I do not mind apologism at all, as long as our apologia can coexist! I feel apologetic for posting negative things about the Handsomest Man in Fandom anyway, so.
See, I think Derek Hale is hitting the fandom id in a couple of different ways. He's clearly hitting some people in the pain! forgiveness! trauma! healing! place, and he's also hitting me in the "people *often* have good reasons to do bad things! boundaries! step away!" place, which I really like from a character I find basically sympathetic. I totally buy that violence is one of Derek's major tools, but I don't think that's consequence-free or should be met with instant forgiveness, or that it's necessarily good for people to plunge in there with him. I love how transparent Derek's motivations for doing unpleasant stuff is, it makes it much more interesting than, say, Kate, whose motivations were always kind of evil-for-evil's sake.
There are a lot of interpretations going around of how he seduced Erica into joining the pack. I tend to lean towards "it was creepy, but from his perspective he was offering her one of his two life tools, which are violence and hotness". But I've definitely seen the idea that it was a third creepy line-crossing (to parallel Matt and Peter's).
Hilariously, the scale I was using for not taking characterization seriously before this was the Barney Stinson Scale of Creepiness, which I think is actually probably worse than the Vampire Diaries scale because it doesn't have the excuse of genre excesses.
I don't think Derek wanted power, but I think he desperately wanted to not be alone, and the only way he knew to keep Scott around was to cut off his metaphorical escape route.
SEE that's the thing: Derek's determination to do what it takes to keep Scott with him just makes me feel like Scott is making a good choice trying to keep himself out of Derek's power, even if he's making it instinctively and even if the Gerard thing was also bad. And I absolutely agree that Derek keeps making mistakes because he's in over his head, which I find so incredibly sympathetic, I just think that with the tools and decision-making power he has he's already verging over into doing actively bad things, and he needs to either find a way to turn himself around or he's going to wind up a hardcore villain instead of an ambiguous guy.
See, in my reading I am really really pleased that he's around and think he's fascinating. And like to watch him glower. We can agree on the glowering for sure!
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See, I think Derek Hale is hitting the fandom id in a couple of different ways. He's clearly hitting some people in the pain! forgiveness! trauma! healing! place, and he's also hitting me in the "people *often* have good reasons to do bad things! boundaries! step away!" place, which I really like from a character I find basically sympathetic. I totally buy that violence is one of Derek's major tools, but I don't think that's consequence-free or should be met with instant forgiveness, or that it's necessarily good for people to plunge in there with him. I love how transparent Derek's motivations for doing unpleasant stuff is, it makes it much more interesting than, say, Kate, whose motivations were always kind of evil-for-evil's sake.
There are a lot of interpretations going around of how he seduced Erica into joining the pack. I tend to lean towards "it was creepy, but from his perspective he was offering her one of his two life tools, which are violence and hotness". But I've definitely seen the idea that it was a third creepy line-crossing (to parallel Matt and Peter's).
Hilariously, the scale I was using for not taking characterization seriously before this was the Barney Stinson Scale of Creepiness, which I think is actually probably worse than the Vampire Diaries scale because it doesn't have the excuse of genre excesses.
I don't think Derek wanted power, but I think he desperately wanted to not be alone, and the only way he knew to keep Scott around was to cut off his metaphorical escape route.
SEE that's the thing: Derek's determination to do what it takes to keep Scott with him just makes me feel like Scott is making a good choice trying to keep himself out of Derek's power, even if he's making it instinctively and even if the Gerard thing was also bad. And I absolutely agree that Derek keeps making mistakes because he's in over his head, which I find so incredibly sympathetic, I just think that with the tools and decision-making power he has he's already verging over into doing actively bad things, and he needs to either find a way to turn himself around or he's going to wind up a hardcore villain instead of an ambiguous guy.
See, in my reading I am really really pleased that he's around and think he's fascinating. And like to watch him glower. We can agree on the glowering for sure!