Should Werewolves Have Tails?

White Paw · Post by **White Paw** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:58 pm

what would be irritating about seeing an tail.....

MoonKit · Post by **MoonKit** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:59 pm

Or maybe 'serious directors' of movies just see the tail as comical and not scary. Though Im not sure why...

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:18 pm

MoonKit wrote:Or maybe 'serious directors' of movies just see the tail as comical and not scary. Though Im not sure why...

I can see that.

I just imagine a scenario where they are setting up an action shot with a werewolf, originally intending it to have a tail, and when the stuntman walks out with all the prosthetics on, and a long tail wiggling around on the back... some of the film crew on set start giggling about it.

...finally, the actor comes out and says, "allright seriously...this just feels wierd and it totally messes up all my movements...can we just loose the tail?".

*Art and film dirrectors mutter to one another*

"Allright...the tail isn't working. MAKEUP!!!... take off the tail and let's shoot that scene again. ...PLACES EVERYONE..."

White Paw · Post by **White Paw** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:23 pm

Kaebora · Post by **Kaebora** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:16 pm

My question earlier was legitimate, and serious. If someone were to stroke the tail of another werewolf, is that sexual assult (like pinching someone's butt)? I'm curious what kind of social acceptance the tail would have as far as physical contact. Seeing as it's there due to the elongation of the spinal cord, it could be like a portion of the back. The skin and fur around the bone protrude from near the anus, thus might also be considered part of the butt, and unacceptable for touching without intimate approval.

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:33 pm

Kaebora wrote:My question earlier was legitimate, and serious. If someone were to stroke the tail of another werewolf, is that sexual assult (like pinching someone's butt)? I'm curious what kind of social acceptance the tail would have as far as physical contact. Seeing as it's there due to the elongation of the spinal cord, it could be like a portion of the back. The skin and fur around the bone protrude from near the anus, thus might also be considered part of the butt, and unacceptable for touching without intimate approval.

I don't really see dogs grabbing each other's tails, except in a hostile or mock-hostile (play-fighting) way. Furthermore, a lot of animals are sensitive about having their tails grabbed or pounced on (adults cats are usually annoyed when kittens do it, and all animals seem to hate it when little kids do it). So I think that, purely from an animal perspective, it might be a no-no to go around taking a hold of others' tails.

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:39 pm

Kaebora wrote:My question earlier was legitimate, and serious. If someone were to stroke the tail of another werewolf, is that sexual assult (like pinching someone's butt)? I'm curious what kind of social acceptance the tail would have as far as physical contact. Seeing as it's there due to the elongation of the spinal cord, it could be like a portion of the back. The skin and fur around the bone protrude from near the anus, thus might also be considered part of the butt, and unacceptable for touching without intimate approval.

Personally...I think it would be considered to be a semi-private aria.

Not quite to the same extent as ones crotch, butt, or a womans chest, but still not cool to touch or stroke unless you knew it was okay with them.

*growls* "...get your filthy hands of my ****'n TAIL, you wierdo..."

Uniform Two Six · Post by **Uniform Two Six** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:14 am

Dude... *snicker* Dude, pull my tail.

No.

C'mon dude. Pull my tail. It'll be funny.

No. Go away.

Vicious_Sweetheart · Post by **Vicious_Sweetheart** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:39 am

Lukas · Post by **Lukas** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:58 am

tails=cool
so tails are neccesary
problem solved,
BACK TO BEING OFF-TOPIC!

Miragh · Post by **Miragh** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:19 am

It's a bothersome annoying PAIN to see werewolves without tails! If a transformation can almost completely change the human skull I fail to see why the small triangular bone at the base of the spinal column can't become larger, longer, and furry.

Machine-Whisperer · Post by **Machine-Whisperer** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:22 am

I just think,
Does it really Matter?!
Some weres look good with a tail. some look good without a tail.

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:15 pm

On the subject of a tail after reading all these posts I can say a few things.

on if to have one: Yes, a tail is part of the wolf form, and each time I have seen a full formed werewolf "IE not just wolfman make up" the lack of a tail gives it an ape like apperance, a tail would help show that its canine not ape. "same deal with over sized arms and short back legs which also bug me to no end as wolves have longer back legs than front ones: but that's a different subject"

On length: A wolf's tail is about as long as the legs but curves around the heel. A biped has longer legs for their body, so this makes a weird problem. A tail as long as the legs would make sense for balance but may give a werwolf a werecat or werefox like feel though. So I am thinking that for a normal werewolf that is meant to be a wolf a shaggy tail that reachs the calf muscles when straight would fit, but it needs to be a shaggy tail like a wolf's tail and be animate not just hanging there.
Maybe a CGI tail or something so it doesn't mess with the actors, but I may be too late arriving on the boards for movie talk to be taken too seriously.

Also I would picture a female werewolf having a more well kept tail than a male. Like combed or something "if sentient while in the transformed state"

As for retracting: I always pictured the transformation back into a human as needing to be more painful than the transformation into a werewolf, like a full body muscle contraction. The tail should shrink with the hair falling off maybe and revert back into the tail bone, but seeing as this means killing the newly grow spinal column I would imagine this hurting horribly.
Could always go the Kitsune from Japan way with it, that while in human form they still have a tail but need to hide it. Maybe not as long or as "fluffy" as when in the transformed state, but still long enough and hairy enough to need hideing.

Ookamikaze · Post by **Ookamikaze** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:06 am

Yes Rhuen I totally agree with you.

Kirk Hammett · Post by **Kirk Hammett** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:11 am

Mine always keep their tails in human form. But mine have long monkey like tails, which turn into wolf tails during shifting. (It's not from Dragonball Z, I came up with that before I got into it...the tails and shifting is why I liked it in the first place).

It has almost no scientific logic, but it's what I prefer for my stories.

As for movies, I think I've given my opinion on that somewhere on this board; I honestly forgot what I said, but no need to repeat.

Shadow_in_the_Moonlight · Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:07 pm

every time i see a werewolf picture without a tail it makes me feel weird. its like the poor things naked. completly shed of any dignity or pride!!! hey Rhuen i think the legs just seem short because when the werewolf is on hind legs they tend tobend the knees alot.
it seems one thing that alot of people are fogetting is that werewolves are a combonation of human and wolf certain things (ex:tail) would have to be like both sides off the person. again using the tail as an example, it would not be as long on a werewolf then it would be on an actual wolf because it is part human. but on the other end of the broomstick, to have no tail or a comicly stubby one would also be wrong because the werewolf is part wolf.

Huntress · Post by **Huntress** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:51 pm

The Spine should grow longer for the tail and then when changing back to human form it should get smaller. It also makes the transformation look more painful. Atleast thats wat i think

neoritter · Post by **neoritter** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:26 pm

They could or could not. If we are making this true to what a real werewolf would be. I would say no tail then.

Most myths say that werewolves are larger than normal wolves with no tail.

I can think of a couple of reasons why a werewolf would not have a tail.
One, the lack of tail emphasizes the fact that this "wolf" is not normal.
Two, there is no tail because humans have no tail. Already a transformation like this would cause high levels of energy output (basically heat), not to mention that you can't create matter out of nothing. To make matter it requires a lot of energy. So this somewhat explains the lack of a tail and above average size of the wolf.

Now, I don't particularly care, whether there is a tail or not. But I think lack of would indicate more realism.

Rhuen · Post by **Rhuen** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:14 am

neoritter wrote:They could or could not. If we are making this true to what a real werewolf would be. I would say no tail then.

Most myths say that werewolves are larger than normal wolves with no tail.

I can think of a couple of reasons why a werewolf would not have a tail.
One, the lack of tail emphasizes the fact that this "wolf" is not normal.
Two, there is no tail because humans have no tail. Already a transformation like this would cause high levels of energy output (basically heat), not to mention that you can't create matter out of nothing. To make matter it requires a lot of energy. So this somewhat explains the lack of a tail and above average size of the wolf.

Now, I don't particularly care, whether there is a tail or not. But I think lack of would indicate more realism.

The traditional werewolf minus its tail, I believe was mostly a British and French version. The Germanic versions typically had their tails, as did Eastern European and other parts of the world "although some had short tails". Most looked exactly like a wolf except for having human eyes or being smarter than a wolf, or just being much more powerful than a wolf should be.

neoritter · Post by **neoritter** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:52 am

Pretty much. I think it all boil down to physics as to whether they reall had a tail or not.

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:32 pm

Werewolves without tails? Why bother, then?

howlbigbadwolf · Post by **howlbigbadwolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:50 pm

YA i want to feel the tail growing out of my back, i love pain that is pleasurable at the same time, That one of the reason i would like to transform in to a werewolf, the first time would hurt, but later it would be a pain that is letting you know that you are becoming somthing better.. pluse having a tail would be soo tittsss....(that means cool)

Mavangark · Post by **Mavangark** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:58 pm

Definetley. The tail helps balance the were', werewolves have a lot of bulk up top, i.e chest, head, muscle. The 'wolf should definetley have a tail. Also yes with the whole retracting tails and coccyx thing, it sort of, withers away...

neoritter · Post by **neoritter** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:12 pm

Mavangark wrote:Definetley. The tail helps balance the were', werewolves have a lot of bulk up top, i.e chest, head, muscle. The 'wolf should definetley have a tail. Also yes with the whole retracting tails and coccyx thing, it sort of, withers away...

You could say that when transforming back into a human the body practices some selective cell death similar to when humans are being created in the womb. We originally have a tail and web hands and feet that normally just dies off, the cells dying and not regrowing.

StarDancer · Post by **StarDancer** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:37 am

Placing my oppinion for *YES WEREWOLVES NEED TAILS!*
I personally agree with the whole "retracting back into spine' theory. Since it makes sense that the spinal column elongates when a werewolf transforms, then its tail would probably mostly retract, with some of that selective cellular death, with the remains probably being used up by the bodies increaced cellular metabolism for energy during transformation.

And thats my 2 Cents.