Marvel's Iron Fist

If there's anything I do take issue about with that flashback fight, it's, did the producers forget to give Finn Jones hair extensions? Because Danny would have had longer hair back then and not this new shorter-hair look he's had since sometime between Iron Fist season 1 and The Defenders.

The cold never bothered me anyway

I also noticed this; they probably simply forgot. Sometimes I do miss those curls he used to have back in season 1 though.

Edited by clockworkboy on Sep 13th 2018 at 6:48:16 AM

Tis the great art of life to manage well The restless mind

I am still confused about Danny having a beard. It look so..un monk like.

Hey, so, for those of you who are watching, is this season worth it? I'm on the fence about it because of the first season. What do you guys think of this one so far?

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Sep 14th 2018 at 9:36:32 AM

Depends on what you expect. The second season has better fighting, better editing, a better score, it is pretty much better on every technical level except maybe camera work (the first season had some shots which were downright artsy, though they tended to get ruined by the choppy editing...the camera work in the second season has still a few interesting angles, but is still a little bit more pedestrian imho).

It also did an excellent job with Danny's arc and I enjoyed all the new characters it introduced.

On the flip-side it feels a little bit like a transitional season and it lacks the batshit crazy moments and some of the humour of the first season, at least until the last five minutes.

And if your issues had anything to do with Danny's mighty whitey status, well, you should be pleased with season 2.

The things that bothered me with the first season were more the story, the pacing, and Danny's character in his entirety. Luke Cage Season 2 made the character a bit more bearable, but even then, not by much. It's good to see they improved the fighting and editing, though.

Story is improved in my opinion. Danny is a bit annoying but I get the sense the show realizes that and is setting up for him to be a more interesting character. The pacing is much better because this is a 10 episode season. I think this is the first Netflix show that didn't really drag.

I'm not sure my opinion holds much weight as someone who had no problems with the first season but I honestly kind of like season one more. Don't get me wrong, this season was good but it was a bit too dark at times for my case compared to the lighter tone of the first season.

Well, I never thought that Danny was annoying in the first place and I actually disliked the Danny bashing The Defenders did quite a bit, but I'll say that Danny is now a more balanced character, especially towards the end. And a very considerate boy friend. He and Colleen are just cute together. They are naturally not as adorable as Fitzsimmons (but then, what is), or as complex as the relationship between Cloak and Dagger or as epic heart-breaking as the love between Peggy and Steve, but they are easily my favourite Netflix couple. Not that this is a high hurdle to jump.

It really depends on what about Danny bugged you in the first place. I don't see any of his hardcore critics changing their mind about him, at least not by much, but if you were just normally critical of his portrayal in season 1 then I think you'll have a more positive opinion of him this time around.

Season 2 in general is just plain better though.

I do think some people are STILL not over the "whitewashing" controversy, and nothing will ever sway these people.

Speaking of which, I wonder how they'll work the Sequel Hook into season 3. Something tells me that season 3 will pick up before that scene with the chi guns and we'll see Danny and Ward at a few of their earlier stops, rather than pick up with the chi gun scene.

The cold never bothered me anyway

I hope you are right, but I kind of fear that we will skip all the cool stuff.

People who call the whole discussion a "white washing controversy" aren't appeaseable anyway (since no white washing whatsoever has happened, which is why I was referring to the actual core issue, the Mighty White aspect, instead).

It'd be interesting if Danny got Orson Randall's Book of the Iron Fist as well. Because IIRC, that included techniques on how to power up both fists, or how to harness chi into weapons like guns. I think the bowl that was part of Davos' ritual to steal Danny's chi was also indirectly from Orson Randall, given who Ernst Erskine was.

Edited by dmcreif on Sep 15th 2018 at 2:05:42 PM

The cold never bothered me anyway

I wonder if they will introduce other hidden cities next season.

Frankly, at this point I am more excited about the notion of Iron Fist season 3 than any of the other Netflix shows, but I fear, I am expecting too much. I actually want to see Iron Fist out in the world, but Netflix will never spring the money for that, so they will find a reason to put him back to New York.

The tournament of the Seven Celestial Cities is nothing too impossible for netflix though. You just need about 5-10 settings like the one they had this season for Danny vs Davos (and the corridor/rooms used for the other K'un-Lun scenes, which makes 2). It's nothing too out of the ordinary. If they really want to skimp on money they can bare it down to about three or four settings by having all the fights of the tournament in a single set.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Mmm...maybe they could actually SAVE money by making a whole season about the tournament. I mean, shooting in New York is expensive after all, shooting on a set it much cheaper.

Is there enough material for that? I don't want every episode to just be X vs Y. That could work for two or three but an entire season would probably drag.

Well, worked for Naruto. You just have to get a little bit more creative than just having x vs x, you can have different challenges the contenders have to meet first (which would also give the audience the opportunity to get to know the core contenders), you can have cheating and intrigues, there are a lot of ways to make something like this engaging.

Yes. The Seven Celestial Cities arc is actually much less about the tournament itself than about the politics surrounding the tournament. The main plot is actually about how K'un-Lun's archaic traditions starting to break down as a popular uprising is in the making and Rand has to quickly figure out whose side he (and everyone else) is on in the rapidly approaching civil war brewing in K'un-Lun. The tournament itself is just the boiling point of those tensions.

Besides that whole shebang we also: Steel Serpent (Davos), now a champion for another of the seven cities, confronting and dealing with his father Lei-Kung the Thunderer and their complex relationships, the mysterious Prince of Orphans (another of the Seven champions) and his machinations, and outside of K'un-Lun, a HYDRA agent attempts to take over Rand enterprises and ultimately the Seven Cities themselves.

The follow-up miniseries called "Immortal Weapons" (six issues, each about one of the other Seven Immortal Weapons aside from Danny) also explored a lot the other Six weapons and their backstory, which could be worked into the narrative. Particular attention goes to Fat Cobra and Dog Brother N#1.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

I recently got a collected version of The Immortal Iron Fist. I think it's issues 1-16. Does that include the Capital Cities arc or does that happen later? I know Orson Randall appears in the book I have.

I think that encapsulates the entire Seven Celestial Cities arc, yes. Issue 16 would be actually the start of another arc, more specifically The 8th City arc.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

BTW, what exactly happened to K'un-Lun? When Danny went back is was just gone. Not ruins, just gone.

You lost!

In the comics, when the tournament of the Seven Cities starts, all Seven (K'un-Lun among them) are removed from their usual plane of existence to stand conjoined in some sort of shared plane so the tournament can take place. It's why the tournament is regularly scheduled (this whole dimensional fusion shebang only happens once every few centuries). When the tournament ends, the cities return to their usual realms.

I'm guessing the alignment of the seven cities already began and that's why K'un-Lun wasn't there.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

I haven't watched season one since it first came out but didn't that end with Danny and Colleen finding a bunch of dead members of The Hand when they went to K'un-Lun? Wikipedia says they found the gate was closed and dead Hand members but that's kind of vague. If that really was setup for the tournament arc you'd think Davos and Danny would know about the tournament and what it entails even if they don't know when it's happening but Defenders starts with Danny and Colleen trying to find out what happened to K'un-Lun and Davos acts like it's been destroyed this season. Now if it is setup then we can assume that Dany and Davos don't know about the tournament for some reason which is bad because it makes both of them look dumb and in turn ruins the ending to season one (since it means that gut punch was all for nothing) and kills some of Davos's motivations (since aside from his entitlement he's also upset at Danny putting K'un-Lun in danger, which if it disappeared due to the tournament, Danny didn't).

That said, a good tournament arc is always fun and I'd be down for it even with the story issues I mentioned.

If we're doing the tournament, I just wanna meet Fat Cobra. I've heard nothing but good things 'bout this dude, and I hope they do him justice.

One Strip! One Strip!