#rubyhale

↺۫͢❃໋ི۪⁤̭۫࣪۫ꦼᤢ꧇ Dove Cameron / Ruby Hale icon + header

There’s something horrifying in Ruby Hale’s backstory. 

Okay so it’s horrifying from start to end, starting with her artificial conception within her non-consenting mother leading to their eternally troubled relationship, not helped by being indoctrinated as Hydra youth, and then being groomed into a teenage assassin and ending... well, we all know how it ends. 

But there’s a different kind of horror when you start considering the identity of her parents. 

In General Hale’s flashback episode Whitehall refers to insemination, not planting an embryo, so we can probably assume that Hale is Ruby’s genetic mother. It’s her father’s identity that has a question mark over it no one on AOS seems interested in answering (which, fair enough; Earth is literally cracking, bigger priorities and all). 

In the same scene, Whitehall implies he’ll be working on the genetics to make sure that the child has the correct traits to absorb gravitonium. Except why would he bother? From what we see onscreen, gravitonium loves being absorbed by people or absorbing them. It’s like its second favourite past-time, the first being randomly screwing with gravity. 

See? No genetic engineering required. 

So maybe Whitehall is just being grandiose (this is Hydra, so we should probably assume that as a default). He has no bloody clue what would make a person better at absorbing gravitonium, he’s just going to create the strongest, healthiest specimen he can to maximise its chances of survival. 

And credit where credit’s due - whatever he did worked. Ruby is a supremely skilled fighter, wiping the floor with ordinary thugs and holding her own against superpowered Inhumans like YoYo and Daisy. While her strength is difficult to gage her reflexes are off the charts, capable of catching a razor-sharp chakram mid-flight without slicing her fingers off. 

Lets see now. Where else in the Marvel universe do we know a supremely skilled fighter who can catch round weapons mid-flight? That Hydra had unimpeded access to around the late-nineties? Who might not remember or even know he has a kid lying around? 

Yeah, that’s right. Ruby Hale’s father is Bucky Barnes. 

Which means while Bucky was being de-programmed and rehabilitated in Wakanda his daughter was being manipulated and exploited as a Hydra assassin, ultimately dying pointlessly in a twisted effort to gain her mother’s approval and her own agency...

Dove Cameron Icons: Ruby Hale - Agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.