I feel I can't comment seeing as I've seen the film and a bunch of my headcanons have shifted as a result.

Clint has totally been in therapy though. Nothing will dissuade me of this. And Nat and Steve have been running some missions. But I think Nat and Clint have too, after Clint gets cleared. In fact, I want the three of them to have run some missions, and Clint would have been with them for winter soldier but something came up [BUT NOT SAYING WHAT BECAUSE SPOILERS AND SPECULATION].

The film is fabulous by the way. You will all love it. And If you don't I WILL JUDGE YOU. :P

Oh! And as a rec, it's mine, but as it's not Clint/Nat I couldn't cross post it here. My avengers_remix story The Sky and I covers some of what I think Clint was doing, esp. re: therapy. (PG-13, no warnings)

Edited 2014-03-28 11:41 pm (UTC)

I like your head canon! I think he spent a long time in therapy/ psych, but after being cleared either retired to go private in some way, or was assigned fairly low level missions and easy assassinations, working his way up to mid-level by the events of the Winter Soldier.

It makes sense to pair Steve and Natasha and have them be the go to team for big events. Natasha is the best spy in the world and Steve is a super soldier, not to mention Natasha has experience spying on one of the Avengers.

Of course, I can't be sure how SHIELD being/ turning evil will complicate things until I see the movie. Agony! I'm kinda putting my fic writing on hold until it comes out.

I read that as just "retired" and I was about to yell NO and then I read the rest. :P I'm not sure he'd've started at the bottom again, unless that was something he himself insisted. I don't think SHIELD would have any other snipers of his calibre so if he was assigned low level missions for a while, I think he'd've got bumped up as soon as something happened that needed a good sniper.

But yeah, Steve and Nat makes total sense. But I still love the idea of the three of them working ops together, and Natasha acting mediator between Steve's confusion and Clint's brashness. It would be great. I'd love that story. Just the three of them. :D

Yes! This was a thing I was trying to chat about with a friend, but neither of us had any idea what that would mean for... everything. And I can't say more speculation because spoilers but... yeah. I think it's pretty brave of Marvel though. Because that is a MAJOR shakeup.

I know he probably won't retire or die for a couple more movies, I just think from a character perspective, after everything he's been through, he deserves a break.

I think SHIELD would probably adapt quicker than most organizations, but there would still be stigma and distrust, so Fury might pull rank and put him a super secret super special assignment (which might explain why he wasn't there for the events of the Winter Soldier) or he would have to prove his reliability a lot after what happened.

I kind of like the idea of Steve, Nat, Clint, Bucky and Sam forming their own team of less or not super-powered individuals, dealing with human problems, in between the cosmic problems of the Avengers. I mean, Thor, Tony and Bruce aren't really equipped to deal with issues like human trafficking.

Aah yeah. I see where you're coming from.

I think option one there is more likely than option two. Because all the people in positions of power within SHIELD would know that people like Clint and Selvig weren't working under their own free will.

YES! Well, to everyone except Bucky. My Bucky needs a little time to settle, now I've seen the "canon" version. But I'd love a team of Steve, Nat, Clint and Sam. I need to find the right person to prod for this fic. :P

Headcanon about Clint and sanity - his perception shifted. I played with that a bit in my secret santa story; how he already had crazy precision and great eyes and after Loki expanding his mind his brain was able to calculate trajectories in a heartbeat, take many variables into account and predict what would happen in a crowded street, so it became almost like precognition and Clint freaked out. Not because he was going crazy, but because Loki, who stole his mind and body and used him, made him even better at what he does. Cruel? Yes, I do cruel sometimes. :D

Well, I have a whole head canon about that post-Manhattan period, and have stuck it into two of my stories.

Levelling out is an absolute must for Clint. He won't go off his rocker the way Erik Selvig did (he's a trained professional, which includes serious mental resilience) but he'd have major guilt issues to deal with, especially towards Natasha, whom he actively tried to kill (plus there's that "Barton told me everything" thing...).

Then there's the Council aftermath. The deleted scenes indicate that Maria Hill ratted Clint's having been "compromised" out to the Council, so he'd be a convenient scape goat/fall guy for them to use to distract from their own bad decisions. But that won't work, because Maria (another deleted scene) kept the footage of the nuke order. So. Clint still works for SHIELD, but has to lay low for everyone to save face. Which will turn out to be a Good Thing.

Things have gotten a bit more complicated with Agents of SHIELD and Cap 2, plus there's that footage of Ultron out of Italy ... So now I feel like I should be writing a story in which Clint got sent around the planet, like Coulson's crowd, to locate "special people" -- like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, maybe? (Wearing the companion necklace to Natasha's, with an hour glass pendant?) Hmmm.

Anyway, since self-reccing is okay around here, the two stories in question -- both written when Coulson was still dead -- are Going to Ground (http://archiveofourown.org/works/520261) and The Skies Over Manhattan (http://archiveofourown.org/works/574373). I just added a final chapter to "Skies" which is a sort-of tie-in to AoS.

But I gotta say, once the Cap2 spoiler zone is reduced to nothing, I think I have a few ideas ...




Edited 2014-03-29 01:34 pm (UTC)

(Wearing the companion necklace to Natasha's, with an hour glass pendant?) Hmmm.

Oh, I *like* that idea. And I like the idea of him being an informal SHIELD adjunct, handling the odd/special things as they pop up.

His uniform (in the A2 footage) didn't have a SHIELD emblem on it, though, so maybe he's solo now, maybe to keep the WSC off their backs (though still tied informally to SHIELD or possibly just the Avengers.)

Yes, I noticed the absence of a SHIELD logo. He'd definitely be a crossover between the Avengers and SHIELD, no longer beholden to the WSC for authorization and direction.





Edited 2014-03-29 03:59 pm (UTC)

I'm just picturing him wherever he is at, shooting arrows, saving people, getting a text, ripping off the SHIELD badge, and continuing to shoot and save people lol.

Now I want that in a flashback, web episode or DVD extra or something!

Right?!?!?!

... or a fic? *Bats eyelashes seductively*

IDK, I feel like it would work better as a gif set, and I don't have that kind of skill.

Oh man! I LOVE that idea!! :D

I don't know if I have read this somewhere in a fic and I'm forgetting, but I feel like Clint got her the necklace with a note "SHIELD ordered me to put an arrow to your throat."

That is brilliant! Ah, I love it!

Oh wow. I love this also! :D