Dear Self

[bjornwilde]

OK, I get that you've loved the Iron Fist mythos since reading Ed Brubaker's Immortal Iron Fist...Is it really 10 years ago now? You also were a kid during the twilight of the martial arts craze and the Marvel Netflix universe is pretty awesome, but you have to seriously ask yourself if attempting to play Danny is a good thing. Yes, you have some ideas on things which seem better than the show. Yes, playing a flawed hero and not flinching away from the entitled white hero with all of it's problems is likely a better way to handle leaving Danny as white, but is this really a good idea?

Before doing anything, invoke the Craig Ferguson litmus test:
1 - Does this need to be said/done
2 - Does this need to be said/done now
3 - Does this need to be said/done by me

Now, get to work so that you can tag the pups you already have.

(Spoilers for Iron Fist in the comments. Also, letting go of the idea of Vlad Taltos as a pup. Too much canon (15 books with a goal of 17) and I'd need to play two pups as he can't be played without his familiar.)

Comments

Journal names

[bjornwilde]

dazed_and_entitled amuses me to no end since it covers both his naive charm and problematic entitlement.

dragon_warrior or immortal_weapon are likely things he'd chose himself.

Problems

[bjornwilde]

Biggest problem is how the show handles Asian cultures and Danny's place in them. The Mary Sue article covers this much more, or actually links to two other articles/blog posts that cover this in much greater detail, but to sum up my understanding:

A)The show presents Asian cultures as nearly universal or as one thing.

Is Coleen Chinese or Japanese? Why does she have a Chinese last name, speaks a little Mandarin, but prefers English or Japanese as a language and practices Kendo and Karate? Why does Danny's knowledge of said culture include Chinese (huge pot here I know), Nepalese, Tibetian, and Japanese?

B) The White Savior or White is more skilled than the Asians who taught him.

The show has basically explained Danny choosing to become the Iron FIst because his dad taught him to set high goals, which is complete BS. None of the other initiates could set high goals?

Also, Danny is a conceited ass in regards to respecting Coleen's skills and her dojo. Trying to tell her how to channel her chi and then taking over a class, and then abusing a student by striking them with a practice sword.

Possible solution for A, at least as far as Danny goes is to have K'un Lun be a mix of Asian cultures. Like it's an Asian Atlantis or such like. No clue what to do about how they present Coleen except maybe she's from a mixed family.

Possible solutions for B, own the white savior troupe and present it as deeply flawed. Danny is a man-child and not really mature. He's kind of a 10 year old with cool martial arts skills and revels in that. As to choosing to become the Iron Fist, maybe he told himself he followed his father's goal setting advice, but it's really him trying to make his parents death, and his near death, mean something, i.e. they died so that I could become something important.

ETA: I also have a problem with how abusive and GRRR Warrior the monks of K'un Lun seem. I'm only on ep 05 and they've shown them beating young Danny's back with practice swords to the point of bleeding to toughen him. This just doesn't seem realistic and is a bad portrayal of martial arts, imho.

Why the hell do I want to play him?

[bjornwilde]

OK, flawed heroes are my jam. Working through Danny's ego appeals to me, though I will have to finish the series to see if they actually do my work for me. I've seen suggestions some of this happens, though the bad Asian representation isn't covered.

I also love the Iron Fist/Immortal weapons mythos.

And I like the naive hero Danny really is at his purest.

Ideally, I'd hope to play him as a deconstruction of Mighty Whitey and the White Savior, with a core of idealistic/naive hero to make the effort worth while.

[bjornwilde]

Screencaps: Finn Jones dot net...eventually.