TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Go To

Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
  • While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
  • Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.

If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.

    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#75926: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:01:29 PM

Like, I remember the complaints about Thor's human cast increased in The Dark World, but I remember that Darcy got a lot of hate from people calling her annoying and unfunny. I still think the problem was Dennings being on 2 Broke Girls, a show that...well it deserves a lot of fucking hate, it's a racist pile of unfunny crap but it's not Dennings's fault that she needs a damn paycheck and work.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#75927: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:04:27 PM

I remember people fairly liking Darcy in the first movie. I know I did at least. I think that might have been the problem, actually. People liked the character so Marvel decided to beef up her role in the sequel (to the point where she got her own romantic subplot with whatshisname), to the detriment of what people were actually interested in watching in a Thor movie.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#75928: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:11:44 PM

I actually liked Darcy in TDW. One of the few entertaining aspects of the film. It was the other stupid intern hanging around her who I didn't like, and who was responsible for a lot of her annoying moments, I think.

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#75929: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:20:57 PM

Darcy and Selvig are good, but Jane is just a redundant obligatory love interest. Darcy does normal human better and Selvig does science exposition better, so Jane is just kinda... there.

If Jane was gone and Darcy was Selvig's wacky intern, or if Selvig was gone and Jane was a more established scientist, then it could work, but as-is there's three humans trying to share two roles between them.

edited 27th Oct '17 1:21:35 PM by Anomalocaris20

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#75930: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:21:00 PM

[up][up]I call that the sheldon cooper syndrome: a chararter is good in small dosis end being rammped up in sequels.

the same thing happen in Iron man 2 with tony doucheness tone up a lot.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Punisher286 Since: Jan, 2016
#75931: Oct 27th 2017 at 1:53:02 PM

The problem with Jane and her comedy squad in TDW is that they got beefed up roles, at the expense of characters that people wanted to see more of. Like one of the complaints about the first movie is that The Asgardian stuff seemed more interesting, as did those characters, and yet it felt like the B-plot. But I could give that film something of a pass to a degree since, well it had to get Thor's origin story out of the way and it was a set up.

But with them setting more of the film on Asgard the second time around, there was no excuse for Lady Sif and the Warriors Three to get LESS to do in the sequel, and for Malekith (who's actually a pretty entertaining villain in the comics) to be as boring and underdeveloped as he was, when they instead decide to give DARCY more screentime. Really Marvel, your priorities seemed out of whack there.

Not to mention that they took the comic relief sidekick, beefed up her role, then gave her her own comic relief sidekick, and then turned Selvig (who I've actually liked in all of his appearances EXCEPT for TDW because he works well as the "science straight man") and made HIM into a comic-relief sidekick as well. Enough with the comic relief Marvel, it's too much.

Essentially they gave more attention to the wrong stuff while undercooking the actually potentially interesting parts. "Wasted potential," that is TDW's greatest sin imo.

speaking of Sif and the Warriors Three, it sadly appears like Ragnarok did pretty much nothing of note with them either. So that's strike three on actually treating them with respect/doing cool stuff with them I guess Marvel. How disappointing.

edited 27th Oct '17 1:53:26 PM by Punisher286

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#75932: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:12:48 PM

With the desire to have Thor away from Earth and strictly/predominantly into cosmic stuff, I'm starting to think that ultimately what people wanted was less of a Thor adaptation and more of an adaptation of something like Nova.

edited 27th Oct '17 3:24:08 PM by KnownUnknown

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#75933: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:14:18 PM

Sort of changing gears a bit but still sticking to the Thor topic, Zachary Levi, who played Fandral in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok has been cast as Shazam in DC's upcoming Shazam movie.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#75934: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:19:49 PM

The old wizard? That could work, though he seems too young.

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#75935: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:20:49 PM

No, the superhero formerly known as Captain Marvel.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#75936: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:22:13 PM

The one that had to be renamed Shazam because his comic has to be called Shazam because Marvel copyrighted the name Captain Marvel to spite DC, and so people kept mistaking the character for being named Shazam until DC finally gave up and rolled with it. It's a long story.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#75937: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:25:01 PM

...wait, has Zachary Levi ever been in anything with Brie Larson?

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#75938: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:28:11 PM

Specifically, DC still could call him Captain Marvel in-story, but he could not be marketed as such, so all his books had to be titled things like "The Power of Shazam!" or "Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!", which was needlessly confusing.

What really did them in was he had a TV show in the 70's that was popular, and thanks to Pop-Cultural Osmosis, everyone remembers his name as Shazam even though that was just the title of the show.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#75939: Oct 27th 2017 at 3:56:51 PM

Levi seems a bit scrawny for Captain Marvel. I always took him for having even more of an old-school, Heroic Build than Superman. But we'll see, and that's for another thread.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#75940: Oct 27th 2017 at 4:13:56 PM

Im not going to boo hoo DC for losing the trademark when they sued Captain Marvel's original creators

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#75941: Oct 27th 2017 at 4:46:46 PM

[up][up] He might bulk up, like Chris Evans did.

Falrinn Since: Dec, 2014
#75942: Oct 27th 2017 at 5:08:37 PM

[up][up] The convoluted legal history of the Captain Marvel name could practically be it's own movie. In fact I'd probably be more surprised if someone doesn't put out a documentary on the subject sometime before the MCU Captain Marvel movie comes out.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#75943: Oct 27th 2017 at 6:50:33 PM

The Defenders, Episode Three

Star bright, star light, the first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight. I wish for another Defender to beat the shit out of Danny Rand in this episode. ^.^

"Excellent. Please tell your wife that she makes it even better than they did in Constantinople." Confirmation of how old Alexandra is. Also, why are they suddenly speaking English? This is a popular Hollywood trope where the characters are in a foreign country and deliver a line or two in that country's language and then get lazy and are just like, "F*ck it, we're using English instead," without any rhyme or reason for the spontaneous language shift.

Next time you're vacationing in a foreign country, try that! Exchange a few pleasantries with a local in their native tongue and then abruptly switch to English to continue the conversation. They'll think you're an asshole!

And if you live outside an English-dominant country…uh…share your thoughts on foreigners abruptly swapping over to their language mid-conversation and expecting you to follow along, I guess.

"The Black Sky. We have it." Great! Mind sharing any information at all with us about what the f*ck it's actually supposed to be?

"How long have we waited for this?" An explanation? Since DareDevil Season Two. I know, that is a long-ass f*cking time to go without even a hint towards an answer.

I feel like Alexandra should have been brutally assaulted by rotting corpse smell when she unwrapped Elektra. Unless they already raised her and she's just napping.

"This will use the last of our resources. Are you sure that it's a risk worth taking?" "I have never been more sure of anything." Yeah, but why, though? Seriously, an entire season of DD was spent deliberating the Black Sky and the answer they ultimately gave us was that The Hand wants it because it's a thing that is greatly desired by The Hand.

"Language will come back to you. So will your instincts. But everything else? I'm afraid it wasn't worth keeping anyway." So they wiped her memory somehow? With the resurrection ritual? They can do that? Because Harold's memories came back to him just fine, so it's not like it's a standard feature.

"I've seen it too. More than once. And what I want more than anything is to never see it again." It occurs to me that Alexandra's very existence kinda disproves that story about people who receive multiple revivals turning into Ax-Crazy monsters. She seems to be pretty well in control of her cognitive functions.

"It doesn't matter what you choose. You are the Black Sky." I like how she stops to contemplate her traditional sais but ultimately rejects them in favor of wakizashi. It's a subtle demonstration of the fact that this woman is not Elektra, not really; in this moment, without even realizing it, she tacitly rejects her own identity and accepts the new one that Alexandra is constructing around her.

I feel like this training montage is trying to make up for Colleen's lack of interesting fights in Iron Fist by giving Elektra, like, all of the cool fight choreography Colleen missed out on at once. And…yeah, this is awesome. Elektra quickly establishes herself as the baddest ass martial artist in the cast.

"She's ready for you." You know, for a second, I actually thought that was Shades. I honestly would not have been surprised to find out he's with The Hand. Shades has a finger in a lot of pies.

"You'll spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder. And from what I hear, those days are numbered…." Okay, seriously, is the brain cancer or whatever going to cause her skull to spontaneously explode? Because I'm still waiting on an answer for in what way a self-resurrecting immortal is in any way threatened by medical illness. Harold's first death was some kind of cancer, wasn't it?

"Elektra." I am deeply disturbed by Stick's ability to identify her by sniffing her face.

"Son of a bitch!" I would love to have seen the offscreen moment where Stick and his bloody stump managed to pry a grate off the wall and climb into the ventilation shaft without getting blood on the wall anywhere around the opening. There's a little bit on the grate itself, but the space around the entrance? Pristine.

"Are you always this rude to people trying to help you?" Welcome to Jessica, Matt. ^.^ She hates everyone almost as much as she hates herself. It's great.

"Malcolm? Yeah, I just gave my statement. Are you okay? What exactly did you tell them?" And Matt's able to overhear this with his super-senses because Jessica, despite knowing the drill, dumbf*ckedly decides to hold this conversation while she's still inside the police station. Like, you don't need super-hearing to be suspicious of questions like, "What, exactly, did you tell them?" She actually passes a cop in the stairwell while saying it.

I guess the point of this moment was to let Matt become suspicious of Jessica but he's already suspicious of her so that's a moot point. All it really accomplished is making her look dumb.

"I think it glowed?" "Glowed how?" And so Claire begins the process of bringing the Defenders together.

"What's the deal with that fist?" "I earned it." "You what?" Cough cough stolen cough hack.

"There's this mystical place called K'un Lun and it's—" "I can answer for myself." Wow. Danny has some nerve being snappy about Colleen talking over him.

"All of their power stems from their ability to bring back the dead." I love Colleen's tone of voice here. Like, there's a clearly audible resignation as she says it. Like she goddamned knows that this sounds like she's making up bullshit but she feels like she has to say it anyway.

"I don't know how much I can afford." "Don't worry about that right now." Jessica pays her rent from the same magical infinity-well of cash that Matt does.

I question the idea of Matt being able to track Jessica by following the trail of her foostep noises and blocking out all other sounds. Matt's hyper-senses are as much one of his fundamental weaknesses as they are a benefit. Sensory overload is one of the most effective ways of neutralizing him, and in a crowded New York street like this, he shouldn't be able to just block out all of the other sounds.

Jessica's photos are presumably going to be useful in coercing information out of Matt, but at the same time, they aren't much proof of anything so there's a limit to their usefulness as leverage. By the time she got her camera out, he'd already done the complex roll over to the fire escape that allowed her to see his face. The pictures themselves are of his back, and in New York City, there's a lot of people that could be an average-built man in a business suit.

Also, I find it further questionable that Matt could track Jessica's footsteps in a crowded New York street but couldn't hear those same footsteps following him in a quiet alleyway. None of this scene makes sense.

"Claire said they did experiments on you." Thanks, Claire, for violating Luke's privacy and just outing that information to Danny. Does she tell everyone about that? "You should meet my boyfriend, they did experiments on him."

"There was a dragon." "AHAHAHAHA No there wasn't." Luke doesn't even need to watch the show to know they couldn't f*cking afford to CGI a dragon on a Netflix budget.

"You gotta admit that dragon shit from the outside does sound pretty crazy." Claire, your boots are on Colleen's bed. Not cool.

Also, I love how Claire and Danny's idea of going underground is apparently remaining in the most obvious place that The Hand could possibly look, a place where they have been found multiple times and yet somehow, despite all odds, nobody can think to check there all of a sudden.

Alexandra's going to find out about this and be like, "Curses, they were at HOME this entire time! The one place I'd never think to look!" I mean, shit, Danny owns this building. It's literally the only thing he owns, what with never actually bothering to get a place to live or buy personal possessions. Danny and Colleen are hiding from The Hand in Colleen's home that Danny owns. This is not rocket science. They should have been find instantly because The Hand should have people staking out this place 24/7 just in case these idiots are stupid enough to ever come back while on the run.

And they are stupid enough. They're f*cking living there. How is finding them even mildly challenging?

…and when they're abroad, they're flying in Rand's private jet! They're scheduling flight plans in a Rand Corp plane! This is not hard. Jesus, even in Defenders, Danny is a walking Idiot Ball who makes everything around him stupider by proximity to him.

"I just want to help." "Me too. That's what led me to that warehouse." No, what led you to that warehouse is that Colleen wanted to find allies, but you were like, "No, Collen, my blood vengeance over quasi-imagined sleights against people who had nothing to do with them can only be quenched if the violence is committed by my hands, and mine alone!" You're not a helper, Danny. You're trying to relieve your own personal trauma by beating it into other people instead.

"You call that helping? You were going to beat that kid within an inch of his life." Yeah! What he said!

"The difference is I'm not some billionaire white boy who takes justice into his own hands and slams a black kid against a wall because of his personal vendetta!" Luke Cage is Best Pony this episode.

"The money? That doesn't define me." No. The fact that you only started caring about getting it so that you could rub your balls in someone else's face for being mean to you is what defines you. That's your entire character, Danny. You make selfish choices out of spite and go out of your way to harm others because you're mad at the world for picking on you. You are an evil person, and the only reason you get to pretend to be a hero is because you happen to share an enemy with actual decent folk.

Danny Rand is basically Frank Castle if he was actually deluded enough to think of himself as a good guy.

"I know enough. And I know privilege when I see it." This is for you, Luke. Stay awesome.

"These people won't be stopped that way." "Oh, so you're taking your war to the ones on the bottom, is that it?" When Luke's done telling Danny where to shove his Iron Fist, can we run over to Gotham real quick so he can give this same speech to Batman?

"Look, it doesn't matter." "Of course it does!" It actually does. Luke's right. There is totally a deal to be had with dead bodies in that room. The dead bodies are why there's a deal. As a cleaner, this kid's exactly the kind of bottom-scraping grunt that prosecutors f*cking love to cut deals for if it means they'll roll over on someone with more severe crimes under their belt. It's the bigger fish principle. Kid's a guppy; he gives them intel on White Hat and he could be walking out the door tomorrow.

"The longer you talk to me, the worse it looks for the both of us." I mean, there's that too, but let's be real. If they're inclined to kill him to keep him from talking, they're going to do that anyways. They have no way of knowing if he'll squeal or not. He's still got nothing to lose by cutting a deal.

"He is next level dangerous." …has this kid actually heard of Luke Cage before? Because Luke's invulnerability isn't exactly a secret.

"So am I." Yeah! What he said!

"Tell her they're from me." That lotto ticket thing is heartbreaking. Now his behavior makes sense. He's not saying there isn't going to be a deal because he doesn't think they'd cut one. There isn't any doubt in his mind regarding what's about to happen. He knows he won't live through the night. I was in Lawyer headspace instead of Assassin headspace. My bad.

"Looks like that big guy made quite an impression, huh?" Danny's not used to being told to his face how much of a shithead he is. Usually, the people around him cave whenever he gets angry and just let him have his belligerent way all the time. They bend over backwards to keep him from having to ever recognize his own fault, and on the rare occasion that someone does try to stick it to him, it's someone he can punch. Danny's an expert at not listening to people, but Luke had to become a master of having his voice be heard.

The racial subtext on that is fantastic.

"The Fist is one way to win this war but I do have others." "Yeah, we've tried them." Bullshit. You have not. You have never tried anything except punching things, because punching things to satisfying an emotional need is all Danny's ever cared about doing.

"He doesn't understand how dangerous they are." How dangerous can they be? You're having this conversation in the most obvious place you could possibly be and they haven't murdered you in your sleep yet.

"You're not a businessman." Reason #1 why Danny taking control of Rand was a stupid subplot that went nowhere and probably shouldn't have even f*cking happened at all.

"But my father was." Somewhere, Ward Meachum is looking at his phone. He can't tell why, but he has this intense feeling in the back of his mind that in a less stupid world, he'd be receiving a call right about now.

"That's what brings me here. Where is Ward?" Fine, make me eat crow. I like the taste anyway. MMM MMM TASTES LIKE CYNICISM AND CHICKEN

"There was an organization that did business with us last year." No, there wasn't. They did not "do business" with you. Danny thinks The Hand is a legally-existing entity. Like, they pay business taxes and file patents and had a documented business relationship between Rand Industries and The Hand International.

Danny is so bad at crime, and it's hilarious because of all the crime he does.

"Whatever you heard, it's true." Danny. Danny. This is a conspiracy. If she's freaking out at you saying the name of the organization, that means she's part of it. You're either with The Hand or you don’t know what the f*ck The Hand is. There's no middle ground. That's how conspiracy works.

'Maybe there are rumors about shady business dealings in Rand but they wouldn't have a name attached to them. She clearly recognized the name''. Danny is terrible at Paranoia Fuel scenarios. [lol]

"I'll get you the address from the directory." God, I hope she comes back with ninjas. This is a classic conspiracy setup. Here, let me give you some intel in order to keep you distracted for a second, whoops, got to step out. Oh look, while I was out, I found men with guns who will murder you because you know too much, dipshit.

The Winter Soldier once did this with a tactical carpet-bombing strike and it was awesome.

"I gotta do this alone." Danny should get that tattooed on his forehead. Then he can just point to it every time someone offers to help him.

Dammit, scene ended. That scene would have made so much more sense if it was a trap. It still could be a trap; just replace coming back with ninjas with setting up an ambush. C'mon, ambush!

"Communal workspace. Um, I mean, we're going to need a bar, standing desks, you know those bouncy balls that people sit on that some people find annoying?" This is something I really love about Jessica. It's easy to mistake her flat, emotionless monotone for wooden acting, but in her capacity as a P.I., we really get to see her emote through pretending to be a person who gives a shit.

Briefly playing the character that Jessica's pretending to be in those instances allows Krysten Ritter to showcase her acting ability and make clear that the way Jessica's presented is a deliberate stylistic choice, not a casting failure.

"I do have another structure that you might be interested in. One we unveiled in Soho. If you could just give me a minute." Ooo, is he going to come back with ninjas? I'm really eager for people who weren't supposed to be ninjas to suddenly reveal that they were ninjas. That's kinda how this sort of narrative's supposed to work.

Nope. Scene change. Goddammit, SOMEBODY BE NINJAS.

"Hi. We met the other night." YOU. COLE'S MOM. YOU BE NINJAS. I don't care that it doesn't make sense, I want my ninja surprise, goddammit.

"I believe in the power of prayer. My father made sure of it." Oh mighty Thor who walks among us, blessed be thy name. Please smite the wickedness of Alexandra and if it's not too much trouble, maybe pop by to give Danny Rand a wedgie. In the name of the holy sacrament, we partake of this raging kegger in your name. Amen.

"What do you mean, some kind of accident?" And that's the end of Cole. I'm surprised by how subdued that was. I figured they'd actually show us his inevitable death; it's much more chilling to have it happen offscreen, leaving the audience to wonder just as Luke does as to how they got him.

The answer, of course, is because ninjas.

I love this scene of the mother's grief. It's exactly as powerful as it should be.

"Where's the Fist?" See? Stick knows to look in the first goddamn place anyone would look to find Danny. Because it's the first goddamn place anyone would look.

"Are they expecting you?" "Not like this." By all rights, they should be, if that scene with the Rand employee is going to be not-stupid.

"My name is Danny Rand. Last year, you were illegally transferred $243 million worth of assets through my family's company. And you thought you got away with it." Seriously, this has to be an ambush. I don't care how rich you are, you don't walk into the front lobby, go, "Hi, I'm rich and important, I don't have an appointment or anything but I demand to speak to the rich and important people in your company!" and then get to just walk into a board meeting in progress.

Every single part of this screams set-up. I'm just waiting for Elektra to rappel down from the ceiling and stab Danny in the face.

"You killed my parents." No, they did not, shut the f*ck up with that. [lol] Danny got the guy responsible for killing his parents and it's still his Single-Issue Wonk.

"Mr. Rand, I appreciate your candor." Hello, Alexandra. Thank you for being here to spring the obvious trap.

"And who are you?" "I'm in charge!" I love that answer.

"But please go on. You were telling us what you were going to do?" Yeah, I'd like to hear that too. Danny is legendary for his complete lack of a plan or goal or basic concept of a Win Condition in his battle with The Hand. I have no idea what he's actually trying to accomplish right now, giving this speech. Does he intend to...punch the CEOs or something? He came all the way out here to deliver the verbal equivalent of a sternly-worded letter of disappointment.

"You grab me like that again, I will punch you so hard you see it." [lol]

"Extortion. Narcotics. There's no end to what we'll uncover." "…and?" I love Danny's confusion at that question. She's waiting for you to get to the part where you, like, make demands or something? The actual purpose of this conversation? She's thinking that you can't seriously be so stupid that you walked into the viper's nest just to tell everyone that you intend to stick it to them eventually and then leave. But she does not know the depths to which Danny's stupidity is willing to plunge.

"I'm the immortal Iron Fist, weapon of K'un Lun, and I'm fulfilling my destiny." So, y'know, I just thought I'd drop by and let you all know about how great a job I'm doing defeating you guys. Really top-notch work. If I had to grade myself, I'd give my efforts a ten out of ten. I don't even know how you guys manage to keep your confidence up, being so brutally defeated by me as you are. Can we just take a moment, everyone, and really bask in the glory of my performance against you? Not to toot my own horn, but I'm clearly the best Iron Fist of all time. We agree on that, right?

"You haven't lost everything, Mr. Rand? Not yet." And then the receptionist pulled a gun, because that's what happens when you walk into a den of vipers. It turns out that there are vipers in there. You might have noticed if you weren't too busy masturbating all over the board room table.

"I've crossed paths with Iron Fists before but this is different, because this time, I won't kill you." See, Danny? That sentence. That one sentence. That was more badass than every single word you vomited from your face hole. That is how intimidation is done.

"No use using her for protection. They will rip right through her to get to you." I mean, stabbing through your friends should be standard operating procedure for a conspiracy of self-reviving immortals. If I shove a wakizashi through her sternum to hit Danny's heart, she'll walk it off.

Who told those guys they could use submachine guns? Alexandra explicitly said she wanted Danny alive before conspicuously f*cking off for no reason. The guns give Luke a chance to show off his invulnerability, but like, if he hadn't been here, they totally would have killed Danny and then Alexandra would be pissed. Those two are so fired. And it's The Hand, so I'm sure they use actual fire.

"Jessica?" "Luke." And just like that, the Defenders are assembled. Also, for the record, that board room fight was pretty kickass.

"You know what to do?" Why is she wearing that stupid thing? I know it's closer to her comic look than the cool understated Chinese murder-suit she had before, but the murder-suit was awesome, goddammit. This looks like a f*cking Halloween costume.

Matt v. Elektra is a fantastic fight made even more engaging by the fact that he has absolutely no f*cking idea who he's fighting and neither does she. That's just hilarious. The two finally came back together for their big throw-down, she doesn't remember him, and without hearing her voice, he can't recognize her.

"Elektra?" …until he just abruptly does recognize her for no reason. Okay.

So, that was fun. A few good fights, some great scenes, Danny's still a f*cking idiot, and Luke Cage brutalized him even more savagely than when they were actually fighting. Which means I got my wish! Kind of!

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#75944: Oct 27th 2017 at 6:55:12 PM

Eh, can't say I agree with all the "Danny's an idiot" talk in Defenders.

Danny is pretty much the most consistently correct member of the Defenders across the entire show.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#75945: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:13:22 PM

I remember a lot of people were saying Luke was entirely wrong for chewing Danny out.

Which makes no sense because again, Danny is a horrible, horrible person and the sixth worst character in the MCU. Spots one through five are occupied by the Inhuman Royal Family.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#75946: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:16:12 PM

I think Alexandra's still in New York in that opening scene. She's just at a Turkish restaurant. And yeah, while it seems like it's possible to learn the self-discipline to maintain after the resurrection/rejuvenation process, Alexandra definitely isn't any less of a monster. Elektra just got a very big dose, I think. We still don't really know what the Black Sky was actually supposed to be, so the whole thing feels very hand wave-y.

Jessica knows her rights as a PI. The police are always going to be suspicious of her no matter what, and she just gives no fucks about it at all [lol] And didn't Jessica scam six months severance pay out of her corrupt boss at her old job? I'm not saying that's what she's using for money now, but she's resourceful and she lives in an apartment where nobody thought anything of the drug addict down the hall for months on end. Rent cannot be high in her building, even if it is New York.

Also, you seem to find this creepy, but scent is a pretty strong source of recognition. Matt and Elektra have had sex. Sweat has a distinctive scent, they've been moving around and fighting, there's a lull so that he's not distracted... It's part of that whole world-on-fire deal. Scent and sound and air currents allow him to sense the shape of things. All the motion beforehand was like a mask that only came off when they stopped moving.

That hallway fight's pretty great. Third-best after the botched prison hit on the Punisher and the original one with the Man in Black and the Russian human traffickers.

[up][up]Not the part where he's going to punch off the top of some kid's skull, surely.

edited 27th Oct '17 7:16:24 PM by Unsung

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#75947: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:17:43 PM

I need to get around to watching Iron Fist. I sort of needed a break from the disaster of DD S2, so I binged 2 seasons of Mad Men and just sort of forgot about it.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#75948: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:18:35 PM

Luke's complaint is partially correct. His point on privilege is correct, but his point on Danny sucking because he's trying to out-punch the problem is not.

A large part of the Defenders consists of Danny telling the others "we should just fight the Hand until they cease to exist", and every single other character creating excuses not to do so despite literally everything making it glaringly obvious that the only way to deal with the Hand is by thoroughly demolishing it.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#75949: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:23:40 PM

Well, assuming all that punching actually led them to the Dragon Cave before the Hand collapsed the entire city underneath their feet, maybe. But in the end they have to sneak back into Midland Circle, where they only barely stop the threat in time. If they'd killed (or knocked out) in the whole Hand but failed the second half of the plan, ie. containing the damage, they'd have all fallen into the bowels of the earth along with a big chunk of Manhattan. But we can maybe save this argument for when Tobias gets there.

edited 27th Oct '17 7:30:01 PM by Unsung

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#75950: Oct 27th 2017 at 7:31:07 PM

[up][up]This is true considering what they do in the end.

But see, it's Danny saying it, so as far as I'm concerned, he's wrong until everyone else decides on their own that it's correct, because fuck Danny.

...Though I think at some point, I'm gonna get tired of saying that. I'm getting a good chuckle out of Tobias' vitriol towards him, but eventually hating him is gonna get boring, so I'm hoping Danny will get fixed somehow so we can stop shitting on him out of hate, and start doing it because it's just fun without any bitterness weighing us down.

edited 27th Oct '17 7:31:38 PM by HandsomeRob

One Strip! One Strip!

Total posts: 186,763
Top