#otp: another time...maybe

[teruel-a-witch]

two sides of the same coin

I was just thinking in terms of background Skye and Ward have more in common than we thought. The whole lonely childhood, not having anyone who loved them, protected them, not feeling wanted, they both ended up being little delinquents (we don't know if Skye was ever in juvie but she obviously wasn't on the straight and narrow path with living off grid and all). They are both survivors. The big difference is who pulled them out of that life (Coulson for Skye and Garrett for Ward) and their coping mechanisms. Everything we know now puts even more meaning into their conversation in 'The Well' when he asked her 'Does everything just...roll of your back?' It wasn't just about this one instance, it was about all of their lives. He saw that in her, the lonely kid, the perpetually unwanted, not the SHIELD!Ward, but the real Grant Ward, he found a kindred soul in her on the bus. The only one who had even remotely same experience, not the same, remotely same. Who went through darkness and hell, but didn't let it squash her light. He wanted to know how she did it. Because he couldn't, he let the darkness swallow him.

This is why they are two sides of the coin, like SHIELD and HYDRA, they show two different outcomes of screwed up childhood, depending on who gets to you first, and what kind of person you are. There are people, like Skye, that find the light within themselves, and there are people, like Ward, who need to find the light in others, it doesn't mean they are not strong, but they need inspiration/someone to fight for or against. Maybe he at some point thought that he found the light in Garrett, because he was the first to offer Grant a lifeline, and we know how wrong he was to trust Garrett, but he didn't know. Skye was lucky to meet Coulson first, and later learn that SHIELD had been looking out for her her entire life, Ward didn't even have that.

Important to point out that Skye is not all light, though. They both started out as traitors, let's remember. Skye's betrayal was revealed sooner (and who knows how long it would have taken had they not run into Miles, hmm? she did not come clean of her own volition) which is partly why it had lesser consequences but still got a lot of people killed. All because she trusted the wrong person. In a way Miles was Skye's Garrett, except he actually cared about her, just not more than about his own gain. The longer you maintain the lie, the bigger consequences. The potential impact of Ward's lie grew with time, but just like Skye did not infiltrate SHIELD because of ideology (it was to find her origins), neither did Ward.

Just seeing all the similarities in the origin stories makes me even more sure that these two characters were specifically crafted for each other. They are like yin/yang of this story. 'two sides of the coin, that's no longer currency', it makes the lines blurry, which means you can choose sides. SHIELD doesn't exist in the form it used to, neither does HYDRA, which means on the ruins everyone can build something new for themselves, a fresh start.

We know that Ward has a lot to make up for and it will take time but it's so obvious that the show is not even remotely done with our ship, I think Chloe was onto something, I used to think it's a bit of an exaggeration/wishful thinking, but after everything I am ready to subscribe under the notion that Skye and Ward are soulmates. And they are going to have one hell of a journey. I am for one 100% along for the ride.

[teruel-a-witch]

I have to say I am glad Ward now knows what his life means to Garrett. Which is to say fucking nothing. And he has his words about "following orders" and "nothing personal" thrown at him by Mike,too. Good. Skye HATED him at that moment, but she still couldn't let him die. Garrett will discard you like yesterday's jam in a pinch. Stuff like this makes you rethink things. And Ward better think hard.

[teruel-a-witch]

Literally all there's to be said about people who post hate in skyeward tag or attack skyewardees' askboxes

[teruel-a-witch]

'I am not a good man, Skye' - 'Yes, you are'.

The way he just comes undone at her words and desperately brings her face to his trying to pour all he's got into this kiss, just the effect her words had on him, makes me think he's never been told that, abusers will chip away at your self-esteem, they will make you believe you deserve all the bad things they do to you, you believe because it's usually people you trust implicitly and maybe even look up to. But here's Skye, who is fundamentally GOOD, someone he holds in SUCH high regard, and despite learning the truth about his brothers, she still thinks he's good, that it wasn't his fault, she takes some of that weight off his shoulders, no wonder it makes him feel.all. the. things. This was anything but a calculated moment. It was utterly and devastatingly real. :')

[teruel-a-witch]

OH MY GOD DANI AND DAN THIS IS NOT A DRILL THIS IS NOT A DRILL OH MY GP AJDGASJEHGAWDHGA I REPEAT THIS SI NOT A DRILL. WHEN CHLOE SAOD WE'D LOSE OR MINDS SHE UNDERESTEIOMATED THE EXTENT OF OUR SHIPPING ASDAJGVD WHAT HOW WHY I CANNOT WAIT 48 HOURS NOW WASDJ

[teruel-a-witch]

'Swinging and missing, Ward'

'It's great to see you. Better.'

He said that right after she teased him, like you can tell he is so happy she is teasing him again, because when she was lying there lifeless he had thought she would never tease him again, he would never see that cheeky smile light up her beautiful face, so when it happens he is just so happy he drops their banter and has one of the rare genuine moments.

[teruel-a-witch]

What are your thoughts on mayward? Do you think this means skyeward has sunk? Xx

I’m pretty sure I just wrote a whole essay on why Skyeward has not sunk but ok, I’ll say it again

As for Mayward, first Disclaimer: If you are a Mayward shipper, do not read this post. I am a hardcore Skyeward shipper and my opinion is biased toward my ship. And I’m only talking about a ship I do not ship publicly because I was asked. I would never intentionally spread hate, so I will not tag it with anything Mayward related and if you stumbled on it by browsing our tag it’s not my fault. I am not looking for conflict, I just want to peacefully live in my own corner of fandom. Now onto the topic.

As much as I disapprove of the dalliance, I am not threatened by it in the least.  And the only reason I disapprove is that I don’t like when things get messy in a close-nit group of characters. But overall it’s not even a setback for our ship. It’s early in the show, it’s perfectly normal for our ship to hook up with other people (I just wish it weren’t people from the main cast but whatever). The only reason The Miles incident was a setback, was because Skye lied to the team, essentially betrayed their trust, it was not because she had a secret boyfriend. She did not lead Ward on because they were not involved nor on the way to being involved, that was not what their relationship was about. Ward was not upset with Skye because she had a boyfriend, yes he was not-so-secretly jealous, probably without even realising it, but the reason he was so HURT, was because he placed his trust into her, he VOUCHED for her (“I believe her, sir”) and she made him feel like a fool for trusting her so completely even despite his earlier reservations. Knowing how “well” Ward deals with betrayal, it’s obvious why that was such a major setback in their relationship and why it’s taking him so long to get back to that whole “compliment and a smile stage”.

The whole Mayward thing, it’s different, they clearly have a no-strings attached situation, it’s completely utilitarian. They are far too similar to ever have anything deeper develop between them. The only repercussions will come from them keeping it secret. In a such a small group of people who spend so much time cooped up together in a limited work space, others just simply might get offended by them keeping something like that a secret. (I’m mostly going by my experience with Community but I think it’s accurate)

Skye mostly likely will feel hurt, but it’s not like she has a claim on Ward or anything like that, and any jealousy she feels might be more irrational knee-jerk reaction. Above all I think she’ll just be weirded out and slightly disgusted, but it’s not a “he chose X over me” because she was not hitting on him in the bar, she was not. He refused to open up to her fully, he didn’t turn her down romantically. That was not on the table. They are not on that stage yet. I am pretty sure the whole Mayward thing is no more than a blip on the radar of our ship. May and Ward have zero visible chemistry, and if the writers wanted people to invest in that relationship, they would have shown them kissing, at least, but they did not.

And if you saw the latest episode, in the grand scheme of things their hook up didn’t matter at all. Judging by Skye’s “she needs to get laid” comment, Ward clearly isn’t what May needs, she needs Coulson and Skye to bring her out of her shell. Honestly, nothing to worry about. If two characters can keep it truly casual, there is no chance of deeper feelings there. On the contrary, if Skye and Ward hooked up they would not be able to keep it casual, and I think Ward knows this, because she affects him so powerfully already. She would be the real deal. Of course he’s not ready for something like that.

If it goes on it will just be annoying but nothing major. The only way I can see it being a major setback is if Ward and Skye have actual romantic moments like almost kissing and stuff before he breaks it off with May, then Skye will have ground to be scorned. But I have more faith in the writers than that I don’t think they are gonna make this show into a soap opera. But even if they do this, Skyeward is still gonna be the show’s OTP, well, the second OTP after their team being OT6.

[teruel-a-witch]

Do you think skyeward will happen? I'm really sad with all their setbacks :(

I can’t promise you with 100% certainty because I can’t tell the future. Nor do I write for the show. BUT what I can tell you, is that even objectively, from the pilot, they have been set up as basically the main romantic ship of the show. You know the torturous angsty will they/won’t they one almost every show has. (while FitzSimmons is the fluffy one until someone dies horribly, but we’ll worry about that if we get that far anyway).

I have seen many tv-shows and have shipped many a ship. And I can tell the difference between accidental ships that become popular because actors have unforeseen chemistry (like my Community OTP Jeff/Annie) and a ship that was set up specifically from the beginning by the writers. Skyeward is no accident. They basically built those two characters to complete each other.

They are the opposites on the surface but they also have similarities and they just really connect to each other on a deep human level. Plus, they chose actors that have very obvious hot chemistry. Like even in the pilot, when Ward just got into Skye’s personal space to intimidate her but she didn’t back down and pushed back, I felt the “whoa, chemistry”, and I didn’t even start shipping them then. (I’d say that happened in episode 2.)And it’s no possible to write off their relationship as just between friends/members of one team because they specifically gave them moments of textbook UST.

Plus, come on, they had Skye’s actual (ex)boy-friend on the show and through the whole episode the non-so-subtle parallels between Miles and Ward and Skye/Miles and Skye/Ward were like a leitmotif, srsly. (I think on the bigger scale Miles was a symbol of her past and Ward a symbol of the new chapter of her life and her future, even if the way they both try to protect her there is a difference. Miles tries to shut her up and hold her back, Ward listens and actually supports her and welcomes her initiative) I don’t even know how more obvious the show’s shipping should get.

I actually don’t understand the freaking out. It’s so early on in the show, and they are only getting to know each other, I don’t see “constant setbacks”, the only one they had was what I refer to as the Miles Incident. But that was to be expected, I mean, we all knew there will be a fallout of her keeping in contact with the Rising Tide sooner or later, and I’m glad it was sooner because I’m afraid to imagine how much bigger the consequences would have been had she betrayed them later in the game. Everything else that happened is character development and they have been growing closer as people and that’s all I could want at this stage. Because this ship seems like it will be a slow burn to me, and I am ok with that. Our journey has barely started and I am for one very excited to see where this ship takes us. Don’t be sad, anon, be hopeful. (so far the only reason for them not happening I can see is if the show gets cancelled too soon or something of the kind. Basically only external reasons can sink the ship at this point, so let’s just cross our fingers and enjoy the journey. We honestly have no logical reasons to panic atm)