Why do the other 3 members of the Defenders have such a hard time believing in dragons?

Why do the other 3 members of the Defenders have such a hard time believing in dragons? - Two Young Women Lying on White Bed While Looking at Each Other

In the Defenders, every time the Iron Fist brings up fighting a dragon the other characters roll their eyes as though it's unbelievable. Yet from the preceding series we know they live in the universe where Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk and others effectively fought dragon / serpent like creatures from outerspace.

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In the first episode of Daredevil it's made clear these stories take place just after The Avengers movie, they can only afford their office because it's in the area of the city where so much was destroyed by "the incident". When Matt is questioning Karen after her release from jail he mentions the world seeing NYC getting half destroyed. In other words all of the characters have seen extraordinary creatures carried on the news if not personally therefore they live in a world that seems like it should be far less skeptical of extraordinary claims.



Best Answer

In-universe:

The reaction to Iron Fist's backstory isn't based purely on hearing the word dragon. Jessica Jones as a character is extremely skeptic in the first place. Luke Cage is a very grounded person. Jessica, Luke, and Matt, have all seen "special" people, but all of their experience of those powers is based in the physical, and even if extraordinary, doesn't take too much of a leap of faith. Really strong, tough skin, can smell and hear things a long distance away - it's all extensions of things they know.

Dragon itself is an unbelievable fantasy for people, but it comes packed with the rest of his backstory.

  • "I am the Immortal Iron Fist". What?
  • "Protector of Kun'lun". Where?
  • "Sworn enemy of the Hand". No one really disputes this.
  • "It's Chi". It's not.
  • "I plunged my fist into the fiery heart of Shao-Lou the Undying". Uh .....

This is a lot of stuff that gets packaged up and thrown at the Defenders. It required them to believe in mystic powers, locations unheard of, concepts unheard of, and energies unheard of. They're not debating the physical aspects of what Iron Fist can DO, it's just a huge leap of faith that they don't need to make. Why should Jessica Jones start believing that Chi is a thing because some weird dude she just met talked about it? Maybe he IS just on lithium.

Out-of-universe:

It's in line with characterisation for the Defenders. It creates progression in the interactions between them (e.g. by the time Luke and Danny are interacting in Episode 6, the skepticism isn't as pronounced, and Luke even seems to accept it on the surface). It also add material for fun jokes and dialogue

"How are you still hungry?"

"It takes a lot of energy to summon my Chi"

Luke Cage uses his whatever-face




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Who is the dragon in The Defenders?

Shou-LaoCreated byLen Wein (writer) Roy Thomas (writer) Larry Hama (artist)In-story informationSpeciesChinese DragonNotable aliasesShao-Lao Shou-Lao the Undying5 more rows

What happened to the dragon bones in defenders?

Ever since they were banished from K'un-Lun, the five leaders of the Hand excavated holes across the Earth where the dead dragon bones were buried in order to use them for their Elixir.

Why did the hand want dragon bones?

The Hand's main goal was therefore to secure the dragon bones under Midland Circle to rebuild their stockpiles of The Substance.

What were the bones in The Defenders?

If you are finished with The Defenders, then you know that parts of New York City were built on the bones of a dragon. These bones were the secret to immortality, the \u201csubstance\u201d which The Hand craved so badly. The motivation for all of the fighting throughout Daredevil and Iron Fist.



HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD | Kit Harington and Toothless’ Lost Audition Tapes




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