To villainy and beyond.
Okay, so this is me kind of rambling about Peter Hale, and eventually Stiles. Includes descriptions of things they've done in canon, so heads up.
So! One of the things about Peter Hale is that pre-fire Peter is very, very, very open to interpretation, and I want to say, before anything else, that this is simply my interpretation, and none of it's set in stone.
Right, okay, so, one of the things I've taken with me from Glee fandom/meta/fic/etc is that Just because a character says something, doesn't mean it's true.
Let's repeat that.
Just because a character says something, doesn't mean it's true.
~
What do we know about post-fire Peter Hale?
Leaving out the direct-vengeance murders [four arsonists, the insurance investigator, Kate Argent, and the attempt on Harris] let's look at what he did to achieve that vengeance.
1. Lured his niece back to town with intent to kill her, and did so.
2. Turned a random teenager [Scott] into a werewolf, without the kid's consent, knowing it had a chance of killing said kid.
3. Set a mountain lion loose in a crowded parking lot [srsly that cougar coulda killed people]
4. Tried to get one teenager [Scott] to kill four others [Stiles, Allison, Lydia, Jackson] in order to cement the pack bond.
5. Attempted to turn a woman without her consent [Melissa McCall]
6. Not even sure what was up with Derek bringing Jackson to the Hale House to be honest. Let's just list this one as "threaten to murder Jackson in order to manipulate Scott". Also not sure what was going on in the video-store earlier. Would he have killed/turned Jackson if it weren't for the scratch from Derek?
7. Stalked Allison to manipulate Scott.
8. Mauled a teenager [Lydia] badly enough to endanger her life, in order to manipulate another teenagers [Stiles] with the side-effect of "If she lives, she'll be a werewolf" so again with the turning-without-consent.
9. Kidnapped/assaulted/threatened Stiles.
10. Attempted to murder a teenager [Allison, an Argent who really truly for-fucking-sure had nothing to do with the fire] after the actual fire-related murders were finished.
~
Wow okay that is a lot.
So then in Season Two we have the goal of: not be dead anymore.
To that end, he terrorizes Lydia from inside her own mind, including violence and molestation.
Oh, and the spiking the punch with hallucinogenic aconite, with mostly negative-emotion based hallucinations, to give Lydia/himself a cover to leave under that guaranteed no-one would tail them. Throwing Matt [former drowning victim, who had Jackson to pull him out] into the pool was a way for the writers to show us up bad that party could have gone.
Seriously, every single person at that party could have died. Like, what if they'd started throwing each other through windows? Okay stopping now I am disturbing myself fuck you Teen Wolf.
~
So that is post-Hale-fire, and post personally-being-set-on-fire-and-killed.
There's a fair amount of "did X to manipulate so-and-so" in there, isn't there?
Let's go back to that scene in the hospital.
"My mind, my personality, were literally burned out of me."
This and a couple other factors [Derek seemed to trust Peter when he thought he was in a coma, and we know Derek doesn't trust easy. And Laura was not expecting to murdered like AT ALL, so she trusted him too] seem to be where fandom latches on and goes:
"Peter was different before the fire! I'm gonna write him with whatever personality I feel like!" which is. I mean. I guess. If you want. Not as fun as writing his shown personality but whatever floats your boat okay carry on.
But!
Why are we assuming this is one of the moments when Peter's being honest?
Let's assess the information everyone has, and Peter's goal, during that scene.
Derek knows the Alpha killed Laura, and he has just learned Peter is the Alpha, and Peter knows this.
Later in the show, Peter tells Stiles "I need Derek and Scott."
So back at the hospital scene, Peter's goal is to get Derek on his side.
"I killed your sister because I wanted her power, and/or she wasn't killing our enemies fast enough for my taste" is not exactly gonna win Derek over, you know?
But "I wasn't myself, the fire changed me, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't mean to kill Laura" just might.
~
The fire was definitely an influence. It's just not...hrm.
The fire gave Peter Hale his goals when we met him. It upped the ante between Hunters and Hales. But it didn't build the Peter we know and love/hate out of nothing.
Which is where I start talking about Stiles.
"Do you want. The bite. Yes or no?"
"I don't want to be like you."
As fandom points out, Peter says Stiles heart did weird shit over "I don't want" meaning he might've been lying about that part, and does indeed want to be a werewolf. But that the to be like you part is important, because he's saying he doesn't want to be like Peter Hale.
Some of fandom then adds that Stiles already knows he has the potential to be like Peter. He's already manipulative.
"But you still play ball, don't you Danny?"
"You're a horrible person." "I know, it keeps me awake at night."
/pouring/ "You mean you are going to get such a good night's sleep! And I am going to spend an eternity in the lowest circle of Hell."
He's also ruthless; killing Jackson is an option he's willing to recommend to keep everyone else safe, as was letting Derek die [to keep Scott out of danger] and I'm pretty sure he's glad Matt's dead.
~
So one major difference is, Stiles is still protecting people, while Peter is acting out of vengeance.
Which leads to a decent number of fic going, okay, what would Stiles do if someone killed his dad? Or Scott? Or both? How many deaths does it take to turn Stiles into someone a lot like Peter?
The most concerning aspect for me isn't actually the ruthlessness, because it's all been directed at people directly involved. It's the manipulation and use of outsiders.
Danny, when Stiles gets him to trace the text, is completely uninvolved in the Werewolf Drama. He's not a Hunter, he's not a wolf, and while he's friends with Jackson, that really has nothing to do with the text tracing. He just happened to be the classmate with the skill Stiles needed.
~
Then there's the question of, what would Peter do if he still had someone to protect?
...thoughts?
So! One of the things about Peter Hale is that pre-fire Peter is very, very, very open to interpretation, and I want to say, before anything else, that this is simply my interpretation, and none of it's set in stone.
Right, okay, so, one of the things I've taken with me from Glee fandom/meta/fic/etc is that Just because a character says something, doesn't mean it's true.
Let's repeat that.
Just because a character says something, doesn't mean it's true.
~
What do we know about post-fire Peter Hale?
Leaving out the direct-vengeance murders [four arsonists, the insurance investigator, Kate Argent, and the attempt on Harris] let's look at what he did to achieve that vengeance.
1. Lured his niece back to town with intent to kill her, and did so.
2. Turned a random teenager [Scott] into a werewolf, without the kid's consent, knowing it had a chance of killing said kid.
3. Set a mountain lion loose in a crowded parking lot [srsly that cougar coulda killed people]
4. Tried to get one teenager [Scott] to kill four others [Stiles, Allison, Lydia, Jackson] in order to cement the pack bond.
5. Attempted to turn a woman without her consent [Melissa McCall]
6. Not even sure what was up with Derek bringing Jackson to the Hale House to be honest. Let's just list this one as "threaten to murder Jackson in order to manipulate Scott". Also not sure what was going on in the video-store earlier. Would he have killed/turned Jackson if it weren't for the scratch from Derek?
7. Stalked Allison to manipulate Scott.
8. Mauled a teenager [Lydia] badly enough to endanger her life, in order to manipulate another teenagers [Stiles] with the side-effect of "If she lives, she'll be a werewolf" so again with the turning-without-consent.
9. Kidnapped/assaulted/threatened Stiles.
10. Attempted to murder a teenager [Allison, an Argent who really truly for-fucking-sure had nothing to do with the fire] after the actual fire-related murders were finished.
~
Wow okay that is a lot.
So then in Season Two we have the goal of: not be dead anymore.
To that end, he terrorizes Lydia from inside her own mind, including violence and molestation.
Oh, and the spiking the punch with hallucinogenic aconite, with mostly negative-emotion based hallucinations, to give Lydia/himself a cover to leave under that guaranteed no-one would tail them. Throwing Matt [former drowning victim, who had Jackson to pull him out] into the pool was a way for the writers to show us up bad that party could have gone.
Seriously, every single person at that party could have died. Like, what if they'd started throwing each other through windows? Okay stopping now I am disturbing myself fuck you Teen Wolf.
~
So that is post-Hale-fire, and post personally-being-set-on-fire-and-killed.
There's a fair amount of "did X to manipulate so-and-so" in there, isn't there?
Let's go back to that scene in the hospital.
"My mind, my personality, were literally burned out of me."
This and a couple other factors [Derek seemed to trust Peter when he thought he was in a coma, and we know Derek doesn't trust easy. And Laura was not expecting to murdered like AT ALL, so she trusted him too] seem to be where fandom latches on and goes:
"Peter was different before the fire! I'm gonna write him with whatever personality I feel like!" which is. I mean. I guess. If you want. Not as fun as writing his shown personality but whatever floats your boat okay carry on.
But!
Why are we assuming this is one of the moments when Peter's being honest?
Let's assess the information everyone has, and Peter's goal, during that scene.
Derek knows the Alpha killed Laura, and he has just learned Peter is the Alpha, and Peter knows this.
Later in the show, Peter tells Stiles "I need Derek and Scott."
So back at the hospital scene, Peter's goal is to get Derek on his side.
"I killed your sister because I wanted her power, and/or she wasn't killing our enemies fast enough for my taste" is not exactly gonna win Derek over, you know?
But "I wasn't myself, the fire changed me, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't mean to kill Laura" just might.
~
The fire was definitely an influence. It's just not...hrm.
The fire gave Peter Hale his goals when we met him. It upped the ante between Hunters and Hales. But it didn't build the Peter we know and love/hate out of nothing.
Which is where I start talking about Stiles.
"Do you want. The bite. Yes or no?"
"I don't want to be like you."
As fandom points out, Peter says Stiles heart did weird shit over "I don't want" meaning he might've been lying about that part, and does indeed want to be a werewolf. But that the to be like you part is important, because he's saying he doesn't want to be like Peter Hale.
Some of fandom then adds that Stiles already knows he has the potential to be like Peter. He's already manipulative.
"But you still play ball, don't you Danny?"
"You're a horrible person." "I know, it keeps me awake at night."
/pouring/ "You mean you are going to get such a good night's sleep! And I am going to spend an eternity in the lowest circle of Hell."
He's also ruthless; killing Jackson is an option he's willing to recommend to keep everyone else safe, as was letting Derek die [to keep Scott out of danger] and I'm pretty sure he's glad Matt's dead.
~
So one major difference is, Stiles is still protecting people, while Peter is acting out of vengeance.
Which leads to a decent number of fic going, okay, what would Stiles do if someone killed his dad? Or Scott? Or both? How many deaths does it take to turn Stiles into someone a lot like Peter?
The most concerning aspect for me isn't actually the ruthlessness, because it's all been directed at people directly involved. It's the manipulation and use of outsiders.
Danny, when Stiles gets him to trace the text, is completely uninvolved in the Werewolf Drama. He's not a Hunter, he's not a wolf, and while he's friends with Jackson, that really has nothing to do with the text tracing. He just happened to be the classmate with the skill Stiles needed.
~
Then there's the question of, what would Peter do if he still had someone to protect?
...thoughts?