Teen Wolf through 2x06

[sapote]

1. The season 2 intro is hilarious and wonderful to me.

2. So we all know that one of the two executive producers worked on the first and second Highlander movies, right? Every time there's a fight scene under a bridge I laugh and laugh.

3. Man okay this show is trying hard to have Strong Female Characters but for instance, if the D'argent hunting family is led by women, why have we only seen men in active leadership? I really liked the scene where Allison's dad explained that she was being trained to be a commander, but why not have another commander do that, then? So far all her mom does is give people cutting looks and once fake an injury to get two lines of dialogue. Also, Aunt Kate definite reported to Allison's father and her grandfather, so I call shenanigans. Still, it was really beautifully shot as a scene and I'm sure if someone wanted to make a fanvid laboriously constructing Allison's Rise To Power and stuff they could, I'd just be tempted to label it as a bit of an AU, myself.

This only comes to mind because I try hard not to do Bechdel counts but I just noticed a major Bechdel fail where Lydia was all like SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON and Allison launched into a long talk about how she and Scott were secretly dating, which a) so not the point, I think the werewolf thing is probably marginally more important b) I can't imagine Lydia gives a fuck about that, Lydia's got other stuff to worry about. I understand that Allison was trying to put her off but damn.

...I am growing quite fond of Lydia. I am also liking Allison pretty okay: I am gratified by the fact that so far every time she's physically weak and needs Scott to save her, she's paralleled by Stiles needing the same thing. Orangecrush1189 has been all over the Scott/Stiles, which dang, yeah. Chain him up in the basement and feed him live mice indeed.

4. So the fanfic has everyone hanging out as a big happy wolf family, right? And the show, meanwhile, is trying to set up kind of a Spike and Drusilla vs. the Scoobies sort of thing, except with more moral neutrality on both sides. I haven't actually done any reading for this fandom yet but I remember giandujakiss commenting that fanon and canon are very, very different.

Comments

[giandujakiss]

Re: 4 - yes, exactly. The show has mostly been about Scott caught between warring factions, and the fic is all "Derek's pack, led in part by Stiles as pack mother, everyone else (including Scott, Lydia, and Jackson) is a beta."

[sapote]

Unless something else profoundly Sterek-y happens by the end of the currently-aired episodes, I am having trouble seeing how everyone thinks it's going to enter the canon. I like it as a fandom ship! A lot! I just, as far as a canon ship, among other things, Stiles is notably blind to male pulchritude, the characters don't particularly like each other and in fact have strong opposing loyalties, there's already an out queer character (two or three, actually, but the others are basically extras) and having someone else have a very special coming-out episode would strike kind of a different tone... I am aware though that these are the fightin' words of a massive shipwar in the fandom, though. And I don't want to war on anyone's ship! The gentlemen in question are very pretty and I like Nerd/Stoic Smolder relationships! But... I confess to being a little taken aback at how unlikely the whole things seems, since a huge faction thinks it's going to happen any moment now. Should I just wait and get caught up?

[giandujakiss]

No, I don't think the dynamic materially changes. I do think it's plausible that in reaction to the fandom - which TPTB are clearly aware of - we can expect to see more Derek/Stiles interaction, but I also don't think it will become canon. But there was an interesting generational analysis about that.

[sapote]

Huh I was not aware of how much attention it was getting from producers. That's really interesting because I was thinking of a Big Gay Plot Point as kind of being a 90s thing, and that we're probably still a while out from bisexuality being a thing for tv gentlemen, but maybe I just don't know kids these days!

[giandujakiss]

I forget - you saw this right? I mean, this is the official Teen Wolf tumblr.

[sapote]

Yeah but I kind of thought that was a one-off, not part of a sustained escalation of fanservice :D

[giandujakiss]

It feels to me like TPTB are sort of figuring it out. They've been slow on the uptake but they've obviously seen now where the fans are heading, which is why I expect - especially in S3 - to see Derek and Stiles develop more of an onscreen relationship. I don't expect the 'ship to be canon; I just expect to see more fodder for fans.

[sapote]

Ahhhh so this is part of the new porousness of the line between the content creators and the fans, which is one of those developments in fandom that I try to ignore a lot because of SPN... thank you for contextualizing!