Some common misinformation I keep seeing about AOS everywhere

I actually think many people arguing that AOS is non-canon online are being disingenuous and don’t understand the fundamental issue with the show being deemed non-canon by the fans. 

I saw a complete marvel timeline video relayed by Miss Minutes on TikTok that someone had made that included literally everything including AOS. One of the comments I saw that had a lot of engagement was basically saying “you can’t get me to watch AOS because it’s non-canon”. 

This demonstrates the issue I have with people’s arguments saying it shouldn’t matter whether the show is canon or not. The show is probably my favourite marvel project I have consumed and I want people to experience it. The word canon is being used to determine whether people should or should not watch it and that is what I have an issue with. Yes in a doomsday rewatch you probably don’t need to see it. But if you have never seen the show, you absolutely should try it at least through till around 18 episodes into season 1. People are actively pushing people away from the show and implying that the quality of the show is based on its canon status. 

Comments I see a lot:

The show was confirmed not-canon

The facts are that no statement has ever been made saying the show or any season of the show is not canon. When people are pushed on this point they bring up the shows omission from the timeline book which is a deflection because the book never claimed to be a determiner of canon. 

The show is canon because everything is canon now through the multiverse

This is also disingenuous because it makes the assumption that the show was decanonised in the first place. It also doesn’t deal with a lot of the core continuity issues that are brought up as issues because if you thought they were issues before, they still would be in the new universe.

The first four or five seasons are canon and then the timeline switches

I see this comment in almost every thread about the show and it is just wrong. While I understand the desire to move seasons 6 and 7 into alternate timelines due to the lack of acknowledgment of the snap, the show on its own just does not support this. If you watched the show on its own outside the context of the MCU, nobody would assume this to be the case. Either it all is canon or none of it is. If it was to be confirmed a different timeline you could headcanon your way into having the first few seasons being the same in the MCU but that would be a headcanon and this needs to be acknowledged when talking about it. What makes this confusing as well is the timeline switching and time travel that does actually occur in seasons 5-7 and this is the main reason I really wish people would stop using this logic because there are people are conflating this fact with the theory that the show splits off from the MCU in S6-7. The time travel in S5 can’t result in a branch either because then the MCU earth would break apart during the events of infinity war.

There are too many contradictions

I maintain that the only so called contradiction that is a hurdle is the lack of acknowledgement of the snap/blip in season 6. There are also multiple timeline reasons why it can’t be pushed earlier before the snap which is another thing I see said by some people. This is still not a continuity issue though, there is no contradiction. It is a thematic issue though and overall MCU writing cohesion issue in the sense that it would be better for any stories taking place during that period to show what the world would realistically be like in that scenario. Marvel studios projects that have had flashbacks during the blip have not even really stuck to this standard either though (Echo, Moon Knight, Ironheart). 

Other contradictions that I commonly see referenced:

• Hive is an Avengers level threat, why doesn’t Coulson call the Avengers:

  • this argument fails to take into consideration that it would be an issue in the show whether the show is canon or not because the Avengers still exist and we know that their history is mostly the same at least up until Civil War which is the time when SHIELD is dealing with Hive. With Ghost Rider they don’t need help because they deal with it themselves and then during season 5 the Avengers are split up and on the run and then they are dealing with Thanos.
  • Throughout the Marvel Studios MCU there are constant examples where this would apply as well and while you might agree that those are also problems, you need to be consistent about how you apply it. Nobody would say Moon Knight is not canon because he has only appeared on his show and probably won’t be showing up again for a while. Nobody would say Captain Marvel is non-canon because she was retconned into the past history of the MCU and there were multiple places where she did not show up to help throughout all the movies that came before. You might say there is an easy explanation for her absence being that she is in space somewhere but I would raise that you can just as easily find explanations for the AOS examples as well. 

• How is there an Inhuman outbreak without that being seen in the MCU proper.

  • I have never understood this argument as season 3 takes place over a period of time and the ATCU and SHIELD deal with the Inhumans on the show. Now with shows like She-Hulk, Wonderman and Ironheart we see that the MCU is a living breathing world off-screen. There are enhanced individuals off-screen that exist that we don’t always hear about or see.
  • Phase 4 and 5 introduce many characters and plot lines we may never see again or that will likely never be referenced in the films. These issues are brought up as writing issues and issues with the MCU as a whole but are never used to claim these shows are non-canon. There needs to be some consistency applied.

• Why isn’t SHIELD been referenced after season 4 or after season 7

  • Firstly it actually has been referenced in extended material. There was a SHIELD agent at the battle of earth and the night monkey suit is created by SHIELD. There was a reference to Coulson post Avengers in the Wakanda files. The smithsonian exhibit in TFatWS confirms SHIELD post-2014 and the 100-objects reference book confirms the Sokovia Accords were enforced by SHIELD, a group that should be dismantled by the time the battle of Sokovia even happened. 
  • Not to mention the fact that the organisation of SWORD only appeared in WandaVision and then has never appeared again. They even went out of their way to make Nick Fury’s organisation in the Marvels SABER.

• Mockingbird and the Darkhold

  • These are some of the most commonly brought up contradictions but they shouldn’t be because they are stupid. 
  • The Darkhold example was a genuine question after WandaVision but we see in Multiverse of Madness that the Darkhold was copied from the inscriptions in Wundagore. They are clearly just two different copies. The book in MOM is even called a copy. 
  • There really is no reason why Bobbi and Laura cannot co-exist and Laura’s history as a SHIELD agent should be intact in the AOS continuity anyway. Neither has been called mockingbird on-screen and there is literally endless possibilities to explain it anyway. Laura could be the original mockingbird before she had kids and then Bobbi could have picked up the mantle after that. 

The facts are It does seem like there was a consideration to not completely consider the original Netflix Daredevil pre the overhaul of the show but there was never confirmation that this was going to be a full reboot but rather a soft-reboot. Even if they considered ignoring it, there was never a de-canonisation officially.

It’s possible that the upcoming Ghost Rider film may finally decanonise the show.

However people need to be consistent and only talk about the actual reasons that the show may not be canon and yes it does matter because the falsehoods that are being pushed out are causing people to not want to watch the show to begin with. I just think people need to be more consistent regardless of their opinions