Karen and Natalie return from hiatus with a chat about the culpability of characters acting outside their own volition, and what that may mean for Teen Wolf season 6’s theme of mind control.

Featured Songs: “The Winter Soldier” by Henry Jackman and “Close Your Eyes” by Christophe Beck

– We were inspired by other media we’ve been working with a lot lately to talk about the accountability of characters who do really bad things while not under their own control, and whether the narrative in that particular fictional universe punishes them.
– We’re focusing on examples of this in Teen Wolf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Captain America: Civil War.
– True brainwashing or possession in which the original sense of self is removed or made into a helpless passenger is the level of mind control we’re talking about – not just manipulation or conditioning.
– First of all, we talk about Angel in season 3 of Buffy – where we’re up to on Rewatchable – and how the characters and the story treat him in the wake of his murderous time as Angelus.
– Does the narrative itself forgive him?
– Our second subject is Bucky Barnes. Who’s shocked?
– We have seen Civil War nine times between us, and we do use this opportunity to air our general feelings, but they’re mostly on-topic.
– Our discussion of Bucky mainly covers Tony’s reaction to the reveal about his parents – was it justified? How did we feel about it?
– We also talk about what happened to Bucky in general and how his world is going to respond to his crimes.
– His sense of responsibility leads him to his choice at the end of the movie – we discuss the screenwriters’ comments about whether this was a punishment.
– The main examples of this on Teen Wolf are Jackson with the Kanima, Stiles with the Nogitsune, and Mason with the Beast. Malia and Kira both have incidents that may fit into this category to.
– Jackson was physically marked as culpable for his actions with his blue eyes, and Natalie gets a Harry Potter fact very very wrong in explaining this.
– It’s hard to pick apart what Stiles’s actual, physical body was responsible for as the Nogitsune, but were there ever any witnesses who think it was really him?
– We talk about the cover-ups that occur when the supernatural causes havoc – does this help hide the real culprits?
– Is there any sort of actual supernatural jurisdiction? What about the special ward at Eichen, and the prison Kate was taken to?
– Was Mason aware of any of the Beast’s actions at all? Will he be affected in future?
– Who’s going to be a victim of mind control next season?
– Do the general Teen Wolf werewolves on the full moon fall into this beyond-own-control category?

Hit the comments to give us feedback and suggestions for Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast! And as always, please follow us or hit us up:

Twitter: @NATWPodcast

Tumblr: notanotherteenwolfpodcast

Instagram: NATWPodcast

Email: [email protected]

If there are any issues downloading this episode of Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast from iTunes, please refer to this guide.