#jydia

NO ONE.

haunts.

the narrative.

sure, to her credit Allison tries, but of all the ghosts i’ve seen, she pales in comparison. cause like think about it, right? say what you want about her, but Allison was Scott’s first love. and more than that, his first girlfriend EVER. i’m still haunted by unrequited crushes i had in middle school, much less by my exes. like be so fr. he barely even mourns her, the most we see is him signing her initials at Senior Scribe and the scene of him crying while his mom hugs him in the 3B epilogue.

but in Season 4? it’s like she was never even there. i find it impossible to believe there isn’t a single moment that couldn’t have been written to require a hunter’s touch. maybe they needed an archer to shoot something or the steadiest set of hands they knew to do something delicate, which they then COULDN’T DO bc Allison died. it didn’t even need to be acknowledged out loud as long as we saw that she mattered at all. this was the first—and really the only—death of a main cast member in the entire show and it just stopped mattering after a single episode? by the time the credits finished rolling in The Divine Move we had all grieved all we felt obliged to and that was that?

and what about the characters that made it out alive, but had to leave to do so? like Jackson may have been an antagonist in both of the first two seasons but his departure didn’t effect anyone either? Lydia just moved on by the end of the summer? (yes i know she was kind of pretending to have moved on but even still it’s a discredit to Jackson.) Danny didn’t miss his best friend at all?

and speaking of Danny, sure he wasn’t a main character but he had chemistry with the main cast, Stiles in particular. he was fun comedic relief and he knew about it all the entire time, but yeah sure let’s just never address that after the scene w Ethan. just write him off with the offscreen explanation that he graduated early i guess

what about Isaac? the only one of Derek’s Betas Scott was able to save, not only from death but ultimately from themselves and Derek’s leadership too? the boy who had to move in with Scott bc Matt murdered his abusive father? Isaac’s first safe place was probably the guest bedroom in the McCall house. more than that Scott eventually came to see Isaac as as much of a brother as Stiles? who, like Stiles, was incredibly distrusting of anyone and anything? there’s not a moment where anyone even mentions him after Season 4, and even then it was more about the fact that Argent had left town to take Isaac to France, never to be seen OR HEARD ABOUT again.

and my girl Kira? thank god Liam broke her sword bc it’s not like i wasn’t already well aware the writers didn’t gaf about her, i really needed that visual metaphor. now here i have to admit to a conflict of interests because it was her departure that brought my KING Theo back, but i still have to acknowledge that she was done dirty even after Arden Cho left the show. i know FOR A FACT Kira could’ve handled that lightning, there’s no way that would’ve been more power than Barrow zapped her with in Galvanize. but right, no why would we address that, silly me.

but the most egregious of all? other than maybe Allison, the only other person who should’ve haunted every second of every episode they weren’t in was Stiles.

i think it needs to be said that some of this was pacing issues bc imo The Wild Hunt and Monroe’s Army should’ve both been their own, 20 episode seasons.

but Stiles is erased from existence and we don’t even wait AN episode before we start to remember? the only person who his absence visibly, deeply impacts is Malia. and her issues controlling her shift after Stiles is taken were GREAT but we couldn’t have had any more of that? this is Scott’s DAY ONE, someone it’s implied that has been Scott’s only close friend pretty much ever, prior to the bite. and if you buy into the Stydia propaganda they were trying to push so hard that season, he was pretty much the love of Lydia’s life, but all we get is “i feel like i had to do something.” “like what?” “i can’t remember.”

moreover Stiles was our man with the plan. he was always the one figuring stuff out and coming up with the best way to get shit done. sure, Lydia is EASILY WAAAY smarter than Stiles but i don’t really think she has Stiles’s tactical abilities. she certainly can’t read people nearly as well or was quickly as Stiles can. but we can’t have them start to remember Stiles in episode 8 and realistically have him back by the end of 9 so there was no time to really feel the loss of him in 6A.

now 6B is an entirely different story and Stiles not being there to call Monroe’s shit or help them draw up the battle lines and plan out how to retaliate against the army until the finale with no repercussions was CRIMINAL. sure, Stiles is instrumental in beating the Anuk-Ite, but there’s not a single moment in the other 9 episodes he isn’t around for where the McCall Pack doesn’t fuck up because they were down a member?