I have decided (in the last two minutes) that I actually love Fitz’s first proposal scene. The one on the Lighthouse during Kasius’ little party. It is absolutely perfect and I have been blind.
TV is a visual medium, obviously. Which means that the visuals we’re presented with are just as - if not more important than - what’s being said. And the visual plus the auditory is often more important to the message being communicated than anything else. So if you as the audience member are aware that a character cannot possibly survive an explosion but you see it happen and other characters tell you it happened, well, they survived and you accept it and move on. (This is how crappy movies/shows get you to keep rolling along with nonsense plots. They present them in a way that glosses over the nonsense.)
So first off, what do we see in this scene? We see Jemma. The camera is focused on her face. She’s doing a typically Jemma thing where she struggles with her emotions, trying not to be overcome, and pushing them down to be dealt with never.
And what do we hear? Well, we hear Fitz’s proposal where he ticks all the boxes for his ship. Defying death/time/fate, the curse, their love is greater than all obstacles, etc. If you ship this, it is the absolutely perfect proposal and I won’t pretend it’s not.
So what your brain gets from this is that it is a beautiful moment. Fitz giving the proposal he’s planned for six months (if not longer) while we get to see every microreaction from Jemma. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect.
But hold up. Because what this scene’s presentation glosses over is the fact that Jemma is DEAF. She has NO IDEA that Fitz is even alive, let alone in this room, not two feet away, and proposing. And that, dear reader, is why this scene is the perfect fs proposal. What Jemma’s feeling? What she’s actually feeling? It doesn’t matter. She is a prop for the ship and for Fitz. It’s a strange sort of reversal of that scene where she was tortured and it only happened for Fitz to react to, not for her to emote or, heaven forbid, suffer any repercussions after. Only this time, rather than her emotions being ignored, they’re being co-opted and misrepresented by the narrative.
I know what you’re thinking. Obviously the show knows Jemma’s deaf. The very next thing to happen is Kasius arriving, and Jemma suddenly seeing and being shocked by Fitz, and Fitz realizing she can’t and hasn’t heard a thing he’s said. But that acknowledgement doesn’t erase the fact that this scene is presented as romantic. What we see and hear is as romantic as it comes. If it weren’t meant to be, Jemma’s expressions would have been wildly different, highlighting the disparity between what Fitz is saying and what she’s feeling. The music would have been sad and low and the camera would have focused on Jemma serving, reminding us with every shot that while Fitz is feeling the romance, Jemma is a slave and has been robbed of not only her agency and hearing but what should be one of the most important moments of her life, something she’s no doubt dreamed of for years.
But no, this is a romantic scene. And if you still don’t believe me, just look at how many shippers out there call it one of their favorite romantic moments. Look at the gifsets that choose to focus on a moment where Jemma’s expression implies she is overcome by the strength of Fitz’s love for her. If this were a tragedy, they of all people would put their focus somewhere else rather than leaning into the disingenuous presentation the medium offers.
So yeah. It’s the perfect fs proposal. None of the others can compete.
