BTW, considering that the actual US military can't even get enough money to keep things running these days, how does SHIELD get the funds for a carrier and/or multiple helicarriers?
Which "SHIELD" are you talking about?
Are you talking about the legal entity that existed before April 2014? That SHIELD, as an international paramilitary, presumably got its funds through contributions paid by each of its participating member states through their domestic taxation programs--same way, for instance, NORAD is paid for by both U.S. and Canadian taxpayers.
Do you mean Coulson's underground organization? Well, we don't know what happened the
Avengers Hellicarrier or any of the SHIELD aircraft carriers after the Hydra uprising. But I do wonder how Coulson's organization pays for its assets -- fuel for the Bus and those quinjets ain't cheap. To say nothing of how he pays his agents, feeds them, keeps the plumbing and electricity going, etc. I find myself speculating, again, that perhaps Fury gave Coulson access to a secret Swiss bank account.
Do you mean Gonzalez's organization? We don't know.
If Gonzalez's organization has the backing of one or more governments the way the original SHIELD did, then presumably their assets are paid for by someone's taxpayers.
I do wish Fritz-Simmons would resolve their issues- it has a lot of dramatic tension but it is getting a bit old for me.
The Fitz/Simmons arc is interesting to me, because for so long they had almost no identities of their own outside of each other. I want them to resolve their issues and get together, but they need to find themselves first. And they've both made moves to do that, but in some ways they've done this in the most hurtful ways possible.
Simmons ran away from Fitz, I think, because she wasn't ready for his declaration of love, nor for the emotional responsibility of supporting him as he recovered, nor for the changes he underwent. She wasn't ready for that kind of commitment, but didn't really have a sense of herself separate from Fitz--so she ran.
Fitz reacted to this by losing a hell of a lot of trust in her, in spite of his using her as his "affection object" in his hallucinations. So when he learns about Skye's powers, he has his freakout, gets over it -- and then begins assuming the worst about what Simmons's freakouts over Raina mean for Skye. Which, of course, hurts Simmons more than she can admit -- that Fitz has so much less trust in her than he used to. It's not fair of Fitz to react that way, anymore than it was fair of her to run away from him.
Meanwhile, they're divided by a philosophical take on superpowers. Fitz is coming at it from the presumption that superpowers are a neutral status, like being tall or having blue eyes. Simmons is coming at this from the presumption that powers are a
disease, are a condition the human body is not supposed to have, and that those who have powers are patients--either they must be treated and cured, or they must be prevented from spreading. Both of their perceptions are colored by their reactions to Fitz's own neurological status; Fitz has accepted his status as being simply a part of him, now that he's had a year to acclimate to them; but Simmons still hasn't fully adjusted to his neurological status and views it as a defect in what used to be a properly-functioning brain. They're both projecting their issues with Fitz's neurological status onto Skye--Fitz looks at her and sees someone who has, like him, changed in ways that are scary, but ultimately are okay; Simmons looks at her and sees a patient whose own body is being damaged involuntarily. And they're carrying this over into other areas--Simmons sees Trip (for whom she had feelings) killed by the Inhuman tech, sees Raina's post-transformation violence, and all she can see is a disease that needs to be contained and patients to be treated. Fitz looks at them and sees a new minority group, sees people who were "born this way."
So they've both got a hell of a lot of trust issues to work on, and a lot of philosophical bridges to cross. They're both coming at these issues from the same POV--they both want people safe and cared for and accepted, but they have wildly differing assumptions about what it means to be safe, and those assumptions are complicated by their own relationship issues. It's gonna take a long time for them to earn one-another's trust again, and to learn to see things from the others' perspective.
I'm sorry, but I meant before the collapse and info dump, did Fury ever know that insight is largely Zola's baby?
Was Project Insight largely Zola's baby? The impression I got was that Zola's role was restricted to writing the algorithm that would identify anti-Hydra targets. It's unclear whether the original idea for Insight came from legit SHIELD agents or Hydra infiltrators. Clearly, the idea that SHIELD would use three new hellicarriers to target threats to international security in advance was one Fury thought came from within SHIELD -- may even have come from Fury himself!
There are two possibilities:
1. Insight started as an actual SHIELD project ("Let's drone-kill threats to international security, but with hellicarriers!") and was then hijacked by Hydra as an opportunistic attempt at a coup d'etat.
2. Insight started as a Hydra idea ("Let's trick SHIELD into building us hellicarrers we can use to kill everyone who would oppose us!") and then Hydra disguised it as a SHIELD anti-terrorist idea to get it funded and built.
Either way, I always got the impression that it ended up being more Alexander Pierce's baby than Zola's.
And with all of the bases Coulson has found including the Konig dodecatuplets, there's stuff out there we just haven't seen, aircraft carriers included.
A couple of underground bases and safehouses are one thing. Hiding an entire aircraft carrier is... I think somewhat implausible.
Who's at the Hub? Did that building just cease to exist because it hasn't been shown?
The Hub was surrendered to the United States Air Force under General Talbot in the episode "Providence."
Similarly, Providence Base was seized by the United States Air Force (in spite of it being on Canadian soil) in "Nothing Personal." I would speculate that it either remains under USAF control, that it is under joint-USAF/Royal Canadian Air Force control, or that it was turned over to the Canadian Forces after it was taken.
Given that the NSA was spying on it, I would speculate that at some point, the Fridge would have been seized by the United States Armed Forces or by those of an allied government. (I got the impression that the Fridge was somewhere in the South Pacific--maybe it was taken by the Australian Defence Force?)
Given Talbot's comments in "Shadows," I think it is safe to say that the U.S. or allied governments seized control of every SHIELD base of which they were aware.
Just because some moist tart throws an aircraft carrier at Gonzalez doesn't make him the director.
I'd like to know who, besides a government, is capable of mobilizing the personnel and resources to operate an aircraft carrier.
