#antifitzsimmons

TV is a visual medium, obviously. Which means that the visuals we’re presented with are just as - if not more important than - what’s being said. And the visual plus the auditory is often more important to the message being communicated than anything else. So if you as the audience member are aware that a character cannot possibly survive an explosion but you see it happen and other characters tell you it happened, well, they survived and you accept it and move on. (This is how crappy movies/shows get you to keep rolling along with nonsense plots. They present them in a way that glosses over the nonsense.)

So first off, what do we see in this scene? We see Jemma. The camera is focused on her face. She’s doing a typically Jemma thing where she struggles with her emotions, trying not to be overcome, and pushing them down to be dealt with never.

And what do we hear? Well, we hear Fitz’s proposal where he ticks all the boxes for his ship. Defying death/time/fate, the curse, their love is greater than all obstacles, etc. If you ship this, it is the absolutely perfect proposal and I won’t pretend it’s not.

So what your brain gets from this is that it is a beautiful moment. Fitz giving the proposal he’s planned for six months (if not longer) while we get to see every microreaction from Jemma. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect.

But hold up. Because what this scene’s presentation glosses over is the fact that Jemma is DEAF. She has NO IDEA that Fitz is even alive, let alone in this room, not two feet away, and proposing. And that, dear reader, is why this scene is the perfect fs proposal. What Jemma’s feeling? What she’s actually feeling? It doesn’t matter. She is a prop for the ship and for Fitz. It’s a strange sort of reversal of that scene where she was tortured and it only happened for Fitz to react to, not for her to emote or, heaven forbid, suffer any repercussions after. Only this time, rather than her emotions being ignored, they’re being co-opted and misrepresented by the narrative.

I know what you’re thinking. Obviously the show knows Jemma’s deaf. The very next thing to happen is Kasius arriving, and Jemma suddenly seeing and being shocked by Fitz, and Fitz realizing she can’t and hasn’t heard a thing he’s said. But that acknowledgement doesn’t erase the fact that this scene is presented as romantic. What we see and hear is as romantic as it comes. If it weren’t meant to be, Jemma’s expressions would have been wildly different, highlighting the disparity between what Fitz is saying and what she’s feeling. The music would have been sad and low and the camera would have focused on Jemma serving, reminding us with every shot that while Fitz is feeling the romance, Jemma is a slave and has been robbed of not only her agency and hearing but what should be one of the most important moments of her life, something she’s no doubt dreamed of for years. 

But no, this is a romantic scene. And if you still don’t believe me, just look at how many shippers out there call it one of their favorite romantic moments. Look at the gifsets that choose to focus on a moment where Jemma’s expression implies she is overcome by the strength of Fitz’s love for her. If this were a tragedy, they of all people would put their focus somewhere else rather than leaning into the disingenuous presentation the medium offers.

Like weve already seen that she doesnt really care about others when F/itz is in trouble (and theyve already assisnated her character so much anyways) just kill off F/itz and have her go completely dark and almost destroy the world like Willow in season 6 of btvs, and Daisy has to bring her back from darkness

OR

Listen, nonnie, I appreciate your hope. Jemma appreciates your hope. But let’s be real. Her story arc this season is gonna be trying to reunite with Fitz again and/or possibly giving him a baby because it’s the last season and the writers kinda promised.

I would say there’s a slight chance of her getting a good storyline like she did for five seconds before Fitz showed up in s5 but I’m given to understand that Iain isn’t in this season very much at all so they’ll have to make up for that by having Jemma, well, make up for those first two seasons where she wasn’t obsessively in love with him. (Or did they do that sufficiently in s6 by having her callously disregard the well-being of anyone who wasn’t Fitz? I didn’t watch but I saw the gifs.)

As for me, the show would have to do something truly amazing to bring me back at this point. I’m not sure even Brett returning (which is only a rumor that I honestly don’t put much stock in; it says a lot that any positivity the show had where Grant was concerned only happened after he had died) would be enough because youtube is a thing and you know those clips will all be uploaded. 

I don’t begrudge you watching, nonnie, or anyone else. If you can still glean some enjoyment out of this trashfire, who am I to stop you? But as for me, it’s just ...

It’s hypocritical. The narrative arcs, the character beats, it’s all this weird hypocrisy of storytelling that I can’t sit through. I can’t watch the team treat the Philbot like he’s real when they wouldn’t even treat an actual human person who used to be a robot like they mattered. I can’t watch the show resurrect Coulson in such a hollow way when his entire s1 arc was about how painful it was to be brought back and how that betrayal hurt him. I can’t watch history be changed, even for the better, when the show spent an entire arc telling us the timeline is fixed and even killed off a character to prove it. I can’t root for heroes who just two seasons ago were willing to let the world burn for their own selfish desires even though they killed off a former friend for doing far less for the exact same reasons. I just can’t.

Oh yeah. Remember that time Will spent FOURTEEN YEARS on a hell planet, alone, with zero human contact? He would’ve been the very definition of touch starved - and yet he never pushed Jemma, never tried to wheedle her into a relationship, never crossed any lines. SHE kissed HIM first. Even though he’d been alone for so long, SHE was the one to make the first move. SHE chose HIM.

over Jemma (as if that makes sense?? as if he ever had it?? that's just how stupid they are) and pack her with more guilt (writers' fave pastime), yet Will, to those not willfully blind, is iconic, simply the best, better than all the rest. If Will was left alive and unpossessed and not plot-twisted evil, F/S would have looked even more horrible and nonsensical happening when he's right there as an option. The writers achieved a unique, unparalleled self-own with Will. WILL DANIELS!!!!! (2/2)

Will is the G R E A T E S T, nonnie. This is just facts.

Shared his extremely limited resources with her

Protected her from Hive

After FOURTEEN YEARS in HELL, was willing to die so Jemma could make it home

Even when he was saying stuff like “it’s like his name is your favorite word” because all the characters have to support fs bleh he never showed ANY resentment/jealousy that the first person he’d seen in fourteen years was in love with someone else

“There’s no hope on this planet.” / “That’s what I used to think. And then you showed up.”

If he had lived, we would’ve been forced to endure a horrible love triangle for an unreasonable amount of time, and then probably Will would’ve respectfully, non-resentfully bowed out because “[nonsense about fs being true love]” 

And we would’ve loved him ALL THE MORE for putting the writers’ Jemma’s wants and well-being before his own.

I’m gonna be honest with you here, nonnie. I can ship that. That kind of our-love-is-so-messed-up-that-it’s-given-me-a-whole-new-threshold-for-emotional-suffering love. I could enjoy that. But I would be aware, while shipping it, that it was seriously fucked up. 

I haven’t seen any gifs yet, thank goodness, but I’ve heard plenty and wow, nonnie. woooow. FS truly is a love story for the ages. They torment each other, they blame each other for all their brokenness and suffering, and then they decide that obviously this means they’re perfect for one another, presumably because who else will have them and bettering oneself is just so hard, you know? Much better to remain selfish and callous with someone who doesn’t ask you to try for anything more.

I’m also cackling inside because all fs had going for it was that it was the ~pure ship and now it’s worse than even some of the darkest biospec fics.