I was watching the end of Season 2 of Teen Wolf, and Tori was re-watching it with me.
(Note – probable Teen Wolf spoilers up to the end of Season 2)
There’s a moment when Derek is working on something, and Peter, standing behind him, contributes sarcastically. At that moment, Tori suddenly announced “Peter is Spike!”.
Then it all started to click into place as Tori and I discussed it.
It’s not an exact one for one match, but the gang pretty much replicates the Buffy crew and dynamics.
Our two main teen characters, Scott & Alison, are the Buffy protagonist. Scott suddenly gets the special abilities he has to come to terms with whilst Alison finds she’s part of a long family of hunters who has to deal with the supernatural. They both have to come to terms with the help of their friends, whilst also trying to survive high school.
Stiles & Lydia are the Xander & Willow characters, the friends / side kicks who help, but don’t (at this stage) have any supernatural powers or abilities of their own. Lydia is Alison’s friend, Stiles is Scott’s. It’s a different dynamic to Xander & Willow adopting Buffy, but quite similar, they both help anchor the main characters.
Jackson is equivalent to Cordelia, the antagonistic nemesis of the main protagonists. It will be interesting to see if he starts to become more friendly towards Scott over time, or will remain the arrogant selfish jock he’s portrayed from the start.
Derek is Angel, the brooding older and more experienced supernatural character, frustrated with the teenager’s immature angst and inability to understand why his mature angst is more important.
As mentioned, Peter has become Spike, sometimes helping Derek, sometimes not, and always with the glib or sarcastic comment.
Deaton (the vet) is a Giles, the supernatural mentor who helps Scott, but from a much more hands off style than Giles did. He’s also much more mysterious than Giles, as is his sister.
Sharing the Giles role (after all, we have two Buffys, so why not two Giles?), is Chris Argent, Alison’s dad, who’s mentoring Alison in how to Hunt and then lead the Hunters.
Of course there are some recurring Teen Wolf characters without a direct counterpart in Buffy, such as Finstock (the Lacross Coach), Danny (Jackson’s best friend) and the Sheriff, but they’re minor.
It’s interesting to see how the dynamics and archetypes are so similar to Buffy, and I’m curious as to how they’ll play out over time.
Have Tori and I missed anyone important?
prk.
Leave a Reply