Agents of Shield VI: I am an Agent of SHIELD

[fenfire]

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I think it works better if we put the world-jump at the time-travel points. If we call the Yoyo that Yoyo1 met in the future Yoyo0 and her team team0, then it was team0 that showed up in Earth1's past. Earth2 is then different as soon as team1 arrives in it, because it has team1 where Earth1 had team0. The differences between Earth1 and Earth2 are, at this point, almost nothing, because team0 and team1 are almost identical. But the very minor differences have a butterfly effect, and it's when Daisy1 finds the serum in her gauntlet that those differences have grown to the point that Robin's powers can pick up on them.

That's a bit more palatable, thank you. Still, I'd prefer the extent of time-related shenanigans to remain around the same as Frank Herbert's.

[Palanan]

If nothing else, this season puts me off timeloops pretty much forever.

Or as forever as you can get with a timeloop.

[russdm]

Ahh, I really wanted to see them singing the "Do the Time Warp again" song from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[Xondoure]

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I think it works better if we put the world-jump at the time-travel points. If we call the Yoyo that Yoyo1 met in the future Yoyo0 and her team team0, then it was team0 that showed up in Earth1's past. Earth2 is then different as soon as team1 arrives in it, because it has team1 where Earth1 had team0. The differences between Earth1 and Earth2 are, at this point, almost nothing, because team0 and team1 are almost identical. But the very minor differences have a butterfly effect, and it's when Daisy1 finds the serum in her gauntlet that those differences have grown to the point that Robin's powers can pick up on them.

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I'd agree with this, but add only that since we don't know how many times the loop repeated itself, team 0 is likely team 9 billion or some other ridiculous number. Since time has been declared to be fluid, it seems likely that every iteration of the loop varied in some ways but not enough to change the destruction of the earth and the sequence of events from there that led to the loop repeating on itself.

To use a visual metaphor, rather than time moving linearly forward (along an x axis), the time loop creates a situation in which time moves like a helix along a z axis until the timeline we saw, wherein time begins to flow along the x axis once more. There is no retconning of events/memories, because all of the previous loops led up to the end of the time loop and exist in the past of the flow of time for our dear agents.

[russdm]

So refer to them as Team Coulson ^ Exponential Power of Infinity Miss 1

[Giggling Ghast]

From what I can tell, the SHIELD Agents went through the loop at least three times, including this current loop. Future YoYo mentions meeting a future version of herself and then returning, but they still weren’t able to prevent the destruction of Earth. Future YoYo also mentioned arguing with the others and being unable to convince them, presumably to let Coulson die.

I suspect what happened in the previous loop is what nearly happened in this one: Coulson refuses to take the Centipede Serum, Daisy yells at him as she leaves the plane to confront Talbot, Gemma injects him with it when he collapses, Talbot absorbs Quake and destroys the world trying to free all the Gravitonium.

What changed this cycle:

1) Realizing she failed to stop Graviton in the last loop, Phil gave Daisy the Centipede Serum to give her a power boost. He even says, “Use the power in your fists to kick his ass.” That seemed like an odd note of encouragement, but I realize now he was telling her to use the serum hidden in her gauntlets to defeat Talbot. He was the one to put all the pieces together.

2) Mack didn’t die on the ship with Robin’s mother, killed by the two aliens. Realizing what would happen, Fitz and May charged on to the ship and took out their attackers. This was a lesser change, but it was a change, and it resulted in Fitz’s death.

Incidentally, Fitz dying shows the series operates by Futurama rules. Time can be changed, but time duplicates will always be destroyed. Pow! We took care of the time travel paradox!

I actually thought it was a pretty great finale. There wasn’t much in the way of a super-fight, but I realize this is TV, not a Marvel film with a massive budget. The plane landing on the city was pretty cool.

The only thing that bothered me was the lack of any acknowledgment of The Snap. Did the Agents dodge that entirely? Or was Phil’s retirement party BEFORE The Snap?

[Kitten Champion]

The only thing that bothered me was the lack of any acknowledgment of The Snap. Did the Agents dodge that entirely? Or was Phil’s retirement party BEFORE The Snap?

Presumably before. It's difficult to reconcile the two chronologically considering they aren't really coordinated, however.

Though, in general -- Avengers Infinity War came out about a week after the AoS finale, so cast members becoming swirling bits of ash wasn't going to happen in any universe.

The real question is, what are they gonna do from here? From a story-telling perspective the Snapture opens up some tremendous story-telling opportunities, not only do they have this post-apocalyptic Earth to deal with and all the potential conflict and drama they can wring from that but they can rock the boat almost as much as they want knowing the Infinity War sequel will retcon the consequences out for them.

On the other hand, if Marvel Studios doesn't want any exploration of that for their own reasons -- what will AoS do then?

[Giggling Ghast]

Maybe that’s why they’re going to SPAAAAAAACE?

[Kitten Champion]

Maybe that’s why they’re going to SPAAAAAAACE?

Certainly possible, but they just did that last season. It was SPAAAAAAACE in the future, sure, but still SPAAAAAAACE.

They might do a prequel thing. Considering Coulson, Fury, and SHIELD are going to be prominently featured in Captain Marvel, they could do a lead up to that.

[Giggling Ghast]

The next season is supposed to premiere in July 2019, and Avengers 4 is supposed to come out in May of 2019. So maybe the Snappening will be resolved by then?

[Kitten Champion]

The next season is supposed to premiere in July 2019, and Avengers 4 is supposed to come out in May of 2019. So maybe the Snappening will be resolved by then?

Oh, so they're making it a summer thing? That solves many of their problems.

Though I would've liked a whole television season which explored half the world's population vanishing from the perspective of a espionage/police force, I doubt the next Avengers movie will have that long of time-line between the Snap and whatever they do to fix it for that to work.

[Giggling Ghast]

Yes, Season 6 of AoS premieres in July 2019.

https://comicbook.com/marvel/2018/08...n-6-july-2019/

[JadedDM]

And now it's been renewed for a season 7, as well.