AoS: we need to talk about Grant

[pocochina]

I'm going to hold off taking stock of S2 until after the midseason finale airs next week, but I don't see my take on Ward changing radically in one episode, so.

Comments

[noybusiness]

Very interesting analysis.

[pocochina]

Thanks.

[sunclouds33]

I love your Ward thoughts. I'm behind on S2 (but still spoiling myself). This is all super-interesting.

[pocochina]

Behind is probably a good way to be, with such a massive hiatus coming up.

And yeah, Ward is really interesting. I'm not sure I'd say he's my favorite character, but there's a lot of cool stuff going on with him.

[abigail_n]

I still haven't caught up with S2 so can't comment on the stuff that's happened there, but the first segment is very much in line with my thoughts on Ward based on S1. That his experiences are absolutely brainwashing, of a more mundane and thus less easily dispelled type than you usually get in the MCU, is something that I think S1 brings across very strongly. And as you say, it requires an actual willingness to engage with that fact - on his part and on the part of anyone trying to work with him - to break that conditioning

[noybusiness]

Good point.

[pocochina]

is there any reason to assume that Ward was Garrett's first attempt?....there could be unsuccessful attempts (or, more likely, the bodies of same) lying around somewhere, which is something else that I'd like to see SHIELD and Coulson confronted with.

Agreed. I think it's highly unlikely that Ward was his only project along these lines. I'd guess that a fair number of Garrett's recruits met with training accidents or ops that went wrong, or just disappeared in the woods before being accepted into the Academy.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Ward was the most successful project of Garrett's, rather than his only success. Hydra didn't just need Level 7s, it needed Level 1 & 2 security guards and such, too.

[abigail_n]

Something else I've been thinking of during the day: when S1 ended there were several commentators who observed that as much as he functions as a critique of SHIELD, Ward was also an excellent dismantling of toxic masculinity. He embodies a lot of the traits that you see in "manly" heroes - tough, taciturn (often to the point of brusqueness), unemotional. When you think about it, he sends up a ton of red flags in his behavior long before he starts actually acting evil, behavior that should indicate that he is, at best, seriously emotionally damaged (which suggests that he's not playing nearly as much of a role as he or the other characters believe). But the rest of the team take all of these red flags as signs of his heroism (and the audience is encouraged to do the same) because that's how a hero behaves, right? (Interestingly, in the one moment where he's emotionally open with a member of the team - when he urges Fitz to act on his feelings for Simmons - his behavior is dismissed as weird and abnormal

[pocochina]

I've seen a bit of really interesting conversation along those lines as well. And I think that even that dovetails with the critique of SHIELD: after all, everything about the role he's playing is tailored to be what's useful to and encouraged by SHIELD.

And yes, the masculine self-construct has IMO become a more dynamic part of his storyline in S2 in a lot of ways. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

[lynnenne]

It's funny how I never cared about Ward at all, until he was revealed as a double-agent. He's so much more interesting now! Great analysis.

[pocochina]

It does make him more interesting. I was spoiled before I started the show so I knew to be paying attention to him in that way, and I think it made the character work for me.

[noybusiness]

I never found him boring, but he got very interesting. I can't think of another character on TV that was introduced and then revealed/changed quite the way he was.