YMMV / Teen Wolf

For the 2011 TV series:

• Adorkable: Isaac becomes much more adorable and approachable after being under Scott's influence. He is easily one of the most endearing characters on the show. The most adorable moment for Isaac was in 2x11 when he used his powers to take some of the pain away from a dying dog. Isaac shed a few tears and was feeling happy that he could heal puppies. One of the most adorable moments on the show.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Stiles. He suggests murdering Jackson in cold blood once it's found out that he's the Kanima even though Jackson had risked his life to help save Stiles and his friends before. While this could potentially save many lives, the way this high school student doesn't even flinch at saying such a thing is chilling. Throughout the entire series, he treats people who are not his friends like they barely exist and clearly doesn't value their lives highly. His methods are rather Machiavellian, for instance, when he gets Derek to strip without his permission in order to get Danny to trace a text. He also can get quite overbearing when trying to protect people he cares about, to the point of making decisions on their behalf without consulting them first.
  • Scott. Some fans regard his Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude as naïve, pointing to all the people who died because Scott didn't advocate murdering Jackson in ostensibly cold blood after the Kanima reveal. His decision to also let Deucalion go rather than punish him for his deeds was interpreted by many as Deucalion pulling a Karma Houdini.
  • Isaac is an extremely well-liked character by the fandom, but that doesn't stop arguments from breaking out over whether he's violent and coldblooded or a sweet, innocent puppy. It's all complicated by his being an abuse victim and repeatedly passing through the Face–Heel Revolving Door — within the same season, he tries to kill Lydia, beats the crap out of a teammate for a pair of rave tickets, relieves the suffering of a dog with cancer in a quite literal Pet the Dog moment, and stays in Beacon Hills to help Scott despite knowing that he could potentially be killed.
    • Word of God says that Isaac tends to model himself after whatever leader he's following at the time. So when he was following Derek he took on Derek's traits (and Derek was kind of dark himself at the time). When he switched to Scott, he became kinder and more compassionate.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • After the events of "Motel California". Scott's suicide attempt is heavily implied to be genuine, Isaac was mindfucked to the point of hiding under the bed in a catatonic state, Boyd hallucinated his dead sister and tried to drown himself, Ethan nearly cut himself in half, and Lydia had to hear the final moments of several of the past suicides in the hotel, and it's never brought up again or have any form of aftermath.
  • Also Derek. Yes, he's stoic, but given the sheer amount of mental trauma the guy has gone through, he really should be a wreck by now- even ignoring the fact that he gets ripped to shreds physically every five minutes, his near constant loss of agency would be enough to drive anyone to breaking point.
  • Season 4 in general is guilty of this. 3B was far darker than previous seasons, with Stiles — a character who already had a huge Guilt Complex — possessed by the nogitsune, almost killing Scott and trying to commit suicide to save everyone else. Then there's Allison's death — the first death of a major character who is Lydia's best friend, Isaac's girlfriend, Chris's last family member and Scott's first love. The pack even breaks apart with Isaac and Chris Argent leaving for France. You'd think Season 4 would have the pack acknowledge the trauma, grieve for Allison, reassure Stiles that none of it was his fault and preferably get some group therapy. Instead they plunge straight into trips to Mexico and lacrosse practice, and the past few months are barely mentioned. Especially highlighted as previous trauma's like Matt trying to kill them in Season 2 and Scott, Stiles and Allison going into limbo in 3A — which were much less intense than 3B — were actually explored with counselling sessions, nightmares and support from their parents, while the characters are given zero screen-time of them recovering after season 3B.
    • Especially for Stiles, who had just pretty much been through the most traumatic thing in the series - he makes a joke about it in one Season 4 episode. At the end of Season 3 he directly says that the only good thing about the situation is that it looks like he's dying, and by Season 4, implied to be set not much later, he seems pretty much fine, with the only real nod to it being a conversation he has with Malia. And then, in Season 5, his main arc is the guilt he feels over killing Donovan.
• Awesome Music:
  • Much like the show that inspired it, this show is packed with lots of alternative and indie pop.
  • The show's theme, which is composed by Dino Meneghin, is absolutely epic.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Erica Reyes. While a lot of fans liked her for many, many reasons, others found her addition to be a very bad idea. Ironically, after her death at the hands of the Alpha Pack and the addition of new characters, a lot of viewers who hated her suddenly mourn her departure.
  • Allison. Some think she is absolved of her actions (kidnapping, torture, attempted murder) during her Face–Heel Turn because of Gerard's manipulations and her mother's suicide. Others think she was too Easily Forgiven for her actions. It doesn't help that most of Scott and Allison's talk during the aftermath of the Season 2 finale was implied to be offscreen.
  • Derek Hale. Over half of fandom seems to think he's a great guy with good intentions and is just misunderstood by Scott, while the rest either just don't like him or outright hate him for all the things he's done. Including breaking the arm of a known abuse survivor to "teach" him.
  • Massively the case for Malia in Season 4. One half of the fans think she's an Action Girl who makes a good partner for Non-Action Guy and resident Deadpan Snarker Stiles, and has an intriguing backstory, that could develop into a great plot, the other half believes her to be shoehorned into the plot, has a poorly developed romance with Stiles no one wants and generally takes screentime away from other characters.
  • The Chimera Pack, either Ensemble Dark Horses or The Scrappy depending on which fan you ask.
  • Parrish in Season 5. Some people are disturbed by his sexual hallucinations of Lydia, which are hinted to be part of their supernatural connection (as they are both harbingers of death) because she's a high school girl — albeit a legally adult one at 18. There's also lots of Die for Our Ship, since the show ship teases a possible relationship between Lydia and Parrish, while also hinting at possible feelings between Lydia and Stiles. Yet others are irritated that Parrish has slowly taken on a greater role on the show, after starting out as a Mauve Shirt in Season 3B. Most however, think he was the best thing about season five, especially his no nonsense anti-hero hellhound alter-ego who was determined in his goals and completely wiped the floor with the smug chimeras who were on a power trip, and he was the only one to go solo against the Beast of Gevaudaun multiple times and survive, plus a lot of other bad-ass moments. His alter ego's more or less neutrality was refreshing to some as a lot of the characters in season five were either outright evil or completely good with the only occasional mistake.
• Broken Base:
  • Started out in Season 3, and is in full effect since Season 4. Fans are divided over perceived Seasonal Rot, Alternate Character Interpretation, They Changed It, Now It Sucks! and Ship-to-Ship Combat. Characters are derided as The Scrappy or fingered as Base-Breaking Character, and even innocent bystanders are drawn into the struggle. Supposed to get a reality show on MTV in 2016.
  • The Scott/Stiles fight in Season 5 is a huge one, with fans divided over which character is in the right and laying blame on the other side. About the only thing the fandom unites on is agreeing that the conflict is unnecessary anyway, given Scott and Stiles have had an unbreakable friendship despite angst and drama surrounding them for years and the fight only harmed the relationship that has been the foundation of the show since the start.
• Cargo Ship:
  • In the fandom, a fair amount of fans seem to ship Stiles/his jeep. He is, after all, the Launcher of a Thousand Ships, and he's clearly very attached to it... It really doesn't help that the Season 2 credits have established couples appearing together with Scott with Allison, Jackson with Lydia, and... Stiles with his jeep.
  • There is also a section of fans who ship Derek/his Camaro.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Ax-Crazy hypocrite Gerard suffers from this twice: his painful Karmic Transformation in Season 2, and being left to the mercy of the Werejaguar daughter he just tried to kill in season 6.
  • Ex-Nazi and cannibal Douglas being forcibly assimilated into the Wild Hunt.
  • Hate Sink resenter Monroe frantically trying to call all of her allies in the finale and finding they've been wiped out, although it's mitigated by the fact that she still escapes.
• Complete Monster:
  • Gerard Argent is the cold-blooded head of the Argent family and de facto leader of the werewolf hunters. Prior to the series, he ordered his daughter Kate to seduce a young Derek Hale, before killing his family. In his first appearance, Gerard murders an innocent werewolf before declaring all werewolves in Beacon Hills will be indiscriminately killed, even forcing his son Chris to kill Chris's wife Victoria when she is bitten. Gerard then tries to manipulate his granddaughter Alison into becoming a ruthless hunter herself. Killing the master of a dangerous beast to take control of the monster, Gerard uses it to hold an unwitting crowd hostage. Despite claiming to be avenging his daughter Kate, Gerard reveals his true plan was to get bitten by a werewolf, to cure his cancer and take his powers and declares he would kill his own son for the sake of his survival. When his plans backfires, Gerard simply orders his monster to kill everyone. In the past, when a werewolf tried to negotiate peace between the wolves and the hunters, Gerard murdered both the werewolf pack and his own men, framing the innocent werewolf for the massacre. In season 6, Gerard takes advantage of the spreading fear in Beacon Hills to amass an army of hunters to simply wipe out not just the supernaturals in Beacon Hills, but the whole world as well. In the series finale, Gerard rounds up Scott's loved ones with the intent to kill them, and having used Kate, now a werejaguar, coldly attempts to kill her for being "one of them."
  • Season 3B: The Nogitsune possessing Stiles Stilinski, self-named "Void", psychologically torments him, hurting his friends, and those around them as a "game". Decades ago, it was summoned by Kira Yukimura's mother at an internment camp to avenge her American lover, but instead massacres the camp, prisoners and guards alike, before being imprisoned. In the present, it sets up multiple traps, sabotages an electric cable killing several people and rendering Isaac Lahey comatose; has a bomb go off in the Sheriff's station, all while initially pretending to be Stiles. When separated from Stiles, it takes control of the Oni, having Allison Argent killed, before leading a massacre at the hospital and police station. It plans on having Scott McCall kill Stiles, for its "game" will end. Returning years later, at the behest of Adrian Harris, to take revenge on Scott's loved ones, the Nogitsune has Allison resurrected with fractured memories. It then tries to manipulate her into killing her friends, planning for Scott to die in Allison's arms like she died in his.
  • Season 5: The Beast of Gévaudan, Sebastien Valet, is history's most famous and vicious werewolf. In the sixteenth century, he was credited with killing 112 people, but it was claimed to be closer to 500, including children. His true identity—along with the corpses of his victims in a hidden stash—was discovered by his sister Marie-Jeanne Valet. When Marie opposed him, Sebastian spends three years trying to kill her. Throughout all this, he claimed to be proud of his crimes, and being remembered for his horrors. In the present day, the Beast is resurrected by the Dread Doctors, but doesn't remember his former identity. As he pieces his memory together, he goes on a new killing spree. Fully resurrected, he is content with erasing his vessel, Mason Hewitt, and kills the Dread Doctors, dismissing his loyal friend, Marcel, who did so much to bring him back, even expressing annoyance at Scott and Liam for being heroic werewolves as he prepares to pick off where he left off. A vicious egomaniac obsessed with having a murderous legacy, Sebastian is seen as a Beast throughout history, for both being a literal monster, and the Beast representing his true personality.
  • Season 6A: "Garrett Douglas" is the assumed identity of Der Soldat, a werewolf hybrid with a löwensmensch (werelion), who was part of Ahnenerbe. In World War II, Douglas used the Nazi Party as for his own ends and he learned of the Ghost Riders, which he sought to use to create an army under his control. Killing another officer who mocked his plans and forcing one of his men to open the rift into the Riders' world, they end up wiping out Douglas's soldiers. After being kept in suspended animation for decades, Douglas broke free and assumed the identity of a harmless high school teacher, secretly killing people and eating the pineal gland of their brains. When the Wild Hunt arrive in Beacon Hills, Douglas helps Scott's pack capture one of the riders, before killing said rider, devouring its pineal gland and taking its powers. With these powers, Douglas begins reaping souls, and seeks to brainwash Parish to use his Hell Hound powers to enter the Riders' world and amass an army from the souls the Riders claimed. Douglas keeps Corey locked up with wires and electronics hooked into his body, using his powers to merge the Riders' world with Earth to bring about his army.
  • Season 6B: The Anuk-Ite is a malevolent entity that delights in spreading fear through infestations, turning it to murderous desire as communities tear themselves apart. Imprisoned in the Wild Hunt, when it escapes, the Anuk-Ite first drives the head doctor of Eichen House to kill his patients. The Anuk-Ite plays up the growing fear among Beacon Hills human population, making the genocidal war Gerard is starting even worse to draw power from it, directly influencing most of his soldiers. It uses Miss Monroe's cruel tests of flushing out supernaturals, to find the one who hosts its other half, killing those it can't use; its other half is in a young werewolf named Quinn whose pack it kills, before having Aaron kill Quinn and becoming full once again, whereupon it turns those who cross its path into statues, before making a deal with Gerard to battle Scott. In the finale, the Anuk-Ite picks off Scott's allies, using hallucinations and their emotions—particularly of loved ones—against them, and it's revealed the people turned to statues are still alive within them. During its final confrontation with Scott, the Anuk-Ite mocks Scott with Alison's death.
• Moment of Awesome: Twice for Scott so far in the series.
  • In Season 3A episode "Lunar Ellipse", he breaks through Jennifer Blake's mountain ash barrier to save his and his friends' parents from being sacrificed, becoming a True Alpha in the process.
  Scott: I'm an Alpha now.
  • In Season 4 "Smoke and Mirrors", he breaks free of Kate's Berserker spell and furiously faces off against Peter who planned the whole thing. Peter at first as the upper hand but when Peter threatens Liam Scott embraces his true nature and fights back with greater super strength, totally handing Peter's ass to him.
  • The Hellhound has a few of these moments as well, wiping the floor with most of the chimera, and being the only one capable of standing a chance against the most powerful werewolf in known history.
  • Even Peter gets these in season six, being able to put up a decent fight against multiple Ghost Riders where before, the pack struggled to deal with one, however, later the pack members such as Liam and Malia manage to do the same so it may be a case of adapting.
• Die for Our Ship: Pretty much anyone who dates Derek or Stiles, but mainly Braeden and Malia. Erica got on both sides of the Stiles/Derek ship, kissing Derek and admitting to a huge crush on Stiles from the past.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Happens frequently to Peter Hale. He is devious, manipulative, often sadistic, violent, and generally only looks out for No. 1, even when he seemingly doesn't. And yet, he is so charming, sexy, and witty, that it is really tempting to wonder if he's just misunderstood.
  • Theo is working with the Dread Doctors and smashes the hand of the man who pretended to be his father because he screwed up once by writing a false signature. But as he's good-looking and when around the oblivious Pack acts helpful (really pushing them in the direction that he wants them to go), many fans can't bring themselves to hate him.
  • An almost literal example with Kate Argent. While she's undoubtedly a monster, she likes wearing lots of leather, and looks damn good in it. It's really hard not to look at her in those tight pants and shirts and say "if only she was slightly less psychotic. . . "
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Erica. Many fans loved having a female werewolf in the cast and were disappointed when Gage Golightly left, leading to her character's abrupt off-screen demise.
  • Danny is greatly beloved by the fandom despite having relatively little time onscreen. He even got a boyfriend and more impact on the storyline out of it in Season 3.
  • Isaac proved to be so popular, his role got significantly expanded.
  • Sheriff Stilinski and Mrs. McCall are also very popular with fans, probably due to them both being Good Parents with very snarky personalities.
  • As of Season 3, Ethan and Kali have gotten a pretty good following as well.
  • Braeden has her detractors, but also a solid group of followers.
  • Deputy Parrish is rather well-liked, especially as a Hellhound where he no selled the Chimeras attacks on him and curb stomped them in return, for those who considered some or all the Chimera to be The Scrappy, this could be considered a Take That, Scrappy!.
  • In Season 5, the members of the Chimera Pack alternate between this, and The Scrappy, depending who you ask. The one exception to this, if Reddit is any indication, is Corey, who's reaching Isaac-levels of popularity.
• Fan Nickname: "The Puppy" for Isaac.
• Fanon: Although never confirmed in canon, many fans generally accept John as being the Sheriff's first name. Eventually debunked in season 6 where we learn his first name is Noah.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Some fans like to forget that Season 3 and everything after it ever happened, since that means that Jackson, Erica, and Boyd are either dead or forever in London. Add that to the general divisiveness that is Season 3 and some of its characters (the twins Aiden and Ethan, Deucalion, Jennifer, Malia) or some plot conclusions about Cora in general, Derek (and Cora) leaving, Allissac, among other minor ones, and you get a popular point of Fanon Discontinuity. Also, like many other shows, Teen Wolf wasn't very well known during its first season and mostly gained its popular fanbase during the second, so most of the popular fanfiction pieces were written in the ten month hiatus between Season 2 and 3 and therefore accidentally or on purpose ignore Season 3.
  • Even more so from Season 4 onwards. Season 3 at least has some popular aspects that a fair portion of the fandom accept, like Stiles's possession arc, Lydia discovering her banshee abilities, and Isaac and Danny getting bigger roles. However the death of Allison and departure of Isaac at the end of Season 3, total exclusion of Danny in Season 4, and Derek's departure in Season 5 result in this happening in a big way.
  • It didn't take long for even loyal fans of the show to disown the movie as a whole (although many like things like Allison reuniting with Scott and Derek being a dad) for many controversial plot points like Stiles and Lydia breaking up, Malia and Parrish being Friends with Benefits and especially Derek's death.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • The fandom sometimes seems to ship one thing and only one thing: Stiles and Derek, the dorky sidekick and the Tall, Dark, and Handsome older werewolf mentor. The cast and crew are vastly amused by this and greatly enjoy fan-baiting. In-person and online. Despite this, the show paired them up with several canon love interests, such as Stiles who ends up with Lydia in the sixth and final season. Still, even years after the show ended Stiles/Derek remains the fandoms most popular pairing with it having over 60,000 fics on AO3 (making it the third most written about ship on the whole site) and the next most popular one only has over 9000.
  • A lot of people — including the majority of the fandom, the actors, and apparently even the wardrobe crew — would have liked to see Sheriff Stilinski and Melissa McCall end up together, mainly because their sons are best friends and Stilinski and Melissa are the honorary parent to the other's child. Most fans greatly preferred it to the canon Melissa/Chris.
  • Season 6 gave Liam a canon love interest in the form of Hayden, but next to no fans ship him with her. Instead, most fans greatly prefer to pair him with enemy turned frenemy Theo, due to most of them feeling that Liam has better chemistry with Theo than he does with Hayden, the Ho Yay Liam and Theo share, and Liam and Theo becoming Bash Brothers in the Grand Finale. Almost any fan work centered on Liam will pair him with Theo.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Stiles and Peter hate each other, due to Peter repeatedly trying to kill Stiles and his friends, while Peter simply finds Stiles annoying. However, there is a large group of fans who ship the two, mainly because Stiles has chemistry with everyone and is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships. On AO3, it has the second most fan works of any ship from the show with over 9000, topped only by the Fan-Preferred Couple Stiles/Derek.
• Follow the Leader:
  • This is the basic premise of Teen Wolf: A teenager who's given lycanthropy powers he doesn't want and ends up having to save his supernaturally-inclined town from evil, with help from an older, mystical adviser, a Muggle Best Friend, a shallow girl who's smarter than she initially appears (and who later gains the power to see people in danger), a former creature-turned-human with No Social Skills who's also dating the Muggle Best Friend, a Tagalong Kid that acts like a younger sibling, and two significant others that hail from races that typically don't get on well with werewolves. Now, why does all of that sound familiar?
  • It also started in 2011, when the Twilight franchise was still popular.
• Genius Bonus, also Stealth Pun: Stiles's line "Be a Man. Be a Werewolf. Not a Teen Wolf, but a Werewolf." In Old English, from whence the word Werewolf derives, 'wer' means man.
• Growing the Beard: Season 1 was mostly the typical "normal teen is now a werewolf" story, but Season 2 slowly moved away from that. By the time Season 3 started, the show had developed a complex plot with a lot of interesting mythology and was trying to become truly compelling television.
  • Despite the quality dip brought on by the 4th season fighting- at times flailing to establish a new status quo, the shows themes and exemplary work from the remaining cast was able to keep them afloat in to two more season from which the overall quality stabilized and the writing got even still better.
• He Really Can Act: While Dylan O'Brien was considered one of the stronger actors in the show from the start, his role as Stiles was mostly restricted to Plucky Comic Relief and Deadpan Snarker, raising questions of how well he could play roles outside that range. Then in Season 3b, he took on the void!Stiles arc, playing the thousand-year old evil nogitsune spirit controlling his body. His performance was lauded as one of the best villains in the whole show and proved him as the truly exceptional, stand out actor of the cast. In one episode in particular O'Brien expertly played normal Stiles, the nogitsune, the nogistune pretending to be Stiles and a broken, traumatized Stiles at the end.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Listen to Kate being complimentary to Scott when she first meets him (especially his "puppy dog eyes") after knowing that she seduced teenage Derek to get information to murder almost his whole family (and her sadistic, Interplay of Sex and Violence personality in general).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The episode in which Scott battles the Kanima in the library came out less than a week after The Amazing Spider-Man, which featured a similar scene. Hell, the Kanima/Jackson himself is an expy of sorts to The Lizard.
  • Given his ego, Jackson would probably be gratified to know that it took two guys to replace him. His girlfriend and best friend respectively split a pair of identical twins between them after Jackson left Beacon Hills.
  • Back in Season 1, Derek was furious about Scott howling through the school PA system, late at night, in an effort to attract the Alpha, because he was worried it would "attract the entire state to the school?!". Since then, werewolves and Kanima have fought inside the building (often during the school day!), teachers have disappeared, murders have been attempted, and the locker room has been trashed multiple times. It almost never provokes a prompt response from anybody, even during the daytime when the building is filled with students and faculty!
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Gage Golightly is a very pretty girl, but Erica is initially portrayed as unpopular weird girl with Messy Hair. Though makeup (and the lack thereof) does a pretty good job making her appear less pretty than some of her classmates, there isn't much to be done to hide her more... obvious assets.
  • Stiles generally isn't considered very attractive and fails miserably with girls, despite the fact his actor Dylan O'Brien isn't far off Jackson's looks. To the show's credit, in early seasons they do give Stiles a buzz cut which does a good job making him look younger and gawkier, and dress him in baggy t-shirts and plaid layers so the already lean O'Brien appears much more gangly and awkward looking than he is in reality. They've also never had Stiles shirtless in contrast to the other guys' near-episodic shirtless scenes.
• Ho Yay: Got its own page.
• Jerkass Woobie: Both Isaac and Erica post-transformation thanks to the fact that both are Drunk with Power. Both come from heartbreaking pasts, both decide to lash out in the cruelest of ways. This stopped as the series progressed until Isaac completely lost the Jerkass portion and Erica became much more relatable and likable as a character.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Stiles. He gets shipped with anyone who's ever appeared on the show. And sometimes those who haven't, too. Whether or not he's ever interacted with some of these people on screen doesn't seem to matter, either.
  • It is less intense with Scott, but due to constant friendly interaction with nearly everyone he is heading this way.
  • Lydia. Especially as the resident Dude Magnet of the show, she's shipped with nearly all the male characters to different extents. She's involved in several Les Yay ships as well.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Yeah, the Derek death fakeouts aren't really effective anymore.
• Love to Hate: Kate Argent really isn't a good person, and especially her treatment of Derek regularly pushes her into The Sociopath territory, making viewers wish for her imminent demise, but damn, she has a nice swagger.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Peter Hale is full of bad touch! It'd probably be easier to count the scenes he's in that don't have elements of this. The list includes Scott, Stiles, Melissa McCall, Allison, and most importantly, Lydia.
  • Kate's also pretty skeevy, with her comments on Scott's big brown eyes and... everything about the way she acts around Derek, especially considering their mutual backstory. Especially when her interactions are with the magically teenaged Derek, played by the rather young-looking Ian Nelson.
• Memetic Mutation: Derek went to Super Hell^{explanation (spoilers!)}The Movie ended up seeing the one-sided canonization of the popular pairing Stiles/Derek, only for Derek to die shortly after confessing his feelings. Fans on Tumblr immediately drew comparisons between this and the infamous Supernatural episode "Despair" (which saw Cas confess to Dean, then immediately get sent to what the fans nicknamed Super Hell). Needless to say, there were many jokes comparing the two, as well as jokes about Derek and Cas meeting each other in Super Hell.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Kate Argent setting fire to the Hale house, killing most of Derek's family, which included children and human members too. And everything else on top of that: torturing Derek physically and emotionally and almost executing Scott, and attempting to groom her own niece into becoming a killer.
  • To Gerard Argent, this is a daily bridge. See Complete Monster. His definite points of evil so far are threatening to kill Scott's mother, force his son to kill his wife, turn Allison into a perfect replacement for Kate, and beating Stiles half to death. He also essentially started the werewolf/hunter war in Beacon Hills, as we learn in season 3A. And starts another in Season 6B.
  • As tragic as Peter's backstory is and how suave he may be, it's hard to get past the fact he killed his niece for her Alpha powers. He may have crossed it in series when he tried to force Scott to kill his friends in Night School.
• Narm: The hashtags that MTV puts up in the corner on every important scene in a new episode. They can really kill the mood.
  • Whenever a werewolf runs on all fours. It looks about as ridiculous as one would expect a human using both their hands and feet to run at a fast pace. The crew seemed to notice given how it got dropped after a few seasons. The exception to this was The Beast of Gevaudan who in werewolf form had longer arms so it looked more natural.
  • The werewolves "howling" to signal each other. On paper it's a great idea and used well in the show. . . but the sound effects used are nothing at all like a an actual wolf howl, or a human imitating same, coming off more as (and sometimes being called) roars instead of howls. Roars are not a sound real wolves make, and it comes off as the showrunners feeling that a proper howl wasn't "badass" enough for their werewolves.
  • Lydia's mother saying "Oh honey," when Tracy throws up black murky liquid and a feather. It's delivered in such a fashion, you would think she was comforting a child having a temper tantrum.
  • The season 5 villains 'The Dread Doctors,' a name so narmy, even the writers can't resist making fun of it.
  Stilinski: Are we really calling them that?
• Narm Charm: It isn't the best show of the decade by a long shot, but it's fun and somehow still appealing to a fairly large demographic. The opening titles are borderline campy, almost an Affectionate Parody of the paranormal romance aesthetics popularized by The Twilight Saga.
  • This iconic exchange from episode one, really sets the tone:
  Jackson: (shoving Scott against a locker) Alright, little man. How about you tell me where are you're getting your juice?
  Scott: What?
  Jackson: Where. Are you. Getting. Your juice?
  Scott: ...My mom does all the grocery shopping.
  Jackson: Now, listen, McCall - you're gonna tell me exactly what it is, and who you're buying from, because there's no way you're out there kicking ass on the field like that without some sort of chemical boost.
  Scott: Oh, you mean steroids! (Beat) Are you on steroids?
  Jackson: What the hell is going on with you, McCall?!
• Never Live It Down: For the rest of its run and beyond, the show has struggled to overcome the fanbase's unhappiness with the decision to kill off Allison when her actress quit.
• One True Threesome:
  • Scott/Allison/Isaac seemed to be headed there in Season 3, especially as they moved into more of a love triangle dynamic during Season 3. Jeff Davis certainly wasn't helping matters by stating that he doesn't like love triangles and making ambiguous comments like "agreed". Then things developed ...differently.
  • Scott/Stiles/Lydia is pretty popular by Season 5, largely because they're the only original cast members left and by this point have gone through hell and back together more times than they can count.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The reason Scott got a tattoo at the beginning of Season 3 is because his actor did.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • While there are definitely people out there who still dislike her, Malia did gain more fans during Season 4.
  • Ethan and Aiden proved to be much more entertaining than the other Alphas.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Malia often gets vilified in fanfic, due to her being perceived as coming between two fan-favourite pairings. She's joined by eternal boyscout Jordan Parrish in Season 5, due to the poor man having some romantic tension with Lydia.
  • The titular Teen Wolf, Scott McCall himself faces this at times. Despite being a kindhearted young man who is always willing to help others out who he makes the occasional foolish mistake, there's a small portion of the fanbase who act as if he's the evilest character in the show.
• Seasonal Rot: Season 4. Although 3A was criticized for Jackson, Erica, and Boyd's departures, Cora's characterization, and a rocky season finale, there were still some popular aspects, such as a more united group, Ensemble Darkhorses getting more focus, Lydia's development, Melissa and the Sheriff in the know), and 3b was incredibly well-received. However, Season 4 lost Allison, Isaac, and Danny, and gave zero time to the characters recovering or even discussing the traumatic events of 3B. Then Malia was thrown as one of the True Companions despite 3B leaving her true allegiances ambiguous and put her in a relationship with Stiles with zero build-up apart from their utterly loathed hook up in the basement of a mental institution, which most viewers prayed was Stiles hallucinating. About the only relationship or pack bonding arc was Liam becoming Scott's beta, while Kira had barely any scenes outside of her relationship with Scott, and Lydia and Derek were sidelined. Add in a main plot far less compelling and more plot-holey than previous seasons with the "secret" Peter/Kate team-up revealed way in advance leaving no tension, the episode-to-episode villain being a deadpool list rather than a more personal enemy like Gerard or Jennifer, an utterly underwhelming reveal Meredith was somehow involved, a bunch of filler episodes, Scott and Stiles's parents struggling with money which led to nothing, and nonsensical finale with Scott managing to beat Peter for... undetermined reasons.
• Ship Mates:
  • Scott/Stiles fans often pair with Allison/Lydia and later Kira/Malia. Meanwhile, Scott/Kira, Allison/Isaac, and Lydia/Stiles — all of which were simultaneously canon or teased during 3b - form a natural fleet of shipmates. Boyd/Erica are often included in either of those lineups.
  • Stiles/Derek shipmates are more complicated, especially later on with having to get their canon love interests out of the way. In early seasons Sterek fans paired with Scott/Allison and Jackson/Lydia. Scott/Isaac also became a popular mate, and there's also Lydia/Cora, Scott/Kira, Kira/Malia...
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The creators of the series noted that they planned to make a werewolf that someone could kiss, or rather make the werewolf sexy. What they have done is made the werewolf look like the one from The Werewolf Of London from the 1930s. Strangely averted with Aiden and Ethan, who are just handsome guys with red eyes and fangs, but none of the facial swelling or excess hair that Scott and Derek habitually exhibit (probably to save on makeup time and money).
  • The CGI deer and mountain lion look pretty cheap, while the Alpha resembles a gorilla with more claws and glowing red eyes. The Alpha also looks quite stop-motion-esque every time it's chasing someone.
  • Peter Hale's Alpha form actually looks pretty good and scary through most of season one, where it's seen mostly in silhouette through a combination of CG and oversized stuntmen in suits. Then you get to see it in all it's glory in the last two episodes. . . and it's a really cheesy low-budget CGI creature that would have looked more real if it had been cell-animated. Notably, the show minimized its screen time in those two episodes, and didn't attempt another fully-CGI monster until the second half of Season 5.
  • At times the CGI can be acceptable, at other times the CGI is painful.
  • Season 3 episode "Fireflies" has werewolves walking in a dark hallway with glowing eyes... and at times you can see their eyes casting lights in the walls.
  • Deucalion's "demon wolf" form.
  • In "Lunar Ellipse", Jennifer uses the shards of glass from the shattered skylight to kill Kali. The skylight was made from opaque (or at least very dirty) glass. But the shards are all perfectly clear.
• The Scrappy:
  • Matt was this in Season 2, due to being perceived as a romantic rival to Scott. Ceased when he turned out to be the Kanima's Master and was subsequently killed.
  • Cora picked up the role in Season 3A due to her incredibly ambiguous backstory and the fact that most of her behavior was identical to Derek when he's in one of his worst moods. Ceased to be an issue when she, too, left after finishing her arc.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The series is more a Darker and Edgier version of Big Wolf on Campus.
  • Beacon Hills being a literal beacon for supernatural creatures is reminiscent of Sunnydale and the Hell Mouth.
• Squick:
  • When Jackson goes through his transformation into the kanima in Season 2, he hallucinates eating a snake. A few moments later he sees it slither out of his eye.
  • Season 3: flies in wounds. Just any time bugs show up, really. Somehow, this show made fireflies scary.
  • There are repeated implications that when Kate slept with Derek, he was young enough for it to be statutory rape. In Season 4, she reverts him mentally and physically to a 16-year-old so he will trust her again and continues manipulating him in a sexual manner, while she's roughly twice his age.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Boyd: an intriguing character who gets almost no development until "Motel California" — and then he's killed off an episode later. And unlike the deaths of Erica and Allison, he wasn't killed because the actor wanted to leave.
  • Likewise Danny who had was a solid recurring character during the first three seasons and one of the few human characters. At the end of Season 3, he revealed he'd known about the supernatural all along...and promptly vanished forever.
  • Kira got written out seemingly for little reason other than the fact the writers didn't care to continue with the character despite many fans pointing out how with her Kitsune side acting up, she was one of the most interesting characters on the show at the time in terms of potential storylines that could come out from it.
  • Allison is a retroactive example, as while fans mourned her absence, having praised her Deuteragonist role, many assumed she'd come Back from the Dead until the final season, and weren't happy to be proven wrong.
  • Isaac disappearing after Allison' death, when he'd been such a great character, was another let down for the cast.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • When the Alpha was being burned by the self-igniting molotov, DAMN did it look awesome.
  • The smoke effects for the Oni are movie quality, particularly when one is doing some swordplay.
• The Woobie:
  • Everyone does the round robin on this one, although the one who's consistently deserving of a hug and a blanket is Isaac. It's to the point where Word of God has essentially made him into a designated Woobie; case in point, when asked if Isaac would be treated not like crap in Season 3, Jeff Davis only response was a snarky, "Where's the fun in that?"
  • Scott turns out to be a pretty big woobie, after 3A, and particularly "Frayed" and "Motel California", where he nearly dies over the guilt he's been carrying around about everything. Twice.
  • Stiles after being possessed by the Nogitsune. Being stuck in a basement with a steel trap on his leg as a demonic figure tells him riddles, hallucinating constantly and never quite sure when he's awake or not, having panic attacks in the middle of school, forced to kill and torture people including his friends, and being tricked into thinking he has the same illness that killed his mother. Every tear he cries in Season 3B is like a knife in the heart.
    • And that's not even considering that the disease his mother died of made her think Stiles was trying to kill her, that Stiles does actually blame himself for her death worries his dad does too and is terrified his father see's him as a burden he never wanted.
  • As of Season 5, most of the Chimeras are this, but two of note are Tracy and Corey:
    • Tracy is a girl suffering from supposed night terrors who gets experimented on and turned into a kanima-werewolf hybrid and, in her fugue state, kills her own father, and is killed herself before she can be saved by Malia.
    • Corey, meanwhile, has not been having a good sophomore year: his boyfriend is turned into a chimera and poisons him, which causes his arm to necrotize and require a skin graft. This, in turn, makes him targeted and transformed. He's understandably terrified when he starts healing quickly, and Scott's brusque treatment of him to gain access to his memories doesn't help calm him down either. The kid needs a hug, badly.
    • Kira becomes this in Season 5 when her Kitsune side begins to take control over her at certain parts which leads her to deal with the revelation she has an evil side she can't control that's almost killed a Chimera, nearly forced her to murder her own mother and seemingly actually kill a Chimera, to which she has no memory of and gets arrested for it after wandering miles out of Beacon Hills and snapping back to reality only to be confused as to how she got out there. It's get bad to the point that she's forced to leave Beacon Hills after discovering the Dread Doctors had gotten hold of her before she came back to the town in the premiere.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • A problem some have for Theo Raken's Heel–Face Turn arc in Season 6, after his portrayal as an unrepentant Hate Sink in Season 5. A number of fans found it hard to forget that Theo stoically watched his sister freeze to death as a child, manipulated Scott's pack against each other, kept a married couple captive and regularly abused them, temporarily killed Scott, attacked Lydia and rendered her catatonic, and sacrificed his own "pack" for the sake of his power. Some found his attempts at sympathy in Season 6 to fall flat as even when he's called out, Theo never expresses remorse for his past and largely brought everything on himself, and aside from a final Pet the Dog moment - taking the pain of a mortally wounded hunter - in the series finale, was mostly aligned with Scott's pack for his own self-preservation. To his detractors, Theo's one good deed doesn't erase his previous villainy and doesn't earn a spot in Scott's pack.
  • While not a case as extreme, Allison's Face–Heel Turn in Season 2 is quietly swept under the rug and handwaved as "She was grieving for her mother and manipulated by her grandfather Gerard into revenge". The problem is that, as far as we can see, it took very little effort on Gerard's part before she started Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and attacks fellow teenagers Erica, Isaac and even her boyfriend Scott without provocation-all of whom are not remotely responsible for her mother's death. Once Gerard is exposed and defeated, everyone welcomes her back with little fanfare despite that Allison never apologizes even once for her terrible actions which makes her look selfish ad unrepentant for her detractors. To her credit, Allison becomes more sympathetic in the next season but her romance with Isaac, whom she almost killed by repeatedly stabbing him a few months earlier, still rubs many fans in the wrong way.

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For the 1985 movie:

• Values Dissonance: In the original movie, Stiles has a very unfortunate line when Scott is trying to tell him about being a werewolf:
  Stiles: Look, are you gonna tell me you're a fag? Because if you're gonna tell me you're a fag, I don't think I can handle it.