Werewolf cliches?

bar1scorpio · Post by **bar1scorpio** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:41 am

Well, there's something to be said for either in that regard. Silver in the blood, yeah, in one story style, could just be a poison, like lead poisoning from lead-based paint & pewter minis or something in humans.

But as a holy/magical object, you get a bit more. Like the great scene in Fred Perry's Gold Digger where the wererat trio are made to punish themselves by holding 3 silver blades to their necks... 'soul burn' ins mentioned... and a remark about it smelling like barbeque...

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:12 am

I never liked any holy object in any monster movie. its like, we are ancient monsters that predate your religion even existing yet your holy symbols can hurt us....

As for Silver in the blood....Silver IS poisen, silver minors are killed by it getting into the lungs, if you put silver in anyone's blood it could be fateful.

a cliche: silver nitrate looking like silver: its actually clear.

and actually that's a big cliche up there with the silver poisening.
a way to kill it that would kill anything. Cut off the head, stake in heart, burn them, bullet in the brain. Its really just (cause a massive amount of damage in a short period of time really) pretty sure a grenade would funtion as a weakness as well.

Dreamer · Post by **Dreamer** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:44 am

avogadro522 wrote:Related to the puberty bit, I'm tired of lycanthropy being the magic answer to any percieved male deficiencies.
"Oh man, before that viscious attack I was a picked on loser, now I'm stronger than the jocks and can get any woman I want. And I'm hairy. How bizarre..."
I suppose the whole deal it tied also to the fact that werewolves seem to always be men, and werewolfism is treated as an extention of masculine characteristics.
But don't mind me and my application of gender theory to werewolfism...

And then there is the opposite side of the coin: Female werewolves being rediculously sexualized, which is kind of creepy when ypou think about it (pseudo-bestiality/yiffy implications). Peter is the Wolf is the biggest offender, although I think Overstreet woul have more to do with that than BAr 1, seeing as I noticed on the WLP wiki that most of the female characters he's connected with have breasts larger than their head. Breasts so large that they would break any normal person's back. It's hot yet at the same time creepy. Seriously, look on the wiki right here, and then tell me that Overstreet's not a perv:

:WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT!:

http://www.wlpcomics.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:52 pm

I haven't seen one of the classic comments:

This can't be happening to me!

Uhhh, like, Dude; you're getting hairy, your teeth are growing, your nose is getting it's own zip-code; it's so long. Oh, yeah-that thing in your pants is a tail, not your joymaker.

It seems to be a commonality that when something is obviously happening to someone, they come out with this bit of reality denial...

Silverclaw · Post by **Silverclaw** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:28 pm

Joymaker? lol

Thats a new one

Other cliches from the humans POV:
-The car wont start
-the cellphone/phones go dead
-In a dark alley. "Who's there?" No answer. Turns around. Werewolf jumps out all snarly and does his thing

-Human opens cabinet with a mirror on it. When they close it, the reflection of a mean ol' ww is there. Screaming begins.
-The big bad wolf is NEVER dead when you and the main characters think its dead. It'll jump out for one last scare, but will be killed right after. Usually by the guy you thought was killed earlier in the movie.
-When humans figure out its a ww; they will look around the house they are trapped in or whatever to find anything silver. They will then somehow be able to melt it down into liquid form and make some bullets all within an hour or two. The werewolf will wait patently for them to finish

I guess most of those are horror movie cliches in general...

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:03 am

The reason the Werewolf waits for them to melt down something silver to make bullets - (they just happen to have a furnace capable of reaching over 2,000 degrees handy, as well as a machine shop to make the bullets)- is really qouute simple. He's trying to figure out how to open his zipper, 'cause he's gotta go...

Aki · Post by **Aki** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:29 pm

RedEye wrote: (they just happen to have a furnace capable of reaching over 2,000 degrees handy, as well as a machine shop to make the bullets)

As well as the chemicals for the casings, too!

avogadro522 · Post by **avogadro522** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:28 pm

At least in "Cycle of the Werewolf" they take the silver to a gunsmith, so that's plausable at least.
I hope someone didn't mention this, but I'm a little tired of the whole werewolf hunter idea.I guess I just don't see why werewolves need to be hunted by a crazed group of vigilantes or a grizzled old man in a trench coat.
The character serves a use in stories I suppose, but I think it's starting to be over used.

ravaged_warrior · Post by **ravaged_warrior** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:48 pm

Am I the only one who has never seen most of these cliches before? Maybe it's just because I've only seen movies...

JoshuaMadoc · Post by **JoshuaMadoc** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:50 pm

ravaged_warrior wrote:Am I the only one who has never seen most of these cliches before? Maybe it's just because I've only seen movies...

Yes, you may be one of the only few.

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:18 am

avogadro522 wrote:At least in "Cycle of the Werewolf" they take the silver to a gunsmith, so that's plausable at least.
I hope someone didn't mention this, but I'm a little tired of the whole werewolf hunter idea.I guess I just don't see why werewolves need to be hunted by a crazed group of vigilantes or a grizzled old man in a trench coat.
The character serves a use in stories I suppose, but I think it's starting to be over used.

They have these guys for every monster (mostly)

Vampire hunter
werewolf hunter
dragon slayer
goblin hunter
demon hunter
ect...

avogadro522 · Post by **avogadro522** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:26 pm

I can honestly say I've never seen a goblin hunter, though in the long run that isn't saying much.

Silverclaw · Post by **Silverclaw** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:44 pm

Don't forget GhostBusters

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:31 am

I've been trying to take notes, but laughing so hard I keep dropping my pencil. I've actually gone "woops, I didn't even realize I did that." in a couple of places. Going to be doing some editing in the next week...

Also, I think you can take a new spin on a cliche and make it un-cliche, if you will. For instance, the monster can suferfast chase everyone down but the hero. As time has gone on, the other folks have been wounding the monster. When it's chased and killed the other 87 people in the movie, at least one in ten gets a hit in, or a bullet off.

Now, it is damaged, and the hero gets damaged, and the chase is slower (can still be exciting).

Or a new werewolf attempting to do something like climb a wall - and finding out that werewolfs are indeed NOT spiders.

Of couurse this would all have to be done in the right way.....

Just got an idea....

Joey Liverwurst · Post by **Joey Liverwurst** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:02 am

It's not just that the rookie werewolf wants meat. It's that the rookie werewolf is almost always a vegetarian who wants meat. It's as if the best way to attract a werewolf is to become a vegetarian and then walk alone late at night. There must be a worldwide werewolf conspiracy to conquer the vegetarian movement. They kill everyone else.

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:02 pm

Silver wrote:I've been trying to take notes, but laughing so hard I keep dropping my pencil. I've actually gone "woops, I didn't even realize I did that." in a couple of places. Going to be doing some editing in the next week...

Also, I think you can take a new spin on a cliche and make it un-cliche, if you will. For instance, the monster can suferfast chase everyone down but the hero. As time has gone on, the other folks have been wounding the monster. When it's chased and killed the other 87 people in the movie, at least one in ten gets a hit in, or a bullet off.

Now, it is damaged, and the hero gets damaged, and the chase is slower (can still be exciting).

Or a new werewolf attempting to do something like climb a wall - and finding out that werewolfs are indeed NOT spiders.

Of couurse this would all have to be done in the right way.....

Just got an idea....

AS the Werewolf falls you hear an un-Werewolf-like "Awww SPIT!" (Thud)
Complete with madly scrabbling paws.

Non werewolf-but completely Human (and maybe Werewolf as well):
The Wolf enters a room and tries to switch on the light. Nothing happens-power's off or light's dead. What happens? He stands there continuing to flick the switch trying to turn on the light.
I'd pay to see that in a flick!

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:10 pm

avogadro522 wrote:I can honestly say I've never seen a goblin hunter, though in the long run that isn't saying much.

watch enough fantasy, they come up every so often, but usually as a joke and cliche. Like the newbies of the monster slaying world type situations, "all they can handle are rogue goblins".

avogadro522 · Post by **avogadro522** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:48 pm

Heh, rogue goblins. I must be out of touch because I never knew goblins had such a rich, vibrant lexicon of terms to describe their lives.

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:04 am

Silver wrote:For instance, the monster can suferfast chase everyone down but the hero. As time has gone on, the other folks have been wounding the monster. When it's chased and killed the other 87 people in the movie, at least one in ten gets a hit in, or a bullet off.

Now, it is damaged, and the hero gets damaged, and the chase is slower (can still be exciting).

I have something similar happen in the book I'm writing, only it works in reverse. The protagonist and a vampire get in a fight fight and the protagonist gets his a** handed to him, but in a lapse of judgment on the vampire's part, he's thrown through a window out into the street in front of a crowd of onlookers. Before he can land the final blow, two war veterans and an off-duty cop step out of the crowd against the vampire (now worn out from the extensive fight with the protagonist) and tear him apart.

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:56 pm

Terastas wrote:
Silver wrote:For instance, the monster can suferfast chase everyone down but the hero. As time has gone on, the other folks have been wounding the monster. When it's chased and killed the other 87 people in the movie, at least one in ten gets a hit in, or a bullet off.

Now, it is damaged, and the hero gets damaged, and the chase is slower (can still be exciting).
I have something similar happen in the book I'm writing, only it works in reverse. The protagonist and a vampire get in a fight fight and the protagonist gets his a** handed to him, but in a lapse of judgment on the vampire's part, he's thrown through a window out into the street in front of a crowd of onlookers. Before he can land the final blow, two war veterans and an off-duty cop step out of the crowd against the vampire (now worn out from the extensive fight with the protagonist) and tear him apart.

Just reminded me of a scene from "Werewolf" AKA "An Arizona Werewolf" The werewolf is rampaging down the street attacking people and this one guy actually lands a few good blows before he is tossed over a short cement wall and never seen again, despite that not possibly being a fatal blow.
I saw MST3K watching it and servo's response matched my own, "A random guy who can kick a werewolf's a**"

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:58 pm

avogadro522 wrote:Heh, rogue goblins. I must be out of touch because I never knew goblins had such a rich, vibrant lexicon of terms to describe their lives.

Goblins actually have a very complex description set, mainly due to writers and such trying to keep them as a seperate group from trolls and orcs. They come across though as the more timid and less prone to rampaging skinny wimp cousins of the other two. So tend to stay in large numbers hidden away in deep caves far away in the woods or in deep dungeons. Rogue Goblins would be like rogue chimps, small bands of young males that are going on rampages across the country side killing everything and everyone they come across.

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:06 pm

If there is one new cliche that is gaining ground that I don't like its the claws/horns/teeth/ and spikes of werekin having special abilities to harm their own kind.

I understand the lesser version: "our fangs and teeth can harm us normally as they should even if other weapons can't" Such as can be scratched or bitten by your own kind's natural weapons and do normal damage even if bullets bounce off. Due to these things being part of the transformation, or just that much stronger.

But the whole: a bite from a werewolf or stabed by the horns of a weregazzele can be fatal to other werekin even if the wound normally wouldn't be thanks to some special property.

Those two most guilty I feel of spreading this around are.
Peter is the Wolf
&
Wereworld

"both online comic strips"

FoxOfWar · Post by **FoxOfWar** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:40 pm

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:46 pm

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:23 pm

FoxOfWar wrote:One thing that hasn't been mentioned:

Why is it always, just, only, specifically only wereWOLVES? Never foxes, horses, dolphins, birds, cats, rodents, rabbits, penguins or anything.
I want to see other werecreatures for a change of pace. It would bring some unpredictability in these otherwise so predictable films.

Well, something that came up in the alternative werekin thread was that a lot of other were-whatevers wouldn't carry the same fear associations that come with werewolves. Since werekin almost exclusively appear in horrors or action-horrors, there isn't much room to implement any alternatives. If you say were-anything right now, people will more often than not assume it's a horror, and a horror about a weredolphin or a wererabbit would be a very hard sell.

If Freeborn is not only successful, but is successfully presented/marketed as a drama, that could change things. Right now the belief is that werewolves can't appear in anything but a horror movie. If that changes, there will be more room for shapeshifters of a not-so-horrific nature.