So Fitz is basically me

[nrgburst]

WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT HAPPENED IN AOS What the-!!!!

So Aida brought herself back as an Inhuman with powers, specifically Gordon's powers? And Fitz (who built the quantum field disruptor that trapped him in one spot) and Mack (our shotgun-axe expert) are both MIA. Noooooooo Aida actually stole Fitz too, and since he asked to "go with her" in the Framework, it's something else that he "asked for". :////

MACK OMGGGGGG. It's awesome and emotionally honest that he just can't leave Hope behind. It doesn't matter if you know it's not real, it's your kid and you love her and you're responsible for her care. Heartbreaking and obviously the hugest conflict from the instant we saw him picking up that bike in 4x15. (ToT) Daisy was just so upset by it, but that Mack doesn't know any of them and she misled him on purpose. Poor Elena. (Although thank goodness we're getting her back at last! Argh my faves never get enough screen time.)

I'm really hoping the Framework stays running if that's a place where Trip and Ward live on!

I have no idea how they are going to bring back Ghost Rider into all this, but I'm smelling a need for some deus ex machina now that Aida's "upgraded" her body.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

FITZ! I am so glad, actually, that this is the way they went -- that Fitz wasn't suddenly back to his old self.* Their Framework personas were, after all, them. The difference was merely a tweak to their...origin story, to stick with comicbook terminology. If your human consciousness in a virtual system provides an overlay to your "woke" consciousness, it stands to reason that even after removal there is is some lingering conflict from that overlay.

I'm really hoping the Framework stays running if that's a place where Trip and Ward live on!

Did you see my Trip fic post-2x20?

I really don't want to think about Trip snuffed out again. (Of course, part of the reason I have strong feelings about Trip and Hope is a theory bandied around but not quite proven. I think when Jemma describes all the Framework people as "just code" she isn't quite correct. We are not talking virtual reality only; the Darkhold is magic, after all -- the way I read it, if AIDA has a soul...then whom the Darkhold created or brought back are alive for all intents and purposes.)

* Add-on, of all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, I've always thought Fitz was most vulnerable to going darkside -- he's quiet about it, but he's mighty prideful about his genius; he has shown that he will disregard any danger if he wants to get whom he wants (Jemma, on the Planet); he lies when he personally deems it the smartest way...and that was long before any tweak in the Framework.

[nrgburst]

I didn't ever think it was going to be a reset button- that would have been narratively hollow, and hardly satisfying! But I don't think it ended up an "overlay" of consciousness so much as memories. May and Coulson and Fitz all show a deep awareness of the cognitive dissonance between who they are here vs. what they did/who they were in there.

Also, Aida existed before the Framework too? I think the idea of a soul/sentience having to be organically/magically created instead of built has already been shown to be false in this show? The Framework is also based on the people/data that already exists in this world. They're not just computer programs- these are programs that have motivations; that think and feel and create.

Radcliffe and Fitz debated what life actually was earlier this season when they were talking about deactivating vs. killing Aida and the other LMDs. I'm pretty sure the case was made that they were alive- but they needed to be killed anyway. I'm not so sure they would agree this is okay with the Framework, though!

Hmmm, I disagree that Fitz is somehow more prone to evil than the others. Look at Jemma taking biological samples from Skye and wanting to do unethical research with zero permission and oversight.
Look at Daisy meting out justice on her own terms as Quake. I think anyone can demonstrate amoral behavior, and this arc was meant to highlight that? What I liked was that it also showed there could be a flipside to bad characters like Ward too- a nice little balance.

[ironymaiden]

For Ward, it was who pulled him out of juvie. Nice callback there, since our Ward killed her.

I'm getting traumatized by all the FitzSimmons violence this season, starting with the LMD fight. pure nightmare fuel, killing a thing wearing your partner's face, having them be completely changed, having them not know you at all...

[nrgburst]

Yes, I think the "one small change" and the resultant ripple effect on choices/personalities is a really interesting concept!

And you're not the only one having trouble with the FS SL. Somebody on my tumblr can't watch at all because it's too much like their RL issues. :/