Anatomy of a Fall (into Teen Wolf)
So last week in the wee small hours of the morning, I got a text from my little sister asking the following: "What the fuck is Teen Wolf and why has it taken over your Pinboard?????"
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE, BABY SIS.
Warning: Here be spoilers for random things from season 1 of Teen Wolf. Although you really don't need to watch the show or care about spoilers to enjoy the beauty that is this fandom.
slashreport backs me up on this.
So I can trace my descent into the gloriousness that is Teen Wolf fandom to March 29, because I documented my downfall via tweets. Apparently there was nothing but hockey and Teen Wolf on my Pinboard network that morning, and then I was on a train that was stopped between stations for 45 minutes and three people on my train fainted. But everyone was ok, yay! But apparently this further weakened me so that later, while
phineasjones was offline and not available to save me from myself, when I saw that
twentysomething had written some pairing called Derek/Stiles, I couldn't resist any more, and then it was all over. (I was strong enough to resist hockey, but only because I know nothing about sports.) Ok, now on to answering Baby Sis's questions.
1. WHAT THE FUCK IS TEEN WOLF:
Apparently it's a show on MTV about this guy:
Scott McCall. My favorite tag for him on AO3 is something like "scott is a labrador retriever." He becomes a werewolf in the first episode, but what's important for you to know about Scott is that his best friend is this guy:
Stiles Stilinski. (Fandom (possibly from canon, I can't remember) has informed us that his actual first name is Genim. Hence he goes by Stiles.) He's the sheriff's son, and is basically some combination of baby Rodney McKay and Brendon Urie. He is not a werewolf. Technically, he is probably 16. I know he looks like he's 12. I choose to believe that he is ::wavyhands:: 18. Let's not worry about that, canon certainly doesn't pay attention to those kinds of details either. He spends a lot of time with this guy:
Derek Hale. He's a werewolf and theoretically the Obi-Wan to Scott's young Padawan learner, teaching him the ways to control the wolf, etc. My first impression of him from the pilot was that he was some combination of Edward Cullen (with less sparkles) and Ronon Dex, and I wasn't entirely pleased with this. I mean, he had all the buffness and gruffness of Ronon (yay!), but all the creepy, emotionless appeal (or lack thereof) of Edward for me.
Wolves have fangs too.
But luckily fandom hijacked my brain and wiped first impressions away, and then canon gave us some lovely moments that were much better than the pilot, linked below. Derek has a tragic past - most of his family (pack) died in a fire set by his werewolf hunter special lady friend. Oh and btw, canon has informed us that Derek is both 19 years old and also possibly 23. Or older. This is why I feel perfectly comfortable with ::wavyhands::ing all age issues if anyone wants to. Canon can't even be bothered to keep track of it!
Highly recommend watching little clips and wandering around Tumblr. Don't worry about spoilers, fandom agrees that there is no need to actually watch the show.
So here, have some more Stiles:
(link)
Here are some of the best Derek/Stiles scenes in one little clip:
(link)
Here are my favorite pieces of fanon which the fannish hive mind has come to near complete consensus on:
1. Pining!Derek, oblivious!Stiles. <3! (Canon: undecided!)
2. Stiles is the mom of the pack and takes care of everybody. (Canon: Stiles takes care of his dad. Or liquors him up for information. Y'know, as one does.)
3. Scent-marking: Derek makes Stiles wear his clothes. All the time. (Canon: Stiles makes Derek wear his clothes.)
4. Jackson is an omega werewolf, i.e. the lowest in the pack pecking order. (Canon: Jackson is not (yet) a werewolf, and although we have alpha and beta wolves, we haven't heard about omega wolves yet.)
5. Werewolves love hanging out in a puppy pile all the time. (Canon: Sadly, no. But the cast does.)
6. It's actually Teen Wolf: The Derek and Stiles Show. (Canon: Don't you care about Scott? Even a little bit? Fandom: No. But we like Lydia and Allison.)
Lydia and Allison above, btw. Lydia is fanonically also a werewolf and Allison comes from a family of werewolf hunters and is the Hawkeye of this fandom.
7. Stiles likes to kiss Derek on the nose. Just to bother him. (Canon: Stiles just likes to bother Derek. So far.)
Not yet convinced? Don't worry. Fandom is here to seal the deal. Which brings us to:
2. WHY HAS IT TAKEN OVER YOUR PINBOARD?????
Because there is so much good fic. (But ok, confession: even the fic that ignores all laws of grammar and punctuation is still so good for me. But listed below are stories that are all magical and delightful AND use your/you're correctly.) Fandom has taken this show and has made it into something considerably more awesome than the source material.
I highly recommend starting with a good crossover fic or a good AU, because they don't assume you know everything and you can pick up all the important canon things that you're not familiar with. So:
Show You What All That Howl Is For by
skoosiepants -- SGA crossover AU
Stiles: Correct, I am a young Rodney McKay!
Derek: And I am Ronon Dex.
Stiles: I... ♥ u.
Derek: ::grunt::
Disambiguation by idyll -- Eureka crossover AU
Stiles: Dude, time to reprogram your creepily lifelike animatronic wolf. He stalks me and keeps hogging the covers.
Derek: ::glares::
Lydia: ::smirks::
I Want Your Lips to Sing by
twentysomething
Lydia: Makeover time!
Girl!Stiles: These jeans are tight.
Derek: I'm possessive.
Girl!Stiles: Because these jeans are tight?
Derek: Because I <3 u, dummy.
Girl!Stiles: \o/
Darling It Is No Joke by
thehoyden - AU.
Deputy!Derek: Hi, I'm new.
20-something!Stiles: Gah.
This Is Halloween by swing_set13 - Nightmare Before Christmas fusion AU
Jackson: I'm a tool! Surprise!
Stiles: I miss Holiday Land. And my mom. And - omfg a werewolf, please don't eat me.
Derek: Bake me cookies.
Hail to Whatever You Found in the Sunlight by
skoosiepants - wolf AU
wolf!Stiles: We're all actual wolves!
Bear: RAAAAAR!
wolf!Derek: I'll save you!
me: MEEP CUTE OVERLOAD DED
And a couple more non-AU favs:
Open the Door by Renay
Derek: Here, have my jacket.
Stiles: Thanks.
Everyone else: Oooooh.
Stiles: What?
Build a Rocket, Boys! by hito
Stiles: I'm the den mother!
Everyone: Yes, you are. And Derek is Dad. Congrats on your nuptials and all.
Derek: ... Thanks.
Go Home, Or Make a Home by lady_ragnell
Derek: Welcome to this AU, in which my family is all still alive.
Derek's mom: You must be Derek's AU mate. Welcome.
Stiles: Meep.
A Handprint on the Door by mrsvc
Derek: This is a 5 things story.
Stiles: And now we must share a tent on this camping trip.
Derek: Sadly, this is not the 6th thing that leads to sex.
me: I don't mind waiting at all.
And more treats over at my Pinboard. Are you won over yet? <3333
This entry was originally posted at http://inkjunket.dreamwidth.org/40648.html. There are currently
comments there.
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE, BABY SIS.
Warning: Here be spoilers for random things from season 1 of Teen Wolf. Although you really don't need to watch the show or care about spoilers to enjoy the beauty that is this fandom.
slashreport backs me up on this.
So I can trace my descent into the gloriousness that is Teen Wolf fandom to March 29, because I documented my downfall via tweets. Apparently there was nothing but hockey and Teen Wolf on my Pinboard network that morning, and then I was on a train that was stopped between stations for 45 minutes and three people on my train fainted. But everyone was ok, yay! But apparently this further weakened me so that later, while
phineasjones was offline and not available to save me from myself, when I saw that
twentysomething had written some pairing called Derek/Stiles, I couldn't resist any more, and then it was all over. (I was strong enough to resist hockey, but only because I know nothing about sports.) Ok, now on to answering Baby Sis's questions.
1. WHAT THE FUCK IS TEEN WOLF:
Apparently it's a show on MTV about this guy:
Scott McCall. My favorite tag for him on AO3 is something like "scott is a labrador retriever." He becomes a werewolf in the first episode, but what's important for you to know about Scott is that his best friend is this guy:
Stiles Stilinski. (Fandom (possibly from canon, I can't remember) has informed us that his actual first name is Genim. Hence he goes by Stiles.) He's the sheriff's son, and is basically some combination of baby Rodney McKay and Brendon Urie. He is not a werewolf. Technically, he is probably 16. I know he looks like he's 12. I choose to believe that he is ::wavyhands:: 18. Let's not worry about that, canon certainly doesn't pay attention to those kinds of details either. He spends a lot of time with this guy:
Derek Hale. He's a werewolf and theoretically the Obi-Wan to Scott's young Padawan learner, teaching him the ways to control the wolf, etc. My first impression of him from the pilot was that he was some combination of Edward Cullen (with less sparkles) and Ronon Dex, and I wasn't entirely pleased with this. I mean, he had all the buffness and gruffness of Ronon (yay!), but all the creepy, emotionless appeal (or lack thereof) of Edward for me.
Wolves have fangs too.
But luckily fandom hijacked my brain and wiped first impressions away, and then canon gave us some lovely moments that were much better than the pilot, linked below. Derek has a tragic past - most of his family (pack) died in a fire set by his werewolf hunter special lady friend. Oh and btw, canon has informed us that Derek is both 19 years old and also possibly 23. Or older. This is why I feel perfectly comfortable with ::wavyhands::ing all age issues if anyone wants to. Canon can't even be bothered to keep track of it!
Highly recommend watching little clips and wandering around Tumblr. Don't worry about spoilers, fandom agrees that there is no need to actually watch the show.
So here, have some more Stiles:
Click to view(link)
Here are some of the best Derek/Stiles scenes in one little clip:
(link)
Here are my favorite pieces of fanon which the fannish hive mind has come to near complete consensus on:
1. Pining!Derek, oblivious!Stiles. <3! (Canon: undecided!)
2. Stiles is the mom of the pack and takes care of everybody. (Canon: Stiles takes care of his dad. Or liquors him up for information. Y'know, as one does.)
3. Scent-marking: Derek makes Stiles wear his clothes. All the time. (Canon: Stiles makes Derek wear his clothes.)
4. Jackson is an omega werewolf, i.e. the lowest in the pack pecking order. (Canon: Jackson is not (yet) a werewolf, and although we have alpha and beta wolves, we haven't heard about omega wolves yet.)
5. Werewolves love hanging out in a puppy pile all the time. (Canon: Sadly, no. But the cast does.)
6. It's actually Teen Wolf: The Derek and Stiles Show. (Canon: Don't you care about Scott? Even a little bit? Fandom: No. But we like Lydia and Allison.)
Lydia and Allison above, btw. Lydia is fanonically also a werewolf and Allison comes from a family of werewolf hunters and is the Hawkeye of this fandom.
7. Stiles likes to kiss Derek on the nose. Just to bother him. (Canon: Stiles just likes to bother Derek. So far.)
Not yet convinced? Don't worry. Fandom is here to seal the deal. Which brings us to:
2. WHY HAS IT TAKEN OVER YOUR PINBOARD?????
Because there is so much good fic. (But ok, confession: even the fic that ignores all laws of grammar and punctuation is still so good for me. But listed below are stories that are all magical and delightful AND use your/you're correctly.) Fandom has taken this show and has made it into something considerably more awesome than the source material.
I highly recommend starting with a good crossover fic or a good AU, because they don't assume you know everything and you can pick up all the important canon things that you're not familiar with. So:
Show You What All That Howl Is For by
skoosiepants -- SGA crossover AU
Stiles: Correct, I am a young Rodney McKay!
Derek: And I am Ronon Dex.
Stiles: I... ♥ u.
Derek: ::grunt::
Disambiguation by idyll -- Eureka crossover AU
Stiles: Dude, time to reprogram your creepily lifelike animatronic wolf. He stalks me and keeps hogging the covers.
Derek: ::glares::
Lydia: ::smirks::
I Want Your Lips to Sing by
twentysomething
Lydia: Makeover time!
Girl!Stiles: These jeans are tight.
Derek: I'm possessive.
Girl!Stiles: Because these jeans are tight?
Derek: Because I <3 u, dummy.
Girl!Stiles: \o/
Darling It Is No Joke by
thehoyden - AU.
Deputy!Derek: Hi, I'm new.
20-something!Stiles: Gah.
This Is Halloween by swing_set13 - Nightmare Before Christmas fusion AU
Jackson: I'm a tool! Surprise!
Stiles: I miss Holiday Land. And my mom. And - omfg a werewolf, please don't eat me.
Derek: Bake me cookies.
Hail to Whatever You Found in the Sunlight by
skoosiepants - wolf AU
wolf!Stiles: We're all actual wolves!
Bear: RAAAAAR!
wolf!Derek: I'll save you!
me: MEEP CUTE OVERLOAD DED
And a couple more non-AU favs:
Open the Door by Renay
Derek: Here, have my jacket.
Stiles: Thanks.
Everyone else: Oooooh.
Stiles: What?
Build a Rocket, Boys! by hito
Stiles: I'm the den mother!
Everyone: Yes, you are. And Derek is Dad. Congrats on your nuptials and all.
Derek: ... Thanks.
Go Home, Or Make a Home by lady_ragnell
Derek: Welcome to this AU, in which my family is all still alive.
Derek's mom: You must be Derek's AU mate. Welcome.
Stiles: Meep.
A Handprint on the Door by mrsvc
Derek: This is a 5 things story.
Stiles: And now we must share a tent on this camping trip.
Derek: Sadly, this is not the 6th thing that leads to sex.
me: I don't mind waiting at all.
And more treats over at my Pinboard. Are you won over yet? <3333
This entry was originally posted at http://inkjunket.dreamwidth.org/40648.html. There are currently
comments there.