Stilinski Twins

Stilinski Twins is a trope and Tumblr meme in the Teen Wolf fandom. This trope has been around since at least 2012, although where exactly it originated is unclear. While Stiles is an only child in the show, he is often depicted with siblings in fanworks. Some fanfic writers have made him related to other characters on the show, such as Scott or Allison, in accordance with the Everyone Is Related trope. However, others created an original character or used other roles that Stiles' actor, Dylan O'Brien, had portrayed to be his twin.
One particular version of the trope exploded into popularity on Tumblr in October 2013 when fans started creating a Same-Actor Crossover with Stuart Twombly from the mainstream comedy film The Internship as Stiles' twin, Stuart Stilinski. Gifsets and manips are some of the most popular types of fanworks to feature the two, but Stuart Stilinski has also appeared in numerous fics, fanart and fanvids.
For the panfandom trope, see Twin Edit.
==History of the Trope==
Possibly the earliest twin fic was The Stilinski Brothers' Journey by CourtyPie, posted to Fanfiction.net on January 1, 2012. The earliest twin fic posted to Archive of Our Own was probably cool story, bro by drunktuesdays, posted on December 29, 2012."cool story, bro" was posted to the AO3 on 29 December 2012. If you go to the Alternate Universe - Twins tag page and filter for just the Teen Wolf fanworks, this is the oldest one. On the AO3, the "stilinski twins" tag was created on February 2, 2013 and was used 35 times as of October 29, 2013. The tag "Twin Stiles" was created on June 2, 2013 on AO3.
In July 2013, Dylan O'Brien appeared as Stuart Twombly in The Internship. Photos and gifs of Stuart appeared on Tumblr long before the film came out, however.For example, see this February 13, 2013 post by fuckyeahsterekfeels. An early Stilinski Twins gif set using The Internship was posted to Tumblr on March 6, 2013 by mysnarkyself. In fact, the first fic on AO3 that used Stuart Twombly in a same-actor crossover was posted a month prior in June,Honest Mistake by brethilaki. Posted 11 Jun 2013. Accessed 8 Dec 2021. but Stuart and Stiles aren't twins in it. The Internship wasn't the only film mined for Stilinski Twin AU gif sets: see mysnarkyself's June 3, 2013 Tumblr post using Dave from The First Time as Stiles' twin.
The Tumblr meme appears to have achieved lift-off on October 4, 2013, with a request by diet-coke-llama for role playing Stiles Stilinski with Stuart Twombly as twins.diet-coke-llama. posted to Tumblr on October 4, 2013. A day later, the "Stuart Stilinski" tag was created on AO3. Two days later, a popular Stilinski Twins gif set was posted, and the creator cited diet-coke-llama as the direct inspiration.pawprintsandsnowflakes. Tumblr post October 6, 2013. The post had 15,725 notes as of November 1, 2013. On October 6, Tumblr posts expressing excitement or befuddlement at the Stuart Stilinski phenomenon could be seen interspersed with actual fic, art, and graphics depicting the twins.For example, diet-coke-llama cried, WHAT THE HELL DID I START. Although the original role playing request initially spawned fanworks instead of RP, several Stuart RP accounts appeared during the month of October.For example, disaffectedalpha, an A/B/O RP where Stuart is an alpha werewolf, was active only on October 17-18. hewearsglasses was started on October 26. On November 1, galaxied complained, "I just had to block my fourth Stuart Stilinski RP account."
===Variations===
Stilinski Triplets can sometimes be found, usually involving a different character that Dylan O'Brien has played in other films. A popular choice is Thomas from The Maze Runner.Imagine being the Stilinski triplets' sister and them being protective of you... by cafi-i via Tumblr. Posted October 4, 2015 (Accessed December 16, 2021). Dark AUs are rare, but they sometimes involve the character Mitch Rapp from American Assassin.
Although the majority of "Stilinski Twins" are same-actor crossovers, there are variations with Stiles having a twin sister. This variation is more popular on the het-heavy Wattpad where the twin sister is somewhat of a self-insert.Sciamachy | McCall by void-daniella on Wattpad. Posted 14 April 2020. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.Written In The Stars by SavannahBrookeFrisby. Posted 3 Oct 2017. Accessed 8 Dec 2021. This sister is often fancast for graphics and gif sets, or uses an existing female character from Teen Wolf canon, or a female character from related fanoms. The most popular of these is likely the use of Allison Argent as Stiles' twin, a trope so popular it spawned the "Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Twins" tag on AO3."Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Twins" tag. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
==Example Fanworks==
===Art===
* by liloloveyou024
* by highbeeans
* by littlecofiegirl
* by minus2
===Fanfiction===
* by GenimHale (2013) Derek doesn't know Stiles has a twin brother. And he certainly didn't know he had a twin brother who was back in Beacon Hills. / Or what happens when Derek accidentally kisses the wrong Stilinski...
* by velveteenshadowboxer (2013) Stuart is the one who starts it, when they’re fifteen. / “Stiles?” he says quietly into the darkness of their room. “Do you ever feel evil?”
* by Creatrix (2014) The Stilisnki twins have had a long life together, and so have Derek and Stiles.
* by lynnexxx (2017) After almost a year of not seeing his twin, Stiles comes and visits his brother, Stuart.
* by magneticwave For their tenth birthday, Stiles had gotten Allison a mug from a kiosk at the mall with AREN’T YOU GLAD WE EVOLVED OUT OF NEIGHBORING CELLS on one side and a picture from their school trip to the zoo, the one where Allison was hitting a goat trying to eat Stiles’ shirt, on the other.
===Fanmixes===
* by dylsnugget
===Graphics and Gif Sets===
* by scilesbutt
* by norothythefilmmaker
* manips by idiot-eden
*, , , , a variety of manips by stilestold
* aesthetic edit by majesticlara
* graphic by katsurakotaro
* gif set by mysnarkyself
* wallpaper by midnightgirl
* gif set by hagr1d-blog
* by carpebucky
===Vids===
*STILINSKI TWINS - Stiles and Stuart by bymyfeature
*Stilinski Twins || The Movie Trailer by PinkMallo Edits
*Sᴛɪʟɪɴsᴋɪ Tᴡɪɴs ♦ ᴇʟɪᴍɪɴᴀᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴀʀɢᴇᴛ by SadStilinski
===Rec Lists===
* by wolfkissies
==Example Art Gallery==
File:Stilinski Twins manip gif.gif|Manip gif by benishment, one of several of the creator's manips that were also often used in vids 
File:Stilinski Twins Manip.png|Manip by stilestold (2015) 
==Resources==
*Stuart Stilinski Tumblr tag
*Stilinski Twins Tumblr tag
*Twin Stiles and Stilinski Twins AO3 tags
*Stuart Stilinski, Stuart/Stiles, and Derek/Stuart AO3 tags
*twin!stiles recs @ theofficialstereklibrary
*stilinskisquared Tumblr "to house all things Stilinski twins"
==References==
Category:Teen Wolf
Category:2012 Memes
Category:2021 Featured Articles