Agents of SHIELD, season 1
Dec. 6th, 2014 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI finished season one of Agents of SHIELD. As much as I liked the first half of the season, they definitely kicked it up a notch in the post-Winter Soldier episodes! Like, I had to stop watching and come back later when Skye realized that Ward was Hydra, because OH MY GOD. The scenes where Skye knows Ward is Hydra and it's not at all clear whether Ward knows she knows, all so tense.
(I also think it's pretty obvious that they're setting Ward up for a redemption arc: his hesitation before jettisoning FitzSimmons, his real love for Skye, even his obvious affection for Garrett (and Garrett's barely-concealed scorn for his softness), all these things scream I HAVE A SOFT MARSHMALLOW UNDERBELLY, REDEEM ME.
Which isn't to say that they're going to do it well - I think an effective redemption arc for Ward would require a more sophisticated grasp of morality than the SHIELD writers seem to have, frankly - but that's clearly where we're going.)
I love everyone in this bar! Except maybe Ward, because he's evil, but maybe he'll get over it, we'll see. I loved FitzSimmons from the start (and now that I've seen Fitz before the accident I am kind of destroyed about the brain damage), but Coulson and May have grown on me to; I spent the first half of the season struggling to connect with May, but then her facade got a tiny little crack for like three seconds and now I am one hundred percent all over that. Stoic badasses who have very very secret feelings (VERY) are my jam.
My take on her fight with Ward at the end is that, insofar as it is personal, it's about his betrayal of the team and not the fact that he jilted her. She clearly never cared about him very much; the only person who suggests she does is Ward, and I think it's because he wants to be loved, far more than because he sees actual evidence that she's fond of him.
It's not a nice thing for her to do, and one of the things that has really grown on me about May is that she doesn't care if people like her (except maaaaaaybe Coulson), and the writers don't care either (I think they like her, because who wouldn't enjoy writing her? But they're not too chuffed if viewers don't share their feeling). So she's good and occasionally kind, but not at all nice. I'd hate to work with her, but it makes her interesting to watch.
And I love the fact that this show is willing to rough the girls up just as much as the guys. (Although I have heard ominous rumblings that maybe Simmons is going to die in season two, and I REFUSE, that is just not allowed.)
I like Skye a lot (look at her face in this icon, she makes all the best faces. She has no sense of dignity, I love it), although a couple of times I nearly drowned in embarrassment for her writers when they decided to tell us about how she's a shining beacon of compassion. Skye has a lot of good qualities, and compassion is occasionally one of them, but Fitz and Simmons and even occasionally Coulson - even sometimes May, in her chilly distant way - often have more of it.
Often I feel like writers, especially TV writers, think that compassion is a fuzzily mystically quality that vaguely attaches itself to characters, particularly female characters, rather than being an actual trait with defined qualities that a character needs to exhibit.
(I'm looking at you, Torchwood writers who apparently believed that Gwen Cooper glowed with compassion! Gwen Cooper who gave her boyfriend retcon and then confessed to cheating on him, so she could wring forgiveness out of him without having to deal with long-term consequences. JESUS CHRIST. Skye never does anything a quarter so egregious, thank God. My choice in shows about world-saving ragtag teams of misfits has gone up over the years!)
I am so tempted to start adding Agents of SHIELD cameos to my Bucky stories, someone please restrain me, I know that MCU fandom has decidedly mixed feelings about this show. (Skye and Bucky team up to throw snowballs at Steve would still be the cutest thing, though. The cutest.)
And this reminds me! I have a new story that I haven't linked yet.
Fic: Suspension
Fandom: Captain America
Rating: PG-13
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
littlerhymes
Sequel to Self-Abuse, Disconnect, Boundaries, Untangle, Give Me Your Hand, and Dominoes. Maybe I should just start linking the series page in the future.
Summary: Steve was incredulous. “Do you think this is what happy and safe feels like?”
Bucky’s gaze fell away from Steve’s, his eyebrows bunching up. Steve had thought he claimed he was happy just to get Steve off his back, but Jesus. Maybe he did.
(I also think it's pretty obvious that they're setting Ward up for a redemption arc: his hesitation before jettisoning FitzSimmons, his real love for Skye, even his obvious affection for Garrett (and Garrett's barely-concealed scorn for his softness), all these things scream I HAVE A SOFT MARSHMALLOW UNDERBELLY, REDEEM ME.
Which isn't to say that they're going to do it well - I think an effective redemption arc for Ward would require a more sophisticated grasp of morality than the SHIELD writers seem to have, frankly - but that's clearly where we're going.)
I love everyone in this bar! Except maybe Ward, because he's evil, but maybe he'll get over it, we'll see. I loved FitzSimmons from the start (and now that I've seen Fitz before the accident I am kind of destroyed about the brain damage), but Coulson and May have grown on me to; I spent the first half of the season struggling to connect with May, but then her facade got a tiny little crack for like three seconds and now I am one hundred percent all over that. Stoic badasses who have very very secret feelings (VERY) are my jam.
My take on her fight with Ward at the end is that, insofar as it is personal, it's about his betrayal of the team and not the fact that he jilted her. She clearly never cared about him very much; the only person who suggests she does is Ward, and I think it's because he wants to be loved, far more than because he sees actual evidence that she's fond of him.
It's not a nice thing for her to do, and one of the things that has really grown on me about May is that she doesn't care if people like her (except maaaaaaybe Coulson), and the writers don't care either (I think they like her, because who wouldn't enjoy writing her? But they're not too chuffed if viewers don't share their feeling). So she's good and occasionally kind, but not at all nice. I'd hate to work with her, but it makes her interesting to watch.
And I love the fact that this show is willing to rough the girls up just as much as the guys. (Although I have heard ominous rumblings that maybe Simmons is going to die in season two, and I REFUSE, that is just not allowed.)
I like Skye a lot (look at her face in this icon, she makes all the best faces. She has no sense of dignity, I love it), although a couple of times I nearly drowned in embarrassment for her writers when they decided to tell us about how she's a shining beacon of compassion. Skye has a lot of good qualities, and compassion is occasionally one of them, but Fitz and Simmons and even occasionally Coulson - even sometimes May, in her chilly distant way - often have more of it.
Often I feel like writers, especially TV writers, think that compassion is a fuzzily mystically quality that vaguely attaches itself to characters, particularly female characters, rather than being an actual trait with defined qualities that a character needs to exhibit.
(I'm looking at you, Torchwood writers who apparently believed that Gwen Cooper glowed with compassion! Gwen Cooper who gave her boyfriend retcon and then confessed to cheating on him, so she could wring forgiveness out of him without having to deal with long-term consequences. JESUS CHRIST. Skye never does anything a quarter so egregious, thank God. My choice in shows about world-saving ragtag teams of misfits has gone up over the years!)
I am so tempted to start adding Agents of SHIELD cameos to my Bucky stories, someone please restrain me, I know that MCU fandom has decidedly mixed feelings about this show. (Skye and Bucky team up to throw snowballs at Steve would still be the cutest thing, though. The cutest.)
And this reminds me! I have a new story that I haven't linked yet.
Fic: Suspension
Fandom: Captain America
Rating: PG-13
Beta:
littlerhymesSequel to Self-Abuse, Disconnect, Boundaries, Untangle, Give Me Your Hand, and Dominoes. Maybe I should just start linking the series page in the future.
Summary: Steve was incredulous. “Do you think this is what happy and safe feels like?”
Bucky’s gaze fell away from Steve’s, his eyebrows bunching up. Steve had thought he claimed he was happy just to get Steve off his back, but Jesus. Maybe he did.
