Congrats to this fic for finally getting me off my ass to write reviews for fics?

Ugh. This story made me so mad.

I’ll own up to having some… biases. Especially towards Derek. I love the guy, ok? I generally think it’s kind of shitty that he has a reputation for being a failwolf.

That being said…

This fic totally takes the ‘Stiles knows how to run a pack and what it means to be a good alpha’ to it’s extreme but logical conclusion.

Basic premise of the fic is that by performing acts of care and protection for the pack, Stiles raises himself to be the alpha in the pack hierarchy. Because Derek is a bad alpha. And Stiles through magic (and it is actual magic in the fic) has better alpha instincts.

Derek basically accepts this and makes plans to leave. He says this when Stiles demands that he explain himself:

“You could have left me at least a little dignity, but no, you need me to say it out loud. Fine: you were right. I failed. I failed so hard that you and Scott had to come in and save my own pack because I couldn’t do it. A human and a bitten beta – two fucking teenagers – are better Alphas than I’ll ever be. So you’re right: I need to leave, because everything I touch turns to shit.” His voice broke on the last word, and he turned his back on Stiles, like he couldn’t stand to look at him.

I know we’re supposed to take Stiles’ little speech defending Derek as a good person as heartwarming or whatever but… it’s little consolation.

It’s the “A human and a bitten beta – two fucking teenagers – are better Alphas than I’ll ever be” that really gets me.

This is the prime example of the anthropocentrism that continues to irk about the fandom.

As I always say, Derek’s performance as an alpha is almost always evaluated from a human perspective (Scott is included in this). By and large, fandom takes it as an unquestionable truth that Derek was a bad alpha.

I think the most frustrating thing about this fic is that what happens is the logical conclusion to the prevalent attitude towards Derek and how most people write Stiles. In this regards, the fic is great1. So kudos.

It makes me want to scream, though. So there’s that.

  1. I’m not even being sarcastic. ↩︎