#daniel sousa meta

[thatscarletflycatcher]

There's something that has been gnawing at me since I saw some comments on the look-how-they-massacred-them poll for Daniel Sousa -with which I didn't want to engage then and there because I really didn't want to pick up a fight with another Daniel fan, there's few enough of us, but also because the argument was very difficult to articulate.

It is difficult to explain how Daniel Sousa is screwed over by Endgame without making it look like either "he deserved Peggy as a prize" or "he was the perfect prize for Peggy", because it all begins by understanding the experience of WWII and the building of the morale of WWII. Something that Markus and McFeely seemed to perfectly understand in Agent Carter, which inclines me to believe it was specific insistence of the Russos, whose concept of narrative and storytelling is at the level of a belligerent and not very bright 4 year old, that gave us that mindblowingly stupid "happy ending" for Cap and Peggy. Or maybe Markus and McFeely are just arcane creatures, at times intelligent and at times really dumb. Anyways.

Point is that both CATFA and Agent Carter understand that for these characters, fighting WWII is a matter of "each doing their bit", of, as Steve put it in The Avengers, to lay on the barbed wire so the one that comes after you can pass on. And in the process of doing that, you have great loses and suffer great grief. The price of war is immense, and for these people the price of war is the price of freedom (yes, that celebrated Steve speech from CATWS is also sharing in that same spirit. It's kind of impressive how until that awful mess of Endgame, the perspective of Steve as a character from movie to movie is one that addresses how some 1940s things are outdated, but how many others are still relevant and inspiring. It is a surprisingly nuanced take on History, that of course the Russo "Cap is an outdated relic that belongs in the past and should stay there" brothers don't seem to have what's needed to grasp).

In that context, the most coherent tone for Steggy is tragedy. Because that is what happened to many, many, many people during the war. You meet, you fall in love fast, because there is no time. And then suddenly the other is gone, never to come back. And all the promises of youth and life and future the other person represented, are gone with them. People who lived through 2020-2022 have some idea of what it is like for projects, opportunities, and years of your life to just vanish. Now you make that five years, eight months, and to mention "just" the British, 1 out every 100 people live in 1939, dead, and over 350.000 permanently disabled. If you were 20 in 1939, your life would be practically on hold till you were 26. It's a whole lot of grief, and an intense grief, that you don't solve the way you solve a random missing connection in a romcom like Serendipity or The Lake House. Doing so is cheapening and bastardizing the grief and trauma of a whole generation of people in different countries.

So, Agent Carter. Here we have a story focused on a group of people, spies, who, in different fronts and with different outcomes, made it through the war and are now facing this new world they are living in, and all the grief of their respective losses. The focus of the story is Peggy, a woman who, like many others, was allowed a wide range of action during the war, and is now subconsiously perceived as a threat by many of her male coworkers. It's a desperate bid to "go back to the way things were before", and her presence is a constant reminder that they can't.

Sousa occupies a very similar position to Peggy's: he's also a reminder that the war happened and that there is no way back, no magic solution, no pretending. And that's why both are ignored, and displaced, and why both struggle to prove themselves in a subconscious way while living by the continued principle that they are doing their bit. That is their lifeline that keeps them sane and working all throughout s1 of Agent Carter.

That's what we mean when we say Peggy and Sousa are equals, and that Sousa is contented with letting her have the spot; not because he's her inferior or her dependant, but because he's her equal -in intelligence, in ideals, in resourcefulness, in loyalty, but also in their relative positions in the power ladder- and does not feel threatened by her because of it.

(It is in this context, btw, that Peggy's rebuke of Daniel's "rescue" of her in the first episode must be understood. Because she was once treated like any other officer/agent of her same rank, she has knee jerk reactions to both being demeaned and being protected. It's also an important theme of that beginning of the series that Peggy needs to learn to let her friends in, and that she needs their help, and that that doesn't make her too weak to protect and defend them.)

But also, in another way, when we talk about Sousa becoming Peggy's husband, it has to do with the sentiment Krezminsky expresses in the series:

The ship of Steggy had sailed and was gone forever since the moment Steve became the legend in the ice and Peggy "Cap's Girl", this embodiment of the ridiculous damsel in distress we hear in the radio drama that plays on one of the episodes: Peggy fell in love with Steve when he was a scrawny, sickly lad, because she loved the man he was inside, but now forever for the world she is just another superficial, weak girl lusting after the handsome godlike rescuer, the picture of the eugenic dream of the übermensch. In Daniel Peggy loves and finds all the same things she found and loved in Steve, but in a different light, because Sousa is a different person, with a different life story, plus something else: they have both gone through war and its loss and grief, and come to the other side in need of rebuilding and finding new meaning in life and hope for the future.

In a world where the Dark, Tall and Handsome Hero of the Six Pack, Alpha Dominance and Endless Stamina reigns supreme, Sousa as a love interest is a remarkable and -sadly- bold statement about the things that truly matter in finding one's life partner.

So I think here is a reasonable point to start talking about Sousa in Agents of SHIELD. Because here's where someone would rationally say "well, but you see, there he's also chosen as a love interest!", and the reasons why context in AoS changes everything are multiple, so let's go there.

But before that, let me make clear that I do wholeheartedly believe the writers of AoS meant to honor Sousa, and sincerely tried to do their best with what they were given. That doesn't change what the end product ended up doing and saying about him.

Like Peggy is the main character of Agent Carter, so Daisy is the main character of Agents of SHIELD. As much as you can say all the team characters are important and get the focus, Daisy is the one which the narrative insists on making the focal point, as the arcs of several seasons hinge on her, and we are expected to sympathize with her first and foremost in any situation in which she is personally involved. But unlike Peggy, Daisy is a superpowered individual. She's more like Steve than Peggy; she's practically a demigod. She is capable of ripping Earth apart with just her hands. Where Peggy and Sousa were equals in the power ladder in-universe, in AoS the distance between Daisy and Sousa is abysmal. That imbalance is the first thing that leads to Sousa being put in the position of Daisy's Boy. The fact that he ends up in space with Daisy's last minute sister who is ALSO an inhuman does not help things.

As a side note, there's something to be said about futuristic prosthetics in AoS and how they interesect with disability. But I'd rather not get into it because it is a thorny subject and I don't feel qualified to speak of it.

In a different way, Daniel being Peggy's love interest in Agent Carter is balanced out by his having a life of his own and many interactions with other characters throughout the series. He pursues his own lines of investigation, he conducts interrogations of his own, he comes up with plans, he teams up with Krezminsky and with Thompson and in s2 he has downright made a life for himself as chief in California with a fiancé and all. There is a clear sense that he exists as a character outside of pining for Peggy.

In AoS, the opposite happens. Part of it is owed to the writers writing themselves into a corner: to take Sousa out of his timeline, they have to do it in such a way that his disappearance is inconspicuous, which means killing him. They do it the best way they can think of, honoring his alertness and intelligence, by making him realize HYDRA is infiltrated in SHIELD decades before anyone else does. But as a consequence, Sousa becomes the man out of time: there's no future for him, because he has died, and unlike Steve, he's not being brought back because he himself is required. They just save him because they take pity on him and the tragedy of his life. So he has no mission and no significant previous connection with anyone on the team. One of the concrete things in which this is evidenced the most is with the switch from being addressed as chief Sousa to Agent Sousa. He was chief, but between that SHIELD and this SHIELD there's not such a connection by which he can claim that title. There's no subordinates to manage. So he's sort of default-called agent without really being a proper agent.

So the writers choose the fish-out-of-water concept for him. Which is far fetched. This guy lived through wwii in a high spy setting where intelligence has knowledge of powerful interstellar aliens. He's most definitely not bewildered by phone cameras, guys. He would quickly adapt... if, again, you know, he was brought back for a mission. But the reality is that from a Doylist POV, he was brought in to be Daisy's love interest, and the only thing he can offer to her, in this huge power imbalance I have pointed out, is chivalrous manners and quaint WWII style references like when he tells her "Agent Johnson, we are going home"; both can be very charming to a modern woman, but they are things that highlight the cultural and psychological distances that separate them, and make it glaringly obvious that they have barely anything in common.

The series tries desperately to give them common ground in the time-loop episode, with this idea that Daisy is like Peggy because she sacrifices herself for others and to protect others all the time. Which is laughable because, again, in Daisy's condition of beloved main character that embodies the tortured, quasi byronic heroine that we understand to be the hallmark of about one half of the contemporary superhero type, the narrative and the characters in it bend all sorts of ways to accommodate her, not the other way around. Peggy's type is different because it is rooted in that WWII morale/frame I was talking about at the beginning of the post.

As a consequence of all of this, Sousa barely interacts with anyone that isn't Daisy (he has of personal scenes, what? one or two with Coulson, the scene where Jemma gives him a new prosthetic, and then he's given an idea to give to Mac in the finale. I don't remember any other non-Daisy ones), has no unique role to fulfill in the mission (specially because so much of the plan is entwined in Fitz and Jemma's rescue plan that was NOT counting with Sousa) and no personal goal to achieve, which weakens his standing as a character outside the romance plot, and when it comes to the romance plot, he has nothing in common with Daisy, and he brings nothing to the partnership other than... narratively forced love, and chivalrousness.

In the end, Daniel, who was a character and a person of relevance in Agent Carter, is nerfed and turned into a prop for the rushed happily ever after of the main character of AoS. And that, in my books, is being screwed over. That's what makes his becoming Peggy's husband and building a life and a future with her a much better and more preferable outcome for Daniel; he gets to build a life of meaning by his own significant work and significant connections, in his own time and place, with a wife who is his equal and with other people that have lived through the same collective experiences of trauma and grief he did.

[backgroundagent3]

for the character ask, daisy johnson!

Thank you so much for the ask! 💜 I love any excuse to talk about Daisy Johnson.

First impression: I'm trying to squeeze my brain here, but all I remember was trying not to like her at first because I knew se was a double agent for the Rising Tide. It goes without saying I failed miserably about three episodes in.

Impression now: She is my favourite character of all time.

Favorite moment: I really can't choose, but one that comes to mind was the final fight of season 5. I think it's a very underrated fight scene, because it's the end of the world, her dad is dying, she has been recently betrayed and tortured by her friend, and she still goes into battle BY HERSELF against Talbot, and if that wasn't bad enough, when she's about to die a horrible death she realises that the only way she can save the world is if she takes the serum and basically condemns the person she loves most to his death. It's so heartbreaking and poetic, but very cool to watch, and I just love so much it, idk.

Idea for a story: This is angsty but I would love to read something where the events of 5.14 are properly dealt with. May watches the security cameras and goes ballistic on Fitz, and Daisy gets time to grieve and heal. They get Coulson back and he's horrified, and Jemma is so conflicted but she's there for her best friend.

Unpopular opinion: Since apparently I can't stop thinking about season 5, here's some more. I think she actually did a good job of leading the team in season 5b. Especially if you consider that she's been recently tortured, her family doesn't seem to care, she has no experience, and hasn't gotten a good nights sleep in about 5 years. She might be tough, but hello? IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD?? You have to be at least a little bossy if you wanna make it through that. Also if you're gonna be a baby and call her a hard ass maybe you should have thought twice before joining SHIELD.

Favorite relationship: If it's romantic, then Sousa. I love them so so much, they're literally perfect and despite my obvious outrage at season 5, I will forever love the AoS writers for somehow pulling that off. As for platonic relationships, I'd say May. She's the perfect mother figure for her, and I love the parallels between them. I think Daisy has the best relationships in general, but this one is my favourite. Honourable mentions go to Coulson for being the most unhinged dad ever, and to Jemma for being the sweetest friend in the earlier seasons.

Favorite headcanon: before she goes off to space at the end of season 7, she rebuilds Afterlife with the help of Sousa and Kora. I've said this before, but I think they are actually the perfect team to do this. Kora has lived in Afterlife her whole life, she's seen Jiaying help people go through Terrigenesis, and she's been though it herself in a much healthier and safer environment than Daisy. Sousa is reasonable and calm, which are good qualities to have when you're helping someone who's terrified and potentially dangerous. He has experience leading people, which I think would make him a good mentor for the Inhumans. So Kora has the experience, Sousa has the qualities, and in my opinion, Daisy has a nice combination of the two. She has a different and much more horrifying experience of Terrigenesis that people who accidentally go though it can relate to, and she has spent years exploring and controlling her powers, so she knows what the deal is. And she's also a good leader, so where Sousa can help the Inhumans pre-Terrigenesis, she can train them after if that's what they want. Because that's another thing, SHIELD may be funding Afterlife, but they've learnt their lesson and they're not sticking their noses where they shouldn't. They accept new recruits and help train them, but if that's not what the Inhumans want, then SHIELD helps them get settled back into their normal lives. Anyways this got long but it's one of my favourite headcanons, so there you go.

Thank you so much for the ask! Sorry for rambling, but I have a lot to say about Daisy. 🌼💛

Character Asks.

[momentofch-aos]

Today’s M’s Marvel thought of the day.

Peggy Carter writing and reading Daniel Sousa’s eulogy and Jack Thompson stood off to her left. Not her right hand side because on her right lays her right hand man’s caskett.

[tremorsmackenzie]

just saying both Daisy and Peggy are nicknames for people named Margaret, which is peggy carters actual name. i love these parallels, i love that it connects two of the most badass women in marvel, who are both shield agents and i love how it unintentionally plays even more into daniel having a type lmao

"some of my favourite people are people like you" uh huh

[angry-slytherin]

We all know that Daisy and Daniel work because while Daniel’s chivalrous attitude is exactly what Daisy needs. 

Daisy is strong, independent, and single-minded. She will stop at nothing to do what she thinks is right. Daniel shares this quality with her, but Daisy is more of an action hero, whereas Daniel is a more of a martyr(Daisy sacrificing herself in 7x13 vs Daniel dying in the original SHIELD timeline). Someone like Daisy needs someone who they can depend on when the fight is over, when their turn to be the hero is over. Daniel is wired to do exactly this: he’s chivalrous, loyal, and steadfast. Daniel can be Daisy’s “someone” that she comes home to and who can not only tend to her, but empathize with her cause. He won’t see her “running at brick walls” as futile or wayward, he gets why she fights and he feels the same passion she does for doing what’s right.

But Daisy and Daniel also work because Daisy is someone Daniel can depend on.

Daniel is also an independent, somewhat lonely character. In Agent Carter the narrative is that Daniel is not lonely by choice, but because he is ostracized due to his disability. This much is true, but Daniel is also emotionally distant from even Peggy at times. He sees his feelings for Peggy as a dead end, so he pours himself into his work, hoping to squash his true desire.

(His desire to help others is commendable, but sometimes it feels suffocating to Peggy’s character, because she needs more of a partner in crime(action) and less of a partner in ideals(what drives one to fight and why they fight for what they do). While I think peggysous may have been a good ship, I don’t know if I ultimately saw Daniel and Peggy ending up together. There is absolutely a timeline where Daniel is Peggy’s husband, but we’re gonna leave a pin in that one and return to why Daisy is so good for Daniel).

Daisy can give Daniel emotional stability. By season 7, Daisy has a very clear idea of what she wants. Family, a meaningful relationship(her “own Fitz”) and stability in general are on Daisy’s radar. Daniel in season 2 of Agent Carter is completely the opposite of this: proposing to one woman while being in love with another, anyone? By the time we see Daniel again in AOS season 7, it’s been 6 years for him, plenty of time to mature and find out what he really wants. But it’s clear in season 7 that he hasn’t found this. He’s single, entrenched in his work, and even at work, he’s the lonely head of his branch. His desire to be with someone he loves and cares about has not disappeared, but has been put on the back burner.

Then in comes Daisy, who’s attracted to him, forward and shares his desire for stability and romance. I think even despite the scene where Mack says that Daisy might not know herself that she’s interested in Daniel, Daisy gives Daniel clear hints, and she shows sympathy for his and care for his situation that the other team members gloss over. She genuinely feels for him, and tells him as much, that he’s missed out on saying goodbye to his loved ones, that he’s been ripped from his life and brought somewhere completely unfamiliar.

While Daniel and Daisy were, in actuality, a shoe-horned final season last ditch attempt at romance for the lead of AOS, they don’t feel that way. Besides Enver and Chloe’s clear chemistry, the characters work together, in an improbable, underdeveloped way that makes it feel real. Real life romance takes trial and error over and over, figuring out what you want and what you don’t. By this point in their respective arcs, Daisy and Daniel feel like characters who know what they want, and they find it in each other. This allows the audience to feel like their relationship is fated to last, and their ending scene in 7x13 to feel like a satisfying conclusion for both characters.

This is all to say I love them and I’m so grateful for their small but active fan base.

[peonymoss]

Fic Update: "Quo Vadis", Chapter 68

An “Agent Carter” * prequel: How Daniel Sousa got that lead, and his long journey through recovery to the SSR.

This chapter: “Interviews”

[likea-black-widow-baby]

What are your thoughts on Daniel Sousa?

Yes! I’m sorry it’s been so long Anon!

I love him. He’s so well written. I have a lot of thoughts about his arc in s1 of Agent Carter, and I’ve talked about a few of them before so I’ll just zoom in on one for now.

The way he reacts to Peggy’s “betrayal” is very telling. It really puts all his cards out on the table. I’ll try to lay it out chronologically.

1. Peggy Is “The Killer”

When Daniel first discovers that Peggy is the one the SSR has been chasing, his first reaction is, understandably, disbelief. What’s interesting is where that disbelief comes from. It probably comes from a few places: he’s been standing up for her, he feels betrayed by that. She has spent so long convincing everyone that she would never be Howard Stark’s lackey, but here she is, seemingly helping him commit treason. She’s killed someone— something which totally goes against the image of Peggy Daniel has in his head. There must be so much conflicting information in his head that he’s struggling to put it all together.

2. The conclusions he draws

With that information on the table, it’s fair that he feels betrayed. What makes his reaction more interesting though, and a bit more disappointing, is that he seems to take that disillusionment and uses it to reduce Peggy down to what the rest of the men think of her: that she’s just Howard’s puppet. It could be argued that he uses phrases like “Stark’s in so deep he’s scrambled your brain” as a way to provoke her into talking since he knows she hates being perceived that way. But I think a part of him believed it. Peggy wasn’t who she said she was, so why should her independence be any different?

3. He trusts her anyway

After all that, it’s truly astonishing that he still believes her when she presents what she knows to the SSR. It speaks very highly of his character that he’s still thinking clearly enough to weigh everything he knows about her and not just her recent betrayal when considering whether she’s telling the truth. Not to mention that Dooley and Thompson both look to Daniel for an impartial opinion even when they know he’s taken Peggy’s betrayal the hardest. He’s an excellent detective who is able to put his own feelings aside for the greater good.

So anon, here are some of my thoughts on Daniel Sousa! Hope you got what you came for, even if it’s a few weeks late 😅

[redvanillabee]

Some Thoughts About Agent Carter Costumes: On Style and Level of Comfort

aka ‘you won’t believe who actually is the little diva fashionista’

So in 2021, I set myself a little challenge: emulate the characters’ outfits so I can understand first-hand how they move and what historical outfits feel like. It’s been more than a year since I began that project, and I have some interesting findings...

Peggy

Peggy’s one of the reasons why this project was started in the first place. I noticed a discrepancy between how the historical costuming community describe mid-century dress, and how Peggy’s experience with her clothes are described in fandom circles. So I wanted to see for myself: how much movement do you get with ‘40s womenswear? Are they comfortable?

In short, yes, they are! And even though I started this project knowing that historical outfits are often more comfortable than we would think from our modern perspectives, I was still surprised by how much movement you get with stockings and garters. I have tested the action and yes, you can comfortably knee someone in the ***** in garters and stockings.

There are some caveats, of course. ‘Comfort’ with garments and outfits comes from familiarity. For example, as someone who wears skinny jeans all the time, including the summer months, the excess fabric of ‘40s wide-legged pants was a bit of a foreign sensation. I don’t mind tight clothing, so I didn’t have trouble with wearing girdles and cinchers as part of my ‘40s outfits. I also have got plenty of experience with heels, so walking and even running in them was not a challenge. I would imagine Peggy—and for that matter, most women in the AC universe—to be familiar with these elements, and find them reasonably manageable.

What I was surprised by, was that Peggy’s outfits are actually on the plainer side of ‘40s fashion. Comparing Peggy’s outfits to historical pictures, other female characters, and historical reproduction fashion, her clothes mainly consist of plain, solid colours. Ana and Rose, for example, wear plenty of prints. Angie and other Griffith girls wear knitwear with interesting patterns.

Overall, I would say Peggy’s outfits are practical and comfortable. A lot of her perceived glamour comes from her makeup, and the fact that her clothes are pretty well-tailored.

Jack

One thing I find interesting is that repeatedly in AC fics, Jack is supposed to be the fashionista—he is supposed to be the one who is fussy with his appearance. But upon closer inspection, that does not appear to be the case.

Like Pegg, Jack’s outfits are plainer and more practical and comfortable than what meets the eye. His outfits seem stylised to the modern eye, with suspenders and patterned ties. But moving past the modern perspective, all he seems to wear around the office are loose, comfortable shirts and slacks. And while suspenders seem like a ✨fancy✨ choice to the modern audience, they are very everyday items in the ‘40s. They are arguably more practical than belts—in my experiments, I find that with suspenders, you trousers aren’t going anywhere, but they would still shift with belts. In short, his outfits are very practical and comfortable.

I would say a lot of his perceived style comes from the fact that he has several well-tailored suits. Another meta once discussed how owning several suits—and well-tailored ones, at that—in the ‘40s speaks to a certain level of wealth and resources. But again, I don’t know how much of that really reflects personal style. Like Peggy, he basically is hiding behind good tailors. On his own, he seems like someone who still values comfort and practicality over style.

Daniel

It’s easy to dismiss Daniel as the ‘unfashionable’ one. His outfits in S1 and AOS S7 seem very boring and conservative, being far more formal than what his colleagues wear and composing of ‘dull’ colours like beige, brown, and black. As for S2, it seems easy to dismiss that as phase. Those loud Hawaiian shirts have been affectionately nicknamed ‘Hawaiian shirts of heartbreak’, and it’s easy to write off that part of his life as a simple experiment. But is that really the case?

The AC costume designer said that, and I paraphrase, the sweater vests in S1 act as a style layer, to have something that adds style and design after the jacket is removed indoors. And that’s what sets Daniel apart from everyone else—he layers. He has a collection of sweater vests in different styles—plain, colour block, argyle, to name a few. And while the fact that he layers can be read as a metaphor of how he hides his heart, one can hardly accuse him of being unfashionable.

His outfits in S2, again, speak to a level of style and willingness to experiment. For someone who seems to dress rather conservatively in New York, he has no qualms stepping way out of his comfort zone, experimenting with loud patterns and a decidedly West Coast style that the AC costume designer calls ‘sultry’. I think this willingness to experiment with fashion and try new styles is not something we can expect from Jack or Peggy.

And then there’s his outfit when he is first introduced in AOS S7, the dark woollen suit combo. For the sake of this discussion, I will engage that outfit in good faith, rather than writing some of the idiosyncrasies off as oversight by the costume department. If I have to sum up his outfits from 7x03-7x05, I will say this: style over practicality. First off, he is wearing many very warm layers for the height of summer in a desert. He is wearing a coat, a woollen suit, and a sweater vest on top of a shirt and whatever undergarments he may have got. Besides, he is wearing suspenders under the vest. If he is intending that to be a style layer that he doesn’t necessarily take off, like in S1, that would make for some inconvenience.

So overall, I would say that while Daniel’s outfits are also comfortable and warm, he is definitely the one who is more adventurous with fashion, and values style a little more than the other two.

[redrikki]

2022 Writing Round-Up

Now that Yuletide is out and I'm remembering to do this, let's breakdown my last year in writing! I wrote 4~ fic in four different fandoms, including one crossover, as well as 3~ meta in three fandoms. My most prolific fandom was Cobra Kai, but my most popular story was in Star Wars. I found I struggled with self-motivation, but had great success writing for exchanges and, to a considerably lesser extent, challenges.

Anywhere, here's everything in alphabetical order by fandom:

Agent Carter

Catch Me A Catch - Four times Jack failed as a matchmaker and one time he pulled it off. (Jack Thompson, Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa) Written for the SSR Confidential 2022 which is always fun, even if over all fandom enthusiasm seems to have fallen off lately.

Cobra Kai

Snake Bites: Cobra Kai Meta - Originally intended to be a collection of essays, I fizzled out after the first one which looks at how the show handles the issue of Jewish masculinity.

Tournament of Lies (All Valley 100 Drabble Challenge) - Collection of drabbles based off the All Valley 100 weekly drabble challenge. I managed 10 before I kind of lost interest, or at least focus.

Queer Eye for the Karate Guy - Cobra Kai/Queer Eye crossover! The fab five remakes everyone's favorite disaster sensei, Johnny Lawrence. Started off as an All Valley 100 challenge which escaped containment.

Ms. Marvel (TV 2022)

Three Times Kamala Thought About Revealing Her Identity and One Time She Didn't - Pretty much what it says on the tin. This was written for Yuletide 2022 and I struggled mightily with it. So mightily, in fact, I signed up for a second exchange (which didn't go live until 2023 and hasn't be revealed yet), just to procrastinate on writing it. It turned out pretty okay, though, so I'm proud.

Queer Eye

Queer Eye for the Karate Guy - Cobra Kai/Queer Eye crossover! The fab five remakes everyone's favorite disaster sensei, Johnny Lawrence. Started off as an All Valley 100 challenge which escaped containment. Yes, I listed it twice. It's a crossover!

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Meta of Ice and Fire - Another one of those metas that's supposed to be a collection of essays, but right now is just the one. In this one I content that Ned would have absolutely killed Theon if ordered by Robert to do so, but it would have constituted a moral injury.

Star Wars

Now Leaving Bespin - AU where Vader manages to capture both his kids on Bespin and hilarity ensues. Written for the Gen Freeform Exchange 2022. This was far and away my most popular piece of the year, clocking in at 2669 hits and 384 kudos. See what I mean about challenges?

Teen Wolf

Howling in the Dark: Teen Wolf Meta - A collection of meta essays that actually contains more than one essay! It has 7, in fact, looking at characters, relationships, and some world building.

[ssr-archives]

I posted 499 times in 2022

That's 499 more posts than 2021!

8 posts created (2%)

491 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@scullyscreamcheesebagel

@marvelsagentcarter

@agenttanha

@redvanillabee

@pe88ysous

I tagged 499 of my posts in 2022

#hayley atwell - 116 posts

#reaction post - 84 posts

#daniel sousa - 66 posts

#enver gjokaj - 64 posts

#peggysous - 61 posts

#behind the scenes - 57 posts

#twitter - 54 posts

#ac s2 - 46 posts

#ac meta - 45 posts

#peggy carter - 44 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#(i have nothing against reader insert fics i am just very curious academically about which character gets chosen for reader insert pairings)

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Agents of SHIELD S7E03 Second Anniversary Special

What it says on the tin—today marks two years since AOS S7E03 Alien Commies from the Future, aka the first return of Daniel Sousa to screen since Agent Carter’s cancellation in May 2016.

While AOS S7 does not strictly fall within this blog’s description—to collect posts from when AC was on air, Daniel Sousa’s return was a momentous enough event, and it did lead to a resurgence of AC, so there will be a small series of posts marking the occasion. I will mostly be sharing posts from the AC fandom regarding AOS S7 :)

0 notes - Posted June 10, 2022

#4

Found in mod’s Facebook memories. Nerdist has since either moved servers, or removed this article.

0 notes - Posted June 2, 2022

#3

MDWAP Footnotes: Hayley Atwell

In 2018, Hayley was a guest on the podcast My Dad Wrote A P*rno.

Star of Marvel's 'Agent Carter', 'Howards End' and 'Christopher Robin', Hayley Atwell joins the gang to talk fake porn, Shakespeare and her singing career that never was...

First published 25 October 2018.

Available on Apple Podcast [LINK] and Acast [LINK]

1 note - Posted September 18, 2022

#2

I must say, I am delightfully surprised that this URL is not taken yet.

2 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

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5 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

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[millennialfangirl]

My Daniel Sousa meta: from AC to AoS with a heavy dose of Dousy

(that absolutely nobody asked for)

I have just been really in my feels over Daniel Sousa lately, so I thought I’d write them down. I am absolutely in love with his character evolution, in particular, what Agents of Shield was able to do with him. I feel like we started off with his character in Agent Carter with a young buck of sorts, trying to prove his worth. There was a bit of inexperience there, a bit of naivete. 

And he had all of these feelings for Peggy Carter that he didn’t know what to do with, but he tried to act on nonetheless. And when it didn’t work out, he ran away, not by going to California, but by jumping into a relationship with someone else before he had properly dealt with his love for Peggy. Outside of his love-life, when you look at him as an agent, he was clearly good at what he did, but he was still learning. Case in point, Samberly took issue with him as a leader because he didn’t take the time to get to know him. Sousa was a good agent, but he was still learning how to be a leader. 

He was also a hero. He was also willing to run into walls, focus on the greater good, even at his own expense!!!! 

I believe he wasn’t just talking about Peggy in that scene in the time loop. I think we was talking from experience. I mean, he risked his life to turn off that portal to the zero matter stuff. He made the sacrifice play. (but more on him focusing on the greater good later).

Jump forward 6/7 years, and our first introduction to Sousa is of a confident man in charge, a man who has earned his stripes, and knows how to be a commanding leader. He’s no-nonsense the moment he realizes the base has been infiltrated, and he remains that way for the first several episodes of the season he is in. 

I feel like his personality in the first few episodes was just Sousa’s leader persona, the man married to his job, focused on the mission, the greater good. He held tight to that persona as long as he could, trying to maintain control of something, anything. He’s still holding tight to it when he lashes out at Jemma and Deke. But when Deke tells him they were all pulled out of their lives, he starts to realize that he’s not the only one who’s not in control. But it’s when he and Daisy are captured that he realizes that this team is giving their all to this mission, even if they are doing the best they can in the midst of chaos. I think he can, not only see their strengths now, but their weaknesses, their humanity. This allows himself to let down his walls, be more of himself. He doesn’t feel the need to be the man in charge who knows everything. He recognizes he’s not the only one fighting for the greater good, even at his own expense.

And we can’t forget about the incredible detective/agent that Sousa is, and proved himself to be over the years. He’s the one who discovered Peggy was helping Stark. His instincts were always right, and he used that big brain of his to get to the truth, JUST LIKE HE DID WITH HYDRA. (and just like he did with the chronicom bomb) 

Y’all, I could cry over the fact that Daniel J. Sousa discovered Hydra DECADES before anybody else, and it led to his death. Not Peggy, not Howard, not anyone else over the years until the events of Winter Soldier, did someone realize that Hydra was still a threat. I can’t imagine the amount of detective work he put in over the years trying to get to the truth about Hydra. How long had he known? How long had he been suspicious of colleagues and missions? A part of me thinks he had been following his hunches since Thompson was shot. I think he followed the clues left by that pin they wore that was actually a Hydra symbol. I feel like Sousa may have lost himself in the job, dedicated himself to ending Hydra, and sacrificed his own personal and love life in the process, for the greater good. As I mentioned earlier, I think Sousa was speaking about himself as well as Peggy when he was talking about Daisy and knowing people like her. He sees his own dedication to the cause in her, and he admires it. And most importantly, he knows how lonely it can be.

(Was he starting to realize he was ready for a relationship? That he was lonely? Is that why he checked his hair before going to meet up with “Peggy” at the beginning of 7x03? Just in case they could pick things up again? I don’t know, but there was something sad about that scene, something lonely.)

But can we talk about Daniel Sousa knowing exactly how to lay on the charm? We should have known from the beginning of his time on AoS. If you look back at the episode where he’s on the train waiting with Coulson, you’ll see the way he confidently flirts with the blonde spy who is trying to get the jump on him. He’s not fooled, not at all. And he plays his part perfectly, acts suave, shamelessly flirts with her, leans in real close to her personal space. These are not the actions of a square incapable of having fun or breaking the rules. These are not the actions of someone who lacks confidence. 

And let’s not forget the fake relationship trope and how AMAZINGLY Sousa played that role. That took some bravado and confidence. He f*cking swaggered up to her like...wut? But the way he looked that man-child Gideon up and down as he walked away...I died y’all.

But the great thing about Sousa, is that being macho and a flirtatious ladies’ man isn’t his true nature. These are not character attributes that he values, but rather, has learned to use over the years when necessary.  I feel like Sousa has had the time and experience from the war, in the SSR, with Peggy, with Violet, and then Shield, to build up his character and his own belief in his abilities, not just as an agent, but as a man who is more than his “aluminium crutch.” He is a hero in his own right, and most importantly, A GOOD MAN. He’s learned to work within the patriarchal society without devaluing women, or himself. 

At his core, Daniel Sousa IS absolutely a SQUARE and a DORK, but not because he has to be, but because he CHOOSES to be. And that is extremely gratifying and sexy. Because that means the minute he learned Daisy reciprocated his feelings, he was able to use that charm and flirt. And he was ready and willing to follow Daisy anywhere, even if it meant breaking the rules. But he’s still holding on to his core values that make him a good man and all those square aspects he holds onto.

In closing, Daniel Sousa is capable of being everything Daisy needs, whether it’s soft and caring, flirtatious, daring, adventurous, or a dork who is ready to pick her up when she falls. 

And I just think that’s really neat. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

[taintedcrimson]

Okay, but can we talk about this book? Because I am having a LOT of emotions about Carl Sagan's Cosmos and what it means to this group of people.

FitzSimmons read this book to Alya while she was in the womb. They had a shiny new copy and were excited to impart a love of science to their daughter before she was even born. How many times must they have continued to read it to her over the years?

Apparently, quite a few...

Look at the wear on the dust jacket. It's the same book, gifted to a new friend, either so he can finally understand some of what the scientists from the future are talking about while they venture into deep space... or so he can understand what Alya is talking about and include in his letters explanations of the amazing things he encounters with the Astro Ambassadors. Really, it's probably both. And Daisy absolutely teases him about it.

So yeah, I'm having just a few emotions about a science book I have never read but will now immediately be doing so. For reasons. Totally not fanfic-related. Ahem.

[laylainalaska]

Okay, I want to talk about how much fantastically concise character detail is packed into that opening scene at the SSR I just reblogged, the “words beginning with A” scene (combined with what came before it but isn’t shown in the gifset, Daniel white-knighting and Peggy asking him not to).

The establishing scene or scenes with any new character or character relationship always have to do a tremendous amount of work, because they're setting up how you think and feel about these characters, and trying to get across an initial impression that is accurate, that gets across as much information as concisely as possible, but also lays the groundwork for how that relationship is going to develop later on.

And this scene, plus the parts immediate before and after, just packs in a terrific amount of detail about these characters, who they are, and the way they relate to each other at this point in the show.

Peggy is defiant, stubborn, and angry, but not to the point of actually rejecting the role that’s been thrust on her. She clearly hates having to deal with her coworkers treating her as a glorified secretary, but she also goes ahead and does as she’s asked. Peggy has a backbone of steel, but she also wants to fit in and be a team player. So later on, when she has to go rogue to solve a case, we already know that it’s not something which is easy for her. And we also know that she has a sense of humor even in the face of people being awful to her - she’s just been humiliated in front of the whole office, and now Jack is dumping paperwork on her, but her response is actually kind of playful (if angry).

Daniel listened to what she said a minute ago about defending her and immediately shows that he (unlike the others) respects and pays attention to her by not intervening this time. Then he offers her a little bit of bonding friendliness between the two of them vs. the office popular kid with the "personality shot off in Iwo Jima" joke at the end, which is a pretty common joke (got his [something] shot off in the war) that also a) lets us know Jack served in the Pacific theater during the war, and b) is also a 100% accurate summary of what his actual problem is, they just don't know it yet. And we also get a demonstration of the two of them bonding as the office underdogs vs. the rest of the office.

Jack is established here as a glib, arrogant jerk who treats Peggy as a secretary and expects her to do his paperwork for him (he also dismisses Daniel with a glance), but at the same time he's weirdly friendly about it. They banter easily with each other, even though she doesn't like him; he isn’t set up as fundamentally awful in the same way as Krzeminski is, but instead he responds to Peggy basically calling him an asshole not by being nasty to her, but instead with teasing, if condescending, humor. This scene sets up not only his worst qualities but also lays the groundwork for the way that he and Peggy are able to relate to each other in a friendlier way later on, once he’s managed to get past his sexist view of her and accepted her as an equal.

It’s just a really wonderful example of setting up a bunch of different character and relationship traits with just a few lines of dialogue and a little bit of interaction.

[eveningstar477]

It’s quite late in my time zone, and it’s probably past for many of you, but today is June 6th, the anniversary of D-Day, and if I had the energy I’d write a meta on how (if we go off the AoS line about being a paratrooper and also knowing he was at Bastogne) Daniel Sousa was most likely a part of the 101st airborne that landed in Normandy on June 5th as a part of the D-Day invasion. (Alas, I do not have the brain energy cause I just started a new internship, which is going fabulously but is also completely exhausting and all-consuming at the moment. so, another time.)

[moonlayl]

I just realized that the scene in 7.11 with daisy sleeping on the Zephyr was the first time in the entire show that we had this character sleep peacefully. Every other time, she’s either unconscious because she’s injured, knocked out, or she wakes up because of a nightmare.

The fact that we got this in the final season shows us just how far she’s come. And it’s just a small little tidbit to show us that she was healing after everything. Also, it’s in the presence of Sousa and Mack, which I absolutely love, because those two are so good to her, and it means that she trusts them.

[eggsaladstain]

so after saying i wasn’t going to watch this season until it ended so i could find out if daisy and sousa actually ended up together, i broke my own rule because i am, if nothing else, a simple dumb sensitive bitch who cannot resist the siren song of warrior women and the men who love them and my god, what a ship this is

he sacrificed himself so she could keep her memories for the next loop and said to her face, with his whole chest and 100% eye contact, you’re exactly my type and i just wanna be there to help and support you after you go save the world

no disrespect to fitz, coulson, and mack, but daniel sousa is just on another level, he’s out here making lovingly handcrafted, small-batch, fresh-pressed respect women juice and it shows

i legitimately cannot believe daisy’s tumultuous love life has led her here to an ordinary man whose only known superpowers are the intensity of his heart eyes and the strength of his spine from sleeping sitting up in a metal chair for god knows how many days

i mean, yes, he’s a shield agent and a man out of time, so not ordinary in the traditional sense, but he’s ordinary in the way season 1 coulson was ordinary - just a righteous man with a good heart, trying to save the people who can save the world

and i just really really love that daisy, our girl who has suffered and lost so much, gets this soft, gentle love, not because she needs a man, but because she wants this man to be the one who’s there when she wakes up, to be the one who’s there to pick her back up again

i wrote before about how daisy’s love interests always make her stronger, and this is the perfect culmination of that because by this point, daisy is the strongest we’ve ever seen her, but she’s also learned now that she can’t rely on her strength alone, she needs her teammates to help her. and sousa has positioned himself as the person who does just that, the person who will do whatever she needs, whether that’s saving her life or being her backup or making sure she gets rest so she can save the day

it’s such a wonderful partnership between them, with absolute trust on both sides from these two kindred souls who have both loved and lost, who have fought and bled for their cause, who will always do the right thing no matter the cost

you should have someone there to pick you back up, he tells her, and i love the choice of words because he says should, not need. should, like, it would be good if you had someone there to pick you back up. should, like, you deserve to have someone there to pick you back up. should, like, let me be the person to pick you back up

what a lovely sentiment from a man who lost everything but his life to a woman who had nothing but built a family and a life of her own - let me be the one to help you, let me be the shoulder you lean on, let me be your home