After seven seasons, Agents of SHIELD has had a lot of complex villains, ranging from humans to characters with God-like abilities and powers. A few of those villains left mostly positive impressions on fans, while others have left overly negative ones.
Some characters, despite being heavily flawed or completely evil, have managed to gain the of fans in spite of their actions, yet no matter how sympathetic, just as many couldn't get the audience to root for them, usually because their actions were too extreme to be forgiven or overlooked. Here are five Agents of SHIELD villains fans actually loved and five they hated.
Loved: The Doctor
Introduced in the "What If?" arc of season 4, The Doctor is the alternate framework version of Agent Fitz who has quickly become a fan-favorite character, despite being one of the show's most cruel villains. The character was responsible for running Hydra alongside the framework version of AIDA and was responsible for torturing Inhumans, as well as for the death of Agent Mace.
The love fans have for the character is mostly due to Iain De Caestecker's incredible acting and since it's such a large departure from the character of the normal Fitz.
Hated: Hive
After Coulson killed Ward on the Alien planet, many thought that would be the last we saw of the character. However, no one expected the character to return in the way that he did. Following his death on the planet Maveth, Ward's body was taken over by an entity known as Hive. Hive, whose real name is Alveus, was an Inhuman that got banished to the planet due to his powers to infect and possess the bodies of dead humans.
The character was the main antagonist for season 3 and his actions directly resulted in the death of Lincoln Campell, among countless others.
Loved: Sarge
Fans were obviously sad when Agent Coulson died in season 5 of the series due to the deal that he made with Ghost Rider, but that sadness quickly turned to confusion when a character named Sarge, who bore a strong resemblance to the fallen director, showed up at the end of the season 6 pilot.
It became clear early on that this new character was extremely different from Coulson, but that was part of the reason so many fans liked him. For many, it was interesting to see Clark Greg tackle a villain role and play someone that felt like the exact opposite of the Coulson they were used to.
Hated: Jaiying
When Daisy finally got to meet her mother and learn more about Inhuman culture, lots of viewers saw Jaiying as a character the team could benefit from having a connection to. Unfortunately, the more we learned about Jaiying, the more we realized that she was a threat rather than a potential ally.
Although her hatred of humans was valid due to the torture she had experienced in the past, it was clear that she was too far gone to be redeemed. She rejected genuine offers of peace from SHIELD, even manipulating Daisy and igniting a war between humans and Inhumans.
Loved: Ward
One of the biggest twists of season one of the series was that Grant Ward, who started off as a member of Coulson's team only to be revealed as a secret agent of HYDRA. Despite the fact that he has double-crossed the team numerous times, he has remained a favorite character of the series with it almost being a running gag at this point how many times the character has appeared, even after his death.
His relationship dynamic with Daisy is part of the reason that viewers love seeing him back and scenes where he has to interact with and confront the characters he's hurt are always interesting to watch. It seems unlikely that the character would return in the show's final season, but there probably wouldn't be any complaints if he did.
Hated: Izel
When Izel was first introduced in season 6, she seemed like a villain that would be pretty easy to defeat, but that changed when it was revealed that she was actually an ancient entity with the ability to possess other people's bodies and take full control of them whilst removing their memories.
This ability was fully shown off in the episode "Collison Course (Part 2)" and she solidified herself as a proper antagonist when she took over Agent Davis' body and forced him to kill himself. Considering Davis has survived through so much and the fact that he had a son waiting at home for him, for the character to die so suddenly at the hands of Izel made it even more painful.
Loved: Graviton
General Glenn Talbot was a popular ing character, so it was hard to watch his transition over to the dark side after his torture at the hands of General Hale and absorption of the substance, Gravitonium, with the ultimate goal of saving the world from the oncoming threat which granted him gravity-based powers, while doing irreparable damage to his already unstable mind.
The fact that he was such a strong ally of SHIELD made his ultimate defeat at the hands of Daisy in an attempt to prevent the catastrophic affects his actions would have on the future, bittersweet.
Hated: Ruby Hale
Ruby was the angsty teenage daughter of General Hale who was engineered by Hydra to be the perfect warrior and was determined to prove herself as better than Daisy.
Despite only being in seven episodes, the character was able to do a lot of damage in less than a season with her being responsible for cutting off Yoyo's arms with her ring blades and almost splitting the world in two after infusing herself with Gravitonium.
Loved: AIDA
AIDA was a Life Model Decoy created by Agent Fitz and Doctor Radcliffe who became corrupted after reading the Darkhold while helping shield with a mission. What made the character so interesting was the different phases she went through, starting off as a "member" of SHIELD, going on to become the leader of Hydra in the framework, and eventually giving herself a real body with inhuman abilities.
Actress Mallory Jansen did a wonderful job of conveying the vast array of emotions the character was experiencing at any given moment, making it one of the show's best performances.
Hated: Kasius
In season 5, we saw the crew get transported to a future where the Kree were in control of the last remaining part of Earth, The Lighthouse. The leader of the Kree was one named Kasius who, unbeknownst to the team, had a future version of YoYo kept prisoner and used her to get information on SHIELD.
Under Kasius' rule, humans were enslaved and the ones that went through terrigenesis and emerged with powers, becoming Inhumans, were ultimately sold to the highest bidder. He would eventually be overthrown and killed by Mack, Yoyo, and Flint, one of the future Inhumans.