This is sort of a follow up to the three previous rants on here but it's something that's really been on my mind recently.

First of all, aside from the female character issues (which I'll get onto later), something that I've noticed is that Teen Wolf has pretty much ended up catering for the Stiles/Dylan O'Brien fans at the expense of like everyone else. Even the Teen Wolf tags in general are just Stiles orientated. Plus, the narrative spends a lot of time on Stiles and not a lot on the other main characters (especially our wonderful females). Yes, Dylan O'Brien is arguably the most talented actor on the show. Yes, although Stiles has a lot of flaws he is an interesting character. But that doesn't mean the other main characters should be given little to no screen time or just really generally shitty storylines (*coughs* Lydia Martin *coughs* Kira Yukimura)

Lydia Martin is canonically a genius. Yet, for example, every scene she's in with Stiles she's dumbed down so that Stiles is the one to figure things out. I find it really sad that she's portrayed almost like his sidekick when she's perfectly capable on her own.

Although I'm still undecided on my feelings for Hayden, I'm annoyed at the fact that she was introduced as just a male character's love interest - kinda like Malia was. And this is the reason that a lot of the fandom hate on these female characters.

The teen wolf females are so underrated and I'd like to mention Lydia isn't the only intelligent one. Malia was a coyote for almost a fucking decade but she still managed to adapt back to human life and to school in what 9 months? She is in no way dumb and her adaptable intelligence needs to be appreciated more. Kira is in advanced classes with Lydia and is very good at quick thinking about situations. The pack wouldn't be able to pull off half of their plans without her yet people still want her killed off? Why aren't any of these traits being explored further or appreciated? Why are the females being emphasised more as 'love interests' or 'sidekicks' rather than empowering individuals?

I think that a lot of the fandom not only forget about the females but they also forget the fact that Scott is 'the' teen wolf. As a proud Scott fan, I hate the fact that he gets so overlooked. Even Isaac and Liam are talked about and loved more. So in quick addition to this 'white boy' favouritism, I'd like to take a moment to point out how great Scott is. He gets shown studying and studying to try and improve his grades. He's the one who was two steps in front of Gerard, The Darach, Theo. But still, the majority of the fandom think he's in need of Stiles to constantly help him out. It's always Stiles that figures it out. Scott is our MoC MAIN CHARACTER who is so intelligent but is constantly referred to as 'stupid' or 'dumb' by a lot of the fandom because it always has to be Stiles that figures shit out. Scott is the person who looks for the best in everyone because he thinks that everyone is worth saving. Scott is the true alpha. Scott always tries to do what's right. He has been through so much emotional turmoil and has been hurt so much but he always pulls through it because his heart is always in the right place. (sorry I get very passionate about Scott McCall)

Don't get me wrong, I do like Stiles and I'm not trying to bash on the character or DOB. I know this all seemed very directed at Stiles but he is so favoured above everyone else and it shouldn't be like that. But sadly, we live in a world where white males are favoured above everybody else. All characters have flaws but it's okay to like them - as long as you don't excuse their actions or make them out to be a better person than they actually are. This also links back to a problem about the lack of respect for female characters. Take void Stiles for instance (sorry once again for the Stiles example). He was a villain, he was evil, but people still loved him. People even want Void Stiles to come back. But when Allison and Kira went 'bad', they were both subject to a lot of abuse and hate from the fandom. The fact that a male villain's actions can be excused but a female's can't just shows the lack of respect people have for them. Like I said, it's okay to like a character. But if you can't excuse Allison or Kira's actions, then can you really excuse Void Stiles' either?

Now, let's get more onto the awful writing of our wonderful females.

Lydia is probably one of the most mistreated characters on the show. She was mauled by Peter Hale at the end of season 1, manipulated in many ways by Peter Hale in season 2. Derek was going to callously kill her without a seconds thought when he believed she was the Kanima. And even then, she put everything behind her to help the pack. For so long she had no answers but she was still committed. Every banshee she knows about (her grandma, meredith etc) have completely broken down mentally but Lydia still stays committed to the pack. She's badass. And somehow she's an awful bitchy character? I don't know whether a lot of that hate is because of how she gets pushed into the background a lot (for example, there was like 0 Lydia screen time in season 4) but it's such a problem and it shouldn't be because she's been here since season 1.

Malia had to adapt into human life after being a coyote for so long. She had to control her wild impulses because she was turned back into a human against her will. She had to adapt back into a society and reclaim years of education all in such a short time period. Her character development is absolutely amazing. In season 5 we've seen her put so much behind her for other people's sakes. She saved Melissa from the dread doctors so that she could help Scott, even when she'd previously witnessed how dangerous they were. She fought off kanima venom to stop Tracy's night terror and then had to watch her be murdered in front of her eyes. And, yet, she is still trashed on and called absolutely awful things.

And then there's Kira. Kira is so pure. She's given so much to the pack in terms of intelligence, loyalty, skill. She's always been there to save Scott's life or to encourage and support the other characters. Her family and her even chose to leave so that she wouldn't harm anybody after the dread doctors messed with her. Kira puts everyone before herself and still people (even mtv) want her cut from the show.

Prior to all this, there was Allison too. Allison's life was literally pulled apart and she was exposed to this kind of world. In season 1, Allison was essentially portrayed as Scott's 'prize.' How wrong is that? A female character is there and shown to be a male character's prize. Smh. In season 2, she was manipulated at her most vulnerable state and she hit rock bottom. Yet, she still managed to pull through it no matter what the cost. She even died saving her best friend. And even after all this time, her character is still hated on.

There is undeniably an issue in this fandom where the female characters are not supported enough. I do believe that a lot of this is to do with the poor writing of a few characters in general, but the fact that even when Allison was a main, people were actually trending something like '#KillAllison' Honestly, it's okay not to like a character but what's the point of trashing on them and their fans. Especially, not being stereotypical here at all but, considering the majority of the teen wolf fandom is actually female dominated, shouldn't we, as females, be sticking up for female characters/actresses? And you know, I think the most frustrating bit is that when you are interested in these characters, a lot of this fandom are really unwelcoming. These problems do unfortunately lie more in the fandom which makes me really sad. However, there are still a lot of problems that lie within the writing of certain characters.

Teen Wolf is very much a male dominated cast and the show really needs strong female components to equally balance it out. Teen Wolf needs a main female lead who's in the centre like Allison was. Lydia, in my personal opinion, doesn't fit that because although we did get to see her kicking ass this season, the only other times we saw her was when she was flitting in and out of Parrish's storyline or getting injured. To be clear, I love Lydia so much but I cannot consider her the main female lead if she's hardly having scenes. That's not Holland's fault, that's the writers fault for putting too much time into things like bigging up the villains and fight scenes, rather than a character who's been here since the very beginning. Kira and Malia don't fit the expectations either because they were introduced as love interests and we have only recently seen them start to develop. In fact, Kira's development feels like it's being used as a prop to tear Scott down. Why is a WoC character who's been in the show for two years being so mistreated? How can we even have a female lead if the females are getting hardly any screen time????!!

The reason people are losing interest in the show is because they're focusing way too much on upping the fight scenes and the villains. My love for Teen Wolf started back at the friendships portrayed in the first few seasons. To be fair, Scott and Stiles' friendship is still focused on a lot now, but relationships otherwise aren't well written at all. Teen Wolf's roots are the characters and their relationships with one another but it's all being so badly written. And the worst thing is that people look up to these characters as role models. These characters and their relationships are impressionable. Therefore, Teen Wolf needs female characters who are just as powerful and engaging as men. Teen Wolf needs to build up foundations of characters like Malia and Kira who have not been accepted by a lot of the fandom yet because we're struggling to care for them as much as we do for Lydia, Scott and Stiles. People can't care for them because they're so used to the female characters (even the 'mains') being shoved into the background for the males to shine. Our female cast are diverse and they bring representation but they aren't being well written enough. Lydia doesn't get treated like a character that's been on the show since the very beginning. Kira and Malia don't get treated like characters who have been on the show for two years. Our female characters are getting mistreated and shoved into the background. Impressionable fans are going to think that it's normal to treat women like that. It's not.

It's wrong. It's so wrong.

- Molly.