Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-112155-20151209000111/@comment-4427410-20151217220751

Bratpack wrote: Someone wrote that Ward was the best villain in the MCU. Was that because he was the most developed? I think Kilgrave, Loki, and Fisk were better, because, in my thoughts, villains are not "villains" in their own eyes. Each of these individuals thought they were "good" and their stories were told to make the viewer wonder the possibilities of redemption. I NEVER, NEVER thought Ward as good or redeemable. Towards the end, he became practically insane. Why kill Price? Why want Coulson dead; he was not a part of the Palamas fiasco...

I never regarded Ward as the best MCU villain, due to the fact that I was not that impressed by Dalton's performance. I'm not saying that he is a bad actor. He is a pretty decent performer. But he was never really hot stuff, as far as acting goes. I think Mutant Enemy may have overrated him just a bit too much. But I thought he was at his most effective as John Garrett's top minion in late Season One. When Season Two came along, Dalton started hamming it up in his performance. At first it seemed he was impersonating Julian McMahon. The more verbose Ward's character became, the more Dalton seemed as if he was copying Bill Paxton's portrayal of John Garrett. It was not working for me. To make matters worse, the writing for Ward's character during Seasons Two and Three became increasingly contrived. It seemed as if Mutant Enemy was resorting to desperate ways to keep Dalton on the show and Ward alive. He should have been killed off at the end of Season One.