#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 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

[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.

[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.

[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?

[tmrlan]

Also, does it mean that Grant and Kara were re-united in the Void after their respective deaths?

[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?

[lizisthecoolest]

rewatching aos when leo fitz is your favorite character is insane. i think one of the reasons i hate ward so much is because of what he did to fitzsimmons, especially fitz, and he just like . . . expects everything to go back to normal??? as if he didn't try to kill them??? like, sir, you lied to them for many months about being a creepy, mentally unstable, neo-nazi terrorist and you just expect fitz to forgive you???? you must be delusional, babes.

[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!

[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 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

[shadowtoherlight]

Yall, my phone still auto-capitalizes “Daisy” 😭😭 good little phone. Keep that skyeward energy alive 🥹🥹

[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?

[worlds-most-dangerous-sandwich]

the way ward stans are literally like:

“noooo he’s not a nazi!! he just joined a nazi organization, that’s completely different! he was manipulated! oh… him restarting hydra on his own well after said manipulator was dead & gone? he was just in a silly goofy mood. not nazis!! just nazi supporters!! not the same at all 🥰”

… babes

[tmrlan]

You know what, does it mean that Grant Ward’s death (and let’s be honest, he was the only Breakout Character from the Agents of SHIELD) caused the AoS “timeline dieing due to losing its anchor”?

(As per rules established by Deadpool&Wolverine)

And does it mean that AoS timeline shortened from trillions of years to thousands?

Because that would be awesome

(Yes, I’m still bitter about #Grant Ward and #Kara Lynn Palamas )

Also #Deadpool and Wolverine ruled! It’s a pity that I haven’t watched and won’t be watching any other MCU movies 🤣

[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.