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This has been sort of hashed over already, in the "what kills a werewolf?" thread. But I was wondering whether lycanthropy in the film does (or should) heal problems the human already had before they were bitten.

Will an amputee regrow his leg?
Will a blind man see?
Will a deaf man hear?
Will a cancer paitent be healed?

And so on.

I can definitely see arguments for both sides, here, so I'm eager to hear what everyone else (especially those involved with the film!) think.

Missing body parts? I would think not.

As for dieses, I dunno...you would be getting technical there. I would think that if a wolf has immunity to them (such as colds) whereas humans do not it would be a 50/50 tossup if the werewolf would be immune to them.

Hard to tell...but then again, for this movie I don't think it really matters.

You might be surprised. ;)

Calypso Blue wrote:You might be surprised. ;)

hmmm......

If the plot were to require regeneration to make scars invisible, then yes. But regrowing entire body parts, mmmmmh, We'll see...

One instance where regeneration could be required is if the audience wasn't supposed to know who the villian werewolf is, if any; It would be pretty obvious to us if we could see bite marks on their neck or hand if such was the case.

Regeneration of missing limbs might be a possibility, although if that were the case, the process would be a very slow (and potentially painful) one. A lycanthropic shift would, after all, involve some alteration of the individual's bone structure, so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if a missing appendage could be replaced as well. The process of creating a new appendage instead of altering the original, of course, would be a slow one. Somebody with a missing finger, I imagine, could expect his new one to grow in two weeks at the minimum, just to give an idea of how slow the process could be.

Even cancer that is genetic is still treated by the body as a virus, so assuming lycanthropy enhances the body's white blood cells, cancer would be treatable by lycanthropy.

As for blindness and deafness, even if lycanthropy didn't automatically repair the damage, the individual's eyes and ears would be altered to a more wolfen form during their first lycanthropic shift. There's a world of difference between a human's eyes and ears and a wolf's eyes and ears, so it's unlikely the conditions which make the human blind and/or deaf would transfer to the werewolf form. Likewise, it could be just as unlikely that they would revert back to a state of blindness/deafness, especially assuming lycanthropy shifts back to the human form based on their genetic code. The real handicap for these people wouldn't be being blind or deaf, but having to return to a day life where they are supposed to be blind or deaf.

Terastas wrote: Even cancer that is genetic is still treated by the body as a virus, so assuming lycanthropy enhances the body's white blood cells, cancer would be treatable by lycanthropy.

Sorry to get technical, but, the immune system treats cancer cells (whether the cancer is due to genetic disorder or from exposure to carcinogens) very differently from viruses, in that, antibodies will bind to a site on a cancer cell, and cause it to burst (or "lyse"), while antibodies bind to a virus and inactivate it, whereupon it is then eaten by a nearby phagocytotic white blood cell.

I would think that, for werewolves who are not born as such, any permanent injury they sustain before becoming a werewolf would stay. A werewolf who loses his arm would regrow it, it would probably just take a heck of a long time; otherwise, you have an armless werewolf who shifts back into an armless human.

Diseases, though... I dunno, it's iffy. If being a werewolf did cure terminal illnesses, don't you think there would be rampant werewolfism as the more civil-minded of the shifters go about to hospitals, biting patients so they recover?

I don't remember what movie this was, but I thought it was weird. It had several characters becides a wolfman.

A wolfman character was fighting with a person. That person had dynomite. He lit it and stuffed it down the wolfman pants. The wolfman jumped out the window and the dynomite exploded. You can clearly see body parts all over the ground. Next scene, the parts started moving and reconnected itself with the torso. The wolfman was back in action.

I was like.....WTF?

Re-growing a finger...MAYBE.

Regrowing an arm or a leg,(lost before OR after..)...NO.

Extra immunity to common and Lethal diseases...SURE.

Completely immune to Everything...NO.

Cancer...NOT SURE.

Fixing Blindness, Deafness, etc...If injury,YES. If genetic defect, NO.

Body pulling itself Back together...WTF?! NO!

(My $0.02)

Vuldari wrote:Re-growing a finger...MAYBE.

Regrowing an arm or a leg,(lost before OR after..)...NO.

Extra immunity to common and Lethal diseases...SURE.

Completely immune to Everything...NO.

Cancer...NOT SURE.

Fixing Blindness, Deafness, etc...If injury,YES. If genetic defect, NO.

Body pulling itself Back together...WTF?! NO!

(My $0.02)

Whew! For a minute there...I thought you was going to put "priceless."

Figarou wrote:

Vuldari wrote:Re-growing a finger...MAYBE.

Regrowing an arm or a leg,(lost before OR after..)...NO.

Extra immunity to common and Lethal diseases...SURE.

Completely immune to Everything...NO.

Cancer...NOT SURE.

Fixing Blindness, Deafness, etc...If injury,YES. If genetic defect, NO.

Body pulling itself Back together...WTF?! NO!

(My $0.02)

Whew! For a minute there...I thought you was going to put "priceless."

No, that would be the look on the guy's face when he sees the werewolf's body pull itself back together.

Apokryltaros wrote:

Figarou wrote:

Vuldari wrote:Re-growing a finger...MAYBE.

Regrowing an arm or a leg,(lost before OR after..)...NO.

Extra immunity to common and Lethal diseases...SURE.

Completely immune to Everything...NO.

Cancer...NOT SURE.

Fixing Blindness, Deafness, etc...If injury,YES. If genetic defect, NO.

Body pulling itself Back together...WTF?! NO!

(My $0.02)

Whew! For a minute there...I thought you was going to put "priceless."

No, that would be the look on the guy's face when he sees the werewolf's body pull itself back together.

Figarou wrote:

Vuldari wrote:Re-growing a finger...MAYBE.

Regrowing an arm or a leg,(lost before OR after..)...NO.

Extra immunity to common and Lethal diseases...SURE.

Completely immune to Everything...NO.

Cancer...NOT SURE.

Fixing Blindness, Deafness, etc...If injury,YES. If genetic defect, NO.

Body pulling itself Back together...WTF?! NO!

(My $0.02)

Whew! For a minute there...I thought you was going to put "priceless."

ReGrowing a finger.... Sure, with limitations, and a long long time.

regrowing an arm or a leg? ... NOPE

Extra immunity to diseases both common and lethal..' YES

Complete immunity to everything? ... NO

Cancer? N/A

Fixing Blindness, deafnes etc. If injury, YES, if genetic NO.

Fixing bodily injury... YES, most efffective during a transform.

Body pulling itself back together.. Hmm, not unless it was the werewolf T-2K


So, thats my two cents.

Anthony Brownrigg

ABrownrigg wrote:ReGrowing a finger.... Sure, with limitations, and a long long time.

regrowing an arm or a leg? ... NOPE

Extra immunity to diseases both common and lethal..' YES

Complete immunity to everything? ... NO

Cancer? N/A

Fixing Blindness, deafnes etc. If injury, YES, if genetic NO.

Fixing bodily injury... YES, most efffective during a transform.

Body pulling itself back together.. Hmm, not unless it was the werewolf T-2K


So, thats my two cents.

Anthony Brownrigg

Interesting.

ABrownrigg wrote:ReGrowing a finger.... Sure, with limitations, and a long long time.

regrowing an arm or a leg? ... NOPE

Extra immunity to diseases both common and lethal..' YES

Complete immunity to everything? ... NO

Cancer? N/A

Fixing Blindness, deafnes etc. If injury, YES, if genetic NO.

Fixing bodily injury... YES, most efffective during a transform.

Body pulling itself back together.. Hmm, not unless it was the werewolf T-2K


So, thats my two cents.

Anthony Brownrigg

...ahh. It seems we think alike.

ABrownrigg wrote:ReGrowing a finger.... Sure, with limitations, and a long long time.

regrowing an arm or a leg? ... NOPE

Extra immunity to diseases both common and lethal..' YES

Complete immunity to everything? ... NO

Cancer? N/A

Fixing Blindness, deafnes etc. If injury, YES, if genetic NO.

Fixing bodily injury... YES, most efffective during a transform.

Body pulling itself back together.. Hmm, not unless it was the werewolf T-2K


So, thats my two cents.

Anthony Brownrigg

How about fixing mental illnesses? Paranoid schizophrenia, for instance, is not believed to be genetic (though genes may make one PRONE to it, the actual condition is not). Ditto with most other disorders. Those born mentally handicapped might not be helped, though I'm not sure even that is genetic, and the same goes for autism. But other mental illnesses? Chronic depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, "voices in the head", would THOSE get healed?

In another thread, I suggested that lycanthropy doesn't cure diseases; it just continuously repairs the damage caused by them. The example I used was AIDS, which is thought uncurable as we haven't even identified the virus yet; all we've learned to recognize is the T-cell defficiency associated with AIDS. However, since it's such a slow process that it can take years for a person to even be diagnosed HIV+, the virus could be irrelevant to a werewolf since his lycanthropy would continuously repair the damage.

So what I figured was that only some short-term illnesses would affect a werewolf. Cholera or Ebola, for example, could probably kill a werewolf.

Xodiac wrote:How about fixing mental illnesses? Paranoid schizophrenia, for instance, is not believed to be genetic (though genes may make one PRONE to it, the actual condition is not). Ditto with most other disorders. Those born mentally handicapped might not be helped, though I'm not sure even that is genetic, and the same goes for autism. But other mental illnesses? Chronic depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, "voices in the head", would THOSE get healed?

Ahhhhhh....Schizophenic werewolves! One minute they would want to eat you...the next they would want to play fetch.

Seriously though...I don't think having feral instincts instilled upon you would HELP any existing mental disorders.

Mental illness + Lycanthropy...= BAD Combination.

Terastas wrote:In another thread, I suggested that lycanthropy doesn't cure diseases; it just continuously repairs the damage caused by them. The example I used was AIDS, which is thought uncurable as we haven't even identified the virus yet; all we've learned to recognize is the T-cell defficiency associated with AIDS. However, since it's such a slow process that it can take years for a person to even be diagnosed HIV+, the virus could be irrelevant to a werewolf since his lycanthropy would continuously repair the damage.

Actually, we have identified what the HIV virus looks like.

Vuldari wrote: Ahhhhhh....Schizophenic werewolves! One minute they would want to eat you...the next they would want to play fetch.

Seriously though...I don't think having feral instincts instilled upon you would HELP any existing mental disorders.

Mental illness + Lycanthropy...= BAD Combination.

Schizophrenia is actually where the person divorces himself from reality, either by withdrawing into his own dreamworld (or living nightmare), "negative schizophrenia," or by responding to or lashing out at the world as his madness dictates, "positive schizophrenia."

And yes, I strongly believe that lycanthropy would serve to only aggravate existing mental diseases.

...oops. I guess I got my mental disorders mixed up.

There is just so darn many of them...

Vuldari wrote:...oops. I guess I got my mental disorders mixed up.

There is just so darn many of them...

That's ok...
Just don't shed on the couch, please.