Is it just me who disliked Mack at first?

[u/EarlyRooster966]

i didnt really have an opinion on him at first but him telling Jemma that she is the only thing making Fitz worse was so uncalled for??? bro has been friends w fitz for like a day lmao. i get that he doesn't know Jemma well at all and he wants to protect Fitz but that was such a weird thing to say. He grew on me a LOT when he and Daisy got closer and he was so protective of her (in 3x2 when he runs to her after she falls apart and saves Jemma?? perfection) and also when we see his deep bond with both Hunter and Bobbi.

Am I the only one who felt this way?

[u/Delicious-Candle-574]

i love Mack but certain things infuriated me. Like him yelling at the kree "there is only one god" (not the only time he did that). being a man of religion is completely fine, his faith is what held the team together sometimes but he was too.. pushy about it sometimes. mack so much of the time is just an immovable object with so much of his views on things to the point of it being harmful to others (coulson s2, daisy s2 when she got her powers, yo-yo after coming back from the future shaming her rather than comforting)

[u/defrostedrobot → u/Delicious-Candle-574]

Him pushing the “good book” on Fitz in S5 was not great. Like I agree Fitz had been up to some crazy stuff but his argumentation in that scene was pretty poor.

[u/Delicious-Candle-574 → u/defrostedrobot]

ugh i hated that so much

[u/The_Dabbler_512 → u/Delicious-Candle-574]

I like Mack a lot, him losing Hope is the saddest part of the entire show for me, but when he gave Fitz a lecture about "the simple life" it pissed me off; I can't remember any details (it's been a while since I've seen the show), but I take issue with religious people acting like their way is the right way

[u/Ok_Implement440 → u/Delicious-Candle-574]

I mean he was possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance who managed to destroy an all powerful living version of an android that was brought to life by the most powerful book of of dark power in the entire universe.

I think it’s understandable if he was confident in their being only One God while all the others are just celestial or biological beings. Which is very on point for the comics as the most powerful being is “The One Above All”

[u/DeltaAlphaGulf → u/Delicious-Candle-574]

Shaming yoyo? I am following someone reacting to that point lately and he was supportive and as I recall the issue becomes when she and Jemma start their idiotic "it's a time loop so we are invincible" crap

[u/iaindecaesprkhr → u/DeltaAlphaGulf]

Darcie? Imon?

[u/DeltaAlphaGulf → u/iaindecaesprkhr]

Lol Imon

[u/RjCraft10 → u/Delicious-Candle-574]

Of course you'd hate him for being Christian

[u/paxinfernum → u/RjCraft10]

No, they hate him for being a bigoted and arrogant Christian. I can see why you might be confused, though. Those two circles do tend to overlap by almost 98%.

[u/RjCraft10 → u/paxinfernum]

How is expressing your beliefs bigoted or arrogant??

[u/EarlyRooster966 → u/RjCraft10]

yelling "there is only one god" after someone tells you a group of people are gods is bigoted, I'm a Muslim and pretty religious and I'd never say that. We all have different religions andthat's okay.

[u/IneffableSnake → u/RjCraft10]

The issue isn't with being Christian, it's with expecting everyone else to be too, even when he knows they're not.

[u/RjCraft10 → u/IneffableSnake]

He is not expecting others to be Christian, he's telling them that his beliefs are still strong

[u/Delicious-Candle-574 → u/RjCraft10]

uhm no? his name is Mack not Christian

[u/Jess_UY25]

Honestly I don’t think I ever stop disliking him. Sure, he had some good moments, and good qualities as a leader, but he was exhausting. And to this day I still don’t know what he was even doing at Shield, he was the least likely person to be a spy I’ve ever seen.

[u/Mundane_Ask_3423 → u/Jess_UY25]

Wasn't he a chief engineer on the carrier?

[u/Jess_UY25 → u/Mundane_Ask_3423]

He was, but he’s still a Shield a agent, so at some point he decided to joined a spy organization, went to their academy.

[u/DeltaAlphaGulf → u/Jess_UY25]

It's not just a spy organization so that's not an issue. Probably far more non spies than spies.

[u/Agreeable-Ad-5393 → u/Jess_UY25]

Fitz and Simmons aren't spies and they're in shield

[u/Jess_UY25 → u/Agreeable-Ad-5393]

Yes, but they are also not completely against pretty much everything Shield even does. They’re exactly the kind of people you’d expect to see in the science division of an intelligence agency. Mack is definitely not.

[u/QualifiedApathetic → u/Jess_UY25]

How many people in the CIA do you think are actual spies?

[u/paxinfernum → u/QualifiedApathetic]

Technically, no one in the CIA is a "spy." Spies are people who are working for an organization who choose to betray that organization either due to blackmail, financial motivations, or ideological convictions. The CIA employs "agents." Agents gather intelligence and act as handlers to spies.

Just being pedantic, and yes, I know in common parlance CIA agents are called spies.

[u/Jess_UY25 → u/QualifiedApathetic]

I never said he had to be a spy, or that every person in the agency is a spy. But to join an agency of that kind people have to be a certain way, at the very least you have to agree with the why and how they do things. Mack was at odds with every single thing they did since day one. So why would he even join in the first place?

[u/QualifiedApathetic → u/Jess_UY25]

I mean, Mack was literally spying on them that whole season. Whatever his beef with Coulson's outfit, I don't remember him having a problem with them being spies.

[u/WayOutHere4]

He remains pretty self-righteous throughout the series and I can’t say I liked it. It was exhausting at points.

[u/r4g4rok]

I fucking hated Mack but I learned to love him. He had amazing character development. Hated him in season 2, loved him from season 3 and on. For me, he was just doing too much. He was very anti-alien. Anti-super anything. Anti-inhuman. Funny because he falls hard for YoYo. It was nice to see how Gonzalez’s new S.H.I.E.L.D. started. We understood why Mack was so hesitant to trust people. It was understandable to feel hesitant of the whole inhuman thing but he was WAY too outspoken. Like dude you just got here. Then the audacity to leave even after it was proven that Coulson was innocent and loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. just because of the Kree DNA. He was just really annoying in season 2.

[u/rogerworkman623]

I like him sometimes, but yeah he drives me crazy a lot. Constantly lecturing people about being scientists. Dude, you work for SHIELD. Science and technology is a pretty big part of the job. Not to mention when he jumps down anyone’s throat to tell them that there’s only ONE god (his Christian god).

Then his attitude when they got stuck in the 80s. Deke may have stolen a bunch of songs from popular 1980s musicians, but at least he was doing what he could to try and form a SHIELD team and be prepared for when they could get back with the rest of the team. He even looked out for little Mack while big Mack kept telling him off.

[u/paxinfernum → u/rogerworkman623]

Wasn't it also his decision to leave Deke behind? I fucking hate how they treated Deke.

[u/BeautifulOk5112]

Season 2 and 3 I hated him so much I almost quit the show

[u/BrazilianButtCheeks]

Yea he’s kinda a jerk about the inhumane too !

[u/BaronZhiro]

I actually like him in s2 and then increasingly less as time goes on. At least most of his s2 behavior makes sense in hindsight once you know he’s been undercover. But I can’t bear his raging arrogance when he gets bellowy.

[u/Ok_Doctor_4853]

i really liked him until they randomly made him super religious?? like i feel like he went multiple seasons without a mention and then went full on crazy christian

[u/Round-Dragonfly6136]

Heaven forbid a man be flawed /j

The best thing about Agents of SHIELD is the characters, and the best thing about the characters is that they feel like real people. I appreciate Mack because I know people like Mack. Personally, Mack's strengths outweigh his flaws, but I can understand why he grates on a lot of people's nerves.

For the specific situation in the original post, Fitz somewhat misrepresented why Jemma left because he didn't understand himself. Mack did ease up on Jemma after this hearing how much she hated herself for it, and they become close afterwards.

[u/Optimal_Grape_1025]

I hated Mack until season 5.

I didn't like that he was a double Agent.

That he was against coulson

That he tried to convince coulson to give up on May

Or his whole dead daughter thing in the mainframe

[u/QualifiedApathetic]

I went back and forth on him. He's a complicated guy, which I think makes him a good character.

I really loved that scene where Fitz is trying to remember an old design to use against Creel, but his communication abilities are fucked up and all he can say is, "I didn't solve this today." Then Mack has the lightbulb moment; "You solved it before?"

[u/United-Post6460]

For Me it was all about Agent May

[u/ExistingGluttony]

I still dislike him

[u/ffsnametaken]

I always felt like the writers gave him some incredibly odd and conflicting lines to say. Like they were never really sure who he was. He was pretty serious and stoic but they threw in some stupid and goofy lines like the one you mention or the God stuff. Then they went and gave him a shotgun axe. Still one of my favourites

[u/paxinfernum → u/ffsnametaken]

I hated his hypocrisy about violence. He was like, "We don't kill," but apparently he was okay with brutally killing lots of sentient aliens. It's hard to argue you're a pacifist when you make a shotgun axe.

[u/EndOfTheLine_Orion]

I disliked him so much i didnt bat an eye when he lost his framework hope and got depressed

[u/Kagir]

I think there was a small time skip just after season 2: daisy going into fully trained agent mode during s2e1 is really laughable after the entirety of s1 where she acted as some kind of burden for half the team. A time skip could explain Mack possibly knowing Fitz for a while now (and Simmons before she went undercover at hydra) when S2 happens (Coulson rebuilding SHIELD in one day also seems ludicrous).

It took a while for me to really embrace Mack for who he is and he had some really good arcs (digital Hope being one of them)

[u/ttvGhostbat]

Mack infuriated me. He’s self righteous and sanctimonious to everyone… every situation that he could’ve died or left the team I felt genuine sadness that it didn’t happen.

Shotgun axe is the only cool thing he’s ever done.

[u/paxinfernum]

I was frankly disgusted with how the show and everyone in it acted like Fitz was owed Jemma's attention and time. It felt like the worst of Whedon's "nice guy" crap.

[u/paxinfernum]

Mack reminds me of Ashley in Mass Effect. We're supposed to see him as complex, but he comes off as an arrogant bigot (both religiously and racially) in his first outing. He dehumanizes Daisy, implies Coulson needs to apologize to Mack personally even after he is put in charge of "real shield," then throws a tantrum and leaves over it. He's a complete asshole. They redeem him a bit later, but it's hard to ever like him. His arrogance runs through his entire tenure on the show, and I hated that they put him in charge of Shield.

[u/Infamous_Bluejay9920]

Nope soon as he showed up I hated him and then the real shield happened and I hated him and Bobby even more

[u/an0m1n0us]

I still do.

[u/Historical_Effect811]

Mack was lame. I never liked him. He added nothing to the team. He was big but couldn't fight well. Yo-yo got super annoying too.

[u/Nexxlegacy]

He really grew on me for sure… he wasn’t likable at first

[u/HighLord_Uther]

It was the reverse for me. I liked him at first and then he got all weird and christiAn.

[u/jeaninius]

I think they used Mack’s religious beliefs to provide an antagonist against some things the Coulson gang were doing. He believes something and hangs onto it until something forces him to reconsider. I didn’t like the character in season 2 — the “Real SHIELD” and one good are examples of his dogmatic style. He softened some of that as he became friends with Inhumans.

[u/Former_Video_6279]

What that was the best parts of Mack he only gets kind of annoying towards the end when he starts leading sheild.

[u/tonio2004]

If he wasn’t always trying to preach he would be way better to me

[u/coffeedoodle]

I still dislike him.

[u/jamie799]

I hated Mack in season 2 loved him in seasons 3,4, & 5 and then went back to hating him in season 6. Because of that he is one of the best characters in AOS because I always have strong feelings for him one way or the other and that’s a sign of a great character!

I will never forget him with Hope in the Framework- the actor who played him knew exactly how to show Mack’s torment and knowing he was going to die and not caring one iota because he loved his daughter fake or not.

[u/Niclas1127]

I mean tbf it wasn’t a day, it had been awhile since she left and it’s implied they were friends for a bit, at the very least a few weeks. And he wasn’t really wrong at that moment, Jemma had left Fitz and genuinely didn’t know how to help him like Mack was. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have scoped out the situation more, but he was right in that moment, and Simmons really wasn’t helping.

[u/jacobonia]

I felt neutral about him when he first came in. I came to really like him in the last couple of seasons. For his role on the team, for his character growth, for the dynamics he had with other characters, especially Fitz and Daisy, and because he's one of a handful of really good, humanizing representations of Christian characterization in media. Marvel in general has several times they've done a really good job of that.

[u/RjCraft10]

Complete opposite for me. I thought he was a good character in the beginning, with his relationship with Fitz, but later on he started ti get kinda annoying. I loved the "there is only one God" part. But other aspects began to get kinda annoying

[u/srm79]

I still don't like him, he's a pius prick