#i know i'm probably the go to for hale sister stuff and i very much appreciate your pandering to me

[redheadedbrunette]

Any headcannons on the hale sisters? Or any of the spy school characters?

they're both incredibly jealous each other for the upbringing they got. trixie is jealous that erica got to be a part of the family legacy and be a hale in a way that, even if she were allowed to start training as a spy, she would never get to be. erica is jealous of trixie because she gets to forge her own identity outside of the spy business. because even though she's good at espionage and doesn't want that sense of identity taken away, she wishes that it could have been a choice, and more and more she's realizing the toll that it takes on her personal relationships and is wondering if it's really worth it.

erica was homeschooled for the entirety of her time leading up to her entrance at the academy, aside from the two weeks she attended second grade when trixie started kindergarten. it was around the time catherine and alexander's marriage was starting to fray at the edges, and they were hoping that if both girls were going to school, then catherine could spend more time working around the world because she felt obliged to stay at home with them when they were young. it went kind of horribly, and while erica herself didn't get into any fights (because she had been warned explicitly not to hurt any of her classmates), it was going pretty bad for her socially speaking and trixie had received no such warnings and was completely willing to release all of her feral energy and bite seven year olds who were being mean to her big sister. erica was pulled out almost right away and went back to homeschooling, and after her suspension was over, trixie went back and finished the year and started going to boarding school the next year. meanwhile, erica was just taken around with catherine most of the time and dropped back with alexander when catherine went on more involved missions and just did her schoolwork there.

[star-mum]

the ages in Teen Wolf make no fucking sense and the MTV writers made it MY ISSUES SPECIFICALLY

insane rambling (and very bad math) under the cut

I was thinking.... the Hales weren't recluses ??? (post fire Derek doesn't count, he's been through stuff) cause Derek went to highschool like normal ??? So WHYYYY (besides convenient writing) doesn't ANYONE REMEMBER THEM ??????

Like yeah Derek was older than the main cast, whatever, but CORA ????? SHE'S THEIR AGE ???? THEY PROBABLY ALL WENT TO PRESCHOOL TOGETHER ???? AT LEAST MIDDLE SCHOOL ????

SO !!! i have JUST NOW decided that Cora, Derek and Laura are 3 years apart from each other. "What about Talia and Peter?" you ask me and if you'd given me a FUCKING SECOND I'D TELL YOU !!! GEEZ !!!

Okay so IF we assume Peter is in his early 20s when Derek is in highschool considering ONLY the actor who played him in the Paige Flashback then okay, fine they're like almost 20 years apart BUT !!! Look at Peter now !!! LOOK AT HIM !!! THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN 4-6 YEARS (depending on how old you think s1 Derek is) (we'll get to that too, hold on) SO !!!! Im gonna ignore that weird casting choice and confidently give Talia and Peter a 13 years age difference, why ? you ask... idk sounds like a good number, I like things in 3s- WRONG !!! I DID EXTENSIVE MATH AND THINKING ON THIS !!!

We're gonna take some liberty here and assume Wolf Born Families are a bit traditional when it comes to kids and stuff SO Talia would've probably had her first kid in her very early 20s BUT we also need to consider that she was The Alpha of the house (and I refuse to believe Hale isn't HER family name) (OH ALSO !! Since the spark passed from her to Laura we can assume, cause I want to, that, at least, the Hale Pack worked as a matriarchy) which demands a lot of respect and work soooo I'm gonna go with her being about 24-25 when she had Laura

WHICH !!! Would've made Peter 11-12, which is not that different from the age gap he has with Talia, so he probably used to look at Laura much more as a sister than a niece (you know for the pain and suffering and drama) SO !!! when Derek was 15, Peter was 29-30 aaaand 29 makes the most sense to me, so I'd go with that!

Please dont get me started on the contradicting age of our "teen" cast !! Scott is 15 and then 18 in 10 months ???? Doesn't make sense !!!! So to ME the teen cast is all 17 in season 1 !!! except for Alison who's a year older and very understandably insecure about turning 19 and still being in highschool. And then in the span of 10 months we roll around to Scott's 18 birthday !! hooray time is linear !!!

All this to say, these are all people around the same age as our main characters AND THEY WERE PART OF THE TOWN !!!! HOW COME NO ONE REMEMBERS THEM ????

Even if we operate on the belief that Derek is, during season one, between 19-22 (which feels correct to me) that still makes the family fire NOT THAT LONG AGO (4-6 years) HOW COME PEOPLE ARE FORGETTING ABOUT IT ALREADY ????

Cora is the same age as EVERYBODY ELSE !!!! did they not go to middle school together ? do they not remember her ? who was she friends with ? Before Paige died Derek was very well integrated into High School culture, we have no reason to believe either of his sisters were homeschooled. Peter was a grOWN ADULT !!! I KNOW THE HALES WERE OLD MONEY RICH BUT DID HE NOT HAVE A JOB ???? DID HE NOT HAVE A LAW FIRM TO WORK AT ??? (recently came across a "Peter Hale had a law degree" post and it's canon to me forever now) Did Laura not pick up her siblings from school not a SINGLE DAY OF THEIR LIFE ????

OH !! WHICH REMINDS ME !! Derek said at some point that the fire happened when he and his sister were still at school and I'm pretty sure that was on s1 so he obviously meant Laura (i don't think the writers had Cora planned from the beginning, she was there to work in Erica's place) BUT !!! What if he did mean Cora, he walked his little 12 yo sister to school because he's Big Sister Laura (18 yo) was away for college at that time !!! And Kate had no choice but to leave those 3 out cause Laura wouldn't have come home without a good reason and Cora went to school at the time was Derek just a different building

This brings me to my (hopefully) final point: what the fuck is Deatons problem ???? He was Talia's emissary, he knew the pack inside and out and they very OBVIOUSLY KNEW HIM !!! HE WAS BESIDE THEIR ALPHA ALL THE DAMN TIME !!! How come Derek didn't recognize him ???? My vague memory on the dialogue between Deaton and Peter in s1 makes it seem like they Knew Each Other, in that ominous way... why didn't Derek ?? He wasn't a small child, he knew Deaton too, he could've remembered him ????

Again... things that feel like they were written into the plot only AFTER s1 aired

[redheadedbrunette]

Hmm…I see. I WOULD love for you to explain further. I am definitely not a fan of hers, but I’d like to hear your point of view.

I can totally understand where I think you’re coming from. The trope of “character we’ve heard nothing about has suddenly always existed and had relevance” is normally very poorly done. However, tropes are tools, and done right, it can bring new dynamics and conflicts to the table, and I think Trixie is an example of those things being done well for the most part. But, to be fair, I'm more a fan of the version of her in my head and the implications of her existence and how that relates to other characters, namely Erica (who I'm sure you know I love very much).

She's fascinating as a foil to Erica, because, adjusted for the obvious personality differences, she's analogous to what Erica would have been if she hadn't been so deeply thrown into spying, and she is either an example that there is a way a Hale can exist as a mostly well adjusted person or (due to her hyper awareness of all the secrets that everyone her is clearly keeping) proof that something is more fundamentally wrong in that family beyond just espionage. The first one, you could tie into Zoe, and how she’s kind of been going off the rails and joining DADD, and the second you could tie into how all the Hales are some varying combination of socially inept and horrible people, both of which are interesting directions!

The dynamic between the Hale sisters has so much potential, and I'm so sad that Mr. Gibbs didn't mean into that more and leaned more into the Mike/Trixie, which I'm much more meh on (don't hate it, I understand it's purpose in terms of driving things forward in SSAS, but that's not what's interesting.

On the one hand, we have someone who Erica cares deeply about, and it’s set up in such a way that the fact that we haven’t heard of her up until this point undermines it, but rather is a testament to it. Trixie is someone  who she needs to protect, because Trixie can’t protect herself. There’s also the plus side in these two books (although it really doesn’t become obvious as a plus until SSPX), that they’re never in the same room and have to interact, so we can infer the specifics of what the relationship looks like.

Also, through Trixie, we have a single character who doesn’t view Erica as a spy, which means that she’s not seeing the cool stuff Erica at all or what she does see isn’t in the framework that makes it cool. (e.g. she’s probably aware that Erica has a crazy good memory, but without it coming into play on something already cool, it comes across less as this incredibly useful skill and more as a fun party trick.) So what does she see? Probably something like a complete nerd. Terribly socially awkward, no friends. Or, rather, one friend. Trixie is Erica’s friend. Which means it makes sense when Trixie says she’s protective of Erica at the end of SSR. There is a massive gap between how everyone in the series perceives Erica and how Trixie perceives Erica, and Trixie’s way is probably closer to who Erica actually is as a person.

And I am so mad that this angle wasn’t leaned into more. You can play it for comedy, most obviously, but you can also play it for drama (there’s such a gap between who Trixie imagined Erica was and who she actually is, and it frustrates them both, but at the same time Trixie’s still seeing something real and she’s the only one who’s been able to see it).

And the fact that SSPX didn’t lean into this relationship at all is really to it’s detriment, and the big reason Erica feels OOC in SSPX, because Trixie has been fundamental to her emotional journey up until the point and we haven’t seen it get resolved.