Teen Wolf: Stiles's Canon Relationships
May. 19th, 2021 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fffc Fandom Battle Week 13, this meta discussion is not an attempt to paint one canon ship as better than the other. I just explore the similarities and differences in an attempt to understand Stiles, Lydia, and Malia better.
From the pilot of Teen Wolf, it’s established that Stiles has had a crush on Lydia Martin since the third grade. Scott is well aware of this, as Stiles doesn’t seem to keep it a secret. He even talks to Lydia, trying to get her attention at school and later at Beacon Hills General Hospital. Lydia is aloof and disinterested. She’s portrayed at this point as someone beautiful and untouchable, one of the popular kids who has a well-established clique with Jackson and Danny (and eventually Allison). The show breaks her out of this stereotype a little bit by showing, through Stiles’s observations of her, that she’s extremely smart and academically gifted. She’s got big ambitions that go well beyond high school popularity. But throughout season 1 and 2, she’s someone who is very independent from Stiles and Scott. She tries to telegraph to everyone that she’s capable and that nothing rattles her. The only person she gets vulnerable with in the early seasons is Jackson.
The infamous first kiss between Lydia and Stiles happened during season 3, when Lydia kissed Stiles to interrupt his panic attack. But even then, she brushes it off as a tactic to make him hold his breath. Shippers can certainly interrupt that scene as a turning point for Lydia, and she admits as much in season 6. Within canon, it seems that Stiles doesn’t dwell on the kiss and files it away as just something Lydia did to help him.
We know that Stiles is a “virgin” according to his own conversations with Scott and then Heather in the episode 3.02 Chaos Rising. He and Scott are invited to Heather’s 17th birthday, where it’s revealed that she and Stiles were childhood friends and obviously still trust each other enough for Heather to ask him to have sex with her in the wine cellar. She is kidnapped by the season’s baddie, and her virginity becomes important to the plot.
Stiles makes out with Caitlin at the black light party in episode 3.16 Illuminated. Caitlin is the canon bisexual character whose girlfriend Emily was turned and attacked her previously on the show. Caitlin tells Stiles that she likes boys and girls, which leads to her asking Stiles how he feels about boys and he doesn’t answer - instead appearing both thoughtful and awkward which has fueled many headcanons about Stiles’s sexuality (I wholeheartedly support most of those headcanons and have a few myself).
That leads us to Stiles’s relationship with Malia. He first learns of her in the context of his father’s unsolved case involving Malia’s supposed death following a car crash. Law enforcement had assumed that Malia’s stepmom and step sister had been mauled by coyotes. When Stiles meets Malia, she’s in her coyote form and only changes back to a human because of Scott’s alpha roar. As Malia and Stiles grow closer, it becomes obvious that Malia relies on Stiles to navigate being human again. Stiles emotionally supports her and helps teach her about her shift, based on his experience with Scott. Stiles becomes her anchor as Malia re-integrates into school and joins Scott’s pack.
In a lot of ways, Malia is the opposite of Lydia. She’s willing to engage in fights to solve problems or protect her friends, and says what is on her mind - instead of relying on research/planning and keeping her feelings to herself, as Lydia does. When Stiles sees Malia again at Eichen House in episode 3.20 Echo House, she punches him in the face because she’s angry about how her life had turned out up to that point. This is also the episode where Malia and Stiles have sex for the first time. Stiles asks Malia to check the injuries on his back, and things get physical once their attraction becomes obvious. Malia doesn’t waste any time once she realizes that Stiles is also interested in her, which fits with her bold personality.
As season four progresses, Malia is not afraid to show Stiles how much she relies on him and needs his help. They are portrayed as a passionate and unconventional couple, where Malia seems to be more aggressive one: they engage in supposedly rough sex involving scratching and Stiles is also her “little spoon” in a scene where they sleep in Stiles’s bed. Stiles and Malia engage in PDA when they are together, in front of their friends and even in front of Malia’s adopted dad.
In contrast, even when Stiles and Lydia get together in season 6, there’s not really any PDA or physical passion portrayed. There’s one kiss when they reunite at the school, and then they hold hands in front of their friends. Their relationship is portrayed as one that took years to cultivate, and doesn’t seem to require a whole lot of negotiation once Lydia kisses Stiles and makes her intentions known.
Malia and Stiles go through a difficult time in their relationship when Malia finds out that Peter Hale is her biological father, and Stiles knew without telling her. Malia eventually forgives him, but then in season 5A things change again. Stiles tries to grapple with killing Donovan, and does not feel comfortable talking to anyone about it (partly due to Theo’s actions). He distances himself from Malia, and everyone else. Meanwhile, Malia starts looking for her biological mother (the Desert Wolf) and doesn’t include Stiles in her plan to kill the Desert Wolf. Their lives seem to diverge significantly at that point. Stiles doesn’t want to trust Malia or face her judgement regarding Donovan, whereas Malia doesn’t want to face Stiles’s judgment of her regarding the Desert Wolf.
They break up in episode 5.10 Status Asthmaticus, once Stiles finally decides to tell his dad about Donovan. She reveals that she knew about the fight with Donovan because she saw the bite on his shoulder, but she never said anything because it didn’t matter to her. Stiles appears sad and distraught at this, considering he’d agonized over his fight with Donovan and his actions over several episodes. At that point, it’s clear that Malia doesn’t understand Stiles the way he wants or expects her to.
However, Stiles and Malia do make a good team during season 4 - Stiles is the “brain” doing research or figuring things out, and Malia is the “muscle” shaking people down or protecting Stiles. Stiles and Lydia also make a good team during the show but in a different way. They do a lot of behind the scenes research and problem solving, and they also are integral to the functioning of the McCall pack.
The show implies that Stiles and Malia don’t work because they don’t fully understand each other, whereas Lydia and Stiles have a lot more in common - they’re not physically powerful, they don’t have to manage were-shifts, they enjoy being intellectual and solving problems, and they are both ambitious.
I see how Stiles and Malia could have worked out, if Stiles had wanted to put in the work to explain himself to someone who was so different from him. Malia reminded me of Scott, at least when she was having trouble managing her shift and Stiles was helping her learn to focus and manage that part of herself. Maybe that’s part of the reason the show thought Malia and Scott would be a better fit in the endgame.
I think Stiles softened Malia, helped make her more human. On the flip side, Malia made Stiles feel protected and wanted right from the beginning. They needed to improve their communication if they wanted to work out.
Lydia was always going to be a “what-if” if Stiles and Lydia never pursued a relationship. I think Lydia made Stiles feel challenged intellectually, and pushed him out of his comfort zone. Stiles encouraged Lydia’s ambition, made her feel safe/protected, and inspired her to be more honest with her friends. For them to work, they have to realize love isn’t always a competition.
This is one of my favorite vids that summarizes Lydia/Stiles:
This is one of my favorite vids that summarizes Stiles/Malia:
I would be curious to know your thoughts on canon events related to these ships. Also, if you think I've missed something in canon please let me know.
fffc Fandom Battle Week 13, this meta discussion is not an attempt to paint one canon ship as better than the other. I just explore the similarities and differences in an attempt to understand Stiles, Lydia, and Malia better.From the pilot of Teen Wolf, it’s established that Stiles has had a crush on Lydia Martin since the third grade. Scott is well aware of this, as Stiles doesn’t seem to keep it a secret. He even talks to Lydia, trying to get her attention at school and later at Beacon Hills General Hospital. Lydia is aloof and disinterested. She’s portrayed at this point as someone beautiful and untouchable, one of the popular kids who has a well-established clique with Jackson and Danny (and eventually Allison). The show breaks her out of this stereotype a little bit by showing, through Stiles’s observations of her, that she’s extremely smart and academically gifted. She’s got big ambitions that go well beyond high school popularity. But throughout season 1 and 2, she’s someone who is very independent from Stiles and Scott. She tries to telegraph to everyone that she’s capable and that nothing rattles her. The only person she gets vulnerable with in the early seasons is Jackson.
The infamous first kiss between Lydia and Stiles happened during season 3, when Lydia kissed Stiles to interrupt his panic attack. But even then, she brushes it off as a tactic to make him hold his breath. Shippers can certainly interrupt that scene as a turning point for Lydia, and she admits as much in season 6. Within canon, it seems that Stiles doesn’t dwell on the kiss and files it away as just something Lydia did to help him.
We know that Stiles is a “virgin” according to his own conversations with Scott and then Heather in the episode 3.02 Chaos Rising. He and Scott are invited to Heather’s 17th birthday, where it’s revealed that she and Stiles were childhood friends and obviously still trust each other enough for Heather to ask him to have sex with her in the wine cellar. She is kidnapped by the season’s baddie, and her virginity becomes important to the plot.
Stiles makes out with Caitlin at the black light party in episode 3.16 Illuminated. Caitlin is the canon bisexual character whose girlfriend Emily was turned and attacked her previously on the show. Caitlin tells Stiles that she likes boys and girls, which leads to her asking Stiles how he feels about boys and he doesn’t answer - instead appearing both thoughtful and awkward which has fueled many headcanons about Stiles’s sexuality (I wholeheartedly support most of those headcanons and have a few myself).
That leads us to Stiles’s relationship with Malia. He first learns of her in the context of his father’s unsolved case involving Malia’s supposed death following a car crash. Law enforcement had assumed that Malia’s stepmom and step sister had been mauled by coyotes. When Stiles meets Malia, she’s in her coyote form and only changes back to a human because of Scott’s alpha roar. As Malia and Stiles grow closer, it becomes obvious that Malia relies on Stiles to navigate being human again. Stiles emotionally supports her and helps teach her about her shift, based on his experience with Scott. Stiles becomes her anchor as Malia re-integrates into school and joins Scott’s pack.
In a lot of ways, Malia is the opposite of Lydia. She’s willing to engage in fights to solve problems or protect her friends, and says what is on her mind - instead of relying on research/planning and keeping her feelings to herself, as Lydia does. When Stiles sees Malia again at Eichen House in episode 3.20 Echo House, she punches him in the face because she’s angry about how her life had turned out up to that point. This is also the episode where Malia and Stiles have sex for the first time. Stiles asks Malia to check the injuries on his back, and things get physical once their attraction becomes obvious. Malia doesn’t waste any time once she realizes that Stiles is also interested in her, which fits with her bold personality.
As season four progresses, Malia is not afraid to show Stiles how much she relies on him and needs his help. They are portrayed as a passionate and unconventional couple, where Malia seems to be more aggressive one: they engage in supposedly rough sex involving scratching and Stiles is also her “little spoon” in a scene where they sleep in Stiles’s bed. Stiles and Malia engage in PDA when they are together, in front of their friends and even in front of Malia’s adopted dad.
In contrast, even when Stiles and Lydia get together in season 6, there’s not really any PDA or physical passion portrayed. There’s one kiss when they reunite at the school, and then they hold hands in front of their friends. Their relationship is portrayed as one that took years to cultivate, and doesn’t seem to require a whole lot of negotiation once Lydia kisses Stiles and makes her intentions known.
Malia and Stiles go through a difficult time in their relationship when Malia finds out that Peter Hale is her biological father, and Stiles knew without telling her. Malia eventually forgives him, but then in season 5A things change again. Stiles tries to grapple with killing Donovan, and does not feel comfortable talking to anyone about it (partly due to Theo’s actions). He distances himself from Malia, and everyone else. Meanwhile, Malia starts looking for her biological mother (the Desert Wolf) and doesn’t include Stiles in her plan to kill the Desert Wolf. Their lives seem to diverge significantly at that point. Stiles doesn’t want to trust Malia or face her judgement regarding Donovan, whereas Malia doesn’t want to face Stiles’s judgment of her regarding the Desert Wolf.
They break up in episode 5.10 Status Asthmaticus, once Stiles finally decides to tell his dad about Donovan. She reveals that she knew about the fight with Donovan because she saw the bite on his shoulder, but she never said anything because it didn’t matter to her. Stiles appears sad and distraught at this, considering he’d agonized over his fight with Donovan and his actions over several episodes. At that point, it’s clear that Malia doesn’t understand Stiles the way he wants or expects her to.
However, Stiles and Malia do make a good team during season 4 - Stiles is the “brain” doing research or figuring things out, and Malia is the “muscle” shaking people down or protecting Stiles. Stiles and Lydia also make a good team during the show but in a different way. They do a lot of behind the scenes research and problem solving, and they also are integral to the functioning of the McCall pack.
The show implies that Stiles and Malia don’t work because they don’t fully understand each other, whereas Lydia and Stiles have a lot more in common - they’re not physically powerful, they don’t have to manage were-shifts, they enjoy being intellectual and solving problems, and they are both ambitious.
I see how Stiles and Malia could have worked out, if Stiles had wanted to put in the work to explain himself to someone who was so different from him. Malia reminded me of Scott, at least when she was having trouble managing her shift and Stiles was helping her learn to focus and manage that part of herself. Maybe that’s part of the reason the show thought Malia and Scott would be a better fit in the endgame.
I think Stiles softened Malia, helped make her more human. On the flip side, Malia made Stiles feel protected and wanted right from the beginning. They needed to improve their communication if they wanted to work out.
Lydia was always going to be a “what-if” if Stiles and Lydia never pursued a relationship. I think Lydia made Stiles feel challenged intellectually, and pushed him out of his comfort zone. Stiles encouraged Lydia’s ambition, made her feel safe/protected, and inspired her to be more honest with her friends. For them to work, they have to realize love isn’t always a competition.
This is one of my favorite vids that summarizes Lydia/Stiles:
This is one of my favorite vids that summarizes Stiles/Malia:
I would be curious to know your thoughts on canon events related to these ships. Also, if you think I've missed something in canon please let me know.