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A Critical Analysis of Scott Working with Gerard to Betray Derek

I want to begin by saying that Scott forcing Derek to bite Gerard in the finale was very upsetting to watch. It was intended to be viscerally disturbing, both because Derek is pleading for Scott not to and because Gerard makes it appear like Scott is selfishly sacrificing Derek in order to be with Allison.

That does NOT make Scott the bad guy, and I’m going to try to explain why in three parts:

There’s many indications that Scott wanted to clue Derek into the pill scheme but couldn’t

Gerard used extortion to make Scott cooperate

And, finally, Derek biting Gerard was the only way to save Derek’s life

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Scott is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Early on in s2 – 2x04 – Scott tries to appeal to Derek for them to start working together.

Scott: Derek? We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents. Derek: You trust them? Scott: Nobody trusts anyone! That’s the problem. While we’re here, arguing about who’s on what side, there’s something scarier, stronger and faster than any of us, and it’s killing people and we still don’t even know anything about it. Derek, leaving: I know one thing, when I find it? I’m gonna kill it!

It’s not that Scott trusts the Argents, it’s that his priority is stopping the monster that’s killing people – and the Argents happen to be trained monster hunters. More than anything, Scott wants to work with Derek, but he also realizes no one is trusting anyone, including Derek not trusting Scott.

This is highlighted in 2x05, when Scott tries to appeal to Derek a second time.

Keep reading

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Stiles was literally begging, begging, Scott to believe him. To hear him out for just one second. Stiles has never been one to beg for anything. Literally, with everything that’s happened and is happening, Scott has become so conflicted that he literally can’t even see just how much his best friend needs him to listen. It’s come to that point guys, and I am fucked up.

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There is a silence in my mouth

When I taste nothing but kindness,

Soft and starved, yet they are a drought

And you pray to my skin, breathless,

For the coming storm.

- My bae (incognitotea)

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https://princeescaluswords.tumblr.com/post/190234795925/stiles-sterek-and-steter-shippers-we-luv#notes

@princeescaluswords:

Morally gray characters don’t really exist. What Sterek and Steter shippers mean when they say morally gray characters are amoral characters – characters who don’t understand or are completely unconcerned with right and wrong.

You could argue that, for example, Stiles Stilinski is an amoral character. He’s unconcerned with the moral dimensions of many of his actions as long as it protects the people and relationships he values. I think this is most clearly shown by the joke in Illuminated (3x16) where Scott asks Stiles if copying the sheriff’s station’s key cards is worse than stealing them, and his befuddled reply is “It’s smarter.”

I would argue that Derek Hale is a very moral character, even when he’s fucking up big time in Season 2. He’s not abusing those kids for personal pleasure. He’s doing it to salvage his family’s legacy, which he considers the right thing to do and resisting predatory Argents, which is also the right thing to do. He’s still wrong – so wrong that he’s a villain – but when he shouts “I can’t let her live!” he means it, and he’s doing it because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Peter Hale is an immoral character. He’s completely motivated by self interest, rage, and greed, but he understands that what he is doing is wrong. If killing his niece was the right thing to do, why did he try to pass it off as an accident or madness? He knows that Scott didn’t take anything from the Hales, that he’s simply jealous and greedy, but he tries to cover it up by nattering on about his family’s legacy. Peter’s different from Stiles in that he has chosen to do the wrong thing to get what he wants.

It’s why I always laugh at Left Hand stories. For all his verbal bullshit, Peter’s actions always and only benefited himself. Killing Laura damaged his family forever. Biting Scott and ravaging Lydia served no one but himself. Where was the Left Hand when they were trying to rescue Erica and Boyd (”You think I really care?”) or when Derek tried to kill Deucalion in the abandoned mall? (It’s always telling that for all his blandly-moral self-righteousness, Scott helps Derek in that fight, while Peter is nowhere to be seen). He argues constantly that Derek should take their familial relationship into account and vanishes when it���s not in his interest to be familial.

The reason they don’t like Scott’s ‘black-and-white world’ or ‘bland morality’ is not because they don’t think it’s effective, it’s because they wanted the white family on top, and Peter Hale provided them ammunition. Scott is moral, but he is hardly black and white. He doesn’t believe in killing people, but he makes exceptions all the time – in Party Guessed (Scott: Ugh, I get it. We can’t save Jackson.), in Fury, in Master Plan, in Frayed, in Lunar Ellipse, in the entirety of 3B, in Muted, and in Monstrous – and that’s not black-and-white morality. Scott expressed dismay when Stiles breaks the rules, but he doesn’t get angry with him.

Lies of Omission is an excellent case because not only did Stiles kill someone, but he killed a victim of the Doctors’ experiments. Scott had watched Tracy murder the people who loved her, and he had heard Corey’s description of Lucas’ change in personality. In addition, Stiles lied to him. He told Scott that he had gotten hurt by the hood of his jeep, when it had been Donovan. Why would you believe someone who lied to you – who’s lied to everyone he’s ever cared about?

Peter Hale (and parts of the fandom) paint Scott as self-righteous because they don’t want to recognize that the people in the show need someone like Scott McCall to fight for their right to life. Imagine if Scott decided that Peter was right, and that the true survivors live in Shades of Gray. What if he decided to protect only his pack and not to care about the rest of the supernaturals of Beacon Hills? What if he decided, after dying at Liam’s and Theo’s hands, that someone else could stop the Beast? That would be the immoral thing to do. That is what Peter would do, and did do.

What fiction writers try to do is paint amorality and immorality as a different kind of morality, and that’s a definist fallacy. They are not alternate versions of the same thing.

It’s most clearly seen in stories where Stiles excoriates Scott for not killing threats, even defeated threats such as Deucalion or Gerard, or for not executing those who hurt or killed their friends and allies, such as Theo or the twins, but Peter is standing next to Stiles whispering “Left Hand, Left Hand” in his ear like a deranged parrot. The inevitable malfunction there is so huge it can be seen from space.

If Scott McCall was going to abandon his moral stance on second chances and the possibilities of forgiveness, if he was going to become a “survivor and live in shades of gray,” if he was going to kill defeated threats and execute killers and villains, why not start with Peter Hale? If he’s no longer concerned with right and wrong, what’s Scott’s motivation for allowing that monster to take one more breath? He wouldn’t have any.

~•~

“Peter Hale and non Scott/Posey fans don’t like Scott McCall and paint him as a self-righteous coward because they don’t want to recognize that the people in the show need someone like Scott to fight for their right to life” Tyler Posey is that you?

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Cookie:

“Stiles Stilinski is an amoral character. He’s unconcerned with the moral dimensions of many of his actions as long as it protects the people and relationships he values.”

That’s…. that’s literally what morally gray means. 

Morally grey characters do what’s right for the people they love, regardless of the consequences. They will do something Bad if it means getting a good outcome. They are the  literally definition of the ends justify the means. 

“I think this is most clearly shown by the joke in Illuminated (3x16) where Scott asks Stiles if copying the sheriff’s station’s key cards is worse than stealing them, and his befuddled reply is “It’s smarter.””

This is adorable. PEW is seriously taking things out of context here, isn’t he? I love how he neglects to mention that Stiles copies the key card for Scott. Because Scott wanted to break into the Sheriff’s station to impress the new girl he likes (shocker), and made Stiles is accomplice, because Stiles was the obvious in. That’s not a moral choice, PEW. No one was in danger. They weren’t protecting anybody. They weren’t even protecting Kira, when anybody who saw the picture of her would assume it was a damn Instagram filter!

Also, who the fuck uses “befuddled” anymore? You’re showing your age again, PEW.

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It’s 2020 and people still comment shit like “the lengths you’ll go to to hate the leading man/main character is ridiculous”. Like okay? You think your comment is gonna suddenly make me like him? It hasn’t worked for the last 9 years why would it work now?

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We all know Scott McCall is the truest garbage, but what was the moment you truly grew to dislike him?

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Nomi:

It’s actually hard for me to pinpoint when I went from liking Scott to annoyance & indifference towards him to genuinely disliking him. It happened in stages with each crappy thing he did towards any other character making it grow. Season 1 he was mostly fine just kind selfish but he’s a teenager so I was like whatever, I rolled my eyes a lot at him during 2, 3A also induced a lot of eyerolling and side-eye, 3B I’m too focused on everyone else to even pay attention to Scott, 4 brought back the annoyance but that was directed at both Scott and the general plot of 4 because it’s just stupid, 5A & 5B I stopped caring altogether about him because of the Theo mess and him being a shitty friend, and I hardly remember what happens in 6 because by then I’d checked out lol…

To be honest, it’s his stans and their attitude towards anyone who doesn’t worship Scott that makes me dislike him the most. A couple years ago I was just minding my own business, shipping sterek, and suddenly I’m getting called racist for not making Scott the focus of my entire fandom world. It really makes it hard to love a character when you’re attacked in their name constantly for what you ship and which characters you like. But even then I don’t hate Scott. I think he’s not as great of a character morally as his stans think he is, and he’s actually pretty terrible, but I don’t hate him.

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Teen Wolf is not centered around Scott McCall because Scott McCall is smarter or more capable than everyone else, delusionals. Teen Wolf is centered around Scott McCall because Scott McCall is literally the most unremarkable Everyman™, Generic Guy™, Standardized Leader™ & Ridiculously Average Guy™ ever.

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Nomi:

I don’t even really consider it “centered” around Scott. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

I mean it’s just my perception of the show I guess, but to me it’s more of an ensemble show with a lead character. Like BtVS kinda.

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color battle | vs. torple ↳ round four: silhouettes

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1/6 Talking about Scott McCall’s entitlement and utter disregard for the law. Remember when Scott assaulted Jackson out of jealousy and got a restriction order because of it? Or when Scott lied and manufactured evidence to frame Derek for murder just so that he could be free to cheat his way into first line and impress his peers with his brand new athletic prowess?

2/6 Or when Scott asked Stiles to provide him the keys to the Sheriff’s office to retrieve Kira’s phone even though Scott knew that breaking into the Sheriff’s station was against the law and that it would cost Stiles’ father his job? Or when Scott violated Derek’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent for his own benefit and then bragged about it? 

3/6 Or when Scott committed premeditated murder and replaced a terminally ill geriatric psychopath’s medications for cancer with mountain ash in an attempt to assassinate him because “He threatened my mom! I had no choice!”? Or when Scott abused Isaac just because Scott’s a toxic, possessive piece of trash who couldn’t stand the thought of Allison choosing a handsome werewolf over him?

4/6 Or when Scott wanted to sacrifice Tierney and Jiang’s life to save his own cowardly ass? Or when Scott actively plotted and conspired with the likes of Deucalion (Boyd and Erica’s murderer) behind everyone’s back just to assassinate Josh and Tracy? Or when Scott lashed out and robbed Corey of his agency because “You’ll heal”? Or when Scott stalked Allison and crept into her bedroom without her explicit consent?

5/6 Or when Scott whined and sulked and moped and yelled and threw an embarrassing temper tantrum just because Derek didn’t let him kill Peter like Scott wanted and demanded? Or when Scott gaslighted children and recruited them to fight his battles? @princeescaluswords claims that canonical neurodivergent character of Polish descent Stiles Stilinski should have been prosecuted for “involuntary manslaughter” even though Stiles was a victim himself;

6/6 and yet when it comes to ALL the crimes and repugnant actions his neurotypical cishet fave True Flop™ Scott McBadCall has VOLUNTARILY committed for his own benefit and greater good in the actual show, Pew always goes 🙊🙈🙉            

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Nomi:

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Of course the Sheriff would do anything to protect his son! That’s what parents do. I mean, Melissa kept breaking the law, asked the Sheriff to turn a blind eye on Scott’s crimes and total disregard for the law, and literally threatened to murder a child (Liam) for Scott in canon. Scott could violate other people’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent and assault an abuse victim in her house (which he canonically did) and Melissa would still excuse her son’s abusive tendencies and behavior.

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Nomi:

But don’t you know, only Scott is allowed to have people willing to break the law to protect him? I actually like that both the Sheriff and Melissa and even Chris say and do ~questionable~ things to protect their kids, because it’s realistic. I’m almost in my 30s and my mom would help me bury a body to protect me. (Not that I plan on murdering anyone 😂, but my mom has been there for some bad things I’ve been through and she’s said some stuff about the people involved in hurting me.) It’s kind of unbelievable to think PEW has never met a parent like that in real life, who is willing to do whatever they need to do to protect their kid. Is he living under a rock?

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I’ve never thought of it in that way... or well, I have I’ve just never thought of the right words for how to explain the difference in types of fans like that, and this makes SO MUCH sense omg

“When Stiles was blackmailed by Theo, not only did he do everything that Theo asked him, but he had NO PLAN to stop Theo or the Dread Doctors, sabotaged the investigation, and when push came to shove, sold his best friend out to death in order to protect his father” so you mad ‘cause Stiles prioritized his own father over your precious fictional stand-in Scott McCall and no one gave an utter crap when your precious fictional stand-in Scott McCall died in S5 @princeescaluswords? We been knew 🙃

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Nomi:

It’s so funny how to PEW it’s okay for Scott to put his mom (and Allison) above everyone else, even when it means lying and using Derek to attempt to murder an old man, but when Stiles cares about his dad he’s a horrible friend.

Also. I just. Can someone explain blackmail to PEW? “not only did he do everything that Theo asked him, but he had no plan to stop Theo or the Dread Doctors” well yeah, because he was being blackmailed and his fear made him think the alternative (Theo telling everyone about Donovan) would be worse. It also wasn’t Stiles’ responsibility to stop anyone.

But see this is like trying to have two conversations at once and it hurts my head, because PEW is complaining about what happened in canon and at the same time implying if Stiles in canon were the Stiles from whatever specific fanfictions PEW has read that he hates where Stiles figured out all the things and saved everyone, then canon Stiles should have been able to save everyone too. Because PEW can’t tell canon and fanon apart. He can’t get it through his annoyingly thick skull that what people write or headcanon doesn’t have to correlate with canon at all. If I want to headcanon that Stiles is a genius werebunny who has been hiding his secret bunny powers and works with the CIA on the weekends and also keeps a stash of carrots in his basement through the entire show, I can, even if it makes absolutely zero sense and the only enjoyment I get from it is imagining Dylan O’Brien with bunny ears and tail.

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This post is so willfully racist, ableist, delusional and just plain disgusting I have no words tbfh https://princeescaluswords.tumblr.com/post/190100068950/you-touched-on-this-but-yeah-stans-expect-me-to#notes

@russianspacegeckosexparty: You touched on this but yeah, stans expect me to believe Sheriff would just let certain things happen if he indeed already knew about the supernatural? And he would not be even *more* protective of Stiles and restrictive of what he could do or where he goes if he’s “something”? But they write him as so hands off and a doormat. Hell, Sheriff might not *want* something!Stiles involved in the supernatural because it reminds him of losing his wife 🤷🏽‍♂️ Pt. 1 Pt 2. “Mom swore me to secrecy!” And? Stiles canon used his dead mom in a callous “she’d have believed me” line to Noah + he has total disregard for the law. Why would that keep him from telling Scott? Hell, Stiles would tell Scott soon as he could and be a little bit show offy at least. Also, fanon!Stiles has no issue telling Peter or Derek everything if they don’t already know so clearly this is more about crafting a world that pushes out the brown Latino lead

@princeescaluswords:

I shudder to think about what would have happened if the Stilinskis had been supernatural. I didn’t trust the sheriff with the lives of teenagers. I didn’t trust the sheriff with the fair and just application of the law. I barely trusted him with car keys.

I could only imagine how he would have behaved if Stiles was supernatural on his mother’s side. The Argents would be dead, down to the last member, regardless of innocence. Scott would probably be dead as well, bitten or not bitten, because the Sheriff would have used him to protect Stiles. Anyone who crossed the Stilinskis would immediately disappear.

Because, remember, this was the #1 Dad whose son is so comfortable lying to him it’s a running joke between them. From “reclining in a horizontal position” to “haven’t believed a word out of his mouth from the day he could speak” to “You told me you were camping,” this is a person who knows his son can’t tell the truth but doesn’t do a single thing to break him of the habit.

Because, remember, this was the #1 Dad whose response to his son breaking laws was to abuse the office to which he was elected to protect him, from doing nothing when his son stole a police van and got him fired; to his son listening in on work calls, reading his mail, hacking police department property; to 17 parking tickets vanished; and to a promise that Stiles could commit involuntary manslaughter and avoid prosecution. Burn that station down, Sheriff.

Imagine the amount of corpses that would have been piled up if Stiles could actually kill people who pissed him off. Completely human Stiles tortured his best friend and then assaulted him when he was half dead. To quote Jackson “what do you think [he’d] do with a set of real claws?”

We talk about how we could trace Scott’s behavior from his mother, but it certainly applied in the same way to Stiles and his father. If you want to know how an adult Stiles would act, watch Noah.

Watch Noah pass judgment on Jackson for not reporting on Coach Lahey and then turn around and demand “these are children!” Watch Noah interfere with a federal investigation to free Derek and Chris to help his son when possessed by the nogitsune, and then insist they call the freaking Border patrol and pursue every facet of jurisdictional bureaucracy when Scott and Kira were kidnapped to Mexico. Watch Noah ask Scott to track an escapee from custody down with his supernatural abilities and then turn around the next episode and a throw a fit when the supernatural requires some flexibility in procedure from him. Watch Noah witness Peter Hale murder someone in custody and let him go, yet then turn around and arrest Kira on the flimsiest of evidence when he knows that the Dread Doctors are driving kids homicidal. Watch Noah lecture Scott that it doesn’t matter that Jiang and Tierney believed they were fighting for their lives when they killed hunters, he has to treat them like criminals and then not ten minutes later tell Scott that he had to be able to willing to kill hunters in order to win this war.

If you want to know where Stiles got the idea that he could hold everyone in his life to a set of rules and then exempt himself when it was convenient, watch his craptastic father.

Do you really think that if Stiles had supernatural power, he would have tolerated hanging around a nerdy, asthmatic loser like Scott? Do you not think he would have been first line during Freshman year, sitting with Jackson and Danny? Do you not think that it’d be Stiles and Lydia as the power couple? He used Scott’s and Lydia’s and Malia’s powers for his own ends without compunction.

Stiles understood himself. He knew exactly what he’d be like if he got power, and in one of the few selfless acts he performed, he rejected that temptation. This is the one instance where Fanon Stiles is a better person than Canon Stiles – because Canon Stiles wouldn’t have been the selfless protector of anything, let alone the entire town of Beacon Hills.

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AD

Everyone in teen wolf was flawed and not necessarily a good person, categorically the only person who acts for others and is a good person is Scotts dad possibly because he’s never there

Why is this so hard to understand? Why is it an issue?

And fanon and canon are different monsters, and you’ll be surprised how fluid canon can be

I wrote a stucky fic set on a space station featuring Charles Xavier, erik lensherr, namor the submarine and ghosts that was ENTIRELY canonical up to TWS

But if I wanted that fic could have been entirely AU, or entirely fanon

The instant fandom becomes involved it’s a different conversation

Canon is a fixed point, but it’s a starting point for fanon and if you can’t make that separation you don’t get to complain

You wanna write canon compliant fics - go for it, you wanna write your interpretation of the characters go for it- and I’ll go to bat to defend your fic even if I wouldn’t read it, but the instant you start telling people what to write without commissioning them first you’ll find we go to bat against you.

You don’t get to have your cake and eat it too

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“When Stiles was blackmailed by Theo, not only did he do everything that Theo asked him, but he had NO PLAN to stop Theo or the Dread Doctors, sabotaged the investigation, and when push came to shove, sold his best friend out to death in order to protect his father” so you mad ‘cause Stiles prioritized his own father over your precious fictional stand-in Scott McCall and no one gave an utter crap when your precious fictional stand-in Scott McCall died in S5 @princeescaluswords? We been knew 🙃

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Nomi:

It’s so funny how to PEW it’s okay for Scott to put his mom (and Allison) above everyone else, even when it means lying and using Derek to attempt to murder an old man, but when Stiles cares about his dad he’s a horrible friend.

Also. I just. Can someone explain blackmail to PEW? “not only did he do everything that Theo asked him, but he had no plan to stop Theo or the Dread Doctors” well yeah, because he was being blackmailed and his fear made him think the alternative (Theo telling everyone about Donovan) would be worse. It also wasn’t Stiles’ responsibility to stop anyone.

But see this is like trying to have two conversations at once and it hurts my head, because PEW is complaining about what happened in canon and at the same time implying if Stiles in canon were the Stiles from whatever specific fanfictions PEW has read that he hates where Stiles figured out all the things and saved everyone, then canon Stiles should have been able to save everyone too. Because PEW can’t tell canon and fanon apart. He can’t get it through his annoyingly thick skull that what people write or headcanon doesn’t have to correlate with canon at all. If I want to headcanon that Stiles is a genius werebunny who has been hiding his secret bunny powers and works with the CIA on the weekends and also keeps a stash of carrots in his basement through the entire show, I can, even if it makes absolutely zero sense and the only enjoyment I get from it is imagining Dylan O’Brien with bunny ears and tail.

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In what alternate universe is Scott “academically not the most accomplished but I see you have become quite the star athlete” “Lydia’s mom is the only reason I am still in school” “the plan is to get Stiles to come up with a plan” (Malia: “He’s good at that”) McCall smarter and more capable than anyone exactly?

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Nomi:

I don’t think Scott’s dumb or anything, but everyone has a different type of intelligence, different strengths and weaknesses etc. The show tells us Scott is the type of student who has to push himself to be good academically. He spends all summer reading. He tries. When werewolf stuff distracts him, his grades fall. Stiles meanwhile is the type of student who can go off on a tangent  about the entire history of male circumcision on an Econ exam and still have perfect grades. And yeah Stiles is good at figuring things out before some of the others do. Does he know everything all the time? No, and most of us don’t pretend he does. But it’s right there in canon that Stiles is smart in ways Scott isn’t, and that’s fine, even Scott expects Stiles to come up with the plan.Idk why some people (like PEW) claim to love canon so much and then ignore what it shows us.

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‘cause darling, it’s our fate to chase each other ‘til the end of time and as the moon misses the sun, I miss you ( insp.)