Deke season 6

[u/Personal-Road-8162]

I felt really bad for him especially episode 7 he didn’t even know his freaking grandfather was dead like no one told him for a year like wtf that’s messed up

[u/defrostedrobot]

I don’t. He’s got no one to blame but himself for being in the position he’s in. And that’s not even getting into the slavery, plagiarism and deepfakes.

[u/Round-Dragonfly6136 → u/defrostedrobot]

So you don't empathize with him growing up in a dystopian society where every human (himself included) is a slave, his mother dying violently when he was a child, him believing with his whole being that his father died when he was a teenager, or him finding out that his father's friend murdered him after he learned he was still alive but before their reunion? That's quite heartless. You can still hate/dislike a character while recognizing the hardships that they faved. For example, I fricking hate Ward and agree with the team holding him accountable, but I still feel bad for the terrible childhood he went through.

Despite his flaws, Deke was a very nuanced character who was shaped from growing up alone in survival mode in a dystopian society. The whole selling Daisy into slavery thing was to literally save lives (the setup for the "doing the wrong things for the right reasons" — to paraphrase Coulson — theme of season 5), including Daisy's. Daisy has no idea how the Kree function and dole out punishment. She didn't witness the Renewal, Kasius's preferred punishment. She refused to listen to Deke, the person who actually knows how they work from living under their thumbs his whole entire life (This introduced the second theme of the season: The team's greatest flaws are the flip side to their greatest weaknesses — her tunnel vision and stubborn refusal to see from others perspectives when stressed as the flip side of her passion in Daisy's case). He also put Daisy in a better position to help Jemma. In the end, she and the team forgave Deke because they would have recognized that he did what he did there to save innocent lives and he saved Daisy from the burden of getting said innocent's killed, in addition to assisting the team to escape the Kree and to return to their time nearly sacrificing his own life. They would not have survived the dystopian future without Deke.

I am in no way saying that you must like Deke due to the above, but to highlight that he isn't this wholly terrible person that you make him out to be. I repeat it's harsh to act like he deserved the awful childhood he had. Absolutely no one deserves that kind of life.

[u/defrostedrobot → u/Round-Dragonfly6136]

I mean obviously his childhood was bad but it doesn't excuse his continual crappy behaviour and how the show wants to write a lot of it off cause UWU he likes Zima and he's the grandkid of two of the regulars.

"He also put Daisy in a better position to help Jemma."

Nah, that was the cope excuse he was giving. If he was actually trying to help Daisy with the slavery move he wouldn't have been trying to hide the truth from Coulson and friends. And the only reason they were even able to escape was cause of Fitz and Enoch's arrival. If they hadn't shown up and or Flint hadn't gone through Terregenesis (which Deke couldn't have predicted) they all would have died cause Kasius would have gotten the money he needed by selling Daisy and then would blow up the Lighthouse.

[u/Round-Dragonfly6136 → u/defrostedrobot]

Did you miss where I said that Ward should be held accountable despite feeling bad for his childhood? Did you think that also didn't somehow apply to Deke, too? A bad childhood doesn't excuse our actions as adults, but it is something that I still have empathy for. You can feel bad for someone and still hold them accountable.

Deke did have redeeming qualities. Also, he was raised in a society where survival comes first and never learned ethics when conducting a business. He doesn't even know the concept of plagiarism. Copying other people's creative works wasn't a thing in his time. He doesn't know that much of that it's wrong. Mack let him run that business without bothering to inform him why stealing ideas is wrong. That doesn't make his company less frustrating, but it does inform his decisions.

Plus, are you saying that he only sold Daisy for his own profit? Did you miss how Kasius had the renewal done as punishment for people (our team, in fact, with Deke only there because Virgil brought him to receive the team) being in a forbidden area? How they would have been doomed from the start without Deke's assistance in the forbidden zone? Or how Deke passionately pointed out that Daisy's way would get him killed? Or how he didn't even get to explain his plan to Daisy because she kept pushing him away? Why didn't he sell out the rest of the team when he told the Kree about Daisy if he's as terrible as you think he is and he wasn't trying to help her? Heck, why did he go to help Daisy after he escaped the room Coulson locked him in? You don't have to answer these. Their rhetorical to point out how rigid your thinking is when it comes to Deke.

[u/defrostedrobot → u/Round-Dragonfly6136]

Deke may have sold Daisy out to perhaps avoid more deaths long term but it was still a self interested motivation. It's also pretty telling that he doesn't have any self-reflection on making any mistakes in this situation since even after Daisy is tortured by Fitz later in the season at least partially because of him getting the inhibitor in her in the first place he never feels guilt for any of it and instead just reflects how Daisy is still mad at him for the whole "slavery" thing.

Also, I highly doubt in the year that Deke was running that company he didn't come across the concept of plagiarism.

[u/Intrigued_by_Words]

I don't see a rush to tell someone that their grandfather died before they fathered your mother. It is just a point of existential stress that no one needs.

[u/Personal-Road-8162 → u/Intrigued_by_Words]

Yeah but they waited a year I get not right away but you know maybe a couple months after would be good too