History AgentsOfSHIELD / TropesAToE

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Well into the range of character error, Simmons claims "radiocarbon 14 dates some of these trees at 9000 years old." There's a perfectly good way to determine how old a tree is, but carbon dating isn't it. Carbon dating only works if you're looking for the answer to "How long ago did that die?" But being a biochemist, she definitely should know better. In addition, the other proposed method, dendrochronology, is equally inadequate for the situation. On a freshly cut tree, you can just count the rings, simple as that.

* AncientConspiracy: HYDRA. Supposedly started in WWII under Red Skull, Gideon Malick claims in the third season that [[spoiler:it goes back hundreds, maybe thousands of years, dedicated to rescuing Hive from the planet where he was exiled, worshiping him like a god. As a religious devotee, Malick may be stretching the truth or misinformed, but Hive's true appearance does a good job of matching HYDRA's symbol.]]

* BigBad: The show typically uses a [[TheBigBadShuffle big bad shuffle]] throughout the season, often correlating with a particular MythArc at the time, and every season but the first has had more than one singular big bad. However, the OverarchingVillain for most of the show is HYDRA, and the only season where HYDRA isn't directly related to the BigBad of the season or responsible for the conflict is Season 6.

** In "The Hub", Victoria Hand and S.H.I.E.L.D. intentionally make no extraction plan for Ward and Fitz's mission to disable a terrorist superweapon, knowing full well that upon discovering this, the rest of Coulson's team will go in and save them themselves. Hand even makes sure that everything happened according to plan before fully attending to their assault on the terrorist base.

** Gideon Malick: He subjects his own HYDRA men to the Terrigen fish oil pills without them knowing so either those who were Inhuman would have powers or those who didn't would die.

* AdaptationDyeJob
** In the comics, Mack has gray hair. Here, he sports a BaldOfAwesome.

* BorrowedCatchphrase: After Fitz plays with spy gadgets from decades ago and burns the curtains, May sarcastically says, "Watch out HYDRA, here we come." This is a minor variation of the BattleCry of ComicBook/TheInvadersMarvel.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Fitz is of this opinion.
-->'''Fitz:''' What we need is a highly trained monkey.\\
'''Simmons:''' ''[exasperated]'' Oh, Fitz!\\
'''Fitz:''' He could turn off the alarm with his adorable little paws!
** This has carried over to the S.H.I.E.L.D comic series, where [[CanonImmigrant Fitz]] has a trained monkey.

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** [[spoiler: Prior to the series, Daisy Johnson had been depicted as a Caucasian in the comics. For the show, she is Chinese-American, like her actress. The comics have since designed the character with this ethnicity]].

** 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.

** [[spoiler: When Ruby achieves her life's purpose and absorbs Gravitonium, she can neither control the power merely 8% of the element gives her, nor cope with having Hall and Quinn's duelling consciousnesses in her head. The result causes her to unintentionally kill Werner when her powers causes his head to cave on itself, and leaves her vulnerable enough for Yo-Yo to kill her.]]

** Mack and Yo-Yo
Happens in "The Force of Gravity" between [[spoiler:Coulson and May, in the middle of a fight.]]
** [[spoiler: Mack and Elena share one in "Collison Course Part", after their first step of reconciliation.]]
** [[In "As I Have Always Been", Daisy kisses Sousa one loop after he admits that he's looking out for her because he likes people like her who never give up and wants to be there for her. Since things aren't sorted out in that loop, Sousa has no memory of it by the end.]]

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** [[spoiler: Prior to the series, Daisy Johnson had been depicted as a Caucasian in the comics. For the show, she is Chinese-American, like her actress. The comics have since designed the character with this ethnicity]].

** 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.

** After the agents bring up a series of Continuity Nods to worse situations they were in during the past few seasons [[(for example: fighting Jiaying, fighting Calvin Zabo, fighting Aida, and being trapped in the Framework)]], May suggests another worse situation... dancing.

** [[spoiler: When Ruby achieves her life's purpose and absorbs Gravitonium, she can neither control the power merely 8% of the element gives her, nor cope with having Hall and Quinn's duelling consciousnesses in her head. The result causes her to unintentionally kill Werner when her powers causes his head to cave on itself, and leaves her vulnerable enough for Yo-Yo to kill her.]]

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** [[spoiler: Prior to the series, Daisy Johnson had been depicted as a Caucasian in the comics. For the show, she is Chinese-American, like her actress. The comics have since designed the character with this ethnicity]].

** 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.

** Season 4 introduces the Ghost Rider, who states that his powers come from a deal he made with the d

** [[spoiler: When Ruby achieves her life's purpose and absorbs Gravitonium, she can neither control the power merely 8% of the element gives her, nor cope with having Hall and Quinn's duelling consciousnesses in her head. The result causes her to unintentionally kill Werner when her powers causes his head to cave on itself, and leaves her vulnerable enough for Yo-Yo to kill her.]]

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** [[spoiler: Prior to the series, Daisy Johnson had been depicted as a Caucasian in the comics. For the show, she is Chinese-American, like her actress. The comics have since designed the character with this ethnicity]].

** 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.

** [[spoiler: When Ruby achieves her life's purpose and absorbs Gravitonium, she can neither control the power merely 8% of the element gives her, nor cope with having Hall and Quinn's duelling consciousnesses in her head.

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** Daniel Whitehall: British in the comics, German here. Later, he adopts American citizenship after he changed his identity into "Daniel Whitehall".
** Jiaying

** Marcus Scarlotti: He's American in the comics. Here, he's likely a German, since his actor is German. This is likely why his name is changed.
** Werner von Strucker: He is German in the comics. In the MCU, he is German-American since his actor is American. His American heritage is most likely from his (unseen) mother. He also tells Ruby that he doesn't understand German language.

** Raina uses threats against Mike Peterson's son to get to him.

** [[spoiler: Robbie Reyes was in his late teens in the comics. Here he is depicted being in his late twenties to early thirties.]]

** Daisy has brown hair here, when it was originally black in the comics. Subsequent appearances of the character in the comics have redesigned her to have brown hair.

** James/Hellfire in the comics, he's a human with supernatural abilities. Here, he's an Inhuman.

** Mack: His comics counterpart has gray hair. Here, he sports a Bald of Awesome.
** Daisy: In the comics originally her hair was black, here it is brown. The comics subsequently redesigned Daisy to have brown hair.

** Whitehall Whitehall pops up in the backseat of Raina's car in The Stinger, where he threatens her to bring back the Diviner that she had stolen.

** The reason Skye has a fixation on SHIELD and their secrets? They are linked to a unredacted file concerning her parents. Coulson knowing that SHIELD has dealt with some pretty bad people, warns Skye if they find the file, she might not like what she finds, to which Skye says nothing in the file could be worse than things that she has imagined. [[spoiler: In season 2, both of her parents appear, her first impression of her father is seeing two dead men in his office, who were violenting killed and her mother is even more twisted than he is.]]
** Raina: She exposed herself to the Terrigen Mists, believing she had a great power hidden within her. She was right, but she paid for it dearly in her [[BodyHorro physical transformation]].

** The Clairvoyant, revealed to be [[spoiler:John Garrett]], keeps the chummy, friendly attitude he had long before the reveal of who he was, and is shown to have a pretty fun VillainousFriendship with his [[TheDragon dragon]], and generally treats his subordinates with a lot of friendly respect, with the only exception of Quinn. Doesn't change the fact he's a murdering sociopath who'd gladly kill anyone to make himself immortal.

** Cal: He's kinda... quirky when he's not being murderously psychotic. He refers to HYDRA's attempts to understand the Diviner as "monkeys scratching at it," mocks Whitehall's translation of an ancient legend concerning it, and scoffs at referring to it as a weapon as "small-minded... for such a large-minded person." However, he gets less affable as his obsession to get Skye to love him grows.** Hive:

** [[spoiler:The BigBad of the Ghost Rider arc After he's revealed to be a power-hungry maniac, he warns Coulson to get away as quickly as possible as he prepares to begin the process of acquiring his god-like power, and later, after he suffocates a complaining underling by creating diamonds inside of his lungs, he tells the others that they might want to cut him open to get the rest of them.

** 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.
** Lance Hunter: The comic version of Hunter is an older man who serves as the head of S.T.R.I.K.E.** Alphonso Mackenzie His comics counterpart is a veteran S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Here, he looks younger.

* [[FreezeFrameBonus Blink And You Miss It]]: In 0-8-4 Fitz-Simmons take a photo with the temple.

** [[spoiler: He tries to convince Skye that, despite being a HYDRA plant and lying "to everyone about everything", his feelings for her are genuine. She doesn't buy it.]]
** [[spoiler: He genuinely seems to have developed a loving relationship with Kara, given that he walked right into Coulson's hands when Deathlok napped her. Coulson even names this as a reason why he thinks that he isn't completely beyond redemption. He leaves Kara with S.H.I.E.L.D., recognizing that's he's not a good influence on her and wanting her to recover her past. Which turns out to be a foul play, but the trope is still played straight, as him accidentally killing her emotionally shatters him.]]
** [[spoiler: In spite of everything, he still cares about his younger brother Thomas all along. Too bad Thomas is still afraid of him and has no problem with letting Team Coulson take him down. Especially when he found out that Ward had brutally murdered their older brother and parents in a fire.]]
** [[spoiler: When Garrett ordered him to kill FitzSimmons, he did so with reluctance. Fitz screamed that he knew Ward cared about them, and Ward said he did, admitting it was a weakness.]]

** Calvin Zabo:
** Gideon Malick: While a MagnificentBastard, he has a strong tie to his family [[He loved his father, and was distraught to learn of his true cowardly nature. Malick did love his younger brother Nathaniel, just not enough to sacrifice himself. Him going back on their deal to be better than father, and not saving his brother from being sacrificed has haunted him all his life. This trope is played straightest with his daughter, Stephanie. Her death at the hands of Hive destroys him.
** ArcVillain of the first half of Season 4 [[spoiler: Eli Morrow raised Robbie and Gabe, and genuinely loves them. When he learns that the drive-by which crippled Gabe was a hit attempt meant for him, he's legitimately horrified, though he insists that it's the Bauers' fault. He also offers Robbie the chance to join him, but when he doesn't, Eli doesn't hesitate to start making carbon pop out of Robbie, showing that as much as he loves Robbie, he wants power more.]]
** Ellen Nadeer: She genuinely loved her mother and was devastated by her death. Unfortunately, the experience made her develop a [[FantasticRacism hatred towards anything alien]], and takes said hatred on Inhumans. [[spoiler: She almost has her own brother killed by the Watchdogs for becoming an Inhuman, but after he begs for his life, she decides not to go through with it. She finally follows through with it personally at the end, but if they were in each other's shoes he would've done the same to her—after all, they had made a promise to each other.]]

** [[spoiler: Wilfred Malick: ​After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply could not understand his reasoning.

** [[spoiler: Like his father and older brother, Nathaniel is shown to genuninely love them both, and like Gideon, was distraught to learn that their father was a coward who cheated out his way from bening sacrificed., and quakes Deke for killing Wilfred. That said, his brother never reappears in the remainder of Season 7, and if his life went the same way it happened in the original timeline, Gideon would have been among the SHIELD officials that were killed along with the rest of the SHIELD bases, suggesting that Nathaniel never truly cared about his family.]]

** The Clairyvoyant [[spoiler: John Garrett]] didn't want any unnecessary blood to be shed in finding out how Coulson was brought back to life, [[spoiler: considering that he viewed him as a friend]], and despite being a member of [[spoiler: Hydra]] he doesn't really buy into the organizations' views, siding with them because he viewed them as the winning side.

** [[spoiler: He keeps his promise to not shoot down the Bus when Skye agrees to go with him in "... Ye Who Enter Here". Too bad Whitehall pulls rank on him.]]

** World domination is "too 1945" for her tastes. This is why she's working for Skye's father instead of HYDRA in season 2.
*** Even though she was the one who put Simmons' cover at risk in order to cut a deal with Coulson, she was legitimately disturbed when she realized he wasn't buying what she was selling and that Simmons would likely be killed as a result.** TheMole [[spoiler: Grant Ward]] has some of these.
** 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 considers the boy's father to be a coward, as the man divised a method to prevent himself from being selected as a sacrifice to the Monolith]]/

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

* EurekaMoment:
** Skye has one in "End of the Beginning":
--->'''Coulson:''' I feel like he's still out there... in our heads.\\
'''Skye:''' Or in our ''files.''
** Also, [=FitzSimmons=] in "FZZT":
--->'''Simmons:''' [[spoiler:The antibodies from the three firefighters aren't strong enough to fight this virus. It's born from alien DNA. There's no one to create an antiserum from, because no one's actually survived this, except...]]\\
'''[=Fitzsimmons=]:''' [[spoiler:...the Chitauri.]]

** Coulson is relatively unfazed when [[spoiler:Vergil, while [[KilledMidSentence explaining the team's situation to them]], gets his head split open in front of the group by a Vrellnexian in "Orientation", and simply mades a [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] [[CasualDangerDialogue comment]] about Vergil being unable to finish a complete sentence.[[note]]After Mack had knocked him out earlier, also mid-sentence, when he mistook Vergil for a threat.

** 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, [[NotSoDifferent just like Ward]].

* BorrowedCatchphrase: After Fitz plays with spy gadgets from decades ago and burns the curtains, May sarcastically said, "Watch out HYDRA, here we come." This is a minor variation of the BattleCry of ComicBook/TheInvadersComicBook.

* BorrowedCatchphrase: After Fitz plays with spy gadgets from decades ago and burns the curtains, May sarcastically said, "Watch out HYDRA, here we come." This is a minor variation of the battle cry of ComicBook/TheInvaders.

** Ruby vs. Carl Creel in "Inside Voices". She dodges almost every single one of his blows while getting off some pretty strong hits of her own...and does almost no damage to him whatsoever because [[RealityEnsues a fully grown man who's built like a tank is going to take very little injury from a 90-pound teenage girl, no matter how skilled she is]], and that's ''without'' him [[LiteralMetaphor literally]] being MadeOfIron.

* The Clairyvoyant [[spoiler: John Garrett]] didn't want any unnecessary blood to be shed in finding out how Coulson was brought back to life, [[spoiler: considering that he viewed him as a friend]], and despite being a member of [[spoiler: Hydra]] he doesn't really buy into the organizations' views, siding with them because he viewed them as the winning side.
** The Mole [[spoiler: Grant Ward]] was rather disgusted when he saw [[spoiler: Garrett]] murder a Marine Corps general by using his broken rib to stab him in the neck. He's also clearly upset that he had no choice but to lock up the other officers, saying that [[Garrett's]] actions weren't necessary. [[spoiler: He keeps his promise to not shoot down the Bus when Skye agrees to go with him in "... Ye Who Enter Here". Too bad Whitehall pulls rank on him.]]
** It is evident in the beginning TheMole was loyal to the Clairvoyant, not Hydra.

*** 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.