i'm going to bring up a season 5 conversation that is very overlooked but for once, it's a lighthearted and funny one.
in 5x11-ish General Hale tells off Ruby for being "obsessed" with Daisy Johnson. Lady, YOU're obsessed with Daisy Johnson.
i've seen this show thrice. walk with me here.
Hale sees Daisy as a worthier candidate than Ruby to go into the Particle Infusion Chamber. She spends her entire screen time in the first half of S5 trying to draw out SHIELD for Quake. and to arrest them, but that comes secondary as we've seen in 5x15 where Coulson spends some time in her base and clearly considers the alien Confederacy problem as a higher priority. this is just a crazed fan trying to see a glimpse of their fav.
She literally fan girls about Daisy in front of Coulson – "You've made her into quite the formidable soldier" / "She's strong, she's cold, she's calculating" / "She'd be worthy of the name Whitehall named this project" etc because Daisy Johnson is the standard Ruby Hale could never reach (in time, we'd never know). Also she noticed her daughter's obsession. Dude. Ruby possibly became obsessed with Quake because her mother loves Daisy so much that she became their training standard – probably from all of those assessments on how SHIELD operates to find them but whatever
which, i find it a little baffling that despite Hale's established academic smarts, she completely foregoes the Inhuman part of Daisy. you'd think the girl who could generate blasts that allows her to control gravitonium would probably have some adverse effects if its properties were infused in her body. i'm sure vibration manipulation and gravity manipulation cancel each other out somewhere. also, considering Hale has access to SHIELD files, I'm sure there's a section somewhere that details how Daisy's powers are sensory as much as it is physical or maybe there isn't, since data privacy and all that, though Daisy was at the receiving brunt of SHIELD's intake process and the Secret Warriors wasn't exactly secret – see Yo-yo's eventual integration and name-dropping Lincoln a few times with Talbot and Radcliffe. also i'm pretty sure the extent of her abilities came up at some point when she was rogue. there's a good chance she'd know. this is actually quite comical if Hale's fangirling actually distracted her smarts from considering this.
anyway, i just think it's funny that Hale quite literally tried to insert Daisy as her blorbo in her grand scheme of Hydra evil like we writers do. "oh yeah i have this mission that creates the strongest man in the world, well i want the strongest man in the world to be a woman (actual line she said in the show) and i want that to be my favorite vigilante-slash-superhero of all time!" which exacerbates Ruby's insecurities but high key i don't think Ruby cared about it either because she also Gets It. they're both crazy for Quake. Sam Koenig's got quite the competition.
well, well, well. someone figured out how to write a season 5 AU where Daisy suffers paralysis (or some form of disability) post-The Devil Complex after wrangling with the topic for years. the beast is tamed.
alright. i have more than one Agents of SHIELD season 5 fanfics published. i honestly don't know how that happened, but one thing i will say: i take the canon compliant tag seriously. so, i present, my season 5 mind map.
(i hope it's readable because i spent like two weeks over this and my Obsidian cannot stop making a weird out-of-place box thing in the corner when i export images and i did my best to work around that)
also known as: i'm writing a timeline fic and I Cannot, for the life of me, Determine How Other Timelines Could Have Gone About This
i have to tell y'all, it was way easier to work backwards than start at the beginning, so read this right to left. Green indicates the saved timeline (for like, two details) and Red for the destroyed Earth.
some things worth of note:
In both outcomes, Coulson does not take the Centipede serum. But despite that, we needed Centipede to get to Daisy. So, in any timeline where Daisy doesn't pursue the Centipede lead, Earth is destroyed. However, this is only a solution for the Graviton Problem.
Since Daisy is blamed for the end, it's worth assuming that Talbot isn't always Graviton. He just happened to be the one we ended up with, although the probability of him being Graviton is probably high; Robin said so.
So the next issue worth noting is the Centipede serum vs. the Odium. I don't think it's a coincidence the team gets both in the same episode (5x19 Option Two) only, we don't know which of these two is the second option. We already know Daisy pursues the Centipede lead with Caine via May's intel; the Odium, on the other hand, we get when the Remorath invades the Lighthouse. This secures the existence of a Graviton, because, in Talbot's case, he was feeling guilty for his time under Hale and the Faustus that exposed their location. For the team, they were absolutely Fucked without one (Quake's out of the list because the Centipede lead will always happen*. Though I'm not sure why they can't just let Yo-yo have a go at them. This show has a nerfing problem.)
*The Centipede lead comes from Caine, who they reach out to re: Gravitonium for the Fear dimension, which came from the Kree beacon exploding near the Di'Allas. This also means, without Quake on that mission or Ruby was indisposed which I find highly unlikely, Yo-yo loses her arms. The Cybertek lead was supposed to answer three problems: gravitonium, prosthetics for Yo-yo, and the Centipede serum. Hence, Yo-Yo losing her arms, her killing Ruby, the Centipede lead, the Remorath invasion**, are all mutually exclusive.
**I include the Remorath because that – and Graviton's existence – only happened with Daisy going dark. They were without their strongest hitter (as the show's writing implies – again I don't know why 1/ they can't defend themselves without Daisy and 2/ Yo-yo can't just take a lighter and burn them all in less than a second). But more than that, the invasion happened with the Confederacy knowing the Lighthouse's coordinates. That only happens if Talbot's Faustus was activated and Ruby is killed – only Talbot's Faustus is in red because Ruby needed to die, there was no saving that kid. Do note, though, that we don't know if Talbot stepping into the chamber could've happened with or without the brainwashing. That's a wildcard, I guess.
Now, the England Problem. I've always had some gripes over 5x16-18 because of the lack of communication between team Lighthouse (Daisy, May, Mack, Piper, Coulson) and team FSY (Fitz, Simmons, Yo-yo), which I think could've solved everything right then and there. Daisy asked Jemma to compile the intel she's been pitching Daisy. After saving Coulson and Talbot, they return to base, where Piper says Jemma's gone MIA. So the intel was not compiled, nor did anyone know where they went. Hence the lull where Talbot's Faustus is activated. Credit where credit's due, FSY did buy the team time. But tactically, if they were buying time, why didn't they tell anyone where they were going? It's not like anyone will stop them, they already locked Mack in. And wouldn't it be more efficient if someone else on base knew where they were going? Then that wouldn't lead their victory to be overturned by Ruby as quickly as she'd arrived. (I also had to list these down because a (wo)man's best friend is set after 5x18 – feel free to read about Ruby's dog which I'm highkey pissed they didn't acknowledge or anything – and I needed to know where Daisy was emotionally)
Then I realized none of the lack of communication would've happened if trust wasn't broken between Daisy and Fitz. The reason why Daisy wouldn't listen to Simmons is because the intel came from Fitz. And, fair enough, if the guy didn't know about the Doctor until the end of 5x14, the Doctor withholding any pertinent information is just as likely as it is not. 5x16-5x18 happens the way it does because Fitz took out Daisy's inhibitor without consent. So, in any timeline where the Earth is destroyed, 5x14 happens the way it does, unfortunately for our favorite brotp. Same goes to the rest of the season, though if they'd compiled the intel, maybe it would've devolved further without a need for Graviton, or the Odium (why I haven't written this part yet, I will explain)
Also let's note that Coulson turned himself in with Hale. Not doing this leaves Talbot high and dry, but doing so causes the split in decision-making that follows – Coulson's rescue, or Fitz's assessment? And would they have known about Project Destroyer of Worlds had he not turned himself in? Or about the Confederacy? How about how to work the time drive thing when they're on the alien ship in 5x21? I'll say the writers did a fantastic job of tangling destroying the world with saving the world, and I'm starting to think the entire thing is mutually exclusive. But it's also worth nothing that this may not be the only working timeline. My fic says so (more on that later).
That said, the Doctor only existed because of the Framework. and that only happened with Racliffe and AIDA and the Darkhold. Plus the Kree beacon, though I could've sworn that was destroyed post-Hive since they thought of flooding the Kree temple when they found out the City could send signals to Hala. Why it lived to see another day in season 5, I will probably never know. but needs must.
basically, there was a lot of season 5 that was avoidable. but there are also clumps of events that are intertwined, which would show us what actually caused the end of the world. Does it happen like this in every timeline? We don't know. But now we know what doesn't work, which tells us what would, such as: compiling the damn intel. Not putting Daisy in charge. Bringing more than one combative agent, sending agents after Talbot's family. Not putting the Kree beacon in the same place as the Di'Allas. Destroying the beacon when it got to the Lighthouse. it's a long list, which probably explains why this is the season with the most divided opinions.
Thank you for your indulging my fanfic musings with your time :)
BONUS: Why I haven't written the other season 5 outcomes and why I could say this isn't the only working timeline where Earth is destroyed: my timeline fic starts from when the Kree monolith (Maveth portal) was brought to Earth to destroy Inhumans. This takes out the Kree beacon, Jiaying, Whitehall's experiments, even Daisy herself. I'm trying to look for events where this doesn't happen and realized all this goes wayyyyy back. this is very hefty shit though, so please don't expect it'll be published any time soon. just leaving this as a food for thought.
while i'm currently on my aos season 5 roll, it doesn't seem too far fetched that the Lighthouse would be more conservative, more traditional in their views of women? just a thought.
Daisy Johnson is blamed for the end of the world, and her last footage from the End™️ was her yelling at a quinjet. Considering how misogynist and sexist 2018 already was*, what more if a woman is known to be at the epicenter (pun not intended). after all, Glenn Talbot and co. faded into obscurity, Daisy was recognized to be the Destroyer of Worlds. granted, there was an earthquake, but the ordinary person also wouldn't be able to distinguish a quake by an Inhuman with vibration powers from a Graviton digging for gravitonium with a newfound technique of simply pulling a dirt column up. Either way can unintentionally trigger faultlines with stored up energy. and she was a part of the team who got sent into the future.
The knowledge that Talbot and Daisy fought would've been limited to the survivors on the Zephyr, and even then, the fact would've been that Daisy lost. That could infer that women are 'not enough' and similar conservative ideas could arise. I find this similar to the trend of conservatism and fascism rising after pandemics and plagues, since they question cleanliness that we needed to avoid getting sick. How about a post-apocalyptic future that killed billions? which led to alien overlords? The question of survival lingers, and I'm willing to bet that Lighthouse survivors are more likely to bet their own on a man than a woman.
And let's not forget. Daisy's not only a woman, she's also a woman of color. Make with that with what you will.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary:
The Ancient Inhuman Rebellion and the subsequent War Contra Alveus happens in many timelines. Their outcomes differ, whether in the immediate aftermath or in centuries to come.
As one may presume, with outcomes, come consequences.
timeline fic has gone live, i repeat, TIMELINE FIC HAS FINALLY GONE LIVE!!!!!!
