User blog comment:Paul.rea/Teen Wolf News 102613/@comment-98.117.216.132-20131028024144/@comment-84.248.178.48-20131028134804

This is msdistress again.

"You seem to laboring under the misconception that life (or the narrative) is fair.

Nobody earns redemption in real life."

And you seem to be labouring under the misconception that we are talking about real life. We are not, we are talking about a tv-series, which has (or at least should have) a narrative structure. It should have consistent plots that are decided beforehand instead of narrative flailing, it should have story arcs that are followed through. It should have character growth. If you want to redeem your characters, you have to let them earn it. You can't start the story by introducing your villains, have them commit murder in front of the audience, and then decide that they are redeemed because you want them to be and handwave their previous actions away.

You were the one to claim that the story required them to live. No, it didn't. The laws of narrative require that the wrongdoers are punished for their misdeeds. Deucalion and the twins were set up as the bad guys. They have no character growth, they do not express desire for redemption or regret for their actions. They have done absolutely nothing to earn their redemption, and therefore, following the laws of narrative, they should have been punished for their actions, either by death or at least by stripping them of their powers. Instead, the narrative forgives them. Why? Nobody knows.

People are complaining for two legitemate reasons:

First because of the narrative failure above. The redemption of Deucalion and the twins is simply bad storytelling, end of story. So is brushing the deaths of Erica and Boyd quickly under the rug. The narrative rules require justice for the slain and the punishment of the guilty. 3a delivers none of that. Absolutely none.

Second because of the clear preference for white male characters, as of surviving recurring TW characters 60% are white males, 25% are women and 25% POCs (the percentages add up to 110% up because there are two WOC characters on the show). The number of POCs and women dropped from 31% to 25% during this season. This shows an alarming tendency to  sideline minority characters and see them and their storylines as less important than the white male characters. The fans are right to point this out.

"I wonder though, had the twins been girls or brown, would sparing their lives have been okay? Does it help that one of them is queer?"

No. Because the narrative demanded the murderers should be punished. Narratively the twins and Deucalion are no different from Kali and Jennifer, but for some reason, they walk scott free, while the protagonists conveniently forget that they killed people they knew/loved. The only way the the twins and Deucalion differ narratively from Jennifer and Kali is because of their white maleness. They should not have been redeemed, and yet, inexplicably, they were.

As for Deucalion's potential and being a more interesting character, to each their own. However, IMO, Jennifer's redemption (compared to Deucalion) would have been much more interesting. Deucalion is a psycho, full stop. He manipulated and killed people for his own amusement, whereas Jennifer did it for revenge. Had she killed Deucalion and the rest of the alphas, she would have been faced with the knowledge that she managed to do what she had planned to do for years, and consequently, had lost her life purpose. Maybe she would have tried to atone her actions (the murders of the innocents)? Maybe Derek's love/friendship for her would have helped her to redeem herself? We do not know, because she was killed off. But as a character she was just as interesting as Deucalion.

Twins as romantic foils? I'm sorry, I don't really see dating a murderer who shows no remorse for his actions as romantic. As for to draw in the female audience: I think it's fair to say that both Tylers shirtless take care of that. We do not need more white guys on the show, especially if we have to exchange them for a two POC's, one of whom is a female.