Jemma Simmons Week » Day Three: Tropes
Tag: aos spoilers
welcome to night vale tweets + agents of shield. inspired by this post.
let’s be real though for as big a dad as coulson is he’s an even bigger fanboy
News just in: Skye does some IP lookup sneaking and discovers that the biggest BNF fanfic writer in Captain America RPF fandom is on the Bus with her.
Bonus points: the slash is super hot, and now she’s slightly freaked out that her mind has unknowingly (very happily) gone to the sex place with Coulson’s Cap fantasies. She always thought she was up there writing reports or some shit, but now she knows The Truth.
Dorks of SHIELD on Chloe’s instagram
oh right, i rambled about it on twitter but i forgot to post it here: it’s official, aos is a fandom, which means SORTING HEADCANONS!
skye is definitely a slytherin, with some secondary ravenclaw traits (more reasons to love skye to pieces,…
I think you mistake wanting to be strong, which could be equally Gryffindor or Slytherin, with wanting to be brave, which is what really defines Gryffindor house. Pettigrew, despite his later choices, really and truly desired to live up to the Gryffindor ideal of courage and nobility. He wanted to do the right thing, but ended up failing out of cowardice. Ward never once envisioned himself as brave or noble, probably not even at age eleven. He did what he had to in order to survive, which is an incredibly Slytherin trait. He wanted to be strong, yes, but not because he wanted to be able to live up to his own morals (of which he apparently has none). The only reason he wanted to be strong was to either defeat his enemies (i.e. burning his house down) or to keep surviving under the direction of those stronger and smarter than he is. So yeah, he’s basically Crabbe and Goyle type Slytherin.
I’d also note that while the Sorting hat does take personal choice into account, it does occasionally decide that it knows better. Neville Longbottom asked to be in Hufflepuff because he was intimidated by Gryffindor’s reputation, but was overruled. If Ward asked to be in Gryffindor, I’m guessing the same sort of thing would happen.
Less mistake, more I think that Ward, at age eleven, might mistake one for the other. I think Ward at age eleven is a different prospect to Ward as an adult, too, and I was thinking more about what he would have been like at that age, before The Well, before that ‘defining moment’, where cruelty and abuse has already happened, but he hasn’t embraced his hate in the way he describes, the defining moment that led to the arson, that led him to Hydra.
Also, digging deeper (probably too deep for a casual Sorting, oh well) there’s a lot of influence of culture and family in what happens in Sorting. If we’re working on the premise that Ward is Wizardborn, there would be pressure to be where his family was, and if his family were traditionally Slytherin, then that’s where he’d be likely to be placed. However, if his elder brother was already at Hogwarts and already in Slytherin, I can see Ward pushing with all his might to be Sorted into the House diametrically opposite it. If he’s Muggleborn, and the first of his family to go to Hogwarts, I think the waters are a bit more murky, even though Slytherin isn’t traditionally a House inclined to Muggleborns. (Incidentally, my first ever Potter fic was about the fate of a Muggleborn Slytherin during the Books Six and Seven.)
The Cavalry.#THIS IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT FFS #this is not just a cool nickname for her #most titles like that are held by (white) men #as a proof of their unparalleled hypermasculinity #one that comes from bloodshed and slaughter #titles like that earned and not easily #but this isn’t most titles #this is something melinda got as a token for her trauma after Bahrain #it’s like a brand seared onto her forehead #and to her it’s ugly and accusing and associated with so much pain #so while on the one hand i’m very happy a woman of colour gets to hold a Big Badass Nickname #while simultaneously deconstructing it #i’m extremely unhappy when the fandom refers to her as that (via stardust-rain)
oh right, i rambled about it on twitter but i forgot to post it here: it’s official, aos is a fandom, which means SORTING HEADCANONS!
skye is definitely a slytherin, with some secondary ravenclaw traits (more reasons to love skye to pieces, she’s ME)
coulson is probably a gryffindor? though i’d probably accept hufflepuff if only because i don’t care all that much whoops
fitzsimmons are ravenclaws, i spent a good while thinking around it to make sure i wasn’t biased because science but no they’re definitely ravenclaws
may is probably also a slytherin, i think, but if i had to pick another house for her, it’d be hufflepuff
trip is absolutely a gryffindor, there’s no doubt in my mind
and uuuuugggghhh only because i have to, ward is a slytherin
IN THE MOST BORING WAY POSSIBLE#ward is a slytherin the way crabbe and goyle are slytherins
I’m gonna throw out the wildly controversial Sorting of Ward as a Gryffindor. I’m doing that for a number of reasons. Not because I’m holding up his life choices as anything noble but because a) Ward survived, against all odds, his childhood, and b) the Hat takes into consideration a person’s wishes. I think, above anything, Ward wants to be strong, and while Slytherins are resilient and resourceful, I think Ward himself, at age eleven, would see the Gryffindors as the embodiment of strength and want to be a part of that strength, both as wanting to be a strong person himself but also because in the company of strong people he would be safe. I think he’d see Slytherins as too close to his home life, too close to his brother – a lot of individuals taking power and using it for their own ends, both good and ill.
And finally, I Sort him as Gryffindor because what people tend to forget is that Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor, and also the Dark Lord’s right hand. Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor for the reasons I have listed – because he wanted to be strong, and wanted to be protected – and Grant Ward reminds me of no other character in the Harry Potter canon so much as he does Peter Pettigrew.
Question:
If SHIELD somehow manages to undo Ward’s years of indoctrination, can we say that he’s become deHYDRAted?
I just realized through a conversation with Ashley that the reasons most people disliked (or still dislike) Skye are the reasons I fell in love with her instantly. It’s also why she is an exceptionally ground breaking character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Skye is not easily defined by her job. She doesn’t have a singular passion or lens through which she looks at the world. She’s young and learning and soaking everything around her in, trying to figure out where her home is and who she is as a person. Skye is Skye first and hacker second.
I feel like every other female (except for Darcy) in the Marvel verse fills a very defined role of ‘bad ass field operative’, ‘science geek’, or ‘administration’. Hell, the majority of them had to go through multiple films (and some are still waiting) to get any definition outside of their profession or role as a love interest at all. Natasha didn’t get it until Avengers (though IMO they only touched on it there and really gave it definition in Winter Soldier), Pepper didn’t really get fleshed out until Iron Man 3 and Maria Hill is still a complete unknown on a personal level.
Agents of SHIELD and Skye were SUCH a fantastic move in the right direction for Marvel in terms of starting out a female character as more than a profession or love interest. Skye was a character that was ill defined in terms of life goals and who she was. We met Skye when she was just beginning her journey. She was our protagonist and as she discovered who she was, we were along for the ride. Basically she was every male protagonist ever. And yet people hated her. And people called her a Mary Sue. And I am not saying there were no problems with the writing or presentation of the character. I know the beginning was a little uneven. But where I saw a diamond in the rough with Skye, most people dismissed her.
The sad fact is, if she was a male character I have no doubt she would have been treated completely differently. She still isn’t treated all that well. A big faction of the fandom treats her as a cardboard stand in for furthering Ward’s character FFS, despite all she has done and how much we have seen her fleshed out. Trip came into the show very similar to the way Skye did in terms of having a backstory connected to the plot, and not being defined by one aspect of who he was. But nobody cried Gary Stu. I wonder why that is?
If a female is skilled at more than one thing, if a female doesn’t fit into a very specific box, then she is considered unrealistic. If a female has a huge impact on the plot AND knows how to do something outside that? Incomprehensible. Never mind that I can close my eyes, spin in a circle and bump into 50 male characters who share those same traits with Skye (and Trip) who are deeply beloved.
When it comes down to it, a lot of the issues people had with Skye come down to the fact that for the first time Marvel no longer decided to baby the male audience and slowly introduce a dynamic female character to them. This time, they threw it in their faces and the fact that Skye is currently on a list titled ‘characters who make us want to punch our television screens’ says it all.
Skye isn’t your scientist. She’s not doing your paperwork and she isn’t beating up bad guys while wearing a tight catsuit. She’s us. And that is why you should love her instead of condemning her for being more than her job or a romantic interest.
she is us. and we don’t have to automatically see that as a bad thing.
knitting in the dark 
