Humility is clearly the missing trait that could have unlocked Danny's character. Looking back after the end of the series, I think the biggest misstep the show makes is holding back Danny's discovery of the fate of K'un-Lun to the end of the story. If Danny had abandoned his post, then changed his mind and gone…

What also struck me about that scene was the implication that Ward doesn't have anything in his life that he's good at. The accomplishments ascribed to him as a businessman are actually just him doing what his father tells him to do, and all the admiration he receives for his success is, as you say, poisoned, because…

Honestly, I don't even see that Joy is a better person. She's just been allowed to think of herself as an innocent, even though she isn't.

I don't think Ward's characterization is weak. He's been ground down by his father his entire life, and shaped into this image of a tough businessman that he knows, deep down, he can't live up to - in no small part because all the business acumen that has been ascribed to him is really just him conveying his father's…

Yeah, I definitely think that's a theme the show was reaching for (as well as the four characters you mention, there's also someone whose name I won't mention) - the way that people can be raised within restrictive, abusive systems, and then have to find their way out of them before they can be complete human beings. …

I'm not sure Danny and Ward are a fair comparison. I mean, clearly Tom Pelphrey is a better actor than Finn Jones, but he's also been given a coherent and interesting character to play, one who is intended to win over the audience with his suffering and vulnerability, but who is also funny and self-aware. It's not…

It basically sounds like these people are counting hashtags. I don't know if that's a reasonable way to evaluate the show's success. It's almost certainly not the one Netflix is using.

It would be really weird for Marvel to dump Daredevil's showrunner after an incredibly acclaimed debut that basically made the Defenders concept viable, and then keep Iron Fist's showrunner after one of the most critically-reviled entries in the entire MCU.

Colleen doesn't work for Gao, and in fact considers her a monster. The worst Gao could do was expose her - which she threatens to in the next episode - in order to cause discord between the three. But perhaps she doesn't think it's necessary, since Colleen is already poisoned.

I see no reason to assume the Monopoly flashback was untrue. It is clearly a misdirect, because part of the point of the next few episodes is to show that Ward has been living with his father's abuse for his entire life, and that this has warped him as a person, but that doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole.

I'm terribly afraid that the only way to justify going back to them at this point is by killing Claire.

MCU Misty Knight would break MCU Danny Rand in half.

It's really weird. Marvel figured out that they should get a woman to oversee Jessica Jones, and a black man to do Luke Cage, and neither of those things are obvious as far as Hollywood is concerned. But something as straightforward as "get someone who likes and has experience with martial arts to do your kung-fu…

I guess that makes sense from the comics perspective, but it's pretty difficult to imagine MCU Luke Cage putting up with MCU Danny Rand for even 30 seconds.

I'd say the point is more that Ward has always been the emotional one, and Joy has always been a bit ruthless. Even in the first episode, he does something stupid and reckless like send goons after Danny, but she pretends to be friendly and then drugs him and has him committed. One of the things I enjoyed about…

I'd say no, though it's definitely not good. But the main character is awful, and that makes it a lot harder to ignore all the flaws in the execution.

Unfortunately, none of them are the main character, and all but one of them end up suffering for ending up sucked into his story.

You really think there's going to be a season 2? I mean, it's not impossible - I don't really know how well the show is doing compared to the others, and of course a lot will depend on what Defenders does with Danny - but right now there's really no reason to keep going with this character or story. One thing Marvel…

Fair enough, though again, I feel like if you threaten a guy with the police, and then he breaks into your sister's house, you've already at least attempted non-violent means. I mean, the real purpose here is to show that Ward is an unimaginative idiot while Joy - who pretends to be Danny's friend and then drugs him…

Like I said, he's not a nice guy (though frankly I find embezzling from your employees a great deal more indefensible than sending goons after the guy who broke into your sister's house). But killing his father is one of the most understandable things he does.