Apr 5
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pt.14 / ?
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welcome to 911blr !
pt.14 / ?
you are my best guess
for nina @shitouttabuck
'chosen one' stories are often rightfully scrutinized, and i get the wariness of teen wolf's decision to implement a werewolf jesus kind of true alpha plot device, but as soon as you take a look at the plot it's meant to be a device in, the premise of the show isn't at all damaged or undermined by this decision, but in fact enhanced and reinforced.
teen wolf's narrative is constantly teasing this false dichotomy of strength and weakness as it correlates with power and powerlessness, monsters and humans, perpetrators or the victims of them. they establish this contrast just to subvert it; we start with peter, who kills his niece for power in order to avenge the victims of the hale fire, and he does this by biting scott, who is given power of his own, but violently, and against his will. we have derek who kills peter, one of his last remaining family members just as peter killed laura before him, and bites a bunch of lonely teenagers that are so much like scott before them, but it's to protect himself from this powerlessness that's come with his entire family of werewolves being decimated. we have jennifer who kills a bunch of humans to avenge and protect herself after what deucalion and co did to her, deucalion who amassed enough power to be the demon wolf only after gerard took his eyes, eyes which only work when they're glowing red like derek's, like peter's. we have allison who tries to kill derek and co to avenge her mother, donovan who tries to kill stiles to avenge his father, stiles who's human and a victim of this attack, yet it's donovan who doesn't survive it, so stiles is left to feel like the perpetrator.
violence is a means of acquiring power for those who were made utterly powerless through violence at the hands of someone else. new victims are born of old ones who've decided they won't ever be victims again. the way to become an alpha is by killing another unless you're a statistical anomaly, and if you're this anomaly, the way to acquire the same kind of power isn't just the alternative, it's the exact opposite. scott is the main character because he subverts this to such a thorough degree, he stands in direct opposition to the premise. this posited thesis of power dynamics is only established for scott to be the antithesis, and the power of a true alpha is only given to him after he's chosen to oppose this dichotomy of power he's repeatedly the victim of himself. he's only given this power by repeatedly denying to use that which he already possesses to do anything but save as many lives as he can, even if it means those who've victimized him. yet he's not opposed to killing in its entirety as we see after the eclipse; he's willing to, but only if it's necessary to protect others, and only after he's risked his own well-being to attempt to convince them to stop of their own free will first. even the nogitsune was first summoned to save someone too late, to avenge an injustice, something scott is cyclically able to understand, but that's the trick, isn't it?
that's the trick. scott puts a personal stake in trying not to fall for it, even in direct contrast with the perspectives of his friends, his girlfriend, but what i love about teen wolf is how scott further subverts this again by being tempted to the trick, but mostly in regards to himself. he second guesses his nature all the time; that maybe all it takes is someone hurting you so thoroughly it changes you forever to perpetuate the same kind of hurt on other people. if this is true, maybe you're better off not surviving it at all. scott is the perfect champion for this subversion of power dynamics only because he desperately wants it to be true for himself; that you can rise above what's been done to you instead of succumb to it.
scott mccall, however, and i cannot emphasize this enough, is not someone to which all this just came naturally. when we first meet him, he's a sweet kid, but he's not benevolent when it costs him too much and gets him nothing in return-- no one is, and yet this is why so many consider scott's arc as too bland to find compelling. he's too perfect and simultaneously never perfect enough. in a show full of characters that wield their own trauma to justify traumatizing others, scott's trauma is what he instead wields to expand his empathy for the same people who traumatized him in a way that i honestly don't think i've seen written out so un-apologetically anywhere else on television. and yet this strength of character doesn't do a thing to scott's eyes until season three. there is very much a reason for this.
one of the first times we see scott intervene in violence against someone who's hurt him is when he tries to stop derek from killing peter in season one, and scott only does this because he thinks killing peter himself could cure him of this power he never chose. in season one, scott fights tooth and nail to defend himself whether it's from peter or derek. he's less defiant in the face of hunters, but they're human like he has been up until this very point, and the only thing he knows about werewolves is that one attacked him and now he is one. he's in rightful, rabid denial of what's been done to him because he never asked for it, it isn't fair, even if it made him good at lacrosse and no longer asthmatic, he'd give it up if it meant this was never done to him, if it meant he could undo it. however by season two, everything that happened to scott in season one is exactly what allows him to see the innocence in isaac that he takes responsibility for looking after, even when he's been made to believe isaac might've accepted the bite just to kill his own father for what he did to him. he tries to save jackson because jackson doesn't know what's happening to him just like scott didn't, and he doesn't have a stiles or an allison to help him through it, but when his plan to stop him fails, he tells derek maybe they should just let the argents kill him if that's the only way to save everyone, and it's derek who parrots scott's initiative of responsibility back to him with sincerity for the first time in the season. scott poisons gerard after he stabs him and threatens his mom, anticipating that he'll try to get himself bitten by derek just for the power of it, not even knowing if the bite + mountain ash combo would kill him or just reject it. in order to save allison's life, scott makes derek bite gerard against his will. derek, who let scott believe he was the one that did this to him with no attempt to deny it, who insisted that this power inflicted upon him against his will was a gift, not a curse.
the progression of alphas from one season to the next is meant to display these different methods of power; peter's is to incite violence while derek's cows it, controls it. deucalion often veils his power entirely, but it's only because the threat of violence at his hand is more than enough given all he's killed to acquire it versus jennifer's on blatant display in dead body after dead body long before we know who she is; her power is used to veil herself until she has enough to mean anything in the face of deucalion and the other alpha who was willing to kill her to join him. only after we've seen this lineup does scott join it, and it's only possible to because he's denied what they've insisted upon to get theirs, furthermore denied using it for his own gain. peter being an alpha is what allowed him to not only turn scott in the first place, but make him hurt and kill people through this connection. derek being an alpha not only gave him the strength to protect himself, but make sure the teenagers he bit didn't hurt or kill anyone through this same connection. we see peter get in his beta's mind in order to harm others and derek get into his to make sure they don't harm anyone unless he wants them to, while deucalion has already established both of these positions of power over his pack by making them kill their own to survive him in the first place; it's what's required to side with his position of power at all. and then there's scott, who not only bites his first beta to save his life, but never, ever uses this connection against him, not even when liam's running loose on his first full moon. not even when liam is trying to kill him. in fact, the only time we see scott do something even remotely similar is to snap isaac out of a blind panic, and it's when his eyes are still yellow.
of course scott mccall is a protagonist that both inspires and pisses off the antagonists. of course he kinda has the same effect split down his audience, honestly. but i digress.
there's a reason force of will is what deaton says makes a true alpha possible. strength of character, yes, but scott only becomes who he is because he chooses to be that person. the kind of person who gives his enemies the opportunity to maybe be that person too of their own free will, because choosing what he is was violently taken from him. in a show about cycles of violence and the ability to break them even when doing so hurts, when it alienates you from the few allies that haven't harmed you like the new ones you made with your own sweat and blood, when the price is high and you're the only one willing to pay it, and somehow you still have the strength of will to do it anyway is the point. they could have told a story where there's no point, where you try to do the right thing, the kind thing even when it hurts, to refuse to perpetuate the trauma done to you and to only ever be punished for it, all of it for nothing, but they didn't want to tell a story like that. the nature of a true alpha is both a pay off and an escalation of these exact stakes, but more than that, the pay off is it works. so many of scott's adversaries do choose to become his allies after he gives them the chance to, and by the same hands they hurt him with, they help him save more lives he'd be unable to without them. scott's embodiment of teen wolf's message of hope is not just reinforced by him as its protagonist, but the very path they pave to tell it.
“He was, of course, exceedingly clever, but he was also mistrustful and narcissistic in equal measure, and there did not seem to be a line he was unwilling to cross. Too much power could be dangerous in the hands of someone like him, so I found myself rather relieved when he declined my gift.”
just used my t-gel for the first time ^_^
"I love when Chai zones out for thirty seconds in a conversation and then hears something that brings her back into it, meanwhile we've changed topics like three times" -> real thing a coworker said today (entirely without malice and also just. objectively true)
Just came to stop by and say I think youre really cool mate. Id steal your knowledge if I could
Awaaahh thank you anon <3
That means a lot to me; I pride myself on my ability to retain endless facts about the things I'm interested in, but not many people in my life appreciate it, so it's nice to know a few people care!
summer -> fall
