Conversations with myself...

Aka:  ‘One example of how a TV relationship can logically progress from mutual hate/dislike into deep love and respect’.

About the assertion that Derek and Stiles hate each other…  Or more recently (since canon events make it pretty damn obvious that they wouldn’t keep saving each other’s lives if they truly hated each other) the assertion that they dislike and barely tolerate each other.

That dynamic in fiction is almost always debatable and open to individual interpretation, but even if there was a general consensus that it was true, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a legitimate pairing there:

I’m going to use Spike/Buffy as my example, but there are lots of other examples of this dynamic, too…

Buffy and Spike first meet in S2 of the series.  Watching and re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I lost count of the number of times Buffy tried to kill Spike and Spike tried to kill Buffy.  These two proclaimed their hate for each other at every turn.

Then this happened (there were lots of turning points in their relationship, but for me, this one was key):

Spike has a behavior modification chip in his head that causes excruciating pain for him if he tries to hurt or kill someone, so he hasn’t been able to fight Buffy for a while.  One night, he decides he can’t take it anymore, loads a shotgun and goes to her house intent on killing her — yeah, it’ll hurt, but using a gun, it’ll be over so quickly that he feels it’s worth it.  (His intent there was so much more serious than Stiles, in a moment of panic and growing helplessness, telling Allison to shoot Derek.)

When Spike gets to her house, he sees her sitting on the back porch steps, crying (she’s just learned that her mother may have a malignant brain tumor).  He watches her, puzzled, and then you see the expression on his face transform into sympathy and concern.  All thoughts of killing her pushed aside, he tries, pitifully, to comfort her and the episode ends with the two of them sitting, side by side, Spike offering her the only thing he can give — silent support and companionship — and Buffy accepts it.

After this, they will still clash and fight and argue, then work together, then clash and fight and argue again, then work together some more.  There will still be declarations of hate.  But by S6, their relationship has changed and grown and evolved to the point that we get this:

But there is still conflict within their relationship, and so it changes and evolves some more when Spike voluntarily suffers unspeakable pain and torment in order to earn his soul back in an effort to be worthy of Buffy.  After that, in S7, there are times that Spike is the only one who can truly be there for Buffy and Buffy is the only one who is truly there for Spike.  And we get this, a scene showing how their relationship has gone so far, it’s surpassed a mere physical connection and has become about deep, powerful, mutual respect, admiration, comfort, and affection:

So from S2 to S7, a relationship that started out with hate, loathing, and the mutual desire to brutally kill each other, evolved into what was, imo, one of the greatest, most enduring, love stories in TV history.  And (also imo) the foreshadowing for that was there almost from the very beginning because of the amazing heat and chemistry between them.  From day one, their scenes together were mesmerizing.  Even if they were fighting and hating and insulting each other, I needed to see more, more, more of them together.

And now, years later, that’s exactly how scenes with Derek and Stiles make me feel.

So no, Stiles — not-really-a-violent-person-at-all-Stiles — telling Allison to shoot Derek, ‘preferably in the head’ doesn’t mean that Sterek can’t happen or that Sterek feels are ‘crazy’ or ‘delusional’.  It just means that Derek and Stiles have a complicated relationship that’s still growing and evolving.

And whether Jeff Davis allows it to become a romantic pairing or not, I suspect that the relationship between Stiles and Derek has the potential to become TV legend.  Ngl, though, I vote for ‘romantic’.  :)