#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

[colethewolf]

u know what annoys me abt teen wolf beside everything? ppl overestimating scott as true alpha by saying "entire pack of alphas went after mccall and he was the one left standing" as if he had a hand in killing the alphas. i mean ennis died bc of deucalion (n derek for injuring him), jennifer killed kali and caused the twins to lose their alpha spark, and deucalion had a change of heart and left. even derek lost his alpha spark for his sister. ALL those events have nothing to do w scott, he literally did nothing to stop the pack. he became a true alpha when the party was over. like i understand if in later seasons they shpwed his power as true alpha n praised it, but dude acted like a beta w leadership skills. so it was very disappointing they didnt show true alpha powers in the show yet kept depicting scott as a powerful one. its been years, i should move one, but it still pisses me off.

Yeah, that's partially why I don't like that character. I don't like how everybody else basically always did the heavy lifting & then Scott got all the credit. Like, first of all, the alpha pack went after Derek. That was literally their whole thing for the majority of the season. They wanted Derek to join their pack & started killing his betas.

It's the same with the other seasons (at least the ones I watched, because I didn't watch 4-6). But who stopped Peter? Stiles/Jackson threw the molotov at him, Allison ignited it, and Derek slashed his throat.

Who stopped the Kanima? Gerard killed Matt & Derek/Peter killed the kanima, letting Jackson finally morph into a werewolf. Scott poisoned Gerard and then let Gerard run off to live for many more years.

Who stopped the alpha pack & Jennifer? As you already said, Deucalion killed Ennis. Jennifer killed Kali. Deucalion was allowed to leave (again, because Scott lets villains walk). The alpha twins were adopted into Scott's pack. And Jennifer was killed by Peter.

The only time the writers made Scott "kill" a villain was the nogitsune wearing Stiles' body (and even that was a cop out because the nogitsune was canonically undefeatable and unable to be killed) so void!stiles turned to dust. Then we go to the movie & it's DEREK & Parrish who killed the Nogitsune while Scott stands and watches.

lol

[princeescaluswords]

All this is just further proof that fandom is DEEP in their own, self indulgent crafted narrative/au that they assert as "canon". They actually HATE the show for subverting common tropes. No, the broody and attractive white man from a distinguished lineage isn't the hero. Nor is the snarky white sidekick. Fanfiction would have you believe Derek was kindly offering lessons to Scott, who rudely snubbed him. Stans whine about the "lost potential" of exploring the Hale Family, but it WAS NEVER ABOUT THEM!!!!

Your question struck me because it's so completely true. They claim to be looking at canon, but they really aren't.

One story I read this morning had Stiles joining the Hale Pack and ending his friendship with Scott because Scott 'neglected' him after Gerard kidnapped him in Master Plan (2x12), because the fact that Scott 'left with Allison and Chris' shows that Scott didn't care about Stiles at all.

Except that we don't see Scott leave with Allison and Chris. The next scene we see is Allison breaking up with Scott and we know it's the same night. But there's no indication that Scott didn't talk to Stiles after Jackson's resurrection. And it certainly seems that Stiles and Scott are in a pretty good situation with each other at the end of the season. Why would their minds go to "Scott didn't care that Stiles was kidnapped and hurt!?!?!"

Especially when their minds don't go there after Raving (2x08). It took you a moment to figure out what I was talking about, didn't you?

When Victoria is using poison gas to kill Scott, Derek, who is standing next to Stiles and his mountain ash line, has to shout at Stiles to break the line because he's sensed Scott is in trouble. And Stiles huffs and breaks the line. But we don't see Stiles ask Scott if he's okay. We don't see Stiles help find Scott. We don't see Stiles at the Animal Clinic while Deaton is taking care of Scott. Derek's there and waiting, but Stiles isn't.

Why don't their minds go to "Stiles is selfishly focused on his own needs and is neglecting Scott!?!?" Because it would be a ludicrous conclusion to draw; Stiles has demonstrated his care and feelings for Scott in the past just as Scott has demonstrated his care and feelings for Stiles in the past.

Now, this is a double standard, one of many, many, many double standards in a fandom that seems to relish them. And one could make the argument that it's a deliberate and conscious choice to ignore one scene in order to support their desired conclusions in another, but after reading enough well-meaning author's notes which talk about how they think that "Scott was a better friend than canon portrays," I think it might be something more troubling:

The fandom has been indoctrinated so deeply by the culture to see non-white characters as inherently not as good or as interesting as white characters that they can't really judge fairly.

I know that there are a lot of minority readers out there looking at each other and going 'duh, stupid white man is just figuring this out now!?!?!', so let me elaborate. I've always assigned a certain level of malicious self-interest to this before, that they chose to ignore scenes that run counter to their desired end -- they wanted the show to be about the Hales and Stiles, but, as you put it, it wasn't, so they were going to get back at the production.

But I'm beginning to suspect that white supremacy is so fully ingrained in the culture that it's become like an optical illusion. They literally cannot see the scenes that establish the idea that this is Scott's story and he's the lead protagonist.

As an immediate aside, no one should possibly interpret this as me arguing that white viewers have no obligation to overcome this narrative illusion or that minority viewers must teach them otherwise if they want to be able to participate fully in fandom. Individuals are responsible for their own behavior, regardless of cultural influences!

But it explains how often well-meaning people can come up with interpretations so essentially disproved by the narrative, again and again. People can say that they like Scott but believe that Scott somehow had less virtue, less talent or less claim to the focus within the story.

It's why they can argue that Scott had 'shit control' because he didn't follow Derek, when Scott literally surprised Derek with his control in Heart Monitor (1x06).

It's why they can argue that Scott was a poor student or can't keep a secret or can't bake or can't do any number of things it is assumed that white characters can do without question, how he is a lovable idiot without any positive qualities that weren't given to him by the Hales or Stiles.

It's why they can scold Scott for not being able to tell that Theo was a chimera infiltrator but forget that Derek couldn't tell that Deaton wasn't an alpha and couldn't tell that Jennifer was the Darach.

It's why they hate Deaton for insulting Derek once and not 'helping enough' but think Peter was the Sassiest Happy Fun Uncle who cared for his family so much.

It's why Kira is a placeholder and annoying, but Cora somehow wasn't.

It's why Monroe being slashed up by the Beast, forced to cover herself with her friend's body, and then having to wait there for the sheriff to find her is a 'stupid reason' to start hunting supernaturals, but Scott telling Stiles to go talk to his father about the person he killed and then decided to hide it is grounds for the end of the friendship if not outright revenge murder.

It's why Stiles could never ever trust Morrell because she worked with the Alpha Pack and promised to euthanize him to protect others, but he would love, love, love, love, and have Derek Hale's babies when Derek worked with Peter and spent an entire season trying to murder Lydia.

It's why they so strongly believed that the show should have ended with Alpha Derek and the Hale Family reclaiming their family's legacy, with all the little betas following them around.

It's why the subversive nature of having the hero be the earnest Latino and not the broody white antihero flies over their heads. It's why they conjure up elaborate and self-contradictory fantasies of unreliable narrators.

They just can't believe that this is Scott's story.

I'm finding it harder to believe that every one of these people is a malicious asshole who chooses to ignore canon so they can get their white power fantasy fix. It's exactly how it's been described.

[msmischief101]

NOW HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE.

Belasko: Where's your power, Scott? Scott: Who are you? Belasko: A devoted fan. Show me the man who took down Deucalion and broke the Argents. I came for that Alpha.

Ah, wow. Two episodes in a row, huh? Okay, fine, let's go through this point by f*cking point.

Let's start with Deucalion.

Deucalion: Jennifer injures him severely then Derek tricks her into healing his eyesight (which somehow made him reconsider all his life choices (?)) and the shithead is allowed to leave. He comes back because Scott asked him to manipulate Theo into killing the chimeras. He comes back again and is killed by a random hunter.

And now, the Argents. Oh boy.

Gerard: Deaton suggests poisoning him which Scott does (..... I hate Master Plan, I hate it with a burning passion). The piece of shit survives and is healed by Chris. Comes back with a vengeance in 6b and is killed by his own daughter.

Chris: Starts doubting his family after Stiles told him what Kate did. Stops hunting werewolves because of Allison.

Kate: Is killed by Peter (and kinda sacrifices herself for Allison.. maybe?). Comes back with a vengeance (s4). Is poisoned by Chris. Comes back with a vengeance (6b). Is poisoned again. She's either dead or alive. Who tf knows.

Victoria: Derek accidentally bit her (still no idea how that worked out) while saving Scott's life. She kills herself because of the code.

Allison: Manipulated by Kate. Snaps out of it as she realises how terrible Kate is. Goes dark after her mother's death then snaps out of it after she realises how horrible Gerard is. Is killed by an Oni while saving Isaac's life.

You gotta check your sources, man. Something doesn't add up here.

[asterekmess]

1-4 What the fuck is a true alpha? A recurring joke? A convenient plot armor? A desperate attempt to make an irrelevant character look ‘relevant’ despite canon showing otherwise? Scott/Posey Stans think that Scott McCall has a right to command and dictate everyone’s life because he is a tWuE aLpAhA; Scott has a right to play judge, jury & executioner with his “inferior” friends, and he has a right to determine what is wrong or right based on his own benefit and bigoted black and white mentality.

2-4 If you think that this sounds an awful lot like the Divine Right of Kings, you are absolutely right. An unearned (and undeserved) mystical superiority or blessing, a fabricated sense of purity, goes a long way in ameliorating Scott McCall’s Failures and Fuck-ups. And like kings who rule by Divine Right, he can do as he likes. Which is why Scott can patronize and lie to Allison and Kira to control them, assault Isaac and Jackson due to his own pathological jealousy and possessiveness,

3-4 use Hayden (Liam’s girlfriend) as bait against the Dread Doctors without her consent to play the hero, dehumanize Stiles and accuse Stiles of being a violent, dangerous, inhuman monster and serial killer for daring to accidentally kill his abuser in self-defense, sell Derek and his Pack to the hunters, refuse to tell his girlfriend Allison the truth about her mother’s death to look ‘good’ in her eyes,

4-4 plot/conspire with Gerard Argent and Deaton behind everyone’s back to violate Derek Hale’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent for his own benefit, claim that the Argents had a reason to slaughter the Hales (including HUMANS and CHILDREN) in front of Derek Hale and of his comatose uncle – and then Scott/Posey Stans will consider everyone kicking Scott’s whiny, toxic excuse of an ass to the curb and not giving an utter crap when Scott died in Season 5 as an act equivalent of treason

I put all your asks together so I didn’t get confused (which is v likely to happen) and I thank you for numbering them for me. <3

The concept of a true alpha...sigh. Look, I see the intention, okay? I see the goal, the idea that you don’t have to kill someone to become an Alpha. That there can be “Good” Alphas who haven’t killed anyone. But I also think it’s lazy writing. This is one the few instances where TW hadn’t actually shot themselves in the foot yet. They gave us so little information on werewolves that they never actually said that the only way to become an Alpha was by killing another Alpha. They could very easily have said “Also, you can become an Alpha this other way” (Be it by passing the Alpha spark down to children willingly, or being beaten in a special kind of combat, or through a ritual of some kind)

But they didn’t just want another way to be the Alpha. They wanted a way that didn’t take any effort. It would be too hard to introduce another Alpha that would give up their spark to Scott, or to have him put in the effort to do a ritual. They needed a way to make Scott an Alpha without any additional effort. Part of me honestly wonders if they did it because they knew they’d lost a lot of Scott fans by the end of Season 2, what with all of his betrayals and lies and what he did to Derek. They needed a way to reaffirm that Scott was the good guy, so they made up the True Alpha thing and said “Look! He’s so pure and goodhearted and he has so much good will, that he can’t even help but become an Alpha”

They demonized werewolves by reducing them to murderers who had to kill for power (In Derek’s case it was survival, and i’ll fight for him.) and then held Scott up as a saint because he managed it without killing.

Except that he had killed. Or at least tried to kill. How could he be this pure person they claimed if he spent weeks poisoning a cancer patient, lying to everyone around him, and he took Pleasure in it. He was Proud of himself for his lies and his tricks and for getting back at Derek by hurting him. That’s the kind of behavior we expect from Stiles, who is established as a morally gray character. You cannot have Scott do something like that and then make the claim that he is morally pure.

Once Scott finds out from Morrell that killing someone will take away his True Alpha status, he goes out of his way to avoid killing people even when it puts others at risk. This ISN’T an Avatar moment, okay? He doesn’t summon the power of his ancestors and render the villains completely incapable of harm. He just fucking lets them go! Deucalion gets his fucking eyesight back for fuck’s sake. He was MORE dangerous than before and they let him go! (I know Derek was part of that, but I’m pretty sure Derek was possessed by a pod person by that point)

He never said he’d behave. No one checked on him or watched to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. They just let him leave. He could’ve just rebuilt a new Alpha pack. Could’ve killed dozens more people.

Jennifer would have too, had Peter not killed her.

Even better, he brings Ethan and Aiden into his pack. They walked right up to him and told him “Everyone is hunting for us because we killed a ton of people” and he just took them in? Gave them protection from the families of the people they’d slaughtered? All because they followed him around for a bit and said “We’ll only kill for you from now on.”

And this is why I get so frustrated about the blue eyes. The concept of ‘taking an innocent life’ is so fucking vague? Scott is indirectly responsible for countless deaths throughout the show. Whether by inaction or because the people doing the killing were acting on his orders, or whatever the fuck else I can’t think of at the moment. It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t intended to kill anyone. He should not still have his True Alpha status. Period. But he does, so apparently Scott can kill as many people as he wants, actually, so long as he doesn’t do it with his own claws and teeth. Or maybe he just can’t kill a human who hasn’t killed anyone else? Who the fuck knows.

I’ll say it again. If The Alpha spark can be used to heal someone, why didn’t Scott use it to save Allison? She wasn’t cursed. She was stabbed. He could’ve done the same thing Derek did. Peter even said that it can be done on accident. All it requires is that he do the pain drain and not stop when it starts to hurt.

To be quite honest, I don’t blame Scott’s True Alpha eyes for his entitlement and his belief that he can do no wrong. He held that same notion way before his eyes ever turned red. The eyes are to blame for no one else calling him out for his actions. You’re told by the only fucking person who seems to know what’s going on in the supernatural world that this kid’s eyes turned red all on their own because he is meant to be an Alpha. That it’s because he is good and pure and it’s a sign of his worthiness. He literally was just gifted extra power, apparently because he’s the only one worthy of it. How the fuck are you supposed to deal with that? Are you supposed to be the one person who tells fucking Werewolf Jesus (technically Derek is Actual werewolf jesus what with the evolution thing, but before that Scott’s as close as it gets cus’ Peter’s just a zombie.) that he doesn’t know best? That he’s doing something wrong? If the Powers that Be made Scott an Alpha, what will they do to the one who tells him he fucked up? Everyone is just supposed to trust that Scott must be in the right. That his reasons are good enough. That he knows what’s best. Because if he doesn’t, then why the sudden Alpha eyes? Peter questions Scott often and happily, mostly because he doesn’t care if he gets struck by lightning or something. It’ll always be worth it to get that last quip in. Eventually Stiles starts to argue too, because he’s reached the point where he doesn’t care if he dies so long as everyone else important to him stops getting hurt. That’s when Scott starts cutting him out. When he stops believing Scott knows best.

And honestly, it’s like the first post I made that sparked this whole ranting binge. Scott cheats. He cheats and he uses his abilities to his advantage without ever thinking of what it does to other people. Except this time he’s not cheating at lacrosse. He’s not taking credit for bowling six strikes in a row. For some reason his eyes turned red, and everyone else is taking it as a sign that he must know better and he should be in charge, and he never disagrees.

Sure, he complains. “Why me? Why does it have to be my responsibility?”

Guess what buddy? It fucking doesn’t. If you stopped fucking ordering people around and admitted you don’t know what you’re doing to someone besides your MOM and you want someone else to take the lead? THEY WOULD. But because he will not admit any kind of weakness or that he isn’t sure what to do, he puts the weight on himself. He blames everyone else for the lead weights he tied around his waist. He doesn’t want to have to do the work, but he hates the idea of someone else being in charge. Of not being important. We’re told right off the bat that Scott wants to be important. He wants to be on first line not because he loves the game, but because he wants to be popular. He wants Allison to go out with him. This is just another way he wants to be important, and he won’t ever let go of it. He gives orders and makes calls on who gets to know what and who is worthy and won’t take responsibility for the failures, but happily takes credit for the successes. When he fucks up by not talking to people or by lying to them or making a bad call, he doesn’t admit it. He doesn’t tell anyone. He lets them think that he’s blameless so that when he actually says shit like “I lost them” someone will say “They’ll come back because you’re their leader” No. He’s not. He lost them because he pushed them away. It was his fault.

Whatever. I’m salty. *pouts* Anyway. True Alpha is dumb, and I’ve read a couple theories about how Deaton made it up, and tbh, I’d follow that logic. If you’re curious, I think I tagged it ‘true alpha’ or ‘deaton’ on my blog.

[princeescaluswords]

Black-and-White Whatever

Peter: Oh, come on. How much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what? Let Scott deal with it. Let him be the hero of his morally black and white world. The real survivors, you and I, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an Alpha. You can always make more werewolves.

Just to remind you that in this scene in Fireflies (3x03), Peter Hale says this while his nephew is trying to corral his beta, Boyd, and his sister, Cora, who have been driven moon-mad by the Alpha Pack.  Peter suggests killing them, which is what Deucalion wants to happen, or letting Boyd and Cora, out of their minds, kill any innocent people they come across.

And yet, his criticism of Scott has echoed across the fandom for years.  Peter’s self-serving appeal to Derek has become the fundamental attack against Scott McCall’s character arc.  (And it is self-serving.  Notice in the above passage how it turns out to be a subtle defense of Peter killing innocent people along with the guilty in season one and how he justifies it as survival.)  

And it is just as racist as the themes of Stiles is Always Right and Derek Deserves Nice Things, because all three of them are about the same thing: the entitlement of good-looking white males and the necessity of minority characters knowing their place.  

Peter’s argument, as Peter’s argument almost always are, was designed to get him what he wants as much as they are dishonest and insincere.  The audience knows, if they paid attention to the show at all, that Scott doesn’t devolve into black-and-white thinking.   I mean, would someone who refuses to cross the line into ‘shades of gray’ do the following things?

plan to kill Peter to cure his lycanthropy.

rescue Derek after Derek betrayed him to Peter and tried to kill Jackson

work with Derek after Derek abused him in Ice Pick (2x03)

deceive Derek by joining his pack

deceive Gerard by feeding him scant information (”You haven’t been answering your phone”) and poisoning him

try to reach an accord with a mass murdering cult leader like Deucalion

agree to join Deucalion’s pack to save his and Stiles’s parents

call on Peter to help Stiles during his possession

conspire with Chris Argent against his own father

conspire with Deucalion to stop Theo from getting the Beast’s powers

ask Peter for help and endure his annoying and pedantic lectures

try to reach an accord with Gerard and Monroe

Any one of those actions puts the lie to the idea that Scott won’t cross his own arbitrary moral boundaries.  I’m sure you can think of others, but Scott eschews black-and-white thinking throughout the show when it is necessary to save lives.   It’s actually one of Scott’s strengths in the story -- his ability to put other’s lives above his own wants and needs, including his desire not to have the power and responsibility thrust on him.

Then where does this criticism come from and why is it racist?  Because its always used to defend white male characters and argue that the story should be theirs.

They see this fallacy in Scott refusing to condone Peter’s killing spree in Season 1 or fighting against Derek’s recruitment of child soldiers and kill-them-first thinking in Season 2 or believing that Stiles would be capable of murder in Season 5.  White men have the privilege to ignore morality when it suits them, and so if Scott considers himself better than Peter, it is unforgivable.  White men should be in charge, so when he resists Peter’s and Derek’s attempts to compel and control him, it is stubornness or obsession.  That he opposes Derek’s attempt to murder his way out of the mess he created in Season 2 must be stupidity.  That Scott could possibly (and finally) think he can hold Stiles accountable for his behavior in Season 5 is tyranny.

Look at it this way -- very few people in the fandom (except me) hold it against Derek that he tried to murder Lydia, because he believed that she was the murderous kanima.   It would have been the slaughter of an innocent girl performed by other children at Derek’s orders, but he was doing it for the greater good.   Yet, when Scott tells Stiles to go talk to his dad, the chief law-enforcement officer in the city, about the manslaughter that Scott thinks Stiles performed, it’s ... well, you know fandom’s reaction.   Who, to them, is entitled to think in terms of moral necessity?   Not the Latino.

And, to be sure, it’s not just this minority character.   It’s perfectly okay when the Sheriff is willing to risk exposing the supernatural world for his shifting dedication to the law.   It’s perfectly okay for Stiles to despise Peter for the entire show and decide if Malia gets to know the identity of her biological father.   Yet it’s not okay for Alan Deaton to act according to his own concept of right and wrong and his own code of behavior.  It’s not okay for Mason to hold what Theo did against him.

Women, too, get it in the end.  Compare how the fandom treats Derek, Peter, Argent, and Theo compared to how they treat Jennifer, Monroe, Allison, and Meredith.  Black-and-white thinking -- the reduction of people to good or bad with no empathy for necessity, trauma, or history -- is rightfully considered a bad thing, but fandom’s more than willing to use it to dismiss a character like Braeden because she’s a mercenary as they are to infantilize Isaac because he’s a hot white dude.  Isaac was willing to kill Lydia because she turned him down for a date but ... he’s baby.

This black-and-white-world criticism isn’t really being applied as a sincere criticism of Scott.  It’s echoing a single solitary quote from Peter, a character whose very nature is repeatedly described as unreliable and manipulative, in order to undercut Scott’s position as hero protagonist.   

BUT IT’S NOT RACISM.