Femslash Friday: Couples That Never Were But Should Have Been Vol. 3
It's no surprise to me that Jemma and Daisy/Skye is already a known ship (maybe even popular as far as non-canons go.) So I don’t think I need to discuss how much these two, aesthetically alone, just make sense.
But I do want to point out that the canon for AoS being what is when it comes to Jemma/Fitz, this FSF post will first focus on one character, who should have at least been a WLW (woman-lovin’ woman a.k.a. sapphic-inclined - pick any orientation label you’d like for that.)
Daisy shoulda been into chicks, y’all. If not to be with Jemma, then to be with some damn body because I needed to see all of her badass femme!top-seme-realness reach its glory.
Jemma is clearly deep in with Fitz when Daisy’s sapphic vibes peak (meaning all her male love interests are dead and she’s focusing on being solo dolo).
My heart would’ve equally, if not more so, melted if we could’ve at least gotten some young adorkable hacker lesbian with the personality of Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds on the team. She could’ve taken over the former Skye’s role as the web-wiz of the group.
And then these two sapphos could’ve competed against Jemma/Fitz for most adorable couple ever on AoS before Yoyo/Mack even came into existence.
absolutely played by the enchantingly cute Taylor Russell, right? I mean, right?
*lovelorn sigh* .......After getting (emotionally-wounded-and-closed-off) S3/S4-Daisy to open up, let the guard down a bit and return to her normal self some, Daisy and Adorkable Hacker Girl could first bond over hacking and swap stories about their backgrounds as outcasts. Daisy’s being because she was an orphan, Adorkable Hacker Girl’s being because perhaps she was severely neglected and abused by a family whose idea of love was three square meals a day and a slap instead of a fist some days.
This could lead to conversations about what defines family and revelations about how AHG sees herself as weak compared to Daisy because she has this aversion to violence and could never stand up to her family, stand up for herself or the siblings she cared about. She instead ran away and erased herself from the world by becoming this shape-shifting entity on the internet, which fills her with shame.
Then Daisy could try to teach her how to fight in a very private intimate setting as a way of encouraging her and protecting her from feeling embarrassed, letting her learn at her own pace. Of course, AHG doesn't let on about her traumatic past with violence and goes along with the training because she appreciates the gesture and wants to be close to Daisy. And of course, there comes a point when it all becomes overwhelming. At this point, when AHG shuts down and wants to quit, Daisy realizes, the hard way, that this approach to helping her overcome her aversion was a mistake all along because literally not knowing how to throw a punch is not actually the root of her problem. She could either find out what that root problem is through talking to her or dig through her past with the ole hacker skills and piece it together or do a combination of both.
She’ll go on to rescue AHG from violent ambushes by SHIELD enemies and comfort her later, when she feels like crap for freezing up or freaking out when the team needed her. Then what must follow is the inevitable episode where AHG does something brave without using violence, gets results and a near fatal injury in the process, which will lead to a bedside scene where the girl smiles through the pain and says “I just wanted to be strong like you for once.”
And then Daisy, sitting next to her in bed and holding her hand with interlocked fingers, will kiss her hand and say “you’re stronger” and with tears sliding down, Daisy will kiss her forehead and---well, you get it, you get it.
Now, let’s circle back to the idea of Jemma as our sapphic-inclined Daisy’s main love interest.
As much as I love love love Fitz....his and Jemma's whole universe keeping us apart thing just doesn't hit the same romantic beats (especially since it's waaaay overdone) as Daisy's more recent anything for her thing with Jemma.
What I mean by Anything For is the prioritization of another person’s safety, feelings, and goals over the doer’s own, if they have any. Maybe this is just me over-analyzing things, but I feel like, in the later seasons, we see Daisy shift into the specific role of Jemma’s guardian. First, in a small way in S4 - when Daisy finds Jemma during the LMD take over.
This scene! this SCENE!?!?! Oh, the way she talks her down, pulls her in, and makes her feel safe, that acting -- THAT acting! This whole moment is what officially awakened me to Skimmons! Daisy was hitting all my romantic hero beats to a TEE but only on some best friend shit. So could you imagine if they were actually a couple and she’s searching for her, trying to talk her down and pulls her in like that, I--dead. I have an entire urban fantasy series about demon slayers planned inspired by these two characters because of this precise moment. It’s working title is literally ‘the Daisy x Jemma story.’ Oh yes, I’m not in the messing around business. If I see wasted potential, I pick it up and I build.
In S5, we see Daisy Anything For Her-ing again in a big way when she goes on a tear through the lighthouse trying to rescue Jemma from alien slavery. Which is way more dramatically and immediately satisfying than just knowing Fitz is somewhere out there ‘working on it.’
And then once again, we see more Anything For Her-ing in S6 when Daisy supports Jemma flying them across the universe to fight more aliens looking for Past Fitz. And of course Daisy doesn’t mind being Jemma’s Hound because Jemma’s her bestie and she likely sees it as just doing her duty as Captain of the FitzSimmons ship. To the Hets and others who just happen not to ship them, all these acts of love and devotion are likely seen as just Daisy being a good big sister figure to Jemma and Fitz. And that’s lovely for them.
But you know what would have been lovely for me, fellow femslashers? Leo Fitz being Jemma’s twin brother this whole time and also, of course, Jemma being gayer than a pack of skittles.
Truth be told, I was never a fan of the Twilight-y/Jacob Black-ish way that Jemma/Fitz started, with the latter harboring these feelings and the former being completely oblivious and then awkward about it at first.
I’m not a fan of the Unrequited Love trope in general. And I love Fitz, so I was rooting for him to move on with someone who didn’t need to ease into the idea of loving him that way. But ease Jemma did. And they’re in it for real and for life...well, for the five minutes a year they get to be in the same room, anyway.
But what could’ve happened if FitzSimmons were twin siblings instead (and I was the head writer on the show who made Jemma and Daisy definite lady-lovin’ ladies, no squinting required)??
Jemma and Daisy’s love story begins post-Ward Betrayal, somewhere in late S2 early S3 with some "my emotional rock" moments, followed up with mild flirtations and blushing denials.
Then, as the pair were just beginning to show more overt feelings toward each other, Jemma starts being all anti-inhuman right when Daisy’s powers are emerging.
After the cat quakes out of the bag and Jemma is angry at Fitz and Daisy for hiding this from her, what ensues between the two girls is a tearful conversation about secrets and lies and fixing things that aren’t broken involving the words “are you afraid me?” & “I would never hurt you” somewhere in between.
Then, after Jemma has some time to cool off, she apologizes to Twin!Brother Fitz for abandoning him and making him feel broken/discarded, then to True Love!Daisy for making her feel afraid to come to her, and then this quote happens “you have to know that the love I have for you runs deeper than fear of the unknown ever will.”
only there would be kissing...yeh, lots more kissing.
I could sit here and rewrite every arc and scene with Daisy and Jemma as a couple spliced through it, but I won’t take up anymore time.
Call me old fashioned but a strong rescue romance theme between a Rogue Toughie living by her own code of honor and a Strong-Willed Softie always surviving some kind of peril with her wits until her knight in shining gauntlets returns for her....the concept just melts my heart.
And that’s the vibe Daisy and Jemma give, especially in later parts of the show, which makes me wish that these two had been given the ‘Love Story of a Lifetime’ instead.
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