
Rogar Valertis |

Just finished binge watching the whole series.
Three thoughts:
-Absolutely loved the whole series (well, JJ got on my nerves more often than not, I understend where she comes from but I really could not stand her behaviour most of the time, but aside from that, everything was great).
-Shorter season worked very well and kept the action compact.
-The authors did a great job with the supporting cast of each series they felt natural and connected in their roles. Also... crossing my fingers for a "Daughters of the Dragon" series.
-End of episode 6.

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I finished yesterday, and unfortunately Defenders did not do much for me.
I liked the start, and the episodes 3-6. Those really shined for me, being both fun, action-packed and full of good character combos.
Villains- except for Madam Gao- were boring and they wasted Sigourney Weaver in my opinion. Still do not like Elodie Yung as Elektra, even less so as bbeg. All the minion villains were also just boring mooks. I miss the cool ninjas from DD season 2. That would have been so much cooler.
Danny is still irritating little whiner who only thinks about himself. Series best moment was when Luke had "the talk" with him. And the best warrior of K'un Lun still takes a punch bit too easily.
Ending was really anticlimatic. It was just group fist fight against army of mooks and then Elektra for a while.
All the actors though did good job, in my opinion. Especially Charlie Cox & Rosario Dawson. Enjoyed seeing Karen talking with Trish and Misty chatting with Colleen and stuff like that.
Overall, Defenders was not as bad as the Iron Fist, but it still left me majorly disappointed. I wanted more ninjas, more personal and threatening villain plots and the action director from Daredevil.

Rogar Valertis |

I finished yesterday, and unfortunately Defenders did not do much for me.
I liked the start, and the episodes 3-6. Those really shined for me, being both fun, action-packed and full of good character combos.
** spoiler omitted **
-SR had no showings beside being this looming dark superpowerful figure so her death felt anticlimatic, I agree. The other fingers were good although they could have used better showings too, but then we'll have people complaining there was not enough focus on the heroes...
-Elektra was not the BBEG. Notice how she did what she did the very same moment Alexandra ordered her to kill the devil of Hells Kitchen, "whoever he may be". Answer:"His name is Matthew". The point of Elektra in this series and in DD S02, was that she and Matt are the same, people addicted to action and violence and they love each other for that because they can be themselves together. Now, Matt feels guilt about this because of his Catholic upbringing, while Elektra rejects the notion and embraces this aspect of herself. That's very clear in the finale but also throughout the whole series.
-Danny can be irritating but I'd argue he does the exact opposite of "thinking only about himself". He's the one who wants the defenders to work more than anyone else for example. As for his fighting capability I'd argue that he's the most powerful of the Defenders.
-Ending was in many ways a set up for things to come as much as it was very DD focused. And that wasn't a bad thing imo.

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** spoiler omitted **
Even if it would work like that- that is incredibly boring and lazy.
Netflix series so far had really personal villain plots, targeting the people they care about. This is just doomsday scenario in smaller scale, and there was no tension. Of course they are gonna save the city. I wanted something that threatened directly people in Kitchen, Harlem and elsewhere, something that I could really care about because I know WHAT would happen.
- Poor use words- Elektra was the main antagonist. She was the one everyone fought at the end, she was the one who used Danny to open the gate and she did not care who and how many people die in that process. She cared about Matt maybe, but not for anyone else. That is evil.-
- For the most powerful member, he was overpowered, captured and beaten very often. That one Hand leader just used a knife at throat to stop Iron Fist. IRON FIST. And the fact that the all the Iron Fist powers are limited to "punch" is still underwhelming. Yes, I know that he mainly uses it to do that in comics but he also can do ton of other stuff, cool named technics.
- I did not mind that ending, I more meant the ending fight in the pit. It was just a punch fest. I actually liked that they killed Matt for what was almost five minutes. And I look forward to seeing all these characters again. Except maybe for Danny.

Vidmaster7 |

Hama wrote:Honestly I found it dull and uninteresting. It was mostly OK, but dunno. I guess I expected more. My fault.The fight scenes did nothing to wow me, but, I'll admit, fight scenes almost never wow me, but Daredevil season 1 had some brutal and intense fights (that hallway fight!) and it feels like they've never really matched that intensity in any show since, despite, in some cases, seeming to be desperately trying to (including framing very similar fights in hallways).
But, since I don't really get all worked up over fight scenes (only really noticing them when they are spectacular, or kinda lackluster, like in the Iron Fist series), I found lots of cool stuff in the character development, world-building and story arc.
*Some* of the dialogue felt a little too pat, too formulaic, and I vaguely remember one scene in particular where I kind of rolled my eyes as a character dropped a cliché, and I muttered the 'traditional' response, and sure enough, those were the next words out of Luke Cage's mouth. I know, there's only so many words in the English language, and *nothing* is really going to be original, but sometimes the dialogue (and characterization, less often) came off a bit phoned-in and by-the-numbers, like some of the 'NPC' characters were shorthand, and being written less like *people* in their own right.
At least some of that is less a fault of the writing and more a fault with the jaded audience of me, that can't watch (or read) anything these days without being reminded of a hundred other shows (or books) that have used that exact scene or line or characterization bit.
I think I'd enjoy shows and books more if I could turn off my brain and forget every other show and book I'd consumed over the years, and that there are only so many stories to tell (or broad-strokes characters to use)...
All that aside, I liked the stuff I mentioned in the spoilers above, and thought the way they tied stuff together was super clever, despite my all-too-common gift for...
You should do what I do and just let the show wash over you don't break yourself from the false reality by analyzing it until afterwards. I enjoy things far more this way.

Ambrosia Slaad |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I finished watching the last two episodes yesterday evening. I'm sure I was expecting too much out of this miniseries, but still, I found it disappointing. Not Iron Fist terrible, but just mediocre. I was especially disappointed in the dialogue; there's only so much a talented actor can do to elevate flat, obvious, and trite writing. I'm hoping it'll hold up better on a rewatch weeks or months from now.
If you haven't yet, make sure you stick around after the credits of the final episode for a sneak peak.

Hythlodeus |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Oh where do I start. It was an okay show I guess, not terrible, but not on par with the best Marvlix shows either and I feel, a lot of the problems The Defenders had could have been avoided with a longer, more reasonable episode count. The 8 episode stunt didn't do the show any favors.
the show has to assume that not every viewer has seen all of the previous shows and is instantly familiar with the characters, so taking the time to reintroduce them and their universes was absolutely necessary. by episode 2 the characters already teamed up in pairs and the team got together in episode 3. that's a reasonable length for a show like that that also juggled side characters and villains.
but the few episodes that were left were clearly not enough to flesh out the villains, didn't gave the supporting cast much to do and basically cut out, what made the other shows so great: the side plots. instead we were treated with a very simple plot structure and a main plot that didn't make a lot of sense once you start thinking about it. there's were side plots would have helped (taking the focus from the main story a couple of scenes each episodes so that it doesn't get too obvious too quick how nonsensical it is)
some of the best scenes in Defenders were when the supporting charactes of the solo shows mixed up and got to talk to each other, but since there was simply no time for that, those scenes unfortunatley were short and underwritten. and again, made it very obvious how by the numbers those scenes were from a screenwriting point of view ("okay, so we have one scene were Trish talks to Karen in that episode and we put a scene with Coleen and Misty there and then we have Foggy talk to... and so on") If they had spread it out a little or had given them more to do those fanservice scenes would've had a better, more natural flow.
The same goes for the villains and their motivations. The Fingers were... just there. We learned about there existence, we saw them, but what do we know about them other than what was needed to tell a very spefic plot? They had almost no character, except what was given them in earlier shows for those two that we have met before. Therefore the whole threat of the Fingers fell extremely flat. When there's no way to care about them, why should you? (The fact that they also posed no physical threat and that their plan made not much sense didn't help either, but again, with a little more time and little less rush to the great finale, those are things that could've been worked around)
Almost every flaw in the series is a direct result of an episode count that was clearly too low for the story they were trying to tell at a quality we were used to before (except Luke Cage which right now still is the worst show Marvlix released so far)

Vidmaster7 |

Oh where do I start. It was an okay show I guess, not terrible, but not on par with the best Marvlix shows either and I feel, a lot of the problems The Defenders had could have been avoided with a longer, more reasonable episode count. The 8 episode stunt didn't do the show any favors.
the show has to assume that not every viewer has seen all of the previous shows and is instantly familiar with the characters, so taking the time to reintroduce them and their universes was absolutely necessary. by episode 2 the characters already teamed up in pairs and the team got together in episode 3. that's a reasonable length for a show like that that also juggled side characters and villains.
but the few episodes that were left were clearly not enough to flesh out the villains, didn't gave the supporting cast much to do and basically cut out, what made the other shows so great: the side plots. instead we were treated with a very simple plot structure and a main plot that didn't make a lot of sense once you start thinking about it. there's were side plots would have helped (taking the focus from the main story a couple of scenes each episodes so that it doesn't get too obvious too quick how nonsensical it is)
some of the best scenes in Defenders were when the supporting charactes of the solo shows mixed up and got to talk to each other, but since there was simply no time for that, those scenes unfortunatley were short and underwritten. and again, made it very obvious how by the numbers those scenes were from a screenwriting point of view ("okay, so we have one scene were Trish talks to Karen in that episode and we put a scene with Coleen and Misty there and then we have Foggy talk to... and so on") If they had spread it out a little or had given them more to do those fanservice scenes would've had a better, more natural flow.
The same goes for the villains and their motivations. The Fingers were... just there. We learned about there existence, we saw them, but what do we know about them other than what was...
You know I still enjoyed it but you are correct on almost every point. I enjoyed cage more then iron fist is really only thing i could argue on.
I will say when they do defenders season 2 maybe they won't have to cut it short and can focus more on introducing the villains. Get a villain that can actually hurt cage to I felt if all the other ones died cage would of still been kicking.
I felt Elektra was kicking but pretty good at least.
I think danny needs some more martial arts training and they need to push him to a more extreme level of what he does. Also I felt any time Jessica threw a punch that ninja probably shouldn't be getting back up again, but they did.
Still going to be looking forward to the next set.

SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

I liked it OK. I thought it was going to be 13 episodes long, so I was a bit surprised when episodes 7 & 8 started wrapping everything up.
I thought the villainy was a little unclear. I wasn't quite sure what their goals were or why/how it was so dangerous for NYC.
Iron Fist reminded me of Chris Pratt this time around. I think Iron Fist's big issue is his special power is kind of a one-off, and requires a "long rest" to refresh. Everyone else has passive or constant powers.
I really liked all the humor Colleen Wing injected into the series. She was the only one with a sense of humor. The others occasionally said something funny, but she was putting a real effort into it.

Bjørn Røyrvik |
It was a bit on the bad side of OK. They did neatly tie the four characters together and all, but the Hand was kinda lame, just like in DD and IF. I have no idea how IF here relates to the comics, but for someone who is supposed to be just about the best martial artist around he spends a lot of time getting bested by or at least struggling with pretty much everyone. The dragon he supposedly beat must have either thrown the match or been ridiculously weak.
Luke was the only one of the four I actually like. The others are too self-absorbed and manage to make everything about themselves. Jessica is mostly honest about it, at least. Luke was the only one who actually seemed like he's doing this for other people rather than guilt or martyr complex or pride or whatever. Seeing him give Rand shit for being a priviliged whiny snot was fun.
Superstrength was either very carefully avoided or even the mooks of the Hand are ridiculously tough: the sort of strength Cage and Jones can come up with should have seen people coming apart at the seems, and the heroes didn't seem too concerned with taking people alive (nevermind what they promised to do).
In short, it was a show I did some other stuff while watching because it wasn't quite good enough to give 100% attention, but it was just good enough that I bothered to watch it all.

Vidmaster7 |

Most part agreed but Sticks was lecturing Luke about always pulling punches. I think Luke isn't just going all out.
Now Jessica I have a hard time imagining her thinking I better pull this punch so I don't kill this ninja. Of course I don't think she has any real combat training at all its entirely natural abilities. Although I suppose that should mean she should be less good at pulling punches and just splattering ninjas everywhere.

Irontruth |

We probably will see her again. Of all the characters in the netflix series, she's 4th for number of episodes she appears in (the Daredevil main crew beats her out by slightly less than 1 season). If they were going to remove her from plots, this would have been the time to do it, but they didn't. She'll continue to pull strings.

DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |

I finished watching the last two episodes yesterday evening. I'm sure I was expecting too much out of this miniseries, but still, I found it disappointing. Not Iron Fist terrible, but just mediocre. I was especially disappointed in the dialogue; there's only so much a talented actor can do to elevate flat, obvious, and trite writing. I'm hoping it'll hold up better on a rewatch weeks or months from now.
I was struck by how many cliches were thrown into the dialogue. I stared in disbelief as a villain began to do the "we're not so different, you and I" speech. Really? There were some other similar moments of dialogue where it seemed like writers had actually been mining old books/movies for overused lines and making actual effort to cram them into various scenes.
I have a very love-hate relationship with the Marvel Netflix series in general--when they do good they do very very good, but when they're bad they're horrid. There's a lot of interconnectivity of plot, there's a lot beautifully done with theme and setting. I am fine with the action (YMMV). And while they set up characters well, they do often--though not always--poorly with character development, which is crucial.
Especially with all four Defenders together, it's so easy to see how at least Jess, Matt, and Luke, seem to be stuck at the "refusal of the call" step of becoming a hero. Even when they start moving forward, they revert back to it at a moment's notice. While it's understandable to see any number of these characters be reluctant to do what they do for any other reasons, they seldom grow to a place of of embracing who they are and moving on. Luke is in a slightly better place than the other two, but he still seems to have taken a step back from where he was by the end of his own series. Likewise Jessica seemed slightly freer to embrace her own way of helping people at the end of her series, only to see her initially shoving everything away like normal. Matt is the worst at cycling back and forth about where he is in his life and what he wants to be--while grief for Elektra makes some of this understandable, but his personality and growth spins wheels in the worst and most frustrating way. Danny doesn't have the refusal of the call issue--he accepts who he is--his 'his way or the highway' attitudes (often poorly informed and recklessly planned) just make him as frustrating to watch. You can't have characters in a rut like this all the freaking time. Now, I haven't seen the final episodes, but while it may end on a note that shows some character improvement, so far there's really no real growth or development, and they're all stuck in this "I'm too cool to care, I'm too cool to be a hero, I'm too jaded to be affected by this" nonsense that just gets plain old. Watching grown adults constantly act like cliches of disaffected teenagers who never, ever grow up is not fun.
Compare, say, the first season of "Agent Carter" -- whether you like the show or not, I'm using this as an example because it is probably the best example in Marvel TV of a hero having consistent forward movement and growth and acceptance of their life. Peggy starts out desperate to prove herself and to do something useful, while also terrified her activities will hurt those she is close to (and indeed partly because her roommate gets killed). She goes through an organic path of growth -- in 8 episodes no less -- eventually figuring out what she wants, where she stands, and that she needs connection to others even as she fights the good fight, to her personal victory of declaring, "I know my own value, and anyone else's opinion doesn't matter." It resonates because not only was the bad guy defeated and New York saved, but she's had a significant growth arc on several levels. (Compare to Agent Carter season 2 where Peggy's only personal growth arc was "tee hee, which boy do I pick?" and you kind of get why--as much as I loved the show--the series hemorrhaged viewers.)
Weirdly, I think the only characters who have been allowed to have real growth, real change, real improvement in their lives in the Marvel Netflix series has been Karen Page and maybe Misty Knight and Trish Walker. No wonder a lot of folks root for the supporting cast over the heroes.
A character can grow and have personal victories, and then get knocked down a peg and have to pick themselves back up, but there still needs to be forward motion. I think this is why overall people are enjoying a given MarvelNetflix show less over time, because they don't know how to make forward motion happen, so we get sort of different takes on the same story over and over and over again. There are good moments of victory in the show--and there is a lot I like about this show and the others in spite of my kvetching--but tires get spun a LOT character growth wise and I think that makes viewers struggle with how they feel about various outcomes.
PS:
Response to upthread: I would watch a Madame Gao series. She's awesome.

Browman |

I think part of my problem was how bad the fingers of the hand were, it was never really established how they had managed to stay on top of a vast criminal enterprise. For a group of "immortal" bad guys they seemed weak and incompetent, hung up on concerns about why individual minions left them or investing resources into Elektra despite evidence that she wasn't the super weapon they hoped.

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While the character of Alexandra has not gotten much love (unlike the actress, herself, Sigourney Weavers seems quite popular), I kind of like how focused she was on the history she'd seen. She wasn't just name-dropping to be name-dropping (except she was doing that, too), but also speaking as to her own impending sense of mortality every time she admired an old painting, or tasted an old familiar dish, or listened to an old recording.
I got the real sense that she had lived a long time, not just sat in the center of a web plotting plots, but actually *lived* (drunk deep from the cup of life, and all that) and that, on some level, she knew it was all crumbling down.
It seemed to me, and I don't know if this was ever really stated on-screen, that 'the substance' wasn't going to fix what was wrong with her this time, that she was really on her way out, and that she saw the Black Sky less as a weapon, and more as a surrogate child, or legacy.
She managed to combine resignation, frailty, acceptance, into a powerful and kind of graceful role.

Hythlodeus |

Hythlodeus wrote:Almost every flaw in the series is a direct result of an episode count that was clearly too low for the story they were trying to tell at a quality we were used to before (except Luke Cage which right now still is the worst show Marvlix released so far)Say.
WHAT?
a higher episode count could've been used to eliminate most of the problems this show had

thejeff |
Freehold DM wrote:a higher episode count could've been used to eliminate most of the problems this show hadHythlodeus wrote:Almost every flaw in the series is a direct result of an episode count that was clearly too low for the story they were trying to tell at a quality we were used to before (except Luke Cage which right now still is the worst show Marvlix released so far)Say.
WHAT?
I suspect the reaction was more to the "Luke Cage is the worst show" part.

Hythlodeus |

Hythlodeus wrote:I suspect the reaction was more to the "Luke Cage is the worst show" part.Freehold DM wrote:a higher episode count could've been used to eliminate most of the problems this show hadHythlodeus wrote:Almost every flaw in the series is a direct result of an episode count that was clearly too low for the story they were trying to tell at a quality we were used to before (except Luke Cage which right now still is the worst show Marvlix released so far)Say.
WHAT?
well, opinions may differ, but I can't say it had any redeeming factor except Cottonmouth

MMCJawa |

I binged it on friday. Not sure if it lived up to the hype, but it wasn't bad. The characters were mostly consistent to their established characterization from their own series, and the action was a bit improved from Iron Fist. Murdoch was actually a lot more likable this time around than he was in DD season 2. Iron Fist I think is still being pitched as a bit too dark and angsty a character for my preference, but at least there was a scene or too where he didn't get to join the broodfest.
I get the complaints on the villains...they to me never seemed that dangerous, other than maybe Elektra. It would have also been nice to have them be a bit more diverse in their abilities. Madame Gao and her telekinetic attacks were the only things that stood out. But I would guess that is as much to do with the the shows budget as it is anything else. IN fact I would say this (and Iron Fist) were the series that really reminded the viewer that these shows are working with a "Made for TV" budget.

Rogar Valertis |

While the character of Alexandra has not gotten much love (unlike the actress, herself, Sigourney Weavers seems quite popular), I kind of like how focused she was on the history she'd seen. She wasn't just name-dropping to be name-dropping (except she was doing that, too), but also speaking as to her own impending sense of mortality every time she admired an old painting, or tasted an old familiar dish, or listened to an old recording.
I got the real sense that she had lived a long time, not just sat in the center of a web plotting plots, but actually *lived* (drunk deep from the cup of life, and all that) and that, on some level, she knew it was all crumbling down.
It seemed to me, and I don't know if this was ever really stated on-screen, that 'the substance' wasn't going to fix what was wrong with her this time, that she was really on her way out, and that she saw the Black Sky less as a weapon, and more as a surrogate child, or legacy.
She managed to combine resignation, frailty, acceptance, into a powerful and kind of graceful role.
** spoiler omitted **

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2 people marked this as a favorite. |

Set, I agree they did a good job portraying Alexandra as long lived, but they didn't do a good job of making her seem dangerous.
Eh. I feel like she came across at least as threatening as Wilson Fisk (who also came off almost sympathetic, with his childhood and insecurities), and he seemed popular enough, despite also not showing off any kewl super-powerz. (Or, frankly, needing them to come across as a credible threat, since he wasn't going to wreck Daredevil's life by *punching him.*)
Different strokes.
I definitely think that Sowande and Murakami needed more 'show, don't tell.' Sowande was *said* to have some awesome ability to kill people with a touch, through chi manipulation or pressure points or whatever, but I sure didn't see a whole lot of that. And Nabu's boss got set up as the ultimate hunter, who'd spent his immortal life hunting down apex predators all over the planet, possibly with his bare hands, and, pfft, whole lotta nuthin.'
Big, big hat. Little to no cat.

DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I think you can tell a good story in 8 episodes, especially when said episodes are a full hour long. In fact, I like short series because often it forces writers to eliminate useless fluff. I think these particular writers don't know how to handle pacing well enough to do that fully successfully.
Agree with the sentiment that they did not establish just exactly why Alexandra was supposed to be so terrifying. Sigourney Weaver did an amazing job of giving her an intimidating persona, but she had to do the heavy lifting because the writing wasn't there to back it up. They wasted time showing her listening to string quartets when they could have been showing just what exactly it was that made her the fearless leader she was supposed to be.
I'm complaining a lot, so let me say some complimentary stuff...
I loved how useful Jessica's detective skills were. It would be easy to emphasize her powers, but I loved that her "real power" was her investigative skills. She had a savvy the others didn't and it was useful.
I liked how all the background characters act as the glue for keeping everything together.
Danny and Luke's friendship grew relatively organically. I know they're supposed to be best buds in the comics (isn't Luke and Jessica's daughter named for Danny?), so it was cool to have them build them up and do it fairly well--both with bumps in the road as well as moments of camaraderie.
I for one like most of the fight scenes. I'm not a specific genre fan when it comes to fight scenes so I don't have a specific set of expectations on how they should be.

SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

I think everyone in the MCU has to twig to the idea that they can negotiate to get a lot more money from Danny Rand's bribes. 6 months rent? That restaurant owner should have gotten a year's rent. Minimum. I'm consistently surprised people don't pull a Dewey on him (in Malcolm in the Middle, the youngest kid paid for a pizza by asking the pizza delivery guy if 2 credit cards were enough. "Better make it 3..." was the response). :-D

Beercifer |

I like it, sans Danny's portrayal. The actor that plays him...why in the hell would someone cast *him* in a role of a martial artist? I'm still furious over that decision, not even looking at his heritage, he sucks as someone who the rest of the Marvelverse is supposed to admire for his (drum pause) fighting skills.
I understand, I need to calm down on this. But he is the worst part of the series, to me. He *is* redeemable, mainly if he stops being an actor and actually goes through a few years of martial arts training.
That's unrealistic, Bruce.
Well, so is my other hope he gets on a frigging Ritchie Valens plane and it peters into a mountainside.
OMG, that's mean.
Well, we have a literal half-pleasing series, three of four solo series which are watchable at worst, and one gimp martial artist.
Hopefully, The Punisher will not have any Danny Rand in it.

Freehold DM |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I like it, sans Danny's portrayal. The actor that plays him...why in the hell would someone cast *him* in a role of a martial artist? I'm still furious over that decision, not even looking at his heritage, he sucks as someone who the rest of the Marvelverse is supposed to admire for his (drum pause) fighting skills.
I understand, I need to calm down on this. But he is the worst part of the series, to me. He *is* redeemable, mainly if he stops being an actor and actually goes through a few years of martial arts training.
That's unrealistic, Bruce.
Well, so is my other hope he gets on a frigging Ritchie Valens plane and it peters into a mountainside.OMG, that's mean.
Well, we have a literal half-pleasing series, three of four solo series which are watchable at worst, and one gimp martial artist.
Hopefully, The Punisher will not have any Danny Rand in it.
yikes.
And this is me talking.

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I like it, sans Danny's portrayal. The actor that plays him...why in the hell would someone cast *him* in a role of a martial artist? I'm still furious over that decision, not even looking at his heritage, he sucks as someone who the rest of the Marvelverse is supposed to admire for his (drum pause) fighting skills.
I understand, I need to calm down on this. But he is the worst part of the series, to me.
I don't have a problem with the actor, or the actor's fighting skills, per se, but rather the way that the shows are treating him. Granted, I'm going off of like 20 year old memories of a character I wasn't really overly interested in, but I remember Iron fist being a lot more wise, smart, patient, and spiritual. It was actually Iron Fist that displayed a lot of the character attributes that they have given to Luke Cage, such as caring about how their actions would affect "the little guy", or the streets, and being caught between moral ramifications.
The shows, both Iron Fist, but even worse in Defenders seems really undecided on if he is supposed to be one of the best martial artists in the world(s) or a guy that got lucky a few times back in the day and is more undeservedly cocky from it. I don't think it has anything to do with the actor, but that there just seems to be a lot of different ideas on what the character is supposed to be, ranging from the damsel in distress to the spoiled brat (wtf?) to the wise beyond his years master, but ultimately, we are being told, and never shown.
I also don't really remember him having so much trouble with building/maintaining his chi in order to use or keep the Iron Fist as the shows keep doing, where it's more of a plot point than a part of his character.

DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

On Iron Fist... I find the character often frustrating. I have no issue with the actor, especially given the material he is handed (he has to sell some ridiculous lines and I think he does as well as anyone could). The character's ego is a problem (and I don't think a good meditative/martial artist type should actually have much ego--that's what the meditation is supposed to be for). He seldom listens to others (with some exceptions, like his trying to "suit" approach when Luke reminded him he has other kinds of power to wield). He is generally disrespectful to people who have done nothing to earn disrespect. It felt good, I admit, during the scene to watch the other three take him down and capture him. But if he hadn't been so pigheaded, they wouldn't have needed to do that. I hate it when the plot is enabled by someone just being so ridiculously stubborn even when it's obvious to the world they're wrong.
Oh god... I just realized... Danny really IS the MCU's Arrow.
All that said, I think he works overall with the rest of the group. I'd watch a Defenders 2 if they get together again faster and the plot doesn't hinge on him.
I'd like to see the rest of them show up in each other's lives more as well. I liked Luke and Jessica in JJ (and I didn't want to... I wasn't interested in a love interest story, though that certainly went interesting places)... and I'd like to see more of them. Yes, I know Luke is seeing Claire right now. I believe Claire is also aware of his and JJ's past though (after all, the first time she saved his life, he was in JJ's bed). JJ and Matt were actually kind of an amazing team--that is a series I'd watch all day. There's some really great potential in here and I worry they are going to pass it over for more, "Oh but my two lives divide me and wah" and "I'm too cool to be a superhero" and blah blah blah.

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The character's ego is a problem (and I don't think a good meditative/martial artist type should actually have much ego--that's what the meditation is supposed to be for).
While I agree in general, the specific uselessness of the meditation he (and Davos) was taught in K'un-Lun gets called out by Claire in his own series. He hasn't been taught to reflect or accept or move through anything, just to stuff it down when he's angry or frustrated.
He's been taught to always moving ahead, letting the bad stuff accumulate and never actually dealing with anything, emotionally, and that seems to be part of the way K'un-Lun keeps their 'living weapons' all lean and dangerous, on a permanent hair-trigger (and unlikely to ever deeply reflect on how one-sided their 'kill all the Hand' mission is). Unfortunately, while the idea was introduced, it was never fleshed out. (In theory, it would be during a visit to K'un-Lun, where someone called out his old teachers on their manipulative crap, but that hasn't happened yet, and may never happen...)
So, while it's annoying as heck, it's at least part of the plotline that Danny's a mess, psychologically, and hasn't got any useful or healthy coping mechanisms, since he's been trained to just ignore anything that bothers him, and, like Davos, explodes into anger at the drop of a hat.
Oh god... I just realized... Danny really IS the MCU's Arrow.
Ha! Or Barry, for that matter. 'Don't mess up the timestream. Don't mess up the timestream. I can't mess up the timestream. Oh screw it, Imma mess up the timestream...'

DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |

Are we getting any more Marvel shows with Netflix and Disney breaking up?
The latest, official, non-rumor based news I've seen is Marvel and Star Wars stays at Netflix "for now." At the same time, they seem to have severed any future working relationships.
Therefore, I would presume, taking this with the grain of salt that it is sheer speculation, anything upcoming that Disney licensed with Netflix that is in process at Netflix already, e.g., the Punisher, will also be on Netflix. However, that anything NEW would be produced directly by Disney for the new streaming channel that Disney is setting up.
And that moreover, given that the whole point of Disney's ending its relationship with Netflix is that it wanted to do its own streaming service, no, it will not mean the end of Marvel shows on the Internet, just they would end up on Disney's new streaming site. What that MEANS for Marvel streaming shows is up to be imagined, as it's unknown if, say, Disney is as willing to be as gritty as Netflix, and if that would change the tone of the programming.
DeathQuaker wrote:The character's ego is a problem (and I don't think a good meditative/martial artist type should actually have much ego--that's what the meditation is supposed to be for).While I agree in general, the specific uselessness of the meditation he (and Davos) was taught in K'un-Lun gets called out by Claire in his own series. He hasn't been taught to reflect or accept or move through anything, just to stuff it down when he's angry or frustrated. (snip)
Then a good future plot for Danny would be for him to seek out a new mentor to teach him things like how to meditate correctly. (I.e., find tools that help him accept his suffering but also move on from it and let it flow away from him over time.) But that would require Danny to recognize a personal deficiency and then to ask for help of his own accord...
Oh god... I just realized... Danny really IS the MCU's Arrow.
Ha! Or Barry, for that matter. 'Don't mess up the timestream. Don't mess up the timestream. I can't mess up the timestream. Oh screw it, Imma mess up the timestream...'
In a broader sense of naivete and making the same mistakes over... but Danny really has the same background and everything as TV Oliver: spoiled rich kid, gets stranded and trained by mysterious martial artist(s) for many years, learns to speak Mandarin, then returns home to (eventually) avenge fallen family members and badly try to run his business, meanwhile collecting allies that are more competent and sane than he is and failing to properly appreciate them, and stubbornly refusing help when he needs it most because plot. It's like the writers just watched lots of Arrow and said, "Okay, if we make it punching instead of arrows, no one will notice if we mostly steal this wholesale."
I mean, in the Defenders, they even made his signature color green.

thejeff |
And that moreover, given that the whole point of Disney's ending its relationship with Netflix is that it wanted to do its own streaming service, no, it will not mean the end of Marvel shows on the Internet, just they would end up on Disney's new streaming site. What that MEANS for Marvel streaming shows is up to be imagined, as it's unknown if, say, Disney is as willing to be as gritty as Netflix, and if that would change the tone of the programming.
Ah, so what it means is that if I want to watch Marvel shows, I'll need to subscribe to yet another streaming service.

DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |

DeathQuaker wrote:And that moreover, given that the whole point of Disney's ending its relationship with Netflix is that it wanted to do its own streaming service, no, it will not mean the end of Marvel shows on the Internet, just they would end up on Disney's new streaming site. What that MEANS for Marvel streaming shows is up to be imagined, as it's unknown if, say, Disney is as willing to be as gritty as Netflix, and if that would change the tone of the programming.Ah, so what it means is that if I want to watch Marvel shows, I'll need to subscribe to yet another streaming service.
If indeed Disney eventually puts Marvel shows on its own service. Reminder that some of what I said is speculation and all we know for sure is Disney has cancelled various agreements with Netflix and is starting its own service. But, for right now, the Marvel shows are still on Netflix and we don't know what the future will be.

MMCJawa |

I don't think I would be worried about Disney axing any stable relationship between Marvel and Netflix. For starters...Netflix isn't even the only streaming service developing a Marvel series, what with Runaways on Hulu. Marvel folks have also said in the past that resource wise they have to spread out. Netflix is pretty much at full capacity for what Marvel shows they can produce, which is why you are seeing Inhumans with AoS on ABC, Cloak and Dagger on Freeform, and Runaways on Hulu. If these were all brought into Disney some of them would have to be cut.
I also don't know if it makes a whole lot of sense to bring the Netflix MCU crew onto the Disney channel. Presumably Disney's service is going to heavily cater to kids and teens. The theatrical MCU movies would probably work well with that audience. But Netflix MCU really doesn't meld well with that, but does with more adult fare like Narcos, Orange is the New Black, etc on Netflix.
I personally feel we are already getting to the point where there are too many streaming services, and a service needs to either offer me some stellar perks (yay free shipping on Amazon Prime!) or a ton of content (Netflix, Hulu). I'm not subscribing to CBS all access for just star trek, and no way am I subscribing to a Disney channel for a hypothetical Moon Knight series.

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Finished it last night. I thought was just ok. It needed some more explaining in spots. I also did'nt like the 2 fights edited together, hard to tell what was going on.
A theory:

Orville Redenbacher |

There needs to be a mega streaming service that streams all the other streaming services.
lol. Its funny how folks wanted so badly to have a la carte viewing and now want it all back in one buffet. Folks starting to learn that cutting the cord isn't ending up any cheaper unless you are disciplined enough to rotate your subscriptions.