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Agents of SHIELD - Season 2 Discussion Threads. (Spoilers Likely)

One thing is for sure though: at some point Hydra clearly got their hands of AIM's work on Extremis. Whether that was through SHIELD confiscating things in the aftermath or straight from the source is uncertain. Personally I can see one of Hydra's legitimate fronts being among Killian's investors.

Its also possible HYDRA picked up scientists from AIM after it went down in flames, they have been shown to be in the market for mad scientist types.
 
While I wouldn't be surprised that there may have been some overlap in certain aspects of Hydra, AIM and even the real Ten Rings (knowingly or otherwise), I think it would utterly undermine Killian's character arc to have him be just another Hydra stooge.

Put "character arc" in quotes and I'll second that. :p
 
...AoS could pick up where the One-Shot left off and have SHIELD taking on the "real" Mandarin.

I'd rather see no Mandarin at all. The character is one big racial stereotype and is probably best left in the past. IM3's deconstruction of the character was probably the only viable thing that could've been done with it in this day and age.


Maybe they've even got Samuel Sterns working for them....

Now, that I would welcome. I really found the actor interesting in The Incredible Hulk and have always wanted to see him return.



You could tie in the fact that AIM and Obadiah Stane before them were both running false flag terrorist operations to sell weapons and cover-up malfunctions (among other reasons), and HYDRA mentioned that they had also been creating chaos around the globe for decades in order to create enough fear that the public would accept their severe measures to establish order. So those could theoretically all be part of one large, loosely connected cell-like operation managed behind the scenes by HYDRA.

Oh, good catch. That would work well.


Maybe not working "for" them but they would have appreciated his efforts at chaos, the fear he induced in the public with those Ten Rings broadcasts and the "Mandarin's" lessons, would have served HYDRA well. They certainly may have aided him without his specific knowledge, and possibly acquired the Extremis after he was defeated.

I just think it makes more sense if Hydra recruited Killian. I mean, in the flashbacks, he was this dysfunctional nobody, and a dozen or so years later, he was this suave, successful businessman who, oh, by the way, was also masterminding a plan to sow nationwide strife and assassinate the President. It just seems to make more sense if someone with similar agendas and resources took him under their wing and helped him through the transformation.

Besides, coming at it from the other direction, doesn't it make sense that Hydra would've infiltrated businesses and tech firms as well as just SHIELD?


I'm really hoping Skye's Blue Rangers, or Secret Avengers if you will, will be picking up some of the many second tier Avengers like Dane Whitman, Patsy Walker, Tigra, Dr. Druid, and Monica Rambeau.

Patsy Walker (as Trish "Patsy" Walker) will be appearing in AKA Jessica Jones on Netflix, played by Rachael Taylor. She's Jessica's best friend, reportedly.


Did they ever explain how Centipede got their hands on Extremis?

No more than how they got their hands on Chitauri tech and the other ingredients they used, though a lot of it probably came through Hydra agents within SHIELD. But yeah, it's easier to explain the Extremis if AIM was connected with Hydra.
 
The idea of HYDRA's Echidna Capital Management front group throwing money at Killian's AIM works for me. They'd be one investor among many courted by Killian, and wouldn't necessarily be at the forefront either.

(Would Coulson have handed off copies of his info re: Echidna to law enforcement?)
 
I just think it makes more sense if Hydra recruited Killian. I mean, in the flashbacks, he was this dysfunctional nobody, and a dozen or so years later, he was this suave, successful businessman who, oh, by the way, was also masterminding a plan to sow nationwide strife and assassinate the President. It just seems to make more sense if someone with similar agendas and resources took him under their wing and helped him through the transformation.

Besides, coming at it from the other direction, doesn't it make sense that Hydra would've infiltrated businesses and tech firms as well as just SHIELD?

Good point. Also, assuming Killian had been successful, President Ellis would have been replaced with the AIM stooge Vice President Rodriguez. Assuming that AIM was another Hydra front, and that Project Insight would still have happened a year or so later, one assumes that perhaps Hydra meant to rule the U.S. through their puppet President Rodriguez.
 
Honestly, I've nver quite understood how the Mandarin is some kind of stereotype, he's been changed so much over the years it's hard to call him a stereotype. With some changes he'd still make a great theater villain for Iron Man. And I really don't think we've seen the last of Iron Man, he can easily recast in phase 3.
 
Phase 3 is all mapped out and will be running through 2019. If they plan to go back to IM films, it won't be until after that.
 
Honestly, I've nver quite understood how the Mandarin is some kind of stereotype, he's been changed so much over the years it's hard to call him a stereotype.

Right, how could a villain with a Fu Manchu mustache who's named "the Mandarin" possibly be a racial stereotype?
 
That was, by far, one of the best season finales of a show ever. Thrilling, unexpected at so many turns, good acting. Call me excited for season 3!


EDIT:


Who's leading Afterlife and the Inhumans now?
 
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Honestly, I've nver quite understood how the Mandarin is some kind of stereotype, he's been changed so much over the years it's hard to call him a stereotype.

Right, how could a villain with a Fu Manchu mustache who's named "the Mandarin" possibly be a racial stereotype?

Who say's he'd even have to look like that? Indeed it'll be a little odd if they went that route after sending that image up quite handily with Trevor. Even if they choose to cast an Asian in the role, they needn't dress him (or her) up in all the vintage 16th century regalia. Actually, casting a woman in the role might be any easy way to side-step the whole thing.

IIRC the word mandarin just means "senior bureaucrat" or something along those lines and comes from a Hindi word meaning "Counsellor" (via Malay & Portuguese of all things.) So it could be anyone really.
 
Honestly, I've nver quite understood how the Mandarin is some kind of stereotype, he's been changed so much over the years it's hard to call him a stereotype.

Right, how could a villain with a Fu Manchu mustache who's named "the Mandarin" possibly be a racial stereotype?

He's also a half breed who's a scientist and a martial artist among other things, he's even dangerous without rings and even hands for that matter. He is a pretty complex character anymore. And really Fu Manchu wsas Chang Chi's father and he wasn't considered a racist stereotype.
 
That was, by far, one of the best season finales of a show ever. Thrilling, unexpected at so many turns, good acting. Call me excited for season 3!


EDIT:


Who's leading Afterlife and the Inhumans now?

The real question is how do the folks that are currently there get home? Gordon's gone and the don't trust Shield. They don't even know where they are.
 
That was, by far, one of the best season finales of a show ever. Thrilling, unexpected at so many turns, good acting. Call me excited for season 3!


EDIT:


Who's leading Afterlife and the Inhumans now?

The real question is how do the folks that are currently there get home? Gordon's gone and the don't trust Shield. They don't even know where they are.

Hadn't even thought of that.....
 
Honestly, I've nver quite understood how the Mandarin is some kind of stereotype, he's been changed so much over the years it's hard to call him a stereotype.

Right, how could a villain with a Fu Manchu mustache who's named "the Mandarin" possibly be a racial stereotype?

Who say's he'd even have to look like that? Indeed it'll be a little odd if they went that route after sending that image up quite handily with Trevor. Even if they choose to cast an Asian in the role, they needn't dress him (or her) up in all the vintage 16th century regalia. Actually, casting a woman in the role might be any easy way to side-step the whole thing.

IIRC the word mandarin just means "senior bureaucrat" or something along those lines and comes from a Hindi word meaning "Counsellor" (via Malay & Portuguese of all things.) So it could be anyone really.

I always figured he would be updated sort of like the nu Hawaii 5-0 updated Wo Fat. To hide from using him would also be seen as "white washing" where as to use him as a villain might cut into the Chinese box office or so it seems as it is rarely done with the Chinese are villains in major movies as Red Dawn remake had to digitally change people into North Koreans.
 
I always figured he would be updated sort of like the nu Hawaii 5-0 updated Wo Fat. To hide from using him would also be seen as "white washing" where as to use him as a villain might cut into the Chinese box office or so it seems as it is rarely done with the Chinese are villains in major movies as Red Dawn remake had to digitally change people into North Koreans.

I'm not convinced the Mandarin is even Chinese. I saw a column recently that posted some panels from his first appearance, and it showed him battling Iron Man with karate -- not kung fu, karate. Evidently Stan Lee didn't know or care about the difference between Chinese and Japanese. The Mandarin was just a generic "Oriental" villain.

I admit, the animated series Iron Man: Armored Adventures didn't do too bad a job with their version of the Mandarin. He was Asian, and supposedly an heir to Genghis Khan, but they portrayed him in a way that was free of the Fu Manchu cliches of the standard portrayal (although I'm not sure it makes sense to call the heir to a Mongolian ruler by a Chinese title -- if he saw himself as Genghis's heir, he should've called himself the Khagan, the Khan of Khans, rather than the Mandarin).


Didn't they say that Afterlife had been evacuated?

They did, but that doesn't mean it should be forever. Especially now that things have calmed down a bit.

Yeah, but without Gordon, they have no way of going back there. Only he and Jiaying knew where it physically was. Well, I guess SHIELD knows now too -- but that's a good reason for the Inhumans not to want to go back, because it's no longer a secret refuge.
 
Yeah, but without Gordon, they have no way of going back there. Only he and Jiaying knew where it physically was. Well, I guess SHIELD knows now too -- but that's a good reason for the Inhumans not to want to go back, because it's no longer a secret refuge.

Very true. However, SHIELD could have offered to bring people back, as a gesture of good faith. I can also understand people not wanting to go back for the same reason you mentioned, and not trusting SHIELD to bring them back and then leaving the alone.
 
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