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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
The Hand are a whole host of questionable choices.
Most prominently in Defenders where the Hand leadership are comprised near entirely of Canon Foreigners instead of actual characters.
Like only one guy is actually based on a comic character.
Edited by slimcoder on Feb 11th 2022 at 5:05:57 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I don’t think that having canon foreigners be the leaders of the Hand is a bad idea
But also they were mostly nothing to write home about
Madame Gao was good but she was sort of awkwardly retconned into the position and she was maybe a canon character that just wasn’t usually involved with the Hand
Forever liveblogging the AvengersThe problem with ninjas as villains is that they never really get to keep their ninja cred for very long. Mainly if there's a large group of them. The most they can do is show up to a fight in a cool, ninja-y way, or spend the early episodes being all mysterious and just barely evading capture. Then they have to actually fight, at which point they'll get the shit kicked out of them because the hero is always a better ninja/fighter than they are.
Edited by GNinja on Feb 11th 2022 at 1:20:29 PM
Kaze ni Nare!More just frustration that any depth to him was vetoed because Jeph Loeb flat out told Nobu's actor "nobody cares about Asian characters".
Such riveting writing suggestions from the man who wrote Ultimates 3.
... Okay, fine, Ra's is usually the exception whenever he's race lifted, but that's because he's awesome; generally not the immortal leader of a centuries-old organization whenever he is white (ignoring Arrow, because he sucked there); and — like you said — can actually do ninja stuff. White lady whose name I forget fails all that.
God, we could have had an awesome story with the Snakeroot. Have Nobu survive, adapt his origin as the Hand's founder before they came in, turned him into a slave and converted his organization into a cult. Maybe he breaks free from their control after growing close to Elektra, who reminds him of his old lover. I’m remembering that correctly, right? Pretty sure there was supposed to be an Elektra-esque character in his origin.
And maybe actually explain what the hell the Black Skies are! Potential vessels for the Beast? Or, maybe they seemingly stop the Hand, only for it to be revealed the Beast survived by possessing Matt for the next season of DD. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but you could do a Venom symbiote-esque story where it brings out his darker impulses.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Feb 11th 2022 at 8:32:15 AM
Would Gorgon aka Tomi Shishido been better As the Hand represnetiave? Or was he not possible rights wise I know he's also a Hydra leader.
Cool powers, design, badassery and charismatic.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."Nobu was good! Peter Shinkoda is good in the role.
Not giving him anything substantial to work with in season 2 despite him being the headlining villain is what sucks. The fact that we got cheated out of a more developed Nobu explicitly because Loeb is racist makes it sting even more.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Feb 11th 2022 at 9:03:21 AM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Now that I think about it, I think the issue with Canon Foreigners is that they don't have a base.
Like with comic characters there is usually a base to start from, whether it be a super-name, distinct costumes, powers, personalities, even if a lot of stuff gets changed its at least done with an idea at the base.
While canon foreigners don't have such a starting point, the writers have to come up with everything about them at the start and there's a greater risk of the character being under-designed.
So like in grounded shows, a comic character gets trimmed down to fit the minimum standards of realism but with a newly created characters they are instead built up to fit the minimum standards of realism, its a weird thing.
Like compare the made-up Hand leader Alexandra to Kingpin. She has no supername, no distinct powers or abilities, and no memorable attire. Meanwhile Kingpin who is relatively low key in a sense has a supername, can fight like a berserk gorilla tank, and is known for wearing sharp-pressed entirely white suits. Alexandra is very under-designed and this applies to the rest of the Hand leaders.
Edited by slimcoder on Feb 11th 2022 at 6:15:32 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Why does Moon Knight look like a Mortal Kombat character?
Is it because they share initials?
Forever liveblogging the AvengersIt works more effectively with a character like Ray Nadeem. He's an entirely original character in Daredevil season 3, though admittedly some parts of him might've been inspired by Nick Manolis, seeing as Manolis was a key figure in the Born Again storyline that season 3 is an adaptation of.
Okey Dokey!![]()
It really seems they are learning heavy towards the Egyptian and mystical side of the character.
Althought there were some costumes who had that mummy like look (notably the Earth-X version), he has never really used a costume that looks like that, let alone magically summoned. I have the theory that they made it like this to avoid comparisons to Batman.
There is a Ron the Death Eater cleanup thread here, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15773169810A80654300&page=1
Maybe bring it to their attention, with specific examples.
I was surprised to but I'm not against the idea. The Ironman trilogy has it's own page as well and I kinda like the idea of the series within the MCU getting pages. I'd like to see Captain America's trilogy get it's own page. But I'm probably alone in that opinion. And I'd totally understand if it got cut.
"I won't let fear compromise who I am."

Moon Knight cover from Empire.
There are so many valid critiques about the Hand. Racism being one of them. But the bigger one for me is that they're, for lack of a better word, boring. Like, if we're only following one or two individuals like Nobu, it's fine. But when you're watching Matt destroy a dozen ninjas at once, not only do said fight scenes feel like they're there to keep you from checking out, they also feel choreographed with a guaranteed outcome. It’s not gritty and there’s no tension.
They were the weak link in Daredevil season 2 for the Elektra storyline. It made sense to bring in Frank and Elektra in the same season, because they're good foils. Frank asks the question, “When is killing okay?” and Elektra makes that question more personal because of her intimate relations with Matt. Something they could've gone more in depth with had Elektra and Frank been allowed to interact (Frank probably would not be a fan of Elektra being so gleeful about killing people; he kills because he thinks he's justified; she does it because she enjoys it).
And the season suffers because of missed interaction opportunities. Imagine Foggy confronting Elektra about what she did to Matt in law school. Imagine Karen interacting with Elektra. Her approach to handling Frank highlighted a lot about her character, and the same could've also been done through her interacting with Elektra. And would Elektra be ideal to help Karen work through her own lingering guilt over killing Wesley?
Edited by dmcreif on Feb 11th 2022 at 7:55:02 AM
Okey Dokey!