Well, well. This Demon Wolfcast certainly turned out to be something. What that something is, I’m not particlary sure just yet. You’ll probably hate me (not Micah cause he seems to be unhatable) by the end but at this point you gotta take or leave your opinions. In this Demon Wolfcast episode, Micah and I chat about our muted thoughts about Muted, get really mad at old jokes, and throw down the gauntlet to the shippers and ship haters in the fandom. Buckle your seat belts!
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Important Links
Tyler Hoechlin’s Comments
My Recap
25% into the new season with no Danny.
isn’t that a mess? especially cause this seems like a tailor made episode for him to pop up!
I never really thought Sterek would go cannon, but Sterek was the closest a Slash ship ever got to becoming cannon. With the way Jeff and the PR team treated us at the beginning, cannon Sterek looked like a real possibility.
Teen Wolf official PR Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook doesn’t seem to engage the
Sterek fandom at all now, except to tell them to vote in a poll. All other ships cannon or otherwise get some interaction with official TW PR.
After all the hints the show has given us of Bi Stiles over the last 3 seasons and Jeff himself teasing it in interviews, Iwas hoping they would explore that more.But knowing this show they’ve probably scraped that idea as well.
I completely feel the same way as Micah (I apologize if I spelt your name wrong) that we were used by teen wolf to drum up publicity for the show and once we fulfilled our purpose we were tossed aside and treated like a dirty joke.
This show has branded itself by accident or design a 100% straight no homo zone.
Yeah, the bi Stiles thing is especially troublesome. Teen Wolf has such a platform to really do something interesting and it just seems like they’re comfortable to just scratch the surface. “we created a world where being gay doesn’t matter” can’ hold up if you don’t provide those characters story lines. And marketing is used to create a set of expectations, so how are they gonna be mad at us for assuming things based on it? just a mess.
First off, I’d like to say that I really love your podcast and you will not being losing a listener here. I agree with pretty much everything you said about what’s going on in Teen Wolf fandom right now. Though, I will say that I do believe about 99% of fandom’s problems right now are actually the fault of Jeff Davis and MTV’s PR team. I’m not excusing individual’s behavior because there is no excuse for the amount of hate being flung at shippers (especially Sterek), but I do think that this fandom was always headed here. Once the Sterek fandom took off and they saw the potential to capitalize off of that, Jeff Davis and MTV PR played favorites.
Sterek shippers (which full disclosure, I am one) were treated as the “alphas of the fandom” and a good deal of the publicity for the show was driven in that direction. Sterek was being written about, it was being asked about at comic con with Hoechlin saying 50/50 chance, Hoechlin and Dylan did the boat video, the Sterek shippers were so loud that After Elton (The Backlot) created Slash Madness for them unless I’m remembering it wrong. And while that was all exciting because I can’t remember a slash pairing ever being embraced at that level by cast, crew, network and fans, it also was a breeding ground of resentment for Scott, Lydia, and Allison fans, I think because they were greatly ignored and outnumbered. Let’s face it, the PR for Teen Wolf was so heavily slanted toward Dylan and Hoechlin for such a long time that a lot of fans coming into the show didn’t even know Scott was the lead character or who Posey was until watching. The result of which is now the overwhelming backlash and has lead to all this hate. It only takes a stroll through one of the anti tags on tumblr to see how much bitterness has built up. It was always going to lead to the huge division you see now in fandom, in my opinion, and now that Jeff Davis and MTV are trying to pretend that all that Sterek baiting never existed, the bitterness has begun from the Sterek side as well.
If Jeff Davis and MTV had ever had the balls to come out and admit that while Sterek was fun, it was never going to be canon, this never would have happened. Then again, if they had done that, would Teen Wolf’s popularity had ever risen to the level it did? A lot of viewers came in on the hope of finally seeing a slash pairing go canon because for a brief moment between seasons two and three it seemed like a real possibility for the first time. In my opinion, Jeff Davis and MTV shamelessly exploited the Sterek shippers for free publicity, awards and ratings. I could have bought at one point that is was just them getting caught up in the wave of excitement of enthusiasm at one point, but the move that killed that excuse for me was the releasing of the outtakes of the ship video in exchange for winning the tv guide cover. After months of trying to squash Sterek and keep questions about it out of the press, MTV appealed to the general fan base first and when they knew that wasn’t going to win them the cover, then they turned around and miraculously came up with those outtakes and targeted Sterek shippers directly, dangling the carrot they knew they couldn’t resist because when you release screencaps of Dylan licking Hoechlin’s finger, you know that the fan base was going to go wild. It was such a calculated move and then when they had the tv guide cover MTV went straight back to ignoring Sterek’s existence. It was a really hurtful thing to do to a fan base that had done nothing but support them for years and were at least partly responsible for the success of the show.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, now what has happened outside the show in fandom seems to be affecting the plot of the show itself. Stiles and Derek are kept so far apart now in the show that I have to wonder if Derek’s storyline being so adrift isn’t in part simply because Jeff Davis will no longer allow the two to share breathing space, so if Stiles is in a scene, Derek can’t be anywhere near it. Unless of course, it’s to put a calculated baiting scene like the dream sequence at the end of 3B to ensure that the Sterek shippers hang in there for ratings. I share your worry you expressed on the podcast for Derek’s storyline this season because if he can’t interact in the main plotline for fear of him and Stiles having a Sterek moment, then he’s going to continue to seem as if he’s on another show. Only brought in for a few minutes an episode and thrown together with Stiles in the last episode to keep those hanging on for interaction between the two to continue to do so.
All in all, I feel like this whole situation has been so badly mismanaged that I feel sorry for all the fans and for the cast. I have no problem with what Hoechlin said at the con last weekend and feel bad that he is taking the heat for what is Jeff and MTV’s fault for placing everyone in this position in the first place.
And now I realized what a huge rant I just went into and have to apologize for writing so much here. I hadn’t realized until I started writing how much bitterness, I myself, was holding about this situation. Thank you for allowing me to vent and again my apologies for writing so much. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on what I’ve written.
Thank you and Micah for doing this podcast, I look forward more to hearing it then I do to watching the shows these days.
A
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I enjoyed reading them. I agree with much of what you said here with regards to the weird loop we seem to be in with regards to the marketing/fandom/the show itself and i don’t think folks would leave en masse if told up front by Jeff. Like the lying was what got us into this situation, just be truthful
I have a question for you, do you think people wouldn’t leave at this point?
If Jeff and MTV had been honest before season 3B then I think that most of the fans wouldn’t have left, but I can’t help but wonder if that is still the case. The show has taken a dramatically different turn. The constant refusal to resolve any of the questions or plot holes, even simple ones like Derek’s age, (I mean come on, regardless of all Jeff’s claims that werewolves age differently, Derek has to have a birthdate. Just offer up that.) have left the fans feeling frustrated. The fact that Jeff and MTV seem to laugh at the fans for even caring about the characters have turned many fans off. The casual watchers I know don’t think the show even make sense anymore and no longer want to watch due to that and the huge turnover of the cast. Where’s Isaac? (I know Sharman left, but a lot of casual viewers don’t) Or Danny? The lacrosse scene was a perfect example of how different the show looks this year. The team used to have at least 4 regular cast members on the team and the only recognizable characters on the field were Stiles and Scott. And even casual viewers I know have noticed the lack of Derek and Stiles scenes because they were the funniest scenes in the show. The spotty mythology makes it hard to watch for any sort of consistent world building. At this point many fans I know are only watching for the characters and actors they love and to get little tidbits to build on for fanfic.
To stop myself before I go on any longer, I’m just wondering what your thoughts are on the whole thing? Given that ratings have fallen over half a million viewers from last season, do you think even casual viewers have had enough of Jeff’s inconsistent writing? And given that the season has already been shot and they can’t course correct what isn’t working for people (like Malia), what do you think they will do to try to gain viewers back?
Thanks for talking about this with me.
A
I think that for this show so long as the characters people love are on the show, they’ll keep watching regardless of the relationships or love interests. Now if Derek died you’d see a big exodus. People are watching the show regardless of the issues but I think it’ll take something big to get them to stop.
Now I do agree that there are so many things the writers can be doing but unless viewers really drop or they really listen to the fans it won’t change.
Thanks for the response. I agree with you that it will probably take Derek leaving at this point. God knows, that as much as I would love to leave the show behind some weeks, I keep hanging in there until either Derek or Stiles leave.
I’ve lost hope that Jeff will ever listen to his fans, I don’t think his ego would allow it.
Okay, one last thing I forgot to mention before and then I swear I will shut up! I just want to thank you for covering the hypocrisy of fandom on your podcast. It’s an issue I haven’t seen anyone else addressing in this fandom really and it’s a big problem. I’ve already seen some of the fans that screamed at how sick anyone shipping Sterek was because of the age difference saying how much they can’t wait for Lydia/Parrish and my eyes rolled so hard I’m surprised they didn’t pop out of my head. I just wish people could be honest and admit that hating Sterek for a lot of fans had nothing to do with the age difference or “abuse issues” they claimed it did, but because they didn’t like it and it wasn’t their ship. And on the other hand for fans to admit that a lot of hate Stalia and Draden is getting is because in part it isn’t Sterek or Stydia.
Honesty! Why is that such a hard concept in this fandom? From Jeff, MTV to even the fans, no one seems to be able to embrace it. So thank you for addressing the hypocrisy on the podcast, I enjoyed hearing someone finally say it.
And thank you for this discussion and letting me vent. I appreciate your responses. I look forward to hearing you and Micah’s podcast next week.
Thanks again!
A.
I really enjoy the content of your podcasts, but please give it a listen yourself with an open mind. Cutting back on the use of the word “like” would greatly improve the quality.
HA! as a native Californian and SoCal resident that’s a difficult word to cut down on