Recently, this video I did some months ago has seen renewed interest and that’s great
– more views and comments lead to more views and more Teen Wolf fun for me. But it’s
also led to a lot of disagreement and even some hostility over my ideas about what makes
a character powerful in the Teen Wolf Universe and specifically why I think Jennifer Blake
was one of the most powerful characters on the show.
I’m answering multiple people about this every single day. So, I figured I’d do a
video and then I can just link everybody to this instead of restating my thought process
again and again. As a result, this trip back to beacon hills is all about defending
Jennifer Blake.
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First, a quick recap of my definition of powerful in the Teen Wolf universe. First is durability
or how hard you are to kill. Spirit forms don’t actually die because they just inhabit
bodies so they’re most durable. Healing factor like the werewolves also add durability
points and if a character survived something that should have killed them – that shows
enhanced durability.
Then comes intelligence which pretty much towers above everything else on the list because
smart characters overcome brute strength almost every time on this show.
Being physically strong is great when it comes to hand-to-hand combat but it has never been
the deciding factor in defeating a big bad on Teen Wolf.
So brute strength doesn’t make you powerful on this show.
The last factor is special abilities. On my list this was definitive only twice – mostly
special abilities just added a point or two when characters’ power levels were too similar.
Like Scott and other werewolves all have about the same level of durability, intelligence
and strength but Theo had the added ability to break supernatural laws because he was
a chimera and Malia had the benefit of eight years of animal instincts – things like
that would rank them higher than the other were-folk.
So, my most powerful list went like this – nogtisune because he was smart and - as a spirit form
creature - is literally impossible to kill. He was defeated but didn’t die.
Next came Lydia because she is the smartest character on the show but also has incredible
special abilities including precognition and a scream that literally split a man’s skull.
She also survived getting her head drilled by a mad scientist and the bite of an Alpha
so added durability points for her.
Another spirit form is next – the hellhound inside Parrish is also very difficult to kill
despite what we saw later with the other hellhound. The body can die under certain circumstances,
but the spirit presumably just returns to the Wild Hunt.
Then comes Jennifer and the reason I’ve been getting holy hell in the comments section.
My defense is simple. Jennifer was a human. She survived an Alpha attack which gave her
a few durability points above average human.
She learned to harness raw natural power from human sacrifices and came up with a plan to
destroy what was arguably the strongest group of werewolves ever assembled. Her plan required
meticulous planning and research so her intelligence is off the charts and on par with Lydia.
She developed special abilities like fully masking her appearance and telekinesis. The
former was apparently flawless in both sight and touch, at least Derek didn't seem to notice anything weird.
Her telekinesis ability allowed her to take out some of the most experienced werewolf
fighters we’d seen and she did it all by herself.
Her durability, intelligence and special abilities ultimately placed her in a position where
she was literally bashing Deucalion’s head into a concrete floor.
That was her plan all along and it worked right up until this point. That’s why she’s near the top of my
most powerful list.
Most of my detractors point to this moment before the eclipse where Jennifer takes a
telekinetic swipe at Deucalion.
He doesn’t budge. Okay, great he can take a psychic punch. But he still walked right
into her plan with no real backup.
I’ll get into my reasons for Deucalion’s lower ranking in a minute. For now, though,
back to Jennifer’s skull crushing.
She worked a nearly flawless plan and was winning until she was betrayed by love.
Derek: Jennifer.
Derek: He doesn't know.
Jennifer: Know what?
Derek: What you really look like.
Had Jennifer not been tricked by Derek, Deucalion would have died and that’s why she is near
the top and he is near the bottom on my list.
Deucalion didn’t use his brain, he allowed ego and obsession to overwhelm even common
sense decisions like don’t kill your strongest ally just to piss off his girlfriend and don’t
bring a guy to a fight if you’re not 100% sure he’s got your back.
Deucalion had no reason to believe that Scott would do what needed to be done to defeat
Jennifer, in fact, Scott had given every indication that he would not. But Deucalion was living
in his own "Alpha of Alphas" "destroyer of worlds" fantasy and screwed himself to the
point he had to be saved.
Derek: Jennifer.
Bottom line, Deucalion was strong, immovable in this one instance but he was dumb enough
to be manipulated into a near-death experience by someone he could have easily beaten if
he’d been using his brain. The fact he ended up defeating Jennifer is beyond the scope
of this list – a lucky turn of events does not make you powerful.
That’s my rational. It’s nuanced and carefully thought out so I’m not likely to change
my mind but I do welcome discussion on all my videos. It’s just that in this case I
had to say the same thing over and over again and it got to be kind of exhausting.
Any way – Thanks for watching. Be sure to do all the YouTube things, like the video,
share your thoughts in the comments, subscribe if you feel like it and I’ll see you next
time we go back to beacon hills.