Teen Wolf Part 2: The Humans
This is the second of 3 parts of my I love Teen Wolf craziness.
I know it was way way too long between posts, but I got busy. I'm going to try to get both of the remaining posts up today. Then I've got a little bit of politics stuff that I may or may not post, and a long rant on Glee which is probably going to get posted if for no other reason than I can just link to it in author's notes when I finally get around to writing the fic I want for that show.
Here's a link to part 1 if you missed it and really care what I think of them.
Part 1: The Wolves
If you've not finished season 2 yet, there are spoilers ahead for it.
There's a third part coming for The Hunters & some general fandom & ships discussion.
The Humans
Stiles Stilinski
Stiles is without a doubt my very favorite character. He's Scott's best friend. I think he's a lot smarter than Scott, and probably a lot smarter than anyone gives him credit for. He's a little unfocused. He's hyperactive and sarcastic and never met a rule he wasn't willing to break.
He's just a regular human guy. He's not even a particularly strong or coordinated human guy, but he sticks around. He helps Scott. He fights, or at least tries to. He saves Derek's life. He's probably the only reason Scott is still breathing. He's also research guy. In some ways he remind me of all the best bits of Xander and Willow rolled into one geeky, hyper, teenaged boy.
He's had his fair share of non-werewolf induced trauma too though. His mom died some time ago. If we've been told exactly how long ago, I don't remember it. He was old enough that he feels the loss pretty acutely, but young enough that it isn't entirely fresh. He's had time to get past the worst of the grief and the panic attacks that came after.
I don't usually find him to be one of the more attractive guys on the show, but he does have the art of the pretty cry down.
I just noticed that all but one of my pictures of Stiles are animated gifs. Must be because it's hard to think of Stiles as something still. Movement is too essential to who he is.
Stiles may be my favorite character. In fact, he's almost certainly my favorite of the main cast. There are a couple of secondary characters (including his father) who might give him a run for favorite overall, but nobody among the leads.
Lydia Martin
Lydia is one of my favorite female characters on television right now. She starts off very much the Queen of the school. She's Cordelia (because most everything in my life can directly relate to Buffy the Vampire Slayer). She is the popular girl with the boyfriend who is her direct counterpart. They're both rich and gorgeous and she accepts that as her due.
If that was all there was to Lydia, I probably wouldn't care that much about her at all. It isn't. Lydia is kind of a genius. Math mostly, it seems, but fandom has definitely painted her as the mastermind of all great plans and I can see that. She doesn't exactly hide that part, not like I've seen other characters do. There's a point where she and Scott are supposed to be working a problem at the board. She carries on a fairly intense conversation with Scott and still manages to quickly and accurately complete the problem. All while Scott appears to not have a good grasp on either the math or the conversation. So, it's there for anyone who is paying attention. She just distracts people. It's easy, she's so very shiny after all.
There are hints of absentee parents, and her relationship with Jackson is far from functional, but she's not as broken as some of the characters. Or if she is, she doesn't let it show.
Recent events have left some cracks. Seeing dead men who nearly killed you earlier in the year can do that to you.
In the end though, she's strong and charismatic. I like her a lot, and if somebody doesn't start explaining right about now, she's going to destroy them all. I can't believe the length of time this generally incompetent group of people has managed to keep her in the dark about the realities of what's happening in Beacon Hills.
Oh, and if you thought it was only the male characters who were sent to wander around half dressed, you'd be wrong, though she seems distinctly less comfortable with it than the boys.
Sheriff Stilinski
He's Stiles' father and the town Sheriff. We don't know his first name, but we do know that he's very good at his job and an awesome dad.
I love him. He's one of my favorite characters on the show. He's not dumb. He knows there are things going on beyond the easy answers he's getting, and he probably even knows that his kid is more involved in whatever it is than he should be, but he lives in the real world. He doesn't live where there's werewolves and giant venomous lizards and dead men coming back. He's coping pretty well for as in the dark as he is, but I'm not sure how long that's sustainable for.
I wish I had more decent screenshots, but I don't, so moving on.
Melissa McCall
Melissa is Scott's mom, and I like her, but not nearly as well as I like the Sheriff. She's single, and she works hard. She works hard to keep them going financially, but she also works hard to keep connected with Scott. She's close to him, a lot closer than many mothers to their teenaged sons. He feels bad about lying to her.
She doesn't find out what's going on in the best of ways. It would be bad enough to have your kid sit you down and tell you that he's a werewolf and then prove it, but to be in an already terrifying hostage situation when your son shows up as a werewolf is pretty traumatic. I get that it's going to take her some time to deal. I just hope she does, because I'm not sure I want to deal with a lot of continued Mama McCall angst.
Danny Mahealani
Danny is Jackson's best friend, and I'll be really surprised if he doesn't find out what's up with the werewolves soon. He's not an idiot, and he's clearly really worried about Jackson, and Stiles keeps asking him to do incredibly strange and not entirely legal things. Yeah, he knows something is up, and he's going to find out what.
I like Danny. He's just a sweet likeable guy, who seems way too good to be Jackson's best friend, but then I suspect that Jackson is more broken than just nasty, so maybe he sees that. Danny is also the show's canon gay guy, which they never miss an opportunity to point out. This of course leads to the incredibly hilarious moment of Stiles making Derek change shirts in front of Danny to talk him into doing some of the really not legal stuff that he does. He's a good character, and I like him a lot. I'd love to see him get a little more development in future seasons. Also noteworthy, his last name means full moon in Hawaiian.
Dr. Alan Deaton
Dr. Deaton is the town vet, and Scott's employer. He also knows more than a little bit of werewolves and magic, and it seems that he has some personal connection to the Hale family.
He's mostly a little too mysterious for me to decide just how much I like him right now. He taught Stiles to be just a little bit magic though, so that automatically makes me love him a little bit. I'm interested in him more than I care about him at this point.
Ms. Morell
Ms. Morell is so far even more mysterious that Dr. Deaton. She works at the high school. She's a counselor and a foreign language teacher (French maybe, but I don't really remember). She also seems to know about the wolves, and have some kind of personal, possibly familial relationship to Dr. Deaton. She doesn't seem to have taken sides as firmly as he has though.
I like her well enough, but I'm not in love with her or anything.
Coach Bobby Finstock
He's the coach of the lacrosse team, and he's kind of adorable in his overloud, brash way. I like him a lot. He's kind of clueless, but he also seems to take most things in stride. He's also really good about not treating Danny any differently from any of his other players, and not taking for granted that his other players are straight either. I think he's a good guy, and I think I want him to stay exactly like he is. I'd be disappointed if he ever figured out what was actually going on in Beacon Hills.
So that's the humans, or at least all the ones I care about in the least that aren't also hunters. That's the post coming up next.
I know it was way way too long between posts, but I got busy. I'm going to try to get both of the remaining posts up today. Then I've got a little bit of politics stuff that I may or may not post, and a long rant on Glee which is probably going to get posted if for no other reason than I can just link to it in author's notes when I finally get around to writing the fic I want for that show.
Here's a link to part 1 if you missed it and really care what I think of them.
Part 1: The Wolves
If you've not finished season 2 yet, there are spoilers ahead for it.
There's a third part coming for The Hunters & some general fandom & ships discussion.
The Humans
Stiles Stilinski
Stiles is without a doubt my very favorite character. He's Scott's best friend. I think he's a lot smarter than Scott, and probably a lot smarter than anyone gives him credit for. He's a little unfocused. He's hyperactive and sarcastic and never met a rule he wasn't willing to break.
He's just a regular human guy. He's not even a particularly strong or coordinated human guy, but he sticks around. He helps Scott. He fights, or at least tries to. He saves Derek's life. He's probably the only reason Scott is still breathing. He's also research guy. In some ways he remind me of all the best bits of Xander and Willow rolled into one geeky, hyper, teenaged boy.
He's had his fair share of non-werewolf induced trauma too though. His mom died some time ago. If we've been told exactly how long ago, I don't remember it. He was old enough that he feels the loss pretty acutely, but young enough that it isn't entirely fresh. He's had time to get past the worst of the grief and the panic attacks that came after.
I don't usually find him to be one of the more attractive guys on the show, but he does have the art of the pretty cry down.
I just noticed that all but one of my pictures of Stiles are animated gifs. Must be because it's hard to think of Stiles as something still. Movement is too essential to who he is.
Stiles may be my favorite character. In fact, he's almost certainly my favorite of the main cast. There are a couple of secondary characters (including his father) who might give him a run for favorite overall, but nobody among the leads.
Lydia Martin
Lydia is one of my favorite female characters on television right now. She starts off very much the Queen of the school. She's Cordelia (because most everything in my life can directly relate to Buffy the Vampire Slayer). She is the popular girl with the boyfriend who is her direct counterpart. They're both rich and gorgeous and she accepts that as her due.
If that was all there was to Lydia, I probably wouldn't care that much about her at all. It isn't. Lydia is kind of a genius. Math mostly, it seems, but fandom has definitely painted her as the mastermind of all great plans and I can see that. She doesn't exactly hide that part, not like I've seen other characters do. There's a point where she and Scott are supposed to be working a problem at the board. She carries on a fairly intense conversation with Scott and still manages to quickly and accurately complete the problem. All while Scott appears to not have a good grasp on either the math or the conversation. So, it's there for anyone who is paying attention. She just distracts people. It's easy, she's so very shiny after all.
There are hints of absentee parents, and her relationship with Jackson is far from functional, but she's not as broken as some of the characters. Or if she is, she doesn't let it show.
Recent events have left some cracks. Seeing dead men who nearly killed you earlier in the year can do that to you.
In the end though, she's strong and charismatic. I like her a lot, and if somebody doesn't start explaining right about now, she's going to destroy them all. I can't believe the length of time this generally incompetent group of people has managed to keep her in the dark about the realities of what's happening in Beacon Hills.
Oh, and if you thought it was only the male characters who were sent to wander around half dressed, you'd be wrong, though she seems distinctly less comfortable with it than the boys.
Click to view Sheriff Stilinski
He's Stiles' father and the town Sheriff. We don't know his first name, but we do know that he's very good at his job and an awesome dad.
I love him. He's one of my favorite characters on the show. He's not dumb. He knows there are things going on beyond the easy answers he's getting, and he probably even knows that his kid is more involved in whatever it is than he should be, but he lives in the real world. He doesn't live where there's werewolves and giant venomous lizards and dead men coming back. He's coping pretty well for as in the dark as he is, but I'm not sure how long that's sustainable for.
I wish I had more decent screenshots, but I don't, so moving on.
Melissa McCall
Melissa is Scott's mom, and I like her, but not nearly as well as I like the Sheriff. She's single, and she works hard. She works hard to keep them going financially, but she also works hard to keep connected with Scott. She's close to him, a lot closer than many mothers to their teenaged sons. He feels bad about lying to her.
She doesn't find out what's going on in the best of ways. It would be bad enough to have your kid sit you down and tell you that he's a werewolf and then prove it, but to be in an already terrifying hostage situation when your son shows up as a werewolf is pretty traumatic. I get that it's going to take her some time to deal. I just hope she does, because I'm not sure I want to deal with a lot of continued Mama McCall angst.
Danny Mahealani
Danny is Jackson's best friend, and I'll be really surprised if he doesn't find out what's up with the werewolves soon. He's not an idiot, and he's clearly really worried about Jackson, and Stiles keeps asking him to do incredibly strange and not entirely legal things. Yeah, he knows something is up, and he's going to find out what.
I like Danny. He's just a sweet likeable guy, who seems way too good to be Jackson's best friend, but then I suspect that Jackson is more broken than just nasty, so maybe he sees that. Danny is also the show's canon gay guy, which they never miss an opportunity to point out. This of course leads to the incredibly hilarious moment of Stiles making Derek change shirts in front of Danny to talk him into doing some of the really not legal stuff that he does. He's a good character, and I like him a lot. I'd love to see him get a little more development in future seasons. Also noteworthy, his last name means full moon in Hawaiian.
Dr. Alan Deaton
Dr. Deaton is the town vet, and Scott's employer. He also knows more than a little bit of werewolves and magic, and it seems that he has some personal connection to the Hale family.
He's mostly a little too mysterious for me to decide just how much I like him right now. He taught Stiles to be just a little bit magic though, so that automatically makes me love him a little bit. I'm interested in him more than I care about him at this point.
Ms. Morell
Ms. Morell is so far even more mysterious that Dr. Deaton. She works at the high school. She's a counselor and a foreign language teacher (French maybe, but I don't really remember). She also seems to know about the wolves, and have some kind of personal, possibly familial relationship to Dr. Deaton. She doesn't seem to have taken sides as firmly as he has though.
I like her well enough, but I'm not in love with her or anything.
Coach Bobby Finstock
He's the coach of the lacrosse team, and he's kind of adorable in his overloud, brash way. I like him a lot. He's kind of clueless, but he also seems to take most things in stride. He's also really good about not treating Danny any differently from any of his other players, and not taking for granted that his other players are straight either. I think he's a good guy, and I think I want him to stay exactly like he is. I'd be disappointed if he ever figured out what was actually going on in Beacon Hills.
So that's the humans, or at least all the ones I care about in the least that aren't also hunters. That's the post coming up next.