Note on the Female Gaze vs. Male Power Fantasy with Steve Rogers/Chris Evans
(Long post ahead.)
I saw someone claiming that all the MCU men with their muscles and general fine asf ness, get objectified by women, too, so women in the MCU being objectified (by men) is okay.
The difference comes down to the female gaze, the male gaze, and the male power fantasy. This is a random thought I had because can only think of one scene in the entire MCU that catered to the female gaze for Steve Rogers. It was with Peggy after Steve comes out of the pod. After that, there wasn’t anything else that adhered to the female gaze in my opinion. I’m looking at you Joss Whedon and that hot ass mess called AoU (and JL if we’re keeping it a buck).
I couldn’t find the gif, but Bruce literally falls on Natasha’s boobs for laughs in AoU. For no reason. Y’all it’s so gross I don’t think I’d want to post it on here if I could find it. Natasha and Scarlet Johansson (our Asian queen) faced the brunt of the MALE gaze, which was catered to via objectification. Whether it was posters or specific shots, Natasha was reduced to just being sexy, rather than a fully realized woman.
Now cut back to the pod scene:
This scene is probably the only scene where Steve is looked at through the FEMALE GAZE. The way Peggy sort unconsciously reaches for his abs is indicative of that. She is showcasing her basic sexual desire for him, because he is fine. That’s all! And on Steve’s side, he is disbelief because he is not used to his new body as a concept or as a reality. Peggy is the stable, more in control character in that frame, not Steve. And shout out to Hayley Atwell for that unscripted blessing.
Now contrast this scene from Civil War:
Here, Steve is holding Bucky’s chopper with one hand, and the landing railing with the other. Super soldier aside, the audience sees Chris Evans’ big muscles, big chest, and thick ass legs pulling an actual chopper down. So Steve is all bulk in this scene.
These moments may also appeal to women in the same way as well, but women are not the main focus with this. Satisfying the male power fantasy is. These men want to be as buff and strong as Steve is.
Here is another example of this in AoU:
The common thread is Steve’s reliance on brute strength to get the job done. Yes, I know his abilities are apart of his character, but one could argue that Steve’s entire character arc was a man out of first his body, then out of time. He was a scrawny, sickly kid that got his ass whooped all the time, and then became superhuman at an instant. Steve works to feel comfortable with himself and that includes excepting his new body, and that he never changed who he was even after the serum. That’s the literal counter to the male power fantasy.
Here is another example from Infinity War:
We see this stuff on dating apps where buffer guys are more likely to get rejected if that’s their profile photo. @talknerdytome25 on TikTok did a great job of diving deeper into that topic.
Anyways, thanks for reading my random thoughts. And I don’t wanna shame women who do find these scenes to be the most attractive, people like what they like and that’s fine. I kinda wanna hear what people have to say about this. Don’t mind my rant lol.
6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?
Um… I don’t think so? It’s sometimes made me enjoy a pairing I was previously aware of but indifferent to, including Thorki, which it took me a little while to warm up to (I never had a problem with the incest, I just came in as a non-shipping Loki gen fic fan).
7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?
I mean, Ragnarok, obviously. I never liked it that much, but like many of the people who now hate it, I thought it was OK at first because I was worried that it was going to be worse than it appeared to be on first viewing. And everyone loved it, and there was the “I’m here” moment, and the Thorki fandom burst into a flurry of activity… but something didn’t sit well and then I had a conversation with @illwynd and it was all over.
On a more general level: whump, especially graphic physical torture whump. I used to write some of that in high school (before the word “whump” existed) when I was super depressed but undiagnosed and unmedicated (Frodo whump, mostly; I enjoyed killing him in nasty ways). When I first went looking for Loki gen fic in 2015, I found a lot of torture whump, and I read some, and I realized that I was not having fun.
12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?
LOL, are you trying to get me to write my long-promised “Why Age of Ultron is a Good Movie” post? Unfortunately, that would take a much longer time than I have to devote to it right now, because I still have a few papers and a whole bunch of exams to grade. But yeah, Age of Ultron. I think Ultron is interesting. This post (which I optimistically titled “Philosophy in Infinity War: Part I” because I thought I was going to say some stuff about the “we don’t trade lives” bullshit but I lost motivation) goes into why I think Ultron is interesting and starts in on the theme that I think unifies all of the character arcs – including Natasha’s, which I don’t think is as problematic as everyone else does for reasons it would take this entire future essay to explain – namely, the theme of descent, legacy, inheritance. (That post is also the one that talks about Vision’s characterization, so I’m killing two birds with one link.)
Actually, you know what? I think I can give a short version of the Natasha spiel, which draws on an interview with Whedon that I read about in some post still bashing him and I’ll have to go find when I write the longer version of this post… Anyway, the film emphatically does not agree with her that she’s a monster because she can’t have children. What Whedon says is that she feels like a monster because she’s been forcibly plucked out of the natural order of descent, and in fact becomes like a backwards organism that can only destroy its kind but can’t produce more, can only take life but not give it. And she makes clear that these aspects are intertwined: the impossibility of giving life, of producing something that would be more important than anything else, was intended to make killing easier.
But here’s the thing: the whole movie is about non-traditional ways of having children and leaving a legacy. Ultron is Tony’s “child”; so was JARVIS; so is Vision. Steve wonders whether he left his dreams of having a wife and kids behind in the ice. What we see at the end of the movie is Natasha and Steve, two people who either can’t or don’t want to have children the traditional way, bringing something new to birth and beginning to parent it: the re-formed Avengers, who are partially continuous with the original Avengers but partly new in a way that suggests the continuation of a lineage. As Hamilton says, “I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me,” and that’s exactly what Steve and Natasha are doing: molding the Avengers not just as a one-off assemblage of superheroes to deal with a single emergency, but as an institution, which can survive a certain amount of turnover in its ranks. This is Natasha’s baby, and it is in fact very human – uniquely human (until Ultron, anyway) – to put yourself into things that aren’t biological children, to regard those things as your legacy. Bruce is the one who resigns himself to living outside the natural order, leaving no legacy at all.
I’m convinced that I must be the only one who likes Age of Ultron, like obvious issues aside I find it very enjoyable?? Way more enjoyable than the first Avengers movie (which is pretty boring imo) and waaay better than Infinity War (which I didn’t really like, except for Nomad Steve and Wakanda Bucky of course) and obviously than that mess that is Endgame… So yeah, I do think AOU is my favourite one of the Avengers movies
I don't hate it but it's not my fave. I'm not actually sure which movie I've watched more, but I suspect it's probably A1 over A2/AOU?
IMO the number of 'they all live in Avengers Tower and everyone has their own floor and everything is fine' fics speaks for itself; there are clearly things in it people like.
But I think if you asked, the parts most people would save from AOU are the party, and the new characters -- Wanda, Vision, and Pietro -- and not much else?
The Nat/Bruce creepiness, made up farm, and Steve saying 'language!' (because Whedon doesn't know about army life, apparently?) I could do without.
If I was the writers, and capable of planning ahead, I think I would've introduced Zemo then -- keeping his OG Nazi roots -- but as Wanda and Pietro's Hydra relative? Like maybe he took them to Hydra to get them 'fixed,' because he doesn't approve of enhanced people.
So that the family Zemo lost to the Avengers would be the Maximoff parents, and/or Pietro, and anyone else killed in the Ultron debacle.
(And then, following a Cap movie about the search for Bucky, the next Avengers movie could be Civil War, carrying over from those Sokovian events; Zemo wanting revenge and also to open Wanda's eyes to the fact that her powers are a curse. Then IW & EG *achtw*).
IMO the biggest misstep in AOU (apart from the farm) was the Bad Guy design.
Ultron was initially terrifying when he was revealed as this shambling, mechanical ghoul, cannibalising others; like a zombie robot! (They could've actually used that to make a point about drone technology and hive minds a la the Chitauri, and Stark Industries as a parasitic organism! Imagine it! A horde of staggering half-formed robot zombies!)
...But instead they immediately fixed him and made him bland. 🙄
"During AoU he blamed Tony for everything" - he said one (1) time that Ultron was a bad idea and only when Tony pushed him to (log chopping scene). Nothing against that anon specifically but I've seen this really strange phenomenon in most people attracted to Stony where they think Tony is entitled to a lot more love and affection from Steve than Steve is from him. How can you complain only about Steve appearing distant in AoU where Tony mocks/ belittles him and actively excludes him from plans?
I never had the impression Steve (or anyone) blamed Tony for Ultron’s actions. They seemed to clearly recognize that Ultron was a sentient being, so he was making his own decisions. I think the team was (rightly, imo) upset with Tony and Bruce for experimenting with alien technology they knew little about, other than that it was dangerous, without consulting the team. Tony specifically tells Bruce he doesn’t want to hear that same old man wasn’t meant to meddle medley (god, the writing, stop it, Joss, that’s terrible), which tells me that they likely have had debates about this before and it hasn’t gone Tony’s way or else he thinks that’s what they’ll say and doesn’t want to chance it.
Steve’s whole point about “together” wasn’t that he was coming up with some plan on the spot about how to handle an unknown threat at an unknown time and unknown location, but that whatever they did, they needed to do it as a team, not Tony and Bruce off on their own.
What’s interesting to me about all of this is that they are both right. They do need to do this together, as Steve said, and Tony was absolutely right about them needing to be focused on the larger threat and that it might require a little mad science to be able to protect the world and that includes risking the natural order of things or “playing god,” so to speak. I suspect we will see that ultimately come into play in Avengers 4 where they will undo things somehow by altering time.
But, no, I don’t think any of the Avengers blamed Tony for Ultron’s actions, exactly, any more than Tony gets credit for Vision’s choices. Those are beings capable of making their own decisions and so they are charged with the consequences of those. I do think the team was pretty pissed the two of them got up to that without talking it through with the team, and I agree with them on that. But, you know, Whedon wanted the Ultron story and Hank wasn’t around, so whatever. The whole thing is just shoddy, imho, but it is what we have, so since you asked.
Ok, I've gathered the courage to ask. If you want, would you give us your headcanon on what was going on in Tony's head in the farm scene, when Steve ripped that log?
Hi! Glad you asked!
You know, there is the shippy answer of him being turned on, but honestly, I think anyone’s reaction, and probably Tony’s too, would be that reminder and re-realization of just how powerful Steve is. Because up until that point, Steve is pretty lowkey around Tony about his abilities and how he reacts to things, as far as we know. Tony has only seen Steve in Avengers and during whatever training they did together or missions between films. Steve is very bottled up with his emotions. Everything is done according to plans, to strategy, and very coordinated, as we see with the opening sequence of AoU. So, here we have Tony seeing this moment of violence that comes a bit out of left field, and I do think there is a bit of a “holy shit’ moment for Tony. I think there is a realization that Steve has a breaking point, that he can be reactive and emotional in a way that Tony hasn’t really experienced before, so I see a little caution, a little pulling back and going “huh” but also some curiosity, in the sense of Tony realizing maybe he doesn’t really know Steve all that well after all. They are colleagues at this point, but I think Tony thought maybe he had Steve’s number, and now sees this and isn’t so sure. This is Steve, not “Captain America,” getting frustrated and losing his cool. There is danger there, and I think that maybe Tony didn’t see that so much behind the whole stars-and-stripes and aw-shucks-ma’am persona.
Of course, he is also blindingly aroused, as we know. Ahem.
Hello My name is Chloe! I follow you on Archive and I read all the prompts you got here so I know you are kinda busy but I thought I'd leave a prompt anyway but don't feel rushed to do it. :) My prompt is for the Maximoff oneshots "Lord help the mister that comes between me and my sister" I one shot on how Pietro is protective of Wanda when it comes to the guys on the team particularly Vision and Steve. Hope that fits criteria! Thanks!
I mean. You can send in single line prompts, that is absolutely fine as a prompt but the fact of the matter is that with the way I have the twins mapped this particular prompt wouldn’t work?
Pietro would certainly, by my mapping, be protective of Wanda around Tony because, well, he’s Stark, but around others on the team, such as Steve, such as Vision... he wouldn’t be nearly so protective? The twins protectiveness of each other isn’t ... it’s not quite how we map protectiveness, largely due to the codependent aspects of their characters, which a lot of people have trouble understanding. Vision and Steve are not people who the twins would consider a threat and therefore not people they would feel a need to be protected from. Even factoring in the likely rivalry that a living Pietro would have with Steve (likely similar to what he has with Clint) due to the “stay down, kid” line... there wouldn’t be a need for protectiveness because Steve doesn’t want to hurt them unless they are doing something to hurt people first and, by the end of AOU (which I’m assuming you’re going for given Vision’s presence) the twins have no intention of doing. Indeed, the reason they join the Avengers is because they don’t want to see people hurt, hell, Wanda, the twin which tends to lead is absolutely horrified by what Ultron plans.
And then Vision... Pietro might not trust Vision, but Wanda has an invitation to look into his mind (“Look again”) and thus could judge for the both of them if Vision is a threat and with her Telepathy and the twins inherent trust of each other I see no reason that Pietro wouldn’t trust Wanda’s judgement. And likely Wanda’s judgement of Vision would be largely positive - Vision is a genuine person, from what we see, genuinely kind, genuinely against harming people, he doesn’t even want to hurt Ultron because, as he says, “He is unique” and “Ultron is in pain”. Vision is incredibly empathetic, and he doesn’t want to hurt people, though he will if he thinks that there is no other option available - something I personally think the twins would quite understand.
So, looking at this... there’s no reason for Pietro to feel protective of Wanda around Steve or Vision - or indeed most of the team barring Stark. None of them are threats to them, none of them, by the end of AOU, would seek to hurt them, indeed some of them (Steve and Vision amongst the especially I think) would want to help them.
I can’t see Pietro being protective of Wanda, at least not without good reason, and even then by the end of AOU Wanda has shown herself to be quite capable of protecting herself - indeed it is her proving that ability and her promise to him that he can come to collect her when everyone is off the rock that ensures he leaves her to fight in the church to protect the core; he didn’t want to leave her because from what we see he wants to keep her safe.
But the thing is, safe does not mean smothering. Pietro isn’t going to be over-protective, least of all because there is little need. The twins trust each other, they trust each other’s skills, and with Wanda’s telepathy her ability to judge those people with a brain that she is capable of understanding her judgement of people is likely something that Pietro would not question - we see this in AOU with his response to Wanda’s shock at seeing the image of destruction in the unborn Vision’s mind. He is worried for Wanda and as soon as she confronts Ultron about it and he responds in such a way as to show that it wasn’t an idle thought... they’re gone. They are gone. Wanda’s judgement of someone or something affects a lot of Pietro’s actions around them and Steve - who trusted them on the train, brought them to the tower and let them join the fight in Novi Grad - and Vision - who fought against his own creator and, at the end of AOU, got Wanda off the rock - have both proven themselves to be the opposites of threats to the twins, have proven themselves to be willing to help them.
There isn’t a reason for Pietro to be protective of Wanda around them, and undoubtedly if he was you’d get effectively a repeat of Wanda in the church, proving she is more than capable of handling herself and that she thinks Pietro is making a mountain out of a molehill.
I’m sorry, nonny, I don’t think this would really work. If you have another prompt, however, feel free to send it in, and I’ll add it to the two in my drafts to get to ASAP.
prompt: hydra tortures wanda when pietro misbehaves, and vice versa, and what they both think of it?
What they both would think of it is “I’m getting us the hell outta here” and then proceed to actually do so.
The twins are uniquely close, and have their own series of checks and balances deciding whether or not they do something. This is going to take me a while to explain, but there is a series of reasons that, while I think HYDRA were certainly cruel to the twins in their own ways, I don’t think they tortured either or both of them to keep them both in line, especially after the development of Wanda’s powers. This explanation-meta gets terribly long - probably as long as any ficlet might usually be - so this is going beneath a cut.
The twins desire for vengeance is one of their driving motivations, alongside their deep and abiding care for each other. The other driving motivation they possess is to ensure their twin is well, and this is a mutual thing. While at first it seems to be largely one-sided in Pietro’s protectiveness of Wanda, you see Wanda calling Pietro’s name during the fight over the Cradle at Stark Tower, and Wanda’s reaction when he is shot in the battle. Pietro makes very explicit threats to kill Clint for tasing Wanda, and in Novi Grad Ultron’s primary - a primary made of Vibranium is destroyed by Wanda’s wrath when Pietro is shot. The twins care for one another is utterly mutual and extremely fierce and I go on about this balance to a degree in my meta Here. As you can see from this, when one of the twins is hurt, minorly or seriously they take it seriously. They are willing to kill those who hurt them, out of their protectiveness for each other, and I personally believe this started before even their enhancement, with their protective codependency dating back to when they were ten and spent two days in rubble waiting for Tony Stark’s bomb to kill them.
Now, the consequences of this: It makes them very easy to manipulate. The twins want two things, and two things above all else. Their mutual well-being, and their vengeance. That is it, and I whole-heartedly believe that that is how HYDRA controls them - how S.H.I.E.L.D. would have controlled them had they run into them in a different setting. Not overtly, but through subtle (and not quite so subtle) manipulation of their two driving causes. They wouldn’t need to torture either of them, and besides which that would have been counterproductive. All it would take is the promise of helping them with their vengeance and proof of a way of doing this for the twins interest to be piqued, for their loyalty to be won until someone else with a better promise comes along. All it would take to break it is to torture one or both of them. It would be an illogical step in order to try to keep them in line, let alone loyal and well.
Strucker wants these twins, these two, their sole successes to be loyal to them, and to not run when they are let out, to not make escape attempts before then - with Pietro’s speed and Wanda’s powers they absolutely could have escaped if they so chose and they would have so chosen had either or both of them been tortured. We’ve seen what Wanda does when her brother is hurt. If they torture them they will try to escape. If they torture them they will be hated. If they torture them oh they might have two enhanced out of who knows how many failed experiments … but those two will loathe them beyond all else and would be able to rip them to pieces with their speed or their scarlet, or mentally eviscerate them. Torture is, simply, an impractical and imprecise method for them to use if they wished to control the twins, and when you are dealing with power like that of the Sceptre, like that of the twins it is volatile. You have to be aware of this. Given the twins are shown unshackled and free to run off and join the battle under their own whim in AOU the twins have clearly either earned trust by being suitably compliant on their own, or are loyal, in their own way, likely due to the idea of being able to go up against Stark on a level playing field now they have their powers. They might hate HYDRA but appreciate that they have gained powers due to them, been trained due to them, are being protected by them.
They aren’t going to be thinking in this pattern if either of them were tortured. If they were tortured prior to their enhancement they would make concerted efforts to leave and either be killed or denied enhancement. If they were tortured after enhancement… Wanda’s scarlet would go wild, eviscerate the minds around hers, destroy her cell, blast the door off and she would use her mental scarlet to find Pietro. Pietro would batter the door down with his speed, find Wanda and get her out. You must take the enhancements into account. They are a key part of this equation, alongside their loyalty to each other. If one is tortured they will break out with their twin and they will not return. The experiments would have been for naught.
And because they did not know what powers the twins might receive, let alone if they even would they would not have been prepared with powers-proof doors, and even if they’d lined anything with Vibranium we’ve seen that, when suitably wrathful, Wanda can rip through it all the same.
Given we see the twins allowed to stay in the main command room during the attack they are evidently trusted enough, and given the eventually run to the battle they evidently are not cowed by HYDRA at all, and decide to take the chance of vengeance then over loyalty to HYDRA. They know Strucker means to surrender and leave, that this attack is going to succeed, but also that they are not known of, that the Avengers are unprepared for them. HYDRA gave them powers yes, so they do not abandon them wholly - Wanda knocks Cap down stairs and messes with Tony’s mind, and Pietro defends the mooks in the woods while fighting Clint - but they know that HYDRA is going to fall, that they still need their vengeance and to make sure they are both well, so they make a new decision.
And even if we did go AU and have HYDRA torture them They would hate HYDRA. They would use their powers to annihilate the base and to escape.
Hell, HYDRA doing that might even prompt the twins to go to the Avengers with the sceptre as a peace-offering because they become wholly convinced that the Avengers cannot be as bad as Strucker and List.
Much, much more likely the twins were managed with a combination of promises that they would gain powers and become strong enough to fight for their country (fight Stark) and subtle threats to one another should they step out of line. The twins would not want to step out of line because of the carrot - enhancement - and would acknowledge HYDRA as rivals worth acknowledging for the stick - the threats - but they would not feel inclined to leave because the promise of enhancement overrides vague threats of harm. It would not override torture. Once they are enhanced they were likely controlled by the carrot of training, a chance to fight, and being able to see each other, and the stick of the subtle threat of the risk that they themselves may do each other harm if they do not control their powers, something utterly abhorrent to the twins.
I honestly believe that at no point torture would be necessary to manipulate the twins’ loyalty, and that the only effect torture would have would be entirely counterproductive to HYDRA’s aims.
Here’s the thing about Strucker’s HYDRA - they aren’t stupid. In This Sceptre’d Isle expansion comic, explaining the twins’ volunteering they never say who they are (if I am recalling correctly), just that they will give volunteers the strength they need to fight for their country - a motivation most of the people at that protest shared. It was a simple and excellent way to gain experiment fodder. Strucker also knows when he is in a no-win scenario - he plans to surrender to the Avengers - and he makes attempts to play his way out of the Avenger’s hands (“I am a thug for S.H.I.E.L.D.”). The mook they send to steal the sceptre isn’t flashy about it, isn’t gloating, just does his job.
They are portrayed as cruelly practical - think a not-entirely-followed Evil Overlord or Empress List or Mad Scientist List. They know that certain things, while enjoyable if sadistic or with a power fetish, are counterproductvie. This doesn’t stop them from being cruel, but it does mean that they know that torturing either of the twins, let alone both, will mean they leave as soon as possible, and likely with great destruction should this be when they are enhanced, to which would also be the cost of losing their only enhanced subjects.
In their simple, cruelly practical system, it simply isn’t worth it to torture the twins when there are better ways of manipulating their loyalty to each other and their desire for vengeance into a loyalty to them.
And if anyone wants to do something similar for S.H.I.E.L.D., I’ve included below my response to another prompter re: why I don’t think interactions the twins would have with S.H.I.E.L.D.-that-was or S.H.I.E.L.D.-that-is would necessarily be negative.
Prompt: Twins vs. the very bad, not good way of Shield towards enhanced (basically the twins going around trying to stay very away from them and warn others if they have the chance)
I don’t know if they would necessarily, because depending on which parts of S.H.I.E.L.D. they deal with… they’d not necessarily feel warned off? They’d not like being watched as individuals on the List, but Pietro can take them away from that, with his speed. They’d likely accept whatever training S.H.I.E.L.D. might offer them after AOU if they both had lived, because they have seen the actual evidence of what the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. are supposed to be and do - Pietro even acknowledges that S.H.I.E.L.D. as it is meant to be is “not so bad”, and Wanda is shown willing to chose to work with them and she seems to decide for the both of them much of the time.
I can see bad interaction with HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D. pre-CA:TWS, but that is the S.H.I.E.L.D. they volunteered to, likely unknowingly, and due to the value they place on their vengeance they’d likely have been willing to endure much if it brought them closer to their vengeance - they wouldn’t leave or turn against them, because it would risk their vengeance.
I mean. If they were born with their gifts and it went differently, maybe if they had gained their gifts at ten when their home was destroyed, then they’d be on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar much earlier, but more likely than not S.H.I.E.L.D.would offer to take them in and train them - offering them shelter, protection, education and, more importantly to them I think legal aid, which would allow them to formally challenge Stark for his missiles and shells being in Sokovia, which likely would have brought the whole cycle with Obadiah Stane to a head much earlier, and may well result a total lack of Iron Man in that AU. But again, the twins would be offered and likely take the aid S.H.I.E.L.D. would offer - they would be potentially useful assets with no family but they would also be children, and what we’ve been shown of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to suggest a degree of distaste in the idea of directly training children, so they’d likely be given a home, given an education and offered a chance to join S.H.I.E.L.D. when old enough, with S.H.I.E.L.D. doing much to keep them on side. Wanda would be aware of the motivation, likely, but also acknowledge that the aid they are offering is invaluable to them if they truly wish to see Stark destroyed for what he did, and so, again, they’d not go against S.H.I.E.L.D. and likely stay with them.
Basically, due to the twins focus on vengeance they are in a very unique position before they gain their gifts, which means their loyalty can be won andheld by those who offer them a position from which to attack Tony. Post their enhancement, and the fall of the castle their loyalty is much more fluid - they have the power they need to take down Stark, be it on their own or with Ultron - and they could have, then, picked and chosen who they wished to ally with. That said, Wanda doesn’t seem to like violence, so they’d likely end up intervening and trying to stop something they started when it became violent to a point that Wanda was disgusted, at which point they would likely run into a New-S.H.I.E.L.D. team or with the Avengers leaving Wanda open to seeing their minds and learning that they are considered more assets than threats to kill, that they can be given aid if they work with them, that S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers both can offer them very useful opportunities - for vengeance or otherwise - which would give them reason to play along with S.H.I.E.L.D., and maybe even work with them.
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s treatment of some enhanced is dodgy as hell, but not all of it is - New-S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be trying to help those Inhumans they find, the Avengers actively recruit people with unusual gifts in order to make a team to defend and protect humankind and with Wanda’s mental gifts I don’t doubt that she would see it and given she makes the final decisions for the twins they likely wouldn’t go against S.H.I.E.L.D. and if she didn’t have her gifts they wouldn’t be on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar - Pietro would be too fast for most to notice him and Wanda would encourage him to be careful with it to avoid their being caught - and if neither had their gifts they most certainly wouldn’t be on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar.
And S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t make labelled missiles to knock down a building with.
I’m sorry, I can’t see a way to do this prompt. At most I can see them being outraged at the treatment of certain enhanced, but much of the time S.H.I.E.L.D. has reasons, even if they are questionable and Wanda would see that, and if it was particularly bad then Wanda would simply quietly influence things or ask for a change in that regard and with her powers, provided her request was deemed “reasonable” she’d get it, most likely, so she’d see no reason for a stronger rebellion.
This isn’t X-men where there’s Stryker and Trask taking and experimenting on mutants willy-nilly - I’m writing that AU right now - so there’s much less cause for opposition.
