#moonlayl rewatches aos

[moonlayl]

The way Trip only died because he went in to get Daisy even though she was perfectly safe, unbeknownst to him.

The way he only died because he shattered the obelisk crystals, thinking it would stop Daisy's transformation, because he thought she was dying.

The way the last thing she did as she was engulfed was call out to him in fear and reach for him.

The way he died thinking he'd failed to save her, with tears in his eyes.

The way the first thing she saw right after her transformation was his remains.

The way her losing him triggered her very first quake.

[moonlayl]

2.20 | 7.10

[moonlayl]

The fact that after Daisy got her powers in s2 and was sent to the "Retreat," she was hunted in the woods by the Real Shield who were told to take their precaution and had lethal weapons whereas the very first scene of s3 is Joey getting his powers and being hunted by the ATCU only for it to be Daisy who shows up WITH Shield to validate his fears, comfort him, and save him from them. We love to see it!

[moonlayl]

The first few episodes of s2 are so full of iconic maydaisy scenes.

May being Daisy's SO fits so well and you can really see how far they've come since s1.

May teaching daisy how to shoot and praising her while also warning her to stay vigilant.

May advocating for Daisy and telling Cousin he should be honest to Daisy several times.

Daisy wanting to join May on the field and even questioning Coulson's authority to provide backup for May.

May comforting Daisy after Daisy has her first kill.

Them going on multiple missions together

[moonlayl]

Rewatching Agents of Shield S1E9 "Repairs"

and something about Skye even back then having so much empathy for Hannah. Insisting Hannah "isn't dangerous", insisting on talking to her "like a friend", immediately understanding how Hannah's lack of ability to understand "her powers" must be terrifying, and her opposing May's "shoot first" policy, and doing her best to comfort Hannah while recognizing her guilt and pain means so so much.

This is a full season before Skye herself unlocks her powers. A full season before she too is put in the exact same terrifying situation.

And a few episodes before 1x09, Skye is also subtly against the idea of the index, questioning its invasive nature and Shield's excessive monitoring.

Skye/Daisy has been emphatic and understanding and good from day one. Not to mention incredibly perceptive and good at reading others.

Even with Ward at the very beginning, she was able to comfort and emphasize with him despite his rough nature, immediately recognizing the source of his nightmares after touching the Asgardian staff in 1x08. Even with May and all her distance, Skye still reached out to her during the tougher moments in S1 and made it clear she was there for her.

This is why Daisy has always been my favourite character.

[moonlayl]

Gonzales calling Skye a "thing"

and that's the freak they're going to send to meet with Jiaying in a few episodes.

[moonlayl]

Raina telling them the vision of shield firing on Afterlife

only for it to end up being Gordon and another inhuman hijacking the quinjet to fire on afterlife...

Again, the show managed to turn a situation of a marginalized group on the brink of being profiled into the villains in a fantastic and twisted way.

Even if you raise the point that "Shield wanting to place every inhuman on the index is bad" it's very easy to take these events and be like "yeah not a good look, but it's actually the inhumans who orchestrated and escalated the problem whereas Shield was only trying to profile them for the greater good."

The writers knew what they were doing and knew the audience would sympathize with inhumans or at least understand both sides so by making every "bad shield act" secretly done by inhumans, and adding the "inhumans want every non inhuman dead" aspect, there's no way anyone could possibly see shield as the bad guys.

They could've made it so that rogue shield agents loyal to Gonzales fired on inhumans after Gonzales' death so that both sides would have committed horrible mistakes (instead of inhumans framing shield). They could've had Gonzales be working on his own for his own agenda which would blow up in the shape of a war with inhumans, making shield technically bad guys while we, the audience, know Coulson and Coulson's shield were actually innocent and that way the marginalized group isn't cartoonishly evil and the conflict could be resolved without the total suffering of every inhuman for seasons to come.

They could've avoided this entire problematic storyline in the first place.

This is your classic propaganda being spread in fictional media, especially superhero media. "Look guys, the armed specialized agents in tactical gear on their way to profile a group of marginalized people are actually the good guys, and the terrorist people of colour evil inhumans set out a trap to kill the poor agents :("

[moonlayl]

Coulson: Did we lose Skye? May: We didn't lose Skye. She chose

Her entire team agreed she was dangerous and needed to be sent away from the only home she'd ever known after she risked her life countless times to help you all out. Then you locked her up in an isolated cabin surrounded by an electrocuting fence. Then shield hunted her down in the woods and tried to kill her, and then you sent the guy that ordered for her to be put down to the safe haven to meet her mom, who then (allegedly) shot her mother. She then witnessed an agent shoot an inhuman right in front of her eyes, as well as a shield quintet fire on civilian inhuman homes.

Can we please be serious?

[moonlayl]

I forgot how much I loved aos 1x06 "FZZT". It was one of my favourite episodes from the first season, but rewatching it now and while it's just as good as I remembered theres' one tiny bothersome detail at the end.

Jemma, who had just been infected with a deadly virus and had 2 hours to figure out a cure for herself, chooses to sacrifice herself and jump off the plane hundreds of feet in the air (literally choosing to off herself to protect the team) and then is rescued by Ward.

After that horrific ordeal, she's finally safe and guess what's the immediate scene that plays afterwards?

Her calling Fitz a hero and telling him not to be upset that HE wasn't the one who saved her.

My girl nearly died and yet the first scene she had with Fitz afterwards is HER comforting HIM and NOT the other way around.

Girl, how in the world did Ward do a better job at comforting Simmons? Like what? Skye immediately hugs her, Coulson tells her he'd hate to lose her, Ward is sweet and understanding making her laugh and calling her brave, and then there's Fitz throwing himself a pity party and wallowing in his insecurities while SHE was the one in danger.

I can't.

[moonlayl]

Not a single one of those "Real Shield" agents (save Bobbi) were carrying ICERS when they went to get Skye, even when Bobbi told them too.

They were gearing up to put Skye down. And despite that, Skye feels bad that her powers caused that one guy to be impaled on his arm, after he fired a shot that would've killed her.

This is the textbook example of self defence on Skye's part.

[moonlayl]

#it's pretty and a reminder

[moonlayl]

Coulson: I asked you to stay and give your advice. I'd be a fool not to take it.

You're a fool for taking it. and May's a bigger fool for suggesting it should be Gonzales meeting with Jiaying.

The shield agents in general constantly assume the best of someone and excuse bad behaviour as long as that someone is another shield agent.

This luxury is of course, not given to non shield agents.

I don't care if Gonzales is a "good man" who "served Shield for 30 years". Is he racist towards inhumans or not? Is it smart, therefore, to have him meeting with the inhumans' leader?

But none of them, not Coulson, not May, not anyone else see it this way because they themselves agree with the index's objectives.

Even Skye was starting to accept it until she found herself on the other end. She took out Donny Gill after all. Something Andrew brings attention to.

[moonlayl]

Andrew recommending Skye leave shield because it's not a place that's psychologically or physically capable of helping her recover, deal with her powers, and stop accidentally hurting herself

and then Skye immediately healing, getting a hang of her powers fairly quickly, and getting her spark back only a few days after arriving at Afterlife

[moonlayl]

Just finished rewatching Turn Turn Turn for the first time and this episode is still as amazing as I remembered.

One tiny thing though: after Garett's betrayal became known, they really had no reason to trust Ward at all.

Trip got that whole Victoria Hand loyalty test to see whether he was Hydra or not. Coulson, May, Simmons, and Fitz were also tested and proven to be loyal to shield.

Technically speaking, both Ward and Skye should've been put under suspicion especially with how bad the situation turned.

Ward was trained under Garett and Skye was trained under Ward, but in Skye's case, she was literally shot at and worked closely with Coulson to figure out the fake Clairvoyant was a sham, not to mention she'd just become an agent the day before.

For Ward though, he was the one that killed the fake clairvoyant and was trained directly under a high level hydra agent. Obviously hindsight is on my side but Victoria Hand was willing to shoot all of Coulson's team, no questions asked, because of how deep the corruption ran, and Coulson interrogated the hell out of May over an encrypted line to Fury, how the hell did either of them think it was a good idea to let Ward accompany Garett to the fridge and not at least question his alliances first?

They had no reason to trust him specifically as opposed to every other member on the team.

If I was betrayed so horribly like that and had the organization that I dedicated my entire life to be a front for my enemy, I would be suspicious of even the people confirmed to be on my side.

[moonlayl]

Also speaking of Agents of Shield 1x09 "Repairs"

Something I completely missed the first time (which makes sense since this is the first time I'm ever rewatching the show lol) is how the mission with Hannah in this episode would've been particularly difficult for May.

So reminiscent of Bahrain and May had JUST started field work again, and just the episode before had touched the Asgardian staff that was supposed to give her uncontrollable rage.

Once again, she's dealing (or at least she thinks she is) with an enhanced individual with uncontrollable powers and with innocents being caught in the crossfire.

She immediately ices Hannah in Hannah's hometown as all the townspeople crowd them and as Hannah starts to move the police car towards the people (or at least thats what they think is happening). She ices her (parallel to her shooting the little girl in Bahrain) but at least this time it's just a sedation.

After that moment during the briefing, Ward asks about the possibility of Hannah not calming down should they explain the situation and May's response is interesting but also heartbreaking in hindsight.

"Then he definitely wants me in there" As in, Coulson definitely wants May to handle the situation should Hannah lose control and should she endanger all of them.

If you're watching this episode for the first time, so far most of what you know about May is that she a) is a badass b) follows the rules and all policies without question and c) went through some bad things in the field, so her response here fits her characterization because you're thinking "right, May was willing to take down the ex Agent in 1x04 'Eye Spy'. She was also stressing the protocols when Simmons was infected in 1x06 'FZZT'. Of course she'd be willing to make the hard call in this situation too."

But the missing detail we don't know at this point is that she was in the exact same position before, and had to make the tough call in probably the worst possible situation ever, and it destroyed her for years.

May physically seeking something with Ward, and being "cold" throughout season 1 makes so much more sense when you remember that she's literally being constantly forced to relive one of her worst ever moments that traumatized her more than anything. She's reliving it on a daily basis all throughout season one. Constantly. I didn't comment on the previous episodes I've rewatched, but this is probably the 3rd time she's put in a situation that forces her to relive Bahrain (unbeknownst to us, the viewers) and this is only episode 9.

And yet despite all of that, she handles it well and she is so incredibly strong for that.

May has always been one of my favourite characters too, and getting to experience s1 Melinda May knowing everything I know now is so fun and interesting.

[moonlayl]

Can we just address how ridiculous everyone in s2 is, for getting mad that the DIRECTOR is keeping secrets, in a secret organization, where he's responsible for everything, including the Avengers?

The entitlement you'd have to feel to demand answers to every single thing is insane. These people knew what thy were signing up for, and had the opportunity to walk away.

I'm all for accountability and the importance of having answers to things that directly concern you, but even I understand leaders will have certain secrets, especially in dire circumstances (which this certainly constitutes as one).