History AgentsOfSHIELD / TropesAToE

** The Darkhold: Its seemingly infinite knowledge tends to drive people to villainy. Everything created through the Darkhold also turns out to cause some sort of unintended disaster, resulting in whoever uses it meeting an unfortunate fate: The Bauers and their science team end up as demonic, ethereal ghosts for their attempt at synthesizing matter, Eli Morrow ends up getting Dragged Off to Hell and nearly destroys half of Los Angeles, the LMDs become destructive, manipulative kill machines that feel no remorse (except for May's, who pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to blow the S.H.I.E.L.D. base to bits), the Framework creates an alternate universe in a Bad Present where HYDRA reigns supreme, and Ivanov and AIDA meet painful ends without accomplishing their goals. Notably, Radcliffe (the only user of the Darkhold who realized he had been corrupted), is the only one who gets to die peacefully, being deleted painlessly from the Framework while watching a beautiful sunset.

** Ghost Rider gets one of these when he saved Daisy and Simmons from [[spoiler:James]]. He also has an even bigger one [[spoiler:in the season finale when he returns from hell and proceeds to fight Aida and her LMDs, causing the former to escape in terror and the latter to be destroyed. He wasn't actually saving anyone at that point, but his return provided Coulson's team with the only way they could defeat Aida.]]

** Jiaying has shades of several characters from the X-Men. Her backstory of suffering under Nazis and leading a war of (perceived) self-defense against non-powered humans calls to mind [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]], while her role as a leader and mentor within the Inhuman society and her pre-vivisection personality resemble those of [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]]. Her powers echo those of [[Characters/WolverineJamesLoganHowlett Wolverine]], who can regenerate from any wound as long as he's not beheaded (though they are powered through a VampiricDraining TouchOfDeath like [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]]. This ability to keep her young is also similar to X-Men villain Selene).

* CatchPhrase:
** Whenever Coulson is questioned about his injury, he refers to recovering in Tahiti, always describing it as "It's a magical place", suggesting that his memories of the place might not be real. He's fully dropped it by "Yes Men" where he says "It sucked" when asked by Agent Sitwell.
** Daniel Whitehall often says the phrase, "Discovery requires experimentation."

** Daisy Johnson's age is generally given as 19 in the comics (which is why it was so impressive that she became ''[[OverrankedSoldier Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.]]'' after Steve Rogers stepped down), but [[spoiler: the revelation that Skye ''is'' Daisy Johnson]], it becomes a case of this since, even though the actress is only a few years older than Daisy's comic book age, [[OlderThanTheyLook it's established that she's actually older than that]], making it an example of this.

** Whitehall ends up on the receiving end, as no less than two villains have opened up about how they really feel about him [[spoiler:following his death]]. [[spoiler: That said, Whitehall wants nothing to do with the "ancient cult" facet of HYDRA, viewing it as barbaric, religious nonsense, preferring the scientific aspects established by the Red Skull. He even tried to convince a young Gideon Malick and his brother Nathaniel to abandon the cult in favour of his side of HYDRA. He also views their father, Wilfred, a coward for cheating his way out of being selected to be sent through the Monolith as a sacrifice to Hive.

** Tobias Ford's teleporting ability by means of traveling through a hell dimension in a puff of smoke is unique to Nightcrawler from the X-Men.
** Gordon's teleportation is similar to Nightcrawler's, even including the smoke effect.

** Jiaying has shades of several characters from the X-Men. Her backstory of suffering under Nazis and leading a war of (perceived) self-defense against non-powered humans calls to mind Magneto, while her role as a leader and mentor within the Inhuman society and her pre-vivisection personality resemble those of Professor X. Her powers echo those of Wolverine, who can regenerate from any wound as long as he's not beheaded (though they are powered through a Vampiric Draining Touch of Death like Rogue, which keeps her young, similar to Selene).
*** Like Rogue, Jiaying can drain the lifeforce of others with a touch. It keeps her young, similar to the X-Men villain Selene.

** Hive is more or less a stand-in for Apocalypse; his backstory, immortality, goals, and overall personality have far more in common with that character than the comics Hive.

** Ruby shares some similarities to the Sin, the daughter of Red Skull. This includes being raised by a woman with ties to Hydra.Both raised by a woman with ties to HYDRA (Hale for Ruby and Susan Scarbo a.k.a. Mother Night for Sin) and indoctrinated in its fascist ideology since childhood. Both psychotic and expert fighters. Both are the daughters of prominent members of HYDRA (though Ruby's says she was "engineered" and her actual parentage is never revealed). Ruby's combat outfit also looks similar to that of Sin's.

** [[spoiler: Nathaniel Malick seems to be the MCU version of the X-Men villain of Mister Sinister. They both believe in cultivating and redistributing powers from superhuman individuals to those they deemed worthy. They coinicidentally share the first name.

** Whitehall ends up on the receiving end, as no less than two villains have opened up about how they really feel about him [[spoiler:following his death]]. [[spoiler: That said, Whitehall wants nothing to do with the "ancient cult" facet of HYDRA, viewing it as barbaric, religious nonsense, preferring the scientific aspects established by the Red Skull. He even tried to convince a young Gideon Malick and his brother Nathaniel to abandon the cult in favour of Whitehall's vision for HYDRA. He also considers the brother's father to be a coward for cheating his way out of being selected to go through the Monolith.]]/

*** He does not want to involve himself with [[spoiler: Ward's]] quest for revenge against SHIELD, viewing such things as insiginifcant, preferring to stay focused on moving forward with Hydra's true mission, and to never look back.

* AgeGapRomance: A mild example in the seventh season, between [[spioler:the 38ish year old Daniel Sousa and the mid-to-late-twenties Daisy Johnson]].

** Ward's mother was abusive towards her two elder sons, Christian and Grant, and Ward's father is said to have, at the very least, turned a blind eye. Only the youngest was ever treated well by their mother, though not by much. Christian in turn lashed out at Grant and their youngest brother, even ''throwing the youngest down the well''. Grant is also said to have been properly screwed up as a child and ended up in juvie after trying to burn Christian alive. Then John Garrett got his hands on Grant and became an even more twisted father figure to the young man.
** In the Framework, Alistair Fitz loved his son very much and didn't walk out on him, as the real Alistair Fitz did. Unfortunately for Leo Fitz, his father's love didn't do anything to mitigate the emotional and physical abuse he received from his father, turning him into the sociopathic Doctor, one of the heads of HYDRA in the Framework and the lover of Madame Hydra. When Fitz gets out of the Framework, he is [[HeroicBSOD horrified to realize]] that he became a murderer because he had an evil father figure, just like Ward.

** [[spoiler: Radcliffe and AIDA become this in the second half of Season 4 after being corrupted by the Darkhold]].
** [[spoiler: Talbot upon absorbing Gravitonium and developing a God-complex, becomes the final BigBad of Season 5]].

** [[spoiler: Nathaniel Malick seems to be the MCU version of the X-Men villain of Mister Sinister, who believed in cultivating and redistributing powers from mutants to those deemed worthy. They even share the same first name.]]

*** Before [[spoiler: Ward]], Malick considered bringing in other Hydra leaders in on his plan to bring Hive back to the planet, but didn't passed them on for pragmatic reasons (Alexander Pierce being too bloodthirsty, Garrett being too narcisstic). That said he gives the latter praise for bringing [[spoiler: Ward]] into Hydra, saying it was the best thing he has ever done for the organization's cause.

** Season 1: The Clairvoyant is the the head of the Centipede organization. [[spoiler:It's revealed that the Clairvoyant is actually a mole within S.H.I.E.L.D. with a high-level security clearance, rather than being a psychic. He's finally revealed to be Agent John Garrett, and Centipede is a faction of HYDRA.]]

** In both "The Hub" and "The Magical Place", Victoria Hand forces Coulson's team to go out of their way to do things in the most difficult manner possible: denying them information, disrupting their usual working process, and showing as little regard for their lives that she can manage, in complete contradiction to the way that the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. is shown to operate. [[spoiler:This goes UpToEleven when the CivilWar breaks out within S.H.I.E.L.D. and she orders her troops to attack the crew of the Bus with automatic weapons, believing they have been infiltrated by HYDRA.]]

** Turned UpToEleven by the appearance of Zephyr One. Coulson gushes about "how much I love my new toy".

** In its first appearance in the season 2 premiere "Shadows", the Obelisk takes a considerable amount of time to petrify Hartley, enough that her team is able to engage in a fairly lengthy escape sequence yet still have time to amputate the affected limb in time to save her. In subsequent appearances, the Obelisk is shown to petrify its victims in under a minute.

* AdultFear:
** Raina uses threats against Mike Peterson's son to get to him. After being captured by the Centipede group, Mike is forced to work for the evil organization when his son is captured by the Clairvoyant.
** Talbot coerced into betraying Coulson when Gideon Malick holds his son hostage.
** Gideon watching Hive kill his daughter right in front of him.
** [[spoiler:Jiaying: She was greatly concerned that her daughter was with SHIELD, who she believed to have been the ones who subjected her to unspeakable torture. She likewise is terrified when Nathaniel manipulates Kora to turn against her and the comments from Li about putting Kora down.]]
** [[spoiler: Simmons' brain implant was not only meant to protect Fitz, but also their daughter Alya.]]
** Wilfred Malick even gets one when the Chronicoms are willingly to let his son be collateral damage in their fight with SHIELD.

* BerserkButton:
** Don't ever betray Coulson's trust. ''Ever.'' When he finds out Skye was hiding something from the team in "Girl in the Flower Dress", it's the first instance of true anger he's ever displayed. And in "Beginning of the End", he has a nice ToThePain speech for TheMole.
** Putting his team members at risk without his knowledge pushes this button too. Victoria Hand learned this in "The Hub" when she stranded Ward and Fitz in hostile territory without an extraction plan -- and more importantly, not ''telling them'' that they didn't have an extraction plan.
** Don't call May "The Cavalry." If you're lucky, she'll just give you a DeathGlare. ([[spoiler:Though this takes on a bittersweet aspect in retrospect after we learn exactly how she got the nickname.]])
** [[spoiler: Ophelia hates being called AIDA]].
** [[spoiler: Nathaniel doesn't want people to call him sir.]]

** Big names from the Cinematic Universe at large who are just mentioned may vary: sometimes they are "Red Skull", "Captain America", and other times they are "Romanov", "Blonsky", etc.

* BrainsAndBrawn: The team is roughly split between "brawny" field-experienced agents and the "brainy" techies. Team leader Coulson is arguably the one with equal amounts of both, while Skye is a tech training to become an agent. Season 2 introduces Mack, who's a brain but with the physique and capabilities of being brawn, and Bobbi, who's a brawn but is smart enough to cross into brain.

** Fitz-Simmons referencing ''Series/DoctorWho'' creates several more: Creator/ChristopherEccleston (the Ninth Doctor) is Malekith in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Creator/KarenGillan (Amy Pond) is Nebula in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Creator/JennaColeman (Clara Oswald) was Bucky's date Connie in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', Creator/TobyJones (the Dream Doctor) is Dr. Arnim Zola in the ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger Captain]]'' ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier America]]'' movies, and Creator/DavidTennant (the Tenth Doctor) plays Kilgrave in the Netflix series ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}''. Perhaps best of all, if the most obscure, is that their mentor at S.H.I.E.L.D. academy, Agent Weaver, is played by Christine Adams (Cathica from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]]).