Daredevil Born again will soon be born... again... And I am yet to hit season 3, also apparently the Defenders comes smack dab in between... I ain't got time for that shit! I am finally beginning to understand the frustration some people feel when getting into the MCU.
But you know what, we will get through it.
While somehow balancing it with the rest of what I am doing.
I mean if the second season of Daredevil is anything to go by, then balancing the two halves of your life just goes swimmingly and has absolutely no hiccups in between.
Yeah no, that is absolutely not what happens, no it all goes to shit.
And he falls in love with the oppositions god or something.
But that is not where Daredevil's problems begin, not even close, you see this season Daredevil has the pristine privilege of setting up the Punisher, and as a person who did not know that the Punisher is actually called Frank Castle, and who somehow cared so little about the Netflix side of Marvel that he avoided all spoilers and Didn't really know the shows beyond:
Daredevil, random badass girl(Jessica Jones), random badass Skull Guy(Punisher), Luke cage who I know because he was in web of Shadows and Ultimate Spider Man, and Iron fist, who I also know as "that yellow fisted cool guy" from Ultimate Spider Man.
Di... Did I tell you I grew up on the Ultimate Spiderman Cartoon?
I didn't even know the Defenders was a Separate show, I know that the Netflix guys crossed over with each other but not with mainline MCU.
Wait do I need to watch Agents of shield?
Anyways as a person who is... all that...
I just legitimately thought Frank Castle was just another Copy Cat type who was meant to show a dark mirror to Daredevil, the only hint I had was thinking that his face seemed familiar.
Then they call him the Punisher and I was like... Oh... my plan to watch all these shows separately is out the window innit?
Then I saw the timeline and my face became like Coulson's up there.
But Punisher does a lot more than simply take over a majority of the early season, because he very much is what I thought he was, a Dark mirror for Daredevil.
Or
Maybe he is a better Daredevil.
Well the reality is, it is quite likely they are both Necessary, as the final scene where Punisher moves aside to let Daredevil do his job implies.
The question of do some people deserve to die weighs on many people and it is a controversial question because many people have very strong opinions on it, because obviously it can impact them if the answer is wrong.
Impact them and the people they care about or those who would hurt those people in ways that no one would like.
Finding the right answer is therefore imperative and therefore it would take time, time that unfortunately will also allow the wrong people to do the wrong things.
I wrote an article on episode 6 of Season 3 of Invincible if you are curious then you can read my thoughts on taking in all sides of a situation before acting on something, but for a quick catch up, one must see all sides of a situation before acting but by the time one reaches the last angle the first one has changed and so has the last one, and so the situation is different.
In terms of invincible it gives us hope, because I was talking in terms of Omni-Man and Invincible destroying large sections of Earth in their battle, and the last side was Omni-Man and the first was Invincible, they both changed for the better, but they might change for worse.
Some on the other hand, use this to make deliberate changes to hide their true nature, it takes a lot of computational power to do that, but yes some people have power.
So people like Punisher ask the question, if we can see it with our eyes, but the system doesn't see it, why don't we act, act in a way that makes if permanent, Where as Daredevil pulls back, not wanting to become the very thing that he fights against.
Daredevil lets guilty people slip through his fingers and they then go on to hurt people who deserve better, Punisher stops that slippage but in the process ends up killing some who would actually do better with a second chance, both lead to unnecessary deaths and yet they are opposing forces
One may find one or the other more attractive but they do lead to very similar results.
There are various arguments for why either path can lead someone closer to Darkness.
But the problem is the only way to make sure is to know the whole of a person all at once, everything else is just an observation of a projection(This is a mathematical term).
What that means in human language is that you are loosing some information when looking from the outside, and so far all ways we have figured out have that caveat or take time and need the object of observation to not change in a way that it's past can't be figured out.
Not very reliable things those two.
But one has to accept there are times when the Punishers way works just as many times as Daredevil's
Only, Punisher's way is more satisfying to some because.
But this season has done a great Job at showing us that if Punisher is in it for himself, that he kills because it makes him feel better because it is permanent and because in his mind this is justice for his family(and maybe it is.)
The Daredevil is no different, Like Foggy tells him, no one is forcing him to do this, to ignore his friends, his job, and chase wild threads, he is doing this because it makes him feel better as well.
Everything, including the no killing part, because in season 1, that is the yardstick with which he differentiated himself from the "bad guys" And now here is someone who challenges all of that.
A wrench in the works so to speak.
And Matt takes up the case to defend him.
And leaves his friends to fend for themselves because of the mess this choice created.
Yeah no wonder his Firm shut down. It is like Madame Gao said.
And therefore it is yet another Interesting thing that she is the one who finally leads Daredevil to the Blacksmith.
The man whose Bad actions created the Punisher.
And it seems he would be the villain, and he is definitely one of them... But then there is more!
Because of course there is, this is an entire SEASON!!!
And we haven't even spoken about Elektra yet.
But before getting to that Let's first see one example each of when Each of Punisher and Daredevil's ways worked.
Daredevil, in the very beginning of the Season lets a certain criminal go free, and hence puts him back in House Arrest.
This criminal is Turk Barrett, previously seen selling Healy(one of Fisk's Assassins) a very defective Gun which Jams, and then working with Fisk to put one of the Russians(Vladimir) on a warpath against Daredevil in hopes of avenging his dead brother.
Barrett, on Fisk's orders, proceeds then to tell Vladimir that Daredevil is an Assassin hired by Fisk to kill his brother.
Reality being that Fisk removed the brother's head with a car door for interrupting a date with Vanessa, and when he did that, the brother was going to throw in the towel, cooperate, but Fisk had his views of the Russians and wanted them out.
Barrett was arrested alongside Fisk, and after being let out, went back to dealing Guns and being shady as f***. Daredevil uses him for info and then he is back on House Arrest.
For all intents and purposes, this was a man who was a piece of shit and was going to keep being a piece of shit.
The Punisher would have killed him, but because he lived, and was then captured by the hand for cooperating with Daredevil, his ankle monitor for his house arrest is what leads the police to where the hostages are being kept.
Without Barrett they would have died, and needlessly so.
Conversely, the Blacksmith was someone who was ruthless, after his service, he went on to create a criminal empire, roping in the DA into his crime streak as an unwitting accomplice, and causing the deaths of countless people.
He even goes to Testify for the Punisher in his Trial, and in the past he was saved by the Punisher(before he took on this identity and was still a marine) after he made a horrible mistake(or perhaps that was also him being shady who knows, but it would make the whole situation more interesting).
By all intents and purposes, this appeared to be someone who was a good person, and he put on a Good show, until of course, you look too close.
There was nothing to do but kill him, because one will never fully be sure if this guy is redeemed.
It is very poignant then that the very kill that was a hundred percent required is what lead the punisher to complete his identity.
But hold on, this isn't that simple, sometimes criminals want to be better, like Grotto, I fully believed he would have gone the right path if he had gotten the chance, yes in spite of all he did.
You see there is no better deterrent from bad actions than to be faced by the consequences of your own Handi-Work, but at the same time, there is no better way to make bad actions easier than... practice....
So there is a very good chance that Grotto goes good, that his information leads to many more arrests, and he becomes a good man, just as much as there is a very good chance that he offends again.
We will never know because the Punisher shot him, just like we will never know what the Blacksmith was actually doing and why, because the Punisher shot him.
And believe it or not, Criminals do not have to improve in order for them still being alive leading to something good, Barrett is an example, but so is... Fisk.
Fisk is a master manipulator, he is so good that he Manipulates himself into believing that he is actually the savior. Even though this man is running the very prison that he is supposed to be serving a sentence in, eating stakes, well cooked meals, and has a protection crew around him, just like the previous "owner"(who was also a criminal) he so despised.
And the same guy he tries to have killed using the Punisher, he sets him after this guy and then facilitates the Punisher's release, now I haven't watched the series yet, but I know the Punisher is a hero, so... bad leading to good?
I mean without Fisk, Punisher would never kill the blacksmith, he would not get his answers, he would not be the hero he is.
Fisk is very good at using the truth to manipulate someone just as often as he lies, since I have seen the next season at this point(I hadn't when I started writing) I know how well he is at gaming the system, but, you know, the fact remains, the Truth is the Truth.
That is why this is such a dangerous game.
Demons are in a constant battle to appear like Angels because they want the world to be their way, and Angels are Trusted, and besides some of them were once Angels that fell.
And Angels constantly want to become like Demons because they want to save the world from endless pain and think they know how(in a sense they too want to make the world their way) some, as I said in the previous season blog post, do cross the line and fall.
But some are those who have crossed the line and are actually Former Demons that rose.
The path to hell is paved with Good intentions and the Path to heaven feels like hell, because it burns.
Even in real life we see so many people who believe themselves to be terrible but are actually the best people you have met.
These people believe all their actions are bad, that they are bad(so path to heaven is paved with bad intentions? No actually don't do that kids, don't do bad intentions, they are terrible)
And then there is the opposite, like Fisk.
This is a Dangerous game, and only the Dangerous can play it, and there is no saying what will or won't happen.
Exactly Father Lantom, but then again, as I have seen the next season, I know precisely, that this holy Father also has his vices, and so do his words.
Because there is, in this very season, the Hand, a group of Ninja's who have unlocked the secrets of life and Death, and worship this entity called the Black Sky.
There is a lot of discussion online as to what a Black Sky is, but...
I think it is irrelevant, even whether it is real or not, the Hand is an evil organization, and whether they do it after a False Idol or a True Idol.
They still are evil.
Or are they? Because the one opposing them, stick, is he any better? And what if somehow the Hand do evil now to be better later, WHO KNOWS!!!
What Matthew knows is Elektra, the current Black Sky has her own opinions and her own identity.
So maybe there is hope, because that's all any of us have no?
But this will have to continue later.
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