#aydia

[neongiza]

Vladislava Galagan

[spikeface]

pleaseeee lydia for the character game (this is blakchholes ignore the url)

Hiiii and thank you for the ask!

How I feel about this character: I love her!! I'm a sucker for a bitchy and secretly lonely popular girl so Lydia got me from the start. The fact that they make her lie about almost every facet of her personality while instantly becoming obsessed with someone who pushes her to break down her walls? And throw her in the deep end where there's no possible way to maintain her strictly curated sense of self? And show how she responds to that trauma by reaching for connection, while transfiguring the iconic hot-girl-scream, a symbol of female fragility and objectification in horror, into a weapon? I love her.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: I love shipping Lydia but I'm so picky because she is too. To me, shipping her has so much to do with her obsession with control.

Lydia's obsession with control is so underrated imho. She's doing incredibly well in school in s1, even as she convinces everyone around her that she's an idiot. It would be easy for her, as a rich hot socialite, to simply ignore school, but instead she wants all of the practical uses of excelling in school (not to mention the pleasure of being correct) and the social capital of being a normie ditzy hot girl and the privacy that this facade allows her. Lydia's greatest fear is helplessness and she refuses to compromise on any point. When she sees a horrifying monster she can't get out of her mind, she will simply take a bunch of drugs about it. Problem solved!

All of this translates into her relationship with Jackson, one of my favorite ships for her. Lydia loves Jackson and she wants their relationship to be a performance that gives her advantages in society and distance and control; she wants a key to his place as a symbol of her success in her relationship, and will also keep it on her at all times because he means so much to her, and she'll lie to his face about having it. Her struggle is not so much realizing she loves Jackson but being willing to give up control by admitting it.

In one of my favorite s2 scenes, Allison asks Lydia if she can relate to the vulnerability of being in love, how "you can't breathe until you're with him." Lydia says no. She's always refused that kind of vulnerability.

It's also a very gay-coded response but I'll get to that in a bit.

If Lydia/Jackson is about Lydia wrestling with her need for control, Lydia/Aiden is at the opposite end of the spectrum. From the beginning, Aiden gives her all the control. One of the first scenes with them is Aiden offering to help her study, and Lydia retorting that she's smarter than he is. It's the kind of thing that would have prompted Jackson to meanness in turn, but Aiden is just like "ok 😍, you help me study then 😍."

Aiden is demanding and violent in other areas of his life, but not with Lydia. When she's disgusted and frightened of him after Boyd's death and avoids him, he lets her keep her distance even though, as he confesses, it hurts him. When they're hooking up, the second she expresses any displeasure, he stops everything he's doing and then does exactly what she tells him to. This isn't to praise him for doing, like, the bare minimum re: consent but to point out how deliberate it is for Aiden: he's a violent bully the rest of the time. He loves beating up Isaac and Scott, for instance, and is happy to threaten his twin about dropping Danny. But the second Kali growls at Lydia, he breaks with the alpha pack altogether. When Derek is trying to get it through his head to do the right thing, he has to frame it in terms of what Lydia would do. Aiden follows her around and believes her about the voices he can't hear and strips when she tells him to so he can be her figure-drawing doll. His final thoughts in life are whether Lydia would approve of him.

And you can see how much Lydia likes it! Aiden comforts her because he's the one person in her life who lets her have complete control. At first it's a part of her slut-phase power trip, but as they get closer, you can see the vulnerability come out.

At the same time, "I love him because I have total control" is also very gay-coded. As is, like, everything Lydia does re: Allison. From the moment they meet, Lydia seems to have no control over the intensity of her feelings about Allison, and compensates by being as controlling as she can get away with. She declares they're going to be best friends immediately, and invites herself on Allison's second date, and picks her clothes for her, and takes a prurient interest in her hook ups with Scott. It's But I'm A Cheerleader levels of gay because, while Lydia obsesses over control and privacy in every other aspect of her life, she seems to have no sense of how openly, vulnerably obsessed she is with Allison. She'll sit in her room alone in the dark for hours just waiting to talk to her. Insane!

And their care is just so mutual! A lot of their dynamic has to do with Allison protecting Lydia, but Lydia is also fiercely protective of Allison: the second Braeden grabs Allison, Lydia squares off with her.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: I ship Allydia but my favorite gen dynamic is Lydia&Allison, and love that the show prioritized friendship the way that it did. Yes, it's easy to ready gay subtext into "Allison, I love you," but it's incredibly friendship-oriented. Allison is the most important person in Lydia's life almost from the second she walks in, just as she is for Scott. Aiden and Allison die on the same night, but there's no question which hurts Lydia more. Allison echoes in every other dynamic Lydia has, especially the care she takes with other girls: Kira, Malia, Sydney, Tracy. It breaks my heart!

I also enjoy the Lydia&Stiles dynamic, especially in 3b, and adore Lydia&Scott's intimacy and support for each other. Will never be over that moment in Pressure Test when Scott turns to her, the only person in the group who can't heal from a bullet (and who's covered in scars from past assaults), and she's chomping at the bit to go flatten hunters with her voice. She's his tank!

My favorite late season dynamic is Lydia&Malia: they're SO funny together, and complement each other really well. One of the pleasures of 6a is how, with Stiles gone, Lydia&Malia's friendship takes center stage while Scott naps in the back.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Fandom largely doesn't think about Lydia so I don't know what would be my most unpopular opinion. Potentially it's that what Peter did to Lydia matters, something that Peter-fandom is eager to erase. Peter violently assaults her, and then goes out of his way to be cruel to her as he takes over her mind in s2. He pretends to be a boy her age who's interested in her just to work some mockery into his flirting, delighting in how much control he has over her--her worst nightmare. He reveals the truth in the most jarring way possible, and then toys with her terror. Once he's back, he plays at regret but only when it suits him: as soon as she has something he wants again, he'll attack her twice in the course of one conversation. Fandom tends to use Lydia's role as the smart character into a stamp of approval for their fave or OTP, and it's always annoying but disgusting when it's about Peter.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. Oh man, so many things. Since I discussed Lydia/Jackson above, I was always frustrated by how the onus seemed to be solely on Lydia to be vulnerable, rather than both of them, given that they're both control freaks who love each other but were mean to each other. Jackson should have gotten over himself and said "I love you back," geez.

I have a whole rant about her mistreatment in 6a.

I also wish we had seen more of her relationship with her family. Lydia seems so molded by her parents' acrimony and divorce, and shows that Lydia inherits her social craftiness from her mother, but the show only touches on it rarely. Natalie is also the weirdest of the parents, given her obsession with denying the truth and locking her daughter in Eichen, but the show stifles all but the briefest moments of friction between her and Lydia.

Give me a character, if you’d like!

[wolfboy88]

Moodboard: Lydia x Aiden (Aydia)

For @lydiamartinappreciation Week 2024: Day 5 - Rarepair and @teenwolfrarepairevents character of the month

[jjsstars]

lydiaweek2023: Day 5, Lydia & Death — Aiden —

|| for @lydiamartinappreciation event

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save him.” She mutters, not looking at Ethan, unable to face the brother of the lover she failed to save.

“It’s not your fault.” His hand curls around hers, it’s softer than Aiden’s ever was, a gentle squeeze instead of tight and firm. She used to say he held her like she would disappear if he didn’t use such a harsh grip, she wonders if he knew something bad was going to happen.

“Still. I’m a banshee, I should have known sooner.” Should’ve been able to stop it before it happened, gotten him as far away from that fight as possible.

“I don’t think that would’ve changed anything. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it was only a matter of time before one of us died, after everything we did- we were bound to die young.” Her eyes lift to meet Ethans, he has a wry smile that’s meant to be reassuring but only breaks Lydia’s heart more.

“He told me once that he would die next to you. A twin thing I guess.” The phantom feeling of his hair in her hands grazes her skin, he had his head on her chest, a rare peaceful moment between all of the chaos and fast moving pace they always seemed wrapped up in, a memory that makes her chest ache.

“He told me that too. He told me that he loved you.” Her chest hitches and she instinctively grips at Ethans hand, tears pricking in her eyes when she doesn’t find the same feeling of holding Aidens.

“I know I said I didn’t- but I loved him.”

“I know. He knew too.”

[bericas]

how much I meant to you, meant it sincere back then, we had time to kill back then. you ain't a kid no more. we'll never be those kids again.

[sterekbros-fth]

It's me, Liam, your Teen Wolf Fandom Ambassador for @fandomtrumpshate!

It's the time of the year again! It's time to come together as a pack and support progressive non-profits through Fandom Trumps Hate donations!

Sign-ups are open for all creators! Sign up here! Signups close Feb 19th!

A little bit about Fandom Trumps Hate

FTH is an online fanworks auction, designed to raise money for progressive nonprofit organizations that help and support marginalized people. In the past seven years, thousands of fans have joined forces to raise nearly $240,000 for a range of progressive organizations.

All fandoms and pairings are included. So, what are you willing to offer? If you are an author, artist, beta, or provide other services within fandom, all are welcome!

Check out the list below for different types of fanworks and fan labor to get an idea of what you may like to sign up for.

You can offer any type of fanwork that can be delivered digitally, including:

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podfics

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We had 41 total contributors for 2023. Let's double that! Pack assemble! AWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[incorrectteenwolfcaptionsold]

Lydia: “This is going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

Aiden: “Undoubtably..... Should I rally the troops?”

Lydia: “Yes, it’s best we prepare in advance.”

[softranswolves]

Top Teen Wolf Ships - Canon

11. Aiden/Lydia