#sterek meta

In season 2, Deaton told Derek he shouldn't trust Peter and, without directly mentioning Scott's name, led Derek to believe he should trust Scott. Derek later found out this was because Scott and Deaton were working together behind his back in order to betray him and his pack.

From the start of season 3A, Derek no longer trusted Deaton or Scott and actively tried to tell Scott to stay out of it because of how deep that betrayal and violation of his bodily autonomy had cut.

But he still trusted Stiles.

Even though he wanted nothing to do with Scott and despite Stiles and Scott being friends, Scott's betrayal didn't taint Derek's trust in Stiles.

We saw this not just from Derek and Stiles' direct interactions and the implied summer they worked together to track down Erica and Boyd, but also by the fact that Jennifer, through her virgin sacrifices, knew the way to earn Derek's trust and seduce him was through copying the interactions Derek had had with Stiles. (Which in itself implies Derek was already developing "complicated [romantic] feelings" for Stiles at this stage.)

That deep level of trust in Stiles meant Derek either didn't think Stiles had a part in Scott and Deaton's plan or found out directly that Stiles didn't know what Scott and Deaton had done.

If Derek talked about it with Stiles, it was just enough to find out for himself if he could still trust him. He may have told Stiles part of why he didn't want to involve Scott, but not the full story.

Stiles' interactions with Scott would've been colder or more confrontational like we saw in season 5 if Derek had told him that Scott had taken Derek's paralyzed body and forced him to bite Gerard. Some of that was definitely glossed over, possibly Derek not wanting to rock the boat by potentially straining Stiles' relationship with both himself and Scott.

During or after season 5, Stiles would be much more open to receiving the truth of what happened, given his own falling out with Scott. If Stiles told Derek what happened to him, Derek might open up a bit about what had happened back in 2x12 but I'm not sure how much he'd go into his past trauma. Peter is the more likely choice to bluntly fill in all the details given he doesn't like Scott and doesn't care to spare Stiles' feelings over the issue.

But I've gone off on a tangent. The main point is how deeply Derek trusted Stiles from the very start of 3A despite Scott's betrayal at the end of season 2. He trusted Stiles enough for Jennifer to be able to use that to manipulate him and, even then, his trust remained rock solid to the point of Stiles becoming his anchor by the end of 3A.

Matt: "Oh, I don't know, Derek. I think you two make a pretty good pair. It must kinda suck, though, to have all that power taken away from you with just a little cut to the back of the neck. I bet you're not used to feeling this helpless."

Derek: "Still got some teeth. Why don't you get down here a little closer, huh? We'll see how helpless I am."

Stiles: "Yeah, bitch."

So, I was simply digging through my screencaps of Teen Wolf because I needed some reference photos for some art....and I felt like the biggest idiot in the world for never noticing this:

ALL OF THESE SHOTS ARE FROM THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE SAME. GODDAMN. EPISODE. SEASON 3, EPISODE 11.

THIS. 

As soon as we get full confirmation that the two of them are connected in some way, as seen by the first three screenshots, we then see Stiles getting into the tub at the end. And the camera doesn’t focus on anyone else...except for Stiles.

I have said this once and I will say it again:

Though the writing sucked in places, the cinematography for this show is exquisite, and not a single shot is an accident. This is just so perfect.

All of the writing for these two has been parallel to each other up until this point in the show, where their plotlines are finally merging together. This is right after Derek was willing to kill Jennifer in order to find Stiles’ father for him. (which, by the way, is Derek showing how much he values family, because he knows Stiles’ pain and what it means to lose the ones you love)

We are shown that they are each other’s anchors...and then at the end of the episode we are specifically shown Stiles being singled out when he goes into the water.

The camera work focuses on him. For a reason.

This was the start of something that was never followed through with, not entirely, because the writers chickened out, and for that I will never forgive them. But this. THIS.

THIS. IS. IMPORTANT.

We are deliberately shown that Stiles’ anchor is Derek at the beginning of episode and then he went into the water without the right anchor.

Which then leads us to the nogitsune plotline. Perfectly.

This proves that a door was left open because he had the wrong anchor.

My entry for the second day of @sterekweek-2021: Quotes.

The above four pics (in order - top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right) are the picturized versions of my favorite part of the song Demons by Imagine Dragons. I imagine these lyrics from Derek's POV.

The first pic makes me think that Derek has given up on the belief that any one of his action has a chance of impacting him in a positive way; his fate lies in the hands of darkness, and he's accepted it as a fact.

The second pic is more of the same; he doesn't think he deserves something good, because the soul he possesses only attracts evil, and when he's proven right at every turn, it's just hard to trust anyone (voluntary, anyways). He needs to not let people get close. It's a necessity for him to survive.

The third pic is about Stiles; Stiles, who is this aglamation of energy and light, brightening Derek's days, sharing Derek's darkness. Derek doesn't want that for Stiles. Stiles is too pure, and Derek won't let his fate fall onto the one good thing in his life; he wants to keep Stiles away from the shadow that lurks at his back, ready to entangle anything that might banish them away from him.

The fourth pic is about how Derek cannot leave this now—the darkness. His brain his hardwired to think the worst at even the slightest provocation, there is no hope left for a future when the sun shines on him as he leisurely walks between his home and someplace safe, when the moon illuminates not blood, wet and fresh off of his claws, but leaves on which he plays with his packmates, smiling and happy. But the thing is, he has hope; He has Stiles, his Stiles who means everything to him, who didn't leave, who stayed, who stayed for him.

+ Bonus Unless You Show Me How ((not my gif)):

Don’t get me wrong I love the ship, and Derek and Stiles do have a bond of some sorts but we get so little of it, but whatever we do has such high importance that I don’t understand why Stiles and Derek got those lines when in the context of the show it feels like they barely interact. 

But I can’t even dismiss anything because the moments they do get are so surprisingly significant(you probably already know all that’s mentioned on the list if you’re a shipper so you can skip it tbh):

Peter’s speech about the power of human love and the camera directly going from Stiles to Derek

The ‘abomination’ thing- the camera lingered on Derek’s expression

The pool scene(ah yes, probably the point where we all converted)

Matt and the Kanima scene- “You two make a good pair”. 

Boyd’s death- the comfort of human touch.

Stiles for some reason easily recognizing Derek on first meeting(he was the first to recognize young Derek too. Actually, he knows surprisingly lots about Derek).

Stiles is Derek’s anchor. I don’t know why, but the scene in “The Divine Move” can mean little else.

Derek is the king on Stiles’s board for some reason. He thought if Derek was out, the entire game was over. That’s a LOT of trust and responsibility on someone he barely interacted with(that we’ve seen anyways). 

Stiles’s curiosity about Derek in general- this is probably because Sties is meant to be the ‘info dump’ guy but he actively seeks out info on him-the Paige incident.

On text, these events are way too significant. If you saw this written out in a novel format, it would look like Stiles and Derek had a very very significant relationship.

About Matt- I didn’t understand why he said they “make a great pair” because they honestly had not interacted enough to be viewed as one, and this is coming from me who was basically scavenging for scenes of them together. 

Derek’s anchor thing- The part that struck me most was that this scene took place when no one trusted Stiles, not even himself, because the Nogitsune was using him. Even the Sheriff was being cautious. The entire arc was about trust and Stiles. But Derek chose STILES to confide in about all his worries to. He put all of it in Stiles? Why? It could’ve been for fanservice and to feed the starving sterek fans but the moment is too significant. This isn’t an illusion, this isn’t Derek being forced to pick- for once this is Derek willingly choosing to place his trust in someone(something that is nigh impossible to gain) in Stiles. If they wanted  fanservice it could’ve been in a witty but overall pointless banter in some other scene, but this point is almost a turning point for Derek’s behaviour.

There has been long metas on all of the above and these scenes were intentional.

Which is when I realized that Stiles and Derek’s relationship is unlike every other relationship on the show. It happens in the background the most. This is probably the slowest of slow burn enemies-to-lovers relationship. Their relationship is implications, references, symbolic.

They weren’t meant to be romantic probably(Derek’s like, 24 or smthg and Stiles is 16-18, this show absolutely sucks at keeping a timeline). I think they were meant to just be, begrudging friends who often have same goals, an unlikely but effective team of sorts, united mostly because of Scott at first and then grow to become some sort of crime-solving, supernatural-butt-kicking duo. But it somehow got out of hand. 

Stiles is one person that Derek gets almost nothing out of saving, has no obligation towards. His relationship with Scott started because he’s his beta. Chris and Derek have a relationship mostly built on guilt and somehow making it up to each other. Isaac, Boyd and Erica were also his betas he needed to take care of. Peter’s the only family he has left and also happens to be a well of information(sometimes). Breaden’s mission is to get him his money back. 

But the one person who he gets nothing from, who he has no tie to, who he really doesn’t need to give a crap about but actually cares way too much for, enough to make them his anchor? Stiles. Whatever relationship he has with Stiles, he chose to have it.

Now Stiles- he’s more obvious about stuff especially in season 3. Taking down Derek means losing the game against the nogitsune. Losing Derek is unlike the other loses, he’s essentially put Derek’s survival through this game as equivalent to his own. The nogitsune(or Stiles somehow manipulating the nogistune) led the Sheriff, Chris, Allison, and Derek to Derek’s loft. Why there? What’s so significant to Stiles about this place. Go is about overtaking territory- the places the nogitsune had captured were the Sheriff’s station, the school, the hospital- and for some reason, the loft. Wouldn’t his home be better? Or somewhere else where he spends his time? It’s clear that Derek is important to Stiles(More symbolically, we get confirmation of sorts for Stiles being bi in Derek’s loft...hmmm......this is so sus). 

Here’s the thing though; I doubt either of them are aware of how much they care about the other, Derek’s whole “I don’t deserve happiness” shtick+ trauma from how horrible all his other relationships went and Stiles’s possibly crippling PTS+ train-wreck of a relationship with Malia(the girl can barely empathize and she’s just adjusting to human society why the fuck are you putting something as huge as a committed HUMAN VERSION of romance on her??? Why is this relationship even a thing it has all the makings for a messy break-up). 

They’d probably come to their realization years later, outside of the canon timeline and it’d probably be unlike any former relationship they’d have. Stiles has seen the worst of Derek(that’s the starting point of TW, Derek was a villain), and Derek probably knows a lot of Stiles’s flaws because he isn’t putting up a pretense. 

TW//Mentions of Sexual Abuse and Pedophilia

Since ya girl decided to torture herself and rewatch Teen Wolf (up till season 4/before it went downhill) I'm only up to S2 but I wanted to talk about Stiles being Derek's Anchor since the show basically forgot about it and there are instances in the first few Seasons that give it substances.

Let me start by saying even if it was a chance to bait Sterek lovers, ships aside I think it would've been brilliant and it would've actually made sense with the storyline and previous encounters.

If Derek's Anchor before was anger it pulled him back because of past experiences. Because of what happened with Paige, what happened with Kate and then his family, then Laura, Peter, and Cora. I feel like these are all situations in which he blamed himself for the terrible outcomes and he was always angry. He always had anger to latch onto he never quite had a person to be that for him like others because they would always be gone soon after.

Now here's the thing Derek was angry and many of the reasons he faults himself is because he put his trust in someone only to be betrayed.

Peter put the idea in his head about Paige

Kate preyed on him, gained his trust, manipulated him, sexually abused him just so she could kill his pack.

Derek trusted Peter and Peter turned out to be the one who killed his only other known living family member.

So I think prior to Season 1 and following the seasons events he hadn't really had someone he could count on so he continued to rely on anger.

3 Seasons in and I think that changed. In fact it could be argued that Season2 was the start. When Derek is stuck in the pool with Stiles he mentions they don't trust eachother. And Stiles immediately proves he worthy of his trust. Not only that but Stiles proved he was worthy by protecting Derek's Pack too which is no doubt important especially to an Alpha and someone like Derek.

Jumping ahead to Season 3 when Derek is forced to kill Boyd and Stiles is there to comfort her despite the fact that Cora was right there. I feel like that moment of comfort basically sealed the deal. Stiles I think is the only person Derek put his trust in (before the dream in 3B finalie) that actually came thru and didn't betray him in the end. I think it came down to the fact that he could let his guard down and know he would still be okay and for someone who has been thru what he has that could mean a lot.

Also some good proof is when he believes Stiles over Jennifer who had all this influence over him. All it took was one look. If we compare it to the previous season where he trusts Scott only to have Scott betray him. I feel like if anything it would make sense that he would question Scott. Scott would need proof. Stiles did not hence why Derek didn't ask.

I think if they continued with it, Stiles being Derek's Anchor would've been a good storyline. Derek has had an arch dealing with trust. We see it with flashbacks and in the present situations so it makes sense that the solution to all his anger is to find someone who wouldn't put him in those situations. The one person he would trust entirely would be the person he could depend on to pull him back. He trusts Stiles.

I think the reason he broke through jennifer’s spell despite her being right there was because of stiles, and I also think all those similarities between her and stiles were very much intentional. we’ve talked about the anchoring happening in 3a but it must’ve been somewhere between 2 and 3a.

(Same anon about the meta) 3) The ‘light’ theory is def reaching- the writers barely kept a bible of the show, forgetting about storylines and characters, moving on without any consideration of continuity- I really don’t think they’d have thought about 'light and its meaning’ for Sterek. 4) Poseygate was def a tool JD used to silence Sterek - it was never his intention to make it happen, his goal was to bait the audience - and he’s still doing it till the end

From X

Yeah, I have my doubts about the meta too. Not to say that I think it was dishonest, but I don’t follow colethewolf’s posts enough to have any sense of who their sources might be and where the info might have come from... and considering the general sloppiness of the show as well as the dismissive-verging-toward-cruel attitude of the showrunners/PR team toward Sterek, it’s hard to believe they had this subtle Sterek plan that just fell apart.

As for your first point, though, I’m not sure what you’re saying about the distinction between “after seasons 1-2, not just on season 3”? After season 2 is the same thing as s3? And that is when the dynamic/screentime between Stiles and Derek started shifting. Sterek were still interacting in pretty significant ways throughout 3A though (Stiles teasing Derek/fist scene, Stiles saving Derek in the elevator, Stiles & Derek shouting match in the hospital, Stiles and Derek chatting during Scott’s tattoo scene, Stiles begging Derek to believe him about Jennifer/his dad’s capture –– and, potentially, breaking her spell over him).

At the same time, though, 3A was the “no homo” introduction of female love interests for both of them. (The clear parallels between Jennifer & Stiles, and Cora & Derek, prove that the showrunners not only knew how popular Sterek was, but was trying to capitalize on that dynamic with straight ships.) This is notable because neither of them had actual love interests throughout the first two seasons (Stiles had his hopeless crush on someone who wasn’t interested, but that’s all) and as soon as the showrunners become aware of Sterek and its popularity, they were both suddenly set up with women.

*I do want to also note, though, that between s2 and 3A, the show moved from filming in Georgia to LA, where it probably came under heavier scrutiny from MTV. I couldn’t say how this impacted the show’s direction, but I think it’s important to keep in mind what else was going on at the time.

But, anyway, the lack of Sterek scenes didn’t particularly kick in until 3B. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t involved could tell you the reasons behind this. Maybe they were anti-Sterek from the start, but thought introducing a “female Derek” in the form of Cora would be enough to distract Sterek fans, and after that didn’t work they decided to cut out the Sterek interaction in 3B altogether. Maybe they thought it was harmless at first, and Jeff didn’t become bitter about its popularity until later. Maybe they actually were being tested out as love interests in 3A...? I guess I can’t say that’s not true, but considering everything going against it I’d need to see more receipts before I really took that idea seriously.

After all, like you said, Sterek continued to be teased and baited throughout the rest of the show, with no payoff. If Sterek was initially planned for but officially dropped by s4, then why would they still include scenes like the one in “Smoke & Mirrors”, or the Derek mentions tied directly to Stiles in 5A, or the way they’ve been linked together in all the promotional materials for 6B? All of those have the same feel as what we were given in 3B’s dream scene (when Sterek was, according to the meta, still the plan), which suggests to me that the scenes were either equally baity (most likely) or equally heading toward a Sterek endgame. If Sterek had actually been planned for but then dropped, then why would they still include romantic-seeming moments later on?

As for the “Sterek and light” theory... this is an interesting case because it’s honestly something I could see Jeff doing. The guy can’t keep a date or basic fact in his story to save his life, but he will occasionally drop hints for future plot points (ex: Chris mentioning Berserkers in 3B) or throw in subtle details just for some kind of coolness factor. I can 100% see Jeff not bothering to figure out where mystery voicemails on Allison’s phone came from or forgetting that Banshees can’t control printers, but making sure to announce to all of his directors that “Stiles needs to be in orange light because, ok??” The guy is not vaguely interested in continuity or things making sense, but he’s all about flash and vague exciting ideas and what looks cool, so I wouldn’t completely put it past him to intensely focus on light placement, while ignoring the plot.