a-oo
So I started watching Teen Wolf. I blame this entirely on mockturtletale, for no real reason other than that I CAN. She is the reason for all the worst (read: best) things in my life. I also finished watching Teen Wolf in about three days, which all things considered is not necessarily all that impressive (I mean, there are only 21 episodes), but I feel like my
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They're a pretty great team in that regard. And it's that sense of TEAM that makes me ship them. Because they're both so different FROM one another - and the UNION of those skills and gifts presents something of an ultimate to me.
You've got Derek - broody, unloved Alpha werewolf, and Stiles - awkward, monstrously intelligent and observant, caring human. And even looking at that divide when you break it down into such crude and superficial terms, they've EACH got aspects of all of those things. Stiles is fiercely unafraid when it comes to protecting those he cares about - look at all the danger he regularly parks himself in front of in order to protect Scott etc. Derek has obviously got the raw knowledge AND experience of all things supernatural that they need, but he's willing to co-operate with Stiles, who can shape that knowledge and experience into information and plans that they can USE.
Probably the #1 reason why I ship Derek and Stiles is because I care about Derek A LOT, and I know that Stiles is the only person on this show stubborn enough and determined enough to never ever give up on him, even when Derek himself is too stubborn to accept all the ways in which Stiles is good for him.
This ship just makes SENSE to me, because Derek needs to be taught how to accept and give love again, and Stiles needs to know a kind of love that is familial without being pure responsibility. Stiles obviously has all of these issues with his own family, with his mother's death and his constant struggle to be a parent to his own father, and the biggest issue with that point is the struggle, and the frustration of how that situation doesn't WORK, I think. Because the Sheriff is a capable father, and he takes care of Stiles in the ways HE thinks he's supposed to, so he's fighting tooth and nail to hold onto that position OF parent, but from Stiles' POV he's assuming all kinds of roles and responsibility that shouldn't be on him as the CHILD.
I think it would be good (and IS good) for Stiles to be in situations where he can 100% trust someone else to have his back, and who on this show could provide that for him, besides Derek? No-one that I can see.
Stiles is pretty clearly drawn to Derek. Even reservations he has about what Derek's doing or planning to do come across more as frustration at not being included in that, I think. Stiles has found himself right in the thick of things, now, and more than anything else he wants to be USEFUL - he wants to see his talents and skills put to EFFECTIVE use in keeping his friends safe. Derek can give him that. Derek DOES give him that.
To me the most complex part of this ship is trying to establish why Derek would be attracted to Stiles, and I think I've covered a lot of that here already. Stiles and Derek have pretty similar views on family, I think, and for them both family is the most important thing. For Allison, family is about conflict and hard fought acceptance. For Scott it's about protection. For Jackson and Lydia and Boyd and Isaac it seems to be about disappointment and necessity. For Stiles and Derek, family is everything, and it's what you fight for, what you do ANYTHING necessary to protect. And they both come from broken homes, to some extent, so they're both looking for their OWN sense of family. Derek has started to build that with his pack, but it's not enough as is - even if Derek can't see that yet.
Derek maybe STILL doesn't know how to ask for or accept (and SHOW) love and support and trust, but he's definitely come a long, long way since S1. And when we see that he basically treats Stiles on a level with how he treats Scott, now, you see how huge a deal that is - because for an alpha to treat a HUMAN the same way he treats one of his betas is H U G E.
I think Derek pretty clearly holds Stiles in the highest regard, I think Stiles both depends on Derek AND wishes Derek would depend on him more in return, AND has shown Derek that he can rely on Stiles.
They're each exactly what the other needs.
AND THAT'S WHY I SHIP THEM.
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