#pack mentality

The character growth of Nick from Zootopia 1 to 2 is so refreshing. His childhood trauma of being muzzled by his junior ranger scout group shaped him into feeling like he wouldn’t ever get that connection of being valued by someone else. Because of that, he wasn’t going to care about anyone other than himself. Judy, of course, proves him otherwise through the events of 1, and only strengthens his pack mentality more in 2; to know that not only does someone care about him, he now cares the WORLD about someone other than himself. He would risk his life for hers if it meant she’d be safe. She is the most important person to him now; she is his pack.

2016: “I was gonna be part of a pack.” - Nick Wilde

2025: “I didn’t join the ZPD because I wanted to be a cop. I joined because I always wanted to be part of a pack, and the thought of losing you scares me because you’re my pack.” - Nick Wilde

“Convergence Theory”

All events in TADC are mirrors of each other and “converge” into Intermission Time:

1 ➡️ ⬅️ 9

2 ➡️ ⬅️ 8

3 ➡️ ⬅️ 7

4 ➡️ ⬅️ 6

[[5]]

Esther tried to suppress his innate wolf nature his entire life, and then in his afterlife she bound him from being able to turn - but she couldn’t completely bind his actual nature.

So for nearly one thousand years, Klaus is being pulled in two directions. One part of him is a natural predator, not designed to work as a group, and the other is crying out for that close bond of a family pack. If you want to assume that he was also destined to be an Alpha, that aspect only grows stronger.

For centuries he has this internal war going on, which causes him to alternately pull away from and run to his family.

I think it also explains Marcel, why he wanted to raise him and guide him and see him as a son - even why he picked him out as a fighter - but also why he ultimately failed to do so. He had the primal drive within to establish his pack, but his vampire side continues to torpedo that desire.

Consider that werewolf packs are a wide family group, not all blood related. They hold together, learn, protect and grow together. They function best as a unit - and Klaus seems throughout the history we see of him to be attempting that on several occasions. He adopts Marcel, he attaches himself to Stefan.

Even his pursuit of the hybrid army falls down to this. His posturing, elitist vampiric side claims he’s making an army - and, to an extent, he is - but the wolf in him is just trying to come home to his pack.

This to me also explains why his character begins to change from Mystic Falls through to New Orleans days - he finally unbound his werewolf side, and that nature was allowed to establish itself more firmly.

He begins to notice Caroline, he has moments where he shows forgiveness and pity and kindness. It’s still at odds with his vampiric nature, and a thousand years of behaviour one way doesn’t just vanish overnight, but it’s the fork in the road as his werewolf self takes a wider stance in his nature and his personality.

We know the wolf starts to shine through and take a physical effect, because he produces a child, something he couldn’t ever have done with his wild side bound. It wants to create a pack, it always has, but now it has a firmer hold on him and it starts to become more of his personality in order to facilitate that.

To me it also goes some way to explaining why he doesn’t simply murder everyone in sight in MF - love ‘em or hate ‘em, the MF gang are tight. Like a family. Like a pack. Klaus’ wolf is attracted to that while his vampire pulls away. The wolf, now unleashed properly, stays his hand in situations that he might otherwise have walked away from covered in blood.

To me it also explains why he hesitates to move agains the Trinity (Lucian, Tristan & Aurora). Personally I never felt his romantic love for her in the present day, it always looked as though he was talking about his feelings in the past tense, but even with the huge threat all three of them posed - they were, ultimately, part of his original pack. The very first instance, when they were still baby vampires, of friendship and love and something approaching a cohesive family unit. Of course he can’t simply murder them.

And, of course, it’s why he unravels so far after the events of S4 in TO - having finally settled and found his pack, that stability, that family unit, is ripped away. It’s not just about Elijah, it’s the trust and respect he found with Hayley, it’s the overwhelming love he has for Hope, it’s the newest sibling he found in Freya.

My blood, My spirit, My soul, My bones.

I always saw you as part of them, Imperfection. You have changed me, In ways I never thought Any relation could.

We aren’t friends. We are sisters. We are a pack. The lobas inside of us speak directly, Without filter or shame.

We run together, Even when we can’t run. I run for you. You run for me.

I honor you, I cry for you, I cheer for you. We are one, As we are proper individuals.

That’s even stronger than possessive love. It’s freedom.

Written for @teenwolf-meta Meta May Monday's May 19th topic: Beast.

As Coach might say, let's do a pop quiz! What's the connection between the scene pictured above the scene pictured directly below?

The simple answer is that the people involved are all part of the Argent family, but there is more to it than that. The sacredness of family ties is important to Chris Argent, and that can be traced all the way back to 18th century France. Let's look at Chris Argent's speech to Derek Hale in that scene in Pack Mentality (1x03).

Chris: Nice ride. Black cars, though. Very hard to keep clean. I would definitely suggest a little more maintenance. If you have something this nice, you want to take care of it, right? Personally, I'm very protective of the things I love. But that's something I learned from my family. And you don't have much of that these days. Do you? There we go. You can actually look through your windshield now. See how that makes everything so much clearer?

It would be easy to think of this scene as Chris Argent displaying another example of his weird intimidation techniques, threatening Derek to keep him in line. In fact, that's what we are meant to believe when we first watch it. As threats go, however, it seems to be based on cruelty and doesn't paint Chris in a very flattering light.

However, as the show progresses, we see more and more how important family is to Chris until we get to the story in The Maid of Gévaudan (5x18). We watch La Bête's rampage found the Argent clan of hunters. They took the mantle upon themselves not only because Sebastian Valet was a serial-killing demonic werewolf, but also because he was family. Sebastian would have been a monster wherever he went, but he purposefully came back to Gévaudan, to the community where he and his sister lived. He wasn't going to stop killing, so this betrayed his family's history there, destroyed the roots that the Valets had. He went so far as when Marie-Jeanne vowed to stop him, he stated his intention to kill her as well.

Thus we learn the reason that Marie-Jeanne established a code in which if a hunter is bitten that they have to take their own life. Lycanthropy, embodied by the Beast, corrupts and destroys that sacred bonds that we see were extremely important to Marie-Jeanne and to her descendants.

Sebastian: You won't catch me. And you won't kill me. We're family, Marie-Jeanne. We're family.

Chris, for his part, will turn on his father and start working with werewolves when he realizes that family, in the end, means nothing but a source of power for Gerard, to be tossed away or replaced if it is not serving its purpose. After Chris realizes that Victoria, Allison, and Kate are all, in their own ways, victims of Gerard's actions, he discards the idea that lycanthropy is a requirement for betrayal. This revelation, at first, makes him try to protect his family by giving up hunting in Frayed (3x05):

Chris: There's a saying for these kinds of situations, the kind you have to navigate carefully. It's called, "threading the needle." It's finding a safe path between two opposing forces. Allison: Sounds like saving your own ass. Chris: They're not your family.

But Chris, as much as he wants to protect what is important to him, never forgot why the Code exists in the first place. He can't help but follow it, even after it push him to help his beloved wife commit suicide. He learn slowly that there's nothing wrong with valuing family, even to the point of trying to get Kate and Gerard to renounce their behavior simply because they should be horrified that it requires a betrayal of their family. He even goes so far as to take the blame for his own betrayals, such as when he suggestion he didn't "take care" enough to stop Kate in becoming what she did.

So what's the ultimate connection between these scenes? At this point in Pack Mentality , Chris must think that Derek is the one who killed his sister, Laura. I'm sure if Chris had proof, that conversation would have taken a more violent turn, but when the confrontation begins, Chris has no reason to believe that Derek isn't the only werewolf in town. After all, Chris or Victoria never mention Peter in the hospital, and Kate doesn't check the place out. (It seems Laura made sure he was safe from them in the facility.) It's not until the next episode when Kate reveals to the family that there's more than one werewolf.