#anti grant Ward

[azurecanary]

I will never get over the team's utter contempt for Ward following his betrayal

May: Attacks him with a buzzsaw and nailgun and beats him within an inch of his life, and the only reason she lets him live is to save her anger for later

Daisy: Pulls the most badass double cross on him in SHIELD history. Tells him to kill himself, TWICE. Shoots him in the chest, and is jealous she didn't kill him.

Fitz: Tries, and almost succeeds, in suffocating Ward in his prison cell.

Simmons: Promises to kill him if she ever sees him again, and actually attempts to follow through. When met with his doppelganger, only reacts to him with sheer disgust.

Coulson: Calls him a deluded son of a bitch. Threatens to kill him, actually succeeds.

Icons, all around

[agentoffangirling]

I just wanna talk about Fitz and Ward for a second here, especially in 1x21

Fitz looked up to Ward as a brother, he was everything he wanted to be. The obvious one is when he saved Jemma, but also when he protected Fitz in 1x7. His respect and dedication to him only grew. To him, Ward could do no wrong

And so when I see people criticizing Fitz for not fully believing Skye when she said Ward was HYDRA, yeah, what did you think? He looked up to Ward the most, like I said, Ward was the pinnacle of humanity in his eyes. Everyone was coping with his betrayal in their own ways; his way was denial

He wasn't intending to be insensitive, he wasn't trying to blame Skye or claim she was wrong, he just couldn't believe it could ever be Ward based on his experiences. Many people would react a similar way, if someone they knew for such a long time turned out to be a wolf in the herd. It's just not possible

But to go back on 1x21, that relationship between Ward and Fitz truly hits the hardest. Fitz wants to believe so badly that he's good, that Garrett is making him do it. He keeps that faith right up till the end, where Ward begins to hit the buttons on the side panel. To see that look in his eyes, his panic when he cries out, "I know you care for us, Ward!"... it's truly hearbreaking. That's the look of a person who's endless hope was just shattered, and it hurts so so much

[myladyship]

Nothing else shocked me to my 13 year old core when I found out Grant Ward was Hydra!

That was my Judas!

[i-dont-know-nor-care-go-away]

Weirdly specific AOS headcannons

Lip balm edition

It's long af btw

Daisy is always losing them but usually just buys drug store chap stick. She likes to see what cool flavors she can get on missions. Jemma gifted her a really nice honey suckle bees wax one, and she keeps it in her room because she doesn't want to lose that one.

May has a single stick of chapstick, peppermint, and is the only one able to use one till the last bit without losing it. No one knows how she does it. It's gone through hell.

Jemma has the really expensive but eco-friendly beeswax kind, and she collects them religiously. She won't tell you how many she has but she know the exact number and has a little organizer and system.

Fitz has about 3 original burts bees scattered around his lab and room. He isn't allowed to touch Jemma' s collection anymore after he got too curious and a bit too drunk and took a bite out of one. Refuses to use Jemma's brand bc it's 'pretentious.'

Bobbi has one of those round eos ones because if it's too small she will lose it. She has one in each bag, and never goes anywhere without it. She despises mint lipbalms bc if she " wanted mint, there is toothpaste in the bathroom." There is a side eye from May when this is brought up. She also likes the Burt's Bees lip tints but she only uses them on special occasions. Somehow she lost her favorite lip balm....

Coulson uses the little tins of lip balm. He likes them because someone told him that's how captain America would have used lipbalm. May thinks it's adorable.

Elena likes to use lipstick but Jemma has convinced her to use the one Jemma picked out for her. She really likes the cinnamon scent. It makes her really happy because someone took the time to figure out what she likes.

Mack used to use either none or original drug store but the air in the shop is so damn dry. He had heard of Jemma's collection and asked for "whatever" because he didn't want to go out of base and buy one. She actually asked Elena about his cologne and what scents he likes. He got a really nice floral one, and he isn't ashamed he likes flowers. The tube looks very small in his hands though. Hunter made a jab at the flowers on the label and mack replied "At least I'm not crusty" Hunter decided to steal one of Bobbi's lip balms bc of this. He is "not crusty" anymore, according to him.

Hunter stole one of Bobbi's eos, and refuses to give it back or even admit it. He really likes the floral scent but he can't figure out which scent it is on his own. He can't ask because he once took the mickey out of Jemma's collection for being a " floral nightmare" in front of everyone. (She called him disheveled and said his skin was wrinkled and shrunken like a prune. She is very into skin care) He is now in too deep, as he discovered how mad Bobbi was that some "idiot must have stole (her) lipbalm, but who even steals a half used lip balm?"

Piper has a bad habit of chewing her lip, and just forgets to use lip balm. May told her to stop it because it was a really obvious tell. Jemma, being herself, gifts her a rapid repair extreme moisturizing one. Piper is extremely grateful. It also tastes bad which helped her break the habit.

Talbot thinks lip balm is for girls and sissies. He stated this when Coulson took out his tin of lip balm. Jemma did not like this. Jemma started on a rant about skin care and health. She took her lip ba to read the ingredients as Talbot called it a chemical scam from big pharma. The verbal sparring ended with Hunter walking in and saying "At least I'm not crusty" Talbot nearly threw the tube at him for that.

Ward uses his own ear wax.

[samanthaswishes]

Does it bother anyone else that it’s 2023 and there are still people who still see W*rd and D*ke being pushed as “good” relationships for Daisy?

You know the guy who was literally a nazi murderer that tried to manipulate her and the other guy that sold her into slavery then later made a very creepy and disgusting, over-sexualized vr game of her. That’s not even to mention that they both had very creepy obsessions with her. And that’s supposed to be seen as “cute”?

Or is it just me?

[competitivedust]

Uh oh there's more Nazi apologism in the agents of shield tag. Ward apologism actually but then they are the same thing right?

[moonlayl]

Can’t believe I had to read a standwithward post with my own two eyes in 2022. 

Why does everyone seem to forget that Ward was ONLY willing to ‘help out’ in the beginning of s2 on the condition that he would get to speak with Daisy, who at the time wanted nothing to do with him because he’d kidnapped her, restrained her, fired at her and attempted to kill several people she cared about? 

So many fans seem to conveniently forget that little part where it’s mentioned he spent 6 months refusing to cooperate until Daisy agreed to talk to him. 

That’s NOT the actions of a man who truly regretted what he did, but the actions of a man who wanted Daisy, after the other person he cared for (Garett) died. 

He didn’t ultimately help out, out of the goodness of his heart, but because it would get him exactly what he wanted.  

Yes, Ward ISN’T a cartoon villain, and there are many facets to his character, and he IS an interesting and complex character (at least before s3) but arguing that he was’t a real villain until s3 because the good guys treated him with distrust (after he didn’t do a single thing to earn that trust) is ridiculous and ignoring a lot of what happened to make him out to be the main victim of the situation. 

Was he influenced and manipulated by Garett? yes. 

Could he have become a great man if it weren’t for Hydra or Garett? probably. 

But did he also hurt and kill many people unapologetically, and lied and manipulated people, he claimed to care for in his own way? also true. 

Was the team wrong to not trust him after he lied and spied on them everyday that they knew him, and even attempted to kill most of them? hell no!

[skyefullofdaisies]

Ten years since season 1 aired and I’m being yelled at on TikTok by a person who is mad I called Ward a nazi. A comment I left on an edit back in 2021.

How is it a decade later and Ward stans are still this hard up that he isn’t universally loved in the fandom?

[azurecanary]

How Daisy had a perfectly level heart rate when she killed Donnie but it skyrocketed after talking to Ward encapsulated perfectly what he became for her

He was no longer a mentor, friend or confidante

He was now her abuser

[agentoffangirling]

I have a bone to pick with characters who cause problems then run off and use their backstories as an excuse for everything they do. HOWEVER, there is a difference between well-written ones and badly-written ones. Let's examine Grant Ward and Sylvie Laufeydottir (this is gonna be long, bear with me)

Ward, in case you're not familiar with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is a character who had a difficult upbringing. His parents adored his youngest brother and turned a blind eye to the abuse Ward faced under his older brother. He also was hurt by his parents, so safe to say he had a tragic backstory

Later on in his life, he was picked up by John Garrett, an undercover HYDRA agent. Garrett groomed Ward and manipulated him, and it wasn't long before Ward joined HYDRA as well

Now I am not defending Ward. He is an absolutely despicable character, he's literally a Nazi, he threw two characters into the ocean, became overally obsessed with one of the mcs when it was clear she didn't want him, and killed and kidnapped multiple people with little to no remorse. He also uses his backstory as an excuse for all this stuff, claiming he does it for "Skye", "Kara", "us". Grant Ward gets no sympathy from me

There's a notable moment in s2 where the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is forced to work with him again, and upon getting death stares from all of them, this conversation takes place:

Ward: "And I could stand here and explain again how my parents and brother left me vulnerable..."

May: "We all had our traumas, Ward. Didn't turn any of us into psychopaths."

...

Ward: "I mean, for a while there, we were a good team. Weren't we?"

Skye: "I'm still happy I shot you.

Simmons: "Yeah, me too."

Fitz: "Should've aimed for the face."

And the writers don't ever try to make it so Ward is justified in doing these things. Not just his actions, but also the claim that his backstory excuses it, because as you can see above, other characters point out that they had all been through their fair share of troubles, and they didn't turn out like him. They don't justify the shit they did because their life was hard. The writers do make it so that a watcher can sympathize with Ward, and they also make it very clear he is not correct in doing these things

He's also a very complex person in general. He has so many traits, some of them downright conflicting, but that's who he is. Tancheroen and the others show that very well, and almost everything he does is in-character. Ward is a very well-written bad character

Now we turn to Sylvie. Sylvie also had a difficult upbringing, but I'm not gonna be the one to compare whether or not hers was worse than Ward's. However, where we reach our first road block is that Sylvie has much less character traits than Ward. She's a lot simpler than him in terms of writing, but the creators act as though she's complex and conflicted when she's really not. That doesn't necessarily mean that she's a worse character. There's a lot the writers could do to improve on her or write her well. But they don't even try

Sylvie is not given anything new to do in season 2. Zilch. Nada. A big old goose egg. She could've been dealing with her conflicting feelings on killing He Who Remains, she could've picked up a new hobby or given a personal stake in all this Loom stuff. The writers could've written her so that she didn't know what she wanted since getting rid of HWO was her only task, and now that he's gone, she could go do what actually makes her happy. They had so many opportunities to expand upon her, but nope. She's just given a McDonald's uniform and ends up being the exact same person she was at the beginning of season 1. That's not growth. That's not anything

But hey, if they're not going to do anything with her, maybe they could try for a different angle in how others perceive her. Instead of always being seen as right, she could be seen as wrong in some instances. Fine, make her bitchy, but make it so that the characters call her out on it. Have the creator perception frame her as selfish and and rude. For example, instead of trying to justify her yelling at Mobius in episode 4, have Loki fire back. Say she held them up and only cares about herself in that fight. Say that for once, she should listen to others. Say that everyone has problems, yet they don't do her destructive actions and claim they're right. They didn't need to do the Grant Ward route on everything, but having a couple times where she is framed as him in AoS wouldn't be that bad

Sylvie is a badly-written bad character. Her lack of traits and staticness of arc make her come short compared to Ward, and the continued stubbornness of the creative team to always frame her as justified and right adds to this. I am not against tragic backstories, I am not against characters being bitchy, but I will always have a problem if they use said backstory as an excuse for everything they do

And if they do, then at least have the courtesy to write them well and for other characters to call them out

[hitchell-mope]

HAH!!!! Keep dreaming dry white.

[competitivedust]

Went looking through the "anti Jed Whedon" and "anti maurissa tancharoen" tag to see other people's post about how these two pushed the Fitzsimmons agenda at the detriment of other characters (especially Daisy and Mack) only to see fucking Ward apologism instead? I mean everyone is allowed to have opinions about a show and interact with it however they want but this "my poor white boy" thing needs to stop. The obsession this fandom has with supporting Nazi-adjacent characters is astonishing to me.

Edit: Ward is a straight up Nazi but the "Nazi-adjacent" thing is more for Fitz's benefit since he was temporarily a Nazi.

[istellar]

It's heartbreaking how Ward's entire life his body has been used as a weapon (among other things) for someone else's gain. For Garrett, for Christian and briefly for Lorelei. Even his corpse can't be left alone and is used as a meat puppet for an alien parasite. I mean, what the hell? His life is beyond depressing.

[tremorsmackenzie]

was rewatching the last few episodes of season 1 and got to feel the grant ward experience (tm) all over again. after finishing the finale, i kinda have to work it off, so here is a rant about everything that pisses me off about him.

he lied to everyone about everything from the beginning, killed so many good agents and friends and random bystanders, kidnapped skye so shed decrypt the harddrive, and still seriously thought he had a chance with her, after the people he works for literally almost killed her. he flirted with her during that kidnapping, he tried to get empathy from her while an agent he just killed was hidden in the supply closet with his blood ruining the linoleum. and then he tried to get her to feel sorry for him, because it was hard for him to make all those choices. those choices being to kill her friends and destroy the only family shes ever had. he still saw himself as the victim, despite being the worst most psychotic perpetrator he could ever possibly be. literally working for hydra and killing people just because his boss told him to. this one scene in the plane describes him perfectly, even before season 2 dove into these characteristics in detail. he is completely beyond saving.

one of the central mechanisms of his character is that he wants approval, and will do absolutely anything - anything - to get it. that ruthlessness was inside him already. garret didnt exactly manipulate him into becoming what he was. he took a dysfunctional juvenile, dumped him in the woods for 6 months, where he survived by raiding cabins and presumably killing their occupants all to impress garrett when he returned, and then he joined up with hydra for the same reason, and presumably that stayed his main motivation. and he cared so little for anything else that he continued to be willing to do anything, from murder to kidnapping to using other people to fuel his delusions to rescuing hive, an ancient inhuman hellbent on consuming earth just to "punish" shield for how they treated him.

and that desperation for approval came from the way his family and especially his parents were, and thats what may meant when she said that they all had trauma and it didnt turn any of them into psychopaths. his sad backstory explains why he is the way he is, it doesnt excuse it and it doesnt excuse the actions he takes in the present, at any point he couldve done any amount of self reflection, recognized what he is, and chosen to better himself, and instead he chose to keep blaming the rest of the world for his misdeeds, and thats on him.

yes, its tragic, he was groomed into the man he became. its not his fault that he is who he is. but he is that man, and its gone far beyond what garret pushed him to be. he chose to do all these terrible things and to keep serving him, to ignore every opportunity to even just stop and walk away, and he is making his own terrible choices even after the man who groomed him is gone. he is a twisted delusional sociopath, a murderer, who uses other people to support his narrative that actually hes some kind of hero and everything bad he does is someone elses fault, who desperately clings to the narrative that he is the victim and because of that hes allowed to do whatever, and who would rather burn the world before acknowledging any of that.

[azurecanary]

Absolutely obsessed with Daisy's attitude towards Deke in the last three seasons, cause same girl same

Same goes with her pure hatred of Ward in the back end of Season 1 and the following seasons

[agentoffangirling]

I don't care how much of a sad backstory a character has, if they use it as an excuse to hate and cause harm to others, any sympathy immediately goes out the window