The Defenders-only Discussion Post!

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The Defenders Prompt Post

Talk about the Defenders! Speculate, discuss, squee and debate. There's a thread for each episode so you can discuss what you've watched so far without being spoiled for future episodes - click on top level view to see only the first comment in each thread and stay spoiler-free.

Anon commenting is not mandatory for this post. Playing nice is always mandatory.

Comments

Re: Bad writing in the Defenders

[(Anonymous)]

No, of course he had to appear again. I mean, first of all, he was still pretty much there when s.2 ended. He has no reason to disappear, and every reason to stay.

In regards to Matt, he won: Matt cut all the ties with his friends, just like Stick wanted. And the Hand is still around, waiting to make their next move. Elektra is dead, but Stick would have to be very naive to think that will stick (heh), with everything he knows about both Black Sky/Elektra and the Hand.

Stick still has a war to fight in New york. He also still has one kid to protect (or whatever else it is he does with Matt). Considering he just lost the other one, simply leaving Matt on his own seems kinda strange.

And, like I said: he worked so hard to pull Matt back in, repeatedly over the years, and now that he finally has him right where he wants him, hes just going to walk out? Yeah, I don't think so.

What's your interpretation?

Re: Bad writing in the Defenders

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT but we don't know exactly what happened between DDs2 and Defenders, but we do know how Defenders starts. And if Matt stopped being DD, resumed his friendships with Karen and Foggy, all things Stick absolutely didn't want for Matt, he'd essentially lost him. Again. Why wouldn't he leave Matt again? He has no reason to stay, and no reason to return until Matt gets dragged into the Hand mess again.

Re: Bad writing in the Defenders

[(Anonymous)]

True. But first of all, it's just not good writing to force a character out and have him come back for the third time in three seasons - so that's on the writers.

Secondly, even if Matt decided to ditch the whole vigilante thing and live out his life as a regular lawyer, Stick *knows* that he will be dragged back. He knows that the Hand is still around, and he knows that they will try to resurrect Elektra, and he knows that Matt won't be able to refuse to help when there's a clear threat to "his city".

The logical thing for Stick to do it stay around, make sure that Matt *knows* he's around, not let himself be driven away from Matt's "normal life", and needle him to go back to fighting.

Why wouldn't he leave Matt again? Because it's bad writing, and the grand battle with the Hand is nigh.

Re: Bad writing in the Defenders

[(Anonymous)]

See, and I think Stick staying with Matt just to needle him into doing whatever Stick wants is OOC, not to mention a total waste of time on Stick's part. It's never happened before, I would have called bs if the series started like that. It was obvious Stick was busy with other things since the Chaste were wiped out and Stick was captured anyway. The old man had a life apart from Matt, and he does call the Chaste his family, too. Once they're killed by Elektra, Stick returns to the city for Matt, which I found very believable. But, hey, we obvs see things differently.

Re: Bad writing in the Defenders

[(Anonymous)]

We obviously do. I never read the comics, and I'm not interested in this or any movie or TV show following any "source material" beside actual historical facts.

From what I understand, Karen is a completely different and much more interesting character in the show than the comics. Comic-Father Lantom doesn't exist, and comic-Matt doesn't concern himself with religion all that much. I get to exchange the confession scenes for the scenes where Daredevil chasing a guy named Leap-Frog or Stiltman. While I'm sure that reading comics is fun, I wouldn't watch that show.

So I'm not at all concerned about having Stick be true to whatever his character did in the comics. As far as I'm concerned, this is a stand-alone ork, and any and all characters and plot lines are subjected to creative writing. All I'm asking is for that writing to MAKE SENSE.

Stick's been trying to train/needle/manipulate Matt into doing what he wants pretty much exclusively in the show. Aside from his scenes with kid-Elektra, he's never really established as doing anything else. (And from that point of view, he actually DOESN'T have a life beside Matt. He should, but to the audience, he just doesn't. Maybe to a comic book reader.) And if you care about what someone does with their life so much, you don't randomly come and go every few months. That's just not how human behavior works.