OOC

celen

THE CHARACTER

The first thing you need to know about Stiles, and indeed the first thing you’ll notice about him, is that he’s the most sarcastic, quick-witted smartass you’ll come across. He has a quip or a dry remark for every occasion, and more often than not, these occasions happen to be him mouthing off to authority figures – but that doesn’t mean his friends are safe from eye-rolls or cutting remarks. Stiles doesn’t really care about “politically correct”, instead saying exactly what he thinks, usually in as sarcastic a manner as possible – this is why he may come across as blunt and even rude, especially to those he doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know. He has no in-built respect for adults, and god forbid if you’ve done something to piss him off; he won’t hesitate to stand up to even those he knows could have him killed in less time than it takes to say “werewolf”.

However, these instances, where Stiles does stand up to people like Gerard or Agent McCall, are usually those where he is less afraid for himself and acting only on behalf of people he cares about – he mouths off to Peter because he hurt Lydia, he stands up to Gerard because he has Erica and Boyd captured. This demonstrates another of the key characteristics of Stiles: loyalty, up to the point where he would do nearly anything for those he loves. He may not be the easiest person to warm up to others, but when you’ve gained his trust and friendship, he’ll stand by you until the bitter end. He doesn’t even care about himself getting hurt in the process – he lies to his father for a long time, so long that eventually the Sheriff starts to believe Stiles is a criminal; even though this hurts Stiles a lot, it’s still better than the alternative: telling the truth and risking his father being in danger. In the same way, Stiles saves Scott from killing himself by stepping into a puddle of gasoline and risking getting blown up, because Scott is his brother and he’d rather die together with him than let Scott kill himself.

What has been said here may make Stiles seem like a rude, even abrasive but loyal and brave person, but he is a lot more than that: he is also easily excitable, loud and flaily, with a lot of handwaving and strange mannerisms happening as he speaks (which is, though it’s never been outright stated, a result of his ADHD). He gets excited about the strangest things, thinking Scott’s wolf-roar is the coolest thing and that searching for a dead body counts as an acceptable pastime. He laughs and jokes a lot, and doesn’t hesitate to jump around or punch the air in joy when there’s reason for it. He’s also rather awkward, especially around girls, and often puts his foot in his mouth when he says things he doesn’t exactly think through. On first glance, he might seem like rather silly, even ridiculous, as he often goes on tangents when he talks, and only half of the things he says have anything to do with, well, anything. He’s someone who would say to his crying crush to “can you give me five minutes, I know, I’m sorry, but, just sit here, continue crying”; he’s not aware of “normal” boundaries (or chooses to ignore them), as he always listens to his dad’s phonecalls (but only the important ones!), goes through his stuff to make sure he’s not hiding anything from him, and thinks that making a copy of the key to his best friend’s house (without asking anyone) is completely an okay thing to do.

However, despite the initial impression, Stiles is also extremely intelligent, though less in a book-smart way and more in a street-smart way; he’s clever, quick-thinking, logical, as evidenced by the way he puts things together quicker than anyone else in the show. He figures out Scott is a werewolf before Scott himself does, he realizes it was Kate Argent who burned the Hale house, and not only that, he also makes the connection between Kate and Derek, something that nobody else is even close to doing. Stiles is the one with the plan, the one who “always figures it out”. Part of that is the way he is absolutely relentless in his research, when he has an idea – he gets caught up in researching, even if it takes all night. However, the problem with his intelligence is that he only directs his attention to things he’s interested in, so while you could say he is hard-working, he’s only so when he wants to be, when it comes to things he thinks are important. His rather unique way of thinking also means that he comes to solutions that wouldn’t necessarily occur to others.

Throughout the series, Stiles is the foil to Scott’s angelic, true morals: he’s the Sheriff’s son, but he has no qualms about appearing on crime scenes or going to search for a body just for the fun of it, or more because of his endless curiosity. He doesn’t care about rules or what is illegal and what isn’t – on more occasions than one, he doesn’t show any remorse about the idea of killing those he doesn’t care about, and steals and makes copies of key cards, while the idea that doing that is somehow worse than stealing never even crosses his mind. He seems to be a firm believer in the concept of “end justifies the means”, and if that end requires someone he thinks deserving of it to die, well, what’s the problem?

This doesn’t mean that Stiles is completely callous when it comes to the lives of others, or that his morals are entirely dark – no, on more than one occasion, he ends up saving the lives of those he doesn’t even entirely trust, or has shown signs of disliking. Human life is still something that’s important to him, and this is where him being the son of the Sheriff shows; Stiles cares about “bad people” being brought to justice, and those who have done nothing wrong being saved. In the end, Stiles does do the right thing, never outright straying on the side of what’s considered morally reprehensible, even though his morals are, on the whole, a bit on the grey side.

While Stiles has absolutely no problem showing his feelings when he’s displeased, angry or happy, he hides all the feelings that have to do with sadness or fear – his customary response to any inquiries about him being okay is “I’m fine”, even when that couldn’t be further from the truth. It seems to be a protective mechanism, both for himself and others; he doesn’t like to seem weak or admit to being afraid or hurt, but also doesn’t want to worry others. A lot of this comes also from him feeling somewhat inadequate, being the only normal human in his group of friends. It takes him a while to admit it even to himself, but he knows he can’t do the things his supernatural friends can do, and he has an innate fear of being useless or causing others to get hurt because of something he’s done, or not done. His guilt complex plays into this as well, as he tends to feel guilty for things that are out of his control (such as the death of his mother): as a result, he tends to rush into things, trying to be as useful as he can, even when it means endangering himself as a result. This also leads him to believe that it is his business to take care of everything; the idea that the adults should handle a mass-murderer on the loose makes no sense to him, as he feels that he needs to be aware of everything that is going on and often feels responsible for taking care of these things. Because if he can’t do that much, figure out the things others can’t – what is he good for?

But despite these fears, he is brave almost to the point of stupidity, less because of this inability to value himself, and more because of the his undying loyalty to those he cares for – if it means saving someone, if it means catching the bad guys, there’s nothing Stiles won’t do.

☓ extremely intelligent, quick-witted and able to deduce things like a detective
☓ moderate skills in lacrosse
☓ fairly good cook
☓ very genre-savvy
☓ carries a certain "spark" that once allowed him to will mountain ash into acting as a barrier for werewolves
☓ part of the McCall werewolf pack