Teen Wolf has a Stiles problem

[liliaeth]

I just read this great bit of meta on the problems with how Teen Wolf fandom glorifies Stiles at the expense of pretty much every other character on Teen Wolf; definitely worth the read, esp. since I couldn't disagree with any part of it.

http://www.fandomfollowing.com/teen-wolf-has-a-stiles-problem/

Comments

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

I'm a little bit or a bit like Stiles so It's hard to read all this. I'm like noo... but Stiles. I read some of the article but honestly I couldn't read all of it.

[ranua.livejournal.com]

disclaimer: I don't participate in online fandom, like at all. That being said, I like Stiles in fandom, (in fanfic, but I only read Derek/Stiles in Teen Wolf) but I can totally see where this article is coming from and agree with most of it. I blame MTV actually, it's a channel pointed straight at the privileged white male between the ages of 16 and 25 so it doesn't surprise me that a character on one of their shows is the exact same type of asshole. I spend a lot of time hand waving away the crapy bits of the show so I can enjoy pretty people in peril and have the plot hits so I can not be lost when I read fanfic. I know it's shallow, but it's my entertainment and I try not to let it piss me off.

[liliaeth]

Disclaimer: I'm as anti-sterek as they come, mostly because it's a pairing that makes no sense whatsoever with who the characters are and how they interact on the show. That and I despise Stiles as a general rule.

I've never understood why people keep taking the dynamic that does exist on the show between Scott and Derek, and keep giving it to Stiles. Despite the fact that there is about zero subtext, chemistry or history between Stiles and Derek...

That left aside, my main problem is that fandom, most of whom are white teenage girls, decided to completely erase the main character, drag him down, insult, villify him, just in order to take said characters canon personality and relationships with every other character on the show and give it to the most boring, bland, white asshole character on the show.

It's be one thing if most of fandom actually liked the asshole that is Stiles, but when you read their fanfic, headcanons and look at their fanart, the character they like isn't Stiles, not the one we got on screen at the very least. In fact, the character that most sterek fics like to turn Stiles into, has more in common with Scott, the character they claim to hate and find boring, than he does with Stiles. While Stiles negative traits are then pushed onto Scott.

[ranua.livejournal.com]

completely erase the main character, drag him down, insult, villify him, and that's why I stay out of the main fandom areas. I don't want or need that kind of bs. I don't understand it. Why be so negative and nasty?

the character they like isn't Stiles, not the one we got on screen at the very least very true. In my defense, as a fan of the fanwork version of the Stiles/Derek relationship, I'm not in it for faithfulness to cannon, I want a good, long story that is well written. Mostly I don't care who the characters are.

[ranua.livejournal.com]

more disclaimer I suppose. I'd forgotten til now (rereading our comments) that the reason I even watched Teen Wolf in the first place was because of fanfic. I needed a long read one day and picked a rec from epic recs and got hooked on the sterek pairing and decided I needed to see the show. Same damn thing got me hooked on freaking J2 *hangs head in shame* lol

[liliaeth]

I guess that for me, no matter how well or bad written the show might be, what pulls me in, is the characters and the way they interact. To then see fandom basically go, 'ooh, I like the way those two white guys look' and completely ignore the actual show, while still pretending to be writing Teen Wolf fic, well... it annoys he hell out of me.

I probably wouldn't be nearly as annoyed if they just admitted they were writing hobrien and stopped pretending they're writing about Teen Wolf.

[ranua.livejournal.com]

Just to be the devil's advocate here for a moment; but that's the beauty of fanfic, it's a made up world you can populate with your version of the characters to tell your story and it never has to align with anyone else's story, not even the source material.

That being said, yeah, they should just admit it's hobrien and call it RPS AU.

[liliaeth]

see, that's the thing, that's not fanfic to me. That's writing original fic, using the names of characters to pull people in. (aka pretty much the same way how I see rpf)

For me, fanfic has to be based on canon. You can remove the setting, sure, you can remove the chars history, sure, but if the characters aren't recognizable as themselves, if there isn't some connection between said characters and the canon they come from, then it isn't fanfic. It might be good original fic, but it will lack what pulled me into the show in the first place. And I'll feel betrayed, because the writer lied to me, by pretending they were writing about the characters I care about.

[ranua.livejournal.com]

While I can empathize with your feelings about what fanfic is, I personally am not that invested in the connection between the source material and the fanwork. To me they are two separate things, like the Marvel 616 and the Marvel cinematic universe, both use the same characters but in different ways. I'm okay with the author reeling me in with characters I already know and then telling me a story with little to no connection to cannon. (tho if the characters are too far out there I won't finish it, the list of stories I've started and not finished is probably as long as the list of those I have finished)

As an author myself, I have to say it's easier to get an audience and feedback when you label your work as fanfic than original fic. It sucks imo, but what can you do? I also feel that fanfic, good and bad, is an excellent way for people to express themselves and to get out the stories that live in their heads. It's like therapy I suppose.

I'd say we can agree that we both like a good plot and well done characterization, but we differ on how accurate that needs to be in regards to cannon.