#lies of omission

[casually-eat-my-soul]

Man the parallels really hurting tonight. Something about the way these scenes were shot really drive that home for me.

If I could more eloquently describe this parallel I would by instead yall get this. I had to think this though now so do all of you.

[cheymonster]

[princeescaluswords]

OUT OF THE BLUE

It's going on nine years later, and it is still one of the most egregiously batshit enraging takes from this fandom about Lies of Omission (5x09) that Scott McCall had absolutely no reason to make the mistake of believing that Stiles Stilinski had murdered Donovan Donati. That Scott, maliciously or whimsically or both, just decided to believe Theo, a person whom he 'barely knew,' over Stiles.

I mean, if by "no reason" they mean:

Scott watched Donovan threaten to murder the Sheriff right in front of Stiles.

Scott watched Stiles ambush a merged alpha with a baseball bat in order to protect his chance of saving his father.

Scott got tortured by Stiles because Stiles believed Scott let his father get hurt.

Scott had learned that Stiles had lied about Stiles shoulder getting hurt.

Scott had learned that Stiles had concealed Donovan's death from him (and everyone else).

Which meant that Stiles actually had little to no faith in Scott, which had to be painful.

Scott flinched from Stiles approaching him with a wrench at the same place and the same conditions that a demon wearing Scott's face had approach him before.

Scott was under a great deal of stress what with having asthma attacks while trying to defeat indestructible mad scientists.

Scott was under a great deal of stress with Hayden dying 100 yards behind him.

Stiles started out this conversation screaming at Scott that Stiles resented that Scott was perfect and that this was a burden and "some of us have to get their hands a little bloody sometimes!"

When Scott asks "So you had to kill him?," Stiles replied with "He was going to kill my dad. What was I supposed to do?"

Theo did have the wrench with which Stiles did indeed hit Donovan.

Theo had deceptively demonstrated his 'good intentions' by saving every member of the pack.

Yes, Scott was wrong to draw the conclusions he did, but the idea that he had no reason to suspect that Theo was telling the truth and wasn't nearly drowning under the pressure that everyone was placing him under, is bullshit.

What's more, he more than made up for being wrong. He literally begged Stiles to let him help save his dad. He let Stiles hit him. He stood there and claimed that he should have been the one forced to kill people.

But apparently, it's still the fashion to make sure we understand that the worst possible thing that happened in that episode was Scott believing that maybe, after seasons of suggesting that the pack kill their way out of their problems, Stiles actually put his money where his mouth was.

But hey, there's got to be a reason that everyone cries of Stiles and thinks Scott is the scum of the earth, that there is not the slightest bit of empathy for what Scott was going through.

BUT IT'S NOT RACISM.

[howifeltabouthim]

You lie by omission, since you know everything and I know nothing.

Katherine Arden, from Empty Smiles

[justanothermachine]

I love my family but I have to selectively narrate most aspects of my life towards them because they are both conservative and PG rated

[notnowricky]

“here and there” he said

“a couple of times” he said

Everyone making fun of Omar and Edvin’s acting skills in their last little TikTok when he demonstrated his prowess just recently in his live for Red Light.

Omar on the outside:

Omar on the inside:

[doublel27]

Moo: I have a boyfriend.

Everyone else: You’re trying to become an idol. Maybe tone that down.

Moo: I SAID I HAVE A BOYFRIEND AND HE’S GONNA BE MY HUSBAND! AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE IT!

[craftbreak]

My favorite loopchat is definitely "did you know your eyes are two different shades?" but tbh i haven't stopped thinking abt the one where siffrin asks if loop is a star and they say some shit like "I'm more like a mirror. It'd be boring to be the real thing" ever since i finished the game w twohats

Like loop's favorite activities are being vague as fuck and foreshadowing. So it's entirely possible that loop starts saying star to mean like. Actor (star of the show, the star of a play and stuff like that). And they just like. Answered that at least half honestly just bc siffrin would be like "? What are you blinding talking about" and the true meaning would fly over his head bc he's still thinking about stars (celestial bodies). + it would add to a lot of stuff loop says to you not really being lies like you might think on a first impression

[zeb-z]

Foolish outright lying when Tubbo presses him about the fed worker death message oh if anyone wasn’t certain he’s protecting Cellbit they can be damn sure of it now

[princeescaluswords]

Lets be clear: Stiles had no rational reason to believe that Scott would turn his back on him. Stiles feared that would happen because of his deep-seated fear and insecurity, springing from both his mother's dementia-inspired paranoia, the aftermath of the nogitsune possession, and possibly even from his ADHD (I've been told about Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria). Coupled with several very specific recent events -- his upcoming graduation from high school, Theo's sinister manipulations, and Donovan's threats toward his father -- this was a perfect storm which led Stiles to make the terrible mistake of trying to hide something that wasn't his fault. And everyone should note: he hid it from everyone, not just Scott.

Scott understood this, which is why Scott didn't hold Donovan's death against him. All Scott told Stiles was to go talk to his father, who happens to be the sheriff and thus responsible for these legal issues, about Donovan's accidental death. Was Scott upset? Yes, but people dying tends to make Scott upset, as it should any good person. Scott didn't even hold Stiles's overreaction against Stiles. The only words Scott said against Stiles's behavior was "I know what self defense is." That's it. That's all.

The idea that this somehow makes Scott the worst friend in the world and a terrible alpha is nonsense.

People that think Scott would ever abandon Stiles because of what happened in season 5 or season 3b make me cackle. Scott??? Turn away from a possible murderer?????? Let me just give you his track record.

- Peter Hale: Tried to make Scott kill all of his friend by forcing him to shift against his will, wake up in the middle of the forest with no recollection all while Scott was trying to understand what werewolf even was. = Amicable relationship, never forced him to part from his nephew, only ever truly fought him when he wanted to hurt others.

-Jackson: All round asshole, killed people in his sleep, literally bullied Scott and threatened to ‘out’ him to a family of werewolf hunters. = More than amicable relationship, Scott defended Jackson more than once and was the one of the only people that fought to save him.

-Gerard: do I even need to say anything.= Found a way to subdue him without killing him (#chemist Scott), didn’t harbour any bad feelings towards Chris when he healed his father in season 6

-Chris Argent: Shot him in the fucking arm for no reason, threatened to blow his brains out for being together with his daughter= literal besties

-Victoria Argent: tried to suffocate him to death= didn’t say anything to ANYONE because he didn’t want to tarnish her memory

-Deucalion: calls himself “The Demon Wolf”= besties, Scott’s trust in his goodness turned him into a pacifist and an ally on multiple occasions.

-Theo: isolated him from his pack before killing him= Didn’t completely freak out on Liam for reviving him even though Theo killed him less than six months ago. One can argue that he would’ve totally housed Theo if he knew Theo was homeless

Y’all think he would kick Stiles out for supposedly bashing one dudes brains out with a wrench??? One pesky murder??????

Scott is the walking personification of “but mother I can fix him”, he was overwhelmed at the moment with a bunch of teenagers dying and Malia wanting to kill her mum and Kira wanting to fight everyone and now Stiles supposedly killed someone. His reaction was understandable and he handled it like a champ I’d say. But he would NEVER EVER abandon his brother, murder and miscommunication be damned.

[princeescaluswords]

Established Practice

I read a post about 'fictional characters are objects and can't be harmed' and 'you can't disrespect a fictional character.' Both of these takes are 100 percent correct. But that's never been the point I'm trying to make. Let me try to make it again and walk my readers through the steps.

I encountered a post which sneered at Scott McCall for so "easily throwing [Stiles] under the bus." Several people responded to this post, and the OP, to their credit, apologized and explained that this comment refers to Lies of Omission (5x09) and the infamous fight in the rain. They explained that it had been a few years since they had seen earlier seasons. I'm not mad at them, but it doesn't help their argument.

First, "easily." They rendered this judgement on Scott on the scene, and it has been echoed thousands of times by the fandom over the last eight years. At the time, this is what had happened to him during the season.

his girlfriend had been accused of murder and had had to leave to seek help for a serious supernatural crisis

his mentor and adult advisor had vanished while on a mission to help him and he was worried about him

his pack had been deceiving him and ignoring him

lots of teenagers were dying and he had been told it was his responsibility

he was experiencing a resurgence in his serious asthma condition which hampered his ability to fight the villains

he had promised his beta Liam to do everything to protect Hayden, who during the scene was dying 100 feet behind him

No one needed to have watched Seasons 1 through 4 to know this during the fight in the rain, because all of it was mentioned in the opening monologue of that very same episode. I'm pretty sure that this was on purpose to remind the audience of the incredible pressure Scott was under.

Second, "throwing [Stiles] under the bus." Is that what happened? I think, objectively, the only conclusions that Scott drew in that scene were that he didn't believe Stiles, he needed some space from Stiles, and he suggested -- after Stiles asked him what to do -- that he go talk to his dad. Scott didn't end their friendship, he didn't call Stiles names, he didn't even mention the fact that Stiles had concealed important information and lied to him more than once.

And yet I argue that over the last eight years the fandom has deliberately and purposefully ignored that entire context of that scene and its consequences. To reiterate the above point, you can't hurt or disrespect a fictional character, but I sincerely believe that fandom warps this scene (among others) for the purpose of their own enjoyment. They gain pleasure by turning a character of color from hero to villain, by eliminating all empathy for the character of color, and by positioning a white male character as the target of the character of color's unearned oppression.

I believe I can say this because it is part of a historical and cultural pattern where characters of color and their stories have consistently been mutilated by majority white audiences for their own entertainment.

I work in academia in the preservation of intellectual history; I encounter this particular phenomenon regularly. On my desk is a photograph from 1952 where a fraternity is participating in a campus-wide event where different organizations participate in theatrical skits. They're in blackface, presenting a picture of the Antebellum South as a social paradise. As part of my work, I examined the context. This wasn't happening in some rural backwater. This was on a university campus with black students. No one -- not students, not faculty, not administration -- said anything about this behavior, because it was "all in good fun." I guess they just wanted to let people enjoy things.

That's one example, but there are thousands and thousands more, and this behavior has had definite effects on media creation. Even as an ignorant white teenager in the 1980s, I noticed that characters of color in violent action-adventure stories were extremely likely to die, no matter what the outcome of the story , either to establish vicarious justice or to raise the stakes. That was their only purpose. It's getting better, I think we have to say that. Two decades before the scene Lies of Omission, the idea of a Latino actor like Tyler Posey playing a lead protagonist like Scott McCall would have been almost unthinkable. The best he could have hoped for would be to have played Jackson or Isaac. If by some chance he had been able to play Stiles the sidekick, he would almost certainly have been dead by the end of Season 2 in order to 'raise the stakes' for whichever white actor got to be Scott McCall. If by some miracle, Mr. Posey still got to play Scott in the nineties, the show would never have made three seasons, let alone six.

Fandom's reaction to the scene in Lies of Omission isn't an outlier. It's not an anomaly. It's part of a history of characters of color being seen as valid by audiences when used as object in support of white characters and only in support of white characters. Fandom could care less about the full dynamic of that scene or how the entire situation was a tragedy enabled by both Scott and Stiles (and Theo). There's no respect for the story that the production was trying to tell, but that's nothing new. The minimization of empathy and interest in characters of color has been going on for a very long time; the characters may not hurt by it, but we are.

[platoapproved]

- - -

hey quick question: you ever read something so fucking sad it gives you a stomachache?

[howifeltabouthim]

I will lie by omission all day, but I will never tell you anything that is untrue.

Katherine Arden, from Empty Smiles

[princeescaluswords]

What always drives me absolutely nuts is that the only person hating on anyone in that scene was Stiles hating on Scott, per se:

SCOTT: You killed him? You killed Donovan? STILES: Well, he was going to kill my dad. Huh? Was I supposed to just let him? SCOTT: You weren't supposed to do this. None of us are. STILES: You think I had a choice? SCOTT: There's always a choice. STILES: Yeah, well, I can't do what you can, Scott. I know you wouldn't have done it. You probably would've just figured something out, right? SCOTT: I'd try. STILES: Yeah, because you're Scott McCall! You're the true Alpha! Guess what? All of us can't be true Alphas. Some of us have to make mistakes. Some of us have to get our hands a little bloody sometimes. Some of us are human!

There is only one person screaming insults and insinuating that someone is a terrible person, and it's not Scott. Just in case people missed it, I highlighted it in red.

Some other observations that I have made before a hundred times and I will make another hundred times until they stick:

Scott didn't 'side' with Theo over Stiles because Stiles never denied anything that Theo told Scott.

Scott might believe that Stiles killed someone to protect his father because he had witnessed Stiles suggesting death as a solution (Derek and Jackson), he had watched Stiles threaten and attack alpha werewolves and a Darach to protect his father, and he had been in the room with Stiles when Donovan threatened him.

If they had been 'together forever' as the commentator put it, why would Stiles think that Scott wouldn't understand? Why does Scott have to be the only one with perfect faith in Stiles and never the other way around?

What was Scott supposed to believe was the reason that Stiles couldn't tell him about Donovan before that night?

"It was an accident" is four words. That highlighted speech Stiles gave is 42 words. Can we stop suggesting that Scott didn't give Stiles enough time to defend himself?

Does no one else remember the fact that it had been clearly established that chimeras turned violent after being experimented on against their will? And that Scott might insist that people turned into monsters against their will deserve to live?

The only thing that Scott told Stiles after he came to conclusion that Stiles killed Donovan (which Stiles did, it just wasn't murder) and that Stiles concealed it from him (which Stiles did and on puropse!) is to go talk to his Dad. That's it. How the @#$#@ is that hate?

I can't believe that in a scene where Stiles uses Scott's heroism against him -- especially after Stiles was partially responsible for that heroism in the first place -- that we still have to remind people that a) Scott did have blood on his hands, b) Scott had made mistakes, c) Scott is human, and d) even if all of those things were not true, it still doesn't excuse Stiles deceiving everyone -- not just Scott!

Eight years. Eight Years and it's still going on.

was scott mccall actually selfish and a bad main character and a bad alpha and a messed up person or was he a sixteen year old boy? answer fast

[hunnyy-bunnyyy]

Feyre painting the cabin is cringe -- not because she did it without permission, but because she wasted all that time and effort on something Rhysand can enjoy right after he wronged her.