The big thing that exculpates her at the moment for me is that, without a city of her own and her own champion, there's really no obvious reason to use the Crane Mother. Also, Gao, for all her criminal enterprises, seems a lot more benign than the Crane Mother…

Yu-Ti, specifically, has been described both as immortal and also a hereditary title. We know Lei Kung, however, has been alive for centuries, having trained around a dozen previous Iron Fists as well, confirmed as far back as the 1600s, and easily possibly longer. When you add in things like Fat Cobra being so old…

In fairness, it makes equally good shorthand for Danny to be a bad Buddhist to show how Danny is bad at the expectations of his position in general. As for Davos, he may not be the most clear minded fellow here, considering Lei Kung is his father. And that he was able to challenge Shao Lao WITHOUT being chosen.

Shayera, not Kendra. Shayera is AWESOME. Kendra is, among her other nearly limitless flaws, keeping us from getting Shayera!

Great analysis!

… Yes it does, since that's not Kendra, but Shayera, who is ALWAYS awesome.

I loved her there too, although I did assume she was the Crane Mother there.

Heck, he's even tougher than this when he fights Sabretooth, who he has to beat without the Iron Fist because he's too worn out to use it.

And there's the significance I'd wondered. Good catch!

I think you are right on there.

I think people are going into this expecting the modern Iron Fist, who is very competent, clever, and powerful, instead of 70s Iron Fist, who could barely use his power more than once a battle even by the end of his series, completely screwed up any chance he ever had with Colleen Wing trying to save her life, and who…

I am, as you might imagine from the user name, a Hawkman fan, and it's criminal that the show wasted him to focus on Kendra, who has never been interesting in any medium at any time ever.

I think you may very well be right. It should be noted that in the comics, at least, the Chaste is very much EXACTLY this, having thrown out their own founder because they were embarrassed of him, while Yu-Ti, the leader of K'un L'un has been very much a villain to Danny at times. The Hand, on the other hand, are just…

Worth noting that this puts Joy EXACTLY where the comic series did when it began…

There's the one line he gives to Davos after he finds him outside the cave after facing Shao-Lao which you pretty much have to combine with what he hears from Bakuto and Colleen about the Hand and the Iron Fist's rivalry being something that isn't entirely natural and based on mutual misunderstandings. Of course,…

The fact that any of those options are still possible speak volumes.

That would make biological sense, but it's closer to how Orson Randall was able to use the Iron Fist to do the Jedi Mind Trick.

AND what being Danny Rand means to him too.

The ENTIRE process for being Iron Fist is, "survive encountering Shao-Lao." If you can hug the dragon long enough, you're Iron Fist.

Actually, that's an ENTIRELY show plot point. But it's incredibly understated, with only one line of dialogue really supporting the triggering incident. I thought that was actually kind of clever writing.