The Trouble with Danny Bland

Russ Linton
Aug 22, 2017 · 5 min read

I started The Defenders early Friday morning when a bout of insomnia collided with the official release. The first episode opens with Iron Fist (the Legendary Iron Fist, Protector of the Mythical K’un Lun, as we are so often reminded) racing through the sewers in Phnom Penh after a mysterious assassin with his Asian sidekick/girlfriend in tow.

Much has been said about Netflix’s Iron Fist. Accusations of cultural appropriation and insensitivity accompanied the series’ airing. None of these complaints are without merit as Iron Fist’s origin follows a dated story line of Imperial expansion tainted by exploitation. White man finds exotic location and masters its equally exotic secrets to a degree which puts the native populace to shame. He then returns to his people with special knowledge to advance their causes, save their world, etc.

On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with the fantasy. A hero finds themself in a new reality and instead of giving up, thrives. However in the context of our actual reality, the trope is awkward at best and offensive at worst. On the heels of a more socially conscious run of Luke Cage, it’s inexplicable.

Iron Fist originally launched with the #OscarsSoWhite campaign barely a year old. Much attention had been drawn to the lack of diversity in Hollywood and and while the debate settled around African American representation, the true gulf lay with Asian and Latino representation. Whitewashing became the buzzword of the Twitterverse and beyond.

Danny Rand of course isn’t whitewashing. He’s just a hold out from an aging narrative long past its usefulness. But many were keen to carelessly throw around the term. Attempts were even made to derail Doctor Strange due to the casting of Tilda Swinton.

Another suggestion was that Danny’s race should have been changed. The Immortal Iron Fist could easily have been portrayed by an Asian actor and indeed, the storyline might have made more sense because of it.

Initially, I was opposed to the idea. Having a spoiled white billionaire fill the role of the guardian of an ancient Chinese sect could’ve led to some fascinating social commentary which had been touched on in Luke Cage. With Danny Rand, it has not.

Many blame casting for Iron Fist’s struggles, whether race were at issue or not. Finn Jones’ Danny Rand comes off as the exact type of guy you would expect to have shirked the duties of protecting an ancient order. It’s almost disturbing that he plays the part of spoiled, clueless white guy so well.

Even that could be interesting if this is what the show runners intended. And if the character had shown any signs of growth. Instead, his angst never fully roots in anything solid. The stand alone series was about him confronting his anger, an anger which threatened to…what exactly? Prevent him from using his Iron Fist? The very power he’d presumably earned to complete the job he’d left behind?

His past is another issue as the years spent at the monastery seemed to have had no effect on him other then to teach him how to sit in the Lotus, throw a few punches, and speak with a slow, breathy air of mystery. A voice which reminds us over and over, how he is the Immortal Iron Fist, blah, blah, blah.

In truth, there isn’t any one thing which has broken the character. It’s a combination of lazy writing, odd casting, and an inability to delve into the deeper issues both script-wise and socially.

All of this could have been ignored. Iron Fist could have been a recklessly blind and tone deaf homage to the original story and character. What it lost in political correctness, might have at least been regained in entertainment value. However, the writers haven’t taken that track either. With the intersection with Luke Cage in The Defenders, flaunting the edge of social consciousness isn’t possible.

Mid-season, this is made clear as Luke confronts Danny about his privilege. In typical Danny fashion, his response is bewildering. He accepts Luke’s dressing down and then interprets “using his privilege and extraordinary wealth to help others” means asking an accountant at Rand Enterprises for the next clue.

Never mind the whole bus load of them he just missed.

Right when you think the character might experience some genuine growth, he’s undercut by the need for the plot machine to grind onward.

As that scene demonstrates, Danny is the only member of the team lacking a guiding compass. For Luke Cage, it’s about his community. For Daredevil, his struggle to reconcile his faith with the violence of his actions. For Jessica, a sense of insatiable curiosity which keeps her self destructive behavior at bay.

Danny Rand? A billionaire with a fleeting interest in his company. A failure at his sacred duties. A survivor of an assassination which killed his parents. Revenge could be his motivator but the viewer never really feels that’s the case. And as motivators go, it’s a shallow one which is more appropriate for a two hour movie than a multi-series slog.

Redemption could be his story. The early scenes in The Defenders try to make the case for this as he chases down the Hand and flashes back to his failure to protect his mystical, adoptive city. Trouble is, the full Iron Fist series never successfully instilled this motivation. We never truly saw the legendary city he’s charged to defend and instead are treated with a cave and a cliff side gate. It’s forgettable. A place you go AWOL from without any concerns.

Yet Danny’s great epiphany as The Defenders run concludes is that New York, the city he abandoned his post for, is finally “starting to feel like home.”

Why? Because Daredevil asks him to protect his city. Him, of all people. The disappearing guardian.

With Defenders, Danny Bland has become an analog for whiteness. A punching bag of the cast and himself with no sense of self or direction and who solicits little sympathy from the viewer. Though his abilities are made central to the unsteady plot, any sense of urgency has been left behind on a mountaintop in Tibet.

If you enjoyed this article, please click the “like” and “share” buttons. For more about my fiction, visit my webpage at www.russlinton.com and for a free eBook or two, go to: http://smarturl.it/tft2ou

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