Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (SPOILERS)

[Gaidin]

Well, nuking Manhattan is more act of desperation than intended to be brilliant, I think. Either way I'd say those orders were given early and nuking manhattan, if it were done, should've happened, theoretically, when the avengers were dead, and the aliens had a legitimate foothold on the island. But then there'd be no hail mary for Iron Man to play.

As for destroying it, that's more removing the temptation. As Alkaloid notes, Fury doesn't trust his bosses. Get the thing destroyed before anybody really has a chance to process that it's there and can get orders into the system on what to do with it, and bring hell down on Earth from alien races because we're suddenly on the game board again but not really ready yet.

[Ted C]

Oh speaking of random... Anyone else annoyed that the captured piece of tech was basically shot into the sun?
I mean, that "Laser powered by pure evil" didn't seem all that much more powerful than the "energy blasters" from the original 'Captain America' movie, and they had no problem keeping tons of those around after the war.

Maybe Fury's had some influence in changing the policy of SHIELD keeping hold of and replicating weapons. I imagine the success the Avengers experienced in defending New York had something to do with it.

They made it sound like there was a really scary amount of energy stored in that device though, far more than would be needed for a small arm. The blast that opened the fuselage wasn't that much, but the device seems to have multiple nukes worth of energy inside.

[Gaidin]

If it was a small nuke's worth of energy and they knew it would they have bothered stepping back from it? They'd have been like "yea if this really blows we're fucked if we're 1 foot or 1 mile, and we can't get 10 miles if we're on the plane with it so meh".

[Crossroads Inc.]

If it was a small nuke's worth of energy and they knew it would they have bothered stepping back from it? They'd have been like "yea if this really blows we're fucked if we're 1 foot or 1 mile, and we can't get 10 miles if we're on the plane with it so meh".

Meh, that sort of thing I can forgive as just being part of "TV Humor." Plus thats often how humans react in any case. The brain really really likes to avid giving in to feeling fucked, so in a situation, I can see you still stepping back from it. After all, if your far away, you might not set it off.

[Forgothrax]

Thing is, the MCU already has highly compact power sources-- see Arc Reactor tech, which I recall Stark saying he was willing to sell to the public as early as IM1. Destroy the Tesseract power source if you must, but the laser itself is of such high efficiency that reverse-engineering it and strapping an arc reactor onto the thing to power it would work just fine, even if it wasn't man-portable as a result.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Well, to be fair I re-watched it again this morning and got the impression from Coulson that basically the risk of detention by simply trying to either remove the fuel source or take the device apart was too high to be acceptable.

That said I will agree that that sort of Device is EXACTLY the sort of thing SHIELD should be looking to capture and retain.
Sure there are the 'Avengers' and yes we know they are awesome, but having a little 'insurance' is still a good thing.

[Gaidin]

The difference between the Arc Reactor and the Tesseract(the Real Tesseract), largely, is that the Arc Reactors are, as noted miniature fusion reactors. The Tesseract is something largely more exotic that you can use to build many more long term power sources out of. It seems self maintaining. You can't do that with the Arc Reactors. The Arc Reactors, as far as I can tell, are each single units that have to be constructed individually, and the things they power have to be designed and constructed individually. They have to be maintained. As Thor notes in the Avengers movie, when you start playing with the RT, the higher powers in the Universe take it as a sign that you are ready for the big leagues.

The Arc Reactor, well, isn't really that special.

[Crazedwraith]

So I saw episode. That scene with Fury was gold, especially Coulson's last line. The cockpit scene between Coulson and whatshername the bus driver was also amusing.

Overall it's pretty good. But I still have mixed feelings. I mean watching it, it seems a little clunky, both character wise and the name-dropping of MCU stuff. But then again, I was always surprised when the adbreak pops up, so its obviously going by quicker than I thought.

Still the characters desperately need some depth beyond archetypes.

eta: And surely Coulson must still be monitoring Skye's communications and pick up on that last text. I'm going to be dissappoint if he's caught by surprise at a double-cross down the line.

[Crazedwraith]

Ghetto second edit: As to the laser. Well it was an unstable rip-off HYDRA tech, home built by Peru. SHIELD doesn't need to keep it. They have plenty of more stable, genuine, HYDRA tech devices they can use/study.

[Gaidin]

All things being equal, if I were a writer trying to avoid archetypes, I'd say that Skyes' double cross will be a lot harder for her when it happens than it would be now. As for if Coulson knowing about it, that may be slightly harder for him to keep up with doing field work, but I'd say any field office that they keep in contact with(for instance the office that called them on course change) would likely be monitoring all communications in and out. Even if they didn't know what the hell that transmission was right away, or even for a while, they'd know there was a transmission there(or should), and could easily tell Coulson.

[Kojiro]

Yeah if Skye's gear isn't bugged or monitored in some way I'll be surprised. Perhaps more likely Coulson is actually playing her as a means of tracking down the rest of her group.

[Batman]

I took that as a given, really. Coulson not planning on Skye betraying him (or at least acting like it) or at least providing for the possibility of that happening seems highly unlikely.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I took that as a given, really. Coulson not planning on Skye betraying him (or at least acting like it) or at least providing for the possibility of that happening seems highly unlikely.

Yeah that is what I am really REALLY is hoping for here.
Coulson always struck me as the type of person who plans two or three steps ahead of everyone else.
He always seems to be able to get the upper hand, even in situations where he is getting a smack down.

In EP1, I figure Skye was a sort of ideal wannabe who saw herself as being part of "In Crowd" of this 'Rising Sky' group, so shrugging that off and joining SHIELD isn't a big thing.
Now in EP2, it is obviously the case that she is 'in deep' with the organization as played some sort of bigger more important role.
Perhaps this whole thing was an attempt to actually get her in a situation where SHIELD would recruit her, so she could attack it 'from the inside'.

Whatever the reasoning is now, we know she is still in with them, and as such I will be very VERY disappointed if there is a showdown with her somehow sabotaging SHIELD or letting her other allies in to cause SHIELD Damage.

[Gaidin]

Whatever the reasoning is now, we know she is still in with them, and as such I will be very VERY disappointed if there is a showdown with her somehow sabotaging SHIELD or letting her other allies in to cause SHIELD Damage.

Nah. That showdown's going to happen. There's two questions. First, if, when it happens, she's really with them consciously, given by that time what she really discovers of SHIELD's people. Second, damage will be caused to SHIELD, this a storytelling given. The question is how much, as the allies will somehow have a backup way in. As this is likely also an inevitably storytelling given as it gives her a way to redeem herself from a vague or blatant betrayal by saving them from an even possibly worse one. Honestly, I'm mostly talking from a storystelling standpoing because...well...comic book world tv show.

[andrewgpaul]

As far as the "namedropping" goes, I suppose it's a fine line between making the series completely stand-alone at the other extreme. I admit it doesn't bother me, because I'm not a comics reader; every second name could be the real name of a comics character and I wouldn't notice.

It is slightly amusing how SHIELD has gone down the Torchwood route of carrying out top-secret operations in highly conspicuous black cars (matte-black, too). I know they've already blown their secrecy with that flying aircraft carrier, but in my head that's somewhat different. Just a TV thing, I suppose.

At least we know what Dr Chen's been doing since she left County General.

[Meest]

I hope they don't have someone Skye cares about and is just doing it because she has too. She might go full blown evil because right now it's still problem of the week with no big bad.

[Gaidin]

The text to Skye was too neutral for that, not enough 'or else'. I think for the moment she's actually on their side.

[FaxModem1]

So, turns out, there really is a Rising Tide activist group.

Comicbook.com

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Real-Life Rising Tide Activist Group Wants Disney to Change Name

By: Russ Burlingame on October 6, 2013

In : Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., S.H.I.E.L.D., Television
- 2 Comments

wired-image-300x150The fictional hacktivist collective on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. uses a weirdly complicated website domain (wearetherisingtide.com), so it’s probably no surprise that there’s another group out there that uses the name.

What’s possibly more surprising is that the real-life Rising Tide is also an activist group, and not particularly thrilled at the way the activist community in general is depicted in the series. Rising Tide as an organization came into being in 2000, and since then has picked up chapter in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. They estimate there are more than fifty active local chapters in North America, aimed at combating climate change and reliance on fossil fuels through nonviolent direct action.

They have launched a petition to ask Disney to change the name of the villainous organization in S.H.I.E.L.D., saying that the entertainment giant has co-opted their long-established name and a suspiciously similar logo for the purposes of the TV series.

“In this spinoff of the popular Avengers movie series, Rising Tide is a shadowy cyber-terror group similar to Anonymous,” explained the real Rising Tide last weekend. “Their role in the show is to expose super humans, like the Hulk and Thor, and secret government agencies like S.H.I.E.L.D. In our estimation, exposing governmental secrets and lies is a most worthy pastime and similar to what groups like WikiLeaks and Anonymous have done in real world. Unfortunately, the series plays to our mainstream culture’s fears around anarchists and radicals, and portrays the group as a threat to national security. Some reviews call the group ‘cyber-terrorists.’ This is par for the course in a Hollywood that uses pop culture to turn government agents into heroes and seekers of truth, justice and ecological sanity into evildoers.”

[Grumman]

Hold on, SHIELD tried to nuke New York and Rising Tide are the terrorists?

[Kojiro]

Hold on, SHIELD tried to nuke New York and Rising Tide are the terrorists?

Well some shadowy higher ups did- Fury is the Director and not only opposed the idea but personally went on deck and used an RPG to stop the F-35 with nuke from taking off. Alas it was only one of two and one still got away. But yes, whoever Fury answers to did indeed try that. Fury recorded the order however and has threatened to make it public. It seems implied that this is in some way protecting Fury and possibly granting him some leeway from his bosses.

It's worth noting that we really don't know that mucha bout SHIELD- who funds them or who those shadowy figures were or to what extent their authority extends. Coulson does say at one point, to his old 'friend', that the [insert code here] superceded local authority or words to that effect. So it seems clear that SHIELD is at least in some way globally authorised to go continent hopping.

Terrorist I think is also a very strong term for people who, near as I can tell, aren't trying to terrorise or harm anyone and just want to share (arguably necessarily secret) information.

[Ted C]

And surely Coulson must still be monitoring Skye's communications and pick up on that last text. I'm going to be dissappoint if he's caught by surprise at a double-cross down the line.

We've already seen that even SHIELD doesn't easily crack her security.

[Ted C]

It's worth noting that we really don't know that mucha bout SHIELD- who funds them or who those shadowy figures were or to what extent their authority extends. Coulson does say at one point, to his old 'friend', that the [insert code here] superceded local authority or words to that effect. So it seems clear that SHIELD is at least in some way globally authorised to go continent hopping.

The council that Fury reported to appeared to include American, English (EU?), Russian, and Chinese representatives, so SHIELD does seem to have international funding and oversight.

[The Romulan Republic]

Looks like a new super villain has been created. And the evil corporate fellow escaped. So we may have two new recurring villains.

And apparently the truth drug was a scam.

[Lagmonster]

I watched the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon series from a few years ago with my son (and have no other real experience with Marvel besides the movies), so when the newest episode aired and they announced the scrawny guy's name I found myself commenting that he didn't look anything like his godlike counterpart in the cartoon.

[Grumman]

I liked this episode.
Spoiler

Both Shield and Quinn thought they were rescuing a kidnapped Hall, and Hall was pretty much just taking the Slingshot strategy into his own hands. All sides were acting reasonably based on what they knew, even if I disagree with the Slingshot strategy as shown so far. The low point, I think, was Skye being an unconvincing actress, both when talking to the architect from Dubai and when using her compact in Quinn's office.