#so maybe that means i should take howard's 'running shield' comment as my confirmation lol

[florida3exclamationpoints]

Hey fam here's a deep dive of AoS 7x04 including justification of the time travel by a branching timelines believer and lots of Peggy Carter love & appreciation

I definitely feel better about this whole situation now that we've seen 7x04 than I did when we just had the preview. But still. Ughhhhhh I'm just. Conflicted.

They're not sticking to Endgame's time travel rules at all and ik some people didn't like Endgame's time travel but I don't really have issues with it. And even still there's the debate of whether or not Steve (does this debate expand outside Steve arguments? Idk but you get it) is in a branched timeline. Personally, I think he is. For people who think he's not, Shield's time travel, especially with Sousa, is probably easier to take. But for a while I was willing to go with the theory, my own theory idk if it's been mentioned here or not, that since they're using a different time travel method in AoS, and one that was invented by space robots Chronicoms, then they have different rules that limit them to a looped timeline. But now, idk does bringing Sousa into it disprove that?

So he was supposed to die. That's in the history books. They saved him. Which means we're in a loop that can be altered. Ok fine, but that's only because we're using Chronicom time travel. Tony Stark time travel still created branches. So what branch are we in? We have two choices right? Timeline A, which we see throughout the entire MCU, and timeline '49 B, the one Steve created when he went back to Peggy. If it's in the history books that Coulson and the team read that Sousa died, I would assume we're in timeline A. But where's Peggy? Personally I'm not the biggest peggysous stan (basically I ship steggy and in timeline A where she can't get him back, as long as she's happy I'm happy. If that means Daniel, great.) but I'm sure those who are aren't super happy with Shield basically confirming that they didn't make it. I'm sure the only reason they did that was to be able to pull him out of 1955 so I'm not really mad at it. If they had just had him pop in real quick in the 50s and left him there I would have rathered they leave it ambiguous but since that's not what they did I'm not too bitter.

Anyway, I saw a close up of the fake id they made for Jemma when she was undercover as Peggy. It listed her rank as 'agent.' You could say that's a prop mistake but I also noticed that no one has referred to her as 'director.' But she absolutely should be. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Peggy was the first director right? That's always what me, my brother, and my dad, aka everyone in my household who are Marvel fans, thought and we're pretty sure they said it at some point somewhere. And in the Agent Carter one shot (which admittedly has a lot of continuity issues anyway but i think the principle of it stands) Howard said about Peggy "tell her she'll be running Shield." I've always gotten the impression that she was director from the time Shield launched. If someone could give me solid proof that she was or wasn't I'd appreciate it. But as long as there's no proof I'm assuming that she was. That's what I'm going with in the rest of this post anyway lol.

Overall im just confused as to what the writers think they're doing lol. From what I've seen, they started shooting season 7 two months before Endgame premiered so it was written even further before. That sucks because at the time of the writing they didn't know they had all of this to deal with. At least I assume they didn't know bc it seems like there's no communication behind the scenes since no one got dusted before and now we're messing around with time travel. But I also wonder if Endgame hadn't premiered by the time they were shooting the 50s episodes. I have no idea though. If it had, were there changes? Did they have to take out mentions of Peggy, or did Enver maybe act it with the Steggy ending in mind? Because I personally don't want the writers or anyone thinking that Steve was always in a loop therefore this season is jumping around in the same loop and Daniel was left by Peggy for Steve. I can deal with a looped timeline in AoS bc of the Chronicoms and them being in a loop of timeline A but I'm gonna be annoyed if they try to imply that that's not what's happening. But again it was written before Endgame came out so I don't think they'll really go that far.

This is what's really annoying me. Do they seriously think Peggy's not director? Are they saying Peggy's not director? Because they want me to believe that Daniel noticed that Shield had been infiltrated by Hydra and Peggy didn't and then one of three things happened. 1. He told the CIA but not Peggy, 2. He told Peggy but she didn't believe him, or 3. He told Peggy and she looked into it but didn't find anything. I take issue with like all of that. In scenario 1. Daniel Sousa personally knows the Director of Shield and, regardless of any awkward breakup they may of had, doesn't tell her that her government organization may be hijacked by freaking HYDRA? In scenario 2. The Director of Shield is told by the Chief of her LA branch and an agent that she worked alongside for a considerable amount of time that her government organization may be hijacked by Hydra and she doesn't listen to him, because, what, they had a messy breakup? In scenario 3. The Director of Shield, Margaret Elizabeth Carter, has reason to believe that Shield is infiltrated by Hydra, she investigates, and finds absolutely nothing out of the ordinary? None of those sound even almost reasonable. So are they not mentioning that Peggy is director because it makes Daniel's storyline more believable and convenient or am I missing something? I've lost hope that she might make an appearance but I'd appreciate some Director Carter content even in passing mentions or at least tell me who the Director is if it's not her.

Also, Daniel's death, real or not, is gonna hurt her really bad and I'm not a fan of that. I'm glad I didn't have to watch him die and I'm excited to see more of him but it's really gonna mess with Peggy. We've already seen her struggle with feeling like everyone she gets close to dies and even though at this point she's married and maybe has kids, that doesn't take away from what they had in Agent Carter, that goes beyond the romantic and into the fact that he was one of the few men who showed her even the smallest amount of respect. It's gonna hurt her and I don't like when she's hurt. Also also, I don't care about whatever Coulson said about his death being ruled an accident, Peggy is a critical thinker and 100% would have looked into it. Especially as the Director of Shield if I keep saying that maybe AoS will hear me or it'll become canon lol she wouldn't let that slide.

Basically what I'm saying is: I can talk myself into the time travel making sense, I just did lol, but while I love Daniel and getting to see him again and continue to see him in the coming episodes, it stretches the imagination a bit too far concerning Peggy and his dynamic with her. Either that or I have to be to ticked off at the writers for not knowing that Peggy is director in 1955. Or I have to be ticked at the entirety of Marvel for not making Peggy director as soon as the thing was up and running. But. That doesn't mean that this hasn't been a good season so far, it's been pretty great. And I'm very excited to see them in the 70s. And to see Daniel in the 70s. And to see my man Enoch make another appearance. I have my issues but I'm still highly enjoying all of this absolute tomfoolery sldjskdjksksjk that is all