| “ | Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats and keep your seat belts fastened. You may experience some turbulence coming up. Don't be alarmed. That's just your pilot diving to equalize cabin pressure before you freeze to death. Oh, and, uh...from all of us here at HYDRA, thanks for flying the friendly skies. | „ |
| ~ Ward tells plane passengers over the intercom before jumping out. |
| “ | I'm not looking for mercy or absolution. I just want you to know, I've been where you are right now. Filled with rage, wanting revenge...I chose HYDRA for petty, personal, selfish reasons...for a father figure, for vengeance...for closure. But what I saw today gave my life meaning. For the first time ever, I have a sense of satisfaction that I never experienced when I was seeking revenge. Everyone had this place wrong. It isn't death...it's a new beginning. Malick was right. This is all meant to be. And the fact that you followed me here, that we're in this together, that just confirms the fact that I am part of a grand plan. I see that now. | „ |
| ~ Ward's final monologue to Phil Coulson. |
0Grant Ward is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Daniel Whitehall) of the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Initially appearing as a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. black ops specialist, Ward was revealed to be a sadistic, manipulative, delusional and borderline sociopathic double agent of HYDRA before eventually rising to become one of the organization's remaining leaders. He is also considered the most personal and one of the most dangerous adversaries of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from his old team, as well as being the arch-nemesis of both their leader Phil Coulson, and his former love interest Daisy Johnson.
He was portrayed by Brett Dalton.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Although he had many redeemable qualities in the first two seasons, such as deeply loving Skye, being genuinely affable to his teammates, and having standards against the actions of John Garrett and Daniel Whitehall, this gets subverted in Season 3 when he ditches them to become a vile villain in his own right.
- Despite the MCU's high Heinous Standards, Ward still stands out due to a lack of resources (especially when compared to other members of HYDRA since he didn't even lead them until the end of Season 2) on top of having the most personal relationship with this show's main protagonists as they all have a just reason to want him dead.
Past[]
- He stole a car to go to his house and burn it down with his family inside.
- He killed a deer (although he did this for food).
- Killed his own dog Buddy just to prove to himself and Garrett that attachments are a weakness (even though he was extremely remorseful over this and made a distraction for Buddy first, before shooting him).
Season 1[]
- It's very strongly implied that he tried to kill May after already being released from Lorelei's control.
- Killed Thomas Nash, a paralyzed old man set up to die as a decoy for the Clairvoyant.
- Killed Victoria Hand and two other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to rescue John Garrett.
- Alongside Garrett, he raided S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prison called the Fridge, stealing dangerous weapons while also freeing many dangerous inmates without caring what damage they could bring later on.
- Killed Eric Koenig in an attempt to prevent him from revealing to Skye his alliance with HYDRA, which failed when Skye found Eric's corpse.
- When Skye called the police to arrest them, Ward resisted and attacked the police, even shooting 2 of them when Skye tried to escape from him.
- Although Deathlok stopped his heart on Garrett's orders, this was ultimately not interpreted sympathetically.
- He made fun of María Hill because Fury made her his second in command and even compared her to Romanoff.
- He kidnapped Fitz and Simmons when they were making a plan to take the plane.
- Dropped Fitz and Simmons into the ocean under Garrett's orders, forcing Fitz to nearly sacrifice himself to save Simmons when they're underwater.
- She tried to persuade Skye to leave Zellen, saying that she couldn't kill him because she couldn't bring herself to kill him.
- He fought against May and in the process made fun of her and the relationship they had.
Season 2[]
- After escaping from prison, Ward used a dead man's switch, which contains enough C4 to take down an entire city block, to threaten to kill a busload of people (which includes a mother and her young son) during his first meeting with Bobbi. He then kills a bar full of HYDRA agents while turning Sunil Bakshi into S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Once he forced Christian to admit that he hated Thomas and pushed Ward to abuse him, Grant quickly killed him and their parents, before correcting it to be murder-suicide (although to be fair they all deserved it).
- While this was done out of a twisted care for her he influenced Kara into becoming a full-blown villain after freeing her from her mind control with him actively pursuing her into a path of brutal revenge for his twisted idea of "closure".
- He kills the creator of Kara's photostatic veils to keep him from talking, even after he did what was asked of him.
- While he does agree to team up with Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. against HYDRA, it is purely for pragmatic reasons so he and Kara can get to Bobbi Morse and capture her.
- Alongside Kara, he brutally tortured Bobbi by pushing needles under her fingernails and then breaking her leg after she tried to escape, leaving her in a room with a rifle rigged to shoot whoever opens the door. She takes a bullet in her shoulder to save Hunter, her ex-husband.
Season 3[]
- Kidnapped and tortured Werner von Strucker while testing his worthiness to HYDRA.
- Was going to use the new supply of weapons and gasoline from Hunter to cause mayhem in the streets.
- Ordered Werner to kill Andrew Garner just to spite May, and then put a hit on Werner for failing.
- Crashed a plane full of innocents on his way to confront Gideon Malick in Germany.
- Tortured Andrew with mustard gas just to spite May, causing him to turn back into Lash.
- Shot Coulson's girlfriend, Rosalind Price, in the neck right in front of him, before sadistically taunting Coulson over his loss.
- While he promised to genuinely never hurt Simmons at first, this all changed completely after realizing that his younger brother Thomas did not feel the same way about him and in fact aided Coulson in finding his location. He brutally tortured Simmons, just to force Fitz to build a portal on Maveth, subverting any care he ever had for her and destroying any shreds of his remaining sanity.
- His death is completely well-deserved and not played for personal sympathy due to his depraved crimes (especially towards former friends and their loved ones).
- He ultimately managed to free Hive from Maveth, making Ward indirectly responsible for everything Hive did later on.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Overall, he's tragic. After being physically and emotionally abused by his parents and older brother, Ward was adopted and groomed into a living weapon by John Garrett, who made him fend for himself in the woods for several months before ordering him to shoot his own dog. He knows deep down that he doesn't deserve forgiveness but can't go back because his mindless villainy is all he truly knows, and he became suicidal due to his constant failures to find any real pleasures or a purpose in life, making him insecure as well. He also clearly doesn't kill for fun, but mainly because he feels too much of himself due to his past tragedies. The Framework in Season 4 goes out of its way to show that he would've turned out differently had he simply been mentored by someone who wasn't a sociopathic monster like Garrett, and even the protagonists come to regret their past mistreatment of him because of it.
- With that said, however, the tragedy is honestly very minor since the series makes it clear multiple times that Ward's past traumas don't excuse his actions because of his hypocritical tendency to deflect blame for his own faults onto others, and Thomas even tells Grant to his face that he ultimately became worse than Christian and their parents and Christian himself points out that while he and his parents were terrible, it was Grant who chose to do his atrocities, not them. While Coulson and Daisy do at least understand why Ward turned out the way he did after leaving the Framework, they still don't exactly forgive his actions. Not to mention he was given a shot at redemption many times but shot it down every time.
- He genuinely loves his girlfriend Kara and younger brother Thomas, wanting to give the former closure for getting ratted out by her own team and having been homicidally overprotective of the latter since childhood, even threatening to cut Fitz from head to toe when Coulson kidnaps him in Season 3. Although Ward blames S.H.I.E.L.D. for Kara's death rather than himself, he's still absolutely crushed upon the sight of it and seeks vengeance for S.H.I.E.L.D. attacking their base when it happened, as well as May tricking him into killing her. Coulson even points out in-universe that they're the only two people left in the world that Ward cares about.
- He felt remorse for killing his dog Buddy under Garrett's orders, even calling the former "better than human" for being "smart, loyal and trustworthy". He's still visibly broken up about doing so in the present as he tearfully remembers the event while dropping Fitz Simmons into the ocean (and also later when Kara discusses the event while torturing Bobbi), and unlike most of his other actions, nothing confirmative subverts Ward's shame in killing Buddy. Also, Hive (who can interact with memories in a host) said Ward actually wished to die, and his bloodlust made him more depressed over time, implying he had some remorse for his crimes deep down.
External Links[]
- Grant Ward on the Villains Wiki.
- Grant Ward on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki.
- Grant Ward on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.
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 Near Pure Evils
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 Near Pure Evils
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Grant Ward | Aida | Nathaniel Malick | ||