#they struck a perfect balance between humorous and sincere and serious

[hal-o-ween]

Watched the DnD movie today, and I have seldom seen a movie like this that had so much obvious love for both the source material, and the fans of that source material, which is so refreshing to see.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Reflecting on Agents of SHIELD

So here we are at the end of 7 years. I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the show. There are times when I really haven’t liked the show and there are times when I have loved the show. Unlike many fans in the fandom, I don’t think its a perfect show. It has had more than a few missteps along the way. But it deserves credit on the things it has done right.

I remember the excitement when I hopped on board for season 1. Just coming off Avengers, this was supposed to be the tv spinoff where a whole world of exciting things were supposed to happen, interlinked with the movies. Turns out, it was a huge mistake to market the show like that. Thinking about it know, the potential challenges of that working out were obvious. Movies are written far before tv episodes are so doing that type of synchronization would be extremely difficult even if there weren’t tensions between the tv and movie divisions. In any case, season 1 was a clear case of a show treading water. The first 2/3 of the season was truly dull, barring a few good ones likes F.Z.Z.T. It wasn’t till T.R.A.C.K.S that the show started to find its footing with any sort of quality. The cast also seemed to be getting a handle on things. Clark Gregg smoothly transitioned without a problem as a lead but initially Ward was too blank a slate to really connect to, Skye was really annoying, FitzSimmons were just a bickering couple, and May was just the deadpan badass stereotype. But slowly the actors started to get a handle on things. The first sign of Elizabeth’s talent could be seen in F.Z.Z.T. Ming Na and Brett Dalton started to find more tinges of humanity in their characterizations. Iain really started to open out towards the end of the season and delivered what is still one of the most powerful scenes of the show in his confession to Simmons under water. I will be honest and say that Chloe wasn’t very good initially. It was partly the character and partly that the others seemed significantly better at the dramatic beats. The big Hydra twist gave Brett Dalton a huge boost as a performer. Its as if his handcuffs were taken off and he was suddenly freed and he became the most interesting character on the show for me. The Hydra plot of season 1 may still be the best story arc the show did, rivaled only by the Framework arc. I still don’t know which I rank higher, but that arc was the height of fulfillment that we got from the premise as originally pitched to the fans where the show synchronized with the movie story very well. And it was really the last time it happened. While most of season 1 was unfortunately handicapped, the final arc ended the season on a high which left me with great anticipation for what was next.

As we started second season, the thing that immediately struck me was that the show had completely changed. What again struck me was how Iain and Brett had really become the MVP’s of the show for me. Iain was heartwrenchingly brilliant in the first half of season 2. Again, one of the scenes of the show for me is when Fitz finds Ward in the basement. Brett and especially Iain just acted the hell out of that scene. The story arc of SHIELD vs Hydra was always one of the strong points of the show. That’s where the strength of season 2 lies. They played on the toxic Ward/Skye dynamic really well in those interactions in the basement. Brett really found the perfect balance of creepiness and sincerity in those scenes. In the midst of it all, we got some new additions in Bobbi, Hunter, Mack, and Kyle Machlachlan as Skye’s father and the transformation from Skye to Daisy happened. Honestly, Kyle was the highlight of the new additions in the season. He was there throughout and was kind of the emotional heartbeat of Skye/Daisy’s story in season 2. I wasn’t a huge fan of Mack in season 2. He had this passive aggressiveness towards anyone who wasn’t Fitz. I liked his dynamic with Fitz. Definitely the FitzSimmons stuff was hard to watch with it being so heartbreaking. Little did we know how much more there was to come. Bobbi and Hunter I was largely indifferent to. Bobbi was a badass and Adrianne Palicki is gorgeous but I never got overly invested in her. Hunter was hilarious at times and sometimes annoying. I liked how he was with Fitz. I felt Iain brought out the best in everyone this season. I wasn’t a huge fan of the second half of the season. I think the whole SHIELD vs Real SHIELD arc was pretty dumb and even the Inhumans story could have been better executed. Also, they took a wrong turn with Ward by the end of season 2. They had real potential with Ward being a wild card character who could be on hero’s side or villain’s side depending what benefits him, but instead they made him pure villain by season end.

Season 3 started off ok. Again, Iain was heartwrenching in the season premiere and Elizabeth turned up in full form in her solo outing. I honestly did not care about the whole Will drama. It felt very soap operaish for them to use this to create a love triangle which actually goes nowhere. Again, I felt they didn’t do enough with Ward even though Brett Dalton gave it is all. Certainly it was the most straight up villainous version of the character. Powers Boothe came in and did a great job with all his gravitas as a Hydra leader. It was in season 3 I started feeling Chloe Bennet started stepping up to the plate. In all fairness, one of my issues with some of the initial seasons were that it was so heavily Skye/Daisy dependent and everyone else felt more interesting to follow than her. This season allowed Ming Na and Clark Gregg to show some shades of regret and anger respectively. I was annoyed when they killed Ward because of wasted potential but Brett stepped up to the plate with an excellent turn as Hive. Bobbi and Hunter’s goodbye was sad though, as I said, I never got a personal attachment to those characters. One of the big misfires unfortunately was Lincoln. I have seen Luke Mitchell be compelling in other roles but Lincoln just did not work. Not as a character independently and not as a love interest for Daisy because they shared no chemistry. In a way, his death at the end felt like the writers dumping him and just admitting they didn’t know how to make the character work. We also got introduced to Yo Yo who would last the remainder of the show. It was kind of an uneven season but overall enjoyable. Didn’t reach the heights of the best parts of season 1 and 2 but maybe more consistent overall. I was really sad to say goodbye to Brett Dalton who was my second favorite cast member after Iain at this point.

Season 4 probably stands as the overall best season in terms of quality. Splitting the season into three pods really helped with the pacing with an increased amount of story. It was also the first season since season 1 where SHIELD existed as a functioning public agency and not just a bunch of agents working in secret. Robbie Reyes was incredibly badass as Ghost Rider. His pod was probably the weakest of the season but his presence overshadowed all the regular SHIELD cast members. The villain story was kind of weak but the backstory with Robbie, his thankfully platonic dynamic with Daisy, and the story of the developing technology of AIDA was fascinating. The LMD arc was better because AIDA and Radcliffe became serious legitimate and realistic threats. The acting also was top notch. The finale of this arc, Self-Control, is one of the show’s top episodes where Chloe Bennet was amazing as was Elizabeth and Iain was genuinely frightening as the LMD in the few minutes he had. But Framework just killed it. Brett Dalton coming back was wonderful. I really wished they had found a way to bring back this version to the real world. Iain delivered a seriously terrifying performance as the Doctor. Elizabeth, Chloe, Clark, Henry, Ming Na, John Hannah, and Natalia were all great. But the season’s MVP was Mallory Jansen, who played multiple iterations of the character throughout the season. My one issue with season 4 was I felt that she was built up in the finale a lot but then got taken out too easily. But overall, great season.

Season 5 is where the show kind of lost my interest. I am genuinely not a fan of the season and don’t have much to say about it. I felt it became outlandish and silly, while simultaneously becoming overly grim and morose which just didn’t work tonally for me. The acting continued to be top notch across the board. Iain continued to be a highlight all season with his breakdown episode being one of the most painful to watch. FitzSimmons wedding was lovely and kind of a welcome relief in a very dark season. Clark Gregg, Ming Na, and Chloe Bennet were excellent towards the end when playing out Coulson’s deteriorating health. Natalia also got to have some meaty story for really the first time on the show. But the budget constraints were clearly showing with the entire season being played out in the same grey halls and honestly I just never felt invested in the story. I knew the world wouldn’t end and it just became unendingly morose. Enoch was kind of the highlight in terms of humor in the season. Deke was introduced and I felt the same way as I felt about hunter. He was fun at tmes and other times annoying. The grandson revelation was kind of cool but I feel they have never done all that much with that connection. Maybe if the entire season was half a season’s plot, it would have been more palatable.

Season 6 was a minor improvement though still not great. The villains were again the big downfall of the season. I felt the show showed an inability to let go of Clark. Sarge was really not compelling and not a character that utilized his Clark Gregg’s best traits, which is his easy every man type nature. I could care less about the Shriek and Izel. We got to see May as a badass several times, which was nice but it was the space advanture that I enjoyed more. Whether it was Daisy and Simmons getting high on space mushrooms, or Enoch and Fitz being BFF’s in space, it was the show getting back to having some humor. Certainly a shorter season helped with regards to pacing. But it was still a rather unremarkable season which ended on a promising note.

Season 7 has been the best season since season 4. I feel that the first half the season was awesome. Rediscovering the fun, natural lighting, and better character interplay. Not having Fitz around was a bummer since Iain’s my fav cast member but we got the delightful surprise of Enver joining the cast as Sousa who I absolutely loved on Agent Carter. He has helped fill the void for me. Certainly has brought more than his share of humor and heart to the show. Again, the season’s weakness has been its villains. The chronicoms were initially good physical threats and certainly what they did to Mack’s parents was horrifying, but when Nathaniel Malick took over, the season has kind of stuttered for me. He just doesn’t cut it as a villain, especially for the final season. Chronicoms also don’t really cut it beyond the physical threat. The new additions of Kora and young Garrett are too last minute for me to feel any sort of threat from them. Certainly the time loop episode was amazing and the developing relationship between Daisy and Sousa has completely taken me by surprise. Its a mixture of good writing, good acting, and natural chemistry that this pairing has been something I root for, even though I loved PeggySous. But the show inexplicably got stuck in the 80′ and I really felt they should have gone through the periods to catch up to present day. Certainly the Jiaying story helped with some character reconcilliation for Daisy but I think there could have been more interesting stories had they progressed to more modern times. In any case, that leads to the finale. Hopefully the show ends on a good note. I don’t think it will be everything I want it to be because there are too many things on my wishlist, like a Ward return, which are unlikely to happen. But I hope for that its largely emotionally satisfying. Its been a good, if uneven ride. I would say its probably my second favorite Marvel show after Daredevil, but its longevity shows that it has developed a loyal core of fans. I may not get as emotional as a lot of the core fans, but it will feel weird that there will be no more Agents of SHIELD. It is the end of an era with it being the last of its brand of Marvel shows with all future marvel shows being direct movie spinoffs. I don’t anticipate we will see these characters in this form again, but who knows? Maybe someday?

Edit: My thoughts on finale

Overall, it was.... fine. I don’t know what I was expecting. I liked how the characters ended up but the whole thing felt oddly safe and a little emotionally hollow. They should have been a little braver and genuinely killed a couple of characters. Like I said earlier, there were a lot of things on my wishlist that didn’t happen, but I had kind of reconciled to that. The action was really good, but my apathy for the villains led to me being less interested in the whole story and the whole “empathy being the savior” was a little goofy for my taste. Regardless, far from the worst finale around but also not the greatest but reasonably enjoyable. Kind of like the show in a way, which makes it fitting. 

[ruinedbynegan]

Closer: Chapter 14

As he began to walk, my hands balled up in fists, hitting his back to no avail. He ignored my protests and held me tightly so I couldn’t escape. Red clouded my vision and any coherent thought in my head disintegrated. I was livid. And that’s when I lost it. The control I had held onto for years, scared of what would happen if I let it loose? It was gone. That submissive part of me was gone. And in its place was a woman who saw the world through a new set of eyes. And she was fucking pissed.

With inhuman strength, she brought her knees to Negan’s side, hitting him in the ribs hard enough for him to loosen his grip on her. The blow also caused him to stumble on his feet, losing his balance. She took advantage of that, escaping from the confines of his arms while simultaneously grabbing ahold of his wrists. Although there was a significant height difference between the two, she lunged at him, bringing him to the ground with a resounding thud and a groan. She straddled him, pinned his arms to his sides, attempting to prevent his retaliation. But he didn’t retaliate. He didn’t even move. He laughed.

“Oh, now we’re getting somewhere,” he said approvingly. “By the way, I’m fifty percent more into you now.”

I began to feel more connected with myself again, no longer seeing red, but seeing things for what they were. I scoffed at him.

“And where’s that, Negan?”

“You right now? That move you just pulled? That was a goddamn masterpiece. It was primal. It was fuckin’ hot! But you know what made it so damn perfect? It was you, the real you. Not the submissive little girl you were being earlier. No, it was full on, one hundred fuckin’ percent you. That’s what I wanted to see!”

He shifted underneath me and for a second, I felt just how much he liked it. But then I rolled off of him and stood up, not because of my embarrassment, but my pride. If he was serious about this, he was going to have to work for it. I stared down at him still laying there, his hands now behind his head, looking incredibly satisfied…

“You planned that, didn’t you? The whole caveman “you’re my woman” shit?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

He stared up at the trees, grinning. “Of course I fucking did. I did what was necessary. What you needed. Hell woman, the way you slammed me to the ground like that? I’m gonna be hard for a week thinking about how your—“

“Stop!”

“Your call. But like I said, I did what was necessary. Even at the expense of me getting my ass handed to me. It fuckin’ worked,” he paused, looking up at me. “How did that make you feel?”

I allowed myself to process my feelings, my actions. “It made me feel…strong. Powerful, maybe.” He got up from the ground, dusting himself off as he closed the distance between us.

“And you are. You have so much fuckin’ power in you, Carson. So much heat and raw power. And I want to harness the shit out of that!”

“To what end?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Think about it. All powerful alpha wolf with an equally if not more powerful alpha female by his side? It’s the new world order. No one could fucking touch us.”

I shook my head. “We’re more than just cogs on the wheel, Negan.”

“Then what are we, sweetheart?” He asked. I thought for a moment before coming up with a response I thought Negan would like.

“If it’s the new world order, you and I, we aren’t cogs on the wheel. We are the wheel.” My response earned me possibly the most genuine smile from Negan that I had ever seen can along with a booming laugh.

“Smart fuckin’ girl,” he said. “Now you’re talkin’.”

I found myself smiling back at him. His agenda…something about it struck a cord in me. And I knew almost instantly what that cord was. It was my wolf. She knew what she was capable of. Submission wasn’t her forte. But leading…

Negan whistled. “Shit doll, I could get used to this. Being your big spoon, you fuckin’ man handling me, and getting in on the new world order all in one morning? Great way to start a Friday.”

The last words out of his mouth brought me out of my thoughts. It was Friday?

“Shit!” I said and began walking briskly in the direction I had come from the previous night. But I was no match for Negan’s long strides—he was in front of me before I knew it.

“And where do you think you’re going?” he asked. There was no anger in his voice, just a twinge of humor.

“I have to go to work,” I said, trying to move past him. But he didn’t budge.

“Oh, you got to be fucking joking!”

I shook my head. “Nope! You gotta get out of my way.” I stepped to the side and he mirrored me.

“Seriously, Negan? Do you want me to put you on your ass again?” I asked, seriously contemplating the idea.

He shrugged. “If you end up straddling me again, then fuck—“

“Ugh, forget I asked! But seriously, I have to go. I’ll…come back,” I promised. And it wasn’t a lie…I would come back to him. Even as the words left my mouth, I knew they were true.

“Not fucking likely,” he responded, still doubting me.

“Damn it, Negan, I promise I’ll come back!” I tried again, my voice sincere.

“And if you don’t?” He asked.

I thought for a moment. “Then…I give you my permission to come find me.”

He chuckled and gave me one of his smiles.

“Oh believe me baby, I fuckin’ will.”

Tags: @haleyea @wolfangelwings

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