SHIELD thinkings...

[tencrush]

I am rewatching MAoS, yes MARVEL'S Agents of SHIELD, because that is its proper name, mostly to kill the time I have to wait until my next fix and OMG PHEELS and all that. Pheels, coincidentally, about ALL OF THEM. The fact that I have feels about all of them is what drove me to rewatch the series from the beginning, because actually not hating on characters helps me pay a bit more attention, and stops me getting distracted by, you know, that ladyboner thing. MOVING ON, things what I have noticed:

• Ward, when he's not being generally beefcakey and actually talks, spends an inordinate amount of time namechecking Coulson. It's almost like he can't have a conversation without mentioning Phil in some way; Coulson said, Coulson did, Coulson would do such and such if he were here. Watching it back, it seems somehow significant, or, in light of the ending of 1.13, possibly foreboding. I sense there is a MANLY PUNCH UP in the air, or possibly worse, maybe (thinking wishfully now of course) exacerbated by some future Philinda action. We have precious little backstory on Ward, much less so than any of the others, and it's starting to creep me out a bit, I think there may be ulterior motives with Ward somewhere in there. I don't quite know what they are.


• On which note, Phil and May used to do sex. Having sort of casually watched eps 1 to about 5 without that much investment, I figured I was just kind of reading things into stuff while finding my bearings with the show, but on a rewatch, those things are totally there, all over the place. So, yeah, that happened.


• Despite earlier thoughts to the contrary, it transpires that Fitz has become retroactively kind of hot. This is, of course, a personal aside and not a theory, as such. But no, he was no more geeky at the start of the series than he is now. I love that people ship Fitzsimmons, but I don't see anything there, I get that it seems cutesy, but they don't seem to me to have any sexual interest in each other in any way. Neither of them are as virginal as people seem to be making them out to be though, and particulary Simmons seems to be somewhat on the prowl for some action, and yeah, those who think she has Skye in her sights, I can see where you're coming from, for reals, but arguments can be made for Ward and even Coulson, given her hilarious backtracking on the 'old man' thing, over multiple episodes. But not Fitz, in any case.


• Skye has no last name. Yeah, I know you know this, but nobody seems to be asking why. Yeah, she's an orphan, she doesn't have one, but still. Even being an orphan, I feel like she needs a last name somehow, and she might end up getting one, because it feels like she's only half a person at the moment.


• Which brings me back to my theory-that-won't-go-away that Coulson is Skye's father. This handily gives her the last name she's lacking, you see. It's simply too coincidental that Phil and Skye are both looking for redacted SHIELD secrets about themselves and it strikes me as highly unlikely that those secrets aren't connected in some way. Now Victoria 'Foreshadowy' Hand in particular has made quite an issue about the whys and wherefores of Coulson's undeading, what with him being 'just' a field operative, and the question of exactly why SHIELD would put in the effort to undead him remains unanswered. Now, canon would have it that Coulson's been with SHIELD for a ridiculously long time, so what if that long time has been the same amount of time that Skye has been under SHIELD's protection, 24 years or so, which, given his stated age of 49 would seem about right? Coulson's harped a bit about the memory changing thing (as is his right, obviously), asking specifically Melinda the question of what if SHIELD have changed more about him, which again, seems a bit foreshadowy. Melinda replies in the negative, but then she would, given that she knows Phil from his time with SHIELD. What if they changed something about Phil's memories before his time with SHIELD? What if Phil, for whatever reason, was more or less placed into SHIELD with a fake backstory, so they could keep him within their ranks rather than elsewhere? What if finding Skye led SHIELD to Phil, and they took him? If Phil's pre-SHIELD history is a construct, that would explain how the Clairvoyant knew things about him, the Clairvoyant simply found these things in a file somewhere. (It doesn't explain how they knew about the cellist, but then Pepper knew about the cellist, so it's not like that was a big secret.) This, unfortunately, means that Phil is indeed either Special or Super, which is a thing I really don't like, but it's kind of an inevitability, given the undeading, there is quite simply no other explanation for the undeading unless he's shagging Fury, Which, you know, unlikely. ANYWAY, yeah, I think Phil and Skye are connected somehow and the dad thing just seems to fit.


• Another reason I have for believing the dad thing is the fact that for some reason the show seemed to think it was important, straight after the pilot, to introduce us immediately to the concept that Coulson has a dick and has put it into ladies in the past. Given the fact that there are plenty of sexy new characters whose genitalia we could have been introduced to at that point in time (and later are, with Skye and Miles, and then May and Ward), it feels somehow significant that they chose to acquaint us with Coulson's specifically. And yes, it's possible they just wanted to un-Giles him and put him on more of a level pegging with the rest of the team, but it's awfully quick to do that in episode 2, isn't it? It just had a vibe of 'Look! Coulson has a penis! I wonder where it's been?' about it.


• AND ANOTHER THING. Yes, fine, I'm harping on about the Dad thing. Raina tells Coulson that SHIELD is his family, because he has no other family in the world. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Phil having no family outside SHIELD has worked out pretty well for SHIELD so far, he's been a loyal little soldier, doing Fury's dirty work (yeah, watch The Consultant if you want to see more of SHIELD's manipulative machinations and Coulson's part in them). BUT, give Phil a surrogate 'real' family in the form of his bus team, and it doesn't take much to shake Phil's trust in SHIELD (not just his own experiences matter here, but whatever the deal is with Skye, whatever happened in Bahrain etc). The point being that for SHIELD, Phil having no family is quite an asset, what if his no-family state is entirely their doing? And obviously, it's not a coincidence that Skye starts to find her family in SHIELD as an organisation, just as Phil is starting to lose his faith in that very same family. SHIELD is giving Skye a family, and taking Phil's away. This Phil/Skye/family arc has got to be leading somewhere, surely? Yeah, okay, it's Whedon, I'm more than likely seeing arcs where there are none, sue me.

In conclusion, then: Skye/Fitz totally needs to happen. Like, now.

Comments

[off_coloratura]

These are all excellent points. I don't know if I'd be up to watching them all again; bless your perserverance.

Glad I was not the only one who thought Fitz' personality had changed.

I always thought Ward was focused on Coulson because he's the Leader, and Ward is really focused on hierarchy and rules and all that. And because of that they used Ward for a lot of the hierarchy and rules exposition as well as the Intro to Coulson.

Phil and May TOTALLY did sex.

And I noticed right off that they were playing off Coulson's sexuality, and wondered where they were going with it.

I don't like the idea of Phil being super, either. Fingers crossed. Maybe it was Skye's mom who was super.

[tencrush]

I thought that about Ward, too, but I was hovering mid series today, and Ward seemed to be mentioning Coulson for no reason whatsoever, it was a bit weird.

Yah, I'm right about the sex thing, yes? I mean, I love Coulson, but even I found it odd that he would be the first person to be given a Sex Life, so rapidly.

I'm holding out hope for SuperMom.

[scolaro]

...the show seemed to think it was important, straight after the pilot, to introduce us immediately to the concept that Coulson has a dick and has put it into ladies in the past...

That whole paragraph had me in stitches. XD

And I like your analysis, but even though a great daughter/dad relationship is developing between Coulson and Skye I don't want to see her become his actual daughter. That's too much of a stretch, IMO.

(And yeah, Phil/May TOTALLY happened. OBVIOUSLY!) :D

[tencrush]

I don't think it's a huge stretch if they're father/daughter, though personally, I'd prefer it if they weren't, also because, like I said, I really don't want it to turn out that Phil is super/special, and if they're related and she's an 0-8-4, then he probably is. But then, I feel like I'm going to be disappointed.on the super thing regardless, so I'm still trying to get my head around that.

[scolaro]

In my eyes it would be a huge stretch because if I remember correctly the only reason they even went out to find Skye was because she was this incredible Rising Tide hacker, troubling SHIELD (and having info they wanted). So this tiny random SHIELD team stumbles over this random woman and take her in and she turns out to be the actual honest-to-god daughter of the team leader?

I'd classify that as lazy writing, and very much doubt it will go down like this. And of course, what you said! I was biting my nails all the way through the Tahiti experience, hoping that Coulson wouldn't turn out to be an alien or half machine or something else that would destroy the character for me.

Uh well, we'll find out the truth at some point. ;)

[lynnenne]

At first I thought that May would turn out to be Skye's mom. But after the latest episode, I'm going with the theory that Skye is an alien. That's why her name is Skye: because she fell from it.

[off_coloratura]

OOH! What if Skye is from Asgard?

[tencrush]

I was about to say that. Coulson just namechecked Asgard, and I'm pretty sure they bleed like normal people, and they can certainly die, and then there's the spoilers for episode 15 and the Asgardian chicks.

In summary, then, maybe Coulson can't, but Coulson's penis can totally handle Asgard.

[off_coloratura]

Wonder if Cello Lady is the mom.

[tencrush]

Nah, that's a new thing, the films say that happened after Thor but before Avengers. Pepper knows about her in Avengers, but it all sounds relatively recent.

I always wanted to know at what point Pepper and Coulson started having these girly relationship conversations with each other.

[lynnenne]

My thought exactly. They've already had one Asgardian show up on this show. It had to be foreshadowing for something.

[amandajoyce118.livejournal.com]

I don't think I like the idea that Coulson and Skye, or really Skye and any member of the team, are related. I think it narrows the focus of the show too much, and by extension, the scope of the Marvel Universe. I am all for her being an alien though, especially since it looks like the film franchise that is having the most involvement in the show is Thor.

I do agree though that the writing staff wanting to make it clear that Coulson has gotten around quite a bit was interesting to do right off the bat. I'm good with he and May having a past. Mainly because the interactions between those two seem so much more layered than the others, I guess? I don't know. It feels like there's a lot of subtext going on in their scenes together, and I'd like to see that explored a whole lot more.

On the subject of Fitz/Skye... it's so funny to me how many different pairings the fans ship on this show. Everyone ships everyone. I put it down to the cast having such great chemistry on and off screen. They're one of the few casts I've seen doing press who look like they actually enjoy one another's company, rather than that they're just showing up for work. I'm definitely someone who loves the idea of Fitz and Simmons being more than friends. I can't help it. That's kind of my shipper type. Haha. But, I'm never going to object to any potential pairing on this show. I think I'd be okay with a massive love geometry game going on in the bus. Everyone can hook up for all I care, as long as it gives me fun stories. I think there are interesting aspects to pretty much any pairing on the show. Give me all of them over the course of several seasons. I'll take it.

[tencrush]

I dunno, I'm hearing a lot that towards the finale Captain America TWS is going have a way bigger fallout than Thor TDW did, rumours of big shakeups at SHIELD itself in that film, tying in with Coulson's increasing mistrust of the organization in the series. Everything seems to be heading towards huge Coulson/SHIELD angst and some giant personal reveal for Phil. I think the whole Asgard thing might be a red herring.

I'm still the only one on the Coulson/Simmons train, I'm pretty sure. But then, I only like that because it's wrong on so many levels.