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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Yep, July 4 1918....it is one of the few dates in the MCU which is unshakeable. It is visible multiple times in multiple movies, and Computer Zola even mentions it in his little monologue. As a general rule I consider dates and time-frames from dialogue, as well as those given in title cards as above everything else.
Ah, here's where you're falling apart.
You're assuming Iron Man 2 takes place in 2010. It doesn't. The bulk of it takes place in spring 2011.
So Thor does take place around the time it was released.
Since the date of The Avengers is solidly 2012, this puts Iron Man 3 at Christmas 2012. Agents of SHIELD then picks up several months later in fall 2013 (because it definitely does not start in the dead of winter). The Dark World then happens probably roughly when it came out, November 2013 (making it approximately two years (and a few months, since Thor and Jane parted).
Season 1 continues roughly in real-time to the end of its season (including the events of The Winter Soldier in April 2014). We can give Coulson and his team longer than the actual gap between seasons to pick up the pieces, and say that we don't catch up with them until early 2015, where the entirety of Season 2 takes place within a few months. Season 3 then picks back up at approximately the time it is now.
edited 25th Oct '15 11:35:56 AM by BadWolf21
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Frankly, I would rather put that down to Writers Cannot Do Math and assume it's a mistake in the chronology. Someone forgot when the episode was actually supposed to take place, and a reference to current events slipped in.
For that matter, what's the actual quote about the midterms?
edited 25th Oct '15 11:51:20 AM by BadWolf21
Ao S is very good about continuity, though. The show alone has no time-line contradictions whatsoever...it is kind of impressive to be honest.
Alright, you know what?
Star Wars Rule of Canon: Always assume that later works supplant previous ones if the timeline fits better. There's very little doubt that Iron Man was originally set in 2008, but moving it forward to 2010 makes it fit better with the rest of the movies. Glossing over a few dates in Iron Man 2 in order to make the timeline make sense isn't the end of the world.
It's also much easier in hindsight to move the beginning of the universe forward in time once than it is to constantly be letting new instalments fall behind the present.
edited 25th Oct '15 11:53:49 AM by BadWolf21
Then Talbot was exaggerating. That makes it even easier, because Talbot has been shown to exaggerate later.
But Iron Man 3 is obviously not set in the current date, because it takes place in December. Therefore, movies take place currently unless contradicted.
edited 25th Oct '15 11:59:58 AM by alliterator
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And that's where you're running into difficulty. Because you're relying on dates from one of the earliest movies, when it makes more sense to assume that those dates are now...outdated... (dammit, stupid words, being the same, grrr.)
You can't exaggerate "all winter" when it's not even close to the start of winter yet.
edited 25th Oct '15 12:00:45 PM by BadWolf21
I don't...my assumption that Iron Man 2 is set in 2010 is based on dates which are shown and given in the movie and there is nothing which contradicts it aside from the one remark in the Dark World...which CAN be interpreted as "Thor vanished and turned up two years later in The Avengers", even if it doesn't really sound that way.
We Are With You Zack Snyder
If Talbot said it before Winter even started could they have been chasing SHIELD in the southern hemisphere so he really meant they were chasing SHIELD all Summer?
That is just one possible explanation. I forget what happened in the beginning half of Season 2.
Batman Ninja more like Batman's Bizarre Adventure
The simpler explanation is that Agents of SHIELD season 2 starts around March which is, conveniently, both after winter and before the midterm elections. I honestly don't see why the episodes must happen in current time. I mean, if there is nothing else to go by then sure, but, otherwise, it is not that hard to think they happened a few months in the past.
And because Hulk vs Thor is an utter disgrace in the sense that it shills the living shit out of the Hulk while shafting Thor and the entirety of Asgard at its expense. This is a movie where Hulk easily decimates the entirety of Asgard and pretty much gives Thor a Curb-Stomp Battle, instead of a remotely even match.
Realistically speaking (and in the chronology of the movies), if Hulk attacked Asgard, he'd be screwed, because in his way we'd have A) The entirety of the troops of Asgard with their futuristic weaponry and magic B) Thor, Heimdall, Sif and the Warriors Three.
If Thor was a even match for him, add Heimdall and Hulk's doomed.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."The last midterm elections were in November 2014. If Ward's trial in season 2 is supposed to happen "right in time for midterm elections", the start of the season has to be set before that point. Considering that it would take a little time for the trial to actually happen, and the time which would be needed for campaigning, I would say either spring or summer.
edited 25th Oct '15 2:22:33 PM by Swanpride
Ward's trial was supposed to end for the midterms, not start, so who knows how long such a trial would take. Also as Ward was saying it to take a dig at his brother I really don't think it should be taken at face value, as the phrase "well that's convenient, this painful thing for me that makes you look good will end just in time for it to help you be re-elected" is the intent, but a snappier way is being used.
Ward was being poetic and not factual so as to take a dig at his brother.
As for Talbot, again I'd say he was just being poetic. Especially as he'd been chasing them since the fall of SHEILD, much longer than one winter.
edited 25th Oct '15 2:44:33 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranBut that doesn't precisely means the trial must happen during the campaign time, not after? If the trial ended after the elections happened, it couldn't be used as marketing potential, so Ward's little dig wouldn't make sense.

Steve actually mentions that he is 95 in The Winter Soldier...it is the only date in the whole movie and it ballparks it into the period between July 4 2013 and July 4 2014.
Agent of Shield comes into the second season after having evaded Talbot "The whole Winter". The whole Winter is for me the period from December to February.
Thor The Dark World is a little bit confusing because Jane sais that Thor left her two years ago...which can't be right, because while Thor was released two years before The Dark World, the movie itself is set parallel to Iron man 2 which is set in 2010, and it is definitely NOT December 2012 at this point because there are no Christmas decoration anywhere in London or Greenich, plus, the Agent of Shield episode which is connected to the movie goes all over the world, including parts in which there would be snow at this time of the year. Whenever The Dark World is set, it is definitely not Winter.
edited 25th Oct '15 11:14:55 AM by Swanpride