#hoping for a wild combat with no perma deaths

[awildofnothing]

Very pumped for tonight’s episode- probably the one I’ve been most excited for since before the solstice.

There have been waves of grumbling and judgement from all sides about the characters’ and players’ responses to god-affiliated and anti-god factions. I’m loving all of it, and to me that just means the plot is successful- all of this discussion is what a PC would be wading through trying to figure out the best way to act.

[windmilltothestars]

I finally finished the Defenders today!  Time for some spoiler-tastic Scattered Impressions and Questions and Whatnot under the cut.

-K’un-Lun.  We know it’s gone somehow, but has it actually been massacred, or just the portal is inaccessible?  Elektra claims to have killed everyone there, but she might have just been saying that to get Danny riled enough to activate the Iron Fist.  I’d like to think it’s still out there and Danny will be able to go back at some point and talk to his old friends, possibly explain things to them, but who knows?  If he’s taking over vigilantism from Matt, New York’s his priority, and probably still THINKS there’s nothing left there because of Elektra’s claims, even if they WERE false.

-Elektra.  Augh.  I can’t get myself to like her.  I think it’s very noble and and shows great heart and loyalty for Matt to never give up trying to save her and find the good in her, but - I couldn’t see it, man.  Like in the beginning she was totally brainwashed and that was more understandable that he was trying to get her to go back to herself, but when she broke free and still wanted to murder everyone and support the Hand’s goals?  Unless there was lingering brainwashing nonsense, I just gotta say -- Matty, she’s not good for you.  Unclear if she survived, but I’m not necessarily looking forward to her return 

-Murakami was by far my favorite Hand boss.  Not even sure particularly why, just his continual snarky disregard for Alexandra, the fact that he only ever spoke his native Japanese and always tried to fight alone - it showed a kind of endearing pride and independence and arrogance that I found deeply entertaining. He was introduced dissecting a bear he had hunted and killed in hand-to-hand combat for kicks, and he lost pretty much every fight because fought alone people got the drop on him, but I loved him.  He got impaled and had a building fall on him, but with those Hand guys, you never know how much it takes for perma-death, so I can hope he’ll be back.  I felt like he showed a lot more actual personality than his lieutenant, Nobu, even if he got off worse in fights.  The rest of them I could take or leave.  I liked Sowande and Bakuto OK, nothing special, was generally annoyed/creeped out by Alexandra, and would be almost sorry to see Madame Gao go after all this time, as her enigmatic menace has been here since season one of Daredevil.  It’s likelier that she survived that collapse than Murakami, if either did.  

-I know next to nothing about Heroes for Hire or Daughters of the Dragon, but I’m here for them. I thought Luke and Danny’s friendship was gold, and Colleen and Misty were getting there.  I think it’s possible Luke and Jessica will get back together, after that last scene.  Luke and Claire seem solid, like, practically-married solid, and I wouldn’t want to rob either Luke or Claire of one thing going right for them, but - I don’t know, man.  Luke and Jessica are a happily-married superhero family with a child in the comics, I hear.  And that would be adorable.  We shall see, we shall see.  Jess deserves something going right for her, too.  I definitely want Danny to stay with Colleen, though, and not randomly get paired with Misty in the name of comics-accuracy.  She seemed so much older than him, and his dynamic with Colleen is sweet and solid.

-On the other hand, I could consider Jess with Matt, and their snarky frienship was really entertaining and refreshing.  I think ultimately I prefer them as just friends as well, but of course that’s what I used to say (and sometimes still do) about Matt and Karen.  I would definitely have to use the ship name “Mess” for them, and there dynamic was fun and sweet in that after a fashion, they stopped judging each other and worked as respectful team unit, with more affectionate banter.  But nah, I’ll hold out wild crazy out-there longshot hope that Matt gets together with Natasha Romanoff, just because.  I need to stop with my internal shipping wars because it’s going to get silly, and I’ll probably revert back to my lingering sentiment for season one Matt with Claire and Karen with Foggy, which opens up more messes with Luke and Marci and things, so -- let’s end this.

-Matt’s not dead, but his friends think he’s dead and he’s probably going to meet his mother, and season 3 is being hinted to cover the famous arc of “Born Again” - which I have not read, but intend to, and know a bit of the gist of.  I REALLY want Matt to tell his friends he’s not dead as soon as he can, because it would be a jerk move not to, but Punisher season 1 is coming out before Daredevil season 3, and Karen is in Punisher and I can’t really imagine her just getting a call from Matt all “Hey, I’m not dead” when it’s not his show and she’s dealing with other things.  So storytelling timeline-wise, it might be inevitable to postpone, which sucks. Or maybe he lets her know he’s not dead but doesn’t come back to town for a while so she won’t worry about him or mourn for him but she can do whatever she does on Punisher anyway.  Or maybe he can’t access any way to contact his friends for a long time?  Or maybe he has amnesia?  I’m grasping here, I don’t know.  I just don’t want another huge Matt’s Friends Are Justifiably Mad At Him fiasco.  I was SO HAPPY to see how NICE and SUPPORTIVE Foggy was being in Defenders.  He supports him not-Daredevilling and doesn’t judge, and then supports him doing it again when it’s inevitable and necessary, and they HUG and he just wants to HELP him.  Karen confused me and slightly annoyed me in one scene, but hopefully her talk with Trish got her thinking about Matt differently.  If she’s still an ally to Punisher I have faith she will still be one to Matt in the future.

-Stick is dead for realsies it seems.  I’m not gonna lie, I utterly loathed Stick after season 1 of Daredevil, but I was forced with great resistance to gain a measure of extremely grudging respect for him in season 2 and in Defenders.  Even if he was going to kill Danny and ultimately allowed him to be captured.  He joins a troublingly expanding list of MCU characters I initially hated but was later forced to sort-of respect -- along with Yondu, Ward Meachum, Hope Pym -- but the strength of both the dislike and the eventual respect is perhaps strongest with Stick.  Man, what a jerk.  I hate him.  I don’t hate him.  I respect him but still hate him.  I don’t know.  He’s dead.  I’m sure he’s been resigned to his death for most of his life.  Rest in peace, you child-murdering punk. 

- I freaking ADORED the lighting design of the first few episodes where every character and their scene was continually bathed in their theme color -- Red for Matt, blue/purple for Jess, yellow for Luke and green/muted turquoises for Danny. Like, it just did it for me.  I loved the lighting designs with just the symbolism of the red in season one of Daredevil, so the expansion was just beautiful.  Also the revelation that Matt can play the piano a little bit (playing a few chords of the theme tune)?  Man, I gotta do something with that in fic!

-Obviously, you know, out of the Defenders I’m the biggest fan of Daredevil.  I like all of them, but Matt is just my dude.  I’m most defensive of Danny, probably, because he is a puppy and he needs it the most, but they all shone in their respective areas, and their team dynamic was just getting good when it ended.  I wanted them to act as a team MORE, but I suppose this was more of Defenders Assemble and they’ll be more united in future seasons, if those exist.  I wanted to explore different character dynamics, though, between them all.  And the fact that they ALL knew Claire!  We got a lot of Danny and Luke and a lot of Matt and Jessica.  We got a little Jessica and Luke and very little Matt and Danny.  And we got next to no Matt and Luke or Jessica and Danny.  Anyway, they should all eat more meals together and hang out and be friends and have a “Yay we beat the Hand” party but I don’t suppose that will happen now they all think Matt’s dead.

-It was crazy, sometimes-disturbing action-packed, snarky ride, but I had a lot fun with it.  I was obsessed with it, really, and chafed at waiting for the next episode with my parents, so impatient and hungry for it I spoiled most of the major plot points for myself beforehand.  But ah well.  It was still awesome to see how it came together.  If you count how many time I mentioned season one of Daredevil here, you can probably tell I still love it the best of all the Marvel Netflix things, but Defenders was full of heart and soul and humor and worth every second.