Never Ending List of Scenes in Which Derek Hale is Gorgeous: Master Plan - The Locker Room
love this gifset, but…
this? inaccurate.
developed by jeff davis? false. derek hale was not developed by jeff davis. in fact, derek hale was hardly developed at all. except, you know, by the fandom that loves and respects him.
:shrugs:
just sayin’…
omg i’m dying! this commentary is perfect!
I’d like to point out that it wasn’t just fandom. It was also Tyler Hoechlin. He never stopped nagging Jeff about Derek’s backstory and motivations to understand and develop his character further than a few meagre stage directions. When he didn’t get anything to work with from Jeff, he made up several Derek Hale headcanons himself over the years to ‘fill the blanks’ he felt were there. And if I’m not mistaken, it was also Hoechlin - without being prompted by Jeff - who decided to bulk up when Derek became an Alpha to show the physical change that comes with the additional powers. Tyler Hoechlin loves and respects Derek Hale just about as much as fandom does.
I love that my kneejerk reaction to this gifset was fully supported by the comments as I scrolled down.
Derek was created as a bad-boy foil whose popularity caught Jeff by surprise and left him fumbling to keep up. He spent every season torturing him in as many ways as possible and visibly running out of ideas to keep his story going. He only succeeded in making fandom and Hoechlin fight harder to keep his character intact, believable, and valuable. Fandom still hasn’t run out of stories. Neither has Hoechlin, whose headcanon for Derek is extremely well-thought-out and nuanced.
Derek Hale is my favorite fictional character. It has nothing to do with Jeff Davis. It has everything to do with what Hoechlin did with a limited role and with the way Derek survived all the attempts to trample him down.
