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oops I meta'd
Let’s talk about the Argents.
I think there’s a hole in the Argent family that no one ever brings up, mostly because it’s another thing they don’t want to tell Allison.
The shape of the hole is the long gap in age between Chris and his little sister Kate. Kate is closer in age to Allison than she is to Chris, she’s more like Allison’s sister than her aunt. It’s an odd family structure; not unknown, but it’s the sort of thing that tends to happen when the parents’ generation has lots of kids. More than two. Say Kate was the baby, the spoiled one, the apple of Gerard’s eye, and that’s part of why she turned out how she did. Say Chris was the oldest, and that’s why he shoulders so much responsibility. Say there was one more, that fell between.
The shape of the hole is the story Chris Argent can’t stop telling about a rabid dog that isn’t a rabid dog, but a werewolf. Allison’s heard that story so many times that she’s rolling her eyes at it. He doesn’t always tell it the same but then he’s forced to lie a lot, to keep the werewolf part of the story from her. When he tells it as a story about a rabid dog, he says his father put the dog down. When he tells it as a story about a werewolf, he says it was his friend, to parallel the story to Stiles and Scott, and he says he had to shoot his friend himself. He doesn’t tell it as as story about his brother, but I wonder. And what a gut punch it must be, to tell that story, that he doesn’t let on is about his brother, and have Stiles turn around tell him that now his sister is the dangerous one, the one gone wild and violent and mad, without even the excuse of being turned.
The shape of the hole is the color of Allison’s eyes. Both Chris and Victoria Argent have these icy, clear eyes, pale, perfect for death glares. Allison has dark brown eyes. Where did they come from? What genetic inheritance is that? Is Chris Argent really Allison’s father, or is Allison’s father a dead dark-eyed werewolf, put down like a dog by his own father, his widow wed by his own brother to keep her and her baby girl part of the family, this insular, secretive little family?
The shape of the hole is a burned out house and a spiral on a dead deer and the corpse of a girl cut in half. There is a revenge vendetta going on between the Hales and the Argents, but it didn’t start with the burning of Hale house, because it didn’t end with it either, when the Hales were too shattered to retaliate. What had the Hales done to earn Kate’s ire when first she played the arsonist? Why wasn’t it enough to kill all but three of them and see those last few helpless and scattered; why did Kate need to lure them all back, to try to kill every last one of them? Did one of the Hale werewolves perhaps turn that lost Argent?
originally posted to tumblr
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But, for all that the Argents hunt werewolves, the werewolves haven't struck back at them. I mean, they could be sneaky about it - if Derek truly wanted them dead, he wouldn't have to use his claws, there are other ways. Yet, it's the predators that are less interested in violence and proving who's toughest.
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(Worth nothing: I don't believe Peter was in any way functionally in control or aware of what he was doing when he killed Laura. It makes no damned sense whatsoever. He's not a nice person but he was concerned with avenging his family -- not just himself. I mean, there's a reason he killed the damned nurse. Keeping her in the trunk, creepy. But yeah. He had good reason to want her dead since she was, basically, pretty much completely responsible for his niece's death. He's not likely to complain that he's an Alpha now but neither is he going to be pleased it happened the fashion it did.)
But yeah, Peter turned Scott under instinct, I think. Peter's a hell of a lot older than Derek and presumably has a little bit better idea of what the fuck goes on with werewolves. And he turned Scott, which was not a considered decision, which implies to me there's an imperative somewhere buried in there. But Derek? Younger, ignorant Derek? Well, Derek turned Jackson pretty immediately, but Derek managed to turn someone who had actually asked. Derek's control is really terrifyingly good.
But basically what it makes me wonder is if maybe there'd been a fairly freshly minted Alpha Hale who turned the Argent brother maybe not even with conscious intent.
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I agree, it's possible and likely that at some point a Hale struck back.
Hmm, good point; Peter was basically acting on instinct when he turned Scott, I think it can be argued that his body was telling him that he needed pack - after all, they're more powerful together, and he had Scott right there.
Derek has been careful to stress consent in turning people into werewolves, which makes me think there's a history of more than Peter (or potentially a Hale) biting people. I mean, yes, attacks, but maybe werewolves with malicious intent, manipulating people, etc. Something else is going on there.
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(There's also the part where he's young and insecure and probably does not want to have to be in charge of people older than him when he's scared out of his fucking mind. There's also the part where, as Stiles speculated, teenagers may have a better chance of surviving the bite.)
But mostly, there's the fact that he discloses fully about the shitstorm you're getting into, and that leaves him pretty much only desperate people. And, frankly, specifically desperate teenagers because desperate adults are somewhat less likely to think that saying yes to the monster turning you into a hunted monster like him is going to solve their problems even with the physical gifts.
Like, I mean, sure. His choices suck. Would you like to tell me what his options were? Well, I guess he could commit suicide! Which would fuck Scott over, btw, since Derek might be ridiculously ignorant but Scott hasn't even gotten Derek's background osmosis knowledge of werewolves. But yeah, other than suicide? Not seeing he had any other choices. Aside from any possible imperatives, there's also the fact that they're stronger in numbers and Derek's smart enough to have known that shit was likely to hit the fan in the wake of everything. He knew he needed help.
(I think Derek was trying to end the vendetta with the Argents when he killed Peter. Peter was dead either way, but if it had been the Argents who killed Peter, there wasn't much chance they were going to consider leaving Derek alive. It had to be Derek.)
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The other thing is yes, he IS scared out of his mind. He KNOWS some of what's coming, what happens to lone wolves, he can't, in good conscience, abandon these kids (because you know most hunters would kill Stiles too, likely for being 'tainted) to face hunters.
Re: ending the vendetta - I think that, right there was, yes, his attempt. Scott couldn't kill Peter, for SO many reasons, and as a Hale, if Derek killed the person who killed the Argent (despite how much it was deserved) then that should have been the end to it. But no, Gerard has to condemn all werewolves, even though they aren't hunting the Argents!
Some use of the Code, there.
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Gerard is crazycakes. And needs to die.
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hi there!
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