#dadcliffe

Hi Anon!

I actually have hard, from Jed himself, proof on this one.

2/24/2017 TV LINE

Is there any chance that Radcliffe could actually be Fitz’s father on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? — Micah I saw that theory on Reddit recently, so I took it to the source: “They’re both Scottish, and we’ve discussed it at length,” EP Jed Whedon says. “Truthfully, there’s no one better to play his dad than John Hannah, but no, Radcliffe is not his father.” There goes that theory!

I was informed that theory on reddit was very similar to my metas but I know I wasn't the only one with that theory back in the day though I was one of its biggest cheerleaders.

So for me this only confirmed what I'd seen the writers possibly setting up.

Literally I saw John Hannah on the Press Release for 3.18 and the speculation began. It was even in my freak out over the 3.18 Press Release (who was here for that? raise your hand cause that was a WILD time. the kiss...undercover Fitzsimmons...crossing the event horizon, good times).

The crumbs were laid even in Season 3 with Radcliffe being impressed with FItz's work and that finale tag that confirmed Mad Science Season 4. Then in early season 4 with Radcliffe/Fitz being so close, Radcliffe risking reading the Darkhold to save him and that ultimately led to his downfall.

Further evidence came from the Season 3 and 4 Declassfied book as they took deeper dives into the stories. The actually wrote the role of Radcliffe for John specifically. "Truthfully, there's no one better to play his dad than John Hannah-"

Father or no Radcliffe Arc played out exactly as I thought it would. He and Fitz grew close, Radcliffe and FItz would create something that could totally go wrong, Radcliffe would become corrupted/need to save himself, Fitz would get hurt and/or kidnapped as a result of that, Radcliffe would sacrifice himself to save Fitz.

And I still maintain that the writers changed how painful the Framework Arc was. I still maintain that originally Fitz wouldn't have been himself, we would have seen at the very least a more morally grey version because Radcliffe would have had him as his son. THEY DID FITZ RADCLIFFE PROMO PICS! HAVE YOU SEEN THEM? THEY SCREAM LONG LOST FATHER! COME ON! I mean that tells me that Dadcliffe was still in the mix going into Season 4. It was when the writers decided to change that that the whole Dadcliffe theory was gone, Alistair came in, and we got The Doctor.

Mallory and the writers said that AIDA was intended to be the Big Bad all along but Agnes and Ophelia were more last minute additions to the story, again more fodder to a more last minute change in plans.

You don’t see me.

>1k

Holden Radcliffe & Leo Fitz

[read on ao3]

Holden left his briefcase on the chair by the door with his jacket, and kicked off his shoes. He could hear Abigail in the kitchen finishing up dinner, but he followed the sounds of little giggles into the living room. There was a mess of pillows and blankets piled up haphazardly around the couch, and in the center, he could see a small, little boy-shaped shadow wiggling around, cast by a lantern inside.  

“Wow, what an invention,” he said out loud. “What an incredible structure. Whoever made this must be a genius.”

“Holden?” Abigail called, coming out from the kitchen, wiping her hands. She smiled, her curly hair pulled up away from her face. “Hello love. Good day at work?”

He smiled at her before he peeked into the fort, meeting Leo's eyes inside.

“Shh. You don’t see me,” Leo whispered loudly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

He stood up and Abigail crossed over to him to kiss him on the cheek.  

“Welcome home. Leo wanted to play as Da today.”

“Oh, did he?”

“He built it himself. Said he wanted to show you what he made.”

“But where is the little engineering genius?”  

“You gotta follow the clues,” Leo’s little voice came from inside the fort again.

“Clues?” Holden asked. A little hand came out of the fort to point at an envelope left on the TV stand across from the couch. “Oh, I see. How silly of me. Thank you, disembodied hand.”

“You’re welcome.”

Holden took the envelope, Leo’s child handwriting spelling out DA on the front, the D backwards, and took the note out of envelope. Leo was an exceptional child, and had been since he was a baby, but just like Holden himself, his handwriting was near impossible to read. Luckily, Abigail had put a translation in her neat, flowing script underneath.  

The first note said, “Look under your bed.”

Holden took off his tie as he headed upstairs to their bedroom, deciding to make a tiny detour in their closet to change out of his work clothes. He changed out of his slacks and button-down into more comfortable sweatpants and a t-shirt that Abigail had chosen for him for Christmas the year before, and mindfully put his dirty clothes in the hamper like Abi was always reminding him. Then, he knelt down next to the bed and peered under. Leo had obviously placed this one himself, since it was halfway under the bedframe. He was the only one who could fit that far, crawling on his belly. Holden lay himself as flat as he could and stretched under the frame, and barely brushed the envelope. He let out a quiet chuckle, because this was exactly how Abigail had surprised him with Leo in the first place, so like mother, like son.  

Leo was absolutely his mother’s son, there was no denying that.  

Finally, after pressing his shoulder into the frame hard, he scooped the envelope up and shuffled back. The front had the same Da written on the front, the D on this one the right way. Inside, Leo had written his next instruction, and Abi had translated.

It read, “Now on top of the fridge.”

Holden headed downstairs with the envelope and found Abigail back in the kitchen while Leo played in the living room.  

“What is all this?” he asked. Abi smiled as she took out ingredients from the fridge for dinner. “It’s my turn to make dinner.”

“Play with your son, Holden. I’ll get dinner tonight,” she said, stepping to kiss him. He paused, taking a moment to enjoy this moment with her. He held her gently by the hips, and she leaned into him back. When she’d first left Alistair, a few months along with Leo, she couldn’t relax even when they were alone, always looking over her shoulder, always second-guessing his gifts. He could strangle Alistair Fitz for what he’d done, for the things he’d put Abigail through. Now, luckily, she relaxed when Holden came home, unafraid of what would happen when he stepped into the house, unafraid of him. She was lighter now, smiled bigger, laughed freer. It was incredible to see the difference.  

On top of the fridge, there was a third envelope, with Leo’s handwriting spelling out the Da in a different color marker.  

This one read, “Password: I love you! Come find me in my castle!”

Holden left one more kiss on Abi’s cheek before heading into the living room.

“What a fine castle,” Holden said, stepping back into the room.  

“What’s the password?” Leo asked, poking his face out of the pillow fort.  

“I love you,” Holden replied, and Leo grinned.

“You may enter! I love you, too!”

Holden knelt down and awkwardly crawled into the space with Leo, then lifted Leo into his lap.

“How was your day, little lion boy?”

“Good! I learned about polarization today!”

Holden laughed, and shifted Leo in his lap to wrap himself up in his arms. His dirty blonde hair tickled Holden’s chin a little, and he’d need a haircut soon.  

“Da,” Leo giggled, pushing Holden’s face away a little as his beard tickled Leo’s cheek in return.  

“Polarization, then. Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Yeah!”

Bad things he did (summarised):

once existed around the abusive nazi bitch who doesn't deserve a name or the word 'father' and made no known attempt to strangle him

got stabbed in the eye by Jemma Anne Simmons and didn't say thank you

was a creepy transhumanist with weird bird eyes

created primitives which almost killed Yoyo and made Fitz one of them

helped Hive almost enslave everyone

thought creating an android who acted human was a good idea

treated Aida pretty badly which was part of the reason she went evil

caused Fitz to lie to Jemma

kidnapped May

lied to everyone

used and manipulated the closest thing he had to a son

messed with Philinda by making LMD May

abandoned LMD May once she'd outlived her usefulness

abducted Fitz, Coulson, Mack and Mace and put them in the framework

sent LMDs to the base to execute all inhumans just to please the Russian

directly or indirectly caused almost every event of 4x15

indirectly caused the deaths of Mace, Davis and Prince

Things that make him redeemable:

has a name that is very easily turned into Dadcliffe

he seemed to genuinely care about Fitz and the rest of the team

he really wanted to avoid killing people

the Darkhold corrupted his mind

actually loved Agnes

made a speech to framework Fitz basically declaring how much he shipped Fitzsimmons

called Aida a 'sadistic witch' like an absolute legend

told Daisy where the back door was

completely roasted the abusive nazi bitch

saved Jemma from being shot

saved Fitz from himself

rescued Yoyo

comforted her about Mack

kept trying to get her and Mack through the back door even though he knew it was too late for himself

Crazy Ex-Agents of SHIELD (2/?)

Below are my theories on the Fitz/Radcliffe relationship.  Throwing them up here because, why not?

• Fitz absolutely knows that Radcliffe is his dad, has known from the start. Radcliffe doesn’t know that Fitz is his son. I think he’s kept this a secret for a couple of reasons:

o His mom warned him that his dad was not a good person.  If she left him before he knew she was pregnant (or at least before she gave birth), she must have had a good reason. o Radcliffe wasn’t exactly a good guy when we first met him, so Fitz probably had good reasons for being wary and building the relationship slowly.  He didn’t want to show all his cards too early.  

• Aida is modeled after someone names Agnes.  Agnes is Fitz’s mom.  (Perhaps his mom was using a different last name, or changed her maiden name after she left Radcliffe.) Aida would be a younger and idealized version of Agnes. So, Fitz’s surprise in 4x01 wasn’t just because of a naked lady, but a younger, model-esque version of his own mother.

o What about Jemma, wouldn’t she know that Aida looks like Fitz’s mom? Maybe not.  Nowhere in cannon has it been shown that Jemma has ever met Fitz’s mom, or that he’s talked about her with Jemma. If he didn’t want to talk about it with her, I imagine Jemma would’ve respected his wishes. o Per cannon, we only know for sure that Ward has seen the pic of Fitz’s mum, and Fitz has only mentioned her twice, to Koenig and Coulson.

• At least twice there’s been references/comments to Radcliffe having sex with Aida, which he’s always denied, but why even bring it up that way unless you wanted to infer that Radcliffe had a physical relationship with Aida’s inspiration, aka Agnes.  

• If Aida looks like Mama Fitz, it would give Fitz another reason why he saw the android as a she.  It would be hard to separate the person from the machine.  Also explains his (imo) overreaction to Aida 1.0’s decapitation.  He’s not just seeing Aida being destroyed, but his own mother.

•Explains why it doesn’t bother him when Aida calls him Leopold in 2x09. Only his mom calls him by his first name (except Jemma when she’s mad).