#(which: not that scott was some kind of monster in s1. he was a kid who was traumatized and hunted by a monster and so even when peter was a

[buckybarnesss]

I think one of the best things later seasons did was force Scott to become more mature than the kid he was in s1 and s2. For example, Liam.

Yes, he's an OBVIOUS parallel to being bitten without consent, and his fear of turning into a monster is even bigger than Scott's sometimes, but Scott now an alphaz KNOWS how to deal with it, and how to support him.

Mellowing Derek down and making him more of a team player concerned about the kids FIRST was also a good move.

this ask is so topical. forgive my star wars comparisons but i've been watching ahsoka.

i often consider the derek --> scott --> liam storyline to be comparable to that of a master and padawan relationship in a lot of ways. all their knowledge becomes your knowledge. the teacher's failures are the student's lessons.

i'm not the biggest fan of the last jedi but there are some really great moments especially the scene between luke and yoda.

"the greatest teacher failure is" and "we are what they grow beyond" applies heavily to the story of derek hale, scott mccall and liam dunbar.

the show even places a lampshade on this kind of connection early on when stiles makes the yoda joke in heart monitor.

all throughout season 1 derek is desperately trying to protect scott to varying levels of success. derek doesn't want scott to become him but derek is also clouded by anger and self-hatred at his younger self for his perceived failures and sins. scott despite his huge, glaring issues with male authority figures does learn from derek but it takes him a while to recognize that. derek is a convenient target for scott's anger at what happened to him.

their fear, their anger, their resentments are what they have to grow beyond with each other and that doesn't happen till around season 3.

season 3 even shines a spotlight on how young derek was a lot like scott.

visionary is one of the most important episodes of the entire series and does a lot of heavy lifting for the lore of the universe, the narrative of the season, the backstory of the hales, the relationships between characters -- like it's a juicy episode if only the fandom stopped taking peter and gerard's words as unadulterated truth.

it also gives us the most obvious parallel between derek and scott. i think it's pretty obvious they wrote the paige storyline knowing allison's fate. they wanted this parallel on purpose.

paige is bit without her consent and derek has to mercy kill her to spare her the slow and painful death the rejection of the bite is putting her through. derek did not do anything bad here. this was an act of compassion but it deeply traumatized and hurt derek.

while i do not believe derek's eyes changed color due to any sort of killing an innocent nonsense as peter suggests symbolically derek's innocence died with paige. it left a physical mark on him. she is there every time he shows his eyes. he carries her with him.

allison in contrast to paige has agency in her choice. she willingly goes to save lydia and even ignores lydia's warning. she chooses to save isaac which leaves her open to being stabbed.

allison does not suffer a slow, painful death like paige. scott holds her in comfort and hears her last words.

allison's body wasn't removed and abandoned to be chalked up to an animal attack. scott gets held by his mother, isaac is taken in by chris whereas derek was left alone in the cellar and left to flounder in grief ripe for the picking by kate argent.

so much of derek and scott's relationship is about reflection. they see each other like one only sees their flaws in a mirror. it's why their goodbye in smoke and mirrors is so important. it's acceptance, it's thank you, it's i'm sorry and it's goodbye and good luck.

scott and stiles are a better version of derek and peter. they are less toxic but they have their issues. scott and stiles have a hard time with communication but there's co-dependency.

this brings us to liam dunbar. liam is a precious nugget but liam has derek's anger issues and scott's fear of becoming a monster.

if stiles and scott are a better version of derek and peter than liam and mason are a better version of all them.

it is liam who is able to overcome derek and scott's failures.

liam is able to reconcile with theo.

liam makes the effort to make peace with corey.

liam doesn't lose his first love.

liam overcomes derek and scott's failures and learns lessons from their mistakes.

with liam there's a lot of reprised beats that show how far these characters have come. teen wolf subscribes to george lucas's maxmum:

scott bites liam without his consent but scott doesn't leave him like peter did him. scott tries to support him through the transformation even going as far as to try the whole "the bite is a gift" and "we're brothers now" on for size.

argent comes not to harm them but he saves them.

liam is the best of scott and derek.

derek even gets to gloat a little and have his obi-wan watching anakin deal with ahsoka moment

he is delighted.

we rightfully rip into teen wolf for it's failures but one thing about the show that i think it did fairly well was demonstrate how the entire narrative revolves around generational trauma.

the derek, scott and liam relationship is an excellent example of it.

people say that scott doesn't grow as a character which is a lie. you don't have to like the trajectory of his character arc but he does have one. the show is about him growing up. it's about these kids dealing with the grief and trauma of their lives including that of growing up.

derek was stuck in his grief and anger for a long time. he had lost so much. derek's storyline i think isn't so much a growing up arc but rather one of choosing to live not just survive. scott forced him to confront the anger he carried at his younger self. to realize he was just a child and no one protected him.

derek had a choice.

derek is also a product of peter's lessons and teachings. i think he grapples with some of this in s2 where we see derek in his quote villainy era unquote.

instead derek chose to be a protector and he evolves. he is not peter. he is not kate. derek is not a monster others wanted him to become.

instead he inherits the gift of his mother and sister becoming more at peace with himself.

he is the person that paige loved and accepted. he is deserving of stiles's loyalty and affection.

but he can scare some kids on halloween as a treat.

#my blog #thoughts on teen wolf #teen wolf #derek hale #scott mccall #liam dunbar

[bericas]

SCOTT APPRECIATION WEEK (DAY 1) → FAVORITE QUOTES/DECISIONS

scott’s willingness to do what needs to be done often means sacrifice, and it’s often a burden he takes onto himself; however, it doesn’t always mean self-sacrifice. 

(aka: talk shit get hit!!!)

#twedit #scott mccall #scottmccalledit #scottmccallweek #HELLO I LOVE HIM!!!!!! #so ive honestly never been heavily involved in other fandoms so i dont really know if this is unique or not but i think something about tw #is that it has so many characters that often they get flattened into archetypes by fandom to make them distinguishable #which makes sense!!!! but also leads to ignoring the entirety of the character in favor of tropes #and while scott is often willing to kill monsters (the beast when it stops being mason and is just the beast; the anukite; etc) #he often tries to be forgiving when the lines are blurred (theo; the betas who killed hunters in s5; the hunters in s6) #and i think a lot of that genuinely is because of who he was in s1!! he was someone who WANTED to kill peter. he wanted to. he would've #and as time goes on who he is and what he's willing to do changes and he goes from someone willing to kill to willing to die #(which: not that scott was some kind of monster in s1. he was a kid who was traumatized and hunted by a monster and so even when peter was a #dying human on the forest floor it was VERY easy to not see him this way and VERY easy to not care because scott WAS going to die; allison's #father at this point was VERY WILLING to kill him; and being a werewolf was a death sentence; and killing peter was supposed to cure him) #BUT he never actually....... is not willing to kill? it's just ALWAYS the worst case scenario. it's always the last option #and we see a lot of him being at his end in 3a especially (which is also before stiles gets posessed and blurs the lines in a big way again) #right like gerard is out of chances; jennifer is going to kill his mother and the sheriff and chris she is out of chances; deucalion #harassed him for the entirety of 3a and his pack killed people he's out of chances) #but then as it goes on the threats become other kids. become reflections of him; of allison; of stiles. these are not people he is willing #to put down. these are not people deserving of being put down. and so we see a lot less of this!!!! #so i tried to choose scenes where he wasn't joking or talking hypothetically; he was looking at (or in the case of the last gif about to fac #e down) the people he was threatening and it was not a hypothetical it was a FACT; this is what will happen next #let me kill peter; i poisoned gerard; i will kill gerard; i will kill jennifer; i will kill deucalion; i will fight for my life against pete #r; i will kill this random dude who tried to kill me if he makes me; i will put gerard down to end this war #and it's these moments that make everything else SO POIGNANT and i wish we got this explored in s5 so much more bc s5 was the season of Oh! #Scott's Baby! AND FRANKLY THEO DESERVED TO GET KNOCKED ON HIS ASS!!!!! like i know liam had fucked scott up pretty bad already when theo get #s there but SCOTT EVENT TELLS LIAM!! I CANT LET YOU KILL ME!!!!!! HE SHOULDVE LET THEO KNOW THAT HES WILLING TO KILL ACTUALLY! #IF HE WAS NOT SO CLOSE TO DEAD. IF THEO HAD COME FOR HIS FIRST. THEO WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT OUT OF THE FIGHT. AND SCOTT SHOULDVE TOLD HIM #THATTTT WE DESERVED IT AS A CHARACTER MOMENT!!!!

[medusinestories]

Black Sails, IV (S1, ep 04)

- Silver's horrified face when he finds out he's going to have to roast pigs is a Journey, starting with shock, then fake smiling, and then this horrified shuddery expression. It's just as interesting when they drop the dead pig at his feet and he clearly doesn't know what to do with it and also finds it disgusting. I can absolutely see where all the Jewish John Silver headcanons come from, especially since it's unlikely that a London urchin has never seen a dead pig and raw meat in general before.

- Here we have the first performance of Cassandra DeGroot: he knows that the bay they'd chosen to do the careening was too dangerous, and warns the crew. He's immediately countered by Flint, who has much more persuasive arguments to get the careening done fast but in a risky manner. (this whole thing reminds me of our current COVID/climate situation, where scientists get talked over by politicians, and people prefer listening to the latter because they seem to offer much better prospects than the “catastrophist” former)

- In this episode Billy is now quartermaster and he shows himself to actually be really good at disciplining the crew, something Gates, DeGroot and even Flint recognise. However, he also agreed to do the careening only because he's afraid to say no to Flint and allowed the men to have a fuck tent, which he feared would distract them - and it did, the two men who placed the rope on the wrong tree decided not to follow his orders and go fuck instead. This all weighs on him enormously after the disaster with Randall and Morley, who accuses him minutes before his death of already being in Flint's pocket. It's pretty clear that more responsibility doesn't do Billy's mental state any good.

- Morley's story about the Maria Aleyne gives some idea of a timeline, albeit a faint one. The incident took place "a number of years back", before Billy joined. This means that Billy is a somewhat new addition to the crew. We know that Randall was bosun when Billy joined. This also establishes that Lord Hamilton has been dead for several years, which now begs the question: who is the Lord Proprietor that Richard Guthrie is now in touch with? Did Thomas have a younger brother who inherited the Bahamas? Was someone new appointed? Was there a gap between Proprietors that allowed the pirates to establish themselves even more after Lord Alfred's death?

- I just adore the fact that Miranda actually went to stinking, violent Nassau because she was just too impatient to wait at home and wanted to be there when the Walrus came in and immediately hear the news of Lord Alfred's death. She is that vengeful and angry and I love her <3

- Speaking of which, this episode gives us the Passive-Agressive Sex Scene which makes so many people doubt of Flint's attraction to Miranda. Just look at Flint’s face: this man isn't uncomfortable or sad he is PISSED. He plays starfish and glares at Miranda all through it (while maintaining an erection all the same!). Miranda must be hella frustrated (or determined) because she manages to get off in spite of all of this (also, how uncommon is it for a sex scene to end when the woman climaxes rather than the man?) It's only when it ends that both Flint and Miranda are both shown as vulnerable and sad and reflective, with Flint reaching up to touch her but not quite getting there - imo because he's still angry but knows that she (and he) needs comfort.

- This leads into the argument over Meditations, and Miranda explicitly talking about Thomas and not wanting to forget him. The book hasn't been touched in a long time, confirming the idea that Miranda shared it with Richard Guthrie because Flint refuses to touch it. Her grief, her loneliness, are incredibly poignant in this scene, and we see Flint shift from bristling and stonily glaring at her, to absolutely melting (Toby's facial expression shifts here are just *chef's kiss*) and finally being gentle and tender with her. However, even though he promises to make things better, Miranda clearly doesn't believe him anymore.

- This brings in a big theme in the episode: betrayal from people you care for/trust. Mr Scott asks Eleanor not to do anything rash in order to get the Andromache’s guns, only to discover her Plan B: to kill Bryson if he didn't comply. In the meantime, Richard Guthrie tells (a very sceptical) Miranda that he can only support Eleanor and Flint, because he pretty much has no choice in the matter. He then proceeds to betray his daughter by making a deal with Bryson and with Mr Scott, who’s still smarting from Eleanor’s betrayal and who Guthrie tries to convince by saying that Eleanor's endeavour will lead to her death and Nassau’s destruction (considering what we later find out about Mr Scott, Eleanor’s safety is probably not be the argument that actually compels Mr Scott - but he certainly doesn't want the Navy searching the area and finding Maroon Island, and needs a stable Nassau to continue supplying his island).

- The Undercooked Pig scene and Silver's attempts at communicating with Flint will never not be funny. Silver looks so small when Flint glares him down, but that doesn't last all that long: once Flint has taught him how to cook the pork, Silver seems much more bold, asking Flint how he learned to glaze the pig, insisting that Flint should trust him and not Billy. This is also a moment where Silver shows that, unlike Flint, he is incredibly perceptive: he noticed that Billy is "straining at the seams" because of the lie he told. And while Flint spits a "there is no we" and calls Silver a rodent, it's obvious that Silver's words still have an impact on him. Their collaboration is sealed when Silver hands him the cleaver so that he can save Randall (and himself). When Flint returns the cleaver to Silver, he's ready to accept that Silver is actually on his side (albeit for selfish reasons) and listens to him for the first time.

- Max believed that she could charm Vane's remaining crew into being kind to her - and overall it seems to have worked. While again I hate this plot, it does give an interesting insight into how even the worst pirate crew is portrayed: most of the men are happy to comply with Max and get sexual rewards "for gentle obedience". Most of them, basically, aren't violent monsters deep down. However there's always one, in this case That Big Bastard (I'm sure he has a name, I just can't be bothered to google it), who clearly gets a kick out of torturing/raping people and hates the idea of a woman taking the lead.

- Fuck You Jack is another theme of this episode. Vane is high on opium and booze and has basically lost the will to do anything. Anne has been courted by several other crews, but Jack hasn't received any offers (note there's no loyalty to Vane here, Jack’s ready to leave, but nobody will have him) and nobody is willing to help him after the pearl cock-up. Then Noonan wants Max back, which Jack refuses because she's the only thing keeping the few members of his crew loyal - and Anne isn't on board with that, leading to her telling him to fuck himself. This, btw, might have crossed Jack’s mind considering the position she was in when he found her. I think it’s easy to forget that Jack is portrayed as pretty callous and happily willing to treat people like pawns too.

- When Richard Guthrie talks about Nassau, he describes it as a place "a place where she [Eleanor] matters, a place where you [Mr Scott] matter", and adds that a place like this isn't meant to last. Nassau, then, is currently an utopia where women and black people can have some semblance of power - and he doesn't believe that this will ever be allowed to exist because this kind of story never has a happy ending in their current society. But when Flint talks to Eleanor about their project, he's of the opposite view: people don't believe that it's possible, but when they succeed, they'll say it was inevitable. It seems Flint is firmly in the camp of "winners get to tell the story", and that the story will influence how the rest of the world sees them.

- When the Walrus tilts and squashes Randall, Flint stops Billy from intervening and rushes to rescue Randall himself - even though he knows the ship will be cut loose at any moment. He puts himself into incredible danger in this moment. Why? Theoretically, it could be for a manipulative purpose: to look good to the crew, or to get rid of Morley. But Flint seems genuinely involved in the struggle to save Randall, and he barely had time to think before he ran off. I feel that this is a rare spontaneous moment for Flint, where instead of thinking about his plans or his position as Captain, he just thinks like a person in an emergency who wants to rescue someone else. He absolutely could have died out there. And while Billy seems to suspect him of having killed Morley, I don't find that reading compatible with what we're shown of Flint trying to save Randall. True, he may have kicked/pushed Morley at the very last second, but we’ll never know that for sure.

- Back to the theme of people betraying their loved ones, we have Richard Guthrie getting back to Miranda, telling her he knows who she is and revealing the "Thomas went mad because Miranda and Flint cheated" story which he heard from Lord Alfred himself. So now Miranda knows that her identity has been revealed and that Richard could spread the story to, say, Pastor Lambrick (let's not pretend this didn't cross her mind, she keeps her identity secret for a reason). And then Guthrie offers her a way back to civilisation. This, right after a kid threw a stone at her, calling her a witch. This, after Flint has promised to make things better, even as he goes deeper into reckless/utopian plans of fortifying Nassau. Backed into a corner, was Miranda ever going to refuse, if she could be safe and have him be safe? And obviously, Richard Guthrie isn't doing this out of the kindness of his heart. He apparently figured out that Miranda was a way to get in touch with Pastor Lambrick and that ridding New Providence of Flint and winning over the “good”, normal inhabitants would be a perfect beginning to buying back his influence on the Island - the end goal being named Governor, of course.

- If there was any doubt that Vane’s tough guy thing is part of an act, his opium hallucination of Eleanor makes it crystal clear: "you're alone, you don't have to pretend with me". That is, pretend that he's not afraid and that he's not vulnerable. The hallucination also offers Vane an explanation for why Eleanor is how she is: like him she's afraid of appearing weak. He's actually spot on, a big problem in their relationship is that they're too alike and are struggling for dominance. Which is probably why Vane wants to overcome his fear and weakness, and regain power by confronting his old slave master (btw, nice parallel with Flint haunted by Miranda in S3). The scene where Vane kills Noonan also shows him in a very animalistic light - at first he's cornered and somewhat pathetic, beaten, throwing up, only saved by the fact that a gun misfires. Then he turns violent: quick, instinctive and relentless, deaf to Noonan's plea to leave him alive, even if theoretically it could have been profitable for him.

- I have to say, I snickered quite a bit when Pastor Lambrick sees Richard Guthrie and tells him "God teaches us not to cheer when someone stumbles, in your case I may ask his forgiveness". I mean, I really see his point. He leads a group of Puritans who are trying to make a life for themselves on this island. Historically, people who lived and farmed in New Providence were constant targets for errant pirates, who robbed, raped and killed a lot of them. This is what the Pastor is trying to protect his congregation from (and Miranda, since he doesn't understand why she's with Flint and is likely terrified that a pirate lives so close to his congregation, hence the spies he sends out). There's a bit of a parallel with Billy, where both Lambrick and Billy are presented as being very preoccupied with the well-being of the group they're responsible for, and both are presented as, well, Goody-Two-Shoes - (self-)righteous, loyal, honest, caring. Except they're both human, and sooner or later they falter.

#black sails #billy #pastor lambrick #flint #silver #silverflint #miranda #flintmiranda #rackham #anne #max #eleanor #vane x eleanor #vane #degroot #randall #mr scott #richard guthrie #black sails rewatch #rape mention #meta

[sortinghatchats]

Sorting Teen Wolf

In this system, we like to talk about Primary Houses (WHY characters do things) and Secondary Houses (HOW characters do things). Read more on our tumblr, at sortinghatchats.wordpress.com, or take our quiz: https://ejadelomax.itch.io/sortinghatchats 

Scott McCall is a Hufflepuff primary: his morality (why he does things) is based in fairness, in people and the idea that every single one deserves consideration, in community and in loyalty. He’s a Puff secondary, too: his best methods (aka his secondary) (aka how he does things) are compassion, team building, and helping others. (Hello Mr. Every Time Someone is in Pain I Take it on Myself).

But Scott thinks the way he is supposed to act is brave, direct, and forceful. So he tries. He models Gryffindor, and he has nightmares about that particular bravery’s violent extremes.

Once upon a time on a little show called Teen Wolf, Stiles Stilinski told Scott McCall he didn’t have to save everyone, and Scott gave him the blankest, most incomprehending look imaginable. 

Stiles is a Slytherclaw— the precise, ruthless loyalties of a Slytherin Primary acted out by a Ravenclaw secondary’s planning, strategy, research, and learning. The kid reeks Slytherin. Refusing to tell his father about the supernatural, to keep him safe, even at the expense of other people’s lives— Stiles only backed down then at the terrible might of Scott’s puppy dog eyes, which: understandable. 

Let’s kill Jackson, says Stiles, because he doesn’t care. In Allison’s voice that would have the ruthlessness of idealism, not “he’s not one of mine.” I guess a good distinction would be this: Allison would consider killing Scott, if he was murdering people, and Stiles never would. (This is not indicative of a greater connection between brother and brother or lover and lover; this is just pointing out that Allison would do, first, what was right (she would certainly fight her hardest to save Scott, but if there were truly no other options she would sacrifice him). 

Stiles’s morality doesn’t work like that. He would keep his father in the dark even if it meant letting people die, because his father’s life is more important to him than theirs. Stiles is a Slytherin with a very short list of people. 

I think in the S1 Stiles might have modeled Slytherin Secondary on top of his Ravenclaw secondary. He’s into manuevering and deception a lot more then than he is in the later seasons— especially after the nogitsune. 

“I’m 147 pounds of skin and bones; sarcasm is my only defense.” I think that says a lot of it— Stlies has been becoming more and more powerful in his own Ravenclaw skills, enough that he can rely on them instead of hiding behind Slytherin modeling. I’m not sure he feels safer (the world keeps getting more dangerous) but he’s been up against enough now to know that he can survive, and that what keeps him safe tends to be his steady mind and anxious preparations.

Lydia is a Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw who models Slytherin Secondary (eight million times better than Stiles does) and performs Puff (about as badly as Stiles models Slytherin—you can tell she’s putting it on for politeness, when she smiles and doesn’t mean it). 

In this way, her and Stiles’s journeys parallel each other, which makes their friendship one of my favorites. They’re both slowly coming to accept and value their Ravenclaw— to recognize that this is a kind of strength and perhaps even beauty; and that it is theirs.

Until Lydia starts breaking, she almost looks like a Slytherpuff—or, well, a Slytherin/Slytherin with a Puff performance. Her Puff is really unconvincing. But her outward facade of Slytherin Primary is magnificent. Even in the first season, though, her Claw peeks its head out now and then.

(Also: it looks like Lydia’s mom is a Ravenpuff? Which makes me wonder where Lydia learned that she should be a Slytherin. Because she’s so ashamed of her Ravenclaw, early on, both the primary’s idealism and the secondary’s intelligence and curiosity. She has this idea that beauty and power are the things required of her and that she must fulfill them. Only her world shattering around her made her vulnerable enough to reassess and embrace her Ravenclaw. It makes me want to meet her father, or other formative influences in her life, and perhaps see what her mother acted like in that marriage).

Alison Argent takes up her family’s moral legacy and rewrites it in her own words. She does what she thinks is right in defiance of foes, friends, and family. When she decides what right is, when she has watched and learned the world around her and slowly, deliberately built her own code out of the truths she’s found there—then Allison goes after her goals with a single minded intensity and a direct, sometimes violent efficiency. This, my friends, is a Ravenclaw/Gryffindor and she is beautiful.

(ALLISON I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING BACKPACKING FRANCE WHILE YOU RECONNECT WITH YOUR COUSINS AND FIGHT FOR TOLERANCE IN THE HUNTER COMMUNITY. I LOVE HOW YOU CALL LYDIA ONCE A WEEK ON SKYPE.)

Malia and Stiles boned over their shared Slytherin primary, which delights me. Malia looks like a Slytherdor, but I wonder if she might be a Slytherin/Slytherin who’s living in her “neutral state” because she doesn’t give a toot. I think if Malia needed to, she’d be happy to lie, coerce, adapt, transform to get what she wanted. She just so far doesn’t think highly enough of anyone to manuever in any way but straightforwardly. 

Kira is a Gryffinpuff, I think. She’s certain and forward and brave, and she goes after her goals with kindness and determination.

Derek is a Hufflepuff with a Claw secondary. “We’re brothers now,” he tells this young kid just because the kid got chewed on by his uncle. He is desperate for community (see: the terrible choices of the Worst Alpha Ever aka S2). Even when he’s creepy (often), even when he’s a failwolf (…more often), he’s doing things to help people simply because they are people.

But he was going to kill Lydia, right? When we thought she was the kanima. Yes, he was— to save other people. Scott, wasn’t, but they’re both still Puffs, because Derek is what happens when a kid like Scott loses hope—or gets a truer idea of the real world, depending on who you ask. 

Scott doesn’t believe in victories that come with comprimises attached. He doesn’t believe in heroism with trade-offs and consequences. Scott was going to save Lydia. But Derek? One girl’s life to stop a monster? He was going to save everyone else. 

(Which— he was wrong, it was Jackson, you failwolf. But I’m more interested in both of their why’s than I am in the realities of the fictional situation).

Derek, like Scott, also models Gryffindor and probably… shouldn’t. He’s worse at it than Scott is. Which, like, wow. Calm down kiddos, please. Neither of you wants to be alpha dog, not really. Embrace your inner pack mom. Take pain from people and take Kira leather jacket shopping and brush the hair out of Cora’s face and hold Lydia’s hand when she’s making hard decisions about what kind of person she wants to grow up to be. Here are your strengths, boys. Here is your heroism.

THE PARENTS

Melissa McCall, Mama McCall, the beacon of Beacon Hills, is a Slytherdor. Her son’s in danger? She will forcibly waken one of her own patients when she herself has warned against it. She will sit with Ms. Yukimura and wonder why their children have to fight this war. (Ms. Yukimura, who’s some sort of idealist House, will respond that otherwise they would be running and hiding, but Melissa will remain unconvinced because this is her boy). 

Melissa’s a Gryff secondary because she is direct, no-nonsense, and doesn’t care if she steps on people’s toes on the way to her goals. She’s amenable up until someone gets between her and something she wants, or something she wants to protect.Melissa models Hufflepuff occasionally, sometimes at her job, but most often around her ex, which makes me wonder if Melissa used to be a Slytherpuff, or a Huffledor, but went “no, screw this!” at the same time she threw her husband out of the house.

Papa Argent, I think, House shares with Derek Hale: Hufflepuff (his morality is informed strongly by the people he loves: his father and sister, and then his daughter; the best argument to get to him in S1 is “Scott hasn’t hurt anyone yet”) with a Ravenclaw primary (plans, preparation, and knowledge), and a Gryffindor modeling because it’s what his family expects of him. 

Scott doesn’t have that many Hufflepuff role-models, does he? His mom, who is extraordinary and wonderful, is a Slytherdor. You can get farther from Puff/Puff but it’s hard. He doesn’t particularly bond with Papa Argent.

The best role model is probably Sheriff, who might be a Puff primary, but who Gryffindor secondaries so competently. Gryffindor secondaries just aren’t where Scott’s skills lie. Or maybe he could find a role model in Deaton, who models Puff but I think Deaton’s really just a Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw. The Puff all goes away when things get serious.

No wonder the kid isn’t comfortable with his Puff. All of his heroes win their wars in other ways.

THE VILLAINS

Peter is a burned Hufflepuff. Literally. People who aren’t his family have ceased being people to him. He presents effectively as a rather nasty Slytherin, but I do think it’s ultimately coming from a Hufflepuff place. But maybe I’m wrong and he really is as simply and shallowly selfish as he seems. … yeah that’s quite possible. 

Peter’s got a slimy Slytherin secondary, and he models Ravenclaw, which is the Chessmaster set up, the mold for the manipulative schemer who (would like to think he) is two steps ahead of everyone. 

(This is opposed to just a Slytherin, where you get adaptable and interpersonally effective tactics, but no long term “mwuahaha” strategy, and just Ravenclaw (think Sokka. think later seasons Stiles) where you just have the strategist).

Gerard, the manipulative douchebag, is a Slytherin/Slytherin who performs Gryffindor to cajole people like Kate and Allison into following him.

Kate is a Gryffindor/Slytherin who models and performs Gryffindor. I’m so sorry Gryffindors.

#teen wolf #scott mccall #stiles stilinski #derek hale #sortinghatchats

[bigskydreaming]

Josh from teen wolf?? really?? why??

This is one of those things where the only real answer is Why Not, you know? Same as my obsessive love for Scanny, lol - with side characters like Danny and Josh, they’re more blank slates where you fill in most of the gaps canon left us with around the bare bones of what we do know….you kinda just have to pick an angle or direction to start from and then just run with it, see what you end up with. It’s not like this is a concept fandom is unfamiliar with. As lots of other people have pointed out over the years, Stiles has dozens of fics devoted to shipping him with people he’s never actually even shared a scene with in canon.

With Josh, one of the first things that jumped out at me about him was when they were trying to identify him after his first appearance in 5A, nobody else seemed to know who he was, but Scott did, he said ‘I know him, that’s Josh Diaz.’ One of my biggest things over the seasons is I’ve always wanted to see stuff about how Scott interacts with people outside his core group, how he’s seen by other people at school, who else he might have history with, and so that was an immediate in for making headcanons for what kind of history Scott might have with this new kid. Yeah, Scott was a loner before the bite, Stiles was his only real friend, that’s the narrative - except that’s more what we were TOLD rather than what we were SHOWN, and it never quite fit. 

He obviously wasn’t in with the cool kids pre-pilot, but Danny was at least familiar with him, that girl Harley was hanging out with him and Stiles in the pilot, and Scott’s friendly and easy to get along with and not actually ever shown as shy. He didn’t have a problem introducing himself to Allison right away, like…he knew something was up with his hearing and he overheard her needing a pen, but its not like he was completely clueless on how to form a connection with someone new, you know? So it just never made sense to me that Scott has no significant interactions or history with anyone else other than Stiles, pre-pilot. And with Josh obviously being a loner himself, like all Theo’s pack were, I could easily see he and Scott having at least been aware of each other before the show in the way that a lot of kids in high school who are on the outskirts of things for whatever reason know who each other are, even if they don’t seek each other out to form their own cliques.

Plus, on top of that I just wanted to see more interaction between Scott and Theo’s pack in general, whether it was with Josh or even followed up on with Corey and Hayden in 6A. Scott is the only character on the show who really gets what they went through, and they’re the only characters who could ever fully understand his own experiences (with the exception of Lydia, but the show missed the boat on those parallels years ago). Every other supernatural creature was either born one - even if they discovered it later in life like Kira, or they sought out the bite. Liam’s the exception there, but even though he didn’t have a choice in the matter, that he was an unwilling werewolf like Scott was, he was only bitten due to Scott’s attempt to save him. Liam’s alpha never actually wanted anything from him, never tried to turn him into a monster, so while his journey has some similarities to Scott’s, they aren’t true parallels.

But Tracy, Josh, Corey and Hayden were each targeted and exploited exactly the same as Peter did with Scott. Their lives were deliberately fucked with by the villains who saw them as nothing more than tools to be used, no matter how much trauma was inflicted in the process. They were each told they had no choice in any of this, that it was do what they were told or die (again). They were all mistrusted and shunned at times by people who insisted they were the good guys, and these innocent teenagers were the bad guys, dangerous, monstrous, much like Scott’s experiences with the hunters in S1 and his struggle to see himself and other werewolves as something other than the monsters people kept telling him they were. (And don’t forget that Josh was ultimately killed after refusing to do what Theo told him to, when he said screw you, I’m not putting on that mask, I don’t want anything to do with this crap, I just want to go. Which is pretty much exactly the answer Scott gave to Peter, Chris, Derek and everyone else who tried to push him in a certain direction in S1).

And that’s common ground that you could do so much with in fic - people have done a lot more with far less. And yeah, it could be with any of the four, but the show set it up so that Corey had Mason to turn to as a possible connection, Hayden had Liam, Tracy had Malia and Lydia. Josh was such a throwaway character (sigh) that the only possible connection they ever bothered to make for him was that Scott at least, knew who he was before all this. So pretty much any exploration of Josh’s character was always going to be through Scott, and there’s plenty to explore through those shared experiences of both knowing what it’s like to be so callously used by people who don’t give a fuck about you or what you want. Hell, they both know what it’s like to be murdered by the same person (Theo). Scott/Josh teaming up out of a mutual hatred of their murderer? Yes plz!

So yeah. Basically I put Josh in the same category I do Boyd, Danny and the other characters I consider chock full of missed opportunities. And its not really a coincidence that my biggest noncanon ships for Scott include all these characters that are more headcanon than actual personalities on the show….that’s because with the way the show constantly screws Scott over and refuses to acknowledge all the times EVERYONE including his closest allies does things at his expense…the characters with the least screentime (like Josh, Boyd, Danny) are pretty much the only ones who don’t have canon scenes with Scott that make me grind my teeth. And thus there’s nothing from canon I have to ignore or make my peace with before being comfortable shipping them with Scott. LOL pretty fucked up that that’s the biggest basis for a lot of my ships, but hey, welcome to TW fandom amirite?