Entry tags:
Ward :D
For the December posting meme I asked ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dirty_diana to talk about Ward, and that post is up now with some delightful meta on Ward as the hot mess that he is.
Something that was touched on in that post and my comment to it, that I was talking about tosovay a little while back too, is Ward in the rooftop scene at the end of season one.
I will never be over my love for that scene: Ward making the right choice, finally, and with a particular clarity of purpose, the way he just walks up there and ends it, especially satisfying after Harold openly dismissing him as a threat just moments earlier.
It's such a dramatic contrast to the first murder scene, which was very much in keeping with the pattern of his life so far. Harold acts; Ward reacts. He spends most of the season as a simmering cauldron of rage and misery under a tight and imperfect surface veneer of calm. He's never really in control - of himself, of his addictions, of his life. When he finally erupts at Harold in the stabbing scene, he's still not in control, it's just a different way of not being in control. And the fact that it literally changes nothing (Harold comes back, worse than before) thematically underscores that.
But in the scene on the roof, he is in control, maybe for the first time ever - he's mastered himself, he's on top of the situation (finally), and he's found something other than himself that's worth fighting for.
I really appreciate how much thematic weight this show gives to characters defeating and overcoming the people who belittle and abuse them. I particularly appreciate that it's developed in a way that makes it explicitly not a revenge fantasy; it's about overcoming your past and your abuse, not about hurting others. Ward's first attempt to kill Harold is a purely reactive act born of fury and resentment and pain, but in the end, when it finally "takes," he's not trying to hurt Harold or even to protect himself, but to save Danny. There are similar themes in Colleen freeing herself of Bakuto, though not quite as explicitly developed, but there are definite parallels there, especially with Colleen finally, successfully killing Bakuto in Defenders to protect Misty and Claire, in a similar way to Ward defending Danny here.
dirty_diana to talk about Ward, and that post is up now with some delightful meta on Ward as the hot mess that he is.Something that was touched on in that post and my comment to it, that I was talking about to
sovay a little while back too, is Ward in the rooftop scene at the end of season one. I will never be over my love for that scene: Ward making the right choice, finally, and with a particular clarity of purpose, the way he just walks up there and ends it, especially satisfying after Harold openly dismissing him as a threat just moments earlier.
It's such a dramatic contrast to the first murder scene, which was very much in keeping with the pattern of his life so far. Harold acts; Ward reacts. He spends most of the season as a simmering cauldron of rage and misery under a tight and imperfect surface veneer of calm. He's never really in control - of himself, of his addictions, of his life. When he finally erupts at Harold in the stabbing scene, he's still not in control, it's just a different way of not being in control. And the fact that it literally changes nothing (Harold comes back, worse than before) thematically underscores that.
But in the scene on the roof, he is in control, maybe for the first time ever - he's mastered himself, he's on top of the situation (finally), and he's found something other than himself that's worth fighting for.
I really appreciate how much thematic weight this show gives to characters defeating and overcoming the people who belittle and abuse them. I particularly appreciate that it's developed in a way that makes it explicitly not a revenge fantasy; it's about overcoming your past and your abuse, not about hurting others. Ward's first attempt to kill Harold is a purely reactive act born of fury and resentment and pain, but in the end, when it finally "takes," he's not trying to hurt Harold or even to protect himself, but to save Danny. There are similar themes in Colleen freeing herself of Bakuto, though not quite as explicitly developed, but there are definite parallels there, especially with Colleen finally, successfully killing Bakuto in Defenders to protect Misty and Claire, in a similar way to Ward defending Danny here.