Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The longest running TV spinoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first of the TV branch of the MCU. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starred Phil Coulson, having being brought back to life after his death in The Avengers. The newly-revived Coulson leads a team of S.H.I.E.L.D., most of them created for the show (the only notable exception being Mockingbird and Quake).

Due to being, to some extent, more connected to the movies than other MCU shows, the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier had the show scrambling to justify its existence.

The show was meant to end in its fifth season in 2018, having a reference to Thanos' second attack on New York in Avengers: Infinity War only for the show to continue for two more seasons, both of which left the fallout of the Snap conspicuously unaddressed. After seven years and seven seasons, the show ended on August 12th 2020.

After the release of Avengers: Endgame, and a five year Time Skip which showed a post-Snap world, and the development of new Marvel programming on Disney+ that was designed to be in continuity with the films, it was left ambiguous whether or not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was still considered canon to the MCU. While there has been no official word one way or another, the series is notably not featured in Disney+'s timeline of Infinity Saga media.

Tropes used in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. include:

• Adaptation Species Change: Several characters are now Inhumans. The notable exception is Donnie Gill who's now an Enhanced Human rather than an Inhuman.
• Arc Words: "Tahiti, it's a magical place".
• Badass Normal: Most agents, with Quake being the exception.
• Back From the Dead: Phil Coulson, thanks to a good injection of Kree blood.
• Composite Character/Decomposite Character: Glenn Talbot becomes the MCU version of Graviton while Franklin Hall is reduced to a piece of Fauxshadow.
• Continuity Snarl: Thanks to the show mentioning that the end of Season 5 took place at the same time as the beginning of Infinity War, it is impossible to reconcile anything post-Season 6 with the larger MCU.
• Depending on the Writer: The Kree Empire shown here is rather different from its depiction in the films. Whereas the films portrayed the Kree as similar to the First Order from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, AoS has them as a more feudal society, more akin to humanity's various empires in Dune.
• Early Installment Weirdness: Season 1 was more overtly attached to the MCU such as having the heroes reference and deal with the fallout of the movies and had a generally Lighter and Softer/Denser and Wackier tone being more akin to a Police Procedural sitcom set in the MCU. From Season 2 onwards, the show carved out an identity separate from the movies and took on a Darker and Edgier tone.
• Fun with Acronyms: In "Pilot", Ward lampshades that it's clear that someone really wanted the organization to be named SHIELD and came up with a backronym to justify it.
• Loose Canon: What the show was largely reduced to. While it reacted to events that happened in the mainline films, most notably the fall of SHIELD and the Sokovia Accords, the show was never acknowledged by the movies. Most notably, while the series was all about rebuilding SHIELD, the movies functionally treated SHIELD as having been Killed Off for Real in Winter Soldier and replaced it with SWORD and SABER from Phase Four onwards.
• Not So Different: As per MCU tradition, HYDRA usually cites this with regards to SHIELD and themselves.
• Pair the Spares: After Fitz/Simmons and Mack/Elena became canon, Coulson/May followed.
• Post Script Season: As the creators thought Season 5 would be the last it ended with Phil Coulson (having sacrificed a cure for the condition that was killing him in order to save the world) leaving the team to spend his last days peacefully in Tahiti. Meanwhile, the rest of the team flew off on an And the Adventure Continues... ending. When the show got renewed, Season 6 picked up a year later to resolve the plot thread of searching for team M.I.A. Fitz, and introduced a new character who bore a suspicious resemblance to Coulson..
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: The show's approach to the issue of law enforcement/superhero accountability is basically that it should happen for everyone but Team Coulson. They can be trusted to manage themselves.
• Red Skies Crossover:
  • This trope is how the show connects to the movies with Team Coulson reacting to the fallout of the movies; like the Convergence in Thor: The Dark World, HYDRA's reveal in Captain America: The Winter Soldier or the Sokovia Accords passing in Captain America: Civil War; but never interacting with the movies' A-listers.
  • Microchip is mentioned in this show before becoming a major character in The Punisher.
  • The Inhuman ruins from this show are featured in Inhumans.
  • Team Coulson repaired the original Helicarrier, allowing it to be used in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Phil Coulson actively lives to ensure this, saying that any new tech or science that proves it can be misused should be destroyed rather than letting trusted scientists see if it can be made safe to make ordinary lives better.
• Required Spinoff Crossover: Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Sif appear in episodes of the show. Flashbacks show Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandoes.
• Rogues Gallery Transplant: Many villains in the show weren't enemies of SHIELD specifically in the comics.
• Ship Sinking: Once Ward is revealed as HYDRA, Skye/Ward vibes come to a screeching halt.
• Simultaneous Arcs: Season 5's timeframe overlaps with the Black Order's invasion of New York in Avengers: Infinity War.
• Spiritual Successor: In many ways, the show is a new version of Torchwood, a Spin-Off to Doctor Who. Like Torchwood, AoS is a Darker and Edgier Spin-Off to media made largely for the whole family to watch starring a popular Breakout Character that was largely reduced to Loose Canon by the larger universe.