i've been obsessed with burning houses lately

This is for the Salty Ask Game.

How would you end Teen Wolf/Would you change the ending of Teen Wolf?

I'll start with pointing out the source of my salt: the end of the show underlined my fundamental problem with the writing of Scott as central protagonist, and the way Jeff Davis, the show runner, approached it. It is very much what I hope they address in the movie. I'm going to be positive now -- which is probably a contradiction in a salty ask game -- and say I'm not sure how they could have a movie without addressing it.

You see, I've always appreciated the themes of Teen Wolf and how the main character embodied them. How the production said Being Hurt by Others Doesn't Give You the Right to Hurt Others to Feel Better, so Scott didn't. How the production said that It Takes Willpower to Not Let What Was Done To You Define You, so Scott refused. How the production said that Putting the Needs of Others First When You Are Being Attacked is Strength of Character, so Scott acted to help others. How the production said that Compassion, Empathy, and Resolve are Virtues so Scott embodied them.

One of the show's strengths at the beginning was how it allowed Scott to grow into this heroism without pretending it was something that was destined to happen. For more elaboration, read this post. What hooked me the most during Season 1 was how he managed to remain a sixteen-year-old boy during this time. He worried about his grades; he was distracted by sex; he made jokes about the Incredible Hulk. He didn't start acting like a trained espionage operative by episode four. Instead, he was a teenager who chose to embrace his own strengths in order to thwart violent and brutal villains who believed they were entitled to reach their goals no matter who suffered and died as a consequence.

But something happened in Season 3A: Jeff Davis embraced the 'kill the boy' trope. He warned us he was going to do it in the trailer, when Scott drowns himself. It makes sense. Scott, as the True Alpha, has to reinvent himself to help others, but Davis turned that into an unreasonable burden on the character in a way that no other character did. Scott wasn't written as having to act for others in spite of his emotional reactions; he was punished for having emotional reactions. For example, when he sacrificed himself for his parents and gained a heart of darkness, the narrative punished Scott for not immediately overcoming that darkness. Ever notice that Stiles gets comforted by Scott and Noah during his nightmares and hallucinations while Allison gets practical concern from Lydia and offers of comfort from Isaac when being haunted by Kate? On the other hand, Melissa lectures Scott on proper anchors and delivers sassy one-liners in response to uncharacteristic violence, but she never shows the slightest interest in why this is happening to him. Instead of receiving comfort for his weakness like the other two, Scott gets the twins beating the snot out of him to help while Stiles and Isaac mock him with erectile dysfunction jokes.

The production wanted us to treat Scott as different than other people and that's acceptable for the main protagonist ... up to a point. They are different from other characters, but as the production went on, the difference reached ridiculous levels. When a demon wearing Stiles's face tricks him into absorbing pain and tortures him with a sword, we only get Stiles's reaction to these events. Scott never mentions it. (Though his fear of the nogitsune is used to condemn him in season 5). When his first love dies in his arms, Chris Argent literally bullies Scott, insisting that he has to pull it together (compare that to Chris's reaction to Isaac's tears). When he's transformed into a berserker and stabs Kira it's not even mentioned again. Peter got more sympathy for what happened in La Iglesias than Scott did. He is murdered in the school library and no one cares as long as he can fulfill his heroic duty. Isn't it all very powerful, how Melissa abandons him at home to bandage his own wounds and Stiles attacks him for his failures, and he doesn't resent them at all?

The problem I have with this approach is that, if you tell an audience often enough that Scott doesn't need help or comfort and that his emotions aren't important, eventually the audience is going to believe you. Instead of witnessing Scott's fear and doubt about his actions as hero treated as a valid emotional response, we never get any scenes where Scott stops being a hero for a moment and gets to be someone who wonders how the hell this happened to his life. His best friend lies to him and betrays him, he fumbles his relationship with the girl he loves, his beta beats him to the point of death, and he's not given even a moment to say "is this what I really want to do with my life? How did choosing to help people become an obligation that will consume my entire future?" Instead, he's told that it's his responsibility to fix their problems, regardless of the personal cost. "You'll get them back; you have to." "It'll take as long as it takes." "It's just the way you were looking at me that night." "It's different now; dying did something to him." "Don't run; you fight."

Think about the scene when he realizes that his mother was taken by the Wild Hunt, and Malia says to him "Scott, your mom is gone. But she's still alive." For the umpteenth time, Scott was told by someone who claims to be his friend that his emotional response to a situation wasn't important. Do you really think that the show would have ever have any character tell Stiles that "Your mom's been dead for eight years; isn't it time you moved on?" Or say the same thing about Derek's dead family? Instead Derek and Stiles had multi-episode arcs dealing specifically with the validity of their feelings, and Scott got 15 seconds before someone told him he was wrong to focus on them.

I think this position was validated when Tyler Posey, in the ten year reunion special, suggested that Scott may have took a few years to find himself, and Jeff Davis jumped in with "he's still out there saving people." Scott's not allowed to make decisions that prioritize himself, because the character's creator always envisioned him as someone the people need -- someone who will always put the good of others first.

In my case, I didn't need the television show to end with Scott cutting the rest of the Beacon Hills gang out of his life and spending the next twenty years surfing. I also didn't need it to end with Scott dying because he gave the 'last full measure of devotion.' I wanted the series to end with him having drawn boundaries. I needed him to say "Sheriff, that's your problem, not mine" or "Stiles, you don't get to veto how I choose to live my life" or "Mom, can't you tell me that I deserve to put myself first for once?" But I didn't get anything like that. Even him trying to encourage Liam to pick up more responsibility was presented as helping his beta achieve something Liam stated that he wanted. And, as a reward, the narrative portrayed Scott as in the wrong when he was afraid of the guy who tricked his friends into abandoning him and one into killing him.

I still wince when they actually fucking allowed Liam to tell Scott that "You made mistakes when you were learning to be alpha," as if Scott isn't horrified that Theo -- the man who buried his claws in his chest -- is standing in his living room but instead treat it as if he's nitpicking Liam's decision-making.

I would have added boundaries. I would have added a scene where Stiles yells about them not telling him about Monroe and Scott said "I made the best decision I could, so you can yell at me later, but we don't have the time right now." I would have Scott exile Peter or at least not allow him to participate in the fight against Monroe because Scott couldn't trust Peter after Peter gave a fanatic an assault rifle to point at him. I would have had his own mother in that hospital bed give him permission to look for alternatives rather than throwing himself into a battle where he was hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered. I would have had a scene where the narrative underlined in bold strokes that Scott's life and feelings matter too.