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This whole question is going to be one huge spoiler for the show The Defenders and a bit of Daredevil. So leave if you must.

In The Defenders, the Hand (or at least Alexandra) choose to resurrect Elektra, the Black Sky using the last of the substance.

But it is apparently seen as a bad move from Gao, especially because of her love affair with Daredevil.

Is there a reason why Elektra was resurrected instead of the other black sky : A young Asian boy that was killed by Stick in the Daredevil show? Since the Hand was willing (in the end) to resurrect a black sky, why go with the risky version?

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  • Excellent question. It might depend on whether resurrecting the Black Sky was the source of their powers, or whether they had the powers beforehand (a question that I asked previously). If the latter, Elektra might simply have been more skilled to begin with.
    – Adamant
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 20:44

4 Answers 4

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I'll dig up quotes when I get home

  • It's shown several times that the Black Sky is more of Alexandra's prophecy and obsession than any other Finger of the Hand. She made the choice to expend the resources.

  • Alexandra leaves a stray comment when talking to Elektra about how she had a daughter once. This daughter died (iirc, before Alexandra found the secret to long life). With continuous references to Elektra as her "child", there's an underlying implication that she feels more of a connection specifically to Elektra, and that Elektra is taking the place of her daughter in her mind/world.

  • When Madame Gao liaises between Alexandra and the Fingers, and brings up Alexandra's .... weakness, an interesting exchange happens. Alexandra specifically brings up that Elektra has something special, a strength that neither Madame Gao nor herself can match. This is cast as something unique to Elektra Natchios.

  • Elektra appears to have a bloodlust or "darkness" unique to her nature. It's not evident that any other Black Sky has it, or if this was purely a manifestation of the Black Sky.

It seems that (some of) these reasons act to motivate Alexandra, and she sees something in Elektra that we see no evidence of in any other potential Black Sky. Of course, it's kinda kept vague how Black Sky "works", or why the other Black Sky was being shipped to New York in the first place. The maps that Nobu uses and the radicals 黒空 around the block they wanted seem to indicate the Black Sky had some purpose there, but specific on how they intended to to "use" the Black Sky are unclear (were they going to kill him, were they going to try and use him to get the substance, etc.).

Alexandra seems to have thought that the Black Sky would just be generally useful in her hands, e.g. when it became clear that there was a wall and they might need the Iron Fist, the Black Sky could be tasked to get the Iron Fist.

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  • I like the daughter argument, but the first one does not really work. We have seen Nobu take care of the first black sky (and Elektra). But Nobu does not depend from Alexandra, but another finger of the hand
    – Edelk
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 7:53
  • Nobu had a charge, but he isn't shown to be personally devoted, more so than any other Hand member. He gets angry with Fisk after the child dies, but doesn't seem exceptionally distraught, and certainly doesn't seem to think about resurrection. He kills Elektra, but just walks away and barks an order at his troops. But the point of the first part is that the choice of "resurrect" was wholly in the hands of Alexandra. The rest of the Hand didn't make that choice; Nobu, Murakami, Gao, Bakuto, they respect the power of Black Sky, but they don't pin everything on it like she did.
    – DariM
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 21:18
  • @Edelk: Nobu depends on Murakami, but it is shown in the series that Alexandra acts as a leader of the 5 fingers. The second part of the show is about her loosing leadership. It is not explained in the show but Murakami most likely asked Nobu to take care of the Black Sky, out of loyalty for Alexandra and respect for her farseeing leasership.
    – Taladris
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 4:14
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We don't know how Stick killed the child, it may be that he did it in such a way that he could not be resurrected. It is also suggested that the child is already a Black Sky and has gone through the "change" rather then being potential (the child is chained down and treated as if dangerous). It also isn't clear if the resources Alexandra talked about where in the city at that moment in time or even if the original plan was to "activate" black sky before the Hand got what they wanted from the New York Hole. From what Alexandra says to Elektra I also believe that in order to become a Black Sky the vessel has to die anyway but that is something I have inferred from the various series etc.

Also Alexandra did act without talking to her fellow members of the Hand and that is made clear at various times throughout the series, in addition Alexandra is told "Black Sky was always your prophesy not ours" (cant remember if it was Gao who said that).

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  • Stick claims to have killed the child with an arrow through the heart. Doesn't mean he's not lying, of course, but it's not nothing
    – Jason Baker
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 15:54
  • ahhhh yes he does sorry, forgot that
    – Richard C
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 16:00
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I also feel that though this is most likely not one of Alexandra's main motivations to bring Elektra back as Black Sky, she was very happy, almost excited to bring Elektra (Black Sky) out to rub it in Stick's face what she had done to his star pupil right before she planned on having her kill him. My point being, I think it was in her mind a positive that she had personal relationships with both Stick and Matt in her past life, which would in turn hopefully distract them or throw them off guard enough to be able to easier dispose of them when the time came. Instead that became what destroyed her whole operation.

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  • Are you saying the reason they resurrected Electra was because they thought she'd be more effective against Stick and Matt? If so, are there any scenes or evidence besides her relationships which suggest that she would hold the same belief as the Hand?
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 8:22
  • Spoilers from Defenders S1 through whole answer There was no evidence saying she would hold the same beliefs as the hand, I think that they assumed and took it as fact that she would have to serve them once she became the Black Sky which they were obviously wrong about. The most clear and blatant example is when she knocked out Nobu to save Matt. Lastly it was clear she wanted Stick to know what had been done, since when he was their prisoner it wasn't necessary of her to come out, as she would of been more deadly if so much attention wasn't brought upon herself and what had been done.
    – JayFaze NOR
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 13:55
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I haven't seen The Defenders nor Daredevil TV shows so I'm not entirely sure if the Hand in the movies works exactly like in the comics, even if what I read in the summary online seems to indicate something similar. Then:

  • Elektra is one of the best assassins in the world.
  • When the Hand resurrect someone, this someone become a servant of the Hand itself.

Given that both Elektra and the kid are potential Black Sky, would you spend your most precious resources to resurrect and have as an ally a random powerless kid or a deadly, top of the top assassin?

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