Way back in the summer of 2018, in the lead-up to Iron Fist season 2, I started writing a series of posts providing commentary on the entirety of season 1. It ended up being a much bigger project than I’d anticipated, and I didn’t finish in time; I got through eight episodes before season 2 hit, and then the cancellation happened. I tried to re-start the project a few times after that, but couldn’t find the heart to do it.
However, it was announced a few weeks ago that Netflix would be dropping all of the Marvel shows at the end of February when the character rights reverted to Disney, which gave me a deadline (I have Iron Fist season 1 on DVD, of course, but it’s, uh…much easier to screenshot Netflix). I realized I finally felt ready– and excited again– to finish this thing up for real. The show is gone from Netflix as of today (and will be moving to Disney+), but I did manage to get my research done before it left. I will be posting my commentary on episodes 9-13 intermittently over what will probably be the next few months. You can find the earlier installments of this project (covering episodes 1-8) in my Netflix IF Analysis tag.
Now, let’s get into it.
Episode 9 is a stand-out episode for Madame Gao, who is one of my favorite MCU-specific characters and really shines in Iron Fist. She is just fun– sharp, cocky, hilarious, and disarming in a way that makes her extremely dangerous. A major thing happened at the end of the previous episode: Danny received solid evidence that his parents’ deaths were murder, and that Madame Gao was somehow involved. With that huge bombshell, he is now falling deeper and deeper into the depths of his own repressed trauma, hurtling with dangerous abandon toward what will become the realization of his revenge quest, and Gao is starting to understand this. She offered what I interpreted to be a mostly bogus, self-serving psychoanalysis of Danny way back in the aftermath of the Grand Duel, but even if she genuinely wasn’t clear on his motivations then, she is now.
Gao is a great bluffer, and we get some hints that she might actually be just a teeny bit nervous here, but by this point she also sees what Danny does not yet, which is reflected in her calm demeanor. She has been captured by the Iron Fist, flown back to New York (what must that plane ride have been like?! We were robbed, I think, a little, by not getting to see any of that) and yet she appears completely relaxed because she knows that Danny is too twisted up inside to be dangerous. She is even enjoying it. She baits him, daring him to lose control, seemingly curious to see just how far his rage will take him (foreshadowing, foreshadowing~!). And while Danny is still in control, channeling his anger into intimidation tactics, he’s clearly holding back with some difficulty.
Colleen and Claire, in contrast, are not able to read Danny’s emotional state nearly as accurately (or at least…aren’t as intrigued by it as Gao) and are understandably upset.
defenders is just matt being down bad for his girl and adamant that he can fix her psychotic ways and the rest of them bullying him for it and i love it
[ID: “A movie theater full of various characters from the Marvel Netflix series in a dark theater, every character colored in various shades of blue except for the defenders, who are bathed in orange where they sit in the middle. Along their cups and drinks is written “DDE 2022 NY Fan Week”“ - Row One: Dinah Madani, Betsy Beatty, Melvin "The Gladiator” Potter, Bobby Fish - Row Two: Jeri Hogarth, Malcolm Ducasse, Patricia “Hellcat” Walker, Elektra Natchios, Misty Knight - Row Three: Coleen Wing, Danny “Iron Fist” Rand, Jessica “Jewel” Jones, Matt “Daredevil” Murdock, Luke “Powerman” Cage, Claire Temple - Row Four: Brett Mahoney, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Frank Castle, Turk Barrett. End ID]
Big thanks to @wellofhavoc for the banner, and to Iithril for the Photoshop Magic (your admin’s efforts were, uh, well, um ;-)
Under the cut, the BADGES - for participation, AND for the EXTRA participants (6 and more works, posted together or separately)!
A Matt Badge!
A Jess Badge!
A Danny Badge!
A Luke Badge!
A Frank Badge!
And now for the Extra Badges, for those of you who have created at least 6 different pieces collages, chapters, fics, art, etc - and they don’t have to be all posted separately either!
