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Season 1
- Adorkable: Danny has his moments, largely due to his naiviety an fish-out-of-water nature. A good example is him gushing over discovering the Pokémon stickers under his dad's desk. This is carried over to The Defenders (2017), where he fanboys over Daredevil and has genuine ethusiasm about bringing the other heroes together.
- Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Some fans take the much-maligned scene where Danny lectures Colleen about East Asian philosophy and the true nature of martial arts in her own dojo as actually being a good-natured debate between Danny's Chinese martial arts knowledge and Colleen's Japanese, similar to fans of different sports teams griefing each other.
- Up for debate is how much of Bakuto’s kindness toward Colleen was genuine.
- Was Harold Meachum really always a bastard to Ward? There are things in the show that suggest that Harold only became a bag of dicks after his resurrection (Joy and Danny only have good memories of him; Joy and Ward doting on him when he was sick), but at the same time, there are other things that make it seem as though Ward was definitely being abused in some form as a kid (Ward's treatment of Danny as a kid, Ward saying the day Harold died was the best day of his life, Harold recounting his own childhood abuse and saying it made him better).
- Why does Ward save Harold in his contacts list as "Frank N. Stein"? Is it because he thinks of Harold as a zombie, or is it because Ward thinks of himself as being akin to Frankenstein's monster due to being under Harold's control?
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: An ax, er, hatchet-wielding Chinese gang? That's actually based on a real gang that operated in Shanghai during Japanese occupation. The Axe Gang
has already been portrayed in a number of other Asian action films such as Kung Fu Hustle. - Arc Fatigue:
- Characters spend several episodes acting skeptical that Danny is who he says he is, to the point where some critics got the impression that the show was actually trying to make the audience question it.
- Early reviews, which cover the first six episodes, have criticized them for focusing too heavily on corporate politics without making them particularly compelling.
- Ass Pull: After learning his identity, Joy spends the rest of the first season sympathizing with and supporting Danny Rand. Even in the season finale, this is what ultimately awakens her to Harold's true nature and turns her against him. Therefore, it feels like it comes out of nowhere when, during the last few minutes of the season finale, she apparently agrees to listen to Davos's proposal to kill Danny. While this is in line with her arc in the comics, the abruptness is what throws many people off.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Harold Meachum. Netflix MCU has set the bar very high with its villains, from the likes of Fisk, Kilgrave, Punisher, Cottonmouth, and Mariah. However, Harold has been met with mixed reception. Some believed he was up there with his predecessors and thought of him as a charismatic Contrasting Sequel Antagonist with multidimensional personality in his own right. After all, he was a mere businessman willing to challenge ancient mystical organization to get what he wants from the position of a hostage with little to no resources of his own. Not to mention the complex relationship he had with his children and sheer intensity that David Wenham brought into this role. Others found him annoying with how he's stuck in the penthouse pretending to be dead and seeming to pull the strings but kept being inconsistently shifting from being a sympathetic pawn to the true mastermind pulling at the strings. Then there's his immense creep factor (that's not in a Creepy Awesome way) in the way he behaves towards his children. But nearly everyone will agree he's a better antagonist than Bakuto.
- Speaking of Bakuto. Most will agree he didn't really work as the Big Bad given his abrupt introduction with little foreshadowing, but there's also a group who didn't dislike him as a character, noting that his nobler qualities as a Benevolent Boss who wants to do good for the world in his own way makes him an interesting antagonist.
- Captain Obvious Reveal:
- Madam Gao's reveal as the one behind the Hand's heroin operation at the end of Episode 5 had all the hallmark of a climactic reveal: Face Framed in Shadow, Face-Revealing Turn, dramatic, ominous music and lightning in the background. Except it's obvious to anyone who watched Daredevil (2015). It's even better if you're watching with the subtitles or descriptive audio, neither of which ever make any bones about just calling her by name. That's assuming one didn't watch the trailer for season one in which she appears quite a few times.
- Davos turning against Danny. Even if you're unfamiliar with his identity in the comics, he does practically nothing but argue with the other heroes and perpetually looks like he wants to murder someone.
- Catharsis Factor: Harold being given a Rasputinian Death can be very satisfying given how much of a self-righteous prick he was the whole season after everything Danny did for him, and how he was responsible for messing up Danny's life to begin with.
- Critical Backlash: The overwhelming criticism thrown at the series has prompted backlash from fans who feel the negativity comes more from the surrounding racial controversies than the actual quality of the show.
- Critical Dissonance: Professional critics loathed the show, which currently has a measly 18% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the average viewer gave mostly positive reception and the audience rating sits at a passable 75%, which is on par with (although the second-lowest of) all the other MCU episodic series, broadcast and Netflix alike, and it's among the most binge-watched shows on Netflix. Unfortunately, only the first six episodes were screened for critics before release and the series' Slow-Paced Beginning meant that many did not bother watching the rest or updating the scores. Regular viewers had the whole series to binge at once and thus were able to judge it as a whole. Seeing as how the first season of Iron Fist ranked as one of the most watched shows within 30 days of it's debut, beating not only Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and the first season of Daredevil, but also Netflix's powerhouses Stranger Things, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, and that, as mentioned above, the fan ratings for the show are positive, it seems the critical panning of the show worked to make Iron Fist a viewing hit.[1]
- Crosses the Line Twice: Scythe strangling a man with a microphone cord is horrifying. Taking the time to sing "Take On Me" to the man before is hilarious.
- Ward finding his father smashing in the faces of two dead guys and racing to the bin to throw up? Horrifying. Find his father's severed finger in the bin and being so grossed out, he can't even throw up anymore? Hilarious.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Then there's the Drunken Master Zhou Cheng who Danny fights, distinguished not only by his amusing personality but by being one of the few Hand members to not only nearly win against Danny, but show a degree of honor while doing it, something his compatriots were clearly lacking.
- Scythe is also very memorable due to his introductory scene being strangling a man with a microphone while singing karaoke (of "Take on Me" no less) as well as being a badass Hand warrior with a snide sense of humor who nearly matches Danny in combat.
- Fandom-Enraging Misconception: The name of the Hand's Drunken Master who nearly owns Danny in a fight is Zhou Cheng, not Joe Chang. Referring to him by the latter name is a good way of getting yourself flamed to a crisp on any Marvel-related discussion board.
- Fandom Rivalry:
- Due to the Mighty Whitey casting controversy, with Into the Badlands, a martial arts show starring an Asian American lead.
- Similarly, many critics of the show have often brought up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who has not one, but two Asian-American women (Daisy Johnson and Melinda May) as main characters in the main cast, as a comparison of what Iron Fist should have done.note
- An intra-MCU rivalry with Luke Cage (2016), for the Mighty Whitey casting controversy and Finn Jones' claim that Iron Fist was the most "diverse" of the Marvel-Netflix shows. Cage fans are openly dreading the very likely Luke Cage-Iron Fist team-up and Iron Fist/Misty Knight romance, given both relationships are key parts of Iron Fist's comic lore.
- The MCU vs. DCEU rivalry appears again with many DCEU fans gloating that the MCU has its first critical failure and that fans have resorted to defenses similar to those used by DCEU fans, such as turning against reviewers and Rotten Tomatoes.
- With fellow MCU property Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, due to the show's Mighty Whitey casting controversy and Fight Scene Failure. Fans of Shang-Chi gloated that the film's two minute teaser, which featured an Asian lead and largely Asian supporting cast and was lauded for its beautiful fight choreography, outsold both seasons of Iron Fist.
- Fan Nickname:
- "Hobo Fist", after set photos showed him barefoot, unshaven and shabbily dressed, most likely from the first scenes of his return to America. He does martial arts stances looking like that.
- "Irish Fist" due to the release date falling on St. Patrick's Day, meant as a stealth Take That! over the race controversies in this series and Doctor Strange (2016).note
- Fight Scene Failure:
- Many reviews complain that Finn Jones is stiff and entirely unconvincing as a martial arts expert, made worse by his not wearing the costume so it's harder to put in a fight double like in Daredevil. Due to their tight schedule, Jones did not start practicing the fight scene choreography until fifteen minutes before shooting.
- Poor editing is also a problem. One fight scene in particular contains 56 cuts in the space of 35 seconds.
- Some reviews have also been critical of Colleen Wing's cage match scene, similar to her Jessica Henwick's fight scene in Game of Thrones.
- Many reviews complain that Finn Jones is stiff and entirely unconvincing as a martial arts expert, made worse by his not wearing the costume so it's harder to put in a fight double like in Daredevil. Due to their tight schedule, Jones did not start practicing the fight scene choreography until fifteen minutes before shooting
- Franchise Original Sin: Several of the things that critics and viewers came to dislike about the first season could actually be traced back to the far more successful Daredevil (2015):
- Right off the bat, Daredevil took place in a very gritty, grounded setting that was far more subdued than anything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or even the other Marvel TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. The series was generally light on superpowers and codenames, and with the exception of Matt Murdock himself (who didn't even don his iconic red costume until the first season finale), there were no costumes whatsoever. This not only gave the series a unique tone that helped ground it in reality, but also felt like a reasonable creative decision given the way the Daredevil comics (particularly under Frank Miller) are known for their street-level feel and Film Noir trappings. However, despite also being a street-level hero, Danny Rand's stories and world are generally more fantastical, with elements like dragons, magical powers and ancient hidden cities. Subsequently, the decision to downplay the fantasy elements in Iron Fist were received far more negatively, and immediately called attention to the show's lack of budget. Thus, rather than being seen as a gritty stylistic choice, the show's lack of costumes or other "comic booky" elements merely added to the perception that it was cheap.
- Another area where Daredevil succeeded was in balancing the crime-fighting aspects with the day to day lives of the characters, with many scenes following Matt, Foggy and Karen at their law practice, Ben Urich's job as a reporter for the New York Bulletin, and even Wilson Fisk's social life. These plots were generally well done enough that viewers didn't mind sitting through dramatic scenes and lengthy bits of dialogue to get to the action, but on Iron Fist, the execution was far less successful. The decision to focus so heavily on Rand Enterprises bogged down the story, with many viewers and critics questioning why a series that was ostensibly about martial artists was spending so much time on attempts at boardroom politics and corporate intrigue. Not helping things was the generally mediocre quality of the fight scenes on the show (brought on by the tight filming schedule), which meant that most found that the action wasn't really worth waiting for.
- The first season of Daredevil treated its central plot as a slow burn, with the story gradually unfolding across 13 episodes. While the writing was engaging enough to keep people's attention, the attempts from Iron Fist to mimic this pacing came across as boring to much of the audience, with many accusing the show of merely Padding for time. To a lesser extent, the criticisms about the story being unnecessarily stretched out to fit the 13 episode order were also directed at fellow Marvel Netflix shows Jessica Jones (2015) and Luke Cage (2016) before it, and The Punisher (2017) after it.
- Growing the Beard: The RZA-directed sixth episode has been pointed out by some as a major shot in the arm to what had been a horribly leaden and dull first half of the season.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Danny says he can drive without a license because he's rich. A week after the show's release, the first full trailer for Justice League (2017) had Bruce Wayne say being rich is his superpower, also in a car.
- Davos once said "Wow. You're the worst Iron Fist Ever". Many critics and viewers would agree with him.
- Ho Yay: All of Danny's good stories of K'un L'un start with "Me and Davos." Davos also acts personally hurt that Danny would have left K'un L'un, and really doesn't like Colleen.Danny: None of this is because of K'un Lun. It's because I left you!
- It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Finn Jones addressed the scathing pre-release reviews by explaining that Marvel made the show for fans of the comic books, not for critics.
- Jerkass Woobie: Ward Meachum. He is a huge ass in the start, but the series is far from kind to him and it's not hard to feel for the guy and wish someone would just give him a hug.
- Les Yay: Quite a lot between Claire and Colleen; heck, when Claire first meets Danny, she basically cock blocks him from having a "not" date with Colleen. When its revealed that Colleen was a member of the Hand, Claire defends her without even a second of hesitation and is quick to forgive her after they have a talk, a talk that came off like they were a couple.
- Magnificent Bitch: Madame Gao for manipulating Danny's company as part of her criminal enterprise. See the MCU's page for further details.
- Memetic Mutation:
- #AAIronFist: The rallying hashtag and cry of the fan movement pushing for an Asian-American Iron Fist.
- Early publicity photos got heavy mockery online, with users turning Danny into a stereotypical "enlightened" hipster bro.
- Ward Meachum flipping twin middle fingers. It's also been the common fans' response towards the negative critics.
- "Sounds like a sex toy."explanation
- "56 Cuts". A fight scene featuring 56 camera cuts within a 35 second time span has gone viral.
- "Cut off the head and the body shall die."note
- This immediately lead to comparisons with HYDRA who follow up with the line "and two more shall take its place".
- On Reddit, this phrase was then coined: "cut off The Hand and two more shall take its place."
- Mis-blamed:
- A number of comic fans blamed "social justice warriors" for the series' bad reviews, ignoring that many complaints reviewers made (bad pacing, uninteresting characters, bland action scenes) had nothing to do with race or culture. Furthermore, many of the outlets panning Iron Fist gave more favorable assessments of Doctor Strange (2016), which faced similar criticisms of white-washing and appropriation, indicating that the show's racial/cultural controversies aren't the only cause of its negative reception.
- Much of the criticism of the show's lackluster fight choreography was levied at Finn Jones's lack of physical skill. While this was a noticeable issue, it wasn't helped by the tight schedule that interfered with the stunt crew's preparations, with one scene requiring Finn to learning the choreography only twenty minutes of prep time before shooting.
- Moral Event Horizon: See here.
- Narm:
- Danny spews so many Koans (bordering on Ice-Cream Koan at times) in his dialogue it goes from supposedly uplifting to laughable pretty quick. Several reviews described him as sounding like a hipster trying to act deep after he vacationed in Hong Kong for a week.
- When Claire says "You two need to calm the eff down" and "This is so effed up." It's silly enough that Marvel's Netflix shows avoid the word "fuck" despite being rated MA and using every other swear word, but to draw attention to it to the point that a grown-ass woman talks like a third grader...
- Ward's bullying of Danny when they were young. Why did he even sit down to play Monopoly if that's how he would act? It's not even like he is a Sore Loser; he just wanted to cram every petty bully cliché under a minute for the sake of the scene. What was supposed to be a serious flashback of painful childhood memory looks like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon.
- The "fight" scenes are underwhelming to say the least. One particular example can be seen here.
- Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
- Older Than They Think: The discussion of whether Danny Rand should have been Caucasian or Asian American has been around since he debuted back in the '70s. While a lot of the blame is shoved onto people who don't even read the comics, there was a lot of people calling for an Asian Danny who were big fans of Iron Fist and many spoke quite warmly of the character, in-spite of the racial issues (Gail Simone, for instance, identified Iron Fist as her favourite Marvel character, while being a big proponent for casting an Asian actor).
- This discussion becomes more complicated with other MCU characters like Elektra (Greek in the comics) is portrayed by a Chinese American Lily Chee as a child and French Cambodian Elodie Yung. A similar discussion happen with the Inhumans character Triton and Karnak who are the only member of the family portrayed by East Asians but martial artist Karnak is portrayed by non-fighter Ken Leung, whilst Fish Man Triton is portrayed as the best fighter courtesy of martial arts actor Mike Moh.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- Zhou Cheng makes a rather memorable appearance during Danny and co's trip to China, where he and Danny partake in one of the series' best fight scenes. Zhou also gets some characterization regarding his alcoholism, regarding it as 'sedating the beast.'
- Madame Gao's trio of saleswomen for her heroin, who only show up in one episode's especially stylish opening sequence.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: By now it's impossible to talk about Iron Fist without mentioning the controversy around whether a Caucasian or an Asian-American should have been cast as Iron Fist. Finn Jones's less-than-empathetic behavior towards critics has made the show's reputation even more toxic.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: "Ironwing" (Danny Rand / Colleen Wing)
- Questionable Casting:
- Finn Jones's casting as Danny Rand. Race issues aside, he's a non-American actor who has zero martial arts background. Then again, Charlie Cox, a British actor, plays Daredevil, and most of his action scenes are performed by stuntman Chris Brewster.
- In a similar vein, Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing. She, too, was in Game of Thrones... and her sole fight scene in it is considered the epitome of Fight Scene Failure of the show (the scene in question had been the victim of Troubled Production). Casting someone associated with the nadir of fight scenes as a skilled martial artist in a work about skilled martial artists raised more than a few eyebrows before release. But unlike Finn Jones, Henwick's performance has been almost universally praised.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Meachum siblings, especially Ward. During the more universally-panned early episodes, they're often called a generic Corrupt Corporate Executive duo overloaded on Arbitrary Skepticism, with Ward in particular getting flack as a Big Brother Bully. Meanwhile, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't adore Ward and either love or Love to Hate Joy by the season's end. Ward's popularity had a big turnaround starting with flipping the bird at his father's security camera, followed by him stabbing his father to death. His popularity steadily grew as he became more sympathetic after his Heel–Face Turn and he decides to side with Danny. Their father, Harold, escapes a lot of this by being generally liked as a villain the entire time.
- Ron the Death Eater: Danny gets quite a bit of this. While he can be entitled and a bit stupid, he's still a decent, good-natured and heroic guy who is sincerely trying to help the city, even if he's still learning. But a lot of negative reviews tend to paint him as a spoiled rich kid and ignore his more positive traits.
- She Really Can Act: Jessica Henwick was best known as Nymeria in the much-ridiculed Sand Snake storyline in Game of Thrones, especially infamous for its Fight Scene Failure, which led some fans to dread the news of Henwick being cast as Colleen. Here she shows that she actually can believably fight (the earlier scene was a victim of a Troubled Production where none of the actors had any time to practice with each other) and even the many negative reviews single her out as the best part of the show.
- Shocking Moments:
- When Danny first unleashes the Iron Fist in the second episode.
- And then in episode 13, when he truly unleashes it.
- Slow-Paced Beginning: In sharp contrast to the Ending Fatigue of the other Netflix shows (Jessica Jones and Luke Cage in particular), this one is widely considered to get better in its second half. Unfortunately, this resulted in its disastrous critical reception when they only had the first half to go on. It's best exemplified by the fact that the first time Danny's actual abilities as the Iron Fist are seen is at the very end of the second episode, and prior to that his powers are only vaguely hinted at, meaning that viewers unfamiliar with the character might assume him to be a Badass Normal who just happens to be very skilled at martial arts.
- Spoiled by the Format: Episode 12 tries so hard to act like it's the end of the story, but there's just that pesky last episode to ruin the vibe.
- Tainted by the Preview: The show had a steep hill to climb due to the controversy surrounding the casting of Finn Jones in the title role.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Purists expressed disappointment when Scott Buck admitted that the writers came up with "no good reason" for Danny to wear his signature costume in the first season. For some of those purists, their disappointment went From Bad to Worse, when soon afterwards in that same interview, Buck listed one complication for Danny (the likelihood of criminals and onlookers recognizing Iron Fist's face) that sounded avoidable by sticking him in a costume. The show eventually does feature the 1948 Iron Fist wearing a similar costume, implying it could still appear.
- A lot of fans of the character actually agree with the negative reception of the show, since while it kept the character's ethnicity very little else was kept; besides the costume, Danny also loses a great deal of his skill and power, was significantly more angsty and toxic, and the more interesting aspects of the show were demoted in importance and put Out of Focus seemingly for the sake of being cheaper.
- They Copied It, So It Sucks!: One major complaint reviewers had was of Danny Rand's "wealthy white guy travels to nebulous East Asian location to learn mystic martial arts and comes back to his hometown to become a superhero" storyline, which felt heavily derivative of earlier works such as Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne, and Stephen Strange. In fact, the show actually changes aspects of Danny's backstory in a way that makes them closer to Oliver'snote .
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Gao, who is almost universally considered the best member of the Big Bad Ensemble. She was easily the most intimidating and the biggest threat to Danny all season long. Yet she was usurped from her position midseason and replaced with the more divisive Bakuto and later Harold Meachum.
- The first member of the Big Bad Ensemble introduced, Harold Meachum, could've easily gotten the better part of a second season's mileage out of his plans that were compressed into the first season finale, and is often cited as one of the most consistently entertaining characters, villains, and actors of the show's newcomers. To add insult to injury, the penultimate episode of the season deliberately set itself up to be a perfectly workable finale, and then Ward texts Danny a warning that his father is backstabbing him. From there, by the end of the next episode he's being cremated to ensure Resurrective Immortality never comes into play.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Danny Rand punching Shou-Lao, the very event that granted him Iron Fist powers, has become an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, as opposed to a hook for viewers who never read an Iron Fist comic before. Apparently showing the dragon this early in the show's run would have made the special effects budget become too high for Marvel.
- Returning to the racial controversies discussed under Broken Base, some critics such as The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety felt the series failed to rise above or even examine its roots in racial and cultural stereotypes, falling into those cliches instead.
- One of the arguments for an Asian-American Danny was the potential storylines such casting provided. After the success Luke Cage and Jessica Jones had in exploring social injustices such as sexism and anti-Black racism, commentators like The Nerds of Color argued that with an Asian-American Danny Rand the series could have followed a similar track and explored issues facing Asian-Americans, issues which would be difficult if not outright impossible to explore with a white protagonist.
- Despite Claire saying that Danny shouldn't face the Hand alone, she doesn't contact Matt, great martial artist with a grudge and impressive fight record against the organization. Jessica Jones (2015) already had two of The Defenders (2017) teaming up, so there was already precedent. Then she insists on going to fight them herself. The closest explanation to why Claire doesn't seek out Matt is that, as seen in The Defenders, Matt has been busy grieving Elektra's death and likely has cut back on his Daredevil activities. On the other hand, Madame Gao’s plan to flood New York with drugs of new caliber could be a reason good enough to bring Matt back into action anyway.
- Unexpected Character: The Bride of Nine Spiders is featured in episode six as a Hand assassin. However, given how In Name Only she is, this has actually been rather negatively received by her fans.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- After three previous heroes struggling with financial hardship and deep personal traumas, it's rather hard to sympathize with Danny trying to decide whether to take a giant buy-out for his parents' company. It doesn't help that during his first interactions with Colleen (who is going through hardships of her own) he comes across as condescending and pretentious.The Hollywood Reporter: Rather than being a man who found enlightenment through tragedy and disassociation from his upbringing, Danny comes across like a spoiled frat boy who took a comparative religion class and spends a few months picking up coeds by telling them he's totally into meditation and tai chi now.
- After three previous heroes struggling with financial hardship and deep personal traumas, it's rather hard to sympathize with Danny trying to decide whether to take a giant buy-out for his parents' company. It doesn't help that during his first interactions with Colleen (who is going through hardships of her own) he comes across as condescending and pretentious.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: The actual Iron Fist itself. It truly looks like a light coming from inside Danny's hand, throwing all the blood vessels into relief.
- The Woobie: Danny Rand is a traumatized orphan who grew up being beat to a pulp, trained to become a literal living weapon without any desire. He's as tragic as they come.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Oddly enough, an example from the cast itself: Finn Jones blamed the poor early reviews on the show premiering after the election of Donald Trump, arguing that a white American billionaire coming into power was less appealing to critics at the time of release. The AV Club's review of "Eight Diagram Dragon Palm" admitted that it didn't help that both Trump and Danny craved a powerful title, then overcame their detractors' skepticism to get them, only to gain even more detractors who didn't think they were ready for the responsibility.
Season 2
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Lei Kung stop the fight between Danny and Davos to save his son's life or because he thought Davos would be a bad Iron Fist?
- Ass Pull: Colleen happening to be the great-great x20 granddaughter of some previous Iron Fist and this somehow meaning that she's not only entitled to the Iron Fist but that Danny's entire role in life and the purpose of his years of training, hard work and enduring physical abuse were only so he could give the Iron Fist to Colleen who didn't have to do any of that. None of this has any basis in any version of anything even resembling the source material.
- Related to, but parallel to the previous point, is the reason the plot gives for the forced switching of protagonist status from Danny to Colleen. Colleen and the plot really strain themselves telling the audience (and Danny) that Danny could not ever hope to face Davos himself because he's too emotionally invested since Davos is like a brother to him. This excuse becomes an Ass Pull when you realize virtually every Hero-Villain dynamic is like that.
- Continuity Lockout: Misty Knight appears after she met Danny and Colleen in The Defenders and Danny gifted her with a robot arm in Luke Cage season 2. Admittedly, you don't need to watch Luke Cage season 2 to understand her part here, but The Defenders is still required viewing to understand how Danny and Colleen know her.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Mary Walker. Already a fan favorite from the comic, here Mary was played to perfection by the talented Alice Eve who managed to effectively play two contrasting roles. Even more impressive is that each alter is a Rounded Character with different motivations and is not defined by their relationships to each other. Prior to news of the series' cancellation, both reviewers and fans were clamoring for more of Mary in season 3 and the inevitable debut of Bloody Mary.
- Ending Fatigue: The last episode resolves the plot about 20 minutes in, and spends the remaining half-hour setting up sequel hooks for later seasons.
- Growing the Beard: Compared to the infamous season preceding it, the sophomore outing for Iron Fist ends up correcting many of the issues that the first season had (likely due to the fact that it was not a rushed and Troubled Production this time around, and there's no Arc Fatigue due to there being fewer episodes) and significantly improves the fight scenes and overall story. While the consensus is that there's still room for improvement, quite a few people consider Season 2 to be a Surprisingly Improved Sequel overall. It ended up with a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, up from the first season's 19%, setting a new record for the most improved score on the site.
- Ho Yay: Danny and Ward get a lot of this during this season, especially during the heartwarming scene in episode 5 where Ward tends to Danny after he's injured and they have a long heart-to-heart talk that ends with them basically admitting they love each other. They now refer to each other as their brother, just like Danny does with Davos (whom he also had quite a bit of Ho Yay with last season), and at the end of the season, they end up Walking the Earth together when Danny persuades Ward to join him in a journey of self-discovery.
- Like You Would Really Do It:
- Even if you could buy that Misty would be killed off, no one's thinking it might happen on this show rather than Luke Cage.
- Some were also quite doubtful Danny Rand would lose the Fist in a show called Iron Fist. In a bit of a surprise, he actually does and Colleen becomes the new Iron Fist by the end of it, though he does regain the Fist as shown with his scene in Japan.
- Magnificent Bastard: Walker, a former sergeant in the U.S. military who developed Dissociative Identity Disorder, now works as a mercenary in New York City. Hired to kidnap Danny Rand by Davos and Joy Meachum, Walker meticulously studies him to learn how best to neutralize the powerful Iron Fist and successfully defeats him. Later convincing Joy to hire her to defend against the insane Davos, Walker keeps him on the back foot throughout all of their encounters, and is only prevented from outright killing him due to Danny's refusal to allow his "brother" to die. Always the clear dominant member in partnerships used to further whatever her goals happen to be at any given moment, Walker ends the series forgoing the money owed to her by Joy, instead threatening the billionaire into continuing to support her with her vast connections.
- Moral Event Horizon: See here.
- Narm: Joy's Face–Heel Turn was considered something of an Ass Pull at the end of the first season, so the second one tries to smooth this over by emphasising how much she loved her father and that she hates Danny for taking him away from her. Unfortunately, this is done by having Joy explaining this over and over and over again. It reaches the point where it comes across more as if the writers have realized how flimsy her motives are and are desperately trying to convince the audience that she has good reasons for turning evil, which only becomes less convincing every time she does it.
- Salvaged Story:
- Season two looks to address many of the first season's criticisms, as well as implement elements from the comics that could bring people back on board. These include introducing Typhoid Mary as an antagonist & deemphasizing The Hand (after their apparent defeat in Defenders), and borrowing Misty Knight from Luke Cage to officially introduce the Daughters of the Dragon with Colleen. We also actually get to see K'un-Lun rather than just constantly hear Danny talk about how awesome it is.
- Season 2 has drastically improved fight scenes from Season 1, featuring increased and more creative use of the Iron Fist power, as well as longer and better-staged takes free from Jitter Cam or ridiculously heightened editing after the infamous "56/36" fight from the first season.
- The corporate politics of season 1 were largely seen as boring and without any emotional depth or impact. While season 2 still has a bit of a corporate plot, it's more downplayed and directly connected to the story arc.
- Season 2 addresses the complaints about Danny Rand being a Mighty Whitey head-on, revealing that Danny's becoming the Iron Fist wasn't so much a case of his being a better martial artist than all of K'un-Lun as Davos's father calling the fight where he and Davos battled for the right to face the dragon early, without Davos yielding. It ends with Danny ultimately realizing he did not deserve to be the Iron Fist and deciding to pass on his fist to Colleen Wing, who becomes the new Immortal Iron Fist (like many people clamored in the first season).
- She Really Can Act: Though Alice Eve is a very capable actress, her most high profile role in the US was as the Ms. Fanservice in Star Trek Into Darkness. Here, seamlessly playing both the Nice Girl Mary and ruthless Action Girl Walker earned her praise comparable to David Tennant's Kilgrave, Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk and James McAvoy's Kevin Crumb. Eve can convincingly portray the precise moment of switching between two personalities entirely in facial expressions and body movements, to say nothing of vocal inflection. And both personalities come off as equally genuine, even though we meet Mary first and spend more screen time with Walker.
- Spoiled by the Format: Just like last season, the show tries its hardest to make us think everything's been wrapped up when there's still an entire episode to go, making it obvious some big twist is coming: Colleen getting chi powers from Davos, and both her and Danny being able to harness chi through weapons like guns and katana.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Specifically, the main one. The conflict between Danny and Davos has been brewing since the first season and they have years of unresolved issues between them, loving each other as brothers but being in a heated rivalry for the Iron Fist ever since meeting. The stakes keep getting higher when Davos steals the Iron Fist and now the viewer assumes Danny must face Davos without his powers, and with a broken leg, to boot. All of this tension and emotion is sadly wasted and left unresolved when Colleen gets the Iron Fist and resolves the plot by herself. After the point where she gets the Iron Fist, the plot loses all power, stakes or relevancy, since Colleen has no actual connection to Davos and no personal stakes in anything that is happening. Wrapping up the season's plot feels more like a formality, revealing that the actual goal of the season was just to transfer Danny's power over to Colleen.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Colleen becoming the Iron Fist generated complaints that she was unconnected to the main plot and that her ancestor being the Iron Fist didn't entitle her to the title or its powers, especially considering Danny's hard work to get the title.
- WTH, Costuming Department?: Season 2 meets the fans' demand to see a comics-accurate Iron Fist mask by having it be worn as a ceremonial mask for the flashback fight between Danny and Davos... and it looks kinda like a cheap Halloween costume. It even got some accusations of being a Take That, Audience!, deliberately made to look bad after the crew got so annoyed at the constant complaining about it.
