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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I didn't hate Danny at first, then turned on him near the end of the series (you'll know the moment when you see it Tobias), but now seeing how devoted to it Tobias is, I feel the need to try and defend the kid (no pun intended) or at least hope he really gets better, because there's no fun in shitting on Danny, and I don't want to put that much effort into hating him anymore.
I acknowledge he's a dumbass, but I'm hoping that changes soon enough.
One Strip! One Strip!This is probably me jumping the gun a little but I'm getting the impression from watching the show (finishing ep 3 now) that Danny's main problem isn't necessarily that he's unlikable, but that he's uninteresting. Being unlikable only matters if the character was supposed to be more likable than they are and/or if they're boring.
And I actually don't mind Danny's character flaws, mostly because I don't agree with the notion that we are supposed to not see them. If that were the case they wouldn't constantly point them out. And I can deal with Danny's occasional myopia and naivety way better than Matt's constant brooding....I also feel that Matt is way more egoistical than Danny is, because he constantly puts people in danger by withholding information from them. Best example was becoming daredevil while also opening a business with Foggy. He could have destroyed Foggy's life, it wasn't fair to do this without telling Foggy what he was up to. I honestly prefer Danny telling everyone about his glowing fist, no matter how dumb it sounds most of the time.
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Honestly, I agree. His main problem for me is that he's not interesting. I don't hate Danny, I just don't care about him. Which, I guess depending on your viewpoint, may be worse.
My sister loathes him, though. And she never even watched Iron Fist.
edited 31st Oct '17 3:27:25 PM by DeathsApprentice
When we're done, there won't be anything left.I loved the scene where they're just sitting around eating Chinese, and Danny's just so excited and happy about everything. "We should totally be a super team! It's destiny! You guys are awesome! This is all great!"
My various fanfics.
I mean, I like those bits of him, when he gets to be more lighthearted than everybody else.
The problem is that they also have him doing the serious "I'm the Immortal Iron Fist" stuff, and I'm sorry, but just going by what I've seen in the Defenders, Finn Jones is unbearable when he's doing that, and he was doing that for a vast majority of the show.
edited 1st Nov '17 2:01:44 AM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!I don't recall if you've seen Iron Fist, but it's even more unbearable when you know that he basically just does that because it makes him look special. He's never really given a single solitary shit about this Living Weapon, Protector of K'un Lun stuff; he left because he got bored. That is seriously the reason for his departure; he had a Disney Princess moment, wondering if there might be something more out there waiting for him, so he peaced out and abandoned K'un Lun.
He only really breaks out the Immortal Iron Fist line because it justifies his crusade; and not because he takes any of the responsibility seriously. As Zhou Cheng put it, he wears his oath like a mask. It's not an actual motivation; he just likes how important and righteous it makes him to talk about it.
I mean, shit, even in the diner scene, he actually found an opportunity to inject "MY PARENTS MY PARENTS" into the conversation, and I absolutely loved Stick shutting him right the f*ck down when he did.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.New Warriors is being moved to another platform or station
:
"We are extremely excited about Marvel’s New Warriors and look forward to finding the perfect partner to launch the series with in 2018,” said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Entertainment.
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As he should. That he has a reason to hunt the Hand which might make him emotional compromised in certain situations is an information the people fighting with him should know so that they won't get caught on the wrong foot. Plus, Danny is not the one who constantly leaves the other Defenders in a lurch in order to chase an emotional need.
So I'm actually planning on writing a longform review of Iron Fist - I mostly just had off-the-cuff impressions for both seasons of Daredevil, but since I'm trying to practice my writing I thought it would be interesting to make something a bit more thorough as practice.
Just based on the notes I've written up so far (finishing the fifth episode now) I have quite a bit written already, so it's probably going to end up even longer than Tobias' liveblog posts :p
So Avengers 4 is filming something
to do with the aftermath of the Battle of New York, complete with Thor in his original outfit and Loki chained up.
Wonder if it's just flashbacks or if the Time Stone is at play.
You know I don't hate Danny (yet- the show could still change my mind on that either way I suppose) but this whole dinner plan thing in episode 5 gives me a lot of insight into what people mean when they complain about his character.
EDIT: On the plus side this heroin thing has actually made Ward an interesting character now so at least we have that and the supposedly better second half to look forward to.
Because this first half has honestly been pretty boring and sloppy for the most part.
edited 2nd Nov '17 4:08:52 PM by Draghinazzo
The Defenders, Episode Five
So this episode starts with a nice sequence of the Five Fingers suiting up for war. I really like Sowande's Magic Ninja militia.
Everyone's converging on the Royal Dragon, which is good because Elektra is woefully outmatched in this fight. Luke could literally bear hug her into submission. With more guys attacking, Luke will at least run afoul of the fact that he can't be owning every ninja at once.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to call bullshit on Elektra being able to slap Luke around like this. He sells every strike she hits him with. That's complete bullshit based on what we saw a few episodes ago when he fought Danny. Not only could Danny's hits not harm Luke, but he wasn't even selling them. Every strike was like hitting a brick wall; Luke gave absolutely zero f*cks about each blow Danny landed on him.
Now, all of a sudden, he's only invulnerable, not strong or particularly sturdy, and can be effortlessly thrown around by ninja punches. I was wondering how they were going to get around Luke's invulnerability, and the answer appears to be sudden unexplained nerfing.
I especially like the part where he grabs her arm so she punches him in the nose and it apparently hurts him so badly that he releases his grip, allowing her to shoulder-throw him into a table. This being the same guy who rolled his eyes at Danny when the latter tried boxing him in the ears.
Honestly, the fact that this ambush has to pretend that Luke's powers don't exist in order to have any tension in it really demonstrates why Luke is f*cking OP for this lineup. Or having Elektra try and take them all on one-on-four was a really stupid writing choice and they had to really stretch the fight choreography to make it seem remotely plausible for her to not immediately get curbstomped. Either or.
Actually, judging by Jessica hitting her with a car and then nobody following through at the end of last episode, I'm going to go with the latter. This cliffhanger was really stupid.
Jessica getting pissed at Danny for lying on top of her is amusing, but credit where it's due, Danny was pushing her to the ground to keep her from getting shot. I hate the guy as much as the next person, but this was a rare instance of his actions actually being defensible.
"We want him alive." Sowande clearly doesn't. What's the deal with that? He came here with armed men clearly gunning to kill. This is an act of either rebellion or incompetence. Hopefully the former.
"We work together, we walk out of here alive." You were already working together. I mean, Matt was pissy, but apart from that, the entire previous episode was dedicated to these guys coming together as a team. This moment reeks of "Line written for the trailer."
"Go!" I love how Elektra was somehow super-strong enough to slap around Luke because reasons, but now she's helpless against Matt charging face-first into her torso. Sure. No martial artist with a bladed implement could possibly defend against the coveted body slam from an equally-sized combatant.
"Where's Matt?! What's he thinking?!" Danny, shut the f*ck up. You're being stabbed by ninjas. You do not have time to care about what Matt's doing right now.
Incidentally, the answer is, "Following his penis," so you two will get along great.
Bear assassin dude took out Jessica by kicking her one time in the side. Okay, sure. There's been so much ridiculous bullshit in this fight already. I mean, she probably couldn't have taken the guy in the long run, but dropping her with one kick to the side is still goofy as shit.
"That's your name. Elektra." I know he's got super-senses to compensate, but Matt's blind, so I can't stop thinking about how funny it would be if he was actually giving this speech to, like, Bakuto or someone.
"They say you can't be broken. We'll see about that." See, this is better than when it was Elektra hitting him because Luke is selling the blows, but not nearly to the same extent. Sowande's hitting him really hard in center mass over and over, and all each blow achieves is pushing him back a little bit. Driving him far enough so that he gets hit by a truck is really clever, if a bit lucky for Sowande that a garbage truck happened to be nearby.
This won't actually cause any lasting harm to Luke, but Sowande doesn't need to. Luke only matters insofar as he's a barrier between The Hand and their goal. They don't need to kill him; they just need to not be stopped by him from capturing Danny. This takes Luke out of the fight, and that's as much victory as they can hope for or need.
This is a huge advantage that Defenders has over Luke's solo series; he's still an OP character with a Story-Breaker Power, but the villains can actually work around that because their win conditions aren't defined as "Somehow Kill Luke". Only being able to strike temporary, fleeting victories against him is fine, because his survival is irrelevant to their success or failure.
It's amusing to watch Jessica ambush and punch out Gao. Gao totally snubbed her when she was ranting about the special people in "Iron Fist".
"More are coming." "Not for long!" …no, not through that door you just barricaded, but you're outside in the open. They're ninjas. They can go around.
"Smells like shit, but it's our only way out." That's basically how I felt about watching Iron Fist to get to Defenders.
"Where did they go? And where's the Black Sky?" "That's a question for our leader." I don't think Bear Assassin dude is really committed to this. He picked himself off the ground just fine when Gao got out there, so he was totally faking his knockout. He knows damned well where they went. He just doesn't want to talk.
I love Alexandra's pouty glare after rolling down the window. There's nothing to see, so she rolled it down for our benefit, but setting that aside, she looks like someone stole her puppy. And I have zero sympathy; we know from her takedown of Elektra that she's a capable enough martial artist. If she'd stuck around and lent a hand, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Alexandra suffers immensely from being all bark, no bite. She likes to talk shit but she's actually a coward who peaces out at the first punch.
"I'll explain everything but first, we have company!" The Hand is after us! We need to get to safety. Quick, let's go to the place where they know I live!
"How do you know they didn't follow you here?" Follow nothing. They should be staking this place out 24/7. The biggest plot hole in this entire franchise is the fact that The Hand have somehow forgotten the location of a recruitment facility operated by one of their own.
"My company owns a building not far from here." Every building owned by Rand Corporation should also have ninjas watching it. I mean, I'm not dinging the show for Danny being stupid enough to think a corporate property is a good safehouse. I'm dinging it for the fact that, judging by the dojo, he's probably right. I swear, it's like The Hand doesn't really want to capture him at all.
"The last time, we did have a plan, but this one left us to go fight that chick in the spandex." What? No, you didn't. You have no plan. You didn't even have time to make a plan. You, Jessica, only got back to the diner right as Elektra was attacking. Did this episode even watch the previous episode?
"I got one of theirs." Is that Sowande?
How did that even happen? I guess I overestimated the effect that hitting Luke with a truck would have on the fight.
"In my grief, people told me that she was too good for this world." I like this speech. It's a nice Motive Rant for Alexandra, which is well-needed given her role as, like, the Thumb of the Five Fingers or whatever. The most important finger.
"How long do you think he'll be out?" "Not much longer." "How do you know?" "Because this is happening. (slap)" Goddamn, is Jessica awesome.
"They put us through brutal trials." "It's called discipline." I love how half-assedly Sowande took the piss out of Danny's melodrama. I mean, don't get me wrong, what happened to him was shitty, but it was shitty because he was basically drafted into it. It's the lack of choice that makes it shitty, not the general concept of warrior monk training.
"Nothing you can do can make me serve you. Do you understand?" Danny is entirely correct here. He won't even serve K'un Lun and he hasn't been to work in, what, weeks? Months? Any plan that relies on Danny Rand actually following through on what he's asked to do is doomed to failure. As Colleen, Ward, Harold...basically everyone on his show wound up having to learn, even if Danny agrees to it, he'll still probably blow it off.
"You're the dumbest Iron Fist yet." Also correct.
"At this point, the less you know, the better." That's not even remotely true, Luke, and you know it. They've already been threatened so it's not like The Hand will suddenly come after them for knowing too much.
"I never meant to make my trouble your trouble." You didn't. She made her trouble your trouble. Claire's been sniffing around The Hand for a long-ass time now. Luke's treating her like a hapless bystander caught in the middle of all this, but she's been gungho about throwing herself in its midst since his solo.
"This is not their fight, it's ours, and keeping them around is a liability." I love how Colleen has done a complete 180 on her original position from the first episode. For basically no reason other than so that Danny can be right, even though he too has done a complete 180. She just woke up this morning and went, "Wow, I haven't been pointlessly wrong about something in a while. I'm not doing my duty as a shallow, cardboard love interest by letting Danny mansplain shit I know to me. I'm going to spark an unnecessary fight next time I see him!"
"Hello, Colleen." Hey, it's Bakuto! I actually expected we wouldn't see him again until Iron Fist 2, and that would be the justification for why nobody was attacking the dojo. Because I guess they didn't have any records of Colleen's place for some reason and Bakuto was too busy doing other things to share.
But no, he's here, so it really is just as stupid as I accused.
"You're supposed to be dead." Gotta love how she still thinks that. Colleen Wing, everybody; applying basic shit she already knows to situations she's present for is a skill beyond her grasp if she doesn't have a man to explain it for her.
"It was a strategy to bring out your anger, to cause you to make a mistake." I like how he's effortlessly avoiding her attacks here without so much as a weapon to parry with, showing he is clearly her superior in martial combat. But somehow, getting himself killed "bringing out her anger" last time was "a strategy".
I mean, it'd be one thing if he was actually fighting her and clearly exerting himself. But by so easily evading her, he's basically flipping off their showdown and going, "Nah, the one time Colleen actually was allowed to perform adequately in a fight was totally a fluke. We wouldn't want people thinking she's a decent combatant or something."
Also, I feel like his, "Let's continue our work together," speech is totally ignoring the fact that he tried to have her killed.
"I wish it could end another way." You know, I was totally waiting for Danny to rescue her. That it wound up being Luke whose mighty dick shields the helpless damsel from harm surprised me. That he did it by grabbing Bakuto and just half-assedly lobbing him like used garbage made me laugh so hard that for a moment, I actually forgot how outraged I am on Colleen's behalf.
Goddammit, Luke, quit injecting awesome into the middle of scenes belittling women.
"Remember the last time we faced off, Bakuto?" You mean when you discovered that he's not allowed to kill you, creating a significant handicap that allowed you to prevail? Yeah, I'm sure he does, but it's not exactly something to gloat about.
"We need to get her someplace now." Okay, Danny and Claire were distracted by Colleen's well-timed gasp of pain, but Luke never moved. In fact, he's still staring forward when the camera pans back to him. He stood there and uselessly watched Bakuto perform his Stealth Hi/Bye. Great job, Luke! Nice heroing! Gold Star! Not a single effort was made!
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important." They don't make a Hallmark card for, "I'm sorry you need to flee for your life to avoid being murdered for something I did."
"Thank you." "Yeah, well, don't. I'm not doing this for you. It's just self-preservation at this point." Honestly, this should be the final nail in the coffin of the Matt/Karen ship. I'm sure it won't because if romantic plot tumors died reasonably, Danny/Colleen wouldn't have become a thing at all. But I want it to be.
"You deserve better, Karen." Yeah, what he said! She really, truly does.
I like how Matt turns out the lamp in the main room, but they leave Karen's office light on.
"What the hell?" That's a good question, Misty. How in the hell did they manage to get Colleen far enough into the police station to reach Misty's room without being stopped by the countless police who occupy this police precinct, who would see the gaping, bloody wound in her stomach and rightly want her to go to a f*cking hospital?
I mean, shit, there's cops in this office right now who are conspicuously ignoring the bleeding knife victim taking a seat by the door.
"For a man who believes in God, you sure like denying that he has a plan." Y'know, I was just saying that last episode.
Also, I question Stick's claim that Matt can lead. He couldn't even lead a f*cking law firm without it falling apart around him, and he had two employees who already liked him to work with. He's better than Danny on the grounds of not being a garbage human being but he's not exactly....
…
…
Y'know what, f*ck it, nobody in this group is qualified for a leadership position.
"They are safer away from us." Worse than that, they're Trish's bosses and she was ordered to silence the tremor talk. Those people she was meeting with might actually be ninjas.
"Stairwell, go!" …why are you going up? Who goes up when fleeing pursuers? Where are you trying to go, the roof? I don't think Trish is qualified to start parkouring to other buildings or something.
Bear Assassin dude knocking Jess flat on her face by kicking her in the side from out of nowhere is becoming a running gag.
I was going to give Murdock's a rescue a pass because Jessica's not really built for fighting ninjas, but she echoed his surprise side kick and barely inconvenienced him by doing so. No, scene, that's stupid. Jessica can't keep up with a ninja because she's untrained and undisciplined, but she's super-strong. If she can land a hit, it should be pretty f*cking game-ending. That was obnoxious; Jessica's kick should have ended this fight.
This episode really likes ignoring Jessica and Luke's powersets.
"Scarf looked better." Jessica Jones is still my spirit animal.
"Now how I imagined my day going." I know, right? Claire's patching you up in the middle of a police station and still not a single cop gives a shit. Are we certain that the other officers actually do exist and aren't, like, magical illusions meant to make Misty think she has a job?
Wait, they're doing this in the break room? Claire's patching Colleen up on the table that police officers eat Twinkies at? That's just unsanitary.
"All I want is something stable. Something I can hold onto." The f*ck are you doing with Danny then? He's never met a responsibility he didn't abandon.
"Matt didn't tell you?" I like how Karen and Foggy are openly discussing Matt's secret life in the middle of an occupied office in a police station. There are cops literally three feet away from this conversation. Good job, guys! Gold star!
"The more I tell you, the more danger I put you in." Again, that is blatantly untrue. The Hand are already after these people and will cut through Misty to get to them. Knowing the truth about them isn't going to change whether or not a ninja stabs her in the face in order to reach Karen.
"But the first person you sought out was Colleen Wing." Instead of shit-talking Bakuto for going after Colleen, maybe ask yourself why nobody else is going after Colleen? You guys know where she lives. I can't get over how stupid The Hand are being about this pursuit. Sowande, Bear Assassin, and Alexandra, I could understand maybe. But Gao and Bakuto goddamn know better. There should be eyes on Colleen's dojo and ever Rand property. It is beyond dumb that the Defenders are allowed to use those places and remain hidden.
"Twice now, she could have taken my life and she didn't. Why do you think that is?" This is supposed to be an interrogation about The Hand's plans but Matt found a way to make it about his dick. This isn't beating intel out of Sowande, this is begging him to satisfy Matt's emotional need for validation of his confirmation bias. I know Stick said that the Jack Bauer Interrogation Method would be pointless to begin with, but this went from proving Stick's point to just...sad.
"Admit it, Elektra's still in there. You failed." And just like that, Matt gave complete control of the situation to Sowande. Even with the rope around his throat, Sowande's not the one who is suffering more and more with every second this conversation continues. Really shouldn't have made it about his dick.
"Is he dead?" "Eh, unfortunately no. He passed out." I'm surprised Stick didn't add, "I can fix that real quick, though, you give me a second." Why is Sowande even alive right now? Stick already pointed out that he's not going to talk, so they have nothing to gain by holding onto him. Stick has also demonstrated a willingness to kill The Hand's men on his own initiative when Matt's too weak-stomached to do it. And he was left alone with Sowande for hours. Why is Sowande alive?
"You believe the Black Sky has failed us?" "No. I think you have." Nice and ballsy. I wish I could remember this dude's name.
"Except the Black Sky almost killed me." Oh, she did not. You're playing up the encounter for emphasis.
"I was willing to work with you, but how can I trust you?" Oh, shut the f*ck up, Danny. Like you've never had to defend your boner's infatuation with an agent of The Hand to a fellow adversary thereof before. I swear, this is just like the cell phone. You have to break yours but mine is special.
I like Sowande's timing here. He unties himself at the perfect moment; Matt's so busy defending his thing with Elektra that his super-senses aren't picking up the sound. Sowande's making a great bid for Best Ninja.
"Don't move!" He's threatening to slit Danny's throat? Well, that's just stupid. Everyone knows The Hand needs Danny alive. This is a transparently empty threat.
Ha! And then Stick just stone-cold decapitated him, calling his bluff in the process. That was perfect.
Danny's staring at the head in shock and horror and I'm like, "Yeah, dipshit. That's what you're talking about when you say you want to destroy The Hand with violence. It means f*cking killing people."
"My child? I need a word." Weren't the other Fingers talking about cutting Alexandra and the Black Sky out of the plan, last we saw? That was a really ominous conclusion to that meeting, with them all rising against her. Did they just go, "Anyways, that sounds like a thing to do. Meeting ajourned, everyone. Alexandra, nice to see you, kindly get bent."
So, this episode was dumb at a lot of different points for a lot of different reasons. Definitely not one of the show's better. And yet, I still found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Even the worst episodes of Defenders are still a lot better than some of the shit DareDevil's second season and Iron Fist tried to offer.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.There's no such thing as Danny being defensible. You know this better than anybody Tobias.
No joking mode or sincerity mode pothole because either can apply depending on my mood.

Captain Marvel starts production early 2018.