#his arc

[christinapotter09]

trying to fix s8 Jon in my fanfic like...

THE MESS THIS CHARACTER TURN INTO

[hiddeninhuman]

Sorry.. this is really long

I think both the pro and anti people have massively miss read Lincoln’s arc, myself included.

We mistakenly (but not unreasonably) linked things that should not have been linked.

It starts with Jaiying questioning if Lincoln will fight with them in SOS. Convincing him was a priority because they knew he had his own mind and was not one just to take orders and kill. Which really comes out with his realization and changing sides. He even avoided killing anyone while taking the ship.

Lincoln’s primary trait was his ethics. His belief in doing the right thing. When he realized that Jaiying was out to kill and not just protect their people he was out.

We come to season 2, and he wants nothing to do with Shield. As a shield agent you are expected to follow orders and be willing to kill. This does not line up with who he is.

Even after Lash attacks and he gives up his human life to save the people at the hospital he doesn’t join shield. This wasn’t stupidity. It was because he isn’t a soldier.

While running from the ATCU he does everything he can not to hurt anyone. He finally agrees to come in after accidentally killing John, his sponser. At this point he feels like he has no choice. Then he is betrayed by Coulson and runs again, why? Not for stupidity, but because he was being handed to the ATCU to be used for who knows what purpose (from his POV).

He then dedicates himself to checking on the other Afterlifers, only to find them dead or missing. He also figures more out about Lash than the ATCU and shield put together (but they were distracted with space rocks and directors flirting and arguing about inhuman cold storage to put time in to dealing with the giant super powered serial killer, lash is in episode 1, but not really dealt with again till episode 4).

When Lincoln figures out that Lash is with shield he goes to the one human agent he knows isn’t Lash, in spite of this person deeply disliking him and wanting to lock him up because it is the right thing to do.

Yes, his anger gets the better of him when faced with Lash and his delusions. Lash and his speech about the inhumans and Lincoln was 100% Lash being insane. Lincoln’s responses are the actual truth.

This is where things got hard, because the shield team and sections of the audience thought there might be truth to Lash’s darkness in Lincoln comments. A lot of use tied it to Gordon’s comment about what they saved him from. These 2 things in reality had nothing at all to do with each other.

Honestly, I think Lincoln attacking Lash might have actually been the right move. Was he angry, yes, but May and Coulson were so blinded by their want to save Andrew that if Lincoln had not done what he had Lash likely would have killed them. Lincoln blasted Lash and almost gave his life at this point. He again put himself in danger to bait lash to the pod. May, of course saved him at this point.

At this point Lincoln joins shield. For Daisy, sure. But, he also knows that continuing to run isn’t an option, and honestly, at that point if he wanted to go, do you think they would have let him? Or iced him and handed him over to the ATCU.

Then we get to Mack choosing to put him in the field. Dr. Gardener’s evaluation was far from flattering, but in hindsight, it seems like it was at least Co written by Lash. This continued to push distance between him and shield because Dr. Gardener was one of their own, and a character the audience liked, so him not trusting Lincoln further estranged the inhuman.

Mack fields Lincoln along with Joey for this mission. Lincoln has no qualms with this one, fight hydra, rescue fitzsimmons and the inhuman prisoners, and stop Hive from coming to earth. Nothing in that goes against his ethics there. Even him being willing to kill Guyera made sense because this is a super powered bad person who had tried to kill Daisy 30 seconds earlier.

At the portal, Lincoln is the only one focused on the greater good. After learning lash is free and the inhuman are dead all he wants to do is get the portal shut down and get the team they have out, he is overruled because everyone else cannot sacrifice Colson and Fitz (and they believe at the time possibly Will) for the greater good.

3b starts and he is working in the lab with Fitzsimmons helping them understand in humans to better help those that turned

Then Coulson pushes against his ethics again. It bothers me that Lincoln was the only one bothered by what coulson was doing to baby von strucker. He does help, but because baby von strucker is suffering and he agrees he might be able to help

Lincoln is following orders when he attacked Creel, but when he was ordered by Coulson to stop he did. I mean we know he has some anger…not denying that.

We get to the inhuman vaccine and Lincoln sees the value in it to give people a choice regarding getting powers or not. He has a point, maybe he is over idealistic and over trusting, but he has a point.

His ethics are tested again with Hologram Blake. Lincoln was not comfortable at all with being given a kill order…it went against who he is, and he did attack as ordered, but at a non lethal level. Look at how relieved he was that it was a hologram

Then we have his interactions with James and the reveal of what Jaiying and Gordon saved him from. Lincoln believed James getting powers was a bad thing (he was right), he also knew James would never play ball without that offer on the table. So, he played James and got the orb. James of course outs Lincoln’s secret. He had an awful DUI accident and almost killed his now ex girlfriend, and the girlfriend only survived because of Gordon and Jaiying. Hence the blackmail scene from SOS. Also, since this wasn’t some big darkness, but a very human and awful but real world issue and mistake, we as fans felt underwhelmed by this reveal. Yes everyone, Lincoln was telling the truth here, there was no big darkness in him… the darkness was just lash being crazy. What happened to his girlfriend was awful, and he regretted it and got clean and made himself worth something, even if he struggled to see that himself.

So, then the team gets kidnapped by Guyera (who is way stronger than anyone suspected) and Lincoln convinces Daisy to assemble the secret warriors (not because of hives sway but) because it is the right thing to do.

They rescue the team, he brings in Malick alive (should have been a hint he wasn’t swayed because if he was it would have been so easy to kill him at hives place). He is the only one of the inhumans that does not want to escape shield, because they should be quarantined. He is accused of murder, and quaked into a wall. He is then locked up. When offered a chance to run by Daisy, who is infected, he doesn’t take it. Instead he tries to get through to her. He brings up them as a couple and her loyalty to shield (let’s get real…he could not have played along and incompacitated her, the team believed him to be the infected one so they never would have believed him).

So, Daisy is Hived, and he chooses to stay on with shield because he wants to help. He even wears a murder vest to do it. He then threatens to torture an Alicia duplicate to try to get info on saving Daisy…are you really telling me no one else at shield would have done that? Really? Come on here guys. But Lincoln is taken out of the field and kept away from anything resembling working on the problem.

So we get to the anti serum. The only think Lincoln did wrong regarding that was not taking it in a pod…and if fitzsimmons had not caught him he might even have done that. Was it a risk? Yes. Was it worth it? Not at all. Was it anything important in the end? Not at all. His immune system was back by the next episode.

So then Lincoln plays a game of spy with coulson, may and lash against daisy and hive. He plays his part perfectly. He does it because he believes Lash is meant to kill hive and save the world

He goes to see Daisy when she returns, but she cannot make eye contact with him. He let’s her be. We learn that he believes that Daisy doesn’t need him He also has come to terms with him not being up to being a spy. He isn’t built for the lying, manipulation and killing. It isn’t who he is. Lincoln does not have it in him to kill on orders…we saw that. What he is up for? Saving the world, fighting the good fight, and doing what is right. Which is what he did.

He wore the murder vest again. He followed the plan even with Hive mocking him about Daisy. He was instrumental in stopping Hive. He and yoyo worked together great.

He then insisted on going with Coulson, Mack and Simmons to the edge of space in the quin jet, even though he knew about Daisy’s vision and that someone wasn’t coming back. After being partially blown up by Hellfire he stressed that Daisy had not ruined their relationship and it was important they work on themselves (he was dying at this point you guys and this was his way of telling Daisy to work on herself and not worry about him). He knows what Daisy is going to do, and even tough he has a hole in his gut, is bleeding out and was ordered by Simmons to keep still to even have a chance, he moved to the quin jet knowing about the vision and knowing what Daisy was planing. He then saved Daisy by getting her off the jet. He knew someone had to go. He knew he wasn’t going to make it and he was not going to let Daisy die like that, in pain and without being able to make peace with the team. If Daisy had died there it would have been without being able to find peace with what happened with the team and hive. Lincoln was at peace with his decision. Also, I’m not so sure the rest of the team would he been so passive I’d it had been Daisy in the jet.

Lincoln was never a coward, never selfish and never stupid. He was a character that wanted the best for everyone, including those that wronged him.

As to why he died. Lincoln never would have stayed with Shield as a normal agent. His ethics would not have meshed long term with the grey ethics of the organization. And, if Lincoln were alive, Daisy wouldn’t have had her faith in all inhumans should have powers and in shield itself rocked. Daisy lost the man she loves because of the personal choices over the world (may vs hunter regarding killing ward when Andrew was in danger, Coulson going off the reservation after Roslind was killed, and her own part in the decision to keep the portal open to save coulson and Fitz in spite of the danger of hive’s escape).

Lincoln’s death is a catalyst for Daisy to do exactly what he told her to do, work on herself. I hope Daisy has truly learned from him to question even the things you believe in if they go against your ethics.

Losing him hurts…and I hope there is a way his death doesn’t stick. But, if it does and he is truly gone, he is gone because he died doing what he has been doing since the beginning, doing what he believes to be right.

He truly was a good person, probably the most ethical on the show.

[briecheesie]

sometimes i find myself crying and i realize i’m thinking of young justice’s superboy

[opaltithe]

QUIT CALLING CHIHIRO A TRAP