Fanfiction Fridays: The Exchange by Goddess of Birth

All of us have that fandom where we have read almost every pairing. For me, it’s Harry Potter. I spent so much time in that fandom that I feel I’ve read pretty much every pairing possible. But I haven’t been deeply involved in the Harry Potter fandom in a while, and nature abhors a vacuum. So of course I found a new fandom to delve into, and that was Teen Wolf. I have been reading so many different pairings in the Teen Wolf fandom, and like with Harry Potter, I have found some real gems.

One fanfic in particular that I loved focused on Chris Argent/Peter Hale: a relatively popular pairing that I was just never very interested in until recently, when I found a fic which had a plot that intrigued me. The Exchange is a medieval fantasy AU in which Chris Argent asks the Hales to fulfill a treaty that would provide him with a bride. However, the Hales send Peter when they were meant to send Talia, causing lots of conflict for not only Peter, but also Chris and his entire kingdom.

Teen Wolf: “The Last Chimera” Review

So, this is the season premiere of Teen Wolf… or is it the midseason premiere? I’m gonna be honest: the long hiatuses in between Teen Wolf are really starting to confuse me. I literally thought that I was going to be watching the Season 6 premiere, but whatever. Anyway, this apparent start to the second half of Teen Wolf‘s fifth season was just kind of meh. I’m not as enthused about Teen Wolf anymore, and neither are many of the other writers here, which is why we won’t be reviewing every episode this season. And I really don’t know what to say about this episode, because other than a few stand-out moments this was really just a lot more of the same for Teen Wolf—and not in a good way.

Spoilers, and a trigger warning for continued mentions of rape and sexual harassment, after the jump.

Sexualized Saturdays: Double Standards in Hatred

gif via theologyweb

I often notice a disturbing trend among fans when it comes female characters and male characters. I mean when you think about it there are a lot of disturbing trends, really, but the thing that bothers me in particular is when fans hate on a female character for something they love about a male character. And sometimes fans seem to just ignore a flaw that a male character has, but then they crucify a female character for having that same flaw. It’s incredibly aggravating to me to watch this constantly play out again and again. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look at some examples.

Sexualized Saturdays: Teen Sex! Teen Sex?

Being just that sort of person who reads feminist critique for fun, I devoted part of my poolside reading while on vacation last week to Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist, a collection of essays about the author’s struggles with the label of feminism and why she claims it nonetheless. One of these essays touched on Gay’s near-fanatical love of the Hunger Games series; in it, she pointed out how downright laughable it was that, in a trilogy where children are brutally murdering each other, it’s apparently not okay to show anything but kissing. This got me to thinking: when is it good to go a little further, as it were, in media portraying teenagers or aimed at teenagers in regards to sex, and when is it weird or wrong?

Via Comics Alliance

Trailer Tuesdays: Teen Wolf Season 5 Part B

Is it January yet? The Teen Wolf trailer for the second half of Season 5 is out and while it still looks much darker than I would like Teen Wolf to be, I am pleased with some of the things we see in this trailer and a bit confused by the absence of others.

Magical Mondays: Alphas, Werewolf Packs, Hunters, and More Problems with Teen Wolf’s Worldbuilding

We have talked about the poor worldbuilding in Teen Wolf before, but this problem really takes the cake. Recently on Tumblr I saw a transcription one fan did at a Teen Wolf convention called Wolfsbane 3, during a panel featuring Ian Bohen, who plays Peter Hale. I’m not always the biggest fan of Peter, but Ian Bohen tends to be hilarious. And his opinions on Peter often make the character seem more interesting than he actually is on the show. But it was one comment Bohen apparently made about Alphas that really threw me for a loop. Basically he pointed out that Laura Hale, Derek’s sister and Peter’s niece, who is killed by Peter at the beginning of Season 1, might have killed her mother, Talia Hale, in order to become Alpha. Since she isn’t a True Alpha like Scott, she would have had to have killed Talia, or at least some other random Alpha.

pic via neurowolf
Seriously Ian Bohen is hilarious!

Because I can’t find the actual video of this panel, I am uncertain if Ian Bohen actually said this. But whether or not he did, on closer reflection I realized this has to be correct. In meta and fanfiction, the Teen Wolf fandom has always explained Laura becoming an Alpha as a hereditary thing. Talia died, and her eldest child, Laura, inherited her alpha powers. However, Bohen’s comment made me realize that this fandom theory has never been confirmed in Teen Wolf canon. You either can be a True Alpha, which is so rare in the show that most Teen Wolf characters didn’t think it was possible until Scott became one, or you kill another Alpha to take their powers. The show constantly tells us that lone werewolves and packs without an Alpha are not likely to survive. This would mean a whole society that is based on murdering your successor in order to keep a pack going and if most werewolf packs are like the Hales, then that would mean that they would comprise mostly of family members. So if you wanna be Alpha, then you have to kill grandma. …Suddenly everything in Teen Wolf gets a lot darker and more uncomfortable. It also sets up several issues in the storytelling, particularly in regards to which characters we are supposed to view as villains.

Teen Wolf: “Status Asthmaticus” Review

After a weird and kind of frustrating half a season, we’ve finally reached the mid-season finale. And although I got to get Cozy with Posey afterward on Wolf Watch, I don’t know if any number of puppies can me feel better about “Status Asthmaticus”.

Spoilers after the jump.

Teen Wolf: “Lies of Omission” Review

Okay… so, last night on Teen Wolf…

Yep, that about sums it up. This week we hate Theo literally even more than we thought possible, Jeff Davis attempts to kill yet another one of my OTPs, and I wonder where the fuck all the adults are this season. ‘Cause I mean, seriously, how do we not expect things to go to shit when a bunch of seventeen year olds are in charge!?

Spoilers after the cut!

Teen Wolf: “Ouroboros” Review

Another Moonday has come and brings us one step closer to the halfway mark in Season 5—which, as I understand, will take a break between the first ten and last ten episodes, although it will remain one continuous story, unlike Season 3. And bringing us one step closer was pretty much all this episode did; this episode was primarily about inching us further along certain plot points, and wrapping up loose ends from last week’s episode. Thankfully, it was rather less dark than last week, even if a bit of body horror remained. Spoilers after the jump!

Sexualized Saturdays: Sex is Magic! …Or Not: Teen Wolf’s Surprisingly Low-Key Take on Sex

Let’s talk about sex. Sure, it’s magical, but sometimes it’s literally magical. One of my favorite things about speculative fiction is its ability take something ordinary and add a supernatural level to it, creating thought-provoking analogies and metaphors about various aspects of the human condition. Sex is one example of an arena sci-fi/fantasy media can explore in this way. Unfortunately, this is also an aspect that can lead to some pretty uncool tropes, from mystical pregnancies to magical virgins and everything in between. Imagine my surprise, that while watching Teen Wolf, I saw a show where characters’ sex lives were separate from their supernatural lives.

Are they gonna just lie in bed and talk all night? Maybe!