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schneefinkFor some reason, I'm not quite sure why - okay, it was probably boredom - I watched the first episode of season 3 of Teen Wolf. And then the next one. And the next one. And now I'm caught up on the first season, eagerly waiting for the new episode tomorrow, and already have some vague fic ideas that I will most likely never write. How did that happen.
It's become obvious very quickly that the actual show and the majority of fanworks have very little to do with one another. On the one hand, good, I like the actual show much better, but it also means that despite the thousands of fics on the AO3 it's hard to find the kind of fic I want to read. I suddenly have renewed sympathy for SGA fans who didn't like McShep; Sterek seems if possible even more of a fandom OTP, or perhaps I just haven't found the other parts yet. Not that I mind reading it, some stories are good, but most of them are so very obviously either AU or OOC or frequently both and not what I want at all.
One thing that I noticed quickly was that the main characters are actual teenagers, with teenager problems and teenager maturity. Most of the recent canons I've followed have adult main characters (in Gundam Wing the teenager main characters had soldier training and mostly (tried to) act like it, and in Homestuck it's often easy to forget (which makes scenes like self-sacrifice scenes where you suddenly remember how incredibly young they are all the more heartbreaking, and both of these are animated) and it makes a difference in how I react to bad things happening to them. They're so young, and already so traumatized! Scott thinking he killed a man, being afraid that he'll kill everyone he loves, and being afraid because he can't protect people - he's sixteen. So is Stiles, and he's been attacked by his best friend-turned-werewolf and kidnapped and threatened by a psychopath. Allison is seventeen, and she saw her aunt torturing a man and her aunt's throat being torn out right in front of her. Even Derek: his sister died, he is captured and tortured by the woman who seduced him to kill his family, his only surviving family member deliberately killed his sister. Jackson has some internalized family trauma that so far has only been hinted at, and then hallucinations on top of that, no wonder he's a bit messed up.
I like that all of the characters a) make stupid decisions, b) are not perfectly nice people. All of them occasionally behave like assholes, actually. Stiles would prefer it if Derek died because he believes it would make his life easier. Derek is a dick to Scott and Stiles, threatens them, and doesn't tell them anything they need to know. Scott more than once puts Allison over everything else when it's very stupid to do so. Jackson and Lydia are pretty obvious, likewise Chris Argent. Allison maybe the least, but she enjoys taking revenge on Lydia for making out with Scott. Nobody is the clear-cut hero of the story, and even the villains are either on another side (Chris Argent, Jackson) or have some redemptive qualities (Peter was driven crazy and still cares for his family, Kate is crazy and, uh, hm, okay that's difficult.)
The show occasionally skips over a lot, which is annoying. We barely get anything about why Derek either pretends to or actually joins forces with Peter, and similar things happened e.g. in the last season 3 episode.
There are also some things that I would dearly love to know more about, like why does Allison become such a good friend of Lydia so quickly? By the end of season 1 they're close enough that Allison has some "leverage" over her, yet in the beginning Allison was the new girl and Lydia one of the most popular girls in the school who presumably has many other friends that we hardly ever see. I want a lot more Allison&Lydia.
The resolution of Stiles&Lydia at the dance was great, btw.
Things that I found particularly surprising when contrasted with fanon: obviously the dislike between Derek and Stiles. Also apart from his Allison fixation Scott is never shown as stupid on the show, only in completely over his head, and understandably so. Stiles is not the one running around trying to help everyone, in fact he seems very fixated on the people close to him (I really liked the scene where he chains Scott to the radiator partly to help him but also to punish him for making out with Lydia.)
Sure, the show is cheesy (some of the romance scenes, some of the howling-at-the-moon scenes, the frequent shirtlessness, the villains are very dramatic), but it's also more often than I expected genuinely good, and I'm enjoying it a lot. New episode tomorrow, yay!
It's become obvious very quickly that the actual show and the majority of fanworks have very little to do with one another. On the one hand, good, I like the actual show much better, but it also means that despite the thousands of fics on the AO3 it's hard to find the kind of fic I want to read. I suddenly have renewed sympathy for SGA fans who didn't like McShep; Sterek seems if possible even more of a fandom OTP, or perhaps I just haven't found the other parts yet. Not that I mind reading it, some stories are good, but most of them are so very obviously either AU or OOC or frequently both and not what I want at all.
One thing that I noticed quickly was that the main characters are actual teenagers, with teenager problems and teenager maturity. Most of the recent canons I've followed have adult main characters (in Gundam Wing the teenager main characters had soldier training and mostly (tried to) act like it, and in Homestuck it's often easy to forget (which makes scenes like self-sacrifice scenes where you suddenly remember how incredibly young they are all the more heartbreaking, and both of these are animated) and it makes a difference in how I react to bad things happening to them. They're so young, and already so traumatized! Scott thinking he killed a man, being afraid that he'll kill everyone he loves, and being afraid because he can't protect people - he's sixteen. So is Stiles, and he's been attacked by his best friend-turned-werewolf and kidnapped and threatened by a psychopath. Allison is seventeen, and she saw her aunt torturing a man and her aunt's throat being torn out right in front of her. Even Derek: his sister died, he is captured and tortured by the woman who seduced him to kill his family, his only surviving family member deliberately killed his sister. Jackson has some internalized family trauma that so far has only been hinted at, and then hallucinations on top of that, no wonder he's a bit messed up.
I like that all of the characters a) make stupid decisions, b) are not perfectly nice people. All of them occasionally behave like assholes, actually. Stiles would prefer it if Derek died because he believes it would make his life easier. Derek is a dick to Scott and Stiles, threatens them, and doesn't tell them anything they need to know. Scott more than once puts Allison over everything else when it's very stupid to do so. Jackson and Lydia are pretty obvious, likewise Chris Argent. Allison maybe the least, but she enjoys taking revenge on Lydia for making out with Scott. Nobody is the clear-cut hero of the story, and even the villains are either on another side (Chris Argent, Jackson) or have some redemptive qualities (Peter was driven crazy and still cares for his family, Kate is crazy and, uh, hm, okay that's difficult.)
The show occasionally skips over a lot, which is annoying. We barely get anything about why Derek either pretends to or actually joins forces with Peter, and similar things happened e.g. in the last season 3 episode.
There are also some things that I would dearly love to know more about, like why does Allison become such a good friend of Lydia so quickly? By the end of season 1 they're close enough that Allison has some "leverage" over her, yet in the beginning Allison was the new girl and Lydia one of the most popular girls in the school who presumably has many other friends that we hardly ever see. I want a lot more Allison&Lydia.
The resolution of Stiles&Lydia at the dance was great, btw.
Things that I found particularly surprising when contrasted with fanon: obviously the dislike between Derek and Stiles. Also apart from his Allison fixation Scott is never shown as stupid on the show, only in completely over his head, and understandably so. Stiles is not the one running around trying to help everyone, in fact he seems very fixated on the people close to him (I really liked the scene where he chains Scott to the radiator partly to help him but also to punish him for making out with Lydia.)
Sure, the show is cheesy (some of the romance scenes, some of the howling-at-the-moon scenes, the frequent shirtlessness, the villains are very dramatic), but it's also more often than I expected genuinely good, and I'm enjoying it a lot. New episode tomorrow, yay!
no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 10:00 pm (UTC)At least this year it won't be eligible for Yuletide!