In defence of the Hand [Defenders spoilers] (x-post from r/defenders)

Since finishing the series, many of us have wondered why the Hand seem so weak in the Defenders compared to the threat we were teased in DD; armies of silent ninjas and someone like Nobu as the equivalent of a miniboss seemed to promise more than we ended up getting. I'm not saying I disagree, while I loved the series the Hand was definitely the weak spot, due to the seeming nerf and the general weakness of the plot regarding their goals and so forth. We know what caused it all in the real world - lack of planning between the various seasons, rushed production, et cetera - but in universe, it can be somewhat explained.

There's three main big 'Defenders V Hand' showdowns in the series, the first fight at Midland Circle, the restaurant showdown and the final underground kerfuffle, and in all of them, unlike the Hand's previous demonstrations of strength in DD like the hospital and rooftop, the Hand is taken by some degree of surprise. In Midland Circle, Alexandra has prepared for Iron Fist and Iron Fist alone - and the amount of goons that the Defenders end up punching through, with the executives' ninja training and the grunts' guns and tranquillisers, combined with Elektra/Black Sky would surely have been more than enough to subdue Rand, and any other threat that could have accompanied him except the massively coincidental arrival of the other 3 superpowered Defenders. It's important to remember that Luke, Jessica and even Matt's involvement with the Iron Fist is a complete shock, and the Hand has been disorganised and scattered by the chance arrival of anyone other than a single, relatively weak Iron Fist.

It's only around an hour after that the Hand manages to assemble another large group of warriors, and Alexandra manages to bring in her rivals Murakami and Sowande, and locate the Defenders - an awful lot was done in a short amount of time. Realistically, the Hand didn't have enough time or knowledge of the Defenders' location to bring one of their proper Ninja armies to the Royal Dragon.

The final showdown is a little different. The Hand had more time to assemble a more proficient force, and the location was known to them. However, there's two points that explain why the Hand weren't able to assemble more of their warriors in the dragon-bone-lair-thingy. First, the only way to get there was a very small, slow elevator, or climbing hundreds of metres by hand (hah). Getting even the amount that the Hand had down there would have taken ages. Secondly, and more importantly, at this point the Hand was basically in the midst of collapse due to Alexandra's death, shattering the structure of the organisation.

The Hand was taken by surprise over and over - if the massive coincidence of the Defenders meeting at Midland Circle had not happened, the Hand would have been able to deal with all the heroes in a manner much more similar to the power and proficiency we glimpsed in DD S2. I realise this doesn't address everything, but I wanted to share some thoughts I had to help suspend disbelief over the Hand's weakness and allow us all to appreciate their role in the series a little bit more.