Amph Agents of SHIELD Discussion Thread (and Slingshot)

AoS is gonna get a 22 ep season, with a longer break in between the fall and spring stuff, however A) those episodes will run basically in a single uninterrupted run and B) We've got "Agent Carter" taking over the AoS timeslot for about 2 months in between the AoS spring/fall run. So basically, we could be looking at a solid consistent 7 months of unbroken Marvel TV on ABC!

 

DarthIntegral -- MODOK HAS PREPARED FOR ALL CONTINGENCIES!!!

 

I love that Clark clearly enjoys playing Coulson; it comes across very well in his performance. The scenes he had with Sam Jackson in the finale were pure "geek bliss".

 

I'm still pissed with what they did with Ward. Just came out of nowhere, and wrecked a likeable character for no good reason. But yeah, I think I'd be even more pissed if the turned around yet again and tried to redeem him.

 

Ward can still be a series regular if they keep him as the main antagonist of the season, which could be really cool. I'm hoping there's no redemption for Ward, which would be borderline impossible to pull off anyway since he straight up murdered a lot of people (nor do I see the showrunners doing that, they seem to realize the majority of viewers actually liked the Ward reveal better). Tripplet can/should be the "new Ward" and Ward can be the new Garret.

 

"Likeable" character?

 

The only thing that came out of nowhere was the sudden upswing in show quality.

 

Ward didn't become interesting until his turn was revealed. Everything before that was just "blah".

 

I actually started liking Ward when he started banging Agent May, but still had a thing for Skye.

 

^I read that as Aunt May, and for a moment I thought I'd missed a really awkward Spider-Man tie-in.

 

Eh, troubled past and evil mentor...sure whatever. But Ward's experience with S.H.I.E.L.D. really should have given him plenty of opportunity to rethink his allegiance.I mean, this guy was basically the epitome of a paragon-hero figure...and you don't get to be like that unless you really believe in what you're doing. Which is why I think making him into a villain just feels contrived.

 

I see your point of view, but you have to think this in terms of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe where there were Hydra sleeper agents everywhere. Thus, it would be logical to think there was a Hydra sleeper agent in Coulson's ranks.

 

Ward didn't really believe in what he was doing other than what he did for Garrett. He started to question his loyalties, but he continued to serve HYDRA and Garrett out of loyalty to him. He was hardly a paragon of a hero figure like Steve Rogers. Hell, even Mike Peterson proved that he was more of a good guy than Ward.

 

Jumping out of a plane without hesitation to save Simmons is about as heroic as it gets, and I'm sure I could come up with more examples if I bothered to look. Sure, you could say "it was part of the act", but we didn't think that at the time now did we? If the writers hadn't decided to turn Ward into a bad guy, we wouldn't think to attribute any cynical motives to his heroic actions. It's not that I'm against having a character being revealed as a mole, but I feel like with Ward the writers just tugged us along so far in the "this guy is a hero" direction and then the backstab came out of absolutely nowhere. Fitz ends up being extremely distraught over the revelation that Ward was a Hydra agent and it seems like he blames fate, the universe, or the magical hand of destiny for what happened...well I'm sitting up here as part of the audience and I know there is someone to blame: the writers!

 

Plus saving Jemma further entrenched him as a integral, indispensable part of Coulson's team. Which is what Garrett and HYDRA wanted.

 

Ward was probably planned out to be a HYDRA agent early on. The actors didn't know what was going on in "The Winter Soldier", but the Whedons definitely knew. And because the actors didn't know, this allowed them to play the characters as honestly as possible to the scripts that they were handed and the directions they were given.

 

Ward is a Hydra Agent with a heart. He didn't kill the dog. At least I don't remember him killing the dog.

 

Well it certainly wasn't vague whether he killed the dozen or so SHIELD agents and police...

 

Well yeah but having a hard time killing people he knows and maybe not killing the dog doesn't change the fact he's an evil murdering super nazi.