Agent carter meta I've been posting over on Tumblr

[sholio]

So I didn't really plan it this way, but most of the meta I've been posting lately has been in the form of replies to other people's reblogs on Tumblr. Here's a rundown of my recent additions:

• Whether Daniel was an officer or an enlisted man.
• A fairly extensive exchange about Whitney Frost's relationships with Manfredi and Chadwick, segueing into talking about Whitney vs. Dottie.
• Thoughts on Jack in the "dinner orders" scene in 2x10.
• Handicapped modifications for amputee WWII-veteran drivers. This one is SO COOL - I had no idea that modifying vehicles for disabled drivers was a thing that early. (I mean, individuals figuring out how to do it, yes, but not customized kits/mods from the dealers.)
• Rambling about Jack's motivations in sending Peggy to L.A., Jack making friends with Daniel, etc.

Feel free to strike up a conversation on any of these in the comments!

One thing in particular that I was thinking about last night is that the fandom seems to have latched onto the idea of Daniel having been an officer in the Army, but he really doesn't read that way to me. Admittedly my experience with the military is adjacent rather than from the inside (various relatives in the Army, no personal experience myself) but between that and reading, my impression is that the social climate for officers vs. enlisted is very different, and Daniel really does not read to me as having been on the officer side of that divide. Jack, on the other hand, almost had to have been a case of a college kid being dropped straight into a lieutenant's commission with no field experience. Daniel, though ... I don't see it. It's possible he could've worked his way up to sergeant and gotten a field commission to lieutenant; I don't really headcanon it that way, but it's definitely not impossible. And there's no canon either way, so clearly anybody else's headcanon on this one is as good as mine. But, idk, it's not how I see him.

Comments

[recessional]

It's also v useful to differentiate between 2Lt and 1Lt, especially in a WWII later-war context: most of the time if you sucked as a 2Lt you died, rather than making it to 1Lt. (Not always, but a lot of the time.) It makes for a different playing field.

You also found out whether this particular Lt sucked or was good PRETTY FAST, so there's that too. Also field commission is quite LIKELY, if he was a sergeant who demonstrated actual good tactics and wider-scope leadership skills.

So! There's that. I have no opinion either way as I have not watched him! If I had, I probably would. (For instance it is painfully clear that Malcolm Reynolds was at least an lt if not a captian, and that ZOE was the sergeant, so. XD)

[schneefink]

Thanks for the links!

Related: do you know of discussions about the nature of Daniel's injury? I may have missed something, but I didn't even consider that he might be an amputee until I read it in fic, I thought he had some other kind of injury.

[sholio]

Yeah, canon is REALLY vague. As far as I can tell, the entire fandom has been assuming he's an amputee; I think it's based mostly on the joke he makes to Peggy in the first episode. ("Can't find my leg anywhere.") And I've been going with that in fic. But I'm significantly more likely, after all the acrobatic stuff he does in season two, to entertain the idea that he got his leg smashed up badly, but didn't actually lose it.

I haven't actually seen the fandom talking about it anywhere, just people assuming he's an amputee.

[schneefink]

Thanks! I didn't remember that line. Still, pity there hasn't been more discussion. I'd love to hear the opinion of people with actual medical knowledge, because I'm pretty sure even after looking up prosthetics in the 1940s I wouldn't be able to tell which it is just from watching. When I first saw him written as an amputee I assumed it's because you can do fun stuff like write him beating people up with his detached leg. Also in some circumstances/aspects losing a leg seems like a "cleaner" injury than having a heavily injured leg and probably dealing with chronic pain and other side effects.

[muccamukk]

I don't think I'd ever considered that Daniel was an officer. He doesn't seem bossy enough, I guess.

[the_rck]

I have the impression that your read on rank/experience in terms of senior enlisted folks is pretty accurate. I have gotten the idea that inexperienced officers who don't listen to their senior enlisted are assumed to be too stupid to live.

I wonder more about how Sousa got into intelligence work. I wouldn't have thought that there were a vast number of job openings so that one would need either considerable experience/aptitude or patronage/sponsorship. I was also wondering about the character's ethnic background-- John Philip Sousa's father's family originated in Spain and Portugal. Hm. I'm terrible at estimating ages-- How old would Daniel Sousa likely have been during the Spanish Civil War? Having been involved in that or having had relatives who were would make him more vulnerable to allegations of Communist sympathies.

(And, on a tangent, I keep seeing Agent Carter fic recs that talk about Jack and Daniel and automatically assuming that I missed a turn into SG-1 fic recs. Then I laugh at myself.)

[sheron]

It took me months to be able to write "Jack and Daniel" in a sentence without thinking about SG1 and changing it to "Thompson and Sousa" XD

[the_rck]

I'm actually glad I'm not the only one! ::laughs::

[ranalore]

It...had not even occurred to me that people might think "officer" about Sousa (well, field commission maybe, but not to start), but I have funny blind spots about the ways in which being a career military dependent has shaped my world view. Sousa definitely reads to me as upper-rank enlisted. And I know you're very fond of him, but a lot of Thompson's less savory character traits remind me of the worst of junior officer behavior, particularly junior officers with family connections in the higher officer ranks. I kept waiting for the show to give us a General Thompson on the Paternalistic White Guys Council, but I guess that would have made things too dark when Thompson needed to turn double agent.

[muccamukk]

Or when Whitney et most of them! That would be an interesting AU. Mostly Vernon the surrogate dad stood pretty well.

[azvin]

Does Sousa's job give any hint? I don't actually know anything about army jobs during WWII, but defusing bombs as a reconnaissance scout (did I remember that correctly? I can't seem to find that clip anywhere) seems like it might have been a narrow enough specialty to give some clue.

[sholio]

Oh, that is an EXCELLENT idea!! So I looked it up. As an Army scout, he would not have ranked any higher than sergeant, and at the time he was actively involved in defusing bombs (which we know he was, from canon) he would likely not have ranked any higher than specialist or corporal. Though a later promotion is still entirely possible -- he wasn't necessarily a scout for the entire time -- but yeah, that DOES help!

[azvin]

I think he would have had to have had a later promotion, or at least a change of job. The SSR just doesn't seem like the kind of job a corporal would get without at least some intelligence experience. Maybe if he was in the super special intelligence scout unit.

[sholio]

Look at some of the other people they hired, though! I mean, this is an organization that employed Krzeminski. XD

... I'm actually kinda serious; I don't know precisely what the SSR's hiring criteria is, but considering some of their other hires, it doesn't seem out of the question that Daniel might have gotten in on the basis of having earned some commendations for his scout work, or maybe he knew people who knew people.

But yeah, a field promotion to sergeant, or sergeant to eventual lieutenant, is certainly plausible. And we don't know how long he worked as a scout, only that he did it.

[sheron]

What an excellent suggestion. Nice to have head-canon confirmed! :)

[chelseagirl]

I thought Daniel was an enlisted man, as well, though quite possibly of a higher rank. World War II was such a watershed, in the U.S. at least, for people from working class backgrounds going to college, which I think is the barrier of the officer class? I could definitely see him as an NCO, though, having risen due to merit. (Hmm, I also think Daniel would have gone to college on the G.I. Bill if he hadn't had a great job at the SSR.)

[chelseagirl]

And another -- I completely agree that leaving Whitney in the asylum at the end was a sad note; she deserved more and she deserved to go out under her own agency.

I've finally been watching the American version of House of Cards (the UK version is an old favorite in our household) and Whitney and Cal remind me of the Underwoods in so many ways. I suspect Manfredi looked glamorous to young Agnes in her first year in Hollywood, and that then she saw him as having too many limitations -- even if she cared about him -- and realized she needed someone better connected. I was actually surprised that she was fantasizing Cal in the asylum at the end, because I'd thought their relationship had more utility value for both of them -- she seemed to put up with his having a mistress without too much complaint. But maybe it was the possibilities their relationship had seemed to have, rather than the man himself, who made a part of her fantasy world at the end. Manfredi's fidelity really endeared him to me, in any case. Well, I assume he had other mistresses while they were apart, but that he was ready to take her back instantly, and that he was visiting her in the asylum at the end -- emotional fidelity, I guess.

I completely agree that Dottie has no idea who she is; it could be intriguing to see her rediscover a sense of self somewhere down the line . . .