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not_yet_screamingJackson Whittemore in Teen Wolf is barely a character in season 1. Instead he's a foil. In almost any scene he's in it makes as much sense to say "What can he do to give Scott an obstacle to overcome?" as it does to ask what his actual motivations are. And this, of course, has repercussions for the character of Lydia (especially as whatever either of them say they are very fond of each other, especially her of him).
Which means that unless I'm playing off a Jackson I need to work out what she sees in him other than position. This is pure headcannon.
Jackson knows how smart Lydia is - but he's happy to leave her with that mask as far as the outside world is concerned. In fact although both of them see through most of the other's masks, they will prop them up to any third party. As is normal the masks that work best between them are precisely the ones for each other that they want to be seen through. In short they can fool each other when it would hurt the most.
He's also one of the few people who, through a lot of hard work, can keep up with her and be at least a sounding board and co-conspirator with some of his ideas. Yes, she's a lot smarter - but he knows how to work with her. (On the other hand he doesn't realise that she throws both games of pool and bowling to him; for her to be smarter than him and to trust him to see that is something he's actually flattered by - but he'd feel emasculated if she won any physical contest and she knows it).
The reason Jackson's been Lacrosse captain since his second week as a Freshman (the actual numbers on the show make no sense) is due to Lydia-assisted politics. The team was split down the middle into two camps - neither of whom would accept a captain from the other team, but none of them hated the only Freshman to make a team on which the other players were all Seniors (Jackson's ability and sheer hard work having managed to force his way onto the team against significant odds; Jackson is highly capable). And with Jackson and Lydia hammering out tactics between them (and Jackson having captained before) the compromise candidate made what was meant to be a token role real.
Dating the high school captain would be one thing. Dating the highschool team capain when you're a Freshman and so is he is in another league entirely. Lydia's also been throwing parties and inviting the seniors in the Lacrosse team and having them show up since she was a Freshman. Which means as far as her own year is concerned she doesn't have rivals; she's in a league of her own.
However going out with Lydia for so long has done bad things to Jackson's perceptions of his own intelligence. He's far from stupid, but she's his yardstick. Making him cling to his physical prowess even more tightly. (Lydia's picked up the same bad lesson about anything involving physical strength - it takes her until Season 5 to learn to fight because she knows just how little chance she'd stand against Jackson, and most of what goes bump in the night in Beacon Hills is an order of magnitude stronger again).
He knows straight away that there's something odd about Scott. People don't make those performance improvements. Especially not without training - and that galls him the most. Or possibly not; it's blatantly obvious that Scott is taking performance enhancing drugs and checking things with Lydia they work out that the performance Scott is putting in should not be humanly possible. Something weird is going on there and Scott is quite blatantly cheating in the same way someone taking performance enhancing drugs would be. (It doesn't help that Coach doesn't care). And both of them know that the performance enhancing drugs are far, far more effective than anything the East Germans managed.
Which means that the various public altercations Jackson and Lydia have in S1 are part-fake to free the pair of them up to work out what the hell is going on with Scott.
Jackson disappointed Lydia badly when he switched from "He's on performance enhancing drugs and we'll prove it" to "He's a werewolf, I'll never match that, I want to become one."
Lydia also isn't sure how much Jackson's leaving the Sulphuric Acid out of the "Self-igniting Molotov Coctail" (chemistry doesn't work that way! Self igniting molotovs actually had the oxidizer on the label of the bottle) was an accident and how much of it was sabotaging Scott. She hopes she's wrong there, but that's not the sort of mistake Jackson would have made last year.
Which means that unless I'm playing off a Jackson I need to work out what she sees in him other than position. This is pure headcannon.
Jackson knows how smart Lydia is - but he's happy to leave her with that mask as far as the outside world is concerned. In fact although both of them see through most of the other's masks, they will prop them up to any third party. As is normal the masks that work best between them are precisely the ones for each other that they want to be seen through. In short they can fool each other when it would hurt the most.
He's also one of the few people who, through a lot of hard work, can keep up with her and be at least a sounding board and co-conspirator with some of his ideas. Yes, she's a lot smarter - but he knows how to work with her. (On the other hand he doesn't realise that she throws both games of pool and bowling to him; for her to be smarter than him and to trust him to see that is something he's actually flattered by - but he'd feel emasculated if she won any physical contest and she knows it).
The reason Jackson's been Lacrosse captain since his second week as a Freshman (the actual numbers on the show make no sense) is due to Lydia-assisted politics. The team was split down the middle into two camps - neither of whom would accept a captain from the other team, but none of them hated the only Freshman to make a team on which the other players were all Seniors (Jackson's ability and sheer hard work having managed to force his way onto the team against significant odds; Jackson is highly capable). And with Jackson and Lydia hammering out tactics between them (and Jackson having captained before) the compromise candidate made what was meant to be a token role real.
Dating the high school captain would be one thing. Dating the highschool team capain when you're a Freshman and so is he is in another league entirely. Lydia's also been throwing parties and inviting the seniors in the Lacrosse team and having them show up since she was a Freshman. Which means as far as her own year is concerned she doesn't have rivals; she's in a league of her own.
However going out with Lydia for so long has done bad things to Jackson's perceptions of his own intelligence. He's far from stupid, but she's his yardstick. Making him cling to his physical prowess even more tightly. (Lydia's picked up the same bad lesson about anything involving physical strength - it takes her until Season 5 to learn to fight because she knows just how little chance she'd stand against Jackson, and most of what goes bump in the night in Beacon Hills is an order of magnitude stronger again).
He knows straight away that there's something odd about Scott. People don't make those performance improvements. Especially not without training - and that galls him the most. Or possibly not; it's blatantly obvious that Scott is taking performance enhancing drugs and checking things with Lydia they work out that the performance Scott is putting in should not be humanly possible. Something weird is going on there and Scott is quite blatantly cheating in the same way someone taking performance enhancing drugs would be. (It doesn't help that Coach doesn't care). And both of them know that the performance enhancing drugs are far, far more effective than anything the East Germans managed.
Which means that the various public altercations Jackson and Lydia have in S1 are part-fake to free the pair of them up to work out what the hell is going on with Scott.
Jackson disappointed Lydia badly when he switched from "He's on performance enhancing drugs and we'll prove it" to "He's a werewolf, I'll never match that, I want to become one."
Lydia also isn't sure how much Jackson's leaving the Sulphuric Acid out of the "Self-igniting Molotov Coctail" (chemistry doesn't work that way! Self igniting molotovs actually had the oxidizer on the label of the bottle) was an accident and how much of it was sabotaging Scott. She hopes she's wrong there, but that's not the sort of mistake Jackson would have made last year.
