MattLektra

MattLektra is the het ship between Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios from the Marvel and Daredevil fandoms.

Netflix Series
Matthew and Elektra first met when he was at an exclusive event with his best friend, Foggy. The two flirted for a while before stealing a car and taking a joy-ride across town, and eventually going into Jack Murdock's old boxing ring, where Matt tells Elektra about his past and his father's murder. The two start to sparr together after talking, before having sex.

Later on, Elektra brings Matt to one of her father's co-worker's houses, and the two break in. Matt carries Elektra in the mansion, and the two approach the kitchen where they talk about what happens to them after graduation. Elektra tells Matt that when he graduates and they get married, they joke about how they'll buy multiple houses and eventually have kids, Ellie and Matty Jr. Elektra starts breaking wine glasses and tells Matt that she doesn't care how expensive they are, and invites him to get her. Matt catches Elektra in his arms and tells her that she knows him unlike anyone else, and that they belong together. The two kiss before getting interrupted by a noise coming from inside the house. Elektra tells Matt it must be her father's co-worker and goes to resolve the issue.

When Matt goes to find Elektra after she had dissapeared, he finds his father's murderer tied up while Elektra stands over him. Elektra encourages Matt to "avenge" his father and tries to pressure him into killing the man. However Elektra is stunned when Matt tells Elektra that he could never go that far. Elektra dissapears when Matt turns to call the police.

Season 2
When Elektra comes back after 10 years, at first, Matthew is angry and upset at her. Snapping at her and telling her to get out of his house when she breaks in. The two later team up to stop the Yakuza and find themselves becoming closer again. At the time, Matt was "dating" Karen, however he spent his time mostly around Elektra. When Elektra got hurt fighting the Yakuza, Matthew brings Elektra back to his house and treats her wounds. The two sit together on the couch as Elektra traces Matt's scars and asks where he got them from. The two talk for a while before Matt sorrowfully asks Elektra where she had gone after she'd left him. Elektra replies that she went as far from his as she could, and the reason why she came back was because he didn't knew what she knew. She tells Matt that he deserves better.

When Elektra and Matt find out what the Yakuza is hiding, the two battle against The Hand's men. When Elektra gets injured, Stick saves them both and brings them back to Matt's place. Matthew stays by Elektra's side until she wakes up.

In the finale of Season 2, Matt and Elektra are up against The Hand. The two lock themselves in a room and talk about what they're going to do if they win the war. Matt tells Elektra that they should run away together, and wherever she goes, he'll go with her. The two make plans to elope and go to London, smiling at each other. Going up on the roof, Elektra and Matt face against Nobu; where Elektra gets impaled by him, saving Matt in the process. Matt holds Elektra in his arms as she bleeds out. Elektra apologizes to Matthew about everything she'd done that hurt him, before dying. After her death, with the help of the Punisher, Matt defeats Nobu and his men.

The Defenders
Elektra is brought back to life by Alexandra, the leader of The Hand, where she gets trained to defeat their enemy, The Chaste. When Matt finds Elektra again, he hears no heartbeat from her, but is still able to recognize her. Matt's goal becomes to find Elektra and get her to remember him again, to which she eventually does. Before she remembers, however, Elektra goes around NYC and finds Matt's apartment. She sleeps on his bed and has a dream of the two of them together, and regains her memories. When Elektra kills Alexandra, she takes over The Hand and finds Matt again. Elektra's fear of death caused her to seek out The Hand's power, and when she finds Matt on her opposing side, the two fight. In the final episode, The two decide to hold each other and kiss as the building falls down on them.

Season 3
When Matt woke up in the church, he kept calling out for Elektra, hoping that she would be alive.

Comics (Alternate Universe)
In the story "What If Elektra Had Lived?" made by Frank Miller, Elektra's murder at the hands of Bullseye does not occur as Bullseye is cut down and killed while trying to escape from prison. After fighting off several assassination attempts, Elektra flees to Matt's home. Matt initially wants to take Elektra into custody, but she warns him that with the Kingpin putting a bounty on her head, she will die at the hands of his agents if she is sent to prison. Matt decides to flee New York with Elektra, putting up his home for sale and cutting off contact with Foggy. The couple are last seen happily enjoying a quiet sunset on a beach.

Quotes
"What if from now on, if we make it… Wherever you run, I run with you?"

- Matt to Elektra.

"We belong together."

- Matt to Elektra.

"Would you believe me if I said I missed you?"

- Elektra to Matt.

"There's just one thing in this world that makes me feel more alive. That's you."

- Matt to Elektra. "Elektra. Yeah. I do miss her."

- Matt in his confession. "I lost you once. I won’t do it again."

- Matt to Elektra in the Defenders. "I want to be with you. The only person in this world who believes I'm good."

- Elektra to Matt.

Behind The Scenes
"Daredevil's most popular love is also his most controversial. Elektra has a history as a deadly assassin willing to kill all sorts of individuals who get in her way. As a hero with a no-kill policy, it is really difficult for Daredevil to reconcile his feelings for Elektra in any kind of resolute way. That being said, in many other ways the two crimefighters seem perfect for one another. Their lives have both been defined by great loss and darkness. There are very few people who can truly understand what Daredevil has been through. Elektra is one of those few. She's also a great love interest because she is just as capable of a combatant as Matthew, making them a great team."

- CBR about Elektra and Matt.

"I think it's a first love, so It's something very strong and special, that they both carried all of these years. And that's why when they meet at this point- you can feel straight away, the electricity. Is it a good thing, is it a bad thing, you know we're gonna find out. But it's strong, there's something really going on between them."

- Elektra's actor Elodie Yung on Matt and Elektra.

"1. While Matt met Karen within the office of Nelson and Murdock, he met his other great love Elektra back in college at Columbia University. The two lovers dated throughout their college days, having quite a hot and heavy relationship. Although they split up after leaving school, the two former classmates would return to each other time and time again. While it is true many great relationships are started in the workplace, it might be even more common for people to meet the love of their life during their college years. That seems to be how things worked out for Elektra Natchios.


 * 2. Any superhero would prefer to have a love interest that can defend himself/herself. Since supervillains, especially in the Marvel world, are so willing to threaten the lives of their enemies' loved ones, it becomes very difficult for said heroes to ever get close to anyone. With Elektra, however, Matt was never afraid. Maybe he should have been since Elektra was eventually murdered by Bullseye. That being said, Elektra had a much better chance of surviving than Karen did. Karen would go on to eventually be murdered by Bullseye as well, although, given her lack of training, she didn't put up nearly as good of a fight.


 * 3. Hired by the Kingpin, Elektra set out with the assignment of terrifying reporter Ben Urich on the crimelord's orders. In the process of doing so, Daredevil intervened and fought Elektra, stopping her. After failing that assignment, Kingpin sent the assassin back out with the goal of killing non-other than Foggy Nelson, Matt's best friend and law partner. As Elektra was about to finish off Nelson, he recognized her as the college girlfriend of his best friend. Knowing how much her actions would hurt her former lover, Elektra relented and refused to complete her assignment, failing the Kingpin yet again.


 * 4. Although Elektra began as an assassin for The Hand, and later for Kingpin, she eventually was able to turn her life around. Mostly due to the influence of Matt Murdock, Elektra decided to go down a more noble path and become a superhero.


 * 5. Perhaps the most famous Elektra story in the comics is her death at the hands of Bullseye. In one of Marvel's popular What If? comics, readers were shown what life would have looked like for the two vigilantes if Elektra had lived. After Elektra betrays the Kingpin and decides not to kill Foggy Nelson, the crimelord puts out a hit on her. Seeking help from Matt, after much deliberation he decides to run away with her. Both of them then retire and live a happy life together."

- CBR's 5 reasons on why Elektra is better for Matt than Karen. "She’s got an agenda, she’s got a goal, she’s got a purpose…she’s also in love, and she hurts from it."

- Elodie Yung on Elektra. "Their relationship, there’s a lot of passion there. They seem to be very different, but maybe deep down, they are quite similar and that’s where their bond comes from. She comes across as being the bad girl and he comes across as being the good guy, but maybe they’re both somewhere in the middle. Maybe Matthew isn’t that good and maybe Elektra isn’t that bad. They complete each other."

- Elodie Yung on Matt and Elektra. "I felt like I got really lucky with the material I had in The Defenders. It was made easier by the fact that Daredevil, of course, has had experience with the Hand. He knows about the organization. They killed Elektra. So this story is deeply personal to him. And when a story is deeply personal, you can keep the stakes very high. (…) It comes from a place where he’s feeling pretty low about himself and is pretty down about everything, and he’s given up being a superhero. He refinds his feet with his profession, his human profession. And amazingly, things somehow go from bad to worse. By the end of The Defenders, he’s gone through yet another roller coaster with this same ex-girlfriend at the heart of it. And they end up fighting/making love with the city crumbling above them. It’s pretty Shakespearean in many ways (laughs)."

- Charlie Cox.

Fanon
MattLektra is the most popular ship for Elektra and the fourth most popular ship for Matt. The ship is popularly shipped alongside Kastle and is the rival ship of KareDevil. On AO3, Matt and Elektra are fourth place in the most written ships in the Daredevil (TV) tag, and third place in The Defenders (Marvel TV) tag. Had Elektra lived in the Defenders, fans believed her and Matt would have found a way to be together. The two talked about elopement together in the second season of Daredevil, right before Elektra had been killed by Nobu.

Fans also think that Elektra was Matt's true love and soulmate. Even when Matt was with Karen he only thought about Elektra, and stayed with her. Matt and Elektra had also thought of getting married multiple times both in the comics and series.

There are some controversies surrounding the ship due to Matt and Elektra's first meeting at college. Elektra was sent by Stick to manipulate Matthew into joining them to win the war against The Hand. Many fans dislike that their relationship started off with Elektra fake-dating Matt and manipulating him, but MattLektra fans argued that Elektra had truly fallen in love with Matt later on. MattLektra fans also argue that despite Elektra wanting to see the darkness inside Matt, she admired his light. In Daredevil Season 2, Matthew offers that the two should run away and live a better life together. And Elektra, despite being trained to for war her entire life, had agreed.

There is a Fan Forum made for MattLektra by Daredevil fans.

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Trivia

 * Elodie Yung said that the only reason Elektra came back in Season 2, was because she truly missed Matthew.
 * In Elektra's dream, she tells Matthew that she liked being with him again.