '17 9:35:51 PM by TobiasDrake

Tobias, I have no interest in Iron Fist, but your rundowns are entertaining af! Same with your Luke Cage rundowns, too.

Thank you. ^.^

Seriously, though, this was a perfect opportunity for the kind of creepy shit that really captures the imagination. Like having the lights go out when the Triads are seated at the table and then the ninjas are just there in the room with them. The kind of shit they keep pulling on Harold; do that to the Triads to show why they're considered so scary even by Triad standards.

Rolling up to the joint and walking in the front door like a bunch of posers is incredibly unimaginative and disappointing after all the build-up.

One of them even borrowed my suggestion and was holding a gun. A gun. I gave the Triads crap for their Axe Gang shtick, but I can't believe that between the two of them, it's the magic ninjas who you have to worry will kick your door in and cap you.

edited 19th Sep '17 9:38:22 PM by TobiasDrake

Theatricality and Deception, et al.

Ninjas in pajamas and vikings with horned hats and pirates who dress like Jack Sparrow, it's all just movie magic (movie magic ninjas) tradition at this point. Daredevil's ninja costumes would be a lot more forgivable if it wasn't so obviously an excuse to put a bunch of untrained extras on screen to make their numbers look bigger. Which could still have worked if you just put the focus on the few performers who could actually fight, using whatever camera tricks were necessary to make it look like they were all just equally as good (allowing for Conservation of Ninjutsu, if you must). The costumes themselves would've allowed you to recycle the same fighters from shot to shot, and yes, admittedly swarming all over with tons of guys◊ is pretty much the Hand's superpower in the comics. So I get what they were trying to do. They just picked a lousy time for the show's fight choreographer to be banished back to the Netherworld, or whatever it was that happened to make those late season fight scenes look as garbage as they did.

edited 20th Sep '17 3:28:46 AM by Unsung

Tobias, I would recommend to judge no character in the show until at the very least episode 10.

I agree that the solution for the medicament matter was somewhere in the middle, and I actually think that this was the point. The show does this a lot, pitting the "evil corporate" stance against the hyper leftist stance, showing that both of them are flawed.

Also, Ward totally played the reporter...he acted drunk so that she would think that she gets a hot story, not realizing that he is controlling the story.

Random observation: It really bothered me that Colleen fights in a white dress (yeah, perfect colour if you know that you'll most likely get bloody) and then there is not one blood drop on it. Thankfully even though the editing is terrible throughout, at least later fight scenes pay attention to details like this.

edited 20th Sep '17 2:33:21 AM by Swanpride

I mean, incompetent authorities have been a staple of superheroes since the genre's conception. Frankly, this is not even the most egregious depiction of cops in the MCU.

Honestly, the Implication is that Danny gets away with the sh.. because he is rich. And beforehand because Ward is rich and uses the influence to Rand industries to keep the matter quite. I don't think that Danny being in the mental hospital was even legal (I mean he just got drugged up and then put in there, it's not like they went through the official channels), so I am pretty sure that Ward ensured that his break out would be kept quite, too, especially since he send people to kill him.

That seems like a ridiculous stipulation for a 13-episode season that's mostly character development and relatively little action during its first five episodes, but okay.

I know, but things not being as black and white as it sometimes seems is an ongoing theme in the show, and the characters play into that theme.

Seriously, it's really funny how Tobias keeps insisting that Ward is the most baby eating-est, puppy kicking-est, pure evil person ever when he actually goes through a full Heel–Face Turn by the season's end.

Well, let's be honest, we all thought that.

Looks pretty lit. Love the use of Metallica's 'One'.

That's the most disgustingly 90's trailers I've ever seen.

I think I kind of love it.

Especially with some of the gunfire mixing with the drums nicely. :)

So the colour scheme is grey and cold blue this time around? I can get behind that. Even though I still doubt that Frank Castle works as protagonist.

Even with Adaptational Heroism?

Frank Castle's been working as a protagonist for about 30 years, so there's no real problem there. If anything, I felt DD Season 2 made the mistake of making him seem too sensible, as I felt Daredevil never managed to come up with a good enough reply for why killing criminals is worse than just beating them up so they can be back on the street.

The tricky thing that I've gone on at length about is that the Punisher's stints as a protagonist tend to run on Villain Protagonist and Nominal Hero to varying degrees. It's always clear this is a highly unstable borderline psychopath who just happens to be up against even worse psychopaths. There tends to be that undercurrent that the stories are more about exploring the demented depths of Frank Castles twisted mind than appreciating his heroism.

It's a tricky atmosphere prone to Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy, and it's an open question whether Netflix will maintain that vibe. DD season 2 makes him considerably more sensible and sympathetic than he tends to be in the comics, but that season was also clearly an origin story for Frank where he becomes increasingly more ruthless. So it's ambiguous.

The true risk at work is if Netflix makes him too heroic in his solo outing and we basically have a show praising this man's willingness to conduct a genocidal warpath on anything he judges as vaguely criminal, which isn't the best message to be sending in this political climate.

edited 20th Sep '17 8:20:10 AM by Gaon

" In a series also populated by Too Dickish For Hydra Ward"

Way, there wasnt a to dickish to hydra ward already? or this is the other ward?

damn, since iron fist I get VERY confused when people keep saying things about ward.

Superhero comics have frequently struggled to come up with a good explanation for why Frank's methods are wrong actually, at least in the context of the clearly "much more dangerous than the real world" MU. It tends to devolve into a lot of self-righteous platitudes.

Especially when you've got characters like Black Widow, Thor, Wolverine, etc, who have little qualms about killing if they feel it necessary as Avengers.

It's part of why many writers struggle to integrate him well into the mainstream MU (hence stuff like Punisher MAX being so well-regarded). He shines a light on the inherent contradiction built into the structure of superhero comics by his very existence.

As for The Hand, yeah seeing them across DD, IF, and The Defenders, it seems pretty clear that the various showrunners had little to no idea of where the story behind them was going. Because they become a confusing mess of a plot-point.

It's something that bugged me in Daredevil Season 2, as Matt did have definite practical criticisms of Frank's behavior - most notably that his reign of terror to draw out and kill specific targets incited a massive gang war that could have hurt many more innocent people - but he refuses to engage him on anything other than highly moralistic "thou shalt not kill" grounds.

And then, of course, he reneges on it towards the end and is ultimately totally fine with his allies killing people if it gets the ninjas out of Hells Kitchen.

I mean, damn, Matt's a defense attorney. If anyone should be able to drum of a credible argument for why people don't deserve to die for wrongdoing, it's him. Then again, he's a Hollywood Defense Attorney who refuses to defend anyone who has actually committed a crime (except in Grotto's case), so there's that too.

I can't believe they put Metallica's One in unironically.