#leopard fitz

agents of SHIELD has SO MANY star wars references. LIke tons.

Now I am not saying at all that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a particularly good show. Or a good superhero show. Or a good part of the MCU. It’s not terrible, and I prefer it over Arrow, Constantine, and Gotham (the latter most because I’ve never seen Gotham) but AoS is not great either.

But AoS has something nothing else in the MCU has. Something nothing in any current superhero show/movie/cartoon has. Something that I personally think it’s been handling well. Neurodiversity.

In season one I didn’t particularly care about Fitz. At points I was openly hostile to him. He just seemed boring and flat, and really, who needs another white male in the MCU. In the last episode of season one, I didn’t even particular worry about him dying.

Flash forward to season two. Fitz’s brain was damaged from almost suffocating, and he’s hearing and seeing things that aren’t there. He has trouble expressing himself and finishing thoughts, and he’s increasingly frustrated. My first thought? Great, now he’ll go evil because being neuroatypical means evil or something. It’ll be just like Slade in Arrow.

But that doesn’t happen.

Mack, the other half of my AoS Tragic OTP, reached out to him. He doesn’t pity him, he doesn’t demean him, he works with him. He gives Fitz space, but also support. And Fitz reaches back too. He begins to trust Mack, and to hang out with the rest of the team again. Fitz realizes that Jemma left to get away from him, and moves on. He grows. And the whole event causes him to grow more empathetic. This wasn’t a new trait, he had trusted and believed in people he barely knew since season one, but now it was more personal. Like he became incredibly sympathetic to me, and also a lot kinder.

And just, even if fairly recent episodes his condition has not just vanished. In fact in the episode Aftershocks he starts to slide back when he gets stressed, there is no magical cure, only learning to live with his condition. Some days for him are good, some are bad. And that is so human, and well done for AoS.

So yeah, for a character who I first thought was boring and then someone I figured would become a generic and ableist mad scientist, he became a character I could almost associate with. And honestly the main reason I watch AoS is for him and Deathlok. (Well also FitzMack, big shock there)

I am concerned they are going to make him a villain. And that isn't necessarily bad, but I tend to be wary about non neurotypicals going evil, especially when its because of their divergence. Like in Arrow, the whole Mirakuru thing. I know it was a drug, but it also had the subtext "'mentally ill' makes you violent," which is a stereotype that sucks. Well pretty much all stereotypes do, but still. And I know my Autistic nature is different from other mental "disorders," but its still uncomfortable when you have a character whose motivation for going evil is "insanity." Its pretty much always lazy writing, and its just, ugly too.