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+---- Thread: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" (/Thread-SHIELD-1x19-The-Only-Light-in-the-Darkness)
SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - pale boy - 04-22-2014
Quote:With their world turned upside down, Coulson races to save the life of his one true love as the mystery of “The Cellist,” which began in Marvel's The Avengers, is finally revealed on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
[source]
The tension tightens up in this episode, folks. Spoilers, naturally, since this is an episode discussion thread.
Lies, betrayal, sacrifices, and hidden agendas are the main themes this time around. The contrast of Coulson and the cellist & Fitz and Simmons against the poisonous affections of this week's baddie and Ward were very interesting. I liked it a lot, especially in the last few minutes when the scenes kept switching between the hidden base and the concert hall. Very tense.
Even more unexpectedly, Skye has had a massive turn around (for me) this episode. A marked improvement in her characterization thanks to her discovering Ward's true nature. She felt believable to me. I think I can say this is the first time I've genuinely liked her character. (And did anyone notice that her name from the orphanage included "Mary Sue"? Coincidence, or a wink and a nod from the writers?)
Ward has definitely slipped into non-redeemable territory for me. The murder he committed this episode really strikes home just how bad of a guy he is. I hope that May doesn't get blamed for what he's done, since she left the team!
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - Lou - 04-23-2014
After losing interest in this show, the last couple of episodes have really picked up the pace. but this one was good but I felt the pacing was screwed up.
Anyway, there was some suspense about whether or not Ward was really a bad guy - wondering what kind of flip they could do to convince me that he was just pretending to be bad guy - but that doesn't even seem remotely possible now. However, i though it was good for a tv show to take a chance like what they have done with character.
And it looks like May is gone. So do we get two new characters, maybe triplet and someone new?
[quote='pale boy' pid='5522' dateline='1398229758']
Quote: (And did anyone notice that her name from the orphanage included "Mary Sue"? Coincidence, or a wink and a nod from the writers?)
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I don't get it. who is Mary Sue?
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - droid327 - 04-23-2014
Yeah I was kinda hoping Koenig would be a recurring character, I liked how his response to their entire universe going tits-up was cheerful brashness and hope, especially since everyone else's was gloomy despondency and despair. Patton Oswalt, Brad Dourif...guess they just like to kill off all the guest stars I get excited about
I'm starting to really dislike when they do "Coulson" episodes. I liked them the best, pre-TAHITI, but now they make me cringe. For all his talk about how they're the last hope for SHIELD and they cant afford to be personal anymore...when things go south, the first thing he worries about is his girlfriend, because obviously a cellist in Portland is the most important thing they need to protect right now. The second thing he worries about is being petulant as possible with May, who he might not trust anymore but who he cant afford to alienate if they're going to beat HYDRA.
I like that May's mom is apparently also a spy (I wonder who for? CIA? Or something more specifically Marvel-y?). As much as Coulson's become one-dimensional, inconsistently written, and unsympathetic this season, May seems to have gone exactly the opposite from when she was one-dimensional in the first season. Piqued to know who Maria is and why May wants her - presumably May is still trying to do something to save SHIELD, even if she thinks she's done with Coulson. How did she get to Ontario, though? I'm guessing a super-mega-secret SHIELD facility in the middle of the Canadian Rockies doesn't exactly have paved road access, even if there was a jeep there she could commandeer. Nick Fury seems more like the "only accessible by 737 with VTOL or heli-carrier" type.
REALLY hoping they don't start shipping Fitz-Simmons. I really wish they'd just leave them as a brother-sister type of dynamic, where he doesn't like Tripp more because he doesn't want her to hurt Jemma, than because he wants her for himself. But every week that hope wears thinner, as the writers seem dead-set on pairing off everyone on the Bus as though it was the Ark.
Mary Sue is a code name for a character, usually in a fan fic, that's grossly overpowered compared to everyone else - an allegation that some have made about Skye, being an uber-hacker who can do patently impossible things with computers by very vaguely "hacking it", and apparently she also has super powers.
Oh, and she's also learned high-level spycraft now too and feels ready to start playing big-boy espionage with a HYDRA agent who could and would kill her at any time, as opposed to just shooting Ward with a sleeper gun in the back and locking him up until Coulson gets back
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - grimmfreak - 04-24-2014
The Maria in question is...
Spoiler :
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - pale boy - 04-25-2014
(04-23-2014, 12:09 PM)Lou Wrote: I don't get it. who is Mary Sue?
Ah, I should have clarified. Sometimes I dive too much into insular "fan speak" for my own good, heh. A "Mary Sue" is a term frequently used for characters thought of as too flawlessly perfect or awesome without any actual justification for said characters to be so awesome. Basically unearned cool points. It's typically used in fan fiction, but I've seen it applied to shows, books, etc in general as well. (Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation is the first example that jumps to my mind.) They're usually something like this: "tragic/orphaned background, unusually skilled in his or her field(s), liked by everyone except villains or jerks, with an exceptional lack of realistic flaws, difficult goals achieved too easily, and also probably unbelievably attractive". And despite the term, it doesn't just apply to female characters.
(Note: Somewhere along the way, this turned into a frackin' essay.)
A common complaint about Skye was/is her being a Mary Sue. The tragically orphaned background, mysterious baby superpowers, super hacking skillz (often heard of but rarely seen), and the fact that almost every character falls over themselves to be nice to her (unless they are, of course, a bad guy or someone we're supposed to see as a jerk *cough*May*cough*) or save instantly risk their lives for her are all the common elements found in the worst excesses of fan fiction. It also doesn't help that the writers had Coulson praise and/or stick up for her a boggling amount of times. In fact, practically everyone (even May!) got in on that action throughout this season.
Basically, as a character, she hasn't lived up to the in-universe hype surrounding her.
If the wall of text above hasn't indicated it already, Skye's poor characterization is one of my biggest pet peeves about this show. The other is pacing. Both have improved, although it took an incredible amount of episodes to do so. Seeing her actually go up against a very dangerous Ward by using cleverness and subterfuge is miles ahead of just hearing how clever and awesome she is. And AoS had gotten loads better since it started diving into its own universe instead of just doing "monster/artifact of the week" stories.
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - Lou - 04-25-2014
Wow, thanks. I'm surprised I hadn't run into that terminology before. Nice to learn something new.
Ok, maybe this should be its own thread, but for now.... how bout giving me some more examples of Mary Sue's. And who was the original Mary Sue?
I felt that one of the problems with Shield was how hard they tried to leave clues for us to connect the dots. Like with Coulson's returning from being dead - they started leaving clues in episode one. and by the time they actually stated it, most of the viewers had not only connected the dots but painted colored in between the lines.
I think they are doing that now with Sky.
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - pale boy - 04-26-2014
(04-25-2014, 06:29 AM)Lou Wrote: Wow, thanks. I'm surprised I hadn't run into that terminology before. Nice to learn something new.
Ok, maybe this should be its own thread, but for now.... how bout giving me some more examples of Mary Sue's. And who was the original Mary Sue?
You want to know more? Cool, cool. I like elaborating on this since the history of words and slang is interesting to me. The original Mary Sue came from Star Trek fan fiction back in the day called A Trekkie's Tale. The character staring in that fic was named -- you guessed it -- Mary Sue, and was a parody of similar characters sent into fan magazines: she was the youngest Starfleet captain in history and practically every dude on the crew fell madly in love with her before she tragically died. The term took off from there and the definition was expanded upon through the decades.
Since the definition of a Sue is kinda broad and the term loosely thrown around these days, finding legitimate examples of "canon" ones can be a little difficult. I define it more strictly, but the true sign of a Sue is that the story inevitably revolves around this person at the expense of story, sort of like light being unable to escape a black hole.
Wesley Crusher was an example I mentioned before. Fans actually petitioned for him to be killed off TNG when it was airing, and even Wil Wheaton, the actor who played him, can't stand the guy. Others that come to mind as recent examples are Bella Swan & Edward Cullen (Twilight series, both book and film), Eragon (Inheritance Cycle books and the Eragon movie), and Anita Blake from the series of the same name. I'd probably throw in Sookie Stackhouse from the TV show TrueBlood as a Sue too, although not from the book series it's based on -- she's a little more nuanced there.
That isn't to say that wish-fulfillment or over-the-top characters can't work. It's just a fine line to walk between James T. Kirk and Wesley Crusher.
Sues in fan fiction are far easier to name since there's absolutely no publishing standards there (because anyone can write it and send it out onto the internet). Basically, throw a rock at, say, a random Harry Potter fic and you'll probably find one, even when there are no "original characters" (people the fic writer made up) inserted into the story.
(04-25-2014, 06:29 AM)Lou Wrote: I felt that one of the problems with Shield was how hard they tried to leave clues for us to connect the dots. Like with Coulson's returning from being dead - they started leaving clues in episode one. and by the time they actually stated it, most of the viewers had not only connected the dots but painted colored in between the lines.
I think they are doing that now with Sky.
Yeah, I agree that the "clues" felt more like hand holding and less like genuine mysteries. (I don't think anyone seriously thought that Coulson was brought back by conventional human medicine.) Like you said, Lou, the viewers already knew, so the "how Coulson came back" plot dragged on a bit. But with the newest Captain America movie out, things have picked up in a major way. Very exciting stuff.
Although that makes me wonder just how much the various movie franchises will hamper the show's development. If the audience was waiting around for 2/3rds of the season to get to the actual story, is Season 2 going be the same way? I really hope the network suits let AoS do its own thing alongside the movies, rather than building around the films. The difference between the two methods is noticeable.
RE: SHIELD 1x19 "The Only Light in the Darkness" - Lou - 04-26-2014
@ Pale Boy.
Thanks. and check out my Orphan Black, thread I'm starting in a few minutes.