#idk its always so funny to me that people think Im so RAWR I hate Stiles

[bigskydreaming]

This might sound really weird, but if you had to pick one thing you wish had been talked about more on Teen Wolf, what would it be? Its just that you write about a lot of things from the show that I'd never thought twice about until you bring it up so I was wondering if there was one big thing or a top three things for you, and what they were. Sorry again if that's a weird question I just really like your meta!

LOL nah its cool, I get what you mean and thanks. And actually, this one is pretty easy. My biggest issues with Teen Wolf can always be traced back to one specific thing never getting addressed and having its ramifications fully explored, and that is Stiles and the Bite.

The fight in 5A has been talked about to death, but one thing I’ve never ONCE seen come up in discourse about it is the fact that when Stiles screamed ‘some of us are only human’, it ignored the fact that he was only human by CHOICE. He was offered the Bite by Peter in S1, who called him out on the fact that he was lying when he said he didn’t want it. Course, can’t really blame him for not choosing to accept the Bite from Peter of all people….but then in 3B when they thought Stiles might have his mother’s illness, Scott offered the Bite as a possibility, and from that point on, the door was open in regards to Stiles getting the Bite from Scott if he wanted it. We all know that if Stiles truly wanted to be a werewolf, he could convince Scott to give him the Bite, because both in 3B and in 6A when it seemed giving Stiles the Bite would rescue him from the rift, Scott never hesitated. If Stiles wanted the Bite, Stiles had plenty of opportunities to get it.

Now, the problem isn’t that Stiles didn’t really want the Bite. I’m not saying he should have taken it or been a werewolf. The problem is that when faced with that possibility, when having a choice, the same as Isaac, Erica, Boyd, Jackson all had, the choice Scott DIDN’T have….Stiles weighed the pros and cons and decided no, he didn’t want it after all. He wanted to stay human, he was well aware of all the drawbacks and pitfalls that came with being a werewolf thanks to witnessing Scott go through them all….and ultimately, it wasn’t worth it to him.

Again, that right there is totally valid and understandable and acceptable. What ISN’T okay is the fact that Stiles then never examined his own reasons for not getting the Bite and then applied them to Scott’s attitude and responses to his life as a werewolf.

The line about ‘some of us are only human’ wasn’t just bad because it implied Scott wasn’t truly human, it was bad because it completely skipped past acknowledging that some of them got a CHOICE about being what they were.

The other half of this equation is how Stiles selectively ‘advised’ his friend throughout the series on what choices to make, not based on how much they might have benefited his friend, but on how they best served HIM. When he made his speech to Scott in Heart Monitor about how now that he has power, he has a responsibility to protect people, Stiles actually only meant the people he personally considered worthy of protection, like his father and Lydia. When Scott wanted to rescue Derek from Kate against Stiles’ approval, Stiles outright made himself an obstacle. When Scott wanted to save Jackson, Stiles dragged his feet the whole way. Time after time, when Stiles wanted to play the hero, Scott was expected to ride shotgun, but when Scott wanted to save people Stiles didn’t feel merited protection, Stiles was the walking embodiment of a Mariah Carey “I can’t read suddenly” gif.

The two times in the series Stiles was truly mad at Scott were both after his father had been hurt, which yeah, fine, I get being upset. But the irony is in him hurling the “where were you” accusation at Scott in 5B like Scott had no place being anywhere but at the Sheriff’s side protecting him….when in both Season 1 and Season 5…Stiles wasn’t by the Sheriff’s side either when he was hurt. Stiles wasn’t useless. There’s numerous points throughout the series where he protected people or saved the day. But he blamed Scott for not being there to protect the Sheriff in 5B, when Stiles wasn’t even there either. He blamed Scott for not keeping the Sheriff from getting hit by that car on parent-teacher night in S1, but he wasn’t even at the school himself. On both those occasions, his real issue wasn’t that Scott couldn’t keep the Sheriff safe, it was that the Sheriff got hurt while Scott was somewhere doing things Stiles didn’t approve of, aka using his powers/presence according to his own priorities instead of Stiles’. In Heart Monitor, Stiles was pissed because Scott had played hooky with Allison instead of answering the phone while Stiles chose to research stuff. In 5B, Stiles was pissed because Scott didn’t immediately exile Theo from Beacon Hills from the moment Stiles said “I don’t trust him” in the premiere, without proof. Scott’s crime wasn’t failing the Sheriff in either of these situations, it was not being on call 24/7 and using his powers the way Stiles would have.

And that’s the heart of this massive misstep on the show. How often Stiles demonstrated a willingness to exploit the powers born of his friend’s trauma for his own personal benefit. Whether it was getting Scott to sniff out whether Lydia was attracted to Stiles, or expecting Scott to be available to protect his loved ones or to innately trust or not trust people based on his say so regardless of evidence, for the vast majority of the series, Stiles prioritized Scott using his werewolf and Alpha status the way STILES would have, over letting Scott use his own werewolf and Alpha status the way HE personally deemed best.

And that’s just so, so ugly. Because if Stiles wanted werewolf powers to use to figure out if girls liked him, or to protect his dad, or to be Batman and safeguard the town…..all he had to do was ask for the Bite, the same as multiple other characters on the show did. But he didn’t. Because he saw the full spectrum of what the Bite resulted in for so many of those characters, and so he remained as he was and lived vicariously through Scott, as he flat-out joked on multiple occasions.

You don’t get to have it both ways. If you don’t want the drawbacks of being a werewolf, you don’t get the perks. 

Frequently people comment on the fact that a large part of why this fandom is so divisive is because all other elements aside, a lot of people just wanted different things out of the show. Most Scott fans wanted a show about recovery and survivor empowerment, while most Stiles fans wanted a show about power fantasy and the awkward outcasts triumphing and saving the day.

The single most defining flaw of the show IMO is that it was both. It was just both things for different characters. More often than not, Stiles used Scott’s story of trauma recovery as HIS power fantasy. And that’s why, in accordance to power fantasy narratives, Stiles ended the show with the girl he pursued for ten years, fast tracked for the prestigious career in law enforcement that acknowledged his skills as a detective and gave him the recognition and respect he craved. All of which he only obtained because of what happened to Scott in the pilot, and the direction that spun their lives off into.

(While Scott, y’know, woke up in dingy motel rooms to seek out other trauma victims like himself to help empower and protect them, rather than like….have the education as a vet he wanted from UC Davis while with either one of the girlfriends he loved and lost as a result of a life he never wanted but had no choice but to live BUT I DIGRESS).